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Past in Perspective : An Introduction to Human Prehistory

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ISBN-10: 0072549386

ISBN-13: 9780072549386

Edition: 3rd 2004 (Revised)

Authors: Kenneth L. Feder

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Book details

Edition: 3rd
Copyright year: 2004
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Higher Education
Publication date: 7/28/2003
Binding: Perfect 
Pages: 616
Size: 7.25" wide x 9.00" long x 1.00" tall
Weight: 2.134
Language: English

Feder obtained his B.A. in anthropology in 1973 from the State University of New York at Stonybrook. He obtained his M.A. in anthropology in 1975 from the University of Connecticut and his Ph.D. from the same institution in 1982. He has taught in the Department of Anthropology at Central Connecticut State University since 1977 where he is now a full professor. His primary research interests include the archaeology of the native peoples of New England and the analysis of public perceptions about the human past. He is the founder and director of the Farmington River Archaeological Project, a long-term investigation of the prehistory of the Farmington River Valley. He is the author and…    

Preface
Prologue to the Past
An Archaeological Genealogy
An Anthropological Perspective
Our Human Genealogy
Perceiving the Past: An Intellectual History
An Evolutionary Philosophy
An Ancient World?
A Wreck of a World
Equable and Steady Change
Ancient Humans?
The Slow Agency of Existing Causes
Ancient Humans Revisited
Charles Darwin and the Antiquity of Life
The Origin of Species
Cultures Evolving
Our Modern View
Probing the Past
Epistemology: How We Know What We Know
Paleoanthropological and Archaeological Sites
Analyzing Archaeological Data
Determining the Age of a Site or Specimen
African Roots
Prelude
Chronicle
Miocene Preface
The First Hominids
A Fork in the Hominid Road
A Forest of Hominids
A Different Path--Homo habilis
Issues and Debates
What Were the First Steps in Hominid Evolution?
What Caused the Proliferation of Hominid Species?
How Do We Know the Hominids Were Upright?
Is There Other Evidence for Bipedality?
Why Bipedalism?
What Do We Know About the Early Hominid Brain?
Were the Early Hominids Hunters?
Single or Multiple Species?
Rates of Change in Evolution
Case Study Close-Up
Visiting the Past
The Human Lineage
Prelude
Chronicle
Homo erectus
Hominids Conquer the World
The Age of Ice
Homo erectus: The Toolmaker
Subsistence
Issues and Debates
Did the Pleistocene Cause the Evolution of Homo erectus?
What Enabled the Geographic Expansion of Homo erectus?
The "Art" of Making Tools
Raising Homo erectus
When Did Homo erectus Become Extinct?
Stability or Change?
Case Study Close-Up
Visiting the Past
Our Immediate Ancestors: The Premodern Humans
Prelude
Chronicle
Premodern Humans: Fossil Evidence
Premodern Humans: Cultural Evidence
The Neandertals
Neandertal Culture
Issues and Debates
Why Are the Neandertals Extinct?
Could Neandertals Talk?
Did Neandertals Worship Cave Bears?
Did Neandertals Produce Art and Make Music?
Were Neandertal Babies Less Atricial Than Modern Babies?
Case Study Close-Up
Visiting the Past
The Evolution of Us: The Origins of Modern Humans
Prelude
Mitochondrial DNA and Molecular Archaeology
Resurrecting Extinct Species
Molecular Archaeology and the Evolution of Human Beings
Chronicle
The Population Replacement Model
The Multiregional Model
A Middle Ground: Genetic Replacement
Issues and Debates
Replacement or Continuity?
How Can Modern Human Genetics Inform Us about the Ancient Origins of Humanity?
Which Evidence Is Better: Genes or Bones?
Case Study Close-Up
Visiting the Past
Expanding Intellectual Horizons: Art and Ideas in the Upper Paleolithic
Prelude
Chronicle
The Upper Paleolithic Great Leap Forward
The Meaning of Upper Paleolithic Art
Issues and Debates
Why Is There No Correlation Between Anatomical and Behavioral Modernity?
What Does the Art of the Upper Paleolithic Mean?
Does the Paleolithic Have a Gender?
Case Study Close-Up
Visiting the Past
Expanding Geographical Horizons: New Worlds
Prelude
Chronicle
The Settlement of Greater Australia
The Earliest Occupation of Greater Australia
The Spread Through Australia
Tasmania
Greater Australia: A Broad Range of Adaptations
Coming to America
The Source of Los Indios
When Did the First Migrants Arrive?
The First Human Settlement of America
Alaska
Clovis
Into the Pacilssues and Debates
Who Were the First Americans and When Did They Get Here?
Who Is Kennewick Man and What Does He Have to Do with the Settling of the Americas?
What--or Who--Killed the American Megafauna?
Case Study Close-Up
Visiting the Past
After the Ice: Cultural Change in the Post-Pleistocene
Prelude
Chronicle
Europe
North America
Asia
Australia
South America
Africa
Issues and Debates
Was the Mesolithic Only a "Prelude"?
Case Study Close-Up
Visiting the Past
The Neolithic: Roots of a Revolution in Subsistence and Society
Prelude
Chronicle
Humans Taking the Place of Nature: Artilssues and Debates
How Was Domestication Accomplished?
The Remarkably Modern Cuisine of the Ancient World
Neolithic Nutrition
Was Agriculture the "Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race"?
Implications of the Neolithic: The Roots of Social Complexity
Case Study Close-Up
Visiting the Past
The Roots of Complexity
Prelude
The Construction of Stonehenge
Imagining Stonehenge
Chronicle
Simplicity and Complexity
A Revolution in Subsistence, a Revolution in Society
Complexity's Earliest Traces in the Old World
Complexity's Earliest Traces in the New World
Issues and Debates
Is Complexity Inevitable?
Is Complexity Restricted to Food Producers?
Case Study Close-Up
Visiting the Past
An Explosion of Complexity: The Flowering of Civilization in the Old World
Prelude
Chronicle
The Evolution of the State
The Character of Civilization
The Geography of Civilizations
Mesopotamia
Egypt of the Pharaohs
Other African Civilizations
The Indus Valley Civilization
The Civilization of Ancient China
Minoan Crete
Issues and Debates
Why Did State Societies Develop?
Case Study Close-Up
The Khmer Kingdom
Visiting the Past
An Explosion of Complexity: Ranked Societies in the Old and New Worlds
Prelude
Cahokia
Chronicle
Complexity in Prehistoric America North of Mexico
The Mound Builders of North America: Earliest Manifestations
Great Zimbabwe
Issues and Debates
Is the State Inevitable?
The Myth of the Mound Builders
Case Study Close-Up
Visiting the Past
An Explosion of Complexity: The Flowering of Civilization in the New World
Prelude
Chronicle
Mesoamerica
South America
Issues and Debates
Why Do Civilizations Collapse?
Case Study Close-Up
Visiting the Past
Evolutionary Epilogue
Past Perspectives, Future Directions
Glossary
References
Index
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