Myths of the Archaic State

Myths of the Archaic State PDF Author: Norman Yoffee
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521818370
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 293

Get Book Here

Book Description
In this ground-breaking work, Norman Yoffee shatters the prevailing myths underpinning our understanding of the evolution of early civilisations. He counters the emphasis in traditional scholarship on the rule of 'godly' and despotic male leaders and challenges the conventional view that early states were uniformly constituted bureaucratic and regional entities. Instead, by illuminating the role of slaves and soldiers, priests and priestesses, peasants and prostitutes, merchants and craftsmen, Yoffee depicts an evolutionary process centred on the concerns of everyday life. Drawing on evidence from ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, China and Mesoamerica, the author explores the variety of trajectories followed by ancient states, from birth to collapse, and explores the social processes that shape any account of the human past. This book offers a bold new interpretation of social evolutionary theory, and as such it is essential reading for any student or scholar with an interest in the emergence of complex society.

Myths of the Archaic State

Myths of the Archaic State PDF Author: Norman Yoffee
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521818370
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 293

Get Book Here

Book Description
In this ground-breaking work, Norman Yoffee shatters the prevailing myths underpinning our understanding of the evolution of early civilisations. He counters the emphasis in traditional scholarship on the rule of 'godly' and despotic male leaders and challenges the conventional view that early states were uniformly constituted bureaucratic and regional entities. Instead, by illuminating the role of slaves and soldiers, priests and priestesses, peasants and prostitutes, merchants and craftsmen, Yoffee depicts an evolutionary process centred on the concerns of everyday life. Drawing on evidence from ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, China and Mesoamerica, the author explores the variety of trajectories followed by ancient states, from birth to collapse, and explores the social processes that shape any account of the human past. This book offers a bold new interpretation of social evolutionary theory, and as such it is essential reading for any student or scholar with an interest in the emergence of complex society.

Archaic States

Archaic States PDF Author: Gary M. Feinman
Publisher: School of American Research Ad
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 476

Get Book Here

Book Description
In this volume, the authors highlight the diversity and instability of ancient states and how widely they have varied through time and across space. Archaic States presents new comparative studies of early states in the Old and New Worlds, including the Near East, India and Pakistan, Egypt, Mesoamerica, and the Andes. In the process, it helps to define key avenues for research and discussion in the decades ahead.

The Collapse of Ancient States and Civilizations

The Collapse of Ancient States and Civilizations PDF Author: Norman Yoffee
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
ISBN: 9780816512492
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 352

Get Book Here

Book Description
Publikacja prac seminarium "School of American Research" które odbyło się w Santa Fe, 22-26 marca 1982 r.

The Anatomy of Myth

The Anatomy of Myth PDF Author: Michael W. Herren
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019060669X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 249

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Anatomy of Myth is a comprehensive study of the methods of interpreting authoritative myths from the Presocratic philosophers to the Neoplatonists and their adoption by the Church Fathers.

Understanding Collapse

Understanding Collapse PDF Author: Guy D. Middleton
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 110715149X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 463

Get Book Here

Book Description
In this lively survey, Guy D. Middleton critically examines our ideas about collapse - how we explain it and how we have constructed potentially misleading myths around collapses - showing how and why collapse of societies was a much more complex phenomenon than is often admitted.

Myths and Realities of Caribbean History

Myths and Realities of Caribbean History PDF Author: Basil A. Reid
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
ISBN: 0817355340
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 170

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book seeks to debunk eleven popular and prevalent myths about Caribbean history. Using archaeological evidence, it corrects many previous misconceptions promulgated by history books and oral tradition as they specifically relate to the pre-Colonial and European-contact periods. It informs popular audiences, as well as scholars, about the current state of archaeological/historical research in the Caribbean Basin and asserts the value of that research in fostering a better understanding of the region’s past. Contrary to popular belief, the history of the Caribbean did not begin with the arrival of Europeans in 1492. It actually started 7,000 years ago with the infusion of Archaic groups from South America and the successive migrations of other peoples from Central America for about 2,000 years thereafter. In addition to discussing this rich cultural diversity of the Antillean past, Myths and Realities of Caribbean History debates the misuse of terms such as “Arawak” and “Ciboneys,” and the validity of Carib cannibalism allegations.

Understanding Early Civilizations

Understanding Early Civilizations PDF Author: Bruce G. Trigger
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521822459
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 784

Get Book Here

Book Description
Sample Text

Myth and History in Ancient Greece

Myth and History in Ancient Greece PDF Author: Claude Calame
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691114587
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 199

Get Book Here

Book Description
Surely the ancient Greeks would have been baffled to see what we consider their "mythology." Here, Claude Calame mounts a powerful critique of modern-day misconceptions on this front and the lax methodology that has allowed them to prevail. He argues that the Greeks viewed their abundance of narratives not as a single mythology but as an "archaeology." They speculated symbolically on key historical events so that a community of believing citizens could access them efficiently, through ritual means. Central to the book is Calame's rigorous and fruitful analysis of various accounts of the foundation of that most "mythical" of the Greek colonies--Cyrene, in eastern Libya. Calame opens with a magisterial historical survey demonstrating today's misapplication of the terms "myth" and "mythology." Next, he examines the Greeks' symbolic discourse to show that these modern concepts arose much later than commonly believed. Having established this interpretive framework, Calame undertakes a comparative analysis of six accounts of Cyrene's foundation: three by Pindar and one each by Herodotus (in two different versions), Callimachus, and Apollonius of Rhodes. We see how the underlying narrative was shaped in each into a poetically sophisticated, distinctive form by the respective medium, a particular poetical genre, and the specific socio-historical circumstances. Calame concludes by arguing in favor of the Greeks' symbolic approach to the past and by examining the relation of mythos to poetry and music.

Ancient Civilizations

Ancient Civilizations PDF Author: Dr. Brian Fagan
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317350324
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 627

Get Book Here

Book Description
Drawing on many avenues of inquiry: archaeological excavations, surveys, laboratory work, highly specialized scientific investigations, and on both historical and ethnohistorical records; Ancient Civilizations, 3/e provides a comprehensive and straightforward account of the world’s first civilizations and a brief summary of the way in which they were discovered.

Myths After Lincoln

Myths After Lincoln PDF Author: Lloyd Lewis
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 415

Get Book Here

Book Description