Hunter-gatherers : archaeological and evolutionary theory
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Hunter-gatherers : archaeological and evolutionary theory
(Interdisciplinary contributions to archaeology)
Plenum Press, c1991
Available at 23 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Includes bibliography(p. 225-242) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Hunter-gatherers are the quintessential anthropological topic. They constitute the subject matter that, in the last instance, separates anthropology from its sister social science disciplines: psychology, sociology, economics, and political science. In that central position, hunter-gatherers are the acid test to which any reasonably comprehensive anthropological theory must be applied. Several such theories-some narrow, some broad-are examined in light of the hunter- gatherer case in this book. My purpose, then, is that of a review of ideas rather than of a literature. I do not-probably could not-survey all that has been written about hunter-gatherers: Many more works are ignored than considered. That is not because the ones ignored are uninteresting, but because it is my broader purpose to concentrate on certain theoretical contributions to anthro- pology in which hunter-gatherers figure most prominently. The book begins with two chapters that deal with the history of anthro- pological research and theory in relation to hunter-gatherers. The point is not to present a comprehensive or even-handed accounting of developments.
Rather, I sketch a history of selected ideas that have determined the manner in which social scientists have viewed, and thus studied, hunter-gatherers. This lays the groundwork for subjects subsequently addressed and establishes two funda- mental points. First, the social sciences have always portrayed hunter-gatherers in ways that serve their theories; in short, hunter-gatherer research has always been a theoretical enterprise. Second, these theoretical treatments have gener- ally been either evolutionary or materialist-or both-in perspective.
Table of Contents
1 * Progressive Social Evolution and Hunter-Gatherers.- 2 * The History of Americanist Hunter-Gatherer Research.- 3 * Middle-Range Theory and Hunter-Gatherers.- 4 * Hunter-Gatherers as Optimal Foragers.- 5 * More Complex Models of Optimal Behavior among Hunter-Gatherers.- 6 * Marxist and Structural Marxist Perspectives of Hunter-Gatherers.- 7 * Neo-Darwinian Theory and Hunter-Gatherers.- 8 * Hunter-Gatherers and Neo-Darwinian Cultural Transmission.- 9 * Hunter-Gatherers: Problems in Theory.- References.
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