John F. Hoffecker's Books

A Prehistory of the North

Human Settlement of the Higher Latitudes

By: John F. Hoffecker

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A Prehistory of the North

Human Settlement of the Higher Latitudes

By: John F. Hoffecker

Annotation Early humans did not drift north from Africa as their ability to cope with cooler climates evolved. Settlement of Europe and northern Asia occurred in relatively rapid bursts of expansion. This study tells the complex story, spanning almost two million years, of how humans inhabited some of the coldest places on earth.

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Page Count

252

Publisher

Rutgers University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0813534690

ISBN 13

9780813534695

Human Ecology of Beringia

By: John F. Hoffecker,Scott A. Elias

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Human Ecology of Beringia

By: John F. Hoffecker,Scott A. Elias

Twenty-five thousand years ago, sea level fell more than 400 feet below its present position as a consequence of the growth of immense ice sheets in the Northern Hemisphere. A dry plain stretching 1,000 miles from the Arctic Ocean to the Aleutians became exposed between northeast Asia and Alaska, and across that plain, most likely, walked the first people of the New World. This book describes what is known about these people and the now partly submerged land, named Beringia, which they settled during the final millennia of the Ice Age. Humans first occupied Beringia during a twilight period when rising sea levels had not yet caught up with warming climates. Although the land bridge between northeast Asia and Alaska was still present, warmer and wetter climates were rapidly transforming the Beringian steppe into shrub tundra. This volume synthesizes current research-some previously unpublished-on the archaeological sites and rapidly changing climates and biota of the period, suggesting that the absence of woody shrubs to help fire bone fuel may have been the barrier to earlier settlement, and that from the outset the Beringians developed a postglacial economy similar to that of later northern interior peoples. The book opens with a review of current research and the major problems and debates regarding the environment and archaeology of Beringia. It then describes Beringian environments and the controversies surrounding their interpretation; traces the evolving adaptations of early humans to the cold environments of northern Eurasia, which set the stage for the settlement of Beringia; and provides a detailed account of the archaeological record in three chapters, each of which is focused on a specific slice of time between 15,000 and 11,500 years ago. In conclusion, the authors present an interpretive summary of the human ecology of Beringia and discuss its relationship to the wider problem of the peopling of the New World.

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Page Count

314

Publisher

Columbia University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0231130600

ISBN 13

9780231130608

Dry Creek

Archaeology and Paleoecology of a Late Pleistocene Alaskan Hunting Camp

By: W. Roger Powers,R. Dale Guthrie,John F. Hoffecker

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Dry Creek

Archaeology and Paleoecology of a Late Pleistocene Alaskan Hunting Camp

By: W. Roger Powers,R. Dale Guthrie,John F. Hoffecker

With cultural remains dated unequivocally to 13,000 calendar years ago, Dry Creek assumed major importance upon its excavation and study by W. Roger Powers. The site was the first to conclusively demonstrate a human presence that could be dated to the same time as the Bering Land Bridge. As Powers and his team studied the site, their work verified initial expectations. Unfortunately, the research was never fully published. Dry Creek: The Archaeology and Paleoecology of a Late Pleistocene Alaskan Hunting Camp is ready to take its rightful place in the ongoing research into the peopling of the Americas. Containing the original research, this book also updates and reconsiders Dry Creek in light of more recent discoveries and analysis.

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Page Count

344

Publisher

Texas A&M University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1623495393

ISBN 13

9781623495398

Modern Humans

Their African Origin and Global Dispersal

By: John F. Hoffecker

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Modern Humans

Their African Origin and Global Dispersal

By: John F. Hoffecker

Modern Humans is a vivid account of the most recent—and perhaps the most important—phase of human evolution: the appearance of anatomically modern people (Homo sapiens) in Africa less than half a million years ago and their later spread throughout the world. Leaving no stone unturned, John F. Hoffecker demonstrates that Homo sapiens represents a “major transition” in the evolution of living systems in terms of fundamental changes in the role of non-genetic information. Modern Humans synthesizes recent findings from genetics (including the rapidly growing body of ancient DNA), the human fossil record, and archaeology relating to the African origin and global dispersal of anatomically modern people. Hoffecker places humans in the broad context of the evolution of life, emphasizing the critical role of genetic and non-genetic forms of information in living systems as well as how changes in the storage, transmission, and translation of information underlie major transitions in evolution. He also draws on information and complexity theory to explain the emergence of Homo sapiens in Africa several hundred thousand years ago and the rapid and unprecedented spread of our species into a variety of environments in Australia and Eurasia, including the Arctic and Beringia, beginning between 75,000 and 60,000 years ago. This magisterial work will appeal to all with an interest in the ever-fascinating field of human evolution.

