A Prehistory Of Ordinary People

A Prehistory Of Ordinary People Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle version is available to download in english. Read online anytime anywhere directly from your device. Click on the download button below to get a free pdf file of A Prehistory Of Ordinary People book. This book definitely worth reading, it is an incredibly well-written.

A Prehistory of Ordinary People

Author : Monica L. Smith
Publisher : University of Arizona Press
Page : 244 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2010-12-15
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 0816526958

Get Book

A Prehistory of Ordinary People by Monica L. Smith Pdf

For the past million years, individuals have engaged in multitasking as they interact with the surrounding environment and with each other for the acquisition of daily necessities such as food and goods. Although culture is often perceived as a collective process, it is individual people who use language, experience illness, expend energy, perceive landscapes, and create memories. These processes were sustained at the individual and household level from the time of the earliest social groups to the beginnings of settled agricultural communities and the eventual development of complex societies in the form of chiefdoms, states, and empires. Even after the advent of ÒcivilizationÓ about 6,000 years ago, human culture has for the most part been created and maintained not by the actions of elitesÑas is commonly proclaimed by many archaeological theoristsÑbut by the many thousands of daily actions carried out by average citizens. With this book, Monica L. Smith examines how the archaeological record of ordinary objectsÑused by ordinary peopleÑconstitutes a manifestation of humankindÕs cognitive and social development. A Prehistory of Ordinary People offers an impressive synthesis and accessible style that will appeal to archaeologists, cultural anthropologists, and others interested in the long history of human decision-making.

A Prehistory of Ordinary People

Author : Monica L. Smith
Publisher : University of Arizona Press
Page : 240 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 2010-12-15
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780816526956

Get Book

A Prehistory of Ordinary People by Monica L. Smith Pdf

For the past million years, individuals have engaged in multitasking as they interact with the surrounding environment and with each other for the acquisition of daily necessities such as food and goods. Although culture is often perceived as a collective process, it is individual people who use language, experience illness, expend energy, perceive landscapes, and create memories. These processes were sustained at the individual and household level from the time of the earliest social groups to the beginnings of settled agricultural communities and the eventual development of complex societies in the form of chiefdoms, states, and empires. Even after the advent of ÒcivilizationÓ about 6,000 years ago, human culture has for the most part been created and maintained not by the actions of elitesÑas is commonly proclaimed by many archaeological theoristsÑbut by the many thousands of daily actions carried out by average citizens. With this book, Monica L. Smith examines how the archaeological record of ordinary objectsÑused by ordinary peopleÑconstitutes a manifestation of humankindÕs cognitive and social development. A Prehistory of Ordinary People offers an impressive synthesis and accessible style that will appeal to archaeologists, cultural anthropologists, and others interested in the long history of human decision-making.

Before Scotland: A Prehistory

Author : Alistair Moffat
Publisher : Thames & Hudson
Page : 444 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2023-09-19
Category : History
ISBN : 9780500778586

Get Book

Before Scotland: A Prehistory by Alistair Moffat Pdf

A pioneering look at early Scotland that transforms prehistory into gripping narrative. The story of the land that became Scotland is one of dramatic geological events and impressive human endeavor. Alistair Moffat’s gripping narrative ranges from the great thaw at the end of the Ice Age, which was instrumental in shaping Scotland’s magnificent landscape; through the megalith builders, the Celts, and the Picts; to the ascension of King Constantine II. Moffat deploys his knowledge with wit and deftness, interweaving the story with numerous special features on topics as diverse as cave drawings of dancing girls, natural birth control, the myth of Atlantis, and the Zoroastrian Towers of Silence—all of them valuable, sometimes quirky, additions to the whole picture. Erudite and entertaining, Before Scotland transforms our understanding of a neglected period and is essential reading for anyone interested in the people, events, and monuments that make up Scotland’s captivating past.

