Deep History

Andrew Shryock is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan. He is the author of Nationalism and the Genealogical Imagination: Oral History and Textual Authority in Tribal Jordan (UC Press) winner of the Middle Eastern Studies Associations Albert Hourani Award, among other books. Daniel Lord Smail is Professor of History at Harvard University. Among his books is On Deep History and the Brain, (UC Press) a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Science and Technology.

Humans have always been interested in their origins, but historians have been reluctant to write about the long stretches of time before the invention of writing. In fact, the deep past was left out of most historical writing almost as soon as it was discovered. This breakthrough book, as important for readers interested in the present as in the past,brings science into history to offer a dazzling new vision of humanity across time. Team-written by leading experts in a variety of fields, it maps events, cultures, and eras across millions of years to present a new scale for understanding the human body, energy and ecosystems, language, food, kinship, migration, and more. Combining cutting-edge social and evolutionary theory with the latest discoveries about human genes, brains, and material culture, Deep History invites scholars and general readers alike to explore the dynamic of connectedness that spans all of human history.

List of Figures Preface A Note on Dates PART ONE. PROBLEMS AND ORIENTATIONS 1. Introduction Andrew Shryock and Daniel Lord Smail 2. Imagining the Human in Deep Time Andrew Shryock, Thomas R. Trautmann, and Clive Gamble PART TWO. FRAMES FOR HISTORY IN DEEP TIME 3. Body Daniel Lord Smail and Andrew Shryock 4. Energy and Ecosystems Mary C. Stiner and Gillian Feeley-Harnik 5. Language April McMahon, Thomas R. Trautmann, and Andrew Shryock PART THREE. SHARED SUBSTANCE 6. Food Felipe Fernandez-Armesto with Daniel Lord Smail 7. Deep Kinship Thomas R. Trautmann, Gillian Feeley-Harnik, and John C. Mitani PART FOUR. HUMAN EXPANSION 8. Migration Timothy Earle and Clive Gamble with Hendrik Poinar 9. Goods Daniel Lord Smail, Mary C. Stiner, and Timothy Earle 10. Scale Mary C. Stiner, Timothy Earle, Daniel Lord Smail, and Andrew Shryock Notes Bibliography Contributors Index