Archaeology on the Threshold: Studies in the Processes of Change

New perspectives on transitions in human
history 

   

 This
book is about transitional periods of cultural and environmental change as seen
through the lenses of archaeology and ethnography. Incorporating data from
across six continents and tracing the human experience from the Late
Pleistocene to the present, these chapters offer a global comparative perspective
on transitional states. Questions
of causality are considered, as are hypotheses about the processes of cultural
change. Archaeology on the
Threshold 
focuses on major transitions such as the shift from foraging to agriculture,
the adoption of new technologies, the emergence of large-scale societies, the
transition from egalitarian to inegalitarian leadership, and changes that occur
in socioeconomic and ideological systems as a result of climate change and
disease. Theoretical approaches range from processual to postprocessual,
humanistic, and interpretive. Methodologies include ethnoarchaeology, the use
of ethnographic analogy,
cross-cultural comparisons and large-scale data approaches, oral history, the
historical record, participant observation, and focus group discussions. Challenging
archaeologists to query long-held assumptions and theoretical positions, this
volume aims to refocus inquiry into change-causing and larger evolutionary
processes to problematize notions of revolutionary, irrevocable change. These case studies
examine and shed light on assumptions regarding the linearity and oscillations
of adaptations, with intriguing implications for archaeological inferences.