Wild things in the north? Hunter-gatherers and the tyranny of the colonial perspective

Layton, R.; Rowley-Conwy, P.

Wild things in the north? Hunter-gatherers and the tyranny of the colonial perspective

Layton, R.; Rowley-Conwy, P.

Authors

R. Layton

Professor Peter Rowley-Conwy p.a.rowley-conwy@durham.ac.uk
Emeritus Professor

Abstract

The paper argues for a synthesis of Darwinian and Marxist theories of evolution. We challenge claims that hunter-gatherer societies evolve via a natural progression from simple to complex, arguing instead that huntergatherer social strategies are adaptations to specifiable ecological conditions, while having emergent consequences that shape the political structure of hunter-gatherer society. We review the various theories of which we make use, and those that we challenge, and test them against data from the ethnographic and archaeological literature on hunter-gatherers, discussing the evidence for variation in technology, mobility, territoriality and egalitarianism versus social inequality. We conclude that human societies do not evolve via a natural progression from simple to complex forms, and that complex hunter-gatherers are not necessarily incipient farmers. Many of the assumptions that colour common views of the development of hunter-gatherer complexity and the appearance of agriculture in prehistoric Europe have their roots, consciously or unconsciously, in nineteenth-century European colonialism.

Citation

Layton, R., & Rowley-Conwy, P. (2013). Wild things in the north? Hunter-gatherers and the tyranny of the colonial perspective. Anthropologie (Brno. Print), 51(2), 213-230

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Aug 23, 2013
Publication Date	Jan 1, 2013
Deposit Date	Jul 19, 2016
Publicly Available Date	Jul 21, 2016
Journal	Anthropologie.
Print ISSN	0323-1119
Publisher	Anthropos Institute at the Moravian Museum in Brno, Czech Republic
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	51
Issue	2
Pages	213-230
Publisher URL	http://puvodni.mzm.cz/Anthropologie/article.php?ID=1515