Bronze Age Worlds: A Social Prehistory of Britain and Ireland [Paperback]

Bronze Age Worlds brings a new way of thinking about kinship to the task of explaining the formation of social life in Bronze Age Britain and Ireland.

Britain and Irelands diverse landscapes and societies experienced varied and profound transformations during the twenty-fifth to eighth centuries BC. Peoples lives were shaped by migrations, changing beliefs about death, making and thinking with metals, and living in houses and field systems. This book offers accounts of how these processes emerged from social life, from events, places and landscapes, informed by a novel theory of kinship. Kinship was a rich and inventive sphere of culture that incorporated biological relations but was not determined by them. Kinship formed personhood and collective belonging, and associated people with nonhuman beings, things and places. The differences in kinship and kinwork across Ireland and Britain brought textures to social life and the formation of Bronze Age worlds.

Bronze Age Worlds offers new perspectives to archaeologists and anthropologists interested in the place of kinship in Bronze Age societies and cultural development.

1 Introduction: Dowris; Part I Gifts; 2 A Patina of Journeys; 25001700 BC; 3 Dispersed Lives; 2000700 BC; Part II Dwellings; 4 Home Ground; 25001200 BC; 5 Living and Gathering; 1400750 BC; Part III Landmarks; 6 Enchanting Places; 25001500 BC; 7 Akin to Land; 2200700 BC; 8 Conclusion: A Social Prehistory

Bronze Age Worlds brings a new way of thinking about kinship to the task of explaining the formation of social life in the Bronze Age Britain and Ireland.

Robert Johnston is a Senior Lecturer in Landscape Archaeology at the University of Sheffield. He has published articles and edited books on aspects of landscape archaeology and the later prehistory of BritainlcM