Tracing Early Agriculture in the Highlands of New Guinea

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Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1351115286
Total Pages : 200 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (511 download)

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Book Synopsis Tracing Early Agriculture in the Highlands of New Guinea by : Tim Denham

Download or read book Tracing Early Agriculture in the Highlands of New Guinea written by Tim Denham and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-06-28 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, historical narratives chart how people created forms of agriculture in the highlands of New Guinea and how these practices were transformed through time. The intention is twofold: to clearly establish New Guinea as a region of early agricultural development and plant domestication; and, to develop a contingent, practice-based interpretation of early agriculture that has broader application to other regions of the world. The multi-disciplinary record from the highlands has the potential to challenge and change long held assumptions regarding early agriculture globally, which are usually based on domestication. Early agriculture in the highlands is charted by an exposition of the practices of plant exploitation and cultivation. Practices are ontologically prior because they ultimately produce the phenotypic and genotypic changes in plant species characterised as domestication, as well as the social and environmental transformations associated with agriculture. They are also methodologically prior because they emplace plants in specific historico-geographic contexts.

The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Indigenous Australia and New Guinea

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190095644
Total Pages : 1169 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (9 download)

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Book Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Indigenous Australia and New Guinea by : Ian J. McNiven

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Indigenous Australia and New Guinea written by Ian J. McNiven and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2023-12-05 with total page 1169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 65,000 years ago, modern humans arrived in Australia, having navigated more than 100 km of sea crossing from southeast Asia. Since then, the large continental islands of Australia and New Guinea, together with smaller islands in between, have been connected by land bridges and severed again as sea levels fell and rose. Along with these fluctuations came changes in the terrestrial and marine environments of both land masses. The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Indigenous Australia and New Guinea reviews and assembles the latest findings and ideas on the archaeology of the Australia-New Guinea region, the world's largest island-continent. In 42 new chapters written by 77 contributors, it presents and explores the archaeological evidence to weave stories of colonisation; megafaunal extinctions; Indigenous architecture; long-distance interactions, sometimes across the seas; eel-based aquaculture and the development of techniques for the mass-trapping of fish; occupation of the High Country, deserts, tropical swamplands and other, diverse land and waterscapes; and rock art and symbolic behaviour. Together with established researchers, a new generation of archaeologists present in this Handbook one, authoritative text where Australia-New Guinea archaeology now lies and where it is heading, promising to shape future directions for years to come.

Archaeologies of Island Melanesia

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Publisher : ANU Press
ISBN 13 : 1760463027
Total Pages : 228 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (64 download)

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Book Synopsis Archaeologies of Island Melanesia by : Mathieu Leclerc

Download or read book Archaeologies of Island Melanesia written by Mathieu Leclerc and published by ANU Press. This book was released on 2019-08-08 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ‘The island world of Melanesia—ranging from New Guinea and the Bismarcks through the Solomons, Vanuatu, and New Caledonia—is characterised more than anything by its boundless diversity in geography, language and culture. The deep historical roots of this diversity are only beginning to be uncovered by archaeological investigations, but as the contributions to this volume demonstrate, the exciting discoveries being made across this region are opening windows to our understanding of the historical processes that contributed to such remarkably varied cultures. Archaeologies of Island Melanesia offers a sampling of some of the recent and ongoing research that spans such topics as landscape, exchange systems, culture contact and archaeological practice, authored by some of the leading scholars in Oceanic archaeology.’ — Professor Patrick Vinton Kirch Professor of Anthropology, University of Hawai‘i Island Melanesia is a remarkable region in many respects, from its great ecological and linguistic diversity, to the complex histories of settlement and interaction spanning from the Pleistocene to the present. Archaeological research in Island Melanesia is currently going through a vibrant phase of exciting new discoveries and challenging debates about questions that apply far beyond the region. This volume draws together a variety of current perspectives in regional archaeology for Island Melanesia, focusing on Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, New Caledonia and Papua New Guinea. It features both high-level theoretical approaches and rigorous data-driven case studies covering recent research in landscape archaeology, exchange and material culture, and cultural practices.

