What is the archaeology of the body and how can it change the way we experience the past? This book, one of the first to appear on the subject, records and evaluates the emergence of this new direction of cross-disciplinary research, and examines the potential of incorporating some of its insights into archaeology. It will be of interest to students, researchers, and teachers in archaeology, as well as in cognate disciplines such as anthropology and history.

What is the archaeology of the body and how can it change the way we experience the past? This book, one of the first to appear on the subject, records and evaluates the emergence of this new direction of cross-disciplinary research, and examines the potential of incorporating some of its insights into archaeology. It will be of interest to students, researchers, and teachers in archaeology, as well as in cognate disciplines such as anthropology and history.

The concept of social evolution in its modern form became widespread 250 years ago as part of the Enlightenment, and yet it still structures the thinking of academics, politicians, and the public in a myriad ways. Hunter-gatherers become the repository of the natural or primitive; civilization and "our" history is deemed to begin with farmingsocieties; and state societies are seen as the only gateway to social complexity.Through a historical and comparative review, this book challenges the idea that social evolution and the inevitability of progress is self-evident. It examines the connections of progressive social evolution with various ideologies and projects, from emancipation to racism, colonialism, and imperialism and contemporary ideas of the new world order. Mark Pluciennik suggests that taking a critical stance allows other ways ofthinking about and writing history to come into better focus. This enables us to ask different kinds of questions about the nature of change in human societies, and to treat social evolution in a more nuanced way.

The idea that archaeologists are representatives or stewards' of the archaeological record does not do justice to the complex practical decisions archaeologists often have to make, and the political and moral dilemmas they face everyday. This collection of papers seeks to move beyond the 2 big issues which tend to dominate any discussion of ethics in archaeology (namely indigenous issues' and artefacts in the art market') to reveal the complexities of ordinary archaeological practice. These papers attempt to articulate the problems that archaeologists deal with as they negotiate the plurality of interests of people from the past, the present and the future to whom they may consider they have a duty or responsibility.