文档介绍：Understanding the
Neolithic
Understanding the Neolithic is a groundbreaking investigation of the Neolithic period (4000–2200
BC) in southern Britain. Whilst thoroughly examining the archaeological data of this region,
Julian Thomas exposes the assumptions and prejudices which have shaped archaeologists’
accounts of the distant past, and presents fresh interpretations informed by social theory, anthro-
pology and critical hermeneutics. This volume is the fully reworked and updated edition of
Rethinking the Neolithic (1991), which provoked much heated debate on publication, especially
in providing stimulating and radical alternative ways of interpreting archaeological evidence.
Understanding the Neolithic questions the impression that there was a universal shift from
hunting and gathering to farming, and argues that monuments and other material innovations
were not simply the products of economic and technological developments. Rather, new forms
of material culture were used in inventive ways by munities to transform social
relationships and create new worlds of meaning.
Understanding the Neolithic will be of great interest to students of prehistory and archaeological
theory.
Julian Thomas is Reader in Archaeology at the University of Southampton. He has published
widely on European prehistory and archaeological theory, and his publications include Time,
Culture and Identity (1996). He is a member of the Council of the Royal Anthropological Institute.
Understanding the
Neolithic
A revised second edition of
Rethinking the Neolithic
Julian Thomas
London and New York
First edition published 1991
by Cambridge University Press as Rethinking the Neolithic
Second edition published
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
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