Description
Book SynopsisAlthough V. Gordon Childe died 36 years ago, he remains the world's most renowned prehistorian. His What Happened in History, first published in 1942, is probably the most widely read book ever written by an archaeologist. His influence and reputation endure despite the fact that many of the theoretical ideas he propounded, as well as his interpretations of European and West Asian prehistory, have been profoundly modified, or even rejected, since his death. With contributions from such distinguished prehistorians as Kent V. Flannery, David Harris, Leo S. Klejn, John Mulvaney, Colin Renfrew, Michael Rowlands, and Bruce Trigger, The Archaeology of V. Gordon Childe is an attempt to evaluate Childe's achievement from different partly national perspectives and to assess how far, and why, his work remains significant today. The contributors examine such persistent themes in Childe's thought as the nature of culture and the role of diffusion in cultural evolution and debate the question of wh
Table of ContentsPreface David R. Harris List of illustrations List of contributors Introduction David R. Harris Childe's relevance to the 1990s Bruce G. Trigger Childe and the archaeology of freedom Michael Rowlands "Another university man gone wrong": V. Gordon Childe 1892-1922 John Mulvaney Childe and Soviet archaeology: a romance Leo S. Klejn Facsimile of a letter dated 16 December 1956 from Gordon Childe to Sovietarchaeologists Childe the evolutionist: a perspective from Nuclear America Kent V. Flannery Concluding remarks: Childe and the study of culture process Colin Renfrew Postscript: three recollections of Childe the man Charles Thomas, Frank Mitchell, Howard Kilbride-Jones. List of participants in the conference Index
