Continent of Hunter-Gatherers
Continent of Hunter-Gatherers
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GBPThis book challenges traditional perceptions of Australian Aboriginal prehistory: that the environment is the major determinant of hunter-gatherers; that Aborigines were egalitarian and culturally homogeneous and therefore experienced few economic and demographic changes. Harry Lourandos argues that the social and economic processes of hunter-gatherers were complex and that the prehistoric period was dynamic and revolutionary. Lourandos presents prehistoric data, reviews archaeological and ethnohistorical evidence, and analyses environmental, demographic and socially-oriented perspectives - drawing from them an original hypothesis. He addresses initial colonisation, the role of Tasmanian Aborigines, the role of fire, faunal extinctions, the intensification debate, horticultural origins, plant exploitation, and the significance of Australian prehistory in the study of other prehistoric hunter-gatherer societies.
- Offers a new perspective of Australian prehistory
- Offers a new interpretation of hunter-gatherer societies in general
- Includes important comparative material for archaeologists studying hunter-gatherer societies in other parts of the world
Product details
July 1997Paperback
9780521359467
412 pages
235 × 191 × 21 mm
0.71kg
53 b/w illus. 50 maps
Available
Table of Contents
- Introduction: changing perspectives
- 1. Hunter-gatherer variation in time and space
- 2. Australian Aboriginal hunter-gatherers
- 3. Out of Asia: earliest evidence and people
- 4. The tropical north
- 5. Arid and semiarid Australia
- 6. Temperate southern Australia
- 7. Tasmania
- 8. Continental changes
- 9. Interpretations
- 10. Conclusions.