Resistance at the Edge of Empires

Author : Cameron A. Petrie
Publisher : Oxbow Books
Page : 797 pages
File Size : 41,5 Mb
Release : 2020-12-28
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781785703041

Get Book

Resistance at the Edge of Empires by Cameron A. Petrie Pdf

From 1985 to 2001, the collaborative research initiative known as the Bannu Archaeological Project conducted archaeological explorations and excavations in the Bannu region, in what was then the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan, now Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. This Project involves scholars from the Pakistan Heritage Society, the British Museum, the Institute of Archaeology (UCL), Bryn Mawr College and the University of Cambridge. This is the third in a series of volumes that present the final reports of the exploration and excavations carried out by the Bannu Archaeological Project. This volume presents the first synthesis of the archaeology of the historic periods in the Bannu region, spanning the period when the first large scale empires expanded to the borders of South Asia up until the arrival of Islam in the subcontinent at the end of the first and beginning of the second millennium BC. The Bannu region provides specific insight into early imperialism in South Asia, as throughout this protracted period, it was able to maintain a distinctive regional identity in the face of recurring phases of imperial expansion and integration.

Political Economy, Neoliberalism, and the Prehistoric Economies of Latin America

Author : Ty Matejowsky,Donald C. Wood
Publisher : Emerald Group Publishing
Page : 346 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 2012-10-24
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781781900581

Get Book

Political Economy, Neoliberalism, and the Prehistoric Economies of Latin America by Ty Matejowsky,Donald C. Wood Pdf

Continues on-going presentation of highly engaging anthropological research. This title contains a range of broad based and localized topics economic anthropologists that explore from various critical perspectives. It addresses questions of how political economy is articulated through processes of consumption, production, and evolution.

Encyclopedia of Consumption and Waste

Author : Carl A. Zimring,William L. Rathje, Consulting Editor
Publisher : SAGE Publications
Page : 1225 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 2012-02-27
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781452266671

Get Book

Encyclopedia of Consumption and Waste by Carl A. Zimring,William L. Rathje, Consulting Editor Pdf

Archaeologists and anthropologists have long studied artifacts of refuse from the distant past as a portal into ancient civilizations, but examining what we throw away today tells a story in real time and becomes an important and useful tool for academic study. Trash is studied by behavioral scientists who use data com­piled from the exploration of dumpsters to better understand our modern society and culture. Why does the average American household send 470 pounds of uneaten food to the garbage can on an annual basis? How do different societies around the world cope with their garbage in these troubled environmental times? How does our trash give insight into our attitudes about gender, class, religion, and art? The Encyclopedia of Consumption and Waste explores the topic across multiple disciplines within the social sciences and ranges further to include business, consumerism, environmentalism, and marketing to comprise an outstanding reference for academic and public libraries.

Reconceptualising Material Culture in the Tricontinent

Author : Minu Susan Koshy,Roshin George
Publisher : Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Page : 208 pages
File Size : 42,8 Mb
Release : 2023-01-09
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781527592841

Get Book

Reconceptualising Material Culture in the Tricontinent by Minu Susan Koshy,Roshin George Pdf

This edited volume is the first to engage with material culture in the Tricontinent comprising Asia, Africa and Latin America, interrogating how objects help trace an alternate history of these locales. The potential of material culture to redefine postcolonial subjectivities is explored here through an analysis of various objects, both tangible and intangible. The book serves to subvert Eurocentric formulations of material culture and arrives at a uniquely Tricontinental model of material culture studies. The essays gathered here engage with an entire gamut of issues pertaining to the perception and significance of object-oriented ontologies from a multifaceted perspective. The book offers a glimpse into the vast field of material cultural studies through an engagement with various geopolitical locales in Asia, Africa and Latin America, thereby familiarizing the reader with the nuances of non-European material culture(s).

