ON THE WAY TOWARDS AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL PREHISTORY

Most archaeologists and prehistorians are not fully aware of the 'historistic handicaps' of their field. One of the few who clearly
saw these limitations of the discipline(s) was Gordon Childe. He
consequently suggested that the wider circle of anthropology should
develop new theories which then could be tested by the archaeologist's
historical method (Barbara McNairn 1980).

In this framework the paper will first critically shed light on
the basic term 'material culture' as it is conventionally used in
archaeology and prehistory (historism). It will then confront it with
an anthropologically systematic equivalent which includes
fibroconstructive industries amply reported in ethnology (Hirschberg/
Janata 1966/89, Oliver 1997). This step is supported further by a
sociobiologically reconstructed domain of sources: nestbuilding
behavior of the Miocene apes (Proconsul, Sivapithecus etc.). Referring
to the Yerkes (1929) and their suggestion of
nestbuilding-'constructivity' as an evolutionary starting point of
constructive alteration of the natural environment (and adapting to
this alteration), nestbuilding of the Miocene apes (and on) is termed
as a proto-cultural "pre-lithic fibroconstructive industry". In the
framework of an evolutionary 'architecture and habitat anthropology'
the evolutionary potential of this fibroconstructive industry is
'ethno-(pre-) historically' (Wernhardt 1981) reconstructed and
superimposed on the combined list of fossil records and prehistorical
sources published by the Ember's (1993). Within 5 distinct phases (1.
Miocene, 2. Pliocene/Lower Paleolithic, 3. Middle and Upper
Paleolithic, 4. Meso- and Neolithic, 5. Bronze Age) the interferences
between the two grids will be discussed, the superimposition being
characterized by 4 phaseological classes of architecture (subhuman,
semantic, domestic, sedentary and their derivates) including social and
environmental implications.

In this anthropologically reorganised system of sources,
methods and interpretations, the wealth of new and very plausible
hypotheses is evident. It provides important arguments to theoretically
reconstruct "The Domestication of the Human Species" (Wilson 1988) from
its remotest conditions of the early Miocene. Note: "constructivity"
factor: ~ 22 million years ago!



Views: 89

Attachments:

Translate

OAC Press

@OpenAnthCoop

Events

© 2019   Created by Keith Hart.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service