An Archaeology Of Abundance

Author : Monica L. Smith
Publisher : University Press of Colorado
Page : 271 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 2017-06-01
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781607325949

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Abundance by Monica L. Smith Pdf

Using case studies from around the globe—including Mesoamerica, North and South America, Africa, China, and the Greco-Roman world—and across multiple time periods, the authors in this volume make the case that abundance provides an essential explanatory perspective on ancient peoples’ choices and activities. Economists frequently focus on scarcity as a driving principle in the development of social and economic hierarchies, yet focusing on plenitude enables the understanding of a range of cohesive behaviors that were equally important for the development of social complexity. Our earliest human ancestors were highly mobile hunter-gatherers who sought out places that provided ample food, water, and raw materials. Over time, humans accumulated and displayed an increasing quantity and variety of goods. In households, shrines, tombs, caches, and dumps, archaeologists have discovered large masses of materials that were deliberately gathered, curated, distributed, and discarded by ancient peoples. The volume’s authors draw upon new economic theories to consider the social, ideological, and political implications of human engagement with abundant quantities of resources and physical objects and consider how individual and household engagements with material culture were conditioned by the quest for abundance. Abundance shows that the human propensity for mass consumption is not just the result of modern production capacities but fulfills a longstanding focus on plenitude as both the assurance of well-being and a buffer against uncertainty. This book will be of great interest to scholars and students in economics, anthropology, and cultural studies. Contributors: Traci Ardren, Amy Bogaard, Elizabeth Klarich, Abigail Levine, Christopher R. Moore, Tito E. Naranjo, Stacey Pierson, James M. Potter, François G. Richard, Christopher W. Schmidt, Carol Schultze, Payson Sheets, Monica L. Smith, Katheryn C. Twiss, Mark D. Varien, Justin St. P. Walsh, María Nieves Zedeño

Author : Kristina M. Gill,Mikael Fauvelle,Jon M. Earlandson
Publisher : University Press of Florida
Page : 327 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2019-01-23
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780813057002

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An Archaeology of Abundance by Kristina M. Gill,Mikael Fauvelle,Jon M. Earlandson Pdf

The islands of Alta and Baja California changed dramatically in the centuries after Spanish colonists arrived. Native populations were decimated by disease, and their lives were altered through forced assimilation and the cessation of traditional foraging practices. Overgrazing, overfishing, and the introduction of nonnative species depleted natural resources severely. Most scientists have assumed the islands were also relatively marginal for human habitation before European contact, but An Archaeology of Abundance reassesses this long-held belief, analyzing new lines of evidence suggesting that the California islands were rich in resources important to human populations. Contributors examine data from Paleocoastal to historic times that suggest the islands were optimal habitats that provided a variety of foods, fresh water, minerals, and fuels for the people living there. Botanical remains from these sites, together with the modern resurgence of plant communities after the removal of livestock, challenge theories that plant foods had to be imported for survival. Geoarchaeological surveys show that the islands had a variety of materials for making stone tools, and zooarchaeological data show that marine resources were abundant and that the translocation of plants and animals from the mainland further enhanced an already rich resource base. Studies of extensive exchange, underwater forests of edible seaweeds, and high island population densities also support the case for abundance on the islands. Concluding that the California islands were not marginal environments for early humans, the discoveries presented in this volume hold significant implications for reassessing the ancient history of islands around the world that have undergone similar ecological transformations. A volume in the series Society and Ecology in Island and Coastal Archaeology, edited by Victor D. Thompson

Author : James G. Gibb
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 278 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2012-12-06
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781461303459

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The Archaeology of Wealth by James G. Gibb Pdf

James G. Gibb offers a unique study of 17th century English North American attitudes toward the acquisition and use of wealth. He analyzes domestic sites excavated in Maryland and Virginia to interpret patterns in the construction of household identities and places these patterns within the social and cultural context of the region. His work includes a new critical approach that underscores the role of conscious individual action in history and the importance of material culture in the construction of identities.

Author : Katheryn C. Twiss
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 263 pages
File Size : 43,9 Mb
Release : 2019-11-14
Category : History
ISBN : 9781108474290

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The Archaeology of Food by Katheryn C. Twiss Pdf

Surveys the archaeology of food: its methods and its themes (economics, politics, status, identity, gender, ethnicity, ritual, religion).

Author : Neil Asher Silberman,David B. Small
Publisher : A&C Black
Page : 352 pages
File Size : 51,6 Mb
Release : 1997-03-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780567220592

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The Archaeology of Israel by Neil Asher Silberman,David B. Small Pdf

This challenging volume offers a timely and extensive overview of the current state of archaeology in Israel. Contributed by leading scholars, the essays focus on current problems and cutting-edge issues, ranging from reviews of ongoing excavations to new analytical approaches. Of interest not only to archaeologists, but to social historians as well, the topics include archaeology and social history, archaeology and ethnicity, as well as the overarching issue of how texts and archaeological knowledge are to be combined in the reconstruction of ancient Israel.

