Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Introduction
- Part I History, method, and theory
- 1 History and contemporary American archaeology: a critical analysis
- 2 Aspects of the application of evolutionary theory in archaeology
- 3 The “New Archaeology,” then and now
- 4 Marxism in American archaeology
- 5 Formal approaches in archaeology
- 6 Ideology and evolutionism in American archaeology: looking beyond the economic base
- 7 The present and the future of hunter-gatherer studies
- 8 Paleopathology and the interpretation of economic change in prehistory
- Part II Archaeology in the Americas and beyond
- References
- Index
7 - The present and the future of hunter-gatherer studies
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Introduction
- Part I History, method, and theory
- 1 History and contemporary American archaeology: a critical analysis
- 2 Aspects of the application of evolutionary theory in archaeology
- 3 The “New Archaeology,” then and now
- 4 Marxism in American archaeology
- 5 Formal approaches in archaeology
- 6 Ideology and evolutionism in American archaeology: looking beyond the economic base
- 7 The present and the future of hunter-gatherer studies
- 8 Paleopathology and the interpretation of economic change in prehistory
- Part II Archaeology in the Americas and beyond
- References
- Index
Summary
As the concept of a world system has expanded beyond the historical context from which it originally derived and has gained increasing favor in anthropological analysis, the notion that any hunting and gathering group can stand, be “explained” or “understood” in seemingly untouched isolation becomes increasingly tenuous. Although this basic issue – the definition of analytic units and the relationship between such units – is far from new in anthropology, the focus has until recently been directed towards relatively complex societies where ties with a market economy were clear. Recent hunters and gatherers have rarely been considered in this light because they exist in geographically remote areas as isolates surrounded by empty or sparsely inhabited space. In this context the symbiotic relationships long noted between Central African pigmy groups and their Bantu neighbors were seen more as exceptions than the rule. In the last several years however the tide has strongly turned and it is increasingly argued not only that contemporary foragers can only be “understood” in terms of a more encompassing network of human interaction but also that such a stricture holds for past counterparts who existed in a post-Neolithic world. For example recent studies of Ife (pigmy) and Lese (neighboring Bantu agriculturalists) suggest that the Central African rainforest lacks sufficient resources to support hominid foragers and thus the pigmy hunting and gathering adaptation both post-dates and is dependent upon the expansion of agriculturalists into the Congo basin.
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- Archaeological Thought in America , pp. 103 - 116Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1989
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