The Cambridge History of the Pacific Ocean: Volume 1, The Pacific Ocean to 1800

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108334067
Total Pages : 948 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (83 download)

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Book Synopsis The Cambridge History of the Pacific Ocean: Volume 1, The Pacific Ocean to 1800 by : Ryan Tucker Jones

Download or read book The Cambridge History of the Pacific Ocean: Volume 1, The Pacific Ocean to 1800 written by Ryan Tucker Jones and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2022-12-31 with total page 948 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Volume I of The Cambridge History of the Pacific Ocean provides a wide-ranging survey of Pacific history to 1800. It focuses on varied concepts of the Pacific environment and its impact on human history, as well as tracing the early exploration and colonization of the Pacific, the evolution of Indigenous maritime cultures after colonization, and the disruptive arrival of Europeans. Bringing together a diversity of subjects and viewpoints, this volume introduces a broad variety of topics, engaging fully with emerging environmental and political conflicts over Pacific Ocean spaces. These essays emphasize the impact of the deep history of interactions on and across the Pacific to the present day.

First Farmers

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Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 1119706378
Total Pages : 358 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (197 download)

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Book Synopsis First Farmers by : Peter Bellwood

Download or read book First Farmers written by Peter Bellwood and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2022-12-23 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A wide-ranging and accessible introduction to the origins and histories of the first agricultural populations in many different parts of the world This fully revised and updated second edition of First Farmers examines the origins of food production across the world and documents the expansions of agricultural populations from source regions during the past 12,000 years. It commences with the archaeological records from the multiple homelands of agriculture, and extends into discussions that draw on linguistic and genomic information about the human past, featuring new findings from the last ten years of research. Through twelve chapters, the text examines the latest evidence and leading theories surrounding the early development of agricultural practices through data drawn from across the anthropological discipline—primarily archaeology, comparative linguistics, and biological anthropology—to present a cohesive history of early farmer migration. Founded on the author's insights from his research into the agricultural prehistory of East and Southeast Asia—one of the best focus areas for the teaching of prehistoric archaeology—this book offers an engaging account of how prehistoric humans settled new landscapes. The second edition has been thoroughly updated with many new maps and illustrations that reflect the multidisciplinary knowledge of the present day. Authored by a leading scholar with wide-ranging experience across the fields of anthropology and archaeology, First Farmers, Second Edition includes information on: The early farming dispersal hypothesis in current perspective, plus operational considerations regarding the origins and dispersals of agriculture The archaeological evidence for the origins and spreads of agriculture in the Eurasian, African and American continents The histories of the language families that spread with the first farming populations, and the evidence from biological anthropology and ancient DNA that underpins our modern knowledge of these migrations Drawing evidence from across the sub-disciplines of anthropology to present a cohesive and exciting analysis of an important subject in the study of human population history, Farmers First, Second Edition is an important work of scholarship and an excellent introduction to multiple methods of anthropological and archaeological inquiry for the beginner student in prehistoric anthropology and archaeology, human migration, archaeology of East and Southeast Asia, agricultural history, comparative anthropology, and more disciplines across the anthropology curriculum.

Jungle

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Publisher : Basic Books
ISBN 13 : 154160010X
Total Pages : 389 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (416 download)

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Book Synopsis Jungle by : Patrick Roberts

Download or read book Jungle written by Patrick Roberts and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2021-09-14 with total page 389 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A bold, ambitious and truly wonderful history of the world"—Peter Wohlleben, author of The Hidden Life of Trees From the age of dinosaurs to the first human cities, a groundbreaking new history of the planet that tropical forests made. To many of us, tropical forests are the domain of movies and novels. These dense, primordial wildernesses are beautiful to picture, but irrelevant to our lives. Jungle tells a different story. Archaeologist Patrick Roberts argues that tropical forests have shaped nearly every aspect of life on earth. They made the planet habitable, enabled the rise of dinosaurs and mammals, and spread flowering plants around the globe. New evidence also shows that humans evolved in jungles, developing agriculture and infrastructure unlike anything found elsewhere. Humanity’s fate is tied to the fate of tropical forests, and by understanding how earlier societies managed these habitats, we can learn to live more sustainably and equitably today. Blending cutting-edge research and incisive social commentary, Jungle is a bold new vision of who we are and where we come from.

