Explaining and Exploring Diversity in Agricultural Technology (Earth Series) - Hardcover

9781842175156: Explaining and Exploring Diversity in Agricultural Technology (Earth Series)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1842175157 ISBN 13: 9781842175156

Publisher: Oxbow Books, 2015

This volume is the outcome of collaborative European research among archaeologists, archaeobotanists, ethnographers, historians and agronomists, and frequently uses experiments in archaeology. It aims to establish new common ground for integrating different approaches and for viewing agriculture from the standpoint of the human actors involved. Each chapter provides an interdisciplinary overview of the skills used and the social context of the pursuit of agriculture, highlighting examples of tools, technologies and processes from land clearance to cereal processing and food preparation. This is the second of three volumes in the EARTH monograph series, The dynamics of non-industrial agriculture: 8,000 years of resilience and innovation , which shows the great variety of agricultural practices in human terms, in their social, political, cultural and legal contexts.

Table of Contents

Part I: Introduction
1. The dimension of tools, skills and processes

Part II: The agricultural process: tools and techniques in cultural context
2. From Land Clearance and Preparation to Sowing
3. Tending the Crops
4. Diversity in Harvesting Techniques
5. Threshing Processes and Tools
6. Storage and Preservation
7. Cereal Processing and Cooking: Techniques, Tools, and Gestures

Part III: The social context of agricultural technology
8. Acquiring skills and the transmission of knowledge
9. Symbolic and legal aspects of agrarian life
10. Agricultural practices: change and stability

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About the Author

Annelou van Gijn is professor of Archaeological Material Culture and Artefact Studies at Leiden University and studied anthropology and archaeology at Washington State University Pullman (US) and the University of Groningen. She obtained her PhD at Leiden University. Her teaching and research focus on prehistoric technology, ancient crafts, experimentation and the reconstruction of the cultural biography of objects, topics on which she published widely.

She is a specialist in microwear and residue analysis, focusing on the interconnectivities of different materials and toolkits. She is leading an extensive experimental house building project at Horsterwold and the Vlaardingen-Broekpolder. Van Gijn has established and is directing the Leiden Laboratory for Artefacts Studies.

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