This comprehensive and scientific introduction to physical& anthropology& and archaeology is the only book to give& balanced treatment to both biological and cultural evolution and the interaction between them to help students understand what & humans are and were like and why they got to be that way.
Addressing a field that has been dominated by astronomers, physicists, engineers, and computer scientists, the contributors to this collection raise questions that may have been overlooked by physical scientists about the ease of establishing meaningful communication with an extraterrestrial intelligence. These scholars are grappling with some of the enormous challenges that will face humanity if an information-rich signal emanating from another world is detected. By drawing on issues at the core of contemporary archaeology and anthropology, we can be much better prepared for contact with an extraterrestrial civilization, should that day ever come.
In this work Tim Ingold offers a persuasive new approach to understanding how human beings perceive their surroundings. He argues that what we are used to calling cultural variation consists, in the first place, of variations in skill. Neither innate nor acquired, skills are grown, incorporated into the human organism through practice and training in an environment. They are thus as much biological as cultural. To account for the generation of skills we have therefore to understand the dynamics of development. And this in turn calls for an ecological approach that situates practitioners in the context of an active engagement with the constituents of their surroundings. The twenty-three essays comprising this book focus in turn on the procurement of livelihood, on what it means to ‘dwell’, and on the nature of skill, weaving together approaches from social anthropology, ecological psychology, developmental biology and phenomenology in a way that has never been attempted before. The book is set to revolutionise the way we think about what is ‘biological’ and ‘cultural’ in humans, about evolution and history, and indeed about what it means for human beings – at once organisms and persons – to inhabit an environment. The Perception of the Environment will be essential reading not only for anthropologists but also for biologists, psychologists, archaeologists, geographers and philosophers. This edition includes a new Preface by the author.
Covers the latest competing theories in the field Get a handle on the fundamentals of biological and cultural anthropology When did the first civilizations arise? How many human languages exist? The answers are found in anthropology - and this friendly guide explains its concepts in clear detail. You'll see how anthropology developed as a science, what it tells us about our ancestors, and how it can help with some of the hot-button issues our world is facing today. Discover: How anthropologists learn about the past Humanity's earliest activities, from migration to civilization Why our language differs from other animal communication How to find a career in anthropology
Many anthropologists and even some archeologists have asked, "Why excavate skeletons? What information can we gain to merit the disturbance of human interments?" Human Skeletal Remains answers such questions. Douglas H. Ubelaker demonstrates the range of data and interpretations potentially obtainable from human skeletal remains and shows how this information can contribute to the solution of various anthropological problems. It also describes and evaluates basic techniques of skeletal excavation and analysis. Human Skeletal Remains is divided into two sections. The first section reviews the techniques and information needed for excavating and describing skeletal remains and for achieving reliable estimates of stature, sex, and age at death. These chapters should improve the capacity of non-specialists to undertake skeletal excavation and preliminary analysis. The second section discusses additional kinds of information that can be gleaned from suitable samples by experienced skeletal biologists. The information in Human Skeletal Remains is a broad-scale overview and many aspects have been treated in greater detail by others elsewhere. References are provided in the text for the convenience of those interested in more information on specific topics. Technical terminology has been avoided where possible, but accurate recording and description cannot be accomplished without employing the names of individual bones and other skeletal landmarks. Terms most commonly needed for description are included in a glossary. While it is somewhat modest in its intentions, this analysis provides a clarity that extensive tomes cannot supply.