Ulysses Quotīdiānus

Author : Jibu George
Publisher : Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Page : 360 pages
File Size : 45,8 Mb
Release : 2016-05-11
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781443894166

Get Book

Ulysses Quotīdiānus by Jibu George Pdf

This book presents a multi-pronged inverse historical analysis of Joyce’s high-modernist magnum opus Ulysses, foregrounding the historicity of its unapologetic subject matter – the quotidian. It argues that the everyday life depicted in Ulysses espouses alternative historical trajectories neglected by traditional historiographic paradigms, which largely deal with great personages and momentous events. The sphere of ordinary life is also where lasting changes must be accomplished if transformations are to happen at all in what gets written or accepted as a posteriori ‘history.’ Across eight elaborate chapters, the book reconstructs quotidian ‘micro-histories’ surrounding work and income, material objects and practices, everyday relationships, body and health, ideologies and power, socio-psychological resources, and, in one of the many internal heterogenizations of the everyday, gender issues.

The Story of Food in the Human Past

Author : Robyn E. Cutright
Publisher : University Alabama Press
Page : 297 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2021-01-26
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780817359850

Get Book

The Story of Food in the Human Past by Robyn E. Cutright Pdf

A sweeping overview of how and what humans have eaten in their long history as a species The Story of Food in the Human Past: How What We Ate Made Us Who We Are uses case studies from recent archaeological research to tell the story of food in human prehistory. Beginning with the earliest members of our genus, Robyn E. Cutright investigates the role of food in shaping who we are as humans during the emergence of modern Homo sapiens and through major transitions in human prehistory such as the development of agriculture and the emergence of complex societies. This fascinating study begins with a discussion of how food shaped humans in evolutionary terms by examining what makes human eating unique, the use of fire to cook, and the origins of cuisine as culture and adaptation through the example of Neandertals. The second part of the book describes how cuisine was reshaped when humans domesticated plants and animals and examines how food expressed ancient social structures and identities such as gender, class, and ethnicity. Cutright shows how food took on special meaning in feasts and religious rituals and also pays attention to the daily preparation and consumption of food as central to human society. Cutright synthesizes recent paleoanthropological and archaeological research on ancient diet and cuisine and complements her research on daily diet, culinary practice, and special-purpose mortuary and celebratory meals in the Andes with comparative case studies from around the world to offer readers a holistic view of what humans ate in the past and what that reveals about who we are.

After Dark

Author : Nancy Gonlin,Meghan E Strong
Publisher : University Press of Colorado
Page : 313 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 2022-08-15
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781646422609

Get Book

After Dark by Nancy Gonlin,Meghan E Strong Pdf

After Dark explores the experience of nighttime within ancient urban settings. Contributors present material evidence related to how ancient people manipulated and confronted darkness and night in urban landscapes, advancing our knowledge of the archaeology of cities, the archaeology of darkness and night, and lychnology (the study of ancient lighting devices). Sensory archaeology focuses on the sensual experience of the nocturnal environment—the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and feel of an ancient city—and the multi-faceted stimuli that diverse urban populations experienced in the dark. Contributors investigate night work—for example, standing guard or pursuing nocturnal trades—and nightlife, such as gambling at Chaco Canyon. They also examine how urban architecture, infrastructure, and the corresponding lighting were inextricably involved in enabling nighttime pursuits and signaling social status. The subjects of the night, darkness, and illumination taken together form a comprehensive framework for analyzing city life. After Dark embraces night as a conceptual lens through which to view the material and visual cultures of the ancient world and, in doing so, demonstrates a wealth of activities, behaviors, and beliefs that took place between dusk and dawn. This perspective greatly enriches the understanding of urban life and its evolution and has much to offer archaeologists in deepening an examination of complexity and inequality. This volume will be of interest to any scholar or student of the past who is interested in urban activities and the significance of the night in urban settings. Contributors: Susan M. Alt, J. Antonio Ochatoma Cabrera, Martha Cabrera Romero, Tiffany Earley-Spadoni, Kirby Farrah, Nancy Gonlin, Anna Guengerich, Christopher Hernandez, John Janusek, Kristin V. Landau, Maggie L. Popkin, Monica L. Smith, Meghan E. Strong, Susan Toby Evans, Robert S. Weiner

