Craft Specialization and Social Evolution – In Memory of V. Gordon Childe

Craft Specialization and Social Evolution
In Memory of V. Gordon Childe
Edited by Bernard Wailes

V. Gordon Childe was the first scholar to attempt a broad and sustained socioeconomic analysis of the archaeology of the ancient world in terms that, today, could be called explanatory. To most, he was remembered only as a diligent synthesizer whose whole interpretation collapsed when its chronology was demolished. There was little recognition of his insistence that the emergence of craft specialists, and their very variable roles in the relations of production, were crucial to an understanding of social evolution. The interrelationship between sociopolitical complexity and craft production is a critical one, so critical that one might ask, just how complex would any society have become without craft specialization.

This volume derives from the papers presented at a symposium at the American Anthropological Association meetings on the centenary of Childe's birth.

University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
1996 | 256 pages | 35 illus.
ISBN 978-0-924171-43-7 | Cloth | $49.95s | £32.50
World Rights | Archaeology, Anthropology

About the author

Edited by Bernard Wailes

Summary

This volume stems from a symposium on the centenary of V. Gordon Childe's birth. Childe, the first scholar to attempt a broad socioeconomic analysis of ancient archaeology, emphasized the crucial role of craft specialization in social evolution. Contributors include David W. Anthony, Philip J. Arnold III, Bennet Bronson, and Cathy L. Costin.

Product details

• Authors: Wailes, Bernard Wailes
• Assisted by: V. Gordon Childe (Editor), Bernard Wailes (Editor)
• Publisher: University Of Pennsylvania Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 29.01.1996
• EAN: 9780924171437
• ISBN: 978-0-924171-43-7
• No. of pages: 256
• Dimensions: 291 mm x 225 mm x 22 mm
• Weight: 894 g
• Series: University Museum Monographs; University Museum Monographs
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Pre and early history; Non-fiction book > History > Pre and early history, antiquity; Social sciences, law, business > Ethnology > Ethnology