Author : Madonna L. Moss,Aubrey Cannon
Publisher : University of Alaska Press
Page : 326 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2011-11-15
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781602231474

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The Archaeology of North Pacific Fisheries by Madonna L. Moss,Aubrey Cannon Pdf

For thousands of years, fisheries were crucial to the sustenance of the First Peoples of the Pacific Coast. Yet human impact has left us with a woefully incomplete understanding of their histories prior to the industrial era. Covering Alaska, British Columbia, and Puget Sound, The Archaeology of North Pacific Fisheries illustrates how the archaeological record reveals new information about ancient ways of life and the histories of key species. Individual chapters cover salmon, as well as a number of lesser-known species abundant in archaeological sites, including pacific cod, herring, rockfish, eulachon, and hake. In turn, this ecological history informs suggestions for sustainable fishing in today’s rapidly changing environment.

Author : Terence Patrick O'Connor,Terry O'Connor (Archaeologist)
Publisher : Texas A&M University Press
Page : 220 pages
File Size : 52,5 Mb
Release : 2000
Category : Nature
ISBN : 1603440844

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The Archaeology of Animal Bones by Terence Patrick O'Connor,Terry O'Connor (Archaeologist) Pdf

The author provides a focused overview of the field, emphasizing how bones are used to study past human-animal interactions.

Author : James G Gibb
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 308 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 1996-05-31
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 146130346X

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The Archaeology of Wealth by James G Gibb Pdf

Author : Timothy A. Kohler,Michael E. Smith
Publisher : University of Arizona Press
Page : 353 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2019-02-19
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780816539444

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Ten Thousand Years of Inequality by Timothy A. Kohler,Michael E. Smith Pdf

Is wealth inequality a universal feature of human societies, or did early peoples live an egalitarian existence? How did inequality develop before the modern era? Did inequalities in wealth increase as people settled into a way of life dominated by farming and herding? Why in general do such disparities increase, and how recent are the high levels of wealth inequality now experienced in many developed nations? How can archaeologists tell? Ten Thousand Years of Inequality addresses these and other questions by presenting the first set of consistent quantitative measurements of ancient wealth inequality. The authors are archaeologists who have adapted the Gini index, a statistical measure of wealth distribution often used by economists to measure contemporary inequality, and applied it to house-size distributions over time and around the world. Clear descriptions of methods and assumptions serve as a model for other archaeologists and historians who want to document past patterns of wealth disparity. The chapters cover a variety of ancient cases, including early hunter-gatherers, farmer villages, and agrarian states and empires. The final chapter synthesizes and compares the results. Among the new and notable outcomes, the authors report a systematic difference between higher levels of inequality in ancient Old World societies and lower levels in their New World counterparts. For the first time, archaeology allows humanity’s deep past to provide an account of the early manifestations of wealth inequality around the world. Contributors Nicholas Ames Alleen Betzenhauser Amy Bogaard Samuel Bowles Meredith S. Chesson Abhijit Dandekar Timothy J. Dennehy Robert D. Drennan Laura J. Ellyson Deniz Enverova Ronald K. Faulseit Gary M. Feinman Mattia Fochesato Thomas A. Foor Vishwas D. Gogte Timothy A. Kohler Ian Kuijt Chapurukha M. Kusimba Mary-Margaret Murphy Linda M. Nicholas Rahul C. Oka Matthew Pailes Christian E. Peterson Anna Marie Prentiss Michael E. Smith Elizabeth C. Stone Amy Styring Jade Whitlam

Author : Lydia Wilson Marshall
Publisher : SIU Press
Page : 427 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 2015
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780809333974

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The Archaeology of Slavery by Lydia Wilson Marshall Pdf

Develops an interregional and cross-temporal framework for the interpretation of slavery. Essays cover the potential material representations of slavery, slave owners' strategies of coercion and enslaved people's methods of resisting this coercion, and the legacies of slavery as confronted by formerly enslaved people and their descendants.

