“This book is the most comprehensively global and critically sensitive synthesis of what we now know of the material and socio-cultural evolution of the so-called First Societies. Written by a distinguished architectural historian and theorist, this truly remarkable and indispensable study shows how the material culture of our forebears, from building to clothing, food, ritual and dance, was inextricably bound up with the mode of survival obtained in a particular place and time…It is a study that will surely become required reading for every student of material culture.”—Kenneth Frampton

Starting with the dawn of human society, through early civilizations, to the pre-Columbian American tribes, Architecture of First Societies: A Global Perspective traces the different cultural formations that developed in various places throughout the world to form the built environment. Looking through the lens of both time and geography, the history of early architecture is brought to life with full-color photographs, maps, and drawings. Drawing on the latest research in archaeological and anthropological knowledge, this landmark book also looks at how indigenous societies build today in order to help inform the past.