Description
Book SynopsisA groundbreaking new textbook that brings a highly topical, environmental perspective to the story of how humans have shaped the world.
Trade Review'I love the inclusive nature of its content in terms of global prehistory – it covers geographies and cultures that are often neglected in the teaching of archaeology' - James Taylor, University of York
Table of Contents1. Archaeology and the Anthropocene What Is the Anthropocene? • The Perspective of Archaeology • Polynesia and the North Atlantic: Islands as Laboratories • Methods: Survey and Excavation • How Have Humans Made Their World?
2. Discovering Diversity: Modern Human Origins Diversity of Humans: Homo sapiens and Neanderthals • Modern Humans • Lascaux Cave and the Human Experience of the Ice Age • Additional Human Experiences in the Ice Age • Human Culture Begins to Shape the Anthropocene • Protecting Cultural Diversity
Global Timeline 1: Human Origins and Migrations 3. Technology Makes the Human: Stone, Metal, and Organic Material Culture Stone Tools and the Discovery of Time • The Mechanics of Flintknapping • Stone Tools as Evidence of Human Adaptation • Metalworking, a New Technology for Communities • Perishable Technologies: Revelations from the Iceman • Technology, the Environment, and the Anthropocene
4. Peopling the World: Human Dispersals to Australia, the Americas, and the Pacific Inhabiting Australia • Human Dispersals in the Americas • Inhabiting the Pacific • Methods: Archaeological Survey • Peopling and the Anthropocene
Global Timeline 2: People and Societies 5. Digging In: Responding to Climate Change in the American Southwest The American Southwest • Methods: Excavation • The Colorado Plateau and the Chaco Phenomenon • Understanding Ancient Pueblo Society: Broken K Pueblo • Other People of the Southwest • The Southwest and the Changing Environment
6. Extinctions in the Past Big Game Hunters: The Clovis People • Radiocarbon Dating • The Spread of Clovis • Hunting Megafauna • Mastodons and the Role of a Changing Environment • South America: The Giant Ground Sloth • The Role of Humans in Extinction Events
7. Understanding Human Decisions: Evolutionary and Social Theory Bison Hunters of the American Great Plains • Zooarchaeology • Bison Hunting and Butchering in Context • South Pacific: Conflict and Fortification in Fiji • Europe: Deciding With or Against a Community in St. Kilda • The Amazon: Decision-Making Today
8. Producing Food: Domestication and Its Consequences in Southwest and East Asia Southwest Asia: The First Settlements • What Led to the Development of Farming? • Archaebotany and the Evidence for Food Production • Domestication: A Two-Way Process • China: Independent Domestication and Rice • The Consequences of Farming • The Critical Role of the Community in Food Production
Global Timeline 3: Domestication 9. Individuals and Identity: Agency in History Studying Identity • Mesoamerica: The Aztecs • Cortés and La Malinché • Textiles, Identity, and Gender • Bioarchaeology • Inequality and Structural Violence in Prehistory • Agency, Identity, and the Anthropocene
10. Feeding Cities: Urbanism and Agriculture Mesoamerica: Discovering the Maya • Maize and the Maya • The Maya City • Southeast Asia: Irrigation and Agriculture at Angkor • The State • The Environmental Perils of Intensification • Cities, Surplus, and the Elite
11. Building Monuments, Building Society: Collective Labor as Social Identity Monuments and Landscapes • Ancient Egypt: Building the Egyptian State • Monuments Among Mobile Communities • Stonehenge and the Pastoralist Landscape of Neolithic Britain • North America: The Hopewell Earthworks
12. Conspicuous Consumption: Feasts, Burials, and Sacrifice Chiefs and Hoards • Feasting • Residue Analysis • Reciprocity • The Ultimate Sacrifice: Human • Europe: The Burial of Viking and Anglo-Saxon Ships • Is Conspicuous Consumption Inevitable?
13. Writing: A History of Access to Information Writing in Many Contexts • Writings of the Maya • Writings of the Sumerians • Ancient Chinese Writing • Alphabetic Writing • Preservation of Writing Systems • Without Writing: Systems of Notation • North Africa and Arabia: Literacy without Settlement • Writing and the Anthropocene
14. Extracting the Modern World: Fishing, Mining, and Slavery Extractivism, Markets, and the Environment • Fishing and Maritime Extractivism • Underwater Archaeology • Extracted Minerals in the New World • Extracting People: The Slave Trade • Extractivism and the Anthropocene
15. The Future of the Anthropocene The Challenges Ahead • Extinctions and Increasing Diversity • Population Growth • Fossil-Fuel Consumption and Innovation • Understand Your Agency
Glossary Sources of Quotations
Sources of Illustrations
Index
