Handbook of Evolutionary Research in Archaeology - by Anna Marie Prentiss (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Evolutionary Research in Archaeology seeks to provide a comprehensive overview of contemporary evolutionary research in archaeology. The book will provide a single source for introduction and overview of basic and advanced evolutionary concepts and research programs in archaeology. Content will be organized around four areas of critical research including microevolutionary and macroevolutionary process, human ecology studies (evolutionary ecology, demography, and niche construction), and evolutionary cognitive archaeology. Authors of individual chapters will address theoretical foundations, history of research, contemporary contributions and debates, and implications for the future for their respective topics. As appropriate, authors present or discuss short empirical case studies to illustrate key arguments.

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From the Back Cover

Evolutionary Research in Archaeology seeks to provide a comprehensive overview of contemporary evolutionary research in archaeology.

The book will provide a single source for introduction and overview of basic and advanced evolutionary concepts and research programs in archaeology. Content will be organized around four areas of critical research including microevolutionary and macroevolutionary process, human ecology studies (evolutionary ecology, demography, and niche construction), and evolutionary cognitive archaeology.

Given a focus on theory and application the book does not seek comprehensive coverage of the full range of empirical work as measured temporally and geographically. Authors of individual chapters will address theoretical foundations, history of research, contemporary contributions and debates, and implications for the future for their respective topics. As appropriate and within space limits authors could present or discuss short empirical case studies to illustrate key arguments.

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Review Quotes

"This volume covers a lot of ground at considerable depth. ... readers of this volume should gain an excellent understanding of the current status of evolutionary research in archaeology in all its contradictions, complexity, and insight. ... this compelling volume indicates that this approach proves extremely robust in explaining the development of human behavior." (Christopher Morgan, American Antiquity, Vol. 85 (4), 2020)

About the Author

Dr. Anna Marie Prentiss is an archaeologist specializing in the prehistory of the Great Plains, Pacific Northwest, and Western Arctic regions of North America and Chilean Patagonia. She has a methodological specialty in lithic technology and theoretical interests in the archaeology of villages and towns, social inequality, hunter-gatherer mobility and technological organization, and the cultural evolutionary process. She is currently editor of the SAA Archaeological Record, the magazine of the Society for American Archaeology.​