M C DONALD INSTITUTE MONOGRAPHS
Explaining social change:
studies in honour of Colin Renfrew
Edited by John Cherry, Chris Scarre &
Stephen Shennan
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STUDIES IN HONOUR OF COLIN RENFREW:
Explaining social change Edited by John Cherry, Chris Scarre & Stephen Shennan (ISBN 1-902937-23-6)
Material engagements Edited by Neil Brodie & Catherine Hills (ISBN 1-902937-26-0)
Traces of ancestry Edited by Martin Jones (ISBN 1-902937-25-2)
Published by:
McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research
University of Cambridge
Downing Street
Cambridge
CB2 3ER
UK
(0)(1223) 333538 (General Office); (0)(1223) 339336 (Publications Office);
(0)(1223) 333536 (FAX); www.mcdonald.cam.ac.uk
Distributed by Oxbow Books
United Kingdom: Oxbow Books, Park End Place, Oxford, OX1 1HN, UK.
Tel: (0)(1865) 241249; Fax: (0)(1865) 794449; http://www.oxbowbooks.com/
USA: The David Brown Book Company, P.O. Box 511, Oakville, CT 06779, USA.
Tel: 860-945-9329; Fax: 860-945-9468
ISBN: 1-902937-23-6
ISSN: 1363-1349
© 2004 McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research
All rights reserved. No parts of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the
McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.
Edited for the Institute by Chris Scarre (Series Editor) and Dora A. Kemp (Production Editor).
Cover photo: The Ring of Brodgar.
Printed and bound by Short Run Press, Bittern Rd, Sowton Industrial Estate, Exeter, EX2 7LW, UK.
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CONTENTS
Contributors
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Tables
Introduction
Chapter 1
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ix
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xiii
Beliefs about Death, Behaviour, and Mortuary Practices among Hunter-gatherers:
a Search for Causal Structure?
LEWIS R. BINFORD
1
Chapter 2
Social Archaeology and the Unfinished Business of the Palaeolithic
CLIVE GAMBLE
17
Chapter 3
Stage 3 Climate and the Upper Palaeolithic Revolution in Europe: Evolutionary Perspectives
PAUL MELLARS
27
Chapter 4
Neo-thingness
IAN HODDER
45
Chapter 5
Fractal Farmers: Patterns of Neolithic Origin and Dispersal
ANDREW SHERRATT
53
Chapter 6
An Overview of Neolithic Settlement Patterns in Eastern Thessaly
MATS JOHNSON & CATHERINE PERLÈS
65
Chapter 7
Figuring Out Social Archaeology at Sitagroi
ERNESTINE S. ELSTER
81
Chapter 8
Towards an Island of Mind?
CAROLINE MALONE & SIMON STODDART
93
Chapter 9
A Choreography of Construction: Monuments, Mobilization and Social Organization in
Neolithic Orkney
COLIN RICHARDS
Chapter 10 Now You See It, Now You Don’t: Changing Obsidian Source Use in the
Willaumez Peninsula, Papua New Guinea
ROBIN TORRENCE
103
115
Chapter 11 Island Prehistories: a View of Orkney from South Uist
MIKE PARKER PEARSON
127
Chapter 12 Hail to the Chiefdom? The Quest for Social Archaeology
ANDREW FLEMING
141
Chapter 13 The Development of an Island Centre: Urbanization at Phylakopi on Melos
TODD WHITELAW
149
Chapter 14 Stating Identities: the Use of Objects in Rich Bronze Age Graves
MARIE LOUISE STIG SØRENSEN
167
Chapter 15 The Role of Exchange Relations in the Origins of Mesopotamian Civilization
JOAN OATES & DAVID OATES
177
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Chapter 16 Cycles of Collapse in Greek Prehistory: the House of the Tiles at Lerna
and the ‘Heroon’ at Lefkandi
JAMES WHITLEY
193
Chapter 17 Before Devanika: Social Change and State Formation in the Mekong Valley
CHARLES HIGHAM
203
Chapter 18 Aegean Islands and Islanders
CHRISTOS DOUMAS
215
Chapter 19 Aphrodite Observed: Insularity and Antiquities on Kythera through Outsiders’ Eyes
CYPRIAN BROODBANK, JOHN BENNET & JACK L. DAVIS
227
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