Activity, Diet and Social Practice

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Author :
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3030025446
Total Pages : 213 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (3 download)

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Book Synopsis Activity, Diet and Social Practice by : Sarah Schrader

Download or read book Activity, Diet and Social Practice written by Sarah Schrader and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-12-05 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Day-to-day activities are important in the development of social identities, the establishment of social standing, and the communal understanding of societal rules. This perspective is broadly referred to as practice theory and relates to the power of an overarching social structure and the individual actors that exist within it. Practice theory has made an important contribution to anthropological and archaeological research as these fields are particularly interested in daily life and the importance of these actions. This volume argues that practice theory can also be used in a bioarchaeological context through the examination of human skeletal remains and the archaeological context in which they were excavated. Bioarchaeology offers a unique perspective on these day-to-day experiences—skeletal tissue is constantly undergoing a process of change and, as a living biological system, it can adapt to external forces. Furthermore, bioarchaeological studies are multi-scalar and can examine individuals, groups, or entire populations. Using osteological indicators of activity patterns (entheseal changes, osteoarthritis) and dietary isotopes (carbon, nitrogen) as examples, this book addresses patterns of everyday life in the ancient past. Physical activities and food consumption are actions that are carried out on a daily basis. While bioarchaeology does not have the ability to recreate specific day-to-day activities, we can assess broad trends in everyday life. The volume illustrates these points using examples from the Ancient Nile Valley. Through the examination of over 800 Egyptian and Nubian individuals from five different archaeological sites, the research addresses patterns of everyday life as they relate to social inequality, agency, and practice. Beyond osteological indicators of activity and dietary patterns, this book also discusses additional methods that can be pursed to draw attention to daily life. Lastly, this book also highlights the applicability of and potential contribution that practice theory can make to this area of research.

South American Contributions to World Archaeology

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Author :
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3030739988
Total Pages : 460 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (37 download)

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Book Synopsis South American Contributions to World Archaeology by : Mariano Bonomo

Download or read book South American Contributions to World Archaeology written by Mariano Bonomo and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-11-08 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book focuses on South American archaeology and its contributions to the broader global archaeological discussion in theory, methods and new interpretations of the archaeological record. These include discussions on human peopling and colonization of the continent, domestication of plants and emergence of complex societies. This volume covers a wide variety of sub-disciplines in archaeology, including archaeobotany, zooarchaeology, molecular archaeology, bioarchaeology, geoarchaeology. The chapters span from the pre-Columbian to contemporaneous indigenous societies for all the main geographical and ecological zones of South America. The book discusses how particular cases of South American archaeology have contributed to the understanding of a global and basic issue: human relations with their environments and landscapes during the past. The authors focus on the latest results produced by multidisciplinary studies carried out at archaeological sites in several areas of South America ranging from studies of early hunter-gatherers through the historic period. This work would be of interest to researchers in archaeology and Latin American studies.

The Convergent Evolution of Agriculture in Humans and Insects

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Author :
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262367564
Total Pages : 339 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (623 download)

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Book Synopsis The Convergent Evolution of Agriculture in Humans and Insects by : Ted R Schultz

Download or read book The Convergent Evolution of Agriculture in Humans and Insects written by Ted R Schultz and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2022-02-15 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contributors explore common elements in the evolutionary histories of both human and insect agriculture resulting from convergent evolution. During the past 12,000 years, agriculture originated in humans as many as twenty-three times, and during the past 65 million years, agriculture also originated in nonhuman animals at least twenty times and in insects at least fifteen times. It is much more likely that these independent origins represent similar solutions to the challenge of growing food than that they are due purely to chance. This volume seeks to identify common elements in the evolutionary histories of both human and insect agriculture that are the results of convergent evolution. The goal is to create a new, synthetic field that characterizes, quantifies, and empirically documents the evolutionary and ecological mechanisms that drive both human and nonhuman agriculture. The contributors report on the results of quantitative analyses comparing human and nonhuman agriculture; discuss evolutionary conflicts of interest between and among farmers and cultivars and how they interfere with efficiencies of agricultural symbiosis; describe in detail agriculture in termites, ambrosia beetles, and ants; and consider patterns of evolutionary convergence in different aspects of agriculture, comparing fungal parasites of ant agriculture with fungal parasites of human agriculture, analyzing the effects of agriculture on human anatomy, and tracing the similarities and differences between the evolution of agriculture in humans and in a single, relatively well-studied insect group, fungus-farming ants.

