num_pages: 304
description: As biological information is passed through genes, so cultural information is passed through what Richard Dawkins has termed `memes'. In this theoretical but readable study, Shennan explores the potential for a neo-Darwinian evolutionary approach to some of the major concerns and issues within archaeology in recent times. Drawing on the work of Richard Dawkins as a stimulus, Shennan reviews the concept of memes as applied to animal behaviour and critiques their role in relation to human populations. Arguing that archaeologists are currently struggling with a lost past, this study reinforces what should be the prime concern of archaeology - to search for valid knowledge and to seek to make sense of long-term patterning and material culture. Shennan puts forward a framework to this end and applies it to looking at how humans exploit resources, population histories, the transmission of cultural traditions, male-female relationships and social evolution, competition and warfare.
language: English
title: Genes, Memes, and Human History: Darwinian Archaeology and Cultural Evolution
titlecomplete: Genes, Memes, and Human History: Darwinian Archaeology and Cultural Evolution
genres: Archaeology, Evolution
ratings_count: 21
publisher: Thames & Hudson