Science: a process of Study of all human

understanding phenomena beings and culture

trough observation, through its
generalization, verification, and material remains
refutation Anthropological Holism
Scientific Method: Self- o Economics
correcting set of procedures for o Biology
gaining and testing our o Poli sci
knowledge of the world o Literature
o Formulate Question o Religion
o Develop hypothesis o Medicine
o Test hypothesis through o Psychology
analysis of data Material Culture: the physical
o Convert to theory if manifestation of human
verified multiple times activities
Theory vs Belief: theory can
be tested and belief can not Time:
Truth Vs Fact: truths are o B.P (1950)
interpreted; facts use the o KY: thousands years
scientific method o B.C.= B.P (B.C. + 2000)
Anthropology: study of human Our notions of the world
kind through scientific method o Hunter gather life
Four subfields of Misery, hunger,
Anthropology hard work
o Cultural Social contract theory: Form
Field work; the society in which they live by
participant forming a contract with ones
observation self
Ethnography: Early views of the world
individual study of o Surplus Leisure time
culture technological and cultural
Enthnology: development better life
analysis of various Film
societies o Workers built pyramids
o Linguistic o They lived in a downtown
o Biological area
Paleoanthro = our o Ate bread and beer
ancestors o Treated well; had own
Primatology= our tombs
cousins Mound Builder
Genetics o Egyptian pyramid in bible
Osteology where Joseph holds
o Archaeological grains
Study of human Arch evidence of hunter
beings through gatherers
their material
remains
 o Figurines, hairdos,
textiles, baskets, rope,
portable art
Ethnographic evidence for
hunter-gatherers in
Australia
o Worked 7 hours 1st day
2nd day worked 3, 3rd day
off
University of Arizona
Garbage project
o Studying human through
their garbage remains
Ethnocentrism: comparing
other cultures to yours
o Racism and romanticism
Notion of cultural
superiority: illusion that
everyone should think the way
you do; biological explanation
for superiority
Beyond ethnocentrism
o Slavery and genocide
o Exploitation of women,
poor, or weak
o Diversity and
commonality
Reasons for Archaeology
o Scientific understanding
o Critical evaluation of our
perceptions
o Who we are and where
we are going
o Human diversity
Temporal extent of
Archaeology
o 7 million ya
Important questions of
Archaeology
o Why and how did we get
here
Problem of archaeological
data
o Archaeological data are
fragmentary multiple
interpretations are often
possible
Past in the present
o Our past exists in a
modern context
Pseudoarchaeology: uses
past for benefit; aliens
Major goals of archaeology
o Preserve, prevent,
examination of data,
publish, respect
descendants, future
improvements
Knowledge
o Document, publish, and
disseminate
Heritage
o Preservation
o Tensions btwn local,
national, and world
heritage identities
o UNESCO
o Tourism (pros and cons)
Looting and destruction
o Illegal; profit; takes away
context; destruction of
cultural heritage
Who controls the past?
o B
o Control of past remains?
Unethical use of
archaeology
o Gustaf Kossinna:
Ancestral Heritage saying
Poland was Germanic
origin
o Nazis
National and international
Laws
o UNESCO World Heritage
(1945) convention on the
means of prohibiting the
illicit import, export, and
transfer of ownership of
cultural property (1970)
but no mechanism for its
return
o UNIDROIT Convention on graves on federal
Stolen or Illegally land
exported Cultural Objects
Return cultural
(1995)
items to lineal
o National historic descendants and
preservation Act (1966) culturally affiliated
tribes
Federally assisted
agencies need to Archaeology and Identities
take into account Construction of the past in the
the effects of their present
own projects on Preservation and conservation
historic properties o Preserve world and local
ad give the heritage
Advisory Council o Disseminate knowledge
on Historic in both academic and
Preservation the public settings
opportunity to Archaeology and the general
comment on them public
o Site documentation
SHIPO: State
o Reconstruction of culture
historic
history
Preservation office
o Site preservation
Affirmative o Preservation of excavated
management features and materials
programs for the o Archiving of records for
preservation future use (field notes,
maps, forms, etc.)