Ten Thousand Years of Cultivation at Kuk Swamp in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea

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Author :
Publisher : ANU Press
ISBN 13 : 1760461164
Total Pages : 545 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (64 download)

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Book Synopsis Ten Thousand Years of Cultivation at Kuk Swamp in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea by : Jack Golson

Download or read book Ten Thousand Years of Cultivation at Kuk Swamp in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea written by Jack Golson and published by ANU Press. This book was released on 2017-07-07 with total page 545 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kuk is a settlement at c. 1600 m altitude in the upper Wahgi Valley of the Western Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea, near Mount Hagen, the provincial capital. The site forms part of the highland spine that runs for more than 2500 km from the western head of the island of New Guinea to the end of its eastern tail. Until the early 1930s, when the region was first explored by European outsiders, it was thought to be a single, uninhabited mountain chain. Instead, it was found to be a complex area of valleys and basins inhabited by large populations of people and pigs, supported by the intensive cultivation of the tropical American sweet potato on the slopes above swampy valley bottoms. With the end of World War II, the area, with others, became a focus for the development of coffee and tea plantations, of which the establishment of Kuk Research Station was a result. Large-scale drainage of the swamps produced abundant evidence in the form of stone axes and preserved wooden digging sticks and spades for their past use in cultivation. Investigations in 1966 at a tea plantation in the upper Wahgi Valley by a small team from The Australian National University yielded a date of over 2000 years ago for a wooden stick collected from the bottom of a prehistoric ditch. The establishment of Kuk Research Station a few kilometres away shortly afterwards provided an ideal opportunity for a research project.

Globalization in Prehistory

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108429807
Total Pages : 363 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (84 download)

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Book Synopsis Globalization in Prehistory by : Nicole Boivin

Download or read book Globalization in Prehistory written by Nicole Boivin and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-10-04 with total page 363 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Challenges contemporary understandings of 'globalization' by focusing on the role of non-state prehistoric societies and their vast realms of connectivity.

Why Men?

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 1805260162
Total Pages : 458 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (52 download)

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Book Synopsis Why Men? by : Nancy Lindisfarne

Download or read book Why Men? written by Nancy Lindisfarne and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2023-09-28 with total page 458 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This thesis is about the scope of executive power under the American Constitution, and the degree to which President may, in extraordinary circumstances, assert authority not explicitly granted to them by that document. It is about the extent to which the American executive may assert what John Locke termed "prerogative: " the ability to act beyond or even against the letter of the law to protect the public's best interests. It is an individual's discretion to do what he (or she) believes is necessary, even when he (or she) has little or no authority to do so. At first glance, this may seem odd. The very idea of prerogative is in direct conflict with the American adage that "we are a country of laws, not men," and there is no explicit mention of executive "prerogative" anywhere in the Constitution. Article II Sections 2 and 3 describe the President's powers without describing any such power:

Language Dispersal Beyond Farming

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Author :
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN 13 : 9027264643
Total Pages : 340 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (272 download)

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Book Synopsis Language Dispersal Beyond Farming by : Martine Robbeets

Download or read book Language Dispersal Beyond Farming written by Martine Robbeets and published by John Benjamins Publishing Company. This book was released on 2017-12-21 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why do some languages wither and die, while others prosper and spread? Around the turn of the millennium a number of archaeologists such as Colin Renfrew and Peter Bellwood made the controversial claim that many of the world’s major language families owe their dispersal to the adoption of agriculture by their early speakers. In this volume, their proposal is reassessed by linguists, investigating to what extent the economic dependence on plant cultivation really impacted language spread in various parts of the world. Special attention is paid to "tricky" language families such as Eskimo-Aleut, Quechua, Aymara, Bantu, Indo-European, Transeurasian, Turkic, Japano-Koreanic, Hmong-Mien and Trans-New Guinea, that cannot unequivocally be regarded as instances of Farming/Language Dispersal, even if subsistence played a role in their expansion.

