A Prehistory of Ordinary People
By Monica L. Smith
(University of Arizona Press)

Although we tend to think of multitasking as a modern concept, our paleolithic ancestors were the ones who first perfected the art of doing many things at once. From them, we have inherited the ability to utilize a wide range of foods, goods, and work modes to address short-term as well as long-term outcomes. Multitasking is not just the ability to do many things simultaneously.  It encompasses the cognitive ability to pick up where we left off, a skill that was exhibited by the earliest humans as well.

This book also focuses on individual actions in the past and their collective effects in creating a social and material world.  Individuals have a distinct perception of their own identity, memory, health, language capacity, kinship, and gender status, each of which are materialized through the use of space and objects.  Over the course of a lifetime, individuals negotiate the fluid engagements of daily life through changes in physical capacities and skill sets.  These individually-mediated engagements, expressed through ever-increasing opportunities for multitasking, provided the essential foundation for the development of social complexity in the form of cities and states.|

Table of Contents
Prologue: A Chance Encounter
The Origins of Multitasking
Individuals and Food
Individuals and Goods
Individuals and Work
Multitasking and Social Complexity

Monica L. Smith is Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology and teaches courses at UCLA on cognition and material culture, the archaeology of South Asia, and on the development of urbanism.  She is the editor of The Social Construction of Ancient Cities (Smithsonian Institution Press). 

A Prehistory of Ordinary People can be found at the UCLA Bookstore, at the University of Arizona Press and on Amazon.com.  A UCLA press release on the book can be found here.