Nineteen internationally renowned scholars discuss theoretically based case studies ranging in subject from the late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers to the restructuring of gender relations in the US.

The volume is composed of five theoretically-based discussions and nine case studies, drawing on regions from North America and Mesoamerica to Western and central Europe, and ranging in subject from the late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers to the restructuring of gender relations in the north-eastern US. Elizabeth Brumfiel, Albion College, USA, John Barrett, University of Sheffield, UK, John Chapman, University of Durham, UK, John E. Clark, Brigham Young University, USA, I