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This comprehensive and absorbing book traces the cultural history
of Southeast Asia from prehistoric (especially Neolithic,
Bronze-Iron age) times through to the major Hindu and Buddhist
civilizations, to around AD 1300. Southeast Asia has recently
attracted archaeological attention as the locus for the first
recorded sea crossings; as the region of origin for the
Austronesian population dispersal across the Pacific from Neolithic
times; as an arena for the development of archaeologically-rich
Neolithic, and metal using communities, especially in Thailand and
Vietnam, and as the backdrop for several unique and strikingly
monumental Indic civilizations, such as the Khmer civilization
centred around Angkor. Southeast Asia is invaluable to anyone
interested in the full history of the region.
The epic story of human evolution, from our primate beginnings more
than five million years ago to the agricultural era Over the course
of five million years, our primate ancestors evolved from a modest
population of sub-Saharan apes into the globally dominant species
Homo sapiens. Along the way, humans became incredibly diverse in
appearance, language, and culture. How did all of this happen? In
The Five-Million-Year Odyssey, Peter Bellwood synthesizes research
from archaeology, biology, anthropology, and linguistics to immerse
us in the saga of human evolution, from the earliest traces of our
hominin forebears in Africa, through waves of human expansion
across the continents, and to the rise of agriculture and explosive
demographic growth around the world. Bellwood presents our modern
diversity as a product of both evolution, which led to the
emergence of the genus Homo approximately 2.5 million years ago,
and migration, which carried humans into new environments. He
introduces us to the ancient hominins-including the
australopithecines, Homo erectus, the Neanderthals, and
others-before turning to the appearance of Homo sapiens circa
300,000 years ago and subsequent human movement into Eurasia,
Australia, and the Americas. Bellwood then explores the invention
of agriculture, which enabled farmers to disperse to new
territories over the last 10,000 years, facilitating the spread of
language families and cultural practices. The outcome is now
apparent in our vast array of contemporary ethnicities, linguistic
systems, and customs. The fascinating origin story of our varied
human existence, The Five-Million-Year Odyssey underscores the
importance of recognizing our shared genetic heritage to appreciate
what makes us so diverse.
This comprehensive and absorbing book traces the cultural history of Southeast Asia from prehistoric (especially Neolithic, Bronze-Iron age) times through to the major Hindu and Buddhist civilisations, to around AD 1300. Southeast Asia has recently attracted archaeological attention as the locus for the first recorded sea crossings; as the region of origin for the Austronesian population dispersal across the Pacific from Neolithic times; as an arena for the development of archaeologically rich Neolithic, and metal using communities, especially in Thailand and Vietnam, and as the backdrop for several unique and strikingly monumental Indic civilisations, such as the Khmer civilisation centred around Angkor. Invaluable to anyone interested in the full history of the region.
Linguistic diversity is one of the most puzzling and challenging
features of humankind. Why are there some six thousand different
languages spoken in the world today? Why are some, like Chinese or
English, spoken by millions over vast territories, while others are
restricted to just a few thousand speakers in a limited area? The
farming/language dispersal hypothesis makes the radical and
controversial proposal that the present-day distributions of many
of the world's languages and language families can be traced back
to the early developments and dispersals of farming from the
several nuclear areas where animal and plant domestication emerged.
For instance, the Indo-European and Austronesian language families
may owe their current vast distributions to the spread of food
plants and of farmers (speaking the relevant proto-language)
following the Neolithic revolutions which took place in the Near
East and in Eastern Asia respectively, thousands of years ago. In
this challenging book, international experts in historical
linguistics, prehistoric archaeology, molecular genetics and human
ecology bring their specialisms to bear upon this intractable
problem, using a range of interdisciplinary approaches. There are
signs that a new synthesis between these fields may now be
emerging. This path-breaking volume opens new perspectives and
indicates some of the directions which future research is likely to
follow.
This handbook gathers original, authoritative articles from leading
archaeologists to compile the latest thinking about archaeological
theory. The authors provide a comprehensive picture of the
theoretical foundations by which archaeologists contextualize and
analyze their archaeological data. Student readers will also gain a
sense of the immense power that theory has for building
interpretations of the past, while recognizing the wonderful
archaeological traditions that created it. An extensive
bibliography is included. This volume is the single most important
reference for current information on contemporary archaeological
theories.
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