Cities

Author : Monica L. Smith
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2019-04-16
Category : History
ISBN : 9780735223691

Get Book

Cities by Monica L. Smith Pdf

"A revelation of the drive and creative flux of the metropolis over time."--Nature "This is a must-read book for any city dweller with a voracious appetite for understanding the wonders of cities and why we're so attracted to them."--Zahi Hawass, author of Hidden Treasures of Ancient Egypt A sweeping history of cities through the millennia--from Mesopotamia to Manhattan--and how they have propelled Homo sapiens to dominance. Six thousand years ago, there were no cities on the planet. Today, more than half of the world's population lives in urban areas, and that number is growing. Weaving together archeology, history, and contemporary observations, Monica Smith explains the rise of the first urban developments and their connection to our own. She takes readers on a journey through the ancient world of Tell Brak in modern-day Syria; Teotihuacan and Tenochtitlan in Mexico; her own digs in India; as well as the more well-known Pompeii, Rome, and Athens. Along the way, she presents the unique properties that made cities singularly responsible for the flowering of humankind: the development of networked infrastructure, the rise of an entrepreneurial middle class, and the culture of consumption that results in everything from take-out food to the tell-tale secrets of trash. Cities is an impassioned and learned account full of fascinating details of daily life in ancient urban centers, using archaeological perspectives to show that the aspects of cities we find most irresistible (and the most annoying) have been with us since the very beginnings of urbanism itself. She also proves the rise of cities was hardly inevitable, yet it was crucial to the eventual global dominance of our species--and that cities are here to stay.

Multitasking in the Digital Age

Author : Gloria Mark
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 97 pages
File Size : 50,8 Mb
Release : 2022-05-31
Category : Computers
ISBN : 9783031022128

Get Book

Multitasking in the Digital Age by Gloria Mark Pdf

In our digital age we can communicate, access, create, and share an abundance of information effortlessly, rapidly, and nearly ubiquitously. The consequence of having so many choices is that they compete for our attention: we continually switch our attention between different types of information while doing different types of tasks--in other words, we multitask. The activity of information workers in particular is characterized by the continual switching of attention throughout the day. In this book, empirical work is presented, based on ethnographic and sensor data collection, which reveals how multitasking affects information workers' activities, mood, and stress in real work environments. Multitasking is discussed from various perspectives: activity switching, interruptions as triggers for activity switching, email as a major source of interruptions, and the converse of distractions: focused attention. All of these factors are components of information work. This book begins by defining multitasking and describing different research approaches used in studying multitasking. It then describes how multiple factors occur to encourage multitasking in the digitally-enabled workplace: the abundance and ease of accessing information, the number of different working spheres, the workplace environment, attentional state, habit, and social norms. Empirical work is presented describing the nature of multitasking, the relationship of different types of interruptions and email with overload and stress, and patterns of attention focus. The final chapter ties these factors together and discusses challenges that information workers in our digital age face.

The Oxford Handbook of Historical Ecology and Applied Archaeology

Author : Christian Isendahl,Daryl Stump
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 576 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2019-01-10
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780191653339

Get Book

The Oxford Handbook of Historical Ecology and Applied Archaeology by Christian Isendahl,Daryl Stump Pdf

The Oxford Handbook of Historical Ecology and Applied Archaeology presents theoretical discussions, methodological outlines, and case-studies describing the field of overlap between historical ecology and the emerging sub-discipline of applied archaeology to highlight how modern environments and landscapes have been shaped by humans. Historical ecology is based on the recognition that humans are not only capable of modifying their environments, but that all environments on earth have already been directly or indirectly modified. This includes anthropogenic climate change, widespread deforestations, and species extinctions, but also very local alterations, the effects of which may last a few years, or may have legacies lasting centuries or more. With contributions from anthropologists, archaeologists, human geographers, and historians, this volume focuses not just on defining human impacts in the past, but on the ways that understanding these changes can help inform contemporary practices and development policies. Some chapters present examples of how ancient or current societies have modified their environments in sustainable ways, while others highlight practices that had unintended long-term consequences. The possibilities of learning from these practices are discussed, as is the potential of using the long history of human resource exploitation as a method for building or testing models of future change. The volume offers overviews for students, researchers, and professionals with an interest in conservation or development projects who want to understand what practical insights can be drawn from history, and who seek to apply their work to contemporary issues.

