Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2024 -

The first edition of this book was once the definitive guide to Hawaiian prehistory, but since its publication nearly 40 years ago, things have changed. Numerous archaeological projects have been undertaken in Hawai'i, and innovations in techniques and methodologies in both archaeology and associated fields have advanced knowledge, demanding a fresh synthesis. This long-awaited revision skillfully brings this pioneering work up to date. Kirch (Univ. of Hawai'i, Manoa; emer. Univ. of California, Berkeley) and McCoy (Florida State Univ.) make good use of data from collateral fields such as linguistics, biological anthropology, and ethnohistory to support archaeological interpretations. The book discusses the history of archaeology in Hawai'i and assesses contemporary methods and techniques. It reviews the broad ecological and cultural history of Oceania before taking up topics such as material culture, agricultural systems, population size, ritual architecture, landscape, and transformations following European contact, and it updates the Polynesian settlement of Hawai'i with a more recent chronology. The final chapters survey major sites and early settlement patterns. Written in an accessible style, this book will appeal to both professional archaeologists and an interested public. Richly illustrated with numerous photographs and maps, and bolstered by a comprehensive bibliography, this is an essential guide to ancient Hawai'i.Summing Up: Essential. General readers through faculty; professionals.

In this noir-like ethnography, Messeri (Yale Univ.) takes readers into the world of virtual reality, along with its creators and proponents, in Los Angeles. She critically observes how the push for "VR for Good" frames virtual reality as a liberal progressive tool to engender empathy in its users, introducing a new, high-tech form of civic engagement. Intersecting with Hollywood and filmmakers, virtual reality itself becomes a cinematic experience that at once affects the elite, as Messeri details, the rationale being that such impact would slowly "trickle down" to others. As she further illustrates, virtual reality is good to think with as it enables contemplation into what she terms "the unreal"--the fracturing of reality in a post-truth, alternative-facts context of a Trump presidency, the backdrop to her ethnography. Parsing through the construction, management, and use of virtual reality, this accessible and innovative ethnography expertly weaves anthropology, science, and technology studies in nuanced ways that will leave readers asking after their own realities. In short, this is a must-read volume for anthropologists of technology and anyone wondering about the fractured realities in which we live.Summing Up: Essential. General readers through faculty; professionals.

This volume reviews and updates the prehistory of Sahul, the Pleistocene landmass that includes Australia, New Guinea, and nearby islands. Together with The Oxford Handbook of Prehistoric Oceania, ed. by Ethan E. Cochrane and Terry L. Hunt (CH, Nov'18, 56-1172), the present volume revises the archaeology of the Pacific region. The earlier volume explores a more recent wave of migration into Oceania over the past roughly 3,500 years. The volume under review concentrates on developments in Sahul over some 65,000 years. In the past decade or two, the literature on this area has burgeoned, and this calls for a new synthesis. But the volume of material makes the task formidable, as the book's scope and depth reflect. The collection comprises 42 essays (written by 77 authors) divided into eight thematic sections: "Approaching the Past," "Colonizing Sahul," "Constructed Landscapes and Waterscapes," "Long-Term Chronological Trends and Cultural Change," "Cultural Dynamics and Networks," "Specialized Societies," "Ceremonies and Rituals," and "Visitors and Colonizers." Especially welcome is the effort to merge the cultural trajectories of Australia and New Guinea, which for too long have been separated by differing research traditions and perceived dissimilarities between hunter-gatherer and horticultural societies. Wide-ranging and deep, this is a required resource for archaeologists, in particular prehistorians.Summing Up: Essential. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals.