Ideal for introduction to archaeology and world prehistory courses, The Past in Perspective: An Introduction to Human Prehistory, Seventh Edition, is an engaging and up-to-date chronological overview of human prehistory. Kenneth L. Feder introduces students to "the big picture"--the grand sweep of human evolutionary history--presenting the human past within the context of fundamental themes of cultural evolution. Feder's unique, refreshing, and accessible narrative personalizes the past and makes it relevant to today's students. Using a consistent chapter format--"Prelude, Chronicle, Issues and Debates, Messages from the Past, and Case Study Close-up"--Feder helps students master both what we know and what is still debated about the complex story of the human past.

Table of Contents:
Each chapter includes a Chapter Overview, Prelude, Summary, To Learn More, and Key Terms Preface 1. Encountering the Past A Foreign Country An Anthropological Perspective An Ancient World The Age of the Earth A Wreck of a World Noah's Flood Equable and steady change Fairy stones? John Frere's Discovery More Stone Tools . . . and Bones The Slow Agency of Existing Causes Ancient Humans Revisited Cultures Ancient and Changing Charles Darwin and the Antiquity of Life An Evolutionary Philosophy The Mutability of Species The Origin of Species Human Evolution Cultures Evolving Our Modern View 2. Probing the Past Epistemology: How We Know What We Know The "Science" in the Study of the Past Paleoanthropological and Archaeological Sites How Sites are Formed How Sites are Preserved How Sites are Found How Information is Recovered Archaeology at a Distance: Noninvasive Methods of Data Collection Analyzing Archaeological Data How Artifacts are Analyzed How Ecofacts are Analyzed How Human and Prehuman Skeletal Remains are Analyzed Determining the Age of a Site or Specimen Dating Techniques Based on Radioactive Decay Dating Techniques Based on Biology Dating Techniques Based on Radiation Damage Dating by Measuring Paleomagnetism The Ethics of Archaeological Research Messages from the Past Coping with Crap: Pseudoscience in Archaeology 3. African Roots Chronicle Miocene Preface Fossil Apes of the Miocene Why the Study of Apes is Relevant to the Study of Humanity What Happened to the Apes at the End of the Miocene? The Irony of Extinction The First Hominins Late Miocene Hominins The Genus Australopithecus Australopithecus afarensis A Fork in the Hominin Road The Ability to Make Tools A Different Path--Homo Oldowan Technology Tools and Talk The Fate of Homo habilis A New Hominin Star Issues and Debates What Were the First Steps in Hominin Evolution? How do we Know the Hominins were Upright? Is There Other Evidence for Bipedality? Why bipedalism? The Upright Provider The Upright Scavenger The Efficient Walker The Endurance Runner Were the Early Hominins Hunters? Where Did the Idea for Stone Tools Come From? Why is the Fossil Record of Human Evolution so Complicated? Messages from the Past Has Evolution Programmed us to be Killers? Case Study Close-Up 4. The Human Lineage Chronicle Homo erectus The Evolutionary Position of Homo erectus Hominins Conquer the World East Asia Homo erectus: Ocean Explorer? China and India Europe The Age of Ice The Oxygen Isotope Curve Homo erectus: The Toolmaker Subsistence Issues and Debates Did the Pleistocene Cause the Evolution of Homo erectus? What Enabled the Geographic Expansion of Homo erectus? Intelligence Control of Fire The "Art" of Making Tools Homo erectus Art? Who Were the Hobbit Hominins? Raising Homo erectus Where are the Handaxes? When did Homo erectus Become Extinct? Messages from the Past We are Everywhere and Culture Makes it Possible Case Study Close-Up 5. The First Humans The Evolution of Homo sapiens Chronicle Premodern Humans: Fossil Evidence Premodern Humans: Cultural Evidence The Neandertals Morphological Evidence Fossil Evidence Neandertal Culture Stone Tools Subsistence Compassion Ancient Family Symbolic Expression Burial of the Dead Anatomically Modern Homo sapiens Issues and Debates Explaining the Evolution of Us Consensus View Evidence Consensus View Evidence Consensus View Evidence Consensus View Evidence Consensus View Stone Tools of Anatomically Modern Human Beings: Utilitarian Works of Art Why are the Neandertals Extinct? The Neandertals: A Separate Species Our Hominin Relatives: Genetic Gifts, Genetic Burdens Human Beings: An Evolutionary Success Story? Messages from the Past Case Study Close-Up 6. Expanding Intellectual Horizons: Arts and Ideas in the Upper Paleolithic and Late Stone Age Chronicle New Ideas: Reflections of the Modern Human Mind 1. New and Improved Stone-Tool Technologies 2. New Hunting and Weapons Technologies 3. Broadening the Subsistence Base 4. Branching Out in Raw Materials and Developing New Technologies 5. New Uses for Plant Materials 6. The Acquisition of Raw Materials from a Great Distance 7. Larger Sites of Population Aggregation 8. Abundance of Nonutilitarian Objects 9. More Elaborate Burials 10. Symbolic Expression Through the Production of Art A Revolution of Intellect: The Meaning of Upper Paleolithic Art The Earliest Art: Australia and Africa Upper Paleolithic Art in Europe Figurines The Sound of Music Issues and Debates What Does the Art of the Upper Paleolithic Mean? The Importance of Living Long: The Grandmother Effect Messages from the Past Why Do We Destroy? Case Study Close-Up 7. Expanding Geographic Horizons: New Worlds Chronicle The Settlement of Greater Australia Paleogeography in the Western Pacific The Road to Sahul The Discovery of Greater Australia The Earliest Occupation of Greater Australia The Archaeology of Sahul Willandra Lakes The Spread through Australia The Australian Interior Tasmania Greater Australia: A Broad Range of Adaptations East into the Pacific A Pacific Islander "Age of Exploration" Pacific Geography Pacific Archaeology