Patterns in Prehistory

出版者:Oxford University Press

作者:Robert F. Wenke

页数:640

出版时间:2006-8-2

价格:USD 94.95

装帧:Paperback

isbn号码:9780195169287

具体描述

Patterns in Prehistory, Fifth Edition, is a comprehensive and engaging survey of humanity's past three million years. It brings together theories and archaeological examples to pose questions about who we are and the means by which humanity evolved into what it is today.

Ideal for introductory courses in world prehistory and origins of complex societies, Patterns in Prehistory, Fifth Edition, offers a unified and thematic approach to the four great transformations--or patterns--that characterize humanity's past: the origins and evolution of culture; the origins of modern humans and human behaviors; the origins of agriculture; and the origins of complex societies, civilizations, and pre-industrial states. Integrating theoretical approaches with archaeological data from the Middle East, Mesoamerica, North and South America, Egypt, China, the Indus Valley, and temperate Europe, Patterns in Prehistory, Fifth Edition, reveals how archaeologists decipher the past. It demonstrates how theory and method are combined to derive interpretations and also considers how interpretations evolve as a result of accumulating data, technological advances in recording and analyzing data sets, and newer theoretical perspectives.

This new edition of Patterns in Prehistory provides:

* Fresh insights with the addition of coauthor Deborah Olszewski, who has carefully reviewed and revamped the material with an eye toward making the text clearly understandable to today's students

* Updated discussions throughout, including expanded information on post-processual archaeology, current methodologies, and technological advances

* Approximately 250 illustrations and maps, more than half of which are new to this edition

* Groundbreaking research on new discoveries of hominin fossils, genetic research, prehistoric migrations, the peopling of the Americas, and theories of the origins of agriculture and the origins of complex societies

* Timelines for all relevant chapters as well as an overarching timeline for the entire book to help students place events in context

* Extensively updated chapter bibliographies and chapter endnotes

作者简介

Robert J. Wenke is at University of Washington. Deborah I. Olszewski is at University of Pennsylvania.

