Hunter-Gatherers
Hunter-Gatherers

Author: Robert L. Bettinger

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2015-06-30

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 1489975810

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Hunter-gatherer research has played a historically central role in the development of anthropological and evolutionary theory. Today, research in this traditional and enduringly vital field blurs lines of distinction between archaeology and ethnology, and seeks instead to develop perspectives and theories broadly applicable to anthropology and its many sub disciplines. In the groundbreaking first edition of Hunter-Gatherers: Archaeological and Evolutionary Theory (1991), Robert Bettinger presented an integrative perspective on hunter-gatherer research and advanced a theoretical approach compatible with both traditional anthropological and contemporary evolutionary theories. Hunter-Gatherers remains a well-respected and much-cited text, now over 20 years since initial publication. Yet, as in other vibrant fields of study, the last two decades have seen important empirical and theoretical advances. In this second edition of Hunter-Gatherers, co-authors Robert Bettinger, Raven Garvey, and Shannon Tushingham offer a revised and expanded version of the classic text, which includes a succinct and provocative critical synthesis of hunter-gatherer and evolutionary theory, from the Enlightenment to the present. New and expanded sections relate and react to recent developments—some of them the authors’ own—particularly in the realms of optimal foraging and cultural transmission theories. An exceptionally informative and ambitious volume on cultural evolutionary theory, Hunter-Gatherers, second edition, is an essential addition to the libraries of anthropologists, archaeologists, and human ecologists alike.

Policy Implications of Recent Advances in Evolutionary and Institutional Economics
Policy Implications of Recent Advances in Evolutionary and Institutional Economics

Author: Claudius Grabner

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-05-12

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 1317500458

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This collection is inspired by the coming retirement of Professor Wolfram Elsner. It presents cutting-edge economic research relevant to economic policies and policy-making, placing a strong focus on innovative perspectives. In a changing world that has been shaken by economic, social, financial, and ecological crises, it becomes increasingly clear that new approaches to economics are needed for both theoretical and empirical research; for applied economics as well as policy advice. At this point, it seems necessary to develop new methods, to reconsider theoretical foundations and especially to take into account the theoretical alternatives that have been advocated within the field of economics for many years. This collection seeks to accomplish this by including institutionalist, evolutionary, complexity, and other innovative perspectives. It thereby creates a unique selection of methodological and empirical approaches ranging from game theory to economic dynamics to empirical and historical-theoretical analyses. The interested reader will find careful reconsiderations of the historical development of institutional and evolutionary theories, enlightening theoretical contributions, interdisciplinary ideas, as well as insightful applications. The collection serves to highlight the common ground and the synergies between the various approaches and thereby to contribute to an emerging coherent framework of alternative theories in economics. This book is of interest to those who study political economy, economic theory and philosophy, as well as economic policy.