Download or read book Bioarchaeology and Climate Change written by Gwen Robbins Schug and published by University Press of Florida. This book was released on 2017-01-10 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Using subadult skeletons from the Deccan Chalcolithic period of Indian prehistory, along with archaeological and paleoclimate data, this volume makes an important contribution to understanding the effects of ecological change on demography and childhood growth during the second millennium B.C. in peninsular India."--Michael Pietrusewsky, University of Hawai‘i at Manoa In the context of current debates about global warming, archaeology contributes important insights for understanding environmental changes in prehistory, and the consequences and responses of past populations to them. In Indian archaeology, climate change and monsoon variability are often invoked to explain major demographic transitions, cultural changes, and migrations of prehistoric populations. During the late Holocene (1400-700 B.C.), agricultural communities flourished in a semiarid region of the Indian subcontinent, until they precipitously collapsed. Gwen Robbins Schug integrates the most recent paleoclimate reconstructions with an innovative analysis of skeletal remains from one of the last abandoned villages to provide a new interpretation of the archaeological record of this period. Robbins Schug’s biocultural synthesis provides us with a new way of looking at the adaptive, social, and cultural transformations that took place in this region during the first and second millennia B.C. Her work clearly and compellingly usurps the climate change paradigm, demonstrating the complexity of human-environmental transformations. This original and significant contribution to bioarchaeological research and methodology enriches our understanding of both global climate change and South Asian prehistory.
Download or read book Prehistoric Cultural Ecology and Evolution written by Donald O. Henry and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-03-09 with total page 533 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offering the most comprehensive study of southern Jordan, this illuminating account presents detailed data from over a hundred archaeological sites stretching from the Lower Paleotlithic to the Chalcolithic periods. The author uses archaeological and paleoenvironmental evidence to reconstruct synchronic and evolutionary aspects of the cultural ecology of the prehistoric inhabitants of southern Jordan. This study exemplifies that cultural historic and processual approaches are integral to examining prehistoric cultural ecology. Numerous artifact illustrations as well as tables and appendixes containing primary data are included.
Download or read book Prehistoric Native Americans and Ecological Change written by Paul A. Delcourt and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2004-07-29 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book shows that Holocene human ecosystems are complex adaptive systems in which humans interacted with their environment in a nested series of spatial and temporal scales. Using panarchy theory, it integrates paleoecological and archaeological research from the Eastern Woodlands of North America providing a paradigm to help resolve long-standing disagreements between ecologists and archaeologists about the importance of prehistoric Native Americans as agents for ecological change. The authors present the concept of a panarchy of complex adaptive cycles as applied to the development of increasingly complex human ecosystems through time. They explore examples of ecological interactions at the level of gene, population, community, landscape and regional hierarchical scales, emphasizing the ecological pattern and process involving the development of human ecosystems. Finally, they offer a perspective on the implications of the legacy of Native Americans as agents of change for conservation and ecological restoration efforts today.
Download or read book Prehistoric Life written by Bruce S. Lieberman and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2010-03-22 with total page 405 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Prehistoric life is the archive of evolution preserved in the fossil record. This book focuses on the meaning and significance of that archive and is designed for introductory college science students, including non-science majors, enrolled in survey courses emphasizing paleontology, geology and biology. From the origins of animals to the evolution of rap music, from ancient mass extinctions to the current biodiversity crisis, and from the Snowball Earth to present day climate change this book covers it, with an eye towards showing how past life on Earth puts the modern world into its proper context. The history of life and the patterns and processes of evolution are especially emphasized, as are the interconnections between our planet, its climate system, and its varied life forms. The book does not just describe the history of life, but uses actual examples from life’s history to illustrate important concepts and theories.
Download or read book El Ni o Catastrophism and Culture Change in Ancient America written by Daniel H. Sandweiss and published by Dumbarton Oaks Research Library & Collection. This book was released on 2008 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book summarizes research on the nature of El Niño events in the Americas and details specific historic and prehistoric patterns in Peru and elsewhere.
Download or read book Prehistory written by Chris Gosden and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 153 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent archaeological discoveries from China and central Asia have changed our understanding of how human civilization developed in the period of some 4 million years before the start of written history. In this new edition of his Very Short Introduction, Chris Gosden explores the current theories on the ebb and flow of human cultural variety.
