Continent of hunter-gatherers : new perspectives in Australian prehistory / Harry Lourandos.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lourandos, Harry, 1945-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Prehistoric peoples--Australia.

Prehistoric peoples.

Hunting, Prehistoric--Australia.

Hunting, Prehistoric.

Economics, Prehistoric--Australia.

Economics, Prehistoric.

Aboriginal Australians--Antiquities.

Aboriginal Australians.

Australia--Antiquities.

Australia.

Antiquities.

Physical Description:

xvii, 390 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Summary:

This book challenges traditional perceptions of Australian Aboriginal prehistory. The natural environment has been seen as the major determinant of hunter-gatherers and Australian Aborigines have been understood to have been egalitarian and culturally homogeneous. Such an interpretation suggests that their prehistory shows few significant economic and demographic changes. Harry Lourandos argues however that hunter-gatherer societies and their socio-economic processes were more complex than previously thought.

In his presentation of a range of prehistoric data, the author reviews archaeological and ethnohistorical evidence together with environmental, demographic and socially-oriented perspectives. Lourandos synthesises previous findings before presenting an original hypothesis.

The study also considers the significance of Australian prehistory to the study of prehistoric hunter-gatherers elsewhere in the world. In this context the author argues that significant overlap existed between Australian hunter-gatherer societies in the Eurasian Mesolithic and North American Archaic periods.

This exciting new archaeology of Australia, with its evidence that Australian prehistory was a dynamic evolutionary period, will become a key text in archaeology, ethnohistory and anthropology.

Contents:

Introduction: Changing perspectives 1

1 Hunter-Gatherer Variation In Time And Space 8

The question of complexity 8

Long- and short-term trends 9

Theoretical approaches 10

Investigating socio-cultural variation 11

2 Australian Aboriginal Hunter-Gatherers 32

Changing perspectives 32

Population size and density 35

Territory 38

Exchange and trade 40

Australian and Tasmanian ethnographic case studies 43

The tropical north 43

The arid zone 51

The semi-arid zone 54

Sub-tropical Australia 57

Temperate southern Australia 59

Temperate island Tasmania 69

Hunters and horticulturalists 74

3 Out Of Asia: Earliest Evidence And People 80

Earliest sites 84

Earliest claims 87

People 88

Environmental impact 95

4 The Tropical North 112

Pleistocene settlement 112

Palaeoenvironment 112

Late Pleistocene: c. 40,000-15,000 BP 113

Terminal Pleistocene: c. 15,000-10,000 BP 120

Pleistocene rock art 121

Overview: Pleistocene settlement 123

Holocene settlement 125

Palaeoenvironment 125

Art and social networks of northern Australia 152

Overview: Holocene settlement 165

5 Arid And Semi-Arid Australia 170

Pleistocene settlement 170

Palaeoenvironment 170

The arid zone 170

Overview: Pleistocene arid Australia 174

The semi-arid zone 177

Holocene settlement 184

Palaeoenvironment 184

The arid zone 184

Overview: Holocene arid Australia 192

6 Temperate Southern Australia 195

Pleistocene settlement 195

Palaeoenvironment 195

Pleistocene sites: c. 30,000-20,000 BP 197

Pleistocene sites: c. 20,000-10,000 BP 200

Overview: Pleistocene settlement 202

Holocene settlement 204

Palaeoenvironment 204

Southeastern Australia 205

Southwestern Australia 239

Overview: Holocene settlement 240

7 Tasmania 244

Pleistocene settlement 244

Palaeoenvironment 244

Overview: Pleistocene settlement 254

The Holocene: Isolation and transformation 255

Palaeoenvironment 256

Overview: Holocene settlement 274

8 Artefacts And Assemblages Continent-Wide 282

The Australian Core Tool and Scraper tradition 282

The Australian Small Tool tradition 287

The introduction of the dingo 295

9 Interpretations 296

Pleistocene patterns 296

Holocene patterns 300

An evaluation of results 304

Chronological trends and patterns 305

Models 307

Two new alternative models 318

Change or stability? 321

10 Concluding Perspectives 324

Ethnography and ethnohistory 324

Archaeology 326

Three models 327

Greater Australia and world prehistory 330.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 339-382) and index.

ISBN:

0521351065

0521359465

OCLC:

34984335