This volume focuses on the anthropological concept of trade as a fundamentally social activity concerned not only with the movement of goods, but also on the social context and consequences of that exchange. The distinguished contributors discuss trade on a range of scales--from a solitary confinement cell to trans-oceanic networks--in settings around the world and over the past 3000 years. They address themes such as exchange as a communicative act, the ways in which exchange transforms the relationship between people and things, the significance of agency and power in contexts of trade, and how sites of consumption and discard speak to processes of exchange. The volume merges traditional archaeological concerns about trade and exchange with more contemporary issues of agency, identity and social meaning.

This book is the first to describe indigenous archaeology in Latin America for an English speaking audience. Eighteen chapters primarily by Latin American scholars describe relations between indigenous peoples and archaeology in the frame of national histories and examine the emergence of the native interest in their heritage. Relationships between archaeology and native communities are ambivalent: sometimes an escalating battleground, sometimes a promising site of intercultural encounters. The global trend of indigenous empowerment today has renewed interest in history, making it a tool of cultural meaning and political legitimacy. This book deals with the topic with a raw forthrightness not often demonstrated in writings about archaeology and indigenous peoples. Rather than being 'politically correct, ' it attempts to transform rather than simply describe.

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This groundbreaking book explores the revolution in New Zealand museums that is influencing the care and exhibition of indigenous objects worldwide. Drawing on practical examples and research in all kinds of institutions, Conal McCarthy explores the history of relations between museums and indigenous peoples, innovative exhibition practices, community engagement, and curation. He lifts the lid on current practice, showing how museum professionals deal with the indigenous objects in their care, engage with tribal communities, and meet the needs of visitors. The first critical study of its kind, Museums and Maori is an indispensible resource for professionals working with indigenous objects, indigenous communities and cultural centers, and for researchers and students in museology and indigenous studies programs.

In recent years the intersections between art history and archaeology have become the focus of critical analysis by both disciplines. Contemporary sculpture has played a key role in this dialogue. The essays in this volume, by art historians, archaeologists and artists, take the intersection between sculpture and archaeology as the prelude for analysis, examining the metaphorical and conceptual role of archaeology as subject matter for sculptors, and the significance of sculpture as a three-dimensional medium for exploring historical attitudes to archaeology.

The collected essays in this volume address contemporary issues regarding the relationship between Indigenous groups and archaeologists, including the challenges of dialogue, colonialism, the difficulties of working within legislative and institutional frameworks, and NAGPRA and similar legislation. The disciplines of archaeology and cultural heritage management are international in scope and many countries continue to experience the impact of colonialism. In response to these common experiences, both archaeology and indigenous political movements involve international networks through which information quickly moves around the globe. This volume reflects these dynamic dialectics between the past and the present and between the international and the local, demonstrating that archaeology is a historical science always linked to contemporary cultural concerns.

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Commodity branding did not emerge with contemporary global capitalism. In fact, the authors of this volume show that the cultural history of branding stretches back to the beginnings of urban life in the ancient Near East and Egypt, and can be found in various permutations in places as diverse as the Bronze Age Mediterranean and Early Modern Europe. What the contributions in this volume also vividly document, both in past social contexts and recent ones as diverse as the kingdoms of Cameroon, Socialist Hungary or online eBay auctions, is the need to understand branded commodities as part of a broader continuum with techniques of gift-giving, ritual, and sacrifice. Bringing together the work of cultural anthropologists and archaeologists, this volume obliges specialists in marketing and economics to reassess the relationship between branding and capitalism, as well as adding an important new concept to the work of economic anthropologists and archaeologists.

This book explores the challenges and opportunities presented to Classical scholarship by digital practice and resources. Drawing on the expertise of a community of scholars who use innovative methods and technologies, it shows that traditionally rigorous scholarship is as central to digital research as it is to mainstream Classical Studies. The chapters in this edited collection cover many subjects, including text and data markup, data management, network analysis, pedagogical theory and the Social and Semantic Web, illustrating the range of methods that enrich the many facets of the study of the ancient world. This volume exemplifies the collaborative and interdisciplinary nature that is at the heart of Classical Studies.

A series of natural disasters in the Orient during the fourteenth century brought about the most devastating period of death and destruction in European history. The epidemic killed one-third of Europe's people over a period of three years, and the resulting social and economic upheaval was on a scale unparalleled in all of recorded history. Synthesizing the records of contemporary chroniclers and the work of later historians, Philip Ziegler offers a critically acclaimed overview of this crucial epoch in a single masterly volume. "The Black Death" vividly and comprehensively brings to light the full horror of this uniquely catastrophic event that hastened the disintegration of an age.

