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Ideal for introduction to archaeology and world prehistory courses, The Past in Perspective: An Introduction to Human Prehistory, Seventh Edition, is an engaging and up-to-date chronological overview of 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. Feder's unique, refreshing, and accessible narrative personalizes the past and makes it relevant to today's students. Using a consistent chapter format--"Prelude, Chronicle, Issues and Debates, Messages from the Past, and Case Study Close-up"--Feder helps students master both what we know and what is still debated about the complex story of the human past.

Kenneth L. Feder is Professor of Anthropology at Central Connecticut State University. He is the author of several books, including Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology, Eighth Edition (2013), and Linking to the Past: A Brief Introduction to Archaeology, Second Edition (OUP, 2007).

Each chapter includes a Chapter Overview, Prelude, Summary, To Learn More, and Key Terms

Preface

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

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
Archaeology at a Distance: Noninvasive Methods of Data Collection
Analyzing Archaeological Data
How Artifacts are Analyzed
How Ecofacts 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
The Ethics of Archaeological Research
Messages from the Past
Coping with Crap: Pseudoscience in Archaeology

3. African Roots
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
The Ability to Make Tools
A Different Path--Homo
Oldowan Technology
Tools and Talk
The Fate of Homo habilis
A New Hominin Star
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?
Why is the Fossil Record of Human Evolution so Complicated?
Messages from the Past
Has Evolution Programmed us to be Killers?
Case Study Close-Up

4. The Human Lineage
Chronicle
Homo erectus
The Evolutionary Position of Homo erectus
Hominins Conquer the World
East Asia
Homo erectus: Ocean Explorer?
China and India
Europe
The Age of Ice
The Oxygen Isotope Curve
Homo erectus: The Toolmaker
Subsistence
Issues and Debates
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
Homo erectus Art?
Who Were the Hobbit Hominins?
Raising Homo erectus
Where are the Handaxes?
When did Homo erectus Become Extinct?
Messages from the Past
We are Everywhere and Culture Makes it Possible
Case Study Close-Up

5. The First Humans
The Evolution of Homo sapiens
Chronicle
Premodern Humans: Fossil Evidence
Premodern Humans: Cultural Evidence
The Neandertals
Morphological Evidence
Fossil Evidence
Neandertal Culture
Stone Tools
Subsistence
Compassion
Ancient Family
Symbolic Expression
Burial of the Dead
Anatomically Modern Homo sapiens
Issues and Debates
Explaining the Evolution of Us
Consensus View
Evidence
Consensus View
Evidence
Consensus View
Evidence
Consensus View
Evidence
Consensus View
Stone Tools of Anatomically Modern Human Beings: Utilitarian Works of Art
Why are the Neandertals Extinct?
The Neandertals: A Separate Species
Our Hominin Relatives: Genetic Gifts, Genetic Burdens
Human Beings: An Evolutionary Success Story?
Messages from the Past
Case Study Close-Up

6. Expanding Intellectual Horizons: Arts and Ideas in the Upper Paleolithic and Late Stone Age
Chronicle
New Ideas: Reflections of the Modern Human Mind
1. New and Improved Stone-Tool Technologies
2. New Hunting and Weapons Technologies
3. Broadening the Subsistence Base
4. Branching Out in Raw Materials and Developing New Technologies
5. New Uses for Plant Materials
6. The Acquisition of Raw Materials from a Great Distance
7. Larger Sites of Population Aggregation
8. Abundance of Nonutilitarian Objects
9. More Elaborate Burials
10. Symbolic Expression Through the 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
Messages from the Past
Why Do We Destroy?
Case Study Close-Up

7. Expanding Geographic Horizons: New Worlds
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
A 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
First Skeletons
Alaska
Denali and Nenana
Settlement of the Americas: Summary
Clovis
Clovis Technology
Clovis Subsistence
Into the Arctic
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?
Messages from the Past
The Tragedy of Extinction
Case Study Close-Up