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Page Count

362

Publisher

Columbia University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0231543743

ISBN 13

9780231543743

Landscape of the Mind

Human Evolution and the Archaeology of Thought

By: John F. Hoffecker

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Landscape of the Mind

Human Evolution and the Archaeology of Thought

By: John F. Hoffecker

In Landscape of the Mind, John F. Hoffecker explores the origin and growth of the human mind, drawing on archaeology, history, and the fossil record. He suggests that, as an indirect result of bipedal locomotion, early humans developed a feedback relationship among their hands, brains, and tools that evolved into the capacity to externalize thoughts in the form of shaped stone objects. When anatomically modern humans evolved a parallel capacity to externalize thoughts as symbolic language, individual brains within social groups became integrated into a "neocortical Internet," or super-brain, giving birth to the mind. Noting that archaeological traces of symbolism coincide with evidence of the ability to generate novel technology, Hoffecker contends that human creativity, as well as higher order consciousness, is a product of the superbrain. He equates the subsequent growth of the mind with human history, which began in Africa more than 50,000 years ago. As anatomically modern humans spread across the globe, adapting to a variety of climates and habitats, they redesigned themselves technologically and created alternative realities through tools, language, and art. Hoffecker connects the rise of civilization to a hierarchical reorganization of the super-brain, triggered by explosive population growth. Subsequent human history reflects to varying degrees the suppression of the mind's creative powers by the rigid hierarchies of nationstates and empires, constraining the further accumulation of knowledge. The modern world emerged after 1200 from the fragments of the Roman Empire, whose collapse had eliminated a central authority that could thwart innovation. Hoffecker concludes with speculation about the possibility of artificial intelligence and the consequences of a mind liberated from its organic antecedents to exist in an independent, nonbiological form.

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Page Count

281

Publisher

Columbia University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

023151848X

ISBN 13

9780231518482

Desolate Landscapes

Ice-Age Settlement in Eastern Europe

By: John F. Hoffecker

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Desolate Landscapes

Ice-Age Settlement in Eastern Europe

By: John F. Hoffecker

The burning question, of course, is why a creature that originated in cozy tropical Africa would go live in a cold and dry place, especially at its coldest and driest, between 300,000 and 12,000 years ago. Alas, no pioneer journals survive, at least translated into a modern European language; and Hoffecker (U. of Colorado-Boulder), a specialist in the archaeology of people in cold environments, true to his sources, remains silent on the issue. He summarizes the Ice Age settlement of Eastern European during the transition from Neanderthals to immediate human ancestors, within the context of human evolution as a whole. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

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Page Count

328

Publisher

Rutgers University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0813529921

ISBN 13

9780813529929

Landscape of the Mind

Human Evolution and the Archaeology of Thought

By: John F. Hoffecker

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Landscape of the Mind

Human Evolution and the Archaeology of Thought

By: John F. Hoffecker

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281

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Columbia University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

023151848X

ISBN 13

9780231518482

Modern Humans

Their African Origin and Global Dispersal

By: John F. Hoffecker

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Modern Humans

Their African Origin and Global Dispersal

By: John F. Hoffecker

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Page Count

362

Publisher

Columbia University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0231543743

ISBN 13

9780231543743

Desolate Landscapes

Ice-Age Settlement in Eastern Europe

By: John F. Hoffecker

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Desolate Landscapes

Ice-Age Settlement in Eastern Europe

By: John F. Hoffecker

The book is divided into seven chapters. The first discusses general anthropological principles and theories pertaining to human adaptation and development in cold environments. The second outlines the environmental conditions of the specific area under study in the book. The next two chapters focus on Neanderthal finds in the area. The following two chapters discuss the replacement of the local Neanderthal population by the Cro-magnons, and the development of their way of life in the cold Loess Steppe environment. The final chapter summarizes the discussion and is followed by an extremely valuable and extensive bibliography, more than half of which consists of non-English (primarily Russian) sources.

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Page Count

298

Published Date

ISBN 10

0813529913

ISBN 13

9780813529912

Book's by John F. Hoffecker

A Prehistory of the North

A Prehistory of the North

Human Ecology of Beringia

Human Ecology of Beringia

Dry Creek

Dry Creek

Modern Humans

Modern Humans

Landscape of the Mind

Landscape of the Mind

Desolate Landscapes

Desolate Landscapes

Landscape of the Mind

Landscape of the Mind

Modern Humans

Modern Humans

Desolate Landscapes

Desolate Landscapes

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