Download or read book Prehistory written by Colin Renfrew and published by Modern Library. This book was released on 2009-08-11 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Prehistory, the award-winning archaeologist and renowned scholar Colin Renfrew covers human existence before the advent of written records–the overwhelming majority of our time here on earth–and gives an incisive, concise, and lively survey of the past, and of how scholars and scientists labor to bring it to light. Renfrew begins by looking at prehistory as a discipline, detailing how breakthroughs such as radiocarbon dating and DNA analysis have helped us to define humankind’s past–how things have changed–much more clearly than was possible just a half century ago. As for why things have changed, Renfrew pinpoints some of the issues and challenges, past and present, that confront the study of prehistory and its investigators. Renfrew then offers a summary of human prehistory from early hominids to the rise of literate civilization that is refreshingly free of conventional wisdom and grand “unified” theories. In this invaluable account, Colin Renfrew delivers a meticulously researched and passionately argued chronicle about our life on earth–and our ongoing quest to understand it.
Download or read book The Complete Idiot s Guide to Human Prehistory written by Robert J. Meier and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2003 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the 3.5 million-year-old Lucy-one of our most famous early ancestors-to the rise of Homo sapiens and the spread of our species throughout the globe, this guide explores everything curious readers want to know about prehistory.
Download or read book Human Paleontology and Prehistory written by Assaf Marom and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-01-24 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The aim of the book is to present original and though-provoking essays in human paleontology and prehistory, which are at the forefront of human evolutionary research, in honor of Professor Yoel Rak (a leading scholar in paleoanthropology). The volume presents a collection of original papers contributed by many of Yoel's friends and colleagues from all over the globe. Contributions from experts around the globe fall roughly into three broad categories: Reflections on some of the broad theoretical questions of evolution, and especially about human evolution; the early hominins, with special emphasis on Australopithecus afarensis and Paranthropus; and the Neanderthals, that contentious group of our closest extinct relatives. Within and across these categories, nearly every paper addresses combinations of methodological, analytical and theoretical questions that are pertinent to the whole human evolutionary time span. This book will appeal most to scholars and advanced students in paleoanthropology, human paleontology and prehistoric archaeology.
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 The Past in Perspective written by Kenneth L. Feder and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An engaging and up-to-date chronological introduction to human prehistory, this text introduces students to the big picture of human evolutionary history, presenting the human past within the context of fundamental themes of cultural evolution.
Download or read book A Prehistory of the North written by John F. Hoffecker and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Annotation Early humans did not drift north from Africa as their ability to cope with cooler climates evolved. Settlement of Europe and northern Asia occurred in relatively rapid bursts of expansion. This study tells the complex story, spanning almost two million years, of how humans inhabited some of the coldest places on earth.
Download or read book Biological Anthropology and Prehistory written by Patricia C. Rice and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-12-05 with total page 1139 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written specifically for courses that cover biological anthropology and archaeology, this superbly illustrated new text offers the most balanced and up-to-date introduction to our human past. Devoting equal time to biological anthropology and prehistory, this text exposes students to the many sides of major controversial issues, involving students in the scientific thought process by allowing them to draw their own conclusions. Amidst discussions of bones and artifacts, the text maintains a focus on people, demonstrating to students how biological anthropology and archaeology apply to their lives today. Featuring the latest research and findings pulled from the original sources, this new text is far and away the most up-to-date text available. In addition, the superior art program features hundreds of photographs and figures, and the multimedia presentation options include documentary film clips and lecture launcher videos. Pat Rice, a recipient of AAA’s Outstanding Teacher Award and past-president of the General Anthropology Division of AAA, and Norah Moloney, an experienced professor and active archaeologist, present the material in a clear, refreshing, and straightforward writing style.
Download or read book The Global Prehistory of Human Migration written by Immanuel Ness and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2014-11-10 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Previously published as the first volume of The Encyclopedia of Global Human Migration, this work is devoted exclusively to prehistoric migration, covering all periods and places from the first hominin migrations out of Africa through the end of prehistory. Presents interdisciplinary coverage of this topic, including scholarship from the fields of archaeology, anthropology, genetics, biology, linguistics, and more Includes contributions from a diverse international team of authors, representing 17 countries and a variety of disciplines Divided into two sections, covering the Pleistocene and Holocene; each section examines human migration through chapters that focus on different regional and disciplinary lenses
Download or read book Bone Rooms written by Samuel J. Redman and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2016-03-14 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Smithsonian Book of the Year A Nature Book of the Year “Provides much-needed foundation of the relationship between museums and Native Americans.” —Smithsonian “How did our museums become great storehouses of human remains? What have we learned from the skulls and bones of unburied dead? Bone Rooms chases answers to these questions through shifting ideas about race, anatomy, anthropology, and archaeology and helps explain recent ethical standards for the collection and display of human dead.” —Ann Fabian, author of The Skull Collectors “Details the nascent views of racial science that evolved in U.S. natural history, anthropological, and medical museums...Redman effectively portrays the remarkable personalities behind [these debates]...pitting the prickly Aleš Hrdlička at the Smithsonian...against ally-turned-rival Franz Boas at the American Museum of Natural History.” —David Hurst Thomas, Nature “In exquisite detail...Bone Rooms narrates the rise and fall of racial science in America...This complicated and engrossing story is filled with unexpected twists and significant implications for the history of anthropology...and intellectual history of race in the United States, and American intellectual history more generally.” —Matthew Dennis, author of Seneca Possessed “A beautifully written, meticulously documented analysis of [this] little-known history.” —Brian Fagan, Current World Archeology In 1864 a U.S. army doctor dug up the remains of a Dakota man who had been killed in Minnesota and sent the skeleton to a museum in Washington that was collecting human remains for research. In the “bone rooms” of the Smithsonian, a scientific revolution was unfolding that would change our understanding of the human body, race, and prehistory. Seeking evidence to support new theories of racial classification, collectors embarked on a global competition to recover the best specimens of skeletons, mummies, and fossils. As the study of these discoveries increasingly discredited racial theory, new ideas emerging in the budding field of anthropology displaced race as the main motive for building bone rooms. Today, debates about the ethics of these collections have taken on a new urgency as a new generation seeks to learn about the indigenous past and to return objects of spiritual significance to native peoples.
