农业起源与人类起源、文明起源是考古学研究中十分重要的三个"起源"问题。本书从狩猎采集者的文化生态学角度来研究农业起源。全书共分十二章，分别从理论角度、当代气象站提供的资料模拟、具体的考古材料与古环境材料、梳理了现有的考古发现四个角度分析了中国的农业起源问题。

This book explores the roles of agricultural development and advancing social complexity in the processes of state formation in China. Over a period of about 10,000 years, it follows evolutionary trajectories of society from the last Palaeolithic hunting-gathering groups, through Neolithic farming villages and on to the Bronze Age Shang dynasty in the latter half of the second millennium BC. Li Liu and Xingcan Chen demonstrate that sociopolitical evolution was multicentric and shaped by inter-polity factionalism and competition, as well as by the many material technologies introduced from other parts of the world. The book illustrates how ancient Chinese societies were transformed during this period from simple to complex, tribal to urban, and preliterate to literate.
• Covers major topics including the roles of agricultural development, advancing social complexity and state formation in ancient China • Considers the origins of archaic states in the Yellow River valley • Includes discussion of regional interactions within China and between China and the outside world

《时间与传统》针对新考古学提倡的过程论(即社会文化发展的动力和原因）取向，强调考古学主要应该发挥在重建历史上的作用，新考古学倡导通则研究不应取代或削弱考古学在了解人类历史上的地位，而应该成为互补的两个方面。《时间与传统》对西方考古学理论的反思可以促进中国考古学理论研究的深入展开，也有利于历史学家扩展思路，从对考古学理论的思考中获益。