The Past in Perspective: An Introduction to Human Prehistory, 4/e
Kenneth L. Feder,
Central Connecticut State University
ISBN: 0073107700 Copyright year: 2007
What's New
This edition is now in full color imagery throughout, so that students will gain a greater appreciation for the artistic achievements of ancient humanity.
Chapter 2 provides additional discussion of the ways in which archaeological sites come into existence and how they are preserved. Also, the section on how archaeologists trace raw materials has been revised.
Chapter 3 offers a substantial discussion of a number of different hominids who may have taken the first literal and figurative steps in human evolution, around 6 million years ago.
New material in Chapter 4 reflects the exciting if vexing fact that nothing about hominid evolution is entirely settled. The specimen called the "Hobbit" found on the island of Flores is examined here, along with other new fossil discoveries that have expanded our understanding of the geographical expansion of the hominid family beyond Africa.
The discussion of the evolution of pre-modern and modern human beings has been combined into a single new Chapter 5.
New material in Chapter 6 shows that the production of art and the use of symbol precedes the Upper Paleolithic.
Chapter 7 presents information on new sites that have prompted a reconsideration of the nature of and timing of the earliest human settlement of Australia and the New World.
Chapter 8 provides a greatly expanded discussion of post-Pleistocene adaptations, especially in Europe, North America, and Australia.
The discussion of phytoliths, genetics, and isotope analysis (as these relate to the origins of domestication) has been enhanced in Chapter 9. The demographic implications of the Food Producing Revolution are presented in far greater detail.
A greatly expanded discussion addresses the roots of complexity in Mesoamerica and South America (in Chapter 10).
Previously covered in a single chapter, the flowering of the civilization in the Old World is now the focus of two separate chapters:
The focus of Chapter 11 is Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Pakistan,
while Chapter 12 discusses China, the Southeast Asia, and Crete.
Previously covered in a single chapter, the flowering of civilization in the New World is now the focus of two separate chapters:
Chapter 13 presents the development of civilization in Mesoamerica, with far more detailed examinations of the Maya and Teotihuacan, and
Chapter 14 focuses on the evolution of the state in South America.
Rewritten and expanded, the material is presented in the same accessible and engaging format and style that has always characterized the book.
Chapter 15 provides an expanded look at Adena and Hopewell.
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2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education