Bücher von Peter Mitchell

A short, polemical study of the persistence of imperial nostalgia in modern British culture, politics, heritage and media. -- .

Southern Africa is central to many key debates in contemporary archaeology, including hominid origins, origins of anatomically modern humans and modern forms of behaviour, and the development of ethnographically informed ways of understanding rock art. This book is an archaeological synthesis of the region in fifty years.

From the exodus of early modern humans to the growth of African diasporas, Africa has had a long and complex relationship with the outside world. This book attempts to outline internal geographic, environmental, sociopolitical and economic factors over the long period of modern human history, to find their commonalities and development over time.

Africa has the longest record - some 2.5 million years - of human occupation of any continent. For nearly all of this time, its inhabitants have made tools from stone and have acquired their food from its rich wild plant and animal resources. Archaeological research in Africa is crucial for understanding the origins of humans and the diversity of hunter-gatherer ways of life. This book is a synthesis of the record left by Africa's earliest hominin inhabitants and hunter-gatherers, combining the insights of archaeology with those of other disciplines, such as genetics and palaeo-environmental science. African evidence is critical to important debates, such as the origins of stone tool making, the emergence of recognisably modern forms of cognition and behaviour, and the expansion of successive hominins from Africa to other parts of the world.