Death by Theory: A Tale of Mystery and Archaeological Theory


Adrian Praetzellis - 2000
    A large stone Venus. Nothing unusual about it_except that it was found on an island in the Pacific Northwest. Archaeologist Hannah Green and her shovelbum nephew find themselves in a tangled web of competing interests avaricious land owners, hungry media, and a cult of goddess worshippers while investigating one of the finds of the century. In untangling the mystery of the Washington Venus, Hannah and Sean have to confront questions of archaeological evidence, of ethics, of conflicting interpretation of data, and of the very nature of archaeological truths. Helping them are a cadre of disdainful graduate students who propose various theories processualist, marxist, feminist, postmodernist to explain the bizarre events. Teach your students archaeological theory in a fashion they'll enjoy, while they solve the mystery in Adrian Praetzellis's delightful textbook-as-novel.

Raiders


Rob Jones - 2017
    The oldest secret order on earth has just woken up... They want nothing less than the world... They are the Hidden Hand... The race is on to find an ancient power and stop the greatest sacrifice in history… With the same high-octane pace and thrills of the Joe Hawke series, Raiders is an archaeological and historical action-adventure featuring a great new team and a terrible new enemy. Former soldier Jed Mason is working as an asset recovery specialist – retrieving kidnapped people and stolen goods in a dog-eat-dog world of international crime, violence and ransoms. Nearly killed on a dangerous mission, he must deal with a terrible personal tragedy, but when a mysterious private consortium briefs him on a violent kidnapping he quickly discovers when one door shuts, another opens. Why was the head of the Vatican’s secret archive murdered in Rome? Why was a leading American archaeologist snatched? Mason must lead his old team on a new adventure to stop a truly terrifying enemy intent on the sacrifice of millions. Drawing on the same fast-paced action as the world of Joe Hawke, Raiders introduces a new series with an exciting and compelling band of brothers – and sisters – who must stand together in the face of adversity or die one by one.

The Eternal Chamber


Tom Hunter - 2018
     Archaeologist Samuel McCarthy is on the verge of a groundbreaking discovery, deep in the Egyptian desert...The treasure map has led him this far, but the ancient defenses and advanced cloaking technology guarding the cave prove impossible for one man to penetrate. Unfortunately, the men who answer his call for help may be more dangerous than the powerful artifacts buried deep underground…Antiquities Ministry staffer Shafira Khouri longs to trade her desk job for the dig site.But when an office overhaul turns deadly, she knows she’s her colleagues’ only hope of survival. After the ministry falls into enemy hands, she fears her first field assignment could be her last…If Samuel and Shafira can’t stop a shadowy organization from grabbing hold of a terrifying relic, the entire world could become ancient history. The Eternal Chamber: An Archaeological Thriller is the gripping first book in The Relics of the Deathless Souls series. If you like daring archaeologists, ancient riddles, and non-stop action, then you’ll love Tom Hunter’s rollicking tale. Buy The Eternal Chamber to dig up a fun, fast-paced adventure today!

Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States


James C. Scott - 2017
    But archaeological and historical evidence challenges this narrative. The first agrarian states, says James C. Scott, were born of accumulations of domestications: first fire, then plants, livestock, subjects of the state, captives, and finally women in the patriarchal family—all of which can be viewed as a way of gaining control over reproduction.   Scott explores why we avoided sedentism and plow agriculture, the advantages of mobile subsistence, the unforeseeable disease epidemics arising from crowding plants, animals, and grain, and why all early states are based on millets and cereal grains and unfree labor. He also discusses the “barbarians” who long evaded state control, as a way of understanding continuing tension between states and nonsubject peoples.

Social Problems


Joel Best - 2007
    In order to help students connect theory to everyday life, the text includes colorful examples and case studies from the real world.

A History of Archaeological Thought


Bruce G. Trigger - 1989
    The development of archeological thought is analyzed by examining archeological history to determine to what extent its trends reflect archeologists' personal & collective interests.List of IllustrationsPrefaceThe relevance of archaeological history Classical archaeology & antiquarianismThe beginnings of scientific archaeologyThe imperial synthesis Culture-historical archaeologySoviet archaeology Functionalism in Western archaeology Neo-evolutionism & the new archaeology The explanation of diversity Archaeology & its social contextBibliographical EssayReferencesIndex

The Tourist Gaze: Leisure And Travel In Contemporary Societies


John Urry - 1990
    Urry develops this analysis through various levels - historical, economic, social, cultural and visual.Mass tourism is charted from its origins in the English seaside resorts to its development as a global industry. The economic impact and complex social relations involved in international tourism are explored. Changing patterns of tourism are shown to be connected to the broader cultural changes of postmodernism and related to the role of the service and middle classes. The author argues that we

The Archaeology of Knowledge and The Discourse on Language


Michel Foucault - 1969
    The Archaeology of Knowledge begins at the level of “things aid” and moves quickly to illuminate the connections between knowledge, language, and action in a style at once profound and personal. A summing up of Foucault’s own methodological assumptions, this book is also a first step toward a genealogy of the way we live now. Challenging, at times infuriating, it is an absolutely indispensable guide to one of the most innovative thinkers of our time.

