Susan Kent - Böcker

'

This book examines variability within broadly defined African forager societies, such as the Basarwa, Pygmies, Hadza and others. Foragers have been seen as culturally similar in that they all pursue a subsistence strategy that emphasizes hunting and gathering. However, research suggests there may be more diversity among groups than has previously been acknowledged. It is important to understand why diversity occurs within foraging societies and how this diversity compares with various societies. Here, leading scholars in the field compare and contrast various groups within more broadly defined forager societies. The chapters, which range in orientation from symbolic to ecological and behavioural, are based on rich ethnographic detail and the volume provides invaluable data on hunter-gatherer life that will interest anyone concerned with past or present foragers.

Farmers as hunters analyses from an essentially ethnographic perspective the role of hunters in small-scale farming societies. The twelve contributors examine the effects of hunting and mobility on behaviour, diet, economy and material culture at both culture-specific and cross-cultural levels. The influence of sedentism and the increasing use of domesticates is also explored across a wide range of societies from the American southwest and Amazonian to Africa, New Guinea and the Phillipines. Differing perceptions of the status of animals and plants are reviewed and cultural values are throughout given due weight in a field where discussion too often verges on the economically deterministic.

Domestic Architecture and the Use of Space investigates the relationship between the built environment and the organisation of space. The contributors are classical and prehistoric archaeologists, anthropologists and architects, who from their different backgrounds are able to provide some important and original insights into this relationship.

Gender in African Prehistory provides methods and theories for delineating and discussing prehistoric gender relations and their change through time. Sites studied range from Egypt to South Africa and Ghana to Tanzania, while time periods span the Stone Age to the period just prior to colonialization.