Investigating Prehistoric Hunter Gatherer Identities

This volume stems from sessions at the 2004 Theoretical Archaeology Conference at Glasgow University, entitled "Hunter-Gatherers in Early Prehistory" and "Hunting for Meaning: Interpretive Approaches to the Mesolithic". The sessions came about as a response to a continuing lack of appreciation of new developments in theoretical approaches to the archaeology of prehistoric hunter-gatherers both in the Pleistocene and Holocene. Contents: 1) Hunter-Gatherers in Early Prehistory (Fiona Coward & Lucy Grimshaw); 2) Upper Palaeolithic Social Colonisation and Lower Palaeolithic Biological Dispersal? A Consideration of the Nature of Movements into Europe During the Pleistocene (Lucy Grimshaw); 3) Transitions, Change and Prehistory: An Ecosystemic Approach to Change in the Archaeological Record (Fiona Coward); 4) Darwin Vs. Bourdieu - Celebrity Deathmatch or Postrocessual Myth? A Prolegomenon for the Reconciliation of Agentive-Interpretive and Ecological-Evolutionary Archaeology (Felix Riede); 5) We're Not Waiting Any More - Or, Hunting for Meaning in the Mesolithic of North-West Europe (Hannah Cobb & Steven Price); 6) Midden, Meaning, Person, Place: Interpreting the Mesolithic of Western Scotland (Hannah Cobb); 7) Reconstructing the Social Topography of an Irish Mesolithic Lakescape (Aimee Little); 8) Can't See the Trees for the Wood: The Social Life of Trees in the Mesolithic of Southern Scandinavia.

Prehistoric Hunters-Gatherers : The Emergence of Cultural Complexity

Defining "culture" is an important step in undertaking archaeological research. Any thorough study of a particular culture first has to determine what that culture contains-- what particular time period, geographic region, and group of people make up that culture. The study of archaeology has many accepted definitions of particular cultures, but recently these accepted definitions have come into question. As archaeologists struggle to define cultures, they also seek to define the components of culture. This volume brings together 21 international case studies to explore the meaning of "culture" for regions around the globe and periods from the Paleolithic to the Bronze Age and beyond. Taking lessons and overarching themes from these studies, the contributors draw important conclusions about cultural transmission, technology development, and cultural development. The result is a comprehensive model for approaching the study of culture, broken down into regions (Russia, Continental Europe, North America, Britain, and Africa), materials (Lithics, Ceramics, Metals) and time periods. This work will be valuable to all archaeologists and cultural anthropologists, particularly those studying material culture.

Information and its Role in Hunter-Gatherer Bands explores the question of how information, broadly conceived, is acquired, stored, circulated, and utilized in small-scale hunter-gatherer societies, or bands. Given the nature of this question, the volume brings together a group of scholars from multiple disciplines, including archaeology, ethnography, linguistics, and evolutionary ecology. Each of these specialties deals with the question of information in different ways and with different sets of data given different primacy. The fundamental goal of the volume is to bridge disciplines and subdisciplines, open discussion, and see if some common ground-either theoretical perspectives, general principles, or methodologies-can be developed upon which to build future research on the role of information in hunter-gatherer bands.

This book addresses the problems concerning the research of Stone Age surface scatters in the Northern Netherlands (provinces of Groningen, Drenthe and Friesland). Research methods are presented which can be used to assess these scatters within the realm of archaeological heritage management and suggestions are made with regard to knowledge hiatus and future research opportunities.Due to the large number of scatters, poor conservation, lack of visibility in the landscape and disturbed context these sites can often be overlooked. Nowadays, the majority of archaeological research is performed within the context of archaeological heritage management where, besides scientific, socio-economic motives also play a role. A major part of this book is focused on ways in which these scatters can be investigated within the context of archaeological heritage management.In this thesis the use of a landscape approach is advocated for an effective study of early prehistoric communities. This means that the intrinsic characteristics of the surface scatters should be supplemented with information on landforms and palaeo-ecological data from the surrounding areas. By using such an approach a more thorough image of Stone Age communities can be presented.

For more than a century, the study of hunting and gathering societies has been central to the development of both archaeology and anthropology as academic disciplines, and has also generated widespread public interest and debate. The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Hunter-Gatherers provides a comprehensive review of hunter-gatherer studies to date, including critical engagements with older debates, new theoretical perspectives, and renewed obligations for greater engagement between researchers and indigenous communities. Chapters provide in-depth archaeological, historical, and anthropological case-studies, and examine far-reaching questions about human social relations, attitudes to technology, ecology, and management of resources and the environment, as well as issues of diet, health, and gender relations - all central topics in hunter-gatherer research, but also themes that have great relevance for modern global society and its future challenges. The Handbook also provides a strategic vision for how the integration of new methods, approaches, and study regions can ensure that future research into the archaeology and anthropology of hunter-gatherers will continue to deliver penetrating insights into the factors that underlie all human diversity.

George Frison’s Prehistoric Hunters of the High Plains has been the standard text on plains prehistory since its first publication in 1978, influencing generations of archaeologists. Now, a third edition of this classic work is available for scholars, students, and avocational archaeologists. Thorough and comprehensive, extensively illustrated, the book provides an introduction to the archaeology of the more than 13,000 year long history of the western Plains and the adjacent Rocky Mountains. Reflecting the boom in recent archaeological data, it reports on studies at a wide array of sites from deep prehistory to recent times examining the variability in the archeological record as well as in field, analytical, and interpretive methods. The 3rd edition brings the book up to date in a number of significant areas, as well as addressing several topics inadequately developed in previous editions.