Rethinking Agriculture

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Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1315420996
Total Pages : 591 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (154 download)

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Book Synopsis Rethinking Agriculture by : Timothy P Denham

Download or read book Rethinking Agriculture written by Timothy P Denham and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-07-01 with total page 591 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although the need to study agriculture in different parts of the world on its “own terms” has long been recognized and re-affirmed, a tendency persists to evaluate agriculture across the globe using concepts, lines of evidence and methods derived from Eurasian research. However, researchers working in different regions are becoming increasingly aware of fundamental differences in the nature of, and methods employed to study, agriculture and plant exploitation practices in the past. Contributions to this volume rethink agriculture, whether in terms of existing regional chronologies, in terms of techniques employed, or in terms of the concepts that frame our interpretations. This volume highlights new archaeological and ethnoarchaeological research on early agriculture in understudied non-Eurasian regions, including Island Southeast Asia and the Pacific, the Americas and Africa, to present a more balanced view of the origins and development of agricultural practices around the globe.

Food and Agriculture in Papua New Guinea

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Author :
Publisher : ANU E Press
ISBN 13 : 1921536616
Total Pages : 665 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (215 download)

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Book Synopsis Food and Agriculture in Papua New Guinea by : R. Michael Bourke

Download or read book Food and Agriculture in Papua New Guinea written by R. Michael Bourke and published by ANU E Press. This book was released on 2009-08-01 with total page 665 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Agriculture dominates the rural economy of Papua New Guinea (PNG). More than five million rural dwellers (80% of the population) earn a living from subsistence agriculture and selling crops in domestic and international markets. Many aspects of agriculture in PNG are described in this data-rich book. Topics include agricultural environments in which crops are grown; production of food crops, cash crops and animals; land use; soils; demography; migration; the macro-economic environment; gender issues; governance of agricultural institutions; and transport. The history of agriculture over the 50 000 years that PNG has been occupied by humans is summarised. Much of the information presented is not readily available within PNG. The book contains results of many new analyses, including a food budget for the entire nation. The text is supported by 165 tables and 215 maps and figures.

Rethinking Agriculture

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Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1315421003
Total Pages : 477 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (154 download)

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Book Synopsis Rethinking Agriculture by : Timothy P Denham

Download or read book Rethinking Agriculture written by Timothy P Denham and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-07 with total page 477 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although the need to study agriculture in different parts of the world on its “own terms” has long been recognized and re-affirmed, a tendency persists to evaluate agriculture across the globe using concepts, lines of evidence and methods derived from Eurasian research. However, researchers working in different regions are becoming increasingly aware of fundamental differences in the nature of, and methods employed to study, agriculture and plant exploitation practices in the past. Contributions to this volume rethink agriculture, whether in terms of existing regional chronologies, in terms of techniques employed, or in terms of the concepts that frame our interpretations. This volume highlights new archaeological and ethnoarchaeological research on early agriculture in understudied non-Eurasian regions, including Island Southeast Asia and the Pacific, the Americas and Africa, to present a more balanced view of the origins and development of agricultural practices around the globe.

Genes, Language, & Culture History in the Southwest Pacific

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Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190293675
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (92 download)

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Book Synopsis Genes, Language, & Culture History in the Southwest Pacific by : Jonathan S. Friedlaender

Download or read book Genes, Language, & Culture History in the Southwest Pacific written by Jonathan S. Friedlaender and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2007-04-19 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The broad arc of islands north of Australia that extends from Indonesia east towards the central Pacific is home to a set of human populations whose concentration of diversity is unequaled elsewhere. Approximately 20% of the worlds languages are spoken here, and the biological and genetic heterogeneity among the groups is extraordinary. Anthropologist W.W. Howells once declared diversity in the region so Protean as to defy analysis. However, this book can now claim considerable success in describing and understanding the origins of the genetic and linguistic variation there. In order to cut through this biological knot, the authors have applied a comprehensive battery of genetic analyses to an intensively sampled set of populations, and have subjected these and complementary linguistic data to a variety of phylogenetic analyses. This has revealed a number of heretofore unknown ancient Pleistocene genetic variants that are only found in these island populations, and has also identified the genetic footprints of more recent migrants from Southeast Asia who were the ancestors of the Polynesians. The book lays out the very complex structure of the variation within and among the islands in this relatively small region, and a number of explanatory models are tested to see which best account for the observed pattern of genetic variation here. The results suggest that a number of commonly used models of evolutionary divergence are overly simple in their assumptions, and that often human diversity has accumulated in very complex ways.