Prehistoric Man
Researches into the Origin of Civilisation in the Old and the New World

Published in 1862, a seminal two-volume work in the study of early man and civilisation, using archaeological and anthropological advances.

Daniel Wilson (Author)

9781108054843, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 15 November 2012

516 pages, 25 b/w illus. 1 colour illus. 1 map
21.6 x 14 x 2.9 cm, 0.65 kg

The Scottish archaeologist and anthropologist Daniel Wilson (1816–92) spent the latter part of his life in Canada. Published in 1862, this is a seminal work in the study of early man in which Wilson utilises studies of native tribes 'still seen there in a condition which seems to reproduce some of the most familiar phases ascribed to the infancy of the unhistoric world'. He believed that civilisations initially developed in mild climates and judged the Mayans to have been the most advanced civilisation in the New World. Twentieth-century anthropologist Bruce Trigger argued that Wilson 'interpreted evidence about human behaviour in a way that is far more in accord with modern thinking than are the racist views of Darwin and Lubbock', and it is in this light that this two-volume work can be judged. Volume 1 covers such important areas as the development and use of metals and 'the architectural instinct'.

Preface
1. Introduction
2. The old world and the new
3. The primeval occupation: speech
4. The primeval transition: instinct
5. The Promethean instinct: fire
6. The maritime instinct: the canoe
7. The technological instinct: tools
8. The metallurgic instinct: copper
9. The metallurgic arts: alloys
10. The architectural instinct: earthworks
11. The hereafter: sepulchral mounds
12. Propitiation: sacrificial mounds
13. Commemoration: symbolic mounds
14. Progress: native civilisation
15. The artistic instinct: imitation.

Subject Areas: Prehistoric archaeology [HDDA]