Ian Kuijt – författare

Drawing on both the results of recent arhaeological research as well as anthropological theory, leading experts synthesize current thinking on the nature of and variation within Neolithic social arrangements. The authors analyze archaeological data within a range of methodological and theoretical perspectives to reconstruct key aspects of ritual practices, labor organization, and collective social identity at the scale of the household, community, and region.

Drawing on both the results of recent arhaeological research as well as anthropological theory, leading experts synthesize current thinking on the nature of and variation within Neolithic social arrangements. The authors analyze archaeological data within a range of methodological and theoretical perspectives to reconstruct key aspects of ritual practices, labor organization, and collective social identity at the scale of the household, community, and region.

Ash, bone, and memories are all that remains after cremation. Yet for societies and communities, the act of cremation after death is highly symbolic, rich with complex meaning, touching on what it means to be human. In the process of transforming the dead, the family, the community, and society as a whole create and partake in cultural symbolism. Cremation is a key area of archaeological research, but its complexity has been underappreciated and undertheorized. Transformation by Fire offers a fresh assessment of archaeological research on this widespread social practice. Editors Ian Kuijt, Colin P. Quinn, and Gabriel Cooney’s volume examines cremation by documenting the material signatures of cremation events and processes, as well as its transformative impact on social relations and concepts of the body. Indeed, examining why and how people chose to cremate their dead serves as an important means of understanding how people in the past dealt with death, the body, and the social world. The contributors develop new perspectives on cremation as important mortuary practices and social transformations. Varying attitudes and beliefs on cremation and other forms of burial within the same cultural paradigm help us understand what constitutes the body and what occurs during its fiery transformation. In addition, they explore issues and interpretive perspectives in the archaeological study of cremation within and between different cultural contexts. The global and comparative perspectives on cremation render the book a unique contribution to the literature of anthropological and mortuary archaeology.

An Archaeology of Ireland in the Age of Improvement offers the first dedicated archaeological examination of Improvement in Ireland. It explores the rhetoric and practice of ‘improving’ the country through its landscape, built heritage, artefacts and changing routines; and asks whether Irish Improvement can be considered distinctive.The volume brings together archaeologists with substantial experience in Irish post-medieval studies to evaluate the place of Improvement within archaeological discourses of historical capitalism and colonialism. It views the Improvement ethic as a manifestation of European enlightenment thinking that had far-reaching material and societal implications and explores, in Ireland’s turbulent and contested circumstances, how it was adopted as a justification for attempts to effect far-reaching social, cultural and moral transformations. The themes under examination include Gaelic responses to Improvement, changes to urban and rural settings, developing industries and the social worlds of artefacts and funerary practices. Across seven chapters the book provides a synthesis of emerging work on this crucial aspect of post-medieval Ireland. The book will interest historical archaeologists, researchers and students. It will also appeal to historical geographers and the broader historical studies community.

An Archaeology of Ireland in the Age of Improvement offers the first dedicated archaeological examination of Improvement in Ireland. It explores the rhetoric and practice of ‘improving’ the country through its landscape, built heritage, artefacts and changing routines; and asks whether Irish Improvement can be considered distinctive.The volume brings together archaeologists with substantial experience in Irish post-medieval studies to evaluate the place of Improvement within archaeological discourses of historical capitalism and colonialism. It views the Improvement ethic as a manifestation of European enlightenment thinking that had far-reaching material and societal implications and explores, in Ireland’s turbulent and contested circumstances, how it was adopted as a justification for attempts to effect far-reaching social, cultural and moral transformations. The themes under examination include Gaelic responses to Improvement, changes to urban and rural settings, developing industries and the social worlds of artefacts and funerary practices. Across seven chapters the book provides a synthesis of emerging work on this crucial aspect of post-medieval Ireland. The book will interest historical archaeologists, researchers and students. It will also appeal to historical geographers and the broader historical studies community.

Cultural evolution, much like general evolution, works from the assumption that cultures are descendent from much earlier ancestors. Human culture manifests itself in forms ranging from the small bands of hunters, through intermediate scale complex hunter-gatherers and farmers, to the high density urban settlements and complex polities that characterize much of today’s world.The chapters in the volume examine the dynamic interaction between the micro- and macro-scales of cultural evolution, developing a theoretical approach to the archaeological record that has been termed evolutionary processual archaeology. The contributions in this volume integrate positive elements of both evolutionary and processualist schools of thought. The approach, as explicated by the contributors in this work, offers novel insights into topics that include the emergence, stasis, collapse and extinction of cultural patterns, and development of social inequalities. Consequently, these contributions form a stepping off point for a significant new range of cultural evolutionary studies.

Drawing on both the results of recent arhaeological research as well as anthropological theory, leading experts synthesize current thinking on the nature of and variation within Neolithic social arrangements. The authors analyze archaeological data within a range of methodological and theoretical perspectives to reconstruct key aspects of ritual practices, labor organization, and collective social identity at the scale of the household, community, and region.