From Gustavo Politis, one of the most renowned South American archaeologists, comes the first in-depth study in English of the last “undiscovered” people of the Amazon. His work is groundbreaking and urgent, both because of encroaching guerrilla violence that makes Nukak existence perilously fragile, and because his work with the Nukak represented one of the last opportunities to conduct research with hunter-gatherers using contemporary methodological and the theoretical tools. Through a rich and comprehensive ethno-archaeological portrait of material culture “in the making,” this work makes methodological and conceptual advances in the interpretation of hunter-gather societies. Politis’s conclusions, based on six years of original research and on comparative analysis, are integrative and contribute to the identification of the multiple factors involved in the formation of hunter-gatherer archaeological assemblages.

This volume outlines and illustrates the importance of considering social contexts of food consumption in interpretations of past and present human societies, giving a new twist to the old adage 'You are what you eat'. What we eat, how we eat, are and always have been fundamental to the structuring of social life, both in the past and in the present. The remains of food are also among the most common archaeological finds. The papers in this volume explore and develop ways of using food to write social history; they move beyond taphonomic and economic properties of 'subsistence resources' to examine the social background and cultural contexts of food preparation and consumption. Contributions break new ground in method and interpretation in case studies spanning the Palaeolithic to the Present, and from the Amazon to the Arctic. This volume will thus be essential reading for all archaeologists, anthropologists and social historians interested in the prehistory and history of food consumption.

This “compelling and unforgettable” account of Colombian drug cartels follows a kilo of cocaine from the field where it was farmed to America’s shores (Jon Lee Anderson, author of Che Guevara). Cocaine is glamour, sex and murder. A product that must be produced, distributed, and protected, it is both a harbinger of violence and a source of immense wealth. Beginning in the jungles and mountains of Colombia, it filters down to countryside villages, the nightclubs of the cities, and out across the globe. Each step in the life of a kilo reveals a different criminal underworld with its own players, rules, and dangers, ranging from the bizarre to the diabolical. Seasoned reporter Toby Muse has gained unprecedented access to the people who survive on these vast enterprises—from farmers, smugglers, and assassins to the drug lords themselves. Following a kilo of cocaine from its origins to its final destination, he reveals the human lives behind the drug’s complicated legacy. Piercing this veiled world, Kilo is a gripping portrait of a country struggling to end this deadly trade even as the riches flow. Uncovering stories of violence, sex, and money, it shows the allure and the madness of cocaine—and why the War on Drugs has been no match for it. Kilo includes sixteen pages of photographs.