Perspectives on the Past: Theoretical Biases in Mediterranean Hunter-Gatherer Research (Anniversary Collection)

Edited by Geoffrey A. Clark

Perspectives on the Past shows how knowledge of the past is contingent and is largely determined by the social and intellectual milieu in which those who study it have received their training. In the original essays that comprise the volume, field archaeologists discuss their own biases and the effects these biases have on the way they conduct their research on hunter-gatherers in the Mediterranean.

Bio

Geoffrey A. Clark is Professor Emeritus at the School of Human Evolution and Social Change and a member of the Board of Directors at the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University. Known nationally for his contributions to quantified archaeological research designs and internationally for his work on hunter-gatherer adaptations, epistemology and human origins research, Geoffrey A. Clark, who joined the ASU faculty in 1971, has an exceptionally strong, balanced record in research, graduate education and public service. His internationally recognized work in paleoanthropology has produced four major contributions to knowledge.

His research on paleolithic hunter-gatherers in Spain and Jordan (funded so far by 14 NSF and NGS grants to Clark and his students) has shown that human dietary intensification provoked by population/resource imbalances predated the shift to domestication economies by as much as 10 kyr.

Clark's papers on the history and role of quantification in archaeological research have made significant contributions to the anglophone research tradition, the most heavily quantified in the world.

Since 1987 Clark has been a major writer and lecturer on the epistemological foundations for knowledge claims in paleolithic archaeology and human paleontology. His recent involvement in modern human origins research (numerous articles, two books) has shown that data do not exist independent of the conceptual frameworks that define and contextualize them, and that paleoanthropologists can only ignore the logic of inference at their peril. A number of his c. 275 publications have been reprinted in anthologies and other collected works. Clark is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the AAA, the Royal Anthropological Institute (UK), and the Sociedad de Ciencias Naturales (Spain).

Praise for this book

The contents of this volume suggest that, rather than threatening the practice of prehistory, the avenues opened up by the postprocessualists are of relevance to the concerns of active prehistorians.

American Anthropology