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Growing Up in the Ice Age

Growing Up in the Ice Age: Fossil and Archaeological Evidence of the Lived Lives of Plio-Pleistocene Children [Paperback]

April Nowell (Author)

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ISBN: 9781789252941 | Published by: Oxbow Books | Year of Publication: 2021 | Language: English 384p, H240 x W170 (mm) b/w

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In prehistoric societies children comprised 40-65% of the population, yet by default, our ancestral landscapes are peopled by adults who hunt, gather, fish, knap tools and make art. But these adults were also parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles who had to make space physically, emotionally, intellectually and cognitively for the infants, children and adolescents around them. Growing Up in the Ice Age is a timely and evidence-based look at the lived lives of Paleolithic children and the communities of which they were a part. By rendering these 'invisible' children visible, readers will gain a new understanding of the Paleolithic period as a whole, and in doing so will learn how children have contributed to the biological and cultural entities we are today.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Foreword by Jane Baxter

1. Toward an archaeology of Paleolithic children

2. Birth and the Paleolithic ‘family’

3. Toys, burials and secret spaces

4. Stone tools, skill acquisition and learning a craft

5. Children, oral storytelling and the Paleolithic ‘arts’

6. Adolescence in the Ice Age

7. Paleolithic children as drivers of human evolution

Appendix 1. Chronology of the Paleolithic and timeline of fossil hominins

Appendix 2. Table of subadult fossils in the Plio-Pleistocene (perinatal–ca. 10 years)

Appendix 3. Table of subadult fossils from the Plio-Pleistocene (ca. 10 years–20 years).

Bibliography

Index

Reviews & Quotes

"[…] April Nowell’s illuminating and engaging book […] is important for students and professionals in physical and behavioral anthropology because it fills a gap in helping us understand the fundamental role children played, literally and figuratively, in our hominin past."
Gregory F. Tague
Journal of Paleoanthropology (05/05/2022)

"…a timely summary of the state-of-the art regarding Pleistocene youngsters, their lives, deaths and material worlds. […] this perspective on children as agents of change and innovation is valid and important beyond the Pleistocene. "
Simon Mays
Childhood in the Past (12/10/2021)

"This is a must-read for those interested in childhood in the past, and for those seeking a rare humanistic volume on human evolution and Palaeolithic archaeology."
Jennifer C. French
Current World Archaeology (21/06/2021)

"…this is data-driven, intellectually weighty, wide-ranging and erudite, lively, and packed full of ideas. […] it goes much further than most books on human origins to humanise the Palaeolithic world, and the result is one of the best evocations of the Palaeolithic world I have read. […] It should certainly be required reading for Palaeolithic and prehistoric specialists; and academics in the life sciences and social sciences and interested lay readers will find it of great value."
Paul Pettitt
Professor of Palaeolithic Archaeology, Durham University

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