Rock art has long been considered an archaeological artifact reflecting activities from the past, yet it is also a phenomenon with present-day meaning and relevance to both indigenous and non-indigenous communities. Relating to Rock Art in the Contemporary World challenges traditional ways of thinking about this highly recognizable form of visual heritage and provides insight into its contemporary significance.One of the most visually striking forms of material culture emb...

'A brilliant insight into Liam's life in football' - Kevin Moran'Insightful, often joyous, and hugely entertaining. I loved it' - Roddy Doyle'One of our country's great footballers, and definitely our most beautiful' - John GilesBeing a footballer was my destiny.After being expelled from school for playing football for his country, fifteen-year-old Liam Brady travelled to London to join Arsenal, and...

'A brilliant insight into Liam's life in football' - Kevin Moran'Insightful, often joyous, and hugely entertaining. I loved it' - Roddy Doyle'One of our country's great footballers, and definitely our most beautiful' - John GilesBeing a footballer was my destiny.After being expelled from school for playing football for his country, fifteen-year-old Liam Brady travelled to London to join Arsenal, and...

Every culture is a unique answer to a fundamental question: What does it mean to be human and alive? In The Wayfinders, renowned anthropologist and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Wade Davis leads us on a thrilling journey to celebrate the wisdom of the world's indigenous cultures.In Polynesia we set sail with navigators whose ancestors settled the Pacific ten centuries before Christ. In the Amazon we meet the descendants of a true lost civilization, the...

To what extent do regional socioeconomic processes influence the level of ecosystem pressure being exerted by indigenous groups? In Manu National Park, one of the most important protected areas of the Peruvian rainforest, increments in the levels of environmental pressure have been associated with an increased disruption of the traditional livelihoods of the indigenous population, created mostly by the intensification of regional socioeconomic activities and changes in their settlement pat...

Since the late eighteenth century, academic engagement with political, economic, social, cultural and spatial changes in our cities has been dominated by theoretical frameworks crafted with reference to just a small number of cities. This book offers an important antidote to the continuing focus of urban studies on cities in ‘the Global North’.Urban Theory Beyond the West contains twenty chapters from leading scholars, raising important theoretical issues about cities thro...

Scrutinizing, in detail, the relationship between archaeology, heritage and the public, this much-needed volume explores public interest and participation in archaeology as a subject worthy of academic attention in its own right.Examining case studies from throughout the world; from North America, Britain, Egypt and Brazil to East Africa, China and beyond, Nick Merriman focuses on two key areas: communication and interpretation, and stakeholders.Constant reports of new disc...

With case studies from North America to Australia and South Africa and covering topics from archaeological ethics to the repatriation of human remains, this book charts the development of a new form of archaeology that is informed by indigenous values and agendas. This involves fundamental changes in archaeological theory and practice as well as substantive changes in the power relations between archaeologists and indigenous peoples. Questions concerning the development of ethical archaeol...

In Worlds of Gender ten prominent scholars consider the research on gender and archaeology that has been conducted around the world. The authors discuss the archaeological evidence for gender distinctions from Africa, East Asia, South Asia, Australia, Europe, Mesoamerica, North America, and South America. Although some regions of the world have only been studied sporadically, this volume brings together the totality of the evidence to make it possible to compare sexual roles and i...

Ethnographic perspectives are often used by archaeologists to study cultures both past and present - but what happens when the ethnographic gaze is turned back onto archaeological practices themselves? That is the question posed by this book, challenging conventional ideas about the relationship between the subject and the object, the observer and the observed, and the explainers and the explained. This book explores the production of archaeological knowledge from a range of ethnographic p...

Spirit mediums of East Africa. Healers and fishermen of the Amazon River Basin. Potters of the American Southwest. People contending with climate change long ago. All share “knowledge in motion,” a process of drawing on experiences past and present while engaging in daily practice in relation to contexts of time, place, and power.In the last twenty-five years, scholars from a number of disciplines have explored “situated learning,” specifically investigating how learning relates to...

Caves have been used in various ways across human society, but despite the persistence within popular culture of the iconic caveman, deep caves were never used primarily as habitation sites for early humans. Rather, in both ancient and contemporary contexts, caves have served primarily as ritual spaces. In Sacred Darkness, contributors use archaeological evidence as well as ethnographic studies of modern ritual practices to envision the cave as place of spiritual and ideological p...