Anthropology 102 test 1

Archaeology of 9/11

Archaeologists assisted in two efforts, immediate aftermath of 9/11 2006-2013. Aimed at training archaeologists for mass disasters. Scot Warnasch- published a paper comparing to recovery efforts.

Culture history

Description of culture in particular places, focus on chronology, beginning of explicit theory- try to explain how cultures change, cultures develop/change as adaption, rather than unlinear evolution.

Site formation processes

Deliberate discard, intentional burial, loss, abandonment

SAA

Society for American Archaelogy. Defines working with a range of public audiences as part of ethical practice.

Three impacts of native American activism

1. Legislative changes 2. NAGPRA and Repeiation Act 3. 1992 amendments of the national historic preservation act- mandated that native Americans be consulted about archelogical sites and materials.

Post Processual Archaeology

1980s-present: first called radical critique also, interpretive archaeology, still uses scientific method, but data are theory ladden. Subjectivity of interpretation: bias, personal narrative, no neutral place from which to view culture.

Universities

Academic research, funded through NEH, NSF, Werner-Gren, facility positions, salaries vary- many now adjunct positions, CRM units within university setting; UMASS arch services, contracts on and off campus.

AIAD

American Indian against descreation. Actively engaged in protests against the excavation. And display of native human remains

Impact of Public Archaelogy

An important aspect of the history of archaeological community based research involves the working relationships that archeologists developed with multiple and diverse public audiences.

First known museums in

Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, and Japan.

Franz Boas

Antropoigist used all four fields, cultural relativism, progressive at the time, each culture works in its own way. Debunked the prevailing belief that western civilization is superior. Helped dispel idea of cultural evolution as linear.

Artifacts

Any object that shows evidence of having been manufactured, modified, or used by people. Many archaeologists insist that the object must also be portable.

Archaeological Record

Archaeological sites, artifacts, features, eco facts, cultural landscapes

Cultural landscape

Area as it was likely envisioned by those using in the past, consisting of multiple sites. Examples include the bamiyan valley in Afghanistan and the chilkot trail in Alaska and the Yukon.

Pre history

Assumption, based in science of the time, that civilization requires written records, think about this: people caring for place in a traditional way facing explorers and governments, armed with the science of the day.

Material bias organic vs. durable

Basketry impressions on potsheds

Community based Archaelogy

Builds on indigenous Archaelogy, indigenous, people's expierence w archaelogy. Not a niche or narrowly focused practice, applicable globally, also called community Archaelogy or collaborative Archaelogy, who benefits from Archaelogy and how? Develop project in partnership with community, based on community needs/ interests.

Culture history mid 1900-60s

Catalog, describe make timelines based on artifacts, description of culture in particular places, focus on chronology, minimal use of theory, cultures develop/change as adaption, rather than unlinear evolution, prestige of archaeologist mattered

How do artifacts become buried

Cultural formation processes. 1. People bury their dead 2. People bury their garbage 3. People bury votive offerings 4. People bury monetary items or valuables 5. People loss or abandon items or valuables

Partnership approach

Community based projects that show how to develop substantive research with and for communities. Included reciprocity as a key feature prioritizing the benefits gained for both academic and community partners.

Feminist and Marxist Archaeology

Consider gender in past society. Concern w present day lack of women in Archaelogy and bias against women, interpreting Archaelogy through Marxist framework, labor practices- coal strike of 1913-1914 in ludlow Colorado.

CRM/ARM

Cultural Resource Management. Sometimes called contract Archaelogy, 75% of work is here, 90% of funds. Training required: BA for entry level, most have an MA, typical salary 59,280-65,000 annually, driven by industry, oversight? Major critiques

Renaissance and Enlightment

Development of science as an explanatory framework. Formulation of ideas about biological evolution and principles of geology. Explorers, traders, missionaries. Recognition of many prehistoric sites and objects in Europe, recognition of diverse cultures from around the world.

Indigenous

Diversity of views: with some similarities, relationship based, interconnected view, circular, cyclical view of time, place based w connection to land

Post Processual Approaches

Draws on post- modernism, uses science, but includes reflexivity, social theory and social practices, human agency, expierence and meaning of past people, no cross- cultural generalizations, local context, narratives.

Colonization

Establishment and control of a territory, for an extended period of time, by a sovereign power over a subordinate and other people which are segregated and seperated from ruling power.

Ancient Egypt:

Evidence that people restored relics and materials from earlier people's.

Phenomenology

Experiential and embodied views of the past, hawkes ladder, smell, taste, sounds matter, explore these archaeologically, light and dark in spaces.

Many Indigenous peoples view of archaeology as:

Exploitative and violence

Since 1900s

Extensive field work, discovery of sites to establish culture history, 1940-60: application of radiocarbon dating, outline of world prehistory established

Analogy used to explain cultural differences

Extreme ethnocentrism

Preservation cont.

Extremely dry environments inhibit growth of mold, bacteria. Egypt, Peruvian highlands, certain wet environments preserve organic materials ex peat bogs, underwater, sites, frozen environments: mountaintops, Alaska, Siberia.

Ecofacts

Faunal remains, botanical remains or sediments.

4 fields of Antropology

Social/ cultural, Archaelogy, biological, physical, linguistics

World Archaeological congress ethics

Give archaeologists permission to act on behalf of other people's cultural heritage.

1st systematic excavactions

Hetculaneum and Pompeii in 18th century.

Braiding Knowledge

Holistic approach to problem solving.

4 approaches

Holistic approach, Quantitive, and qualitative, scientific approach but combines humanities.

Processual Archaelogy 1960s-1970s

In direct response to culture history, archaeology as science, seperate from history, focus on explanation rather than description, looked for universal laws, not specific culture histories, linked to wider social concern with positivism and modernism, research design, expire mental and ethnoarchaeology and site formation processes.