Download or read book Encyclopedia of Human Evolution and Prehistory written by Eric Delson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2004-11-23 with total page 780 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Praise for the first edition: "The most up-to-date and wide-ranging encyclopedia work on human evolution available."--American Reference Books Annual "For student, researcher, and teacher...the most complete source of basic information on the subject."--Nature "A comprehensive and authoritative source, filling a unique niche...essential to academic libraries...important for large public libraries." --Booklist/RBB
Download or read book Climate Change in Prehistory written by William James Burroughs and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2005-06-13 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How did humankind deal with the extreme challenges of the last Ice Age? How have the relatively benign post-Ice Age conditions affected the evolution and spread of humanity across the globe? By setting our genetic history in the context of climate change during prehistory, the origin of many features of our modern world are identified and presented in this illuminating book. It reviews the aspects of our physiology and intellectual development that have been influenced by climatic factors, and how features of our lives - diet, language and the domestication of animals - are also the product of the climate in which we evolved. In short: climate change in prehistory has in many ways made us what we are today. Climate Change in Prehistory weaves together studies of the climate with anthropological, archaeological and historical studies, and will fascinate all those interested in the effects of climate on human development and history.
Download or read book Climate and Cultural Change in Prehistoric Europe and the Near East written by Peter F. Biehl and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2016-11-23 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The subject of climate change could hardly be more timely. In Climate and Cultural Change in Prehistoric Europe and the Near East, an interdisciplinary group of contributors examine climate change through the lens of new archaeological and paleo-environmental data over the course of more than 10,000 years from the Near East to Europe. Key climatic and other events are contextualized with cultural changes and transitions for which the authors discuss when, how, and if, changes in climate and environment caused people to adapt, move or perish. More than this publication of crucial archaeological and paleo-environmental data, however, the volume seeks to understand the social, political and economic significance of climate change as it was manifested in various ways around the Old World. Contrary to perceptions of threatening global warming in our popular media, and in contrast to grim images of collapse presented in some archaeological discussions of past climate change, this book rejects outright societal collapse as a likely outcome. Yet this does not keep the authors from considering climate change as a potential factor in explaining culture change by adopting a critical stance with regard to the long-standing practice of equating synchronicity with causality, and explicitly considering alternative explanations.
Download or read book Graphing Culture Change in North American Archaeology written by R. Lee Lyman and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-06-10 with total page 397 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Documentation, analysis, and explanation of culture change have long been goals of archaeology. Scientific graphs facilitate the visual thinking that allow archaeologists to determine the relationship between variables, and, if well designed, comprehend the processes implied by the relationship. Different graph types suggest different ontologies and theories of change, and particular techniques of parsing temporally continuous morphological variation of artefacts into types influence graph form. North American archaeologists have grappled with finding a graph that effectively and efficiently displays culture change over time. Line graphs, bar graphs, and numerous one-off graph types were used between 1910 and 1950, after which spindle graphs displaying temporal frequency distributions of specimens within each of multiple artefact types emerged as the most readily deciphered diagram. The variety of graph types used over the twentieth century indicate archaeologists often mixed elements of both Darwinian variational evolutionary change and Midas-touch like transformational change. Today, there is minimal discussion of graph theory or graph grammar in introductory archaeology textbooks or advanced texts, and elements of the two theories of evolution are still mixed. Culture has changed, and archaeology provides unique access to the totality of humankind's cultural past. It is therefore crucial that graph theory, construction, and decipherment are revived in archaeological discussion.
Download or read book Prehistoric Culture Change on the Colorado Plateau written by Shirley Powell and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2002-02 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of writings by participants in the Black Mesa Archaeological Project offers a synthesis of Kayenta-area archaeology, examining the ancestral Puebloan and Navajo occupation of the Four Corners region, and analysing faunal, lithic, ceramic, chronometric, and human osteological data, to construct an account of the prehistory and ethnohistory of northern Arizona that demonstrates how organizational variation and other aspects of culture change are largely a response to a changing natural environment.
Download or read book Social Change in Aegean Prehistory written by Corien Wiersma and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2016-11-30 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume brings together papers that discuss social change. The main focus is on the Early Helladic III to Late Helladic I period in southern Greece, but also touches upon the surrounding islands. This specific timeframe enables us to consider how mainland societies recovered from a ‘crisis’ and how they eventually developed into the differentiated, culturally receptive and competitive social formations of the early Mycenaean period. Material changes are highlighted in the various papers, ranging from pottery and burials to domestic architecture and settlement structures, followed by discussions of how these changes relate to social change. A variety of factors is thereby considered including demographic changes, reciprocal relations and sumptuary behavior, household organization and kin structure, age and gender divisions, internal tensions, connectivity and mobility. As such, this volume is of interest to both Aegean prehistorians as to scholars interested in social and material change. The volume consists of eight papers, preceded by an introduction and concluded by a response. The introduction gives an overview of the development of the debate on the explanation of social change in Aegean prehistory. The response places the volume in a broader context of the EH III-LH I period and the broader discussion on social change.
