Skip to main content
Elsevier

Books in Social sciences and humanities

  • Quantitative Zooarchaeology

    Topics in the Analysis of Archaelogical Faunas
    • 1st Edition
    • Donald K. Grayson
    • English
    Quantitative Zooarchaeology: Topics in the Analysis of Archaeological Faunas presents the problems in the quantification of bones and teeth from archaeological and palaeontological sites. This book discusses the various kinds of statistical manipulations that are done with the measurements. Organized into seven chapters, this book begins with an overview of the quantification of vertebrate faunas from archaeological and, to some extent, palaeontological sites. This text then explains the interrelationship between various abundance measures and the size of the samples on which those measures are based. Other chapters consider the fundamental kinds of questions that every faunal analyst asks of a set of bones and teeth from an archaeological site. This book discusses as well the ratio scale measure of taxonomic abundance. The final chapter discusses the three issues that deal with different aspects of archaeological faunal analysis, namely, collection techniques, meat weights, and the analysis of the seasons of the year during which an archaeological deposit accumulated. This book is a valuable resource for archaeological faunal analysts, archaeologists, and paleontologists.

  • Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 10
    • English
    Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory, Volume 10 focuses on the progress of methodologies, approaches, techniques, and principles employed in archaeological method and theory. The selection first elaborates on the formation of ethnographic collections, colonization of islands by humans, and shellfish gathering and Shell midden archaeology. Discussions focus on archaeological excavation and interpretation of Shell middens, shellfish gathering in practice and theory, island geometrical properties relevant to colonization, archaeological applications of biogeographical principles, and principles of museum collecting. The text then takes a look at the formation processes of archaeobotanical record and archaeofaunas and butchery studies, including identification of taphonomic agents, a taphonomic approach to the analysis of butchering, approaches to understanding differential preservation, cultural transformations of the archaeobotanical record, and environmental transformation processes. The book examines bioarchaeological interpretations of subsistence economy and behavior from human skeletal remains, as well as activity patterns in the archaeological past, changing directions in bioarchaeology, and health and disease in the archaeological past. The selection is a valuable reference for archaeologists and researchers interested in archaeological method and theory.

  • Psychology of System Design

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 17
    • D. Meister
    • English
    This is a book about systems, including: systems in which humans control machines; systems in which humans interact with humans and the machine component is relatively unimportant; systems which are heavily computerized and those that are not; and governmental, industrial, military and social systems.The book deals with both traditional systems like farming, fishing and the military, and with systems just now tentatively emerging, like the expert and the interactive computer system. The emphasis is on the system concept and its implications for analysis, design and evaluation of these many different types of systems. The book attempts to make three major points: 1. System design, and particularly computer system design, must fit into and be directed by a comprehensive theory of system functioning. 2. Interactive computer design models itself upon our knowledge of how humans function. 3. Highly sophisticated interactive computer systems are presently mostly research vehicles, they are vastly different to general purpose, commercially available word processors and personal computers.The book represents an interdisciplinary approach, the author has used psychological, organizational, human factors, and engineering sources. The book is not a "how to do it" book but it is intended to stimulate thinking about the larger context in which systems, particularly computer systems of the future, should be designed and used.

  • Essays in the Economics of Exhaustible Resources

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 150
    • N.V. Long + 1 more
    • English
    Contributions to Economic Analysis, 150: Essays in the Economics of Exhaustible Resources focuses on the processes, principles, methodologies, and approaches involved in the economics of exhaustible resources. The selection first elaborates on the problem of survival, towards a more general theory of the order of exploitation of non-renewable resource-deposits, and the optimal order of exploitation of deposits of a renewable resource. Discussions focus on optimal trajectory, stable locus, assumptions and formulation, set-up costs and flow fixed costs, possibility of storage, costly extraction of deposits, and technical progress. The text then examines the transition from an exhaustible resource-stock to an inexhaustible substitute and the development of a substitute for an exhaustible natural resource, including dispersed ownership of the resource, social optimum, and single monopoly of the resource and its substitute. The manuscript takes a look at optimal taxation and economic depreciation, efficiency of competitive markets in a context of exhaustible resources, and oligopolistic extraction of a common-property resource. Topics include rational-expectation... equilibrium, implausibility of the assumption of competition, second-best taxation and the undesirability of the economic depreciation rule, and the effect of other taxes. The selection is a valuable reference for researchers interested in the economics of exhaustible resources.

