The Limits of Settlement Growth

ISBN-13: 9780521430852 / Angielski / Twarda / 1995 / 302 str.

Roland Fletcher

Opis

In this study Roland Fletcher argues that the built environment becomes a constraint on long-term settlement development. He reviews worldwide settlement growth over the past 15,000 years in the light of the limits imposed by buildings, layouts and forms of communication, and concludes with a major discussion of the great transformations of human settlements--from mobile to sedentary, sedentary to urban, and urban to industrial. This ambitious contribution to archaeological theory has implications for the future of urban settlement.

Recenzje

'… this book is important; it is Big Picture archaeology at its best and a provocative and stimulating proposal worthy of consideration.' American Anthropologist

Spis treści

List of figures; List of tables; Acknowledgements; Introduction; Summary; Part I. Theoretical Context: The Role of the Material as Behaviour: 1. Archaeology, settlement growth and the material component of human behaviour; 2. The material as behaviour; 3. A hierarchy of social explanation: locating the material; Part II. The Limits of Settlement Growth: Behavioural Stress and the Material Management of Community Life: 4. The behavioural parameters of interaction and communication; 5. Settlement growth trajectories; 6. Settlement growth transitions and the role of the material; Part III. Implications: Transformations and Constraints of Community Life: 7. The development of sedentism; 8. The development of agrarian and industrial urbanism; 9. Future urban growth; Technical notes; References; Index.