Download or read book Detecting and Explaining Technological Innovation in Prehistory written by Michela Spataro and published by . This book was released on 2019-12-19 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Technology refers to any set of standardised procedures for transforming raw materials into finished products. Innovation consists of any change in technology which has tangible and lasting effect on human practices, whether or not it provides utilitarian advantages. Prehistoric societies were never static, but the tempo of innovation occasionally increased to the point that we can refer to transformation taking place. Prehistorians must therefore identify factors promoting or hindering innovation.This volume stems from an international workshop, organised by the Collaborative Research Centre 1266 'Scales of Transformation' at Kiel University in November 2017. The meeting challenged its participants to detect and explain technological change in the past and its role in transformation processes, using archaeological and ethnographic case studies. The papers draw mainly on examples from prehistoric Europe, but case-studies from Iran, the Indus Valley, and contemporary central America are also included. The authors adopt several perspectives, including cultural-historical, economic, environmental, demographic, functional, and agent-based approaches.These case studies often rely on interdisciplinary research, whereby field archaeology, archaeometric analysis, experimental archaeology and ethnographic research are used together to observe and explain innovations and changes in the artisan's repertoire. The results demonstrate that interdisciplinary research is becoming essential to understanding transformation phenomena in prehistoric archaeology, superseding typo-chronological description and comparison.This book is a scholarly publication aimed at academic researchers, particularly archaeologists and archaeological scientists working on ceramics, osseous and metal artifacts.
Download or read book Emergence and Change in Early Urban Societies written by Linda Manzanilla and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-11-11 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book gives an overview of different factors involved in the emergence and change in early urban societies in fourth-millennium Mesopotamia and Egypt; pre-Shang China; Classie horizon Central Mexico, Oaxaca, and the Maya Area; and Middle Horizon societies in the Andean Region. These factors range from centralized storage and redistributive econo mies, agromanagerial models, mercantile network control, confliet and conquest, conversion of military commanders into administrators, political power through monumental cosmic reproduction, and elite power through ideological change. It discusses specific archaeological data useful in theoretieal construction. In the Introduction, a discussion of different developmental processes of urban societies is made. The Eastern Anatolian example emphasizes the role played by interregional exchange networks linking the Mesopotamian plains with the Syro-Anatolian regions. The emergence of an elite is related with the control of the movement of craft goods and raw materials, more than with the appropriation of subsistence goods. The Chinese example stresses the importance of conflict provoked by demographie pressures on resources. The Mesoamerican cases relate to vast urban developments and manu facturing centers, ideological importance of monumental planning, and changing behavior of elites. The Andean cases are related either to the transformation of theocratie leadership into military administrators oe to the agricultural intensification model.
Download or read book Prehistoric Culture Change on the Colorado Plateau written by Shirley Powell and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2016-02 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of writings by participants in the Black Mesa Archaeological Project offers a synthesis of Kayenta-area archaeology, examining the ancestral Puebloan and Navajo occupation of the Four Corners region, and analysing faunal, lithic, ceramic, chronometric, and human osteological data, to construct an account of the prehistory and ethnohistory of northern Arizona that demonstrates how organizational variation and other aspects of culture change are largely a response to a changing natural environment.
Download or read book Explanation of Prehistoric Change written by James N. Hill and published by . This book was released on 1977 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is change? What is stability? How and why does each occur? Can they be predicted? The contributors discuss these questions and others about the nature of change through diverse case studies from Hawaii, Midwestern America, the American Southwest, Iran, and the Teotihuacan Valley in Mexico. They examine the theoretical nature of change--its causes, processes, and results--in an effort to form a coherent theory of societal evolution.
Download or read book Archaeological Concepts Techniques and Terminology for American Prehistoric Lithic Technology written by Wm Jack Hranicky and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2013-06-03 with total page 586 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Archaeological Concepts, Techniques, and Terminology for American Prehistory Lithic Technology by Wm Jack Hranicky is a 600-page comprehensive publication that encompasses the study of American prehistoric stone tools and implements. It is a look-up volume for studying the material culture of prehistoric people and using its concepts and methods for researching this aspect of archaeology. There are over 3000 entries which are defined and illustrated. It also has an extensive set of references and an overview for the study of stone tools.
