The Past in Perspective An Introduction to Human Prehistory

Ideal for introduction to archaeology and world prehistory courses, The Past in Perspective: An Introduction to Human Prehistory , Fifth Edition, is an engaging and up-to-date chronological introduction to human prehistory. Kenneth L. Feder introduces students to "the big picture"--the grand sweep of human evolutionary history--presenting the human past within the context of fundamental themes of cultural evolution. Written in a refreshingly accessible voice, this narrative of human prehistory personalizes the past and makes it relevant to today's students. Using a consistent chapter format--Prelude, Chronicle, Issues and Debates, and Case Study Close-up--Feder helps students master both what we know and what is still being debated about the complex story of the human past. Each chapter also includes an overview; a timeline of events, maps pinpointing locations of sites discussed, site lists with page references, a chapter summary, key terms (defined in the glossary at the back of the book), and suggested reading lists. New to This Edition * Updated information about early hominin finds, including Ardipithecus (Chapter 3), Homo floresiensis (Chapter 4), Sima del Elefante Cave in Spain (Chapter 4), the reconstruction of the Neandertal genome (Chapter 5), and the spectacular array of artifacts recovered at Hohle Fels Cave in Germany (Chapter 6) * New information on methodology, such as strontium isotype analysis for tracing geographic sources (Chapter 2), molecular archaeology (Chapter 5), and forensics (Chapter 1) * New information and a summary that updates our understanding of the peopling of the Americas and Australia (Chapter 7) * New chapter (8) "After the Ice: The Food-Producing Revolution"--a combined and streamlined version of Chapters 8 and 9 of the Fourth Edition--with new information about China and the domestication of the horse, as well as the complex at Gobeckli Tepe in Turkey * New information on the Olmec and the recent excavation at Stonehenge (Chapter 9) * A reorganization and updating of Chapters 10 and 11, with significant new material on China * A greatly expanded discussion of the roots of complexity in Mesoamerica, South America, aboriginal North America, and sub-Saharan Africa (Chapters 12-14)

Kenneth L. Feder is Professor of Anthropology at Central Connecticut State University. He is the author or coauthor of several books, including Linking to the Past: A Brief Introduction to Archaeology, Second Edition (OUP, 2007); Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology (2010); and Human Antiquity: An Introduction to Physical Anthropology and Archaeology (2006).

Preface
Chapter 1: Encountering the Past
A Foreign Country
An Anthropological Perspective
An Ancient World
The Age of the Earth
A Wreck Of a World
Noah's Flood
Equable and Steady Change
Fairy Stones?
John Frere's Discovery
More Stone Tools . . . and Bones
The Slow Agency of Existing Causes
Ancient Humans Revisited
Cultures Ancient and Changing
Charles Darwin and the Antiquity of Life
An Evolutionary Philosophy
The Mutability of Species
The Origin of Species
Human Evolution
Cultures Evolving
Our Modern View
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Key Terms

