Style, Society, and Person: Archaeological and Ethnological Perspectives / Edition 1

by Christopher Carr, Jill E. Neitzel

Overview

Style, Society, and Person integrates the diverse current and past understandings of the causes of style in material culture. It comprehensively surveys the many factors that cause style; reviews theories that address these factors; builds and tests a unifying framework for integrating the theories; and illustrates the framework with detailed analyses of archaeological and ethnographic data ranging from simple to complex societies. Archaeologists, sociocultural anthropologists, and educators will appreciate the unique unifying approach this book takes to developing style theory.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780306448430
Publisher:	Springer US
Publication date:	02/28/1995
Series:	Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology
Edition description:	1995
Pages:	480
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.36(d)

Table of Contents

I. Introduction.- 1 • Integrating Approaches to Material Style in Theory and Philosophy.- II. High-Level Theory on the Causes of Style.- 2 • Style, Society, Myth, and Structure.- 3 • Style and the Self.- 4 • Style, Perception, and Geometry.- 5 • Style, Selection, and Historicity.- III. Middle-Range Theory: Relating form and Cause.- 6 • Building a Unified Middle-Range Theory of Artifact Design: Historical Perspectives and Tactics.- 7 • A Unified Middle-Range Theory of Artifact Design.- 8 • Basketry of Northern California Indians: Interpreting Style Hierarchies.- 9 • Cordage and Fabrics: Relating Form, Technology, and Social Processes.- 10 • Iroquois False Face Masks: The Multiple Causes of Style.- 11 • Approaches to Style: Complements and Contrasts.- IV. Style in Complex Societies.- 12 • Elite Styles in Hierarchically Organized Societies: The Chacoan Regional System.- 13 • Symbols to Power: Styles and Media in the Inka State.- V. Postscript.- 14 • Future Directions for Material Style Studies.- Series Publications.

Editorial Reviews

Departing from previous archaeological summaries of the Holy Land--which constitutes present-day Israel and Jordan--this scholarly work takes an anthropological and socioeconomic perspective to the archaeology of the region, in concise summaries by leading archaeologists. Including maps, photographs, and line drawings, it chronologically outlines and explains the major transitions of every archaeological period--from the earliest prehominids to the 20th century--through a review of the current research on settlement patterns, innovations and technology, religion and ideology, and social organization. Twelve ethnologists, archaeologists, and artists inventory and describe the essential factors that cause material style. They also review, define appropriate bounds for, and integrate theories that pertain to those factors, and build and test some new theoretical frameworks. Consideration is given to causal processes at multiple organizational scales, including the ecological-evolutionary, technological, sociocultural, social-psychological, personal behavioral, personal psychological, depth-psychological, and physiological scales. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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