8. After the Ice: The Food-Producing Revolution
Chronicle
Europe
Mesolithic Subsistence Patterns
Diversity and Regionalization
Asia
Africa
Australia
North America
Regionalism in the New World Archaic
Koster: Emblem of the Archaic
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
Africa
A Chronology of Food Production
Neolithic Cultures South of the Sahara
Asia
Chronology of Food Production in China
Food Production in South Asia
Food Production in Southeast and Northeast Asia
Domestication in Central Asia
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
Rice
The Remarkably Modern Cuisine of the Ancient World
Why Agriculture?
Niche Construction
Climate Change
A Multitude of Reasons
Implications of the Neolithic: The Roots of Social Complexity
Messages from the Past
Case Study Close-Up
Here, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty

9. Roots of Complexity: The Origins of Civilization
The Construction of Stonehenge
Imagining Stonehenge
Chronicle
Simplicity and Complexity
The Development of Complexity: Before Agriculture
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 Traces in the New World
The Olmec
South America
Issues and Debates
Why does Complexity Develop in the First Place?
Messages from the Past
Are Complexity and Inequality Inevitable?
Case Study Close-Up

10. An Explosion of Complexity: Mesopotamia, Africa, and Europe
Chronicle
The Evolution of the State
The Character of Civilization
Food Surplus
Social Stratification
Labor Specialization
A Formal Government
Large, Dense Populations
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 Beyond Egypt
Great Zimbabwe
The Glory of Zimbabwe
Minoan Crete
Who were the Minoans?
The Palace at Knossos
Issues and Debates
Why did State Societies Develop?
Conflict Models
Integration Models
Many Paths to Civilization
Message from the Past
The One-Percenters: The Ancient Roots of Inequality
Case Study Close-Up

11. An Explosion of Complexity: The Indus Valley and China
Chronicle
The Indus Valley Civilization
Flood Control and Civilization in the Indus Valley
Cultural Convergence
Cities of the Indus
The Indus Script
"A Peaceful Realm"
Collapse
The Civilization of Ancient China
The Lung-shan Culture
Acceleration Toward Civilization
The Shang Civilization
Issues and Debates
Why were the Elites of State Societies so Conspicuous in their Consumption?
Messages from the Past
The Universality of Human Genius
Case Study Close-Up
The Terra-Cotta Army of the First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty

12. An Explosion of Complexity: Mesoamerica
Chronicle
The Maya
Maya Writing
Peak of the Maya
The Defeat of Tikal
Post-Classic Reorganization
Teotihuacán
Teotihuacán History
A Monumental City
Residences of Teotihuacán's Citizens
The Reach of Teotihuacán
Monte Albán
The Aztecs
Issues and Debates
Why did the Maya Collapse?
What does "Collapse" Even Mean?
Messages from the Past
Ancient Alienation
Case Study Close-Up
Who were the Rulers of Copán?
The Grandeur that was Copán

13. An Explosion of Complexity: South America
Chronicle
Moche
Empires: Tiwanaku
Empires: Wari
Empires: Chimu
Empires: The Inca
Inca Royalty
Inca Agricultural Infrastructure
How Did the Inca Support Their Economic System?
The Inca Military Empire
A State Without Writing?
The End of the Inca State
Issues and Debates
Why Do Civilizations Collapse?
Messages from the Past
Case Study Close-Up

14. An Explosion of Complexity: North America
Chronicle
Complexity in Prehistoric America North of Mexico
The Development of Complexity
The Mississippian Civilization
Cahokia
The American Southwest
Hohokam
Mogollon
Ancestral Puebloan
Northwest Coast of North America
Issues and Debates
What Happened to the Ancestral Puebloans?
Messages from the Past
Time Traveling: You Can Visit the Past
Case Study Close-Up
The Death of a King

Evolutionary Epilogue
Civilization Chronology
Map of Civilization
Hominin Species Glossary
Glossary
References
Index

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The Past in Perspective An Introduction to Human Prehistory

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Table of Contents

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