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The human brain and its one hundred billion neurons compose the most complex organ in the body and harness more than 20% of all the energy we produce. Why do we have such large and energy-demanding brains, and how have we been able to afford such an expensive organ for thousands of years? Guts and Brains discusses the key variables at stake in such a question, including the relationship between brain size and diet, diet and social organization, and large brains and the human sexual division of labor. Showcasing how small changes in the diet of early hominins came to have large implications for the behavior of modern humans, this interdisciplinary volume provides an entry for the reader into understanding the development of both early primates and our own species.
Humans are unique in that they expend considerable effort and ingenuity in disposing of the dead. Some of the recognisable ways we do this are visible in the Palaeolithic archaeology of the Ice Age. The Palaeolithic Origins of Human Burial takes a novel approach to the long-term development of human mortuary activity – the various ways we deal with the dead and with dead bodies. It is the first comprehensive survey of Palaeolithic mortuary activity in the English language. Observations in the modern world as to how chimpanzees behave towards their dead allow us to identify ‘core’ areas of behaviour towards the dead that probably have very deep evolutionary antiquity. From that point, t...
This text reviews the theory, concepts, and basic methods involved in archaeological analysis with the aim of familiarizing both students and professionals with its underlying principles. Topics covered include the nature and presentation of data; database and research design; sampling and quantification; analyzing lithics, pottery, faunal, and botanical remains; interpreting dates; and archaeological illustration. A glossary of key terms completes the book.
Britain's pagan past, with its astonishing number and variety of mysterious monuments, atmospheric sites, enigmatic artefacts, bloodthirsty legends and cryptic inscriptions, has always enthralled and perplexed us. 'Pagan Britain' is a history of religious beliefs from the Old Stone Age to the coming of Christianity. This ambitious book integrates the latest evidence to survey our transformed - and transforming - understanding of early religious behaviour; and, also, the way in which that behaviour has been interpreted in recent times, as a mirror for modern dreams and fears. From the Palaeolithic era to the coming of Christianity and beyond, Hutton reveals the long development, rapid suppression and enduring cultural significance of paganism. Woven into the chronological narrative are numerous case studies of sacred sites both well-known - Stonehenge, Avebury, Seahenge and Maiden Castle - and more unusual far-flung locations across the mainland and coastal islands.
Sarunas Milisauskas· 1.1 INTRODUCTION The purpose of this book is four-fold: to introduce English-speaking students and scholars to some of the outstanding archaeological research that has been done in Europe in recent years; to integrate this research into an anthropological frame of reference; to address episodes of culture change such as the transition to farming; the origin of complex societies, and the origin of urbanism, and to provide an overview of European prehistory from the earliest appearance of humans to the rise of the Roman empire. In 1978, the Academic Press published my book European Prehistory which, typically for that period, emphasized cultural evolution, culture process...
This book makes a contribution to the developing field of complex hunter-gatherer studies with an archaeological analysis of the development of one such group. It examines the evolution of complex hunter-gatherers on the North Pacific coast of Alaska. It is one of the first books available to examine in depth the social evolution of a specific complex hunter-gatherer tradition on the North Pacific Rim and will be of interest to professional archaeologists, anthropologists, and students of archaeology and anthropology.
Six main decorative styles have been tentatively distinguished in the Early-Middle Bronze age Capo Graziano incised pottery of the Aeolian Islands. This experimental study focuses on the analysis of 68 bowls from the islands of Lipari, Filicudi, Salina and Stromboli and from Milazzo in Sicily. The classification is based on motifs and styles, and integrates typology, technology, composition and decoration in their identification. The styles are linked to production centres showing different spatial and temporal variations and appear to reflect different dynamics: the expert “individual” craftsman, the design in fashion, the symbolic code or the fulfilment of specific functions. The evaluation of skill in application and variability in the concept are measured in order to assess the social implications in the production of the pottery. This interim investigation will continue to refine the chronology and to establish the decorative styles in other Aeolian Islands. It is possible that schematic elements in the decorative styles, such as undulating lines and metopes, reflect the maritime and insular environment of the Aeolian Islands.
It may be true, as Paul Valery said, that the painter “takes his body with him,” but it is almost certain that artists leave some of their bodies in their art. This book studies the embodied intentionality inscribed in the works of the artists of the Qsur and ‘Amour mountains in Algeria. It retraces the aesthetic gestures of these artists, revealing sounds they heard, tactile and kinesthetic interactions they experienced, and emotions they felt as they recorded the distress and pain of some animals. Combining naturalist style, skilful composition, and spatial features, these artists often gave their art the form of installation, where induced motion and parallactic flow create immersive experiences. Using continuous line technique, they created monumental objects and intricate labyrinthine forms.
Modern human origins and the fate of the Neanderthals are arguably the most compelling and contentious arenas in paleoanthropology. The much-discussed split between advocates of a single, early emergence of anatomically modern humans in sub-Saharan Africa and supporters of various regional continuity positions is only part of the picture. Equally if not more important are questions surrounding the origins of modern behavior, and the relationships between anatomical and behavioral changes that occurred during the past 200,000 years. Although modern humans as a species may be defined in terms of their skeletal anatomy, it is their behavior, and the social and cognitive structures that support ...