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Journal Article•DOI•

Nomads in Archaeology

01 Jan 1993-American Journal of Archaeology-Vol. 97, Iss: 1, pp 167
About: This article is published in American Journal of Archaeology.The article was published on 1993-01-01. It has received 248 citations till now.
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Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors identify different forms and levels of mobility in hunter-gatherers and detect sedentism in the context of the Man the Hunter (MTH) conference.
Abstract: There is hardly a more romantic image in anthropology than that of a small band of hunter-gatherers setting off into the bush, their few belongings on their backs. Mobility, in fact, has long been considered a defining characteristic of hunter-gatherers. At the Man the Hunter conference, for example, Lee & DeVore (101:1 1) assumed that all hunter-gatherers "move around a lot." This is not entirely accurate, for many hunter-gatherers move infrequently-some less than many "sedentary" horticultural societies. Early concepts of mobility blinded us to the fact that mobility is universal, variable, and multi-dimensional. Partly because of these concepts, and partly because we do not understand the relationships between movement and material culture, archaeologists have had difficulty identifying different forms and levels of mobility. This is especially true in defining and then detecting sedentism. It is important that we learn to recognize the various forms of mobility archaeologically, because the ways people move exert strong influences on their culture and society. In his classic study, Mauss (105), for example, related the Inuit's seasonal mobility to their moral and religious life. Sahlins (136) saw mobility as conditioning cultural attitudes towards material goods. Currently, archaeologists focus attention on the sedentarization process because reduced mobility precipitates dramatic changes in food storage, trade, territoriality, social and gender inequality, male/female work patterns, subsis-

487 citations

Book•
28 Jun 2012
TL;DR: In this article, the past, present, and future of Chinese archaeology are discussed, with a focus on early complex societies and the rise and fall of Chinese civilization in comparative perspective.
Abstract: 1. Chinese archaeology: past, present, and future 2. Environment and ecology 3. Foragers and collectors in the Pleistocene-Holocene transition (24,000-9000 cal. BP) 4. Domestication of plants and animals 5. Neolithization: sedentism and food production in the Early Neolithic (7000-5000 BC) 6. Emergence of social inequality: the Middle Neolithic (5000-3000 BC) 7. Rise and fall of early complex societies: the Late Neolithic (3000-2000 BC) 8. Formation of early states in the Central Plain: Erlitou and Erligang (1900/1800-1250 BC) 9. Bronze cultures of the north frontiers and beyond during the early second millennium BC 10. The Late Shang dynasty and its neighbors (1250-1046 BC) 11. Chinese civilization in comparative perspective.

293 citations

Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: In this paper, a new definition involving utility was extracted from the view that curation is a continuous, not nominal, variable and that it is a property of tools, not of entire assemblages or industries.
Abstract: The concept of "curation" has enjoyed wide use but also has received sharp criticism in the past two decades. Ambiguity in original sources permits curation to signify variously the implications and consequences of one practice and the relationship that underlies it. As a result, curation means too many different things. A new definition involving utility extracted follows from the view that curation is a continuous, not nominal, variable and that it is a property of tools, not of entire assemblages or industries. So understood, the ambiguity and contested meanings plaguing the term may disappear.

234 citations

01 Jan 2006
TL;DR: Blench et al. as discussed by the authors presented an institutional home/correspondence research Fellow at the Overseas Development Institute 8, Guest Road 111, Westminster Bridge Road Cambridge CB1 2AL London, SE1 7JD.
Abstract: Contact details: Institutional Home/correspondence Research Fellow CISPAL Overseas Development Institute 8, Guest Road 111, Westminster Bridge Road Cambridge CB1 2AL London, SE1 7JD United Kingdom United Kingdom Voice/Answerphone/Fax. 0044-(0)1223-560687 Tel +44 (0) 207-922-0313 Personal Web Page: http://www.cispal.fsnet.co.uk Fax +44 (0) 207-922-0399 E-mail R.Blench@odi.org.uk Web Page: http://www.org.odi.uk/staff/r.blench

158 citations

Journal Article•DOI•
Tony Wilkinson1•
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors synthesize and critically evaluate the results of field surveys conducted over the last 20 years in southern (lower) and northern (upper) Mesopotamia, with emphasis placed on the increasing contribution of off-site and intensive surveys to regional analysis.
Abstract: This work synthesizes and critically evaluates the results of field surveys conducted over the last 20 years in southern (lower) and northern (upper) Mesopotamia, with emphasis placed on the increasing contribution of off-site and intensive surveys to regional analysis. During the Ubaid period the density of settlement was probably higher in the rain-fed north than the irrigated south, and even during the phase of 3rd millennium B.C. urbanization, settlement densities in the north were probably equivalent to or even exceeded those in the south. Although trends in settlement were often synchronous between north and south, there was also a marked spatial variability in settlement, with declines in one area being compensated by rises elsewhere. Particularly clear was the existence of a major structural transformation from nucleated centers during the Bronze Age towards dispersed patterns of rural settlement and more extensive lower towns in the Iron Age.

145 citations