Genes, Memes, and Human History: Darwinian Archaeology and Cultural Evolution

Genes, Memes, and Human History: Darwinian Archaeology and Cultural Evolution

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As biological information is passed through genes, so cultural information is passed through what Richard Dawkins has termed memes'. In this theoretical but readable study, Shennan explores the potential for a neo-Darwinian evolutionary approach to some of the major concerns and issues within archaeology in recent times. Drawing on the work of Richard Dawkins as a stimulus, Shennan reviews the concept of memes as applied to animal behaviour and critiques their role in relation to human populations. Arguing that archaeologists are currently struggling with a lost past, this study reinforces what should be the prime concern of archaeology - to search for valid knowledge and to seek to make sense of long-term patterning and material culture. Shennan puts forward a framework to this end and applies it to looking at how humans exploit resources, population histories, the transmission of cultural traditions, male-female relationships and social evolution, competition and warfare.

 

The Human Career: Human Biological and Cultural Origins, Third Edition

The Human Career: Human Biological and Cultural Origins, Third Edition

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It is a long time since I have been as enthusiastic about a book on human evolution as I am about Richard Klein's The Human Career.--Leslie Aiello, Times Higher Education Supplement[This book] will set a standard by which future books, setting out the course of human evolution, may measure their success.--Bobby Joe Williams, Quarterly Review of BiologyThe best introduction to the problems and data of modern palaeoanthropology yet published.--Penny Dransart, Antiquity

 

The Architecture of Hunting: The Built Environment of Hunter-Gatherers and Its Impact on Mobility, Property, Leadership, a...

The Architecture of Hunting: The Built Environment of Hunter-Gatherers and Its Impact on Mobility, Property, Leadership, a...

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As one of the most significant economic innovations in prehistory, hunting architecture radically altered life and society for hunter-gatherers. The development of these structures indicates that foragers designed their environments, had a deep knowledge of animal behavior, and interacted with each other in complex ways that reach beyond previous assumptions.Combining underwater archaeology, terrestrial archaeology, and ethnographic and historical research, The Architecture of Hunting investigates the creation and use of hunting architecture by hunter-gatherers. Hunting architecture—including blinds, drive lanes, and fishing weirs—is a global phenomenon found across a broad spectrum of cultures, time, geography, and environments. Relying on similar behaviors in species such as caribou, bison, guanacos, antelope, and gazelles, cultures as diverse as Sami reindeer herders, the Inka, and ancient bison hunters on the North American plains have employed such structures, combined with strategically situated landforms, to ensure adequate food supplies while maintaining a nomadic way of life.Using examples of hunting architecture from across the globe and how they influence forager mobility, territoriality, property, leadership, and labor aggregation, Ashley Lemke explores this architecture as a form of human niche construction and considers the myriad ways such built structures affect hunter-gatherer lifeways. Bringing together diverse sources under the single category of “hunting architecture,” The Architecture of Hunting serves as the new standard guide for anyone interested in hunter-gatherers and their built environment.

 

Dental Functional Morphology: How Teeth Work

Dental Functional Morphology: How Teeth Work

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This book offers an innovative alternative to the assumption that teeth merely crush, cut, shear or grind food, and demonstrates how teeth adapt to diet. Peter Lucas reveals how tooth form from the earliest mammals to humans can be understood using basic considerations about how different foods fracture. He outlines his theory step-by-step, providing an allometric analysis explaining the factors governing tooth shape and size. An easy-to-use appendix also provides basic mechanics, and methods of measurement. This volume will be essential reading for physical anthropologists and dental and food scientists.

 

Animal Locomotion

Animal Locomotion

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Animals have evolved remarkable biomechanical and physiological systems that enable their rich repertoire of motion. Animal Locomotion offers a fundamental understanding of animal movement through a broad comparative and integrative approach, including basic mathematics and physics, examination of new and enduring literature, consideration of classic and cutting-edge methods, and a strong emphasis on the core concepts that consistently ground the dizzying array of animal movements. Across scales and environments, this book integrates the biomechanics of animal movement with thephysiology of animal energetics and the neural control of locomotion. This second edition has been thoroughly revised, incorporating new content on non-vertebrate animal locomotor systems, studies of animal locomotion that have inspired robotic designs, and a new chapter on the use of evolutionaryapproaches to locomotor mechanisms and performance.

 

Sex, Size and Gender Roles: Evolutionary Studies of Sexual Size Dimorphism

Sex, Size and Gender Roles: Evolutionary Studies of Sexual Size Dimorphism

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Why do males and females frequently differ so markedly in body size and morphology? Sex, Size, and Gender Roles is the first book to investigate the genetic, developmental, and physiological basis of sexual size dimorphism found within and among the major taxonomic groups of animals. Carefully edited by a team of world-renowned specialists in the field to ensure a coherence of style and approach between chapters, it presents a compendium of studies into the evolution, adaptive significance, and developmental basis of gender differences in body size and morphology. Adaptive hypotheses allude to gender-specific reproductive roles and associated differences in trophic ecologies, life history strategies, and sexual selection. This adaptationist approach is balanced by more mechanistic studies of the genetic, developmental and physiological basis of sexual size dimorphism to provide a comprehensive and authoritative overview of the subject. Throughout the volume the emphasis is on sexual dimorphism in overall size however, the scope of enquiry encompasses gender differences in body shape, the size and structure of secondary sexual characteristics, patterns of growth (ontogeny), and patterns of gene regulation. This advanced, research level text is suitable for graduate level students and researchers in the fields of evolutionary biology, behavioral ecology, physiology, developmental biology, and genetics. It will also be of relevance and use to non-biologists from fields such as anthropology and gender studies.

 

Raramuri Souls: Knowledge and Social Process in Northern Mexico (Smithsonian Series in Ethnographic Inquiry)

Raramuri Souls: Knowledge and Social Process in Northern Mexico (Smithsonian Series in Ethnographic Inquiry)

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In his sensitive portrayal of the Raramuri (or Tarahumara) Indians, Merrill examines the ways in which a society, lacking formal educational institutions, produces and transmits its basic knowledge about the world.