The Rise and Fall of Culture History

The Rise and Fall of Culture History
Author :
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages : 278
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780585304526
ISBN-13 : 0585304521
Rating : 4/5 (521 Downloads)

Book Synopsis The Rise and Fall of Culture History by : R. Lee Lyman

Download or read book The Rise and Fall of Culture History written by R. Lee Lyman and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-07-27 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume presents an insightful critical analysis of the culture history approach to Americanist anthropology. Reasons for the acceptance and incorporation of important concepts, as well as the paradigm's strengths and weaknesses, are discussed in detail. The framework for this analysis is founded on the contrast between two metaphysics used by evolutionary biologists in discussing their own discipline: materialistic/populational thinking and essentialistic/typological thinking. Employing this framework, the authors show not only why the culture history paradigm lost favor in the 1960s, but also which of its aspects need to be retained if archaeology is ever to produce a viable theory of culture change.


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