目录信息

Contents
Preface xii
Chapter 1: Prehistory, History, and Archaeology 1
What Are Archaeologists Looking For? (The Meaning of the Past) 2
Archaeology as the Reconstruction of Extinct Cultures and Their Histories 5
Archaeology as a Body of Theories and Methods for Explaining the Past 11
A Short History of Attempts to Understand the Past 12
Summary and Conclusions 32
Chapter 2: Fundamentals of Archaeology 41
Archaeologists and the Practice of Archaeology 41
The Basic Data of the Past 43
Analyses of the Past 57
Dating the Past 65
Summary and Conclusions 72
Chapter 3: The Origins of Culture 83
The Problem of Cultural Origins 83
The Nature of Culture 84
The Ecological Context of Cultural Origins 97
Models of Cultural Origins 115
Summary and Conclusions 122
Chapter 4: The Origins of Homo sapiens sapiens 132
Human Evolution and Radiation: 1.8? million to Circa 300,000 Years Ago 133
Homo sapiens: Models of Origins 145
The Middle to Upper Paleolithic Period 157
Human Colonization of the World: Circa 30,000 –10,000 Years Ago 172
Summary and Conclusions 179
Chapter 5: The First Americans 194
Routes for the Initial Colonization of the Americas 196
Evidence for the First Americans 207
Early Paleoindian Economies 217
Summary and Conclusions 222
Chapter 6: The Origins of Agriculture 228
Agriculture, Domestication, and Sedentary Communities 231
Hypotheses About the Origins of Domestication, Agriculture, and Sedentary Communities 235
Early Domestication and Agriculture: The Post-Paleolithic Background 243
The Origins of Domestication, Agriculture, and Sedentary Communities in Southwest Asia 246
Other Old World Domesticates 260
Agricultural Origins in the New World 262
Summary and Conclusions 269
Chapter 7: The Evolution of Complex Societies 279
Social Complexity and Human Values 284
Traditional Sociocultural Typologies 286
Contemporary Approaches to Sociocultural Typology 290
The Archaeology of Complex Societies 292
Explaining the Evolution of Civilizations: The Search for Causes 298
Summary and Conclusions 316
Chapter 8: Origins of Complex Societies in Southwest Asia 324
The Ecological Setting 325
Fundamentals of the Southwest Asian Archaeological Record 328
The Neolithic Origins of Southwest Asian Civilization 329
Initial Cultural Complexity 334
Early States: The Uruk and Jemdet Nasr Periods 341
The Early Dynastic Period 349
Southwest Asia After 2350 B.C. 356
Summary and Conclusions 358
Chapter 9: The Origins of Complex Societies in Egypt 368
The Ecological Setting 370
Early Egyptian Agriculture 373
The Predynastic Period 375
The Archaic, Old Kingdom, and First Intermediate Periods 377
The Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Periods 384
The New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Periods 385
Ancient Egyptian Art and Thought 389
Egyptian Writing and Literature 391
Who Were the Ancient Egyptians? 395
Summary and Conclusions 396
Chapter 10: The Evolution of Complex Societies in the Indus Valley 405
The Ecological Setting 407
The Neolithic Background to South Asian Cultural Complexity 409
The Neolithic–Urban Transition 411
Early Harappan Culture 412
Mature Harappan Civilization 415
The Decline of Harappan Civilization 422
Summary and Conclusions 424
Chapter 11: The Evolution of Complex Societies in China 432
The Ecological Setting 434
Early Farmers 435
Regional Neolithic Developments in North China 437
Early Complex Chinese Societies 440
Erh-li-t’ou Culture 443
Shang Civilization and Its Contemporaries 445
Early Imperial China 449
Summary and Conclusions 451
Chapter 12: Later Complex Societies of the Old World 456
Temperate Europe 458
A Brief Overview of Other Later Old World Complex Societies 468
Colonization of the Western Pacific Islands 471
Summary and Conclusions 475
Chapter 13: The Evolution of Complex Societies in Mesoamerica 481
The Ecological Setting 484
Early Mesoamerican Farming 485
The Archaeological Record of Early Complex Mesoamerican Societies 486
The Archaeological Record of Mesoamerican States in the Valleys of Mexico and Oaxaca 496
The Maya 501
Postclassic Mesoamerica 516
The Spanish Conquest 523
Summary and Conclusions 523
Chapter 14: The Evolution of Complex Societies in Andean South America 533
The Ecological Setting 536
Early Hunters and Gatherers 537
The Agricultural Basis of Andean Civilization 538
The First Complex Societies in Andean South America 539
The Early Horizon 546
The Early Intermediate Period: Early States 549
The Middle Horizon: Competing States 552
The Late Intermediate Period: Early Empires 554
The Late Horizon: The Imperial Transformation 554
The European Conquest 557
Summary and Conclusions 558
Chapter 15: Early Cultural Complexity in North America 565
The Ecological Setting 568
The North American East 569
The North American Southwest 583
Summary and Conclusions 594
Chapter 16: Prehistory in Perspective 601
Our Intellectual Heritage 601
Lessons of Prehistory 606
The Future of Archaeology 609
Art Credits 611
Index 615
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用户评价

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这本书的语言风格，可以说是一种优雅的学术克制与偶尔爆发的诗意之间的完美平衡。它绝不是那种枯燥乏味的教科书，尽管内容极其专业和严谨。作者擅长使用那种具有画面感的描述性词汇，将那些冰冷的考古证据“活化”起来。比如，他在描述旧石器晚期人类对死亡的仪式化处理时，那种对情感深度的挖掘，让人不禁思考，在那个生存是首要任务的年代，人类情感的复杂程度究竟达到了何种地步。我特别欣赏它在处理“不确定性”时的态度。史前学必然充满了推测，但这本书从不回避这一点，反而坦诚地将不同的假说并置，并分析每种假说的证据强度和理论基础。这对于培养批判性思维极为有益，它教会读者如何在一个证据链不完整的领域内，进行负责任的思考。我发现自己不再满足于接受现成的结论，而是开始质疑：“这个结论的证据点在哪里？有没有其他的解释可能性？”这种思维上的拓展，远超了我对一本历史类书籍的预期。书中的一些图表设计也极其精妙，它们不是简单的数据堆砌，而是用图形化的方式，清晰地揭示了不同考古层位之间的关联性，极大地降低了复杂信息被理解的门槛。

