Mesolithic Studies at the Beginning of the 21st Century - Softcover

Woodman, Peter

9781842172001: Mesolithic Studies at the Beginning of the 21st Century

Softcover

ISBN 10: 184217200X ISBN 13: 9781842172001

Publisher: Oxbow Books, 2005

The term 'Mesolithic' was born in the nineteenth century from the need to label a 'hiatus' period and was not generally accepted as a useful term by many scholars until around fifty years later. It has been championed by some, but still concerns others because of the difficulty of defining what it represents. This volume highlights the enthusiasm for Mesolithic studies in the 21st century and the feeling that there is a need to explore the many facets of Mesolithic lifeways. Approaches are now moving away from the traditional Mesolithic canon that seems to have been based on a particular set of biological and/or ecological perspectives and are now looking for new directions and new theoretical arenas which can only help stimulate Mesolithic debate. The papers in this volume take a range of approaches to a period that has largely been devoid of explicit theoretical discussion. They deconstruct and explore a broad variety of subjects, including mobility, complexity, seasonality, death & burial, gender & sexuality, social relations, music, human agency, ethnoarchaeology and emotion.

Table of Contents

Looking into the canon's mouth: Mesolithic studies in the 21st century (Nicky Milner and Peter Woodman)
The Mesolithic of Cantabrian Spain: A critical review (Manuel R Gonzalez Morales and Miguel A Fano Martinez)
Summer walkers? – Mobility and the Mesolithic (Caroline Wickham-Jones)
Moving beyond site: Mesolithic technology in the landscape (Chantal Conneller)
Seasonal consumption practices in the Mesolithic: Economic, environmental, social or ritual? (Nicky Milner)
Complex arguments... (Graeme Warren)
Fuzzy horizons of change: Orientalism and the frontier model of the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition (Dušan Boric�)
Petso's field: Ethnoarchaeology and agency (Kathryn Fewster)
It's too light to be right (Peter Woodman)
All are not hunters that knap the stone – a search for a woman's touch in Mesolithic stone tool production (Farina Sternke)
Sex, gender and sexuality in the Mesolithic (Laura B Pugsley)
Redefining social relations – tradition, complementarity and internal tension (Liliana Janik)
The emotional Mesolithic: Past and present ambiguities of Ofnet Cave (Daniela Hofmann)
The long-forgotten melody? Music in the Mesolithic (Iain Morley)

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About the Author:

Peter Woodman is Emeritus Professor of Archaeology at University College Cork.

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