Hunter-Gatherers in History, Archaeology and Anthropology

Description

The study of hunter-gatherers has had a profound impact on thinking about human nature and about the nature of society. The subject has especially influenced ideas on social evolution and on the development of human culture. Anthropologists and archaeologists continue to investigate living hunter-gatherers and the remains of past hunter-gatherer societies in the hope of unearthing the secrets of our ancestors and learning something of the natural existence of humankind. Hunter-Gatherers in History, Archaeology and Anthropology provides a definitive overview of hunter-gatherer historiography, from the earliest anthropological writings through to the present day. What can early visions of the hunter-gatherer tell us about the societies that generated them? How do diverse national traditions, such as American, Russian and Japanese, manifest themselves in hunter-gatherer research? What is the most up-to-date thinking on the subject and how does it reflect current trends within the social sciences? This book provides a much-needed overview of the history of thought on one of science's most intriguing subjects. It will serve as a landmark text for anthropologists, archaeologists and students researching anthropological theory or the history of social anthropology and related disciplines.

Alan Barnard Professor of the Anthropology of Southern Africa, University of Edinburgh

'Throughout its history, anthropology has based its most potent prototypes of core humanity on what was known of hunting and gathering peoples. But ethnographic and archaeological studies from around the world, of ever-greater depth and sophistication, have given us the means to challenge these prototypes. It is time to take stock of these studies, to place them in the historical and regional contexts of developing traditions of anthropological research, and to consider how they have responded to wider currents of thought. The Ninth International Conference on Hunting and Gathering Societies, held in Edinburgh in 2002, was convened to do just that. In this volume Alan Barnard has assembled some of the most outstanding contributions to the conference, to provide a benchmark assessment of the past achievements and future prospects of hunter-gatherer research.' Tim Ingold, University of Aberdeen '...[T]his volume is indispensable reading for any scholar of hunter-gatherer studies.' Robert L. Kelly, Department of Anthropology, University of Wyoming