Customer Reviews

Ancient Human Migrations: A Multidisciplinary Approach (Foundations of Archaeological Inquiry)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you are interested in the methods that scientist use to track migrations, this is a great book for you. If on the other hand you, like myself, want to learn about actual ancient migrations you will, more or less, be out of luck. I am not a professional so I can not judge their scientific material although it sounds reasonable to me. Not being a professional I got a little mired down with the information, but did learn one thing that was helpful. I knew that when the earth's plates shifted it created the Sahara. I did not know about the climatic effect of the Ice Ages, on areas not covered with ice. That helped to explain why civilizations developed where they did and how the lowered sea level provided migration routes not available at other times. I still want to know more about actual migrations and the people and the reasons involved in those migrations. I probably would not have purchased this book, knowing what I know now. Because of this book, I am interested in learning more about historical linguistics.

From the very beginnings of our species somewhere in Africa, the history of the human race has been a history of migration. The distribution of the races and diverse ethnicity has its origins in the migration patters of antiquity materially affecting and influencing the ideologies, economies and politics of the modern world. Collaboratively compiled and edited by the team of Peter N. Peregrine (Professor and Chair of Anthropology, Lawrence University, Appleton, Wisconsin), Ilia Peiros (Department of Linguistics and Applied Linguistices, University of Melbourne, Australia), and Marcus Feldman Professor of Biology, Stanford University), "Ancient Human Migrations: A Multidisciplinary Approach" is a compendium scholarly articles by a variety of contributors from various academic disciplines. A body of original and seminal work, "Ancient Human Migrations" is a seminal contribution to the study of humanities origins and displays the fallacious notion that there are 'pure' races, cultures or languages when it comes to our species. A model of academic scholarship, "Ancient Human Migrations" is highly recommended for academic library Anthropology reference collections.