Home News & Events UCLA Researcher Looks at the Origins of Multitasking
Document Actions

UCLA Researcher Looks at the Origins of Multitasking

by eric — last modified March 03, 2011 12:28 PM

The Cotsen Institute of Archaeology is pleased to announce a new publication by Monica Smith, Associate Professor of Anthropology at UCLA. The book, A Prehistory of Ordinary People, is published by the University of Arizona Press.

In the volume, Professor Smith discusses the rise of multitasking, and how it relates to the development of complex societies. You can read more about her research here.  An interview with Monica by Rorotoko.com is available here and is available for purchase on Amazon.com.

secondaryNav

Secondary Navigation

featPub

Featured Publication

featured pub picture

The Construction of Value

Scholars from Aristotle to Marx and beyond have been fascinated by the question of what constitutes value. The Construction of Value in the Ancient World makes a significant contribution to this ongoing inquiry, bringing together in one comprehensive volume the perspectives of leading anthropologists, archaeologists, historians, linguists, philologists, and sociologists on how value was created, defined, and expressed in a number of ancient societies around the world. Based on the basic premise that value is a social construct defined by the cultural context in which it is situated, the volume explores four overarching but closely interrelated themes: place value, body value, object value, and number value. The questions raised and addressed are of central importance to archaeologists studying ancient civilizations: How can we understand the value that might have been accorded to materials, objects, people, places, and patterns of action by those who produced or used the things that compose the human material record? Taken as a whole, the contributions to this volume demonstrate how the concept of value lies at the intersection of individual and collective tastes, desires, sentiments, and attitudes that inform the ways people select, or give priority to, one thing over another.

Available now!

utilityNav

Utility Navigation

 
Personal tools