Hunter Gatherers: Archaeology and Ethnography (ARC3107)

15 credits

The module will develop an understanding of the wide variety of ways of life that hunter-gatherer peoples have today and had in both the distant and more recent past. It will look at how archaeologists can use information about recent or contemporary hunter-gatherer groups to inform our interpretations of the archaeological record. There will be stress on a sound understanding of the subsistence economics that define hunter-gatherers, but social and artistic issues will also be covered. The use of different types of evidence regarding past hunter-gatherers will be discussed, including archaeological, environmental, experimental and ethnographic data.