Erica Gibson's comprehensive guide provides a much-needed catalogue of ceramic makers' marks of British, French, German, and American origin found in North American archaeological sites. Consisting of nearly 350 marks from 112 different manufacturers from the mid-19th through early 20th century, this catalog provides full information on both the history of the mark and its variants, as well as details about the manufacturer. A set of indexes allow for searches by manufacturer, location, mark elements, and common words used. This guide will be of interest not only to historical archaeologists, but material culture specialists, collectors, museum professionals, students, art historians, and others interested in ceramics.

Erica Gibson's comprehensive guide provides a much-needed catalogue of ceramic makers' marks of British, French, German, and American origin found in North American archaeological sites. Consisting of nearly 350 marks from 112 different manufacturers from the mid-19th through early 20th century, this catalog provides full information on both the history of the mark and its variants, as well as details about the manufacturer. A set of indexes allow for searches by manufacturer, location, mark elements, and common words used. This guide will be of interest not only to historical archaeologists, but material culture specialists, collectors, museum professionals, students, art historians, and others interested in ceramics.

This unique volume aims to break down the lingering linguistic boundaries that continue to divide up the circumpolar world, to move beyond ethnographic 'thick description' to integrate the study of northern Eurasian hunting and herding societies more effectively by encouraging increased international collaboration between archaeologists, ethnographers and historians, and to open new directions for archaeological investigation of spirituality and northern landscape traditions. Authors examine the life-ways and beliefs of the indigenous peoples of northern Eurasia; chapters contribute ethnographic, ethnohistoric and archaeological case-studies stretching from Fennoscandia, through Siberia, and into Chukotka and the Russian Far East.

The Archaeology of Human Bones provides an up to date account of the analysis of human skeletal remains from archaeological sites, introducing students to the anatomy of bones and teeth and the nature of the burial record. Drawing from studies around the world, this book illustrates how the scientific study of human remains can shed light upon important archaeological and historical questions. This new edition reflects the latest developments in scientific techniques and their application to burial archaeology. Current scientific methods are explained, alongside a critical consideration of their strengths and weaknesses. The book has also been thoroughly revised to reflect changes in the ways in which scientific studies of human remains have influenced our understanding of the past, and has been updated to reflect developments in ethical debates that surround the treatment of human remains. There is now a separate chapter devoted to archaeological fieldwork on burial grounds, and the chapters on DNA and ethics have been completely rewritten. This edition of The Archaeology of Human Bones provides not only a more up to date but also a more comprehensive overview of this crucial area of archaeology. Written in a clear style with technical jargon kept to a minimum, it continues to be a key work for archaeology students.

The accumulated collections of Native American material culture in museums in Britain are vast, and of critical cultural importance. Drawing on interviews with Indigenous American visitors to UK museum displays and collections between 2017 and 2019, this Element highlights the most significant inadequacies of contemporary engagement with Native American visitors and communities, identifying fundamental problems rooted in the ethos of collection management and display. It then explores why two critical crises, one of representation and one of expertise, are together exacerbating these problems, and the damage to relationships and reputation which can result when these crises collide with Indigenous demands for greater agency in museum processes. The final section applies these lessons directly, developing an adaptable policy document, to assist museum staff in effectively and respectfully managing their relationships with Indigenous communities and collections.

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This comprehensive reader on indigenous archaeology shows that collaboration has become a key part of archaeology and heritage practice worldwide. Collaborative projects and projects directed and conducted by indigenous peoples independently have become standard, community concerns are routinely addressed, and oral histories are commonly incorporated into research. This volume begins with a substantial section on theoretical and philosophical underpinnings, then presents key articles from around the globe in sections on Oceania, North America, Mesoamerica and South America, Africa, Asia, and Europe. Editorial introductions to each piece con-textualize them in the intersection of archaeology and indigenous studies. This major collection is an ideal text for courses in indigenous studies, archaeology, heritage management, and related fields.