Chapter 2: Probing the Past
Epistemology: How We Know What We Know
The "Science" in the Study of the Past
Paleoanthropological and Archaeological Sites
How Sites Are Formed
How Sites Are Preserved
How Sites Are Found
How Information Is Recovered
Analyzing Archaeological Data
How Artifacts Are Analyzed
How Human and Prehuman Skeletal Remains Are Analyzed
Determining the Age of a Site or Specimen
Dating Techniques Based on Radioactive Decay
Dating Techniques Based on Biology
Dating Techniques Based on Radiation Damage
Dating by Measuring Paleomagnetism
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Chapter 3: African Roots
Prelude
Chronicle
Miocene Preface
Fossil Apes of the Miocene
Why the Study of Apes Is Relevant to the Study of Humanity
What Happened to the Apes at the End of the Miocene?
The Irony of Extinction
The First Hominins
Late Miocene Hominins
The Genus Australopithecus
Australopithecus afarensis
A Fork in the Hominin Road
A Forest of Hominins
A Different Path - Homo habilis
The Ability to Make Tools
Oldowan Technology
The Fate of Homo habilis
Issues and Debates
What Were the First Steps in Hominin Evolution?
How Do We Know the Hominins Were Upright?
Is There Other Evidence for Bipedality?
Why Bipedalism?
The Upright Provider
The Upright Scavenger
The Efficient Walker
The Endurance Runner
Were the Early Hominins Hunters?
Where Did the Idea for Stone Tools Come From?
Case Study Close-up
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Chapter 4: The Human Lineage
Prelude
Chronicle
Homo erectus
The Evolutionary Position of Homo erectus
Hominins Conquer the World
East Asia
Homo erectus: Ocean Explorer?
China
Europe
The Age of Ice
The Oxygen Isotope Curve
Homo erectus: The Toolmaker
Subsistence
Issues and Debates
Is Homo erectus an Evolved Homo habilis?
Did the Pleistocene Cause the Evolution of Homo erectus?
What Enabled the Geographic Expansion of Homo erectus?
Intelligence
Control of Fire
The "Art" of Making Tools
The Mystery of the Missing Handaxes
Who Were the Hobbit Hominins?
Raising Homo erectus
When Did Homo erectus Become Extinct?
Case Study Close-up
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Chapter 5: The First Humans
Prelude
Chronicle
Premodern Humans: Fossil Evidence
Premodern Humans: Cultural Evidence
The Neanderthals
Morphological Evidence
Fossil Evidence
Neandertal Culture
Stone Tools
Subsistence
Compassion
Symbolic Expression
Burial of the Dead
Anatomically Modern Homo sapiens
An African Source
Explaining the Evolution of Us
The Replacement Model
The Multiregional Model
Issues and Debates
Replacement or Continuity?
What We Would Expect on the Basis of the Replacement Model
What We Would Expect on the Basis of the Multiregional Model
Testing the Implications of Replacement and Continuity
Replacement or Continuity?
Why Were the Neandertals Replaced?
Neandertal Nation
Could Neandertals Talk?
Did Neandertals Worship Cave Bears?
Case Study Close-up
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Chapter 6: Expanding Intellectual Horizons
Prelude
Chronicle
An Intellectual Great Leap Forward
Blade Technology
Broadening the Subsistence Base
Larger Sites of Aggregation
Branching Out in Raw Materials
Abundance of Nonutilitarian Objects
Use of Exotic Raw Materials
More Elaborate Burials
Production of Art
A Revolution of Intellect: The Meaning of Upper Paleolithic Art
The Earliest Art: Australia and Africa
Upper Paleolithic Art in Europe
Figurines
The Sound of Music
Issues and Debates
What Does the Art of the Upper Paleolithic Mean?
The Importance of Living Long: The Grandmother Effect
Case Study Close-up
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Chapter 7: Expanding Geographic Horizons
Prelude
Chronicle
The Settlement of Greater Australia
Paleogeography in the Western Pacific
The Road to Sahul
The Discovery of Greater Australia
The Earliest Occupation of Greater Australia
The Archaeology of Sahul
Willandra Lakes
The Spread Through Australia
The Australian Interior
Tasmania
Greater Australia: A Broad Range of Adaptations
East into the Pacific
Pacific Islander "Age of Exploration"
Pacific Geography
Pacific Archaeology
Coming to America
The Source of Los Indios
When Did the First Migrants Arrive?
When Was Beringia Exposed and Open for Travel?
When Was Eastern Siberia First Inhabited?
What Is the Age of the Earliest New World Sites?
The First Human Settlement of America
One If by Land
Two If by Sea
Alaska
Denali and Nenana
Settlement of the Americas
Clovis
Clovis Technology
Clovis Subsistence
First Skeletons
Issues and Debates
Why Were the Pacific Islands Settled?
Could Native Americans Really Have Come from Europe instead of Asia?
Who-or What-Killed the American and Australian Megafauna?
Case Study Close-up
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Chapter 8: After the Ice: The Food-Producing Revolution
Prelude
Chronicle
Europe
Mesolithic Subsistence Patterns
Diversity and Regionalization
Innovation in the Mesolithic
Asia
The Development of Complexity: Before Agriculture
Africa
Australia
North America
Regionalism in the New World Archaic
Koster: Emblem of the Archaic
A Diversity of Adaptations
South America
The Shift from Food Collection to Food Production
Humans Taking the Place of Nature: Artificial Selection
