Social Complexity in Prehistoric Eurasia
Title | Social Complexity in Prehistoric Eurasia PDF eBook |
Author | Bryan K. Hanks |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Pages | 439 |
Release | 2009-08-31 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 0521517125 |
Challenges current interpretations of social and cultural change in prehistoric Eurasia, through a thematic investigation of archaeological patterns.
Social Complexity and Complex Systems in Archaeology
Title | Social Complexity and Complex Systems in Archaeology PDF eBook |
Author | Dries Daems |
Publisher | Routledge |
Pages | 228 |
Release | 2021-02-22 |
Genre | Social Science |
ISBN | 1000344738 |
Social Complexity and Complex Systems in Archaeology turns to complex systems thinking in search of a suitable framework to explore social complexity in Archaeology. Social complexity in archaeology is commonly related to properties of complex societies such as states, as opposed to so-called simple societies such as tribes or chiefdoms. These conceptualisations of complexity are ultimately rooted in Eurocentric perspectives with problematic implications for the field of archaeology. This book provides an in-depth conceptualisation of social complexity as the core concept in archaeological and interdisciplinary studies of the past, integrating approaches from complex systems thinking, archaeological theory, social practice theory, and sustainability and resilience science. The book covers a long-term perspective of social change and stability, tracing the full cycle of complexity trajectories, from emergence and development to collapse, regeneration and transformation of communities and societies. It offers a broad vision on social complexity as a core concept for the present and future development of archaeology. This book is intended to be a valuable resource for students and scholars in the field of archaeology and related disciplines such as history, anthropology, sociology, as well as the natural sciences studying human-environment interactions in the past.
Trade before Civilization
Title | Trade before Civilization PDF eBook |
Author | Johan Ling |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Pages | 447 |
Release | 2022-09-15 |
Genre | Social Science |
ISBN | 1009092812 |
Trade before Civilization explores the role that long-distance exchange played in the establishment and/or maintenance of social complexity, and its role in the transformation of societies from egalitarian to non-egalitarian. Bringing together research by an international and methodologically diverse team of scholars, it analyses the relationship between long-distance trade and the rise of inequality. The volume illustrates how elites used exotic prestige goods to enhance and maintain their elevated social positions in society. Global in scope, it offers case studies of early societies and sites in Europe, Asia, Oceania, North America, and Mesoamerica. Deploying a range of inter-disciplinary and cutting-edge theoretical approaches from a cross-cultural framework, the volume offers new insights and enhances our understanding of socio-political evolution. It will appeal to archaeologists, cultural anthropologists, conflict theorists, and ethnohistorians, as well as economists seeking to understand the nexus between imported luxury items and cultural evolution.
Feast, Famine or Fighting?
Title | Feast, Famine or Fighting? PDF eBook |
Author | Richard J. Chacon |
Publisher | Springer |
Pages | 510 |
Release | 2017-01-20 |
Genre | Social Science |
ISBN | 3319484028 |
The advent of social complexity has been a longstanding debate among social scientists. Existing theories and approaches involving the origins of social complexity include environmental circumscription, population growth, technology transfers, prestige-based and interpersonal-group competition, organized conflict, perennial wartime leadership, wealth finance, opportunistic leadership, climatological change, transport and trade monopolies, resource circumscription, surplus and redistribution, ideological imperialism, and the consideration of individual agency. However, recent approaches such as the inclusion of bioarchaeological perspectives, prospection methods, systematically-investigated archaeological sites along with emerging technologies are necessarily transforming our understanding of socio-cultural evolutionary processes. In short, many pre-existing ways of explaining the origins and development of social complexity are being reassessed. Ultimately, the contributors to this edited volume challenge the status quo regarding how and why social complexity arose by providing revolutionary new understandings of social inequality and socio-political evolution.
Rethinking Migrations in Late Prehistoric Eurasia
Title | Rethinking Migrations in Late Prehistoric Eurasia PDF eBook |
Author | Manuel Fernandez-Gotz |
Publisher | Oxford University Press, USA |
Pages | 0 |
Release | 2023-03-22 |
Genre | |
ISBN | 9780197267356 |
Migrations constitute one of the most defining features of human history from the very beginning to the present. In recent years, the increasing application of ancient DNA and isotope studies has been revolutionising our understanding of past population movements, although the interpretation of the results is often still controversial. Rethinking Migrations in Late Prehistoric Eurasia provides an insight into cutting-edge research on late prehistoric migrations in Eurasia, integrating different strands of evidence and emphasising the need for combining bioarchaeological analyses with a solid theoretical and methodological background. The 15 chapters within the book range from the 3rd to the 1st millennia BC, with a geographical scope extending from Atlantic Europe to Central Asia. Case studies include a reassessment of large-scale migrations, but also high-resolution studies from micro-regions. Overall, the results offered in the volume reveal the extraordinary diversity of migrations in ancient Eurasia and the ways in which archaeology can contribute to wider discussions on past and present mobility.
Globalization in Prehistory
Title | Globalization in Prehistory PDF eBook |
Author | Nicole Boivin |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Pages | 363 |
Release | 2018-10-04 |
Genre | Business & Economics |
ISBN | 1108429807 |
Challenges contemporary understandings of 'globalization' by focusing on the role of non-state prehistoric societies and their vast realms of connectivity.
Geoarchaeology and Archaeological Mineralogy
Title | Geoarchaeology and Archaeological Mineralogy PDF eBook |
Author | Anatoly Yuminov |
Publisher | Springer Nature |
Pages | 186 |
Release | 2020-08-06 |
Genre | Science |
ISBN | 3030488640 |
This book presents general problems in geoarchaeology, and discusses geophysical solutions, X-ray fluorescence spectrometry applications, X-ray and isotope analyses and GIS technologies. It also examines practical reconstructions of technological processes used in ancient time, and investigates the use of minerals and rocks by ancient societies in the territories of modern Russia, Ukraine, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan, as well as the characteristics of ores, metallurgical slags and data on the composition and impurities of archaeological metals. Intended for archaeologists, historians, museum workers and geologists studying noble metals and copper, the book is also a useful resource for students, graduate students, experts and anyone interested in the use of various minerals at different stages of humanity’s development.