Darwin and Archaeology: A Handbook of Key Concepts

by John P. Hart, John Edward Terrell

Overview

The last decades of the 20th century witnessed strongly growing interest in evolutionary approaches to the human past. Even now, however, there is little real agreement on what evolutionary archaeology is all about. A major obstacle is the lack of consensus on how to define the basic principles of Darwinian thought in ways that are genuinely relevant to the archaeological sciences. Each chapter in this new collection of specially invited essays focuses on a single major concept and its associated key words, summarizes its historic and current uses, and then reviews case studies illustrating that concept's present and probable future role in research. What these authors say shows the richness and current diversity of thought among those today who insist that Darwinism has a key role to play in archaeology.

Each chapter includes definitions of related key words. Because the same key words may have the same or different meanings in different conceptual contexts, many of these key words are addressed in more than one chapter. In addition to exploring key concepts, collectively the book's chapters show the broad range of ideas and opinions in this intellectual arena today. This volume reflects—and clarifies—debate today on the role of Darwinism in modern archaeology, and by doing so, may help shape the directions that future work in archaeology will take.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780897898799
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	05/30/2002
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.59(d)

About the Author

JOHN P. HART is Director of Research & Collections, New York State Museum, Albany.

JOHN EDWARD TERRELL is Director of the New Guinea Research Program and Curator of Anthropology at the Field Museum in Chicago.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Gary M. Feinman
Introduction by John Edward Terrell and John P. Hart
Adaptation by Todd Van Pool
Biological Constraint by James Steele
Cause by Michael J. O'Brien and R. Lee Lyman
Classification by R. Lee Lyman and Michael J. O'Brien
Complexity by John Kantner
Culture by Paul Roscoe
Descent by Scott MacEachern
History by Sibel Barut Kusimba
Individuals by Dean R. Snow
Learning by Stephen J. Shennan
Models by Bruce Winterhalder
Natural Selection by Robert D. Leonard and George T. Jones
Populations by Kevin Kelly

Editorial Reviews

Archaeologists and other anthropologists, almost all from the US, change the direction of the recent resurgence of evolutionary approaches to the archaeological record by founding their discussions in Darwinian theory and theoretical developments in the social and historical sciences. Each defines up a key concept that links data and theories and describes what it means to archaeologists today, why it is important in the field, and whether there is some reason to favor a particular meaning and usage of it over others that are also current. No index is provided. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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