Archaeological Evidence of Human Control of Plant and Animal Species
Geography
Size
Seed Morphology
Osteological Changes
Population Characteristics
The Near East
Late Pleistocene Foragers in the Near East
The First Agriculturalists
Mesoamerica
The First Agriculturalists in the New World
The Shift to Domesticated Foods Among the People of The Tehuacán Valley
The Greatest Native American Contribution to Food
A Model of the Shift to a Food-Producing Way of Life in Mesoamerica
Africa
Neolithic Culture Complexes in Africa
A Chronology of Food Production
Neolithic Cultures South of the Sahara
East and Central Asia
Chronology of Food Production in China
Food Production in Southeast and Northeast Asia
Domestication in Central Asia
Europe
The Shift to Agriculture in Southeast Europe
The Shift to Agriculture in Western Europe
North America
Indigenous Domestication North of Mexico
The Appearance of Maize in the Eastern Woodlands
The American Southwest
South America
Three Regional Neolithics
Animal Domestication in South America
Cotton
Issues and Debates
How was Domestication Accomplished?
The Domestication of Wheat
From Teosinte to Maize
Beans
The Remarkably Modern Cuisine of the Ancient World
Why Agriculture?
Niche Construction
A Multitude of Reasons
Was Agriculture the "Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race?"
Implications of the Neolithic: The Roots of Social Complexity
Case Study Close-up
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Chapter 9: Roots of Complexity
Prelude
The Construction of Stonehenge
Imagining Stonehenge
Chronicle
Simplicity and Complexity
The Origins of Complexity
A Revolution in Subsistence, A Revolution in Society
From Rank Societies to Chiefdoms
Complexity's Traces in the Old World
Jericho
Çatalhöyük
Mesopotamia: Land Between the Rivers
The Roots of Complexity in Southwest Asia
Complexity's Earliest Traces in the New World
The Olmec
South America
Issues and Debates
Why Does Complexity Develop in the First Place?
Is Complexity Inevitable?
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Chapter 10: An Explosion of Complexity: The Flowering of Civilization in the Old World: Mesopotamia and Egypt
Prelude
Chronicle
The Evolution of the State
The Character of Civilization
Food Surplus
Large, Dense Populations
Social Stratification
A Formal Government
Labor Specialization
Record Keeping
Monumental Works
The Geography of Civilizations
Mesopotamia
Accelerating Change: The Ubaid
The Role of Irrigation
Power Invested in the Temple
Mesopotamia's First Cities: The Uruk Period
The Beginning of the Written Record
Egypt of the Pharaohs
The Egyptian Neolithic
Hierakonpolis
First Writing
First Pharaoh
The Flowering of Egypt
The Pyramid Age
Other African Civilizations
Issues and Debates
Why Did State Societies Develop?
Conflict Models
Integration Models
Many Paths to Civilization
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Chapter 11: An Explosion of Complexity: The Flowering of Civilization in the Old World: The Indus Valley, China, and Minoan Crete
Prelude
Chronicle
The Indus Valley Civilization
Neolithic Cultures
Flood Control and Civilization in the Indus Valley
Cultural Convergence
Cities of the Indus
The Indus Script
"A Peaceful Realm"
The Civilization of Ancient China
The Lung-shan Culture
Acceleration Toward Civilization
The Shang Civilization
Minoan Crete
The Rediscovery of Minoan Crete
Who Were the Minoans?
The Temple at Knossos
The Eruption on Thera
Issues and Debates
Why Were the Elites of State Societies So Conspicuous In Their Consumption?
Case Study Close-up
The Terracotta Army of the First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty
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Chapter 12: An Explosion of Complexity: The Flowering of Civilization in the New World: Mesoamerica
Prelude
Chronicle
The Maya
Maya Writing
Peak of the Maya
Teotihuacán
A Monumental City
Residences of Teotihuacán's Citizens
The Reach of Teotihuacán
The Aztecs
Issues and Debates
Why Did the Maya Collapse?
What Does Collapse Even Mean?
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Chapter 13: An Explosion of Complexity: The Flowering of Civilization in the New World: South America
Prelude
Chronicle
Moche
Empires: Tiwanaku
Empires: Wari
Chimu
Empires: The Inca
The Inca Military Empire
A State Without Writing?
The End of The Inca State
Issues and Debates
Why Do Civilizations?
The Role of Environment in Collapse
Collapse: A Multiplicity of Causes
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Chapter 14: An Explosion of Complexity: The Flowering of Civilization Among Rank Societies in the Old and New Worlds
Prelude
Chronicle
Complexity in Prehistoric America North of Mexico
The Development of Complexity
The Mississippian Temple Mound Builders
Cahokia
The American Southwest
Hohokam
Mogollon
Ancestral Puebloan
Northwest Coast of North America
Great Zimbabwe
The Glory of Zimbabwe
Issues and Debates
Is the State Inevitable?
What Happened to the Ancestral Puebloans?
Case Study Close-up
The Myth of the Mound Builders

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Evolutionary Epilogue
Past Perspectives, Future Directions
The Human Adaptation
From Stone Tools to Star Trek
Many Pathways
Key Terms

Glossary
References
Index