ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book sets the period at a pivotal point within the multi-million year long term of human cultural history, setting the transformation within the context of contemporary cultural evolutionary theory. Prehistory is like history in that it is necessary to get things into chronological order in order to be able to perceive the historical process. The process of Becoming Neolithic requires us to start the account with the developments within the Epipalaeolithic that lead into the Neolithic. So, it is referred to throughout as the Epipalaeolithic–Neolithic transformation, which, for the convenience and comfort of readers, is collapsed into the tag the ENT. The book sets out to reverse the perspective with which we have been considering the ENT, the Epipalaeolithic–Neolithic transformation. The Neolithic revolution has frequently been referred to as ‘the origins of agriculture’ or ‘the agricultural revolution’.