o NAGPRA o Disseminating information
to the public (publication)
Native American
o Access to these materials
grave protection
and records for future
and repatriation
study (Museum)
Act
Refers to native Institutions that fund or
Americans and conduct arch
native Hawaiian o Private: contract
organizations Archaeology, research
institues
Requires federally o Public: tourist industry,
agencies to consult university, museum
with Native Cultural Resource
American tribes Management (CRM)
prior to the o About 80% of all
excavation of professional
Native American archaeologists
 o Identification and Classical
evaluation of Archaeology; the
archaeological sites to classic civilizations
protect them from of Greece and
disturbance or destruction Rome; tend to be
o Investigation of those that historical
cannot be saved Historical
o Work for government Archaeology; more
agencies recent and written
o About less than 10% work documents; King
in Universities Richard III
Synchronic Views Shakespeare
o Focus on short period almost got his
Diachronic Views image correct;
o Stresses social changes WW2 German
or processes over long Trenches; US MIA
period of time Recovery in
Types or Archaeology Vietnam
o Universities in Europe Prehistoric
and Asia Archaeology:
o History orientated societies without
discipline written report; this
o European Archaeology is division b/w
part of history or geology prehistoric and
The Classics historical
Paleolithic archaeologies blur
o Heinrich Schliemann: Underwater
o Japanese Archaeology Archaeology:
Archaeology is a Paleolithic
part of history Archaeology:
o Universities in the Industrial (Urban)
Americas Archaeology:
o Anthropology orientated understand
discipline modern society
o North American; Biblical
Archaeology is part of Archaeology:
anthropology Public Archaeology:
International trying to teach
disjunction archaeology to the
between prehistory general public
and the present Archaeometry;
Indigenous o Archaeology is holistic:
population studies social science, physical
by anthropologists science, humanities, and
Cahokia anthropology
o Sub Disciplines Ancient Cultures
o Thutmose IV
 The excavation of John Aubrey
the sphinx o China
Thutmose IV so he Song Dynasty (A.D.
could be the king, 960-1279)
not his brother Collection of
o Nabonidus ancient art,
excavated scholarly studies in
Cuneiform historiography
inscribed clay Shen Kuo
cylinder describing suggested that
repairs on the ancient artifacts
temple of the could be studied
moon-god to for their
exhibit his technology
corrections of Created the first
when the moon known artifact
god was there catalog
o St. Helen Mother of Herculneum and Pompeii
Constantine o The first half of the 18th
Went to Jerusalem century
to excavate and o Under the auspices of
find the true King Charles III of Naples
cross Colonialism and early
Feast day 18th of explorer
August o Napoleons expedition to
Europe in the 17th century Egypt (17th century)
o Stasis (John Ray) never o Found the Rosetta Stone
changing world; god o They didnt know how to
made it before and its read it
exactly the same o Jean Francois
o Young World (Bishop Champollion saw that
James Ussher) calculated there were actually 3
the age of the world at languages in scripted
around 6,000 years Early archaeology in the
placing its inception at Americas
4004 B.C. using lifespans o The United States
of biblical figures Thomas Jefferson
Antiquarians excavated a
o Europe mound and
Antiquarism: concluded that this
backward-looking was not by
curiosity (The European people,
Speculative Era) but Native
Excavation and Americans
collection without The early
control or expeditions to the
documentation Maya Civilization
 o John Lloyd Stephens and
Frederick Catherwood
Best seller books
1841 incidents of
travel in central
America, Chiapas,
and Yucatan
1843 incidents of
travel in Yucatan
The beginning of
Modern
Archaeology
Rise of Modern Archaeology
o Industrial revolution
(1760-1840)
Impact of Geology
o Deep time (how old earth
is geologically)
o Gradualism everything
happens slowly
o Uniformitarianism
(analogical thinking)
o Natural process today are
the same as those in the
past
o Stratigraphy order and
position of layered arch
remains
Evolutionary Theory
o Charles Darwin
o Natural selection
o Implication
Evolution is not
process
Depends on