坦白说，我原本对这类主题抱持着一种敬而远之的态度，总觉得它们过于宏大和遥远，难以与现实生活产生联结。然而，这本书成功地将我们与那些“最早的人类”建立了某种深刻的情感共鸣。作者花了大量的篇幅去探讨早期人类的创新能力和适应性，这让我意识到，我们现代社会的种种成就，无一不是建立在这些漫长而艰辛的试错过程之上的。书中有个章节专门讨论了早期贸易网络的形成，它通过分析远距离交换的材料（比如黑曜石或贝壳）的化学同位素分析结果，勾勒出了一幅比我们想象中更为广阔和复杂的史前社交网络图景。这种发现让我对“进步”的定义有了新的理解——进步不是线性的，而是一个充满蜿蜒曲折、相互影响的复杂过程。书中的案例研究极其详尽，每一个都像是一个独立的短篇故事，围绕着一个关键的考古地点展开，从地层发掘报告到器物的功能推测，逻辑链条环环相扣，令人信服。这使得阅读过程充满了发现的乐趣，仿佛自己也亲身参与了那些发掘工作，亲手触摸到了历史的碎片。

我必须强调这本书在理论框架上的创新性，它完全摆脱了那种欧洲中心论的窠臼，真正做到了全球视野下的比较研究。作者在探讨人类迁徙和技术传播时，非常注重对非洲、澳洲和美洲史前文化的同等重视，这在以往的许多主流著作中是少见的。他不仅描述了“发生了什么”，更深入地探究了“为什么会以这样的方式发生”。书中对环境因素与文化选择之间动态关系的阐述，尤其令人印象深刻。它没有将环境塑造成一个决定性的力量，而是将其视为一系列挑战和机遇的集合，而史前人类的反应和选择才是塑造历史轨迹的关键变量。这种强调能动性的视角，为史前研究注入了新的活力。阅读这本书，你得到的不仅仅是知识的积累，更是一种全新的认知工具，一套分析人类行为模式的底层逻辑。它的深度和广度要求读者保持高度的专注，但这绝对是值得的投入。合上书本时，我感到自己对人类文明的起源有了更谦卑、更复杂、也更深刻的理解，仿佛世界观都被悄然重塑了一遍。

我对这本书的阅读体验，更像是一场深入骨髓的智力探险。它最吸引我的地方在于，作者敢于挑战那些约定俗成的历史叙事。他不是简单地罗列时间线和遗址名称，而是深入探讨了“模式”——那些在看似随机的史前人类活动中，反复出现的、具有内在逻辑的规律。书中关于农业起源区域性差异的讨论，简直是颠覆了我过去对“新月沃地”一元的理解。他用详实的数据和案例，构建了一个多中心、多路径的农业发展模型，这使得整个史前经济史的图景一下子变得立体和丰满起来。阅读过程中，我多次停下来，合上书本，对着天花板沉思，试图在自己的思维里重构那些消失的社会结构。作者的叙事节奏掌控得非常高明，时而像一位严谨的科学家，用精确的测量数据支撑论点；时而又像一位充满激情的历史学家，用富有感染力的语言描绘先民的日常生活。特别是关于早期宗教和宇宙观的章节，他巧妙地融合了人类学和考古学的最新发现，使得那些晦涩的、残缺的信仰体系，在读者的脑海中获得了某种程度上的“可感知性”。这本书的参考文献列表也极其庞大且新颖，光是追踪其中几篇关键论文，就足够我再深入研究好几个月。