World prehistory : a brief introduction / Brian M. Fagan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fagan, Brian M.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Prehistoric peoples.

Anthropology, Prehistoric.

Human evolution.

Antiquities, Prehistoric.

Physical Description:

xix, 375 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Edition:

Fifth edition.

Place of Publication:

Upper Saddle River, N.J. : Prentice Hall, [2002]

Contents:

Part I Prehistory 1

Chapter 1 Introducing World Prehistory 3

"In the Beginning" 4

Pseudoarchaeology 6

Prehistory, Archaeology, and World Prehistory 7

Major Developments in Human Prehistory 9

Cyclical and Linear Time 10

Written Records, Oral History, and Archaeology 14

Studying World Prehistory 15

Culture History, Time and Space, and "The Myth of the Ethnographic Present" 17

Cultural Process and Past Lifeways 22

The Mechanisms of Culture Change 24

Culture as Adaptation 26

Intangibles: Ideology and Interaction 30

Part II The World of the First Humans 35

Chapter 2 Human Origins 37

The Great Ice Age (1.8 million to 15,000 years ago) 39

Early Primate Evolution and Adaptation 41

The Fossil Evidence for Human Evolution (4 million to 1.5 million years ago) 44

All Kinds of Australopithecines (3 million to 2.5 million years ago) 50

Early Homo: Homo habilis (2.5 million to 2.0 million years ago) 52

Who Was the First Human? 56

The Earliest Human Technology 57

Hunters or Scavengers? 61

The Earliest Human Mind 63

The Development of Language 65

The Earliest Social Organization 66

Chapter 3 African Exodus 68

Ice Age Background 69

Homo erectus (c. 1.9 million to after 200,000 years ago) 72

The Lifeway of Homo erectus 76

Archaic Homo sapiens (c. 400,000 to 130,000 years ago) 81

The Neanderthals (c. 150,000 to 30,000 years ago) 82

The Origins of Modern Humans (?c. 180,000 to 150,000 years ago) 88

Out of Tropical Africa 93

Part III The Birth of the Modern World 95

Chapter 4 Diaspora 97

The Late Ice Age World (50,000 to 15,000 years ago) 99

The Peopling of Southeast Asia and Australia (45,000 to 15,000 years ago) 101

Late Ice Age Europe: The Cro-Magnons (40,000 to 15,000 years ago) 103

Hunter-gatherers in Eurasia (35,000 to 15,000 years ago) 109

East Asia (35,000 to 15,000 years ago) 112

Early Human Settlement of Siberia (?before 20,000 to 15,000 years ago) 114

The First Americans (?before 15,000 years ago to 11,000 B.C.) 114

The Clovis People (c. 11,200 to 11,000 B.C.) 118

Chapter 5 The Origins of Food Production 121

The Holocene (after 10,000 B.C.) 125

Changes in Forager Societies 125

Social Complexity among Foragers 127

Theories of Farming Origins 129

The Recovery Revolution 130

Multicausal Theories 131

The Consequences of Food Production 134

Nutrition and Early Food Production 139

Chapter 6 The Earliest Farmers 141

Domesticating Animals 143

Domesticating Wheat and Barley 144

Southwest Asian Farmers (c. 10,000 to 5000 B.C.) 146

Early Egyptian and African Farmers (earlier than 6000 B.C. to 1000 B.C.) 149

European Farmers (c. 6500 to 3000 B.C.) 151

Early Agriculture in Asia (before 6000 B.C.) 154

Early American Agriculture (8000 B.C. onward) 158

Chapter 7 Chiefs and Chiefdoms 165

Reciprocity and "Big Men" 167

Navigators and Chiefs in the Pacific (2000 B.C. to modern times) 169

The American Southwest (300 B.C. to modern times) 173

Moundbuilders in Eastern North America (2000 B.C. to A.D. 1650) 180

Part IV Early Civilizations 189

Chapter 8 State-Organized Societies 191

What Is a State-Organized Society? 192

Cities 194

Theories of the Origins of States 196

Social Approaches: Power in Three Domains 202

People as Agents of Change 206

The Collapse of Civilizations 207

Chapter 9 Mesopotamia and the Eastern Mediterranean World 210

Origins (5500 to 3000 B.C.) 212

Sumerian Civilization (c. 3100 to 2334 B.C.) 218

Akkadians and Babylonians (2334 to 1650 B.C.) 221

Hittites and Sea Traders (1650 to 1200 B.C.) 222

Minoans and Mycenaeans (1900 to 1200 B.C.) 224

Sea Peoples and Phoenicians (1200 to 800 B.C.) 229

Assyrians and Babylonians (900 to 539 B.C.) 229

Chapter 10 Egypt and Africa 232

Predynastic Egypt: Ancient Monopoly? (5000 to 3100 B.C.) 233

Dynastic Egyptian Civilization (c. 3000 to 30 B.C.) 237

Egypt and Afrocentrism 247

Nubia: The Land of Kush (3000 to 633 B.C.) 247

Meroe and Aksum 249

Ancient African Kingdoms 251

Chapter 11 South, Southeast, and East Asia 257

South Asia: The Harappan Civilization (c. 2700 to 1700 B.C.) 258

South Asia after the Harappans (1700 to 180 B.C.) 264

The Origins of Chinese Civilization (2600 to 1100 B.C.) 264

The War Lords (1100 to 221 B.C.) 268

Southeast Asian Civilization (A.D. 1 to 1500) 270

Chapter 12 Lowland Mesoamerica 276

Beginnings: Preclassic Peoples in the Lowlands (2000 B.C. to A.D. 300) 277

The Olmec (1500 B.C. to 500 B.C.) 279

Classic Maya Civilization (A.D. 300 to 900) 285

The Classic Maya Collapse 290

Postclassic Maya Civilization (A.D. 900 to 1517) 293

Chapter 13 Highland Mesoamerica 297

The Rise of Highland Civilization: The Valley of Oaxaca (2000 to 500 B.C.) 298

Monte Alban (500 B.C. to A.D. 750) 300

Valley of Mexico: Teotihuacan (200 B.C. to A.D. 750) 301

The Toltecs (A.D. 650 to 1200) 305

Aztec Civilization (A.D. 1200 to 1521) 306

Chapter 14 Andean Civilizations 315

The Maritime Foundations of Andean Civilization 318

Coastal Foundations (2500 to 900 B.C.) 319

The Early Horizon and Chavin de Huantar (900 to 200 B.C.) 320

The Initial Period 321

The Moche State (200 B.C. to A.D. 700) 326

The Middle Horizon: Tiwanaku and Wari (A.D. 600 to 1000) 328

The Late Intermediate Period: Sican and Chimu (A.D. 700 to 1460) 330

The Late Horizon: The Inca State (A.D. 1476 to 1534) 331

The Spanish Conquest (A.D. 1532 to 1534) 336.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 353-362) and index.

ISBN:

0130404632

OCLC:

46456299