adaptation to
environment
Humans are not
above others
Unilinear Cultural evolution
o savages barbarianism
civilization all cultures
works this way
Multilinear evolution
o multi same but at
different speeds
Important figures in the
early history of modern
anthro and arch
o C.J. Thomson
Three Age System
(Stone, Bronze,
and Iron Age)
The dawn of
typology (I.E. the
sequential,
ordered,
arrangement of
objects from the
past)
o Elman Service (1915-
1996)
Bands
Tribes
Chiefdoms
States
o Lewis Henry Morgan
wrote Ethnocentric
System Ancient Society
and introduced his
natural progression of
human societies
Savagery Barbarianism
Civilization
o Edward Taylor wrote
Primitive Culture where
societies passed through
stages of development
over time
Celtic past in France
BAE
Hyperdiffusionism
o the idea that a cultural
trait has a common world
origin
Analogy
o Ethnographic resources
to interpret the
archaeological record
Processualism
o Lack of focusing on
people
 o Lack of multiple point of
views
o Lack of considering
symbolic behavior
Cultural evolution theory
o Unilinear vulture
evolution
o Human societies evolve
in linear fashion
o Notion of progress
o Lewis Henry Morgan:
Savagery (hunting and
foraging) Barbarianism
(subsistence farming)
civilization
o Multilinear cultural
evolution
o Independent
development of human
groups in different parts
of the world, determined
by the success of
adaption to natural
environment
Cultural ecology
o Julian Steward
o All aspects of how human
societies adapt to and
transform their
environment
o Emphasis on synchronic
view
o Proposed Neo
Evolutionary theory
Evolutionary ecology
o How interactions between
species evolve
Neo-evolutionary theory
o Cultures evolve the same
or have similarities w/o
contact
Evolutionary Arch
Behavioral arch
o Formation process
o Life history of artifacts
and site
Marxism
o Historical materialism
o Focuses on mode of
production and class
struggles
o Infrastructure (mode of
production)
Superstructure (ideology)
o Introduced late in the
United States because of
the conflict of capitalism
vs communism
Postprocessualism
o Internal factors of culture
change
o Symbolism
o Political factor
o Agency= people are
agents of culture change
o Change based on human
interaction and culturally
conditioned behaviors
and beliefs
Trade and
exchange
Gender
Ideologies and
beliefs
Feminist arch
o Roles of women in the
past
o Nuanced studies of
gender
o
Practice theory
o Pierre Bourdieu
o Peoples everyday
practices that change
social structures which in
turn constrain peoples
subsequent practices
o Recursive relation
between action and
thought
o People are not always
rational
o Agency: peoples capacity
of doing things
 Phenomenology
o Use our experiences to
understand the
experiences of the past
Cognitive arch
o Cognitive process and
symbol systems from a
more processualist
position
Max Weber
o Possessive power
o Power emerges in social
relations
o Even rulers cannot
escape from this web
o Docile body
Franz Boas
o Cultural particularism=
cultures are unique
o Four unified fields of anth
o Use of scientific method
o No link between race and
culture
o Warned against
ethnocentrism
Ian Hodder
o Critiqued processualism
(already wrote what he
said)
Lewis Binford
o Archaeology as anthro
o Use scientific method
o Systems approach
o Adaption to environment
Christopher Tilley
o Material culture and
social identity
Pierre Bourdieu
o Practice theory
Michel Foucault
o Arch of knowledge
Colin Renfrew
o f
Artifact
o Portable objects created
or modified by humans
Ecofact
o Unmodified remains of
biological materials
Feature
o Non-portable arch
remains that were
constructed by humans=
hearths, burials, storage
pins, roads, and dams
Site
o A spatial cluster of
artifacts, ecofacts,
features and or structures
Region
o Beyond the limit of a
single site
o Defines by both natural
and cultural factors
Natural formation
o Organic decay
o Animal activities
o Volcanic eruption, etc
Cultural formation
o Plowing
o Looting
o Renovation
o Destruction
Life history of artifact and
architecture
Provenience vs provenance
o Where things are found
(its spatial context)
o Where things are made
(origin)
Primary context
o Undisturbed conditions
Secondary context
o Disturbed conditions
Matrix
o The soil or physical
material in which an
excavation is conducted