Prehistoric America - Hardcover

Meggers, Betty J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0202330788 ISBN 13: 9780202330785

Publisher: AldineTransaction, 1979

Synopsis

The cultural parallels between widely separated but environmentally similar regions are often extraordinary, yet these parallels are discounted by anthropologists on the basis that they ignore a large mass of less similar data. Too often cultural parallels between distant regions have been taken for granted rather than recognized as phenomena that need to be explained. The thesis of Prehistoric America is that they are neither fortuitous nor inconsequential, but an indication of the strength of environmental pressures on cultural development. This work is an excellent introduction to the prehistoric cultures of North and South America, one that will help the reader to discover and enjoy the intellectual adventure of archeology.

About this title

Review:

"This is a fine essay on preconquest America... [I]t is clearly and concisely written."

--Martin W. Boksenbaum, Man

"Prehistoric America adds to the surprisingly small number of modern paperback texts treating New World culture history. The author's aim is to provide a coherent synthesis from an ecological perspective, emphasizing the similarities that have arisen in a really separate but environmentally comparable regions of the two American continents. This is accomplished in a compact, easily read, and well-illustrated format accompanied by a modest selection of additional reading, perfectly adequate for instructional purposes. The simple and jargon-free language recommends its use in a wide variety of instructional contexts."

--Robert C. Dunnell, American Anthropologist

"This is a fine essay on preconquest America... [I]t is clearly and concisely written."

--Martin W. Boksenbaum, Man

"Prehistoric America adds to the surprisingly small number of modern paperback texts treating New World culture history. The author's aim is to provide a coherent synthesis from an ecological perspective, emphasizing the similarities that have arisen in a really separate but environmentally comparable regions of the two American continents. This is accomplished in a compact, easily read, and well-illustrated format accompanied by a modest selection of additional reading, perfectly adequate for instructional purposes. The simple and jargon-free language recommends its use in a wide variety of instructional contexts."

--Robert C. Dunnell, American Anthropologist

-This is a fine essay on preconquest America... [I]t is clearly and concisely written.-

--Martin W. Boksenbaum, Man

-Prehistoric America adds to the surprisingly small number of modern paperback texts treating New World culture history. The author's aim is to provide a coherent synthesis from an ecological perspective, emphasizing the similarities that have arisen in a really separate but environmentally comparable regions of the two American continents. This is accomplished in a compact, easily read, and well-illustrated format accompanied by a modest selection of additional reading, perfectly adequate for instructional purposes. The simple and jargon-free language recommends its use in a wide variety of instructional contexts.-

--Robert C. Dunnell, American Anthropologist

About the Author:

Betty J. Meggers is currently an expert, department of anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. She served as executive secretary of the American Anthropological Association, and has been a consultant to Battelle Memorial Institute.

About this edition

• Publisher: AldineTransaction
• Publication date: 1979
• ISBN 10: 0202330788
• ISBN 13: 9780202330785
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 195