Showing papers by "Stephen Shennan published in 2005"
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the spread of agriculture from the perspective of changes in the composition of archaeobotantical assemblages and found that there are coherent and meaningful changes in their composition over time, to a large extent driven by a reduction in crop-taxa diversity.
Abstract: The spread of agriculture is here examined from the perspective of changes in the composition of archaeobotantical assemblages. We apply multivariate analysis to a large database of plant assemblages from early Neolithic sites across South-West Asia and Europe and show that there are coherent and meaningful changes in their composition over time, to a large extent driven by a reduction in crop-taxa diversity. We interpret these changes as being partly caused by environmental factors, and partly caused by cultural reasons linked to the relatively rapid expansion of Linearbandkeramik (LBK) groups that inhibited diversification of crops until later in the Neolithic.
105 citations
Book•
15 Aug 2005
TL;DR: This book should be a useful introduction to the subject for advanced undergraduates and researchers in archaeology and biological anthropology and can be used by workers in psychology, sociology and feminist studies as a resource for understanding human social origins.
Abstract: Human social life is constrained and defined by our cognitive and emotional dispositions, which are the legacy of our foraging ancestors. But how difficult is it to reconstruct the social systems and cultural traditions of those ancestors? The Archaeology of Human Ancestry provides a stimulating and provocative answer, in which archaeologists and biological anthropologists set out and demonstrate their reconstructive methods. Contributors use observations of primates and modern hunter-gatherers to illuminate the fossil and artefactual records. Thematic treatment covers the evolution of group size; group composition and the emotional structure of social bonds; sexual dimorphism and the sexual division of labour; and the origins of human cultural traditions. The Archaeology of Human Ancestry is an essential introduction to the subject for advanced undergraduates and researchers in archaeology and biological anthropology. It will also be used by workers in psychology, sociology and feminist studies as a resource for understanding human social origins.
77 citations
Book Chapter•
01 Jan 2005
49 citations
TL;DR: Although network theory has much to offer, the mathematical study of collective human behavior is older and richer than Albert-Laszlo Barabasi suggests in his Perspective “Network theory—the emergence of the creative enterprise”.
Abstract: Although network theory has much to offer, the mathematical study of collective human behavior is older and richer [e.g., ([1][1]–[4][2])] than Albert-Laszlo Barabasi suggests in his Perspective “Network theory—the emergence of the creative enterprise” (29 Apr., p. [639][3]). Barabasi
42 citations
TL;DR: The authors presented an agent-based model of specialization, exchange and inequality within a clustered social network, with implications for the economic effect that contact with colonizing groups may have had on prehistoric indigenous populations.
35 citations
Book Chapter•
01 Jan 2005
27 citations
Book•
07 Jan 2005
25 citations