Time, Process and Structured Transformation in Archaeology by James Mcglade

Time, Process and Structured Transformation in Archaeology by James Mcglade

In a discipline which essentially studies how modern man came to be, it is remarkable that there are hardly any conceptual tools to describe change. This is due to the history of the western intellectual and scientific tradition, which for a long time favoured mechanics over dynamics, and the study of stability over that of change. Change was primarily deemed due to external events (in archaeology mainly climatic or 'environmental').Revolutionary innovations in the natural and life sciences, often (erroneously) referred to as 'chaos theory', suggest that there are ways to overcome this problem. A wide range of processes can be described in terms of dynamic systems, and modern computing methods enable us to investigate many of their properties. This volume presents a cogent argument for the use of such approaches, and a discussion of a number of its aspects by a range of scientists from the humanities, social and natural sciences, and archaeology.

'From modelling mammoth hunting and extinctions, the spread of European disease to and across the Americas and the transfer of information in genes, this is state-of-the-art archaeology' - New Scientist

James McGlade, Sander E. van der Leeuw

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780415117883
ISBN 10	0415117887
Title	Time, Process and Structured Transformation in Archaeology
Author	James Mcglade
Series	One World Archaeology
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Routledge
Year published	1997-01-02
Number of pages	508
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.