Author : Peter Altmann,Janling Fu
Publisher : Penn State Press
Page : 317 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 2014-10-14
Category : History
ISBN : 9781575068947

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Feasting in the Archaeology and Texts of the Bible and the Ancient Near East by Peter Altmann,Janling Fu Pdf

This volume brings together the work of scholars using various methodologies to investigate the prevalence, importance, and meanings of feasting and foodways in the texts and cultural-material environments of the Hebrew Bible and the ancient Near East. Thus, it serves as both an introduction to and explication of this emerging field. The offerings range from the third-millennium Early Dynastic period in Mesopotamia to the rise of a new cuisine in the Islamic period and transverse geographical locations such as southern Iraq, Syria, the Aegean, and especially the southern Levant. The strength of this collection lies in the many disciplines and methodologies that come together. Texts, pottery, faunal studies, iconography, and anthropological theory are all accorded a place at the table in locating the importance of feasting as a symbolic, social, and political practice. Various essays showcase both new archaeological methodologies—zooarchaeological bone analysis and spatial analysis—and classical methods such as iconographic studies, ceramic chronology, cultural anthropology, and composition-critical textual analysis.

Author : Andrew M. Bauer,Peter G. Johanson
Publisher : Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Page : 380 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2011-05-25
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781443831376

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The Archaeology of Politics by Andrew M. Bauer,Peter G. Johanson Pdf

The Archaeology of Politics is a collection of essays that examines political action and practice in the past through studies and analyses of material culture from the perspective of anthropological archaeology. Contributors to this volume explore a variety of multi-scalar relationships between past peoples, places, objects and environments. At stake in this volume is what it is that constitutes politics, its social and cultural location, fields of analysis, its materiality and sociology and especially its position and possibilities as a conceptual and analytical category in archaeological investigations of past socio-cultural worlds. Our primary goals are twofold: the problematization and re-conceptualization of politics from its understanding as a reified essence or structure of political forms (e.g., a State) to a fluid, dynamic and culturally inflected set of practices; and, second, to consider politics’ entanglement with the materiality of socio-cultural worlds at multiple-scales through the demonstration of innovative analytical approaches to the material record. The volume is a tightly integrated group of essays exploring an assortment of case studies that offer new theoretical insight to archaeological and historical analyses of politics.

Author : Sue O'Connor,Peter Marius Veth,Matthew Spriggs
Publisher : ANU E Press
Page : 322 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 2007-02-01
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781921313042

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The Archaeology of the Aru Islands, Eastern Indonesia by Sue O'Connor,Peter Marius Veth,Matthew Spriggs Pdf

This volume describes the results of the first archaeological survey and excavations carried out in the fascinating and remote Aru Islands, Eastern Indonesia between 1995 and 1997. The naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, who stopped here in search of the Birds of Paradise on his voyage through the Indo-Malay Archipelago in the 1850s, was the first to draw attention to the group. The results reveal a complex and fascinating history covering the last 30,000 years from its early settlement by hunter-gatherers, the late Holocene arrival of ceramic producing agriculturalists, later associations with the Bird of Paradise trade and the colonial expansion of the Dutch trading empires. The excavations and finds from two large Pleistocene caves, Liang Lemdubu and Nabulei Lisa, are reported in detail documenting the changing environmental and cultural history of the islands from when they were connected to Greater Australia and used by hunter/gatherers to their formation as islands and use by agriculturalists. The results of the excavation of the late Neolithic - Metal Age midden at Wangil are discussed, as is the mysterious pre-Colonial fort at Ujir and the 350-year old ruins of forts and a church associated with the Dutch garrisons.

Author : Bruno David,Katherine Szabó,Matthew Leavesley,Ian J. McNiven,Jeremy Ash,Thomas Richards
Publisher : Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
Page : 370 pages
File Size : 44,5 Mb
Release : 2022-05-31
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781803270890

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The Archaeology of Tanamu 1 by Bruno David,Katherine Szabó,Matthew Leavesley,Ian J. McNiven,Jeremy Ash,Thomas Richards Pdf

Presenting results from Tanamu 1, the first site to be published in detail in the Caution Bay Studies in Archaeology series. Yielding well-provenanced and finely dated assemblages of ceramics, faunal remains, and stone and shell artefacts, these remarkable sites extend the range of the Lapita cultural complex to the south coast of Papua New Guinea.

Author : Mark D. Groover
Publisher : University Press of Florida
Page : 157 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2022-06-01
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780813072784

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The Archaeology of North American Farmsteads by Mark D. Groover Pdf

From the early colonial period to the close of World War II, life in North America was predominantly agrarian and rural. Archaeological exploration of farmsteads unveils a surprising quantity of data about rural life, consumption patterns, and migrations across the continent. Mark Groover offers both case studies and an overview of current trends in farmstead archaeology in this exciting new work. He also proposes a research design and makes numerous suggestions for evaluating (and re-evaluating) the significance of farmsteads as an archaeological resource. His chronological survey of farmstead sites throughout numerous regions of North America provides fascinating insights to students, cultural resource management professionals, or general readers interested in learning more about what material culture remains can teach us about the American past. Farmstead archaeology is a rapidly expanding component of historical archaeology. This book offers important lessons and information as more sites become victims of ever-accelerating development and urbanization.