wafer's review
4.0
Highly engrossing. Renfrew has a knack for appealing to everyone who has even the slightest interest in the history of the human condition.
madelinemccrae's review against another edition
3.25
I think Renfrew wanted this book to be for more the general audience (albeit a general audience familiar with archaeology and prehistory) but he missed the mark on making it accessible. The first half doesn’t talk about prehistory, but rather the history of archaeology of prehistory. It was incredibly dry and textbook-like. When he eventually got to the second half of the book, he jumped around from different perspectives and ideas without really driving home what his thesis is for the book. It also felt a little outdated. I think maybe only 1/4 of the book was about the making of the human mind.
qaphsiel's review
4.0
Yes, cognitive archaeology exists - and it's a fascinating field. Homo sapiens is a couple hundred thousand years old, but for much of that time there was little change. Then, about 12 thousand years ago, things began changing more rapidly, and often in ways we take completely for granted. When is the last time you thought about the origin of the notion of weighing things? Or the conceptual basis for coinage? Or the incredibly varied trajectories different human cultures have taken? This book discusses all these and made me think about our development in ways I never had before.
lucyhargrave's review
I feel a bit mean DNFing Prehistory, but honestly, I just couldn't read anymore. It honestly isn't a bad book, and Colin Renfrew* clearly knows his subject, it just wasn't the book I thought it would be. I'm a little obsessed with pre-history and early humans, so I've been gobbling up books about it for the last few years. Therefore I went in expecting this to be about the prehistory of humans, maybe with an angle on the mind. However, the bit I read was all about the academic study of prehistory and how it has developed. Therefore most of the book, at least the section I read (I gave up at the end of Part 1) didn't interest me.
I'm not an archeology/anthropology student and therefore don't care how the modern day field came into being and the key developments that have led to it. I'm sure for some people this will be a fascinating read, but for me, it just missed the mark.
Because it wasn't a bad book, just not the book I wanted, I've given it two stars.
*I wouldn't expect anything else from Colin Renfrew in all honesty!
I'm not an archeology/anthropology student and therefore don't care how the modern day field came into being and the key developments that have led to it. I'm sure for some people this will be a fascinating read, but for me, it just missed the mark.
Because it wasn't a bad book, just not the book I wanted, I've given it two stars.
*I wouldn't expect anything else from Colin Renfrew in all honesty!
red_dog's review
4.0
Not for the general reader I think, but a hugely fascinating tour of how we should begin to see the development of what makes us human
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