Prehistoric Man
Prehistoric Man
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GBPThe Scottish archaeologist and anthropologist Daniel Wilson (1816–92) spent the latter part of his life in Canada. Published in 1862, this is a seminal work in the study of early man in which Wilson utilises studies of native tribes 'still seen there in a condition which seems to reproduce some of the most familiar phases ascribed to the infancy of the unhistoric world'. He believed that civilisations initially developed in mild climates and judged the Mayans to have been the most advanced civilisation in the New World. Twentieth-century anthropologist Bruce Trigger argued that Wilson 'interpreted evidence about human behaviour in a way that is far more in accord with modern thinking than are the racist views of Darwin and Lubbock', and it is in this light that this two-volume work can be judged. Volume 1 covers such important areas as the development and use of metals and 'the architectural instinct'.
Product details
November 2012Paperback
9781108054843
516 pages
216 × 140 × 29 mm
0.65kg
25 b/w illus. 1 colour illus. 1 map
Available
Table of Contents
- Preface
- 1. Introduction
- 2. The old world and the new
- 3. The primeval occupation: speech
- 4. The primeval transition: instinct
- 5. The Promethean instinct: fire
- 6. The maritime instinct: the canoe
- 7. The technological instinct: tools
- 8. The metallurgic instinct: copper
- 9. The metallurgic arts: alloys
- 10. The architectural instinct: earthworks
- 11. The hereafter: sepulchral mounds
- 12. Propitiation: sacrificial mounds
- 13. Commemoration: symbolic mounds
- 14. Progress: native civilisation
- 15. The artistic instinct: imitation.