  • Price Level Measurement

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 196
    • W.E. Diewert
    • English
    Among the theoretical issues covered in this volume are the "economic" and the "axiomatic" or "test" approaches to the problem of constructing and choosing among alternative cost-of-living index formulas; "bounds" and "econometric" alternatives for developing empirically computable approximations of theoretically desirable indexes; recommendations concerning the incorporation of leisure time in measures of the cost-of-living; and the formulation of social and group cost-of-living indexes. The Jorgenson-Slesnick paper also presents a far-reaching empirical study of price changes in the U.S.The importance of this book to those with an interest in economic theory is obvious. However, this book also holds out the opportunity and challenge to applied researchers to gain a deeper understanding of the index numbers of which they make daily use.

  • Prehistoric Subsistence on the Southern New England Coast

    The Records from Narragansett Bay
    • 1st Edition
    • David J. Bernstein
    • English
    Prehistoric Subsistence on the Southern New England Coast examines long-term trends in prehistoric subsistence in the Narragensett Bay region of Southern New England. The results suggest that, unlike other areas of Eastern north America, specialized agriculutral economies did not develop in this region prior to European contact. The book is accessible to both the general reader as well as scholars and students interested in consulting the original data for their own research and analysis.

  • The Econometric Analysis of Non-Uniqueness in Rational Expectations Models

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 201
    • L. Broze + 1 more
    • English
    This book is devoted to the econometric analysis of linear multivariate rational expectation models. It shows that the interpretation of multiplicity in terms of "new degrees of freedom" is consistent with a rigorous econometric reasoning. Non-uniqueness is the central theme of this book. Each chapter is concerned with a specific econometric aspect of rational expectations equilibria. The most constructive result lies in the possibility of an empirical determination of the equilibrium followed by the economy.

  • Principles of Archaeological Stratigraphy

    • 2nd Edition
    • Edward C. Harris
    • English
    This book is the only text devoted entirely to archaeological stratigraphy, a subject of fundamental importance to most studies in archaeology. The first edition appeared in 1979 as a result of the invention, by the author, of the Harris Matrix--a method for analyzing and presenting the stratigraphic sequences of archaeological sites. The method is now widely used in archaeology all over the world.The opening chapters of this edition discuss the historical development of the ideas of archaeological stratigraphy. The central chapters examine the laws and basic concepts of the subject, and the last few chapters look at methods of recording stratification, constructing stratigraphic sequences, and the analysis of stratification and artifacts.The final chapter, which is followed by a glossary of stratigraphic terms, gives an outline of a modern system for recording stratification on archaeological sites. This book is written in a simple style suitable for the student or amateur. The radical ideas set out should also give the professional archaeologist food for thought.

  • Contexts for Prehistoric Exchange

    • 1st Edition
    • PERISIC
    • English
    Contexts for Prehistoric Exchange is a collection of papers that discusses the theoretical and methodological approaches in understanding the parameters of regional exchange from both the Old and New Worlds. The papers deal with the sourcing of exchange material, spatial patterning, the modeling of exchange, production for exchange, consumption, and symbolic contexts. One paper evaluates the different laboratory techniques for analyzing archaeological materials, their efficiency, "cost," range of applicability, and the mathematical usefulness of the data toward the research. Another paper describes the prehistoric obsidian used throughout New Mexico, and applies mathematical representations of the procurement strategies associated with the different obsidian source areas or time periods. The paper then incorporates these analyses with available bodies of theories on raw-material procurement and exchange. Through an analysis of stylistic and technological attributes of southwestern ceramics, one paper notes that inferring exchange on the basis of stylistic similarity does not always lead to a simple correlation between stylistic distributions and patterns of material exchange. Another paper suggests that ethnohistory and archaeology in Andean exchange can be complementary approaches to the discovery of patterns, processes, and change/exchange of other systems. The collection can prove beneficial for archaeologists, anthropologist, sociologists, and researchers interested in the pre-history of the Old World or New World.

  • The Politics of Informal Justice

    Volume 2: Comparative Studies
    • 1st Edition
    • Richard L. Abel
    • English
    The Politics of Informal Justice, Volume 2 demonstrates the existence of examples of informal justice in every society, practicing a wide range of political ideology. The book situates contemporary experiments with informal justice in a broad comparative and historical perspective. It identifies the characteristics and common elements of informal justice in four settings: in precapitalist societies and contemporary Third World nations; under liberal capitalism, social democracy, and fascism; and in socialist revolutions and established socialist regimes. The text will be of interest to political scientists, sociologists, historians, and those concerned in the study of legal systems.

Related subjects