Download or read book Macroevolution in Human Prehistory written by Anna Prentiss and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2009-09-18 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cultural evolution, much like general evolution, works from the assumption that cultures are descendent from much earlier ancestors. Human culture manifests itself in forms ranging from the small bands of hunters, through intermediate scale complex hunter-gatherers and farmers, to the high density urban settlements and complex polities that characterize much of today’s world. The chapters in the volume examine the dynamic interaction between the micro- and macro-scales of cultural evolution, developing a theoretical approach to the archaeological record that has been termed evolutionary processual archaeology. The contributions in this volume integrate positive elements of both evolutionary and processualist schools of thought. The approach, as explicated by the contributors in this work, offers novel insights into topics that include the emergence, stasis, collapse and extinction of cultural patterns, and development of social inequalities. Consequently, these contributions form a stepping off point for a significant new range of cultural evolutionary studies.
Download or read book Climate Change in Human History written by Benjamin Lieberman and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-12-02 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Climate Change and Human History provides a concise introduction to the relationship between human beings and climate change throughout history. Starting hundreds of thousands of years ago and going up to the present day, this book illustrates how natural climate variability affected early human societies and how human activity is now leading to drastic changes to our climate. Taking a chronological approach the authors explain how climate change created opportunities and challenges for human societies in each major time period, covering themes such as phases of climate and history, climate shocks, the rise and fall of civilizations, industrialization, accelerating climate change and our future outlook. This 2nd edition includes a new chapter on the explosion of social movements, protest groups and key individuals since 2017 and the implications this has had on the history of climate change, an improved introduction to the Anthropocene and extra content on the basic dynamics of the climate system alongside updated historiography. With more case studies, images and individuals throughout the text, the second edition also includes a glossary of terms and further reading to aid students in understanding this interdisciplinary subject. An ideal companion for all students of environmental history, Climate Change and Human History clearly demonstrates the critical role of climate in shaping human history and of the experience of humans in both adapting to and shaping climate change.
Download or read book Creativity in Human Evolution and Prehistory written by Steven Mithen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2005-08-10 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book examines how our understanding of human creativity can be extended by exploring this phenomenon during human evolution and prehistory.
Download or read book Human Prehistory written by Deborah Barsky and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2022-08-18 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Human prehistory is an effective tool for adopting an evolutionary perspective on present day and future challenges humans face.
Download or read book Reading Prehistoric Human Tracks written by Andreas Pastoors and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021 with total page 437 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Open Access book explains that after long periods of prehistoric research in which the importance of the archaeological as well as the natural context of rock art has been constantly underestimated, research has now begun to take this context into focus for documentation, analysis, interpretation and understanding. Human footprints are prominent among the long-time under-researched features of the context in caves with rock art. In order to compensate for this neglect an innovative research program has been established several years ago that focuses on the merging of indigenous knowledge and western archaeological science for the benefit of both sides. The book gathers first the methodological diversity in the analysis of human tracks. Here major representatives of anthropological, statistical and traditional approaches feature the multi-layered methods available for the analysis of human tracks. Second it compiles case studies from around the globe of prehistoric human tracks. For the first time, the most important sites which have been found worldwide are published in a single publication. The third focus of this book is on firsthand experiences of researchers with indigenous tracking experts from around the globe, expounding on how archaeological sciencecan benefit from the ancestral knowledge. This book will be of interest to professional archaeologists, graduate students, ecologists, cultural anthropologists and laypeople, especially those focussing on hunting-gathering and pastoralist communities and who appreciate indigenous knowledge.--
Download or read book The Human Past written by Christopher Scarre and published by Thames & Hudson. This book was released on 2013-01-01 with total page 784 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Human Past has established itself as the most thorough and authoritative introductory survey of human prehistory and the development of civilizations around the globe, adopted by colleges and universities worldwide. With a clear and logical framework, and written by an international team of 24 acknowledged experts, this unique textbook provides a comprehensive overview of world prehistory through a series of chapters focusing on individual regions and time periods that presents the vast panorama of human social, cultural and economic development over the past three million years. This new edition has been completely revised and updated, with more colour illustrations, to take account of new discoveries and developments, including what the analysis of ancient DNA tells us about our evolution; the latest theories about the domestication of key plants and animals, including rice and maize; and new thinking on the earliest Paleoindian hunting strategies.
Download or read book The Prehistory of Music written by Iain Morley and published by . This book was released on 2013-10 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume investigates the evolutionary origins of our musical abilities, the nature of music, and the earliest archaeological evidence for musical activities amongst our ancestors. It seeks to understand the relationship between our musical capabilities and the development of our social, emotional, and communicative abilities as a species.
Download or read book The Human Past written by Christopher Scarre and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Human Past has established itself as the most authoritative introduction to social, cultural, and economic developments in human prehistory.