What is Archaelogy

Is the study of humans through their material remains.

Grave Robbing

Items from people on display, no human remains on display but in the building.

Crisis in CRM

John Welch and Neal Ferris, Archaelogical resource management, CRM is not sustainable, object focused, lack of space, excludes communities, move beyond extractive consumptive model

Archaelogys role

Largely due to Cultural Resource Management, section 106 process. Development, new construction, renovations, pipelines, required training varies.

Material bias- preservation:

Little organic material : wood, cloth, leather,basketry,paper: most will decay depending on conditions, durable artifacts: stone construction, stone or metal tools, pottery, patterns on the land.

Speculations and interest in the past

Manuscripts show that people in Ancient Greece, Rome, and China speculated about the past.

MACPRA

Michigan Anishnaaback Cultural Preservation and Repatriation Act. Formed to facilate reburial and too protect native Americans cultural materials.

Thomas Jefferson

Mound explorations for curiosity, myth of the mound builders, assumption that native people were not capable of mounds/sophisticated math, engineering, astrological knowledge, even though Native people built the mounds. Newark earthworks.

9/11 Continued

Museum work, memorial museum as an Archaelogical site, museum as an artifact, Ian Kerrigan, asst. director of exhibition development at national 9/11 memorial and Musuem. Walking tour of an Archaelogy site,

National Government

National Park Service, protect sites, share with public audiences, Archaelogical programs- research projects and internships, MA or PhD. Salary 76,000+, advisory council on historic preservation ACHP

NAGPRA

Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act 1990

Primary external influence on cbe

Native American activism.

Site disturbance processes

Natural disturbance processes: bioturbation-reworking soils by animals or plants, cryoturbation-reworking soils by gases or wind, Aquaturbation: reworking souls by water, Gravitturbation: reworking, souls by downslope transport.

Artifact

Natural elements can be combined to make artifacts.

Site formation processes

Natural, cultural,

Formation processes

Nature buries: water is a common burial tool, land slides, wind move dirt, sand, organisms: plants, earthworms, small mammals, soil formation.

Types of jobs

Non- profit and NGOs, museums, human rights work, marketing.

Indigenous Archaeology

Not one type of archaeology impacts all of Archaelogy. A way decolonize Archaelogy, community based Archaelogy.

Key events of the 19th century

Populurazation of three age system bronze, stone, iron 1800-1835, 1835-1865: Archaelogy emerges as a profession and scholarly discipline, people accept concept of biological evolution, 1865-1899: development of unlinear theory of cultural evolution, development of systematic excavation and recording methods.

Feature

Portable object or material that has been patterned in such way that the arrangement itself is significant.

Museums

Private and Public, Archaeologists often serve similar role to academia, research with little to no teaching. Develop public programs

Indigenous Archaeology

Red power movement red, civil rights movement 1960s and 1970s reclaim land and stop exploration- protests at sites, American Indian movement, efforts to decolonize Archaelogy, de centering western approaches, to demonstrate diversity of knowledge systems. Based on critiques from indigenous peoples engagement with archaeology, applies broadly can be predicted by anyone, in any location

Emergence of antiquarianism

Renewed interest in Ancient Greece and Roman Empire, hobby of the wealthy to collect.

Site disturbance processes cultural processes

Reusing, recycling, trampling, construction, looting, collateral damage during war.

Western

Science based on these ideas, linear view of time, past become distant from present and future, linear connection to past, but not ever present, ethnocentric views, Frank Boas- historical particurism.

9/11 continued

Ship beneath World Trade Center, wooden tree rings dated to 1773, found 22 feet below modern ground level, matched ring patterns from white oak timbers in Philadelphias Independence Hall, ship used to expand land in Manhattan.

Cuneiform Tablets

Show that Babylonian Empires King Nabonidus connected himself to the past via excavation and use of artifacts.

Developments since AD 1900

Since 1960, development of processual archaeology, archaeology as a business arises,

Archaeology must include

Social,political, economic,legal contexts

Preservation

Some environments are more conducive to archaeological preservation. Many factors affect the preservation of organic remains, including the rapidity of burial, microbial activity, burning, the chemistry of the matrix, and extreme environments such as being very cold or very dry. Change in environment can cause damage and result in rapid detroiation.

Archaeobotsnical remains

Some preserve better than others.

State Government

State Historic Preservation Officers, office of the state Archaeologist, state historic preservation offices.

Muckles Definition: study

Systematic organized structure to the analysis, a process with methods and Theory that informs practice, based in the world view and system of knowledge, science is one way of systematic examination, humanities centered focus is another, indigenous knowledge systems- ways of seeing and understanding the world.

Processual Archaelogy

Systems theory, cultural processes, feedback loops, complex interrelated cultural and environmental factors that contribute to cultural change. Environmental studies with archaeology, draws on hard sciences, specialists, in archaeology, becomes mainstream throughout US and the world.

Economics and popular culture

Tourist industry, government control, national identity, exists within media and entertainment contexts, commercialization and commodification.

Tribal government

Tribal historic preservation officers, NATHPO national association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers. History of THPOs, tribal members and Non- tribal members fulfill this role. Created as part of National Historic Preservation Act 1992.

Career Oppurtunities

US Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment expected to rise to 19 percent from 2012 to 2022 faster than any other job. Excellent career option for all areas of anthropology

History and change

Variability in definitions, discipline change over time, you make changes, find ways to improve, inclusive of multiple perspectives and knowledge systems.

What could/ should Archaelogy be?

We need to train a generation of archaeologists who have skills to engage in and practice archaeology differently.