Lecture 10: Processual & Post-Processual Archaeology

Subsistence and Diet

- Archaeologists reconstruct ancient lifeways from the surviving material remains of subsistence activities, which come in many forms. - The perspective is multidisciplinary, for we rely on the expertise of scientists from many other fields, among them botanists, ecologists, and zoologists. - What they find: Environmental data, Animal bones (faunal remains), Plant remains (floral remains), Human bones, Feces (coprolites), Artifacts, Rock art

Long and Short term climate change

- Climatic change comes in many forms. - The long cycles of cold and warm associated with the Ice Age occur on a millennial-scale and have long-term effects on human existence. - Short-term climatic change, such as the floods or droughts caused by El Nino episodes or the volcanic eruptions that dump ash into the atmosphere, are another matter.

Jerusalem Toilet

- Dated to 586 BCE - Found Tapeworm and whipworm from Jerusalem toilet - Mostly caused by raw meat - Not washing/ unsanitary - Worms are found if growing crops by using human feces - They were not eating wheat or other cereals - They were eating weeds/ backyard plants - this proved the famine in Jerusalem

Processual (or New) Archaeology

- Developed in the US, "new" or processual archaeology - became widely known in the 1960s and 1970s through the writings of Lewis R. Binford - So-called "New Archaeologists," however, changed the way we think about archaeology and its function - New Archaeology shifted the focus from "what" and "who" to "how" and "why"

Post-Processual Archaeology

- Eventually, however, some Europeans began raising theoretical objections to this American tradition, mainly in writings of Ian Hodder and his colleagues at Cambridge University. They questioned New Archaeology's assumptions about human behavior and how the archaeological record should be studied and interpreted. In doing so, they began the next phase of theoretical archaeology, which we now call Post-Processual Archaeology. - New Archaeology urged us to see an active past and to ask "how" and "why." But Ian Hodder urged us to humanize that active past and made us realize that without asking "who," we cannot get a meaningful "why." People with habits and attitudes, likes and dislikes, strategies and emotions, are important after all.

Theories

- Low-level theories: are the observations that emerge from basic archaeological fieldwork--- the actual "data" or "facts" of archaeology - High-level theories: are the broad, overarching research strategies - Middle-range theories: low the high- and low-level theoretical extremes are brought together. By conducting so-called middle-range research, archaeologists are generating the knowledge necessary to relate the world of archaeological facts to the world of general behavioral theory.

Pollen Analysis

- Pollen analysis (palynology) has become a highly sophisticated way of studying both ancient environments and human impacts on natural vegetation - Pollen analysis reconstructs ancient vegetational change and provides insights into the ways people adapted to shifting climatic conditions - The botanist visits the excavation and collects a series of closely spaced pollen samples from the stratigraphic sections at the site. - Back in the lab, the samples are examined under a very powerful microscope. - The grains of each genus or species present are counted, and the resulting numbers are subjected to statistical analysis. - These counts are then correlated with the stratigraphic layers of the excavation and data from natural vegetational sequences to provide a sequence of vegetational change for the site.

Comparing Bone Assemblages

- The number of identified specimens (NISP) is a count of the number of bones or bone fragments from each species in a bone sample. - The minimum number of individuals (MNI) is a count of the number of individuals necessary to account for all the identifiable bones.

Animal Bones/ Zooarchaeology

- Zooarchaeology is the study of animal bones found in the archaeological record - Zooarchaeology is a specialized expertise that requires a background in paleontology or zoology - Bones are usually shattered - Wet-sieving or dry-sieving is usually used for zooarchaeological and botanical remains

Ancient diet

- the ultimate objective of the archaeology of subsistence is not only to establish how people obtained their food but also to reconstruct their actual diet - Diet and nutrition must be studied in close conjunction. they are quite distinct from subsistence, the actual process of obtaining resources

4 features of Processual Archaeology

1. Processual archaeology emphasizes evolutionary generalizations, not historical specifics 2. Processual archaeology seeks universal laws 3. Explanation in processual archaeology is explicitly scientific 4. Processual archaeology attempts to remain objective and ethically neutral

4 features of post-processual archaeology

1. The post-processual critique rejects cultural evolutionary generalizations. 2. The post-processual critique rejects the processual search for universal laws. 3. The post-processual critique rejects explicitly scientific methods. 4. The post-processual critique reflects the processual emphasis on objectivity and ethical neutrality.

2. The post-processual critique rejects the processual search for universal laws.

Consistent with post-modern interpretivism, the post-processual critique holds that such universals of human behavior simply do not exist.

Explanation in processual archaeology is explicitly scientific

Initially, the processual agenda depended on deductive models grounded in the "hard" sciences and emphasized the importance of absolute objectivity. More recent formulations stress the interplay between induction and deduction and the relative objectivity of observations.

3. The post-processual critique rejects explicitly scientific methods.

Post-processual critics point out, quite correctly, that much of the early processual literature rigidly adhered to rote rules of evidence and interpretation. Many involved in the post-processual critique have shown a manifest distrust of science in any form (particularly during the earliest years of the critique).

Processual archaeology attempts to remain objective and ethically neutral.

Processual archaeology tries to provide positive evidence about the past. Politics of the present have nothing to do with the ancient past, and processual archaeologists avoid subjectivity. The processual agenda avoids passing moral judgments on people of the present or the past.

1. The post-processual critique rejects cultural evolutionary generalizations.

The postprocessual critique has argued that cultural evolution's racist views of the past have developed because of reliance on the (western) notion of "progress."

1. Processual archaeology emphasizes evolutionary generalizations, not historical specifics

The processual agenda is scientific rather than historical, emphasizing regularities and correlations. Processual archaeology explicitly associates itself with the generalizing social sciences, such as economics, political science, sociology, and ethnology. Just as Darwin's theory of natural selection defined the mechanism of biological evolution, archaeologists can define theories that condition the progressive evolution of culture.

Processual archaeology seeks universal laws

The ultimate goal of processual archaeology is to produce law-like generalizations that could be useful for understanding modern society

4. The post-processual critique reflects the processual emphasis on objectivity and ethical neutrality.

To understand the past, many post-processual archaeologists argue, one must develop an empathetic, particularistic approach to it. So-called empathetic explanations of the past consider not only human thoughts and decisions, but also such highly subjective elements as affective states, spiritual orientations, and experiential meanings. Empathetic approaches assume that the inner experience of humanity is worthy of study both for its own sake and as a clue for interpreting the human past.