Coming to America The Source of Los Indios When did the first Migrants Arrive? When Was Beringia Exposed and Open for Travel? When Was Eastern Siberia First Inhabited? What Is the Age of the Earliest New World Sites? The First Human Settlement of America One If by Land Two If by Sea First Skeletons Alaska Denali and Nenana Settlement of the Americas: Summary Clovis Clovis Technology Clovis Subsistence Into the Arctic Issues and Debates Why were the Pacific Islands Settled? Could Native Americans Really have come from Europe Instead of Asia? Who-or What-Killed the American and Australian Megafauna? Messages from the Past The Tragedy of Extinction Case Study Close-Up 8. After the Ice: The Food-Producing Revolution Chronicle Europe Mesolithic Subsistence Patterns Diversity and Regionalization Asia Africa Australia North America Regionalism in the New World Archaic Koster: Emblem of the Archaic South America The Shift from Food Collection to Food Production Humans Taking the Place of Nature: Artificial Selection Archaeological Evidence of Human Control of Plant and Animal Species Geography Size Seed Morphology Osteological Changes Population Characteristics The Near East Late Pleistocene Foragers in the Near East The First Agriculturalists Mesoamerica The First Agriculturalists in the New World The Shift to Domesticated Foods among the People of the Tehuacán Valley The Greatest Native American Contribution to Food Africa A Chronology of Food Production Neolithic Cultures South of the Sahara Asia Chronology of Food Production in China Food Production in South Asia Food Production in Southeast and Northeast Asia Domestication in Central Asia Europe The Shift to Agriculture in Western Europe North America Indigenous Domestication North of Mexico The Appearance of Maize in the Eastern Woodlands The American Southwest South America Three Regional Neolithics Animal Domestication in South America Cotton Issues and Debates How was Domestication Accomplished? The Domestication of Wheat From Teosinte to Maize Rice The Remarkably Modern Cuisine of the Ancient World Why Agriculture? Niche Construction Climate Change A Multitude of Reasons Implications of the Neolithic: The Roots of Social Complexity Messages from the Past Case Study Close-Up Here, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty 9. Roots of Complexity: The Origins of Civilization The Construction of Stonehenge Imagining Stonehenge Chronicle Simplicity and Complexity The Development of Complexity: Before Agriculture A Revolution in Subsistence, A Revolution in Society From Rank Societies to Chiefdoms Complexity's Traces in the Old World Jericho Çatalhöyük Mesopotamia: Land Between the Rivers The Roots of Complexity in Southwest Asia Complexity's Traces in the New World The Olmec South America Issues and Debates Why does Complexity Develop in the First Place? Messages from the Past Are Complexity and Inequality Inevitable? Case Study Close-Up 10. An Explosion of Complexity: Mesopotamia, Africa, and Europe Chronicle The Evolution of the State The Character of Civilization Food Surplus Social Stratification Labor Specialization A Formal Government Large, Dense Populations Record Keeping Monumental Works The Geography of Civilizations Mesopotamia Accelerating Change: The Ubaid The Role of Irrigation Power Invested in the Temple Mesopotamia's First Cities: The Uruk Period The Beginning of the Written Record Egypt of the Pharaohs The Egyptian Neolithic Hierakonpolis First Writing First Pharaoh The Flowering of Egypt The Pyramid Age Other African Civilizations Beyond Egypt Great Zimbabwe The Glory of Zimbabwe Minoan Crete Who were the Minoans? The Palace at Knossos Issues and Debates Why did State Societies Develop? Conflict Models Integration Models Many Paths to Civilization Message from the Past The One-Percenters: The Ancient Roots of Inequality Case Study Close-Up 11. An Explosion of Complexity: The Indus Valley and China Chronicle The Indus Valley Civilization Flood Control and Civilization in the Indus Valley Cultural Convergence Cities of the Indus The Indus Script "A Peaceful Realm" Collapse The Civilization of Ancient China The Lung-shan Culture Acceleration Toward Civilization The Shang Civilization Issues and Debates Why were the Elites of State Societies so Conspicuous in their Consumption? Messages from the Past The Universality of Human Genius Case Study Close-Up The Terra-Cotta Army of the First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty 12. An Explosion of Complexity: Mesoamerica Chronicle The Maya Maya Writing Peak of the Maya The Defeat of Tikal Post-Classic Reorganization Teotihuacán Teotihuacán History A Monumental City Residences of Teotihuacán's Citizens The Reach of Teotihuacán Monte Albán The Aztecs Issues and Debates Why did the Maya Collapse? What does "Collapse" Even Mean? Messages from the Past Ancient Alienation Case Study Close-Up Who were the Rulers of Copán? The Grandeur that was Copán 13. An Explosion of Complexity: South America Chronicle Moche Empires: Tiwanaku Empires: Wari Empires: Chimu Empires: The Inca Inca Royalty Inca Agricultural Infrastructure How Did the Inca Support Their Economic System? The Inca Military Empire A State Without Writing? The End of the Inca State Issues and Debates Why Do Civilizations Collapse? Messages from the Past Case Study Close-Up 14. An Explosion of Complexity: North America Chronicle Complexity in Prehistoric America North of Mexico The Development of Complexity The Mississippian Civilization Cahokia The American Southwest Hohokam Mogollon Ancestral Puebloan Northwest Coast of North America Issues and Debates What Happened to the Ancestral Puebloans? Messages from the Past Time Traveling: You Can Visit the Past Case Study Close-Up The Death of a King Evolutionary Epilogue Civilization Chronology Map of Civilization Hominin Species Glossary Glossary References Index