期刊名称：Interdisciplinaria Archaeologica : Natural Sciences in Archaeology
印刷版ISSN：1804-848X
出版年度：2015
卷号：VI
期号：1
页码：109-110
出版社：Archaeological Centre Olomouc
摘要：This huge handbook focuses on the phenomenon of hunter-gatherers from the perspective of two disciplines, namely archaeology and anthropology. The volume under review here is written by a distinguished group of internationally- recognised researchers under the leadership of Vicki Cummings (Reader in Archaeology at the University of Central Lancashire), Peter Jordan (Director of the Arctic Centre at the University of Groningen) and Marek Zvelebil (deceased Professor of European Prehistory at the University of Sheffield). The book is a complex piece of work providing a detailed critical review of several present-day investigations that vary both in their scope and approach. The 61 essays are well-organized into seven thematic sections, comprised of individual chapters that cover specific issues and case studies from around the world. var currentpos,timer; function initialize() { timer=setInterval("scrollwindow()",10);} function sc(){clearInterval(timer); }function scrollwindow() { currentpos=document.body.scrollTop; window.scroll(0,++currentpos); if (currentpos != document.body.scrollTop) sc();} document.onmousedown=scdocument.ondblclick=initialize IANSA 2015 ● VI/1 ● 109–110 Book Reviews 110 views of the process – referring directly to older models based on migration and the diffusion of ideas in the European chapters, as opposed to other world regions, where the spread of farming is seen relatively variable with no clear dichotomy between foragers and farmers, as pointed out by V. Cumming in this part's introduction. She also emphasizes a need for focusing on regional variability and constructing new frames of references for understanding the transition to farming in European regions. Part VI (The Ethnohistory and Anthropology of "Modern" Hunter- Gatherers) finally leads to the anthropological understanding of the ethnographically- documented contemporary hunter-gatherers. The opening chapter by P. Jordan is extremely useful, discussing the role of historical and political circumstances that have impacted on the directions of hunter- gatherer research – and presenting some general research trends including the shift from a comparative perspective the study of typical features of all hunter-gatherer societies to the investigation of more local patterns of forager subsistence, social life, or ideology. The following chapters present case studies and discussions from various world areas, such as the traditional study regions of Africa (R. Hitchcock; B. Hewlett and J. Fancher), Australia (I. Keen), the Great Basin and California (D. Robinson) and the Pacific Northwest Coast (S. O'Neill), along with the rather newly-investigated regions of South-East Asia (J. Fortier), South America (G. Politis and A. Hernando), or northern Euroasia (M. Hudson; J.-P. Taavitsainen). Much welcome is that the authors have avoided a descriptive approach characterizing individual societies as known from earlier works (e.g. Lee, Daly 1999). Instead they consider regional research histories, the specifics of individual hunter-gatherer societies, and last, but not least, future research directions. Part VII (Future Directions in Hunter- Gatherer Research) completes the handbook by giving many theoretical and methodological developments and future opportunities in the study of hunter- gatherers – ranging from adaptive and evolutionary approaches, such as the study of technological issues (R. Kelly) or the application of cultural transmission theory (J. Eerkens, R. Bettinger and P. Richerson) and archaeogenetic research (V. .erny and L. Pereira), through to some new interpretative themes like the study of hunter- gatherer mobility (B. David, L. Lamb and J. Kaiwari), the advancing investigation into social relations and personhood (N. Finlay), or material studies (H. Cobb) and religion and rituality (D. Whitley), to integrative research perspectives including gender studies (R. Jarvenpa and H. Brumbach) and subsistence strategies (R. Schulting). The editors in the introductory chapter rightly point out that: although hunter- gatherer research into the archaeology and anthropology of hunters and gatherers has undergone dramatic changes over the last decades, current research is revealing an enormous diversity that integrates a whole range of new methods, approaches and research areas, and on which future research should be developed. The book is characterised by a general effort to critically overview and discuss the central themes and debates at the heart of this interest and outline some of the most essential directions for future research in the field of hunter-gatherer societies. The layout of the chapters is appropriate with very useful introductory pages in each part; the bibliography is a representative picture of what has been done concerning this topic. Despite the fact that some issues have already been discussed elsewhere (e.g. Bailey, Spikins eds. 2008), the handbook is, without doubt, extremely valuable – particularly in terms of its interdisciplinary approach. In this regard, especially the traditional labels of timelessness, uniformity and universal simplicity of hunter-gatherer populations have been severely challenged. This book covers a lot of issues and, because of this, suffers from not being able to deal with some subjects in more detail. On the other hand, the volume completely fulfils its intent and will certainly serve as an important milestone in the development of hunter-gatherer studies for students, teachers, researchers and others having an interest within this broad field. This set of papers will thus surely become a standard work of reference for years to come. References BAILEY, G., SPIKINS, P. (Eds.) 2008: Mesolithic Europe. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. LEE, R. B., DALY, R. H. (Eds.) 1999: The Cambridge encyclopedia of hunters and gatherers. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Michaela Divi.ová