The Ego States (Transactional Analysis in Bite Sized Chunks Book 1)


Catherine Holden - 2013
    "Why do I behave and think like this?"If you have asked this question of yourself, or have simply wondered where human behaviour springs from, you will find this short introduction to the Ego States an essential and empowering tool.In this short, jargon free introduction to the ego states of Transactional Analysis, the reader is invited to analyse where their behaviour springs from, and to consider how they can improve their life by deepening their self awareness.

Authentocrats: Culture, Politics and the New Seriousness


Joe Kennedy - 2018
    So-called illiberal democracy and authoritarian populism are in the political ascendant; the shelves of our bookshops groan with the work of attention-grabbing thinkers insisting that permissiveness, multiculturalism and 'identity politics' have failed us and that we must now fall back on some notion of tradition. We have had our fun, and now it's time to get serious, to shore our fragments against the ruin of postmodernist meaninglessness. It's not only the usual, conservative suspects who have got on board with this argument. Authentocrats critiques the manner in which post-liberal ideas have been mobilised underhandedly by centrist politicians who, at least notionally, are hostile to the likes of Donald Trump and UKIP. It examines the forms this populism of the centre has taken in the United Kingdom and situates the moderate withdrawal from liberalism within a story which begins in the early 1990s. Blairism promised socially liberal politics as the pay-off for relinquishing commitments to public ownership and redistributive policies: many current centrists insist New Labour's error was not its capitulation to the market, but its unwillingness to heed the allegedly natural conservatism of England's provincial working classes. In this book, we see how this spurious concern for 'real people' is part of a broader turn within British culture by which the mainstream withdraws from the openness of the Nineties under the bad-faith supposition that there's nowhere to go but backwards. The self-anointing political realism which declares that the left can save itself only by becoming less liberal is matched culturally by an interest in time-worn traditional identities: the brute masculinity of Daniel Craig's James Bond, the allegedly 'progressive' patriotism of nature writing, a televisual obsession with the World Wars. Authentocrats charges liberals themselves with fuelling the post-liberal turn, and asks where the space might be found for an alternative.

Stone Age Economics


Marshall Sahlins - 1974
    When it was originally published in 1974, E. Evans-Pritchard of the Times Literary Supplement noted that this classic study of anthropological economics "is rich in factual evidence and in ideas, so rich that a brief review cannot do it justice; only another book could do that."

The Ekkos Clan


Sudipto Das - 2013
    The eventful lives of Kubha and her family span a hundred years and encompass turbulent phases of Indian history. The family saga unfurls gradually, along with Kubha’s stories, through the three main characters – Kratu Sen, a grad student at Stanford, Kratu’s best friend Tista Dasgupta, and Afsar Fareedi, a linguistic palaeontologist.Afsar hears about Kubha’s stories from Kratu in a casual conversation, but she figures that these stories are not meant to be mere bed time tales – they contain rich linguistic fossils and layers of histories.In a bizarre incident Kratu miraculously survives an attempt on his life. His sister and uncle had not been so lucky. Were these murders acts of revenge, or a larger ideological conflict connected to Kubha’s stories which conceal perilous secrets that should be suppressed?Afsar, Kratu and Tista travel across continents to unravel the mystery of Kubha’s roots and the origin of her stories.At a different level, the novel subtly delves into the origin of one of the oldest civilizations of the world and the first book written by mankind.

America's First Civilization


Michael D. Coe - 1968
    Virtually unknown to archaeologists until the early twentieth century, their true importance is only now being realized and shedding new light on how the Indian peoples of the Americas came to be here.

Global Political Economy: Evolution and Dynamics


Robert O'Brien - 2003
    It introduces an unusually wide range of theoretical approaches and highlights how useful they are in tackling key issues - from trade, production and finance to social divisions, development and the environment. The second edition has been revised and updated throughout with the addition of additional chapters on gender, on ideas, and on key current issues and debates.

Loathe Thy Neighbour (Leading Britain's Conversation)


James O'Brien - 2014
    It feeds a whole industry of commentators, pundits and politicians who take great delight in whipping us all into a frenzy, speaking for the ‘ordinary people’. But, when ugly prejudices are being fed by professionals grown fat on the fear and fury of their consumers, it is time to stop and ask whether the faceless group of immigrants really exists – or whether it just appeals to our basest fears.In this lively polemic, James O’Brien brings some common sense back into the discussion. Some people want to be frightened. They thrive on anger and division and upset. But many people don’t, and it is they who are most let down – most insulted – by the immigration debate. We don’t need to buy into this myth. There is no such thing as ‘immigrants’. There is no ‘they’. There is only ‘we’.