Knowledge and Power in Prehistoric Societies
Knowledge and Power in Prehistoric Societies

Author: Lynne Kelly

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2015-05-19

Total Pages: 303

ISBN-13: 1107059372

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In this book, Lynne Kelly explores the role of formal knowledge systems in small-scale oral cultures in both historic and archaeological contexts. In the first part, she examines knowledge systems within historically recorded oral cultures, showing how the link between power and the control of knowledge is established. Analyzing the material mnemonic devices used by documented oral cultures, she demonstrates how early societies maintained a vast corpus of pragmatic information concerning animal behavior, plant properties, navigation, astronomy, genealogies, laws and trade agreements, among other matters. In the second part Kelly turns to the archaeological record of three sites, Chaco Canyon, Poverty Point and Stonehenge, offering new insights into the purpose of the monuments and associated decorated objects. This book demonstrates how an understanding of rational intellect, pragmatic knowledge and mnemonic technologies in prehistoric societies offers a new tool for analysis of monumental structures built by non-literate cultures.

Style and Society in Dark Age Greece
Style and Society in Dark Age Greece

Author: James Whitley

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2003-12-04

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 9780521545853

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In this innovative study, James Whitley examines the relationship between the development of pot style and social changes in the Dark Age of Greece (1100-700 BC). He focuses on Athens where the Protogeometric and Geometric styles first appeared. He considers pot shape and painted decoration primarily in relation to the other relevant features - metal artefacts, grave architecture, funerary rites, and the age and sex of the deceased - and also takes into account different contexts in which these shapes and decorations appear. A computer analysis of grave assemblages supports his view that pot style is an integral part of the collective representations of Early Athenian society. It is a lens through which we can focus on the changing social circumstances of Dark Age Greece. Dr Whitley's approach to the study of style challenges many of the assumptions which have underpinned more traditional studies of Early Greek art.

Subsistence and Society in Prehistory
Subsistence and Society in Prehistory

Author: Alan K. Outram

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2019-10-24

Total Pages: 291

ISBN-13: 1107128773

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Explains how recent scientific advances have revolutionised our understanding of prehistoric diet, economy and society.

The Past in Prehistoric Societies
The Past in Prehistoric Societies

Author: Richard Bradley

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-03-18

Total Pages: 190

ISBN-13: 1317797140

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The idea of prehistory dates from the nineteenth century, but Richard Bradley contends that it is still a vital area for research. He argues that it is only through a combination of oral tradition and the experience of encountering ancient material culture that people were able to formulate a sense of their own pasts without written records. The Past in Prehistoric Societies presents case studies which extend from the Palaeolithic to the early Middle Ages and from the Alps to Scandinavia. It examines how archaeologists might study the origin of myths and the different ways in which prehistoric people would have inherited artefacts from the past. It also investigates the ways in which ancient remains might have been invested with new meanings long after their original significance had been forgotten. Finally, the author compares the procedures of excavation and field survey in the light of these examples. The work includes a large number of detailed case studies, is fully illustrated and has been written in an extremely accessible style.

Economy and Society in Prehistoric Europe
Economy and Society in Prehistoric Europe

Author: Sherratt A. Sherratt

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

Published: 2019-08-07

Total Pages: 448

ISBN-13: 1474472567

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This book brings together a classic collection of Andrew Sherratt's work on the economic foundations of prehistoric Europe, which have put forward important new ideas about the development of farming, pastoralism, early technology and trade. In a series of contributions that have included wide-ranging syntheses and detailed local studies, he discusses their implications for the understanding of settlement-patterns, social structures, material culture, and less tangible aspects of prehistoric life such as the spread of languages and the use of narcotics.

Prehistory
Prehistory

Author: Chris Gosden

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 153

ISBN-13: 0198803516

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Recent archaeological discoveries from China and central Asia have changed our understanding of how human civilization developed in the period of some 4 million years before the start of written history. In this new edition of his Very Short Introduction, Chris Gosden explores the current theories on the ebb and flow of human cultural variety.