|
Showing 1 - 4 of
4 matches in All Departments
Just over 20 years ago the publication of two books indicated the
reemergence of Darwinian ideas on the public stage. E. O. Wilson's
Sociobiology: The New Synthesis and Richard Dawkins' The Selfish
Gene, spelt out and developed the implications of ideas that had
been quietly revolutionizing biology for some time. Most
controversial of all, needless to say, was the suggestion that such
ideas had implications for human behavior in general and social
behavior in particular. Nowhere was the outcry greater than in the
field of anthropology, for anthropologists saw themselves as the
witnesses and defenders of human di versity and plasticity in the
face of what they regarded as a biological determin ism supporting
a right-wing racist and sexist political agenda. Indeed, how could
a discipline inheriting the social and cultural determinisms of
Boas, Whorf, and Durkheim do anything else? Life for those who
ventured to chal lenge this orthodoxy was not always easy. In the
mid-l990s such views are still widely held and these two strands of
anthropology have tended to go their own way, happily not talking
to one another. Nevertheless, in the intervening years Darwinian
ideas have gradually begun to encroach on the cultural landscape in
variety of ways, and topics that had not been linked together since
the mid-19th century have once again come to be seen as connected.
Modern genetics turns out to be of great sig nificance in
understanding the history of humanity.
Just over 20 years ago the publication of two books indicated the
reemergence of Darwinian ideas on the public stage. E. O. Wilson's
Sociobiology: The New Synthesis and Richard Dawkins' The Selfish
Gene, spelt out and developed the implications of ideas that had
been quietly revolutionizing biology for some time. Most
controversial of all, needless to say, was the suggestion that such
ideas had implications for human behavior in general and social
behavior in particular. Nowhere was the outcry greater than in the
field of anthropology, for anthropologists saw themselves as the
witnesses and defenders of human di versity and plasticity in the
face of what they regarded as a biological determin ism supporting
a right-wing racist and sexist political agenda. Indeed, how could
a discipline inheriting the social and cultural determinisms of
Boas, Whorf, and Durkheim do anything else? Life for those who
ventured to chal lenge this orthodoxy was not always easy. In the
mid-l990s such views are still widely held and these two strands of
anthropology have tended to go their own way, happily not talking
to one another. Nevertheless, in the intervening years Darwinian
ideas have gradually begun to encroach on the cultural landscape in
variety of ways, and topics that had not been linked together since
the mid-19th century have once again come to be seen as connected.
Modern genetics turns out to be of great sig nificance in
understanding the history of humanity."
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.
Major advances in the use of geographic information systems have
been made in both anthropology and archaeology. Yet there are few
published discussions of these new applications and their use in
solving complex problems. This book explores these techniques,
showing how they have been successfully deployed to pursue research
previously considered too difficult - or impossible - to undertake.
Among the projects described here are studies of land degradation
in the Peruvian Amazon, settlement patterns in the Pacific
northwest, ethnic distribution within the Los Angeles garment
industry, and prehistoric sociopolitical development among the
Anasazi. Following an introduction that discusses the theory of
geographic information systems in relation to anthropological
inquiry, the book is divided into sections demonstrating actual
applications in cultural anthropology, archaeology,
opaleoanthropology, and physical anthropology. The work will be of
much interest within all these communities.
|
You may like...
Loot
Nadine Gordimer
Paperback
(2)
R398
R330
Discovery Miles 3 300
Barbie
Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, …
DVD
R194
Discovery Miles 1 940
Loot
Nadine Gordimer
Paperback
(2)
R398
R330
Discovery Miles 3 300
Loot
Nadine Gordimer
Paperback
(2)
R398
R330
Discovery Miles 3 300
|