This Element discusses the ancient statues once set up in Byzantine Constantinople, with a special focus on their popular reception. From its foundation by Constantine the Great in 324, Constantinople housed a great number of statues which stood in the city on streets and public places, or were kept in several collections and in the Hippodrome. Almost all of them, except a number of newly made statues of reigning emperors, were ancient objects which had been brought to the city from other places. Many of these statues were later identified with persons other than those they actually represented, or received an allegorical (sometimes even an apocalyptical) interpretation. When the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade conquered the city in 1204, almost all of the statues of Constantinople were destroyed or looted.

This volume focuses on the anthropological concept of trade as a fundamentally social activity concerned not only with the movement of goods, but also on the social context and consequences of that exchange. The distinguished contributors discuss trade on a range of scales-from a solitary confinement cell to trans-oceanic networks-in settings around the world and over the past 3000 years. They address themes such as exchange as a communicative act, the ways in which exchange transforms the relationship between people and things, the significance of agency and power in contexts of trade, and how sites of consumption and discard speak to processes of exchange. The volume merges traditional archaeological concerns about trade and exchange with more contemporary issues of agency, identity and social meaning.

This volume examines landscapes that have been cleared of inhabitants--for economic, environmental, or socio-political reasons, by choice or by force--and the social impacts of clearance on their populations. Using cases from five continents, and ranging from prehistoric, through colonial and post-colonial times, the contributors show landscapes as meaningful points of contestation when populations abandon them or are exiled from them. Acts of resistance and revitalization are also explored, demonstrating the social and political meaning of specific landscapes to individuals, groups, and nations, and how they help shape cultural identity and ideology.Sponsored by the World Archaeological Congress

In a snapshot of 21st century archaeological resource management as a global enterprise, these 25 contributors show the range of activities, issues, and solutions undertaken by contemporary managers of heritage sites around the world. They show how the linkages between global archaeology and funding organizations, national policies, practices, and ideologies, and local populations and their cultural and economic interests foster complexity of the issues at all levels. Case materials from five continents introduce common themes of archaeologist relations with descendant groups, public outreach, national/local relationships, and data and site preservation. Sponsored by the World Archaeological Congress.

Popularist treatments of ancient disasters like volcanic eruptions have grossly overstated their capacity for death, destruction, and societal collapse. Contributors to this volume--from anthropology, archaeology, environmental studies, geology, and biology--show that human societies have been incredibly resilient and, in the long run, have often recovered remarkably well from wide scale disruption and significant mortality. They have often used eruptions as a trigger for environmental enrichment, cultural change, and adaptation. These historical studies are relevant to modern hazard management because they provide records for a far wider range of events and responses than have been recorded in written records, yet are often closely datable and trackable using standard archaeological and geological techniques. Contributors also show the importance of traditional knowledge systems in creating a cultural memory of dangerous locations and community responses to disaster. The global and temporal coverage of the research reported is impressive, comprising studies from North and Central America, Europe, Asia, and the Pacific, and ranging in time from the Middle Palaeolithic to the modern day.

A grand unifying theory of human flourishing and inequality, from one of the world’s pre-eminent thinkers.

In a captivating journey from the dawn of human existence to the present, world-renowned economist and thinker Oded Galor offers an intriguing solution to two of humanity’s great mysteries.

Why are humans the only species to have escaped – only very recently – the subsistence trap, allowing us to enjoy a standard of living that vastly exceeds all others? And why have we progressed so unequally around the world, resulting in the great disparities between nations that exist today? Immense in scope and packed with astounding connections, Galor’s gripping narrative explains how technology, population size, and adaptation led to a stunning “phase change” in the human story a mere two hundred years ago. But by tracing that same journey back in time and peeling away the layers of influence – colonialism, political institutions, societal structure, culture – he arrives also at an explanation of inequality’s ultimate causes: those ancestral populations that enjoyed fruitful geographical characteristics and rich diversity were set on the path to prosperity, while those that lacked it were disadvantaged in ways still echoed today.

As we face ecological crisis across the globe, The Journey of Humanity is a book of urgent truths and enduring relevance, with lessons that are both hopeful and profound: gender equality, investment in education, and balancing diversity with social cohesion are the keys not only to our species’ thriving, but to its survival.

The origin of Israel, their settlement in the land of Canaan and transformation into an organized kingdom is one of the most stimulating and controversial chapters in the history of ancient Israel. In this volume, three of the researchers who have presented key models regarding this eraaFinkelstein, Whitelam, and Kitchenaoffer their latest thinking and are critiqued by a panel of other scholars, using biblical, historical, archaeological, anthropological and comparative Near Eastern data. An important introduction to the debate over this crucial question.

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