The Power of Nature

Author : Monica L. Smith
Publisher : University Press of Colorado
Page : 295 pages
File Size : 55,5 Mb
Release : 2023-03-21
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781646423521

Get Book

The Power of Nature by Monica L. Smith Pdf

In The Power of Nature archaeologists address the force and impact of nature relative to human knowledge, action, and volition. Case studies from around the world focusing on different levels of sociopolitical complexity—ranging from early agricultural societies to states and empires—address the ways in which nature retains the upper hand in human agentive environmental discourse, providing an opportunity for an insightful perspective on the current anthropological emphasis on how humans affect the environment. Climatic events, pathogens, and animals as nonhuman agents, ranging in size from viruses to mega-storms, have presented our species with dynamic conditions that overwhelm human capacities. In some cases, people have modified architecture to deal with a constant onslaught of storms, as in Japan or the Caribbean; in other cases, they have welcomed the occasional natural disaster as a chance to start fresh or to put into place new ideas and practices, as in the case of ancient Roman cities. Using the concept of “agency” as one in which multiple sentient and nonhuman actors interact in a landscape, and exploring locations such as the Caribbean, the Pacific, South Asia, the Andes, the Mediterranean, Mesoamerica, North America, and the Arctic, the authors provide compelling explanations of the effect of an entire realm of natural powers that beset human societies past and present—from storms, earthquakes, and fires to vegetation, domestic animals, and wild birds. Throughout, the emphasis is on the philosophical and engineering adjustments that people make to stay resilient when facing the perpetual changes of the natural world. Using an archaeological perspective, The Power of Nature illustrates and analyzes the many ways that people do not control their environments. It will be of interest to archaeologists, as well as scholars in science, biology, botany, forestry, urban studies, and disaster management. Contributors: Steven Ammeran, Traci Ardren, Katelyn J. Bishop, Karen Mohr Chávez, Sergio Chávez, Stanislava Chávez, Emelie Cobb, Jago Cooper, Harper Dine, Chelsea Fisher, Jennifer Huebert, Dale L. Hutchinson, Sara L. Juengst, Kanika Kalra, François Oliva, Matthew C. Peros, Jordan Pickett, Seth Quintus, John Robb, Monica L. Smith, Jillian A. Swift, Silvia Tomášková, Kyungsoo Yoo

Latin American Heritage

Author : Fabiana Lopes da Cunha,Marcilene dos Santos,Jorge Rabassa
Publisher : Springer
Page : 210 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2017-07-28
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9783319584485

Get Book

Latin American Heritage by Fabiana Lopes da Cunha,Marcilene dos Santos,Jorge Rabassa Pdf

Focusing on Brazil, this book approaches the term “heritage” from not only a historical and architectural point of view, but also considers its artistic, archaeological, natural, ethnological and industrial aspects. The book is divided into four thematic sections – 1) traditions and intangible heritage, 2) archaeological heritage, 3) natural heritage and landscapes, and 4) heritage of industrial and built environments – and presents chapters on a diverse range of topics, from samba and cultural identities in Rio de Janeiro, to the history of Brazilian archaeology, the value of scenic landscapes in Brazil, and the cultural landscape of Brazil. As an outcome of the First Heritage International Symposium, this unique book explores a variety of heritage dialogues, pursuing global and specific approaches, and combining different views, perceptions and senses.