Becoming Human

'This ... book contains very useful and often stimulating reviews of the essential new(ish) archaeology and ideas, written and edited with authority and clarity.' British Archaeology

Colin Renfrew (Professor Lord Renfrew of Kaimsthorn) is Emeritus Disney Professor and Fellow of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at Cambridge University. He is the author and editor of a large number of publications, including Archaeology: Theories, Methods and Practice, with Paul Bahn, which is one of the standard textbooks on the subject. Iain Morley is Research Fellow of Darwin College and Fellow of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at Cambridge University. The author of numerous articles in academic journals and books, he is also co-editor, with Colin Renfrew, of Image and Imagination: A Global Prehistory of Figurative Representation.

1. Introduction Colin Renfrew; 2. Prologue: the emergence of symbolic thought: the principal steps of hominisation leading towards greater complexity Henry de Lumley; Part I. African Origins, European Beginnings and World Prehistory: 3. The origins of symbolism, spirituality & shamans? Exploring Middle Stone Age material culture in South Africa Christopher Henshilwood; 4. Neanderthal symbolic behaviour? Jane Renfrew; 5. Identifying ancient religious thought and iconography: problems of definition, preservation and interpretation Paul Taon; 6. Situating the creative explosion: universal or local? Colin Renfrew; Part II. Approaches to 'Art and Religion': 7. The roots of art and religion in ancient material culture Merlin Donald; 8. The archaeology of early religious practices: a plea for a hypothesis-testing approach Francesco d'Errico; 9. Out of the mind: material culture and the supernatural Steven Mithen; 10. Of people and pictures: the nexus of Upper Palaeolithic religion, social discrimination and art David Lewis-Williams; 11. Music and ritual - parallels and practice, and the Upper Palaeolithic Iain Morley; Part III. The European Experience: 12. Materiality and meaning-making in the understanding of the Palaeolithic 'arts' Margaret Conkey; 13. Sticking bones into cracks in the Upper Palaeolithic Jean Clottes; 14. Cognition and climate: why is Upper Palaeolithic cave art almost confined to the Franco-Cantabrian region? Paul Mellars; Part IV. Reflections on the Origins of Spirituality: 15. Interdisciplinary perspectives on human origins and religious awareness Wentzel Van Huyssteen; 16. Innovation in material and spiritual culture: exploring conjectured relationships Keith Ward.