Arch Midterm 1

Examples of middle range theory

1) Experimental Method 2) Ethnographic Analogy 3) Ethnoarchaeology a) optimal foraging models

Why do we need archaeology?

1) Much of history is unrecorded 2) Documents are biased 3) Documents are incomplete 4) Anthropological questions are often very specific and may not be able to be answered with information we already have

Meg Conkey and Janet Spector

1) noted as one of the first archaeologists to explore the issues of gender and feminist perspectives in archaeology and in past human societies, using feminist theory to reinterpret images and objects from the Paleolithic Era or the late Ice Age 2) known for her contributions to the archaeology of gender and ethnoarchaeology.

Historical Archaeology

A branch of archaeological study and interpretation that deals with literate societies -- the objects and events since the beginnings of recorded history. In North America, historically documented research is directed at colonial and post-colonial settlement, analogous to the study of medieval and post-medieval archaeology in Europe.

Ideology

A consistent set of beliefs by groups/individuals, a system of social or political ideas. goes hand in hand with culture

Hypothetico-Deductive Approach

A seven-step research process of identifying a broad problem area, defining the problem statement, developing hypotheses, determining measures, data collection, data analysis, and the interpretation of data. (scientific process)

Middle-range theory

Binford & Processual, way of doing stuff in the present to help understand how things were done in the past. theories linking human behavior and natural processes to physical remains in the archaeological record. It allows archaeologists to make inferences in the other direction: from archaeological finds in the present to behaviors in the past

General-Covering Laws

Binford's idea that there are broad explanations for human behavior and culture change

Alfred Kroeber

Culture History period, noticed differences in ceramics and connected them to different time periods, and noticed some sites had a varying amounts. Exemplified lenticular curves. Also worked with Ishi.

Lewis Binford

Father of processual archaeology. Said that archaeology is anthropoligy or it is nothing. Thought archaeology should look for laws of universal culture change, and that we can understand culture through its change. Believed that culture is adaptive for survival. Through this, he believed that if subsistance economy was reconstructed, we could understand social and religious culture. Also created ethnoarchaeology and led archaeology to become an objective science.

Unilinear Cultural Evolution

Idea that every culture developed on a course that led from savages to barbarian to civilized society

Ethnographic analogy

Interpreting archaeological data thru analogous activities in existing societies. learning about a site through its use by living people

Subsistence

Means of supporting life, in particular by obtaining food. Subsistence is that part of economy concerned with acquisition, distribution, and production of food. two types: exploitation of wild plants and animals or of domesticated plants and animals.

Social Darwinism

The application of ideas about evolution and "survival of the fittest" to human societies - particularly as a justification for their imperialist expansion.

Archaeological Preservation

The protection of artifacts and archaeological sites through activities that minimize deterioration and damage and that prevent loss of context and content.

Cultural Diffusion

The spread of ideas, customs, and technologies from one people to another

Attributes

a characteristic or property of an object, such as weight, size, or color.

Post-Processual Archaeology

a form of archaeology used from 1980s-today. critiques processualist views of objectivity and of broad laws around mechanisms of survival. views social systems as very complex, and stresses the importance of equifinality. sees data as theory-laden. advocates for a midpoint between objectivity and subjectivity.

Processual Archaeology

a form of archaeology widely used from the 1960s-1980s. very descriptive and explanatory, with a focus on the importance of archaeological theory. emphasis on evaluating interpretations of the past through theory and comparing them. main ideas were that archaeology should be explanatory, that culture is adaptive, that systems theory is important, that data should be used to test hypotheses, and that archaeology is largely anthropological ("pots aren't people") big, long scale questions.

Culture Area

a geographic region in which a number of societies follow similar patterns of life

Archaeological assemblage

a group of different artifacts found in association with one another, that is, in the same context. ex: a set of types that existed during a specific period

Prehistoric archaeology

a medieval mindset of viewing the world where knowledge of history was largely informed by the bible. thought that human and earth's history was fairly recent, and that humanity was on the track of moral degradation. no recognition of ability to learn about the past from ancient materials, no recognition of change over time.

Feminist Archaeology

a research approach that explores why women's contributions have been systematically written out of the archaeological record. rejected biological determinism of sex roles, arguing that cultural and historical factors were responsible for how a society allocated tasks and that this allocation could change over time

Archaeological Sites

a spacially discreet complex of associated features, artifacts, and ecofacts

Experimental archaeology

ancient conditions are recreated so that an archaeologist can test a hypothesis

Laurie Wilkie

author of Strung Out On Archaeology. archaeological feminist and professor at UC Berkeley, work has focused upon two principal themes: how expressions of social difference_gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sex, socioeconomics and politics_can be understood through the materiality everyday life; and how a sense of material heritage has shaped human life in the recent past, and continues to do so today.

Archaeological Features

created by people, but not portable

Ethnography - Ethnographic Methods

cultural anthropology subset in which culture, behavior, and trends are studied.

Four-field anthropology

cultural anthropology, biological anthropology, archaeology, linguistic anthro

Artifact Types

culture history and binford, IDs an artifact as sociotechnic, idiotechnic, or technomic

Direct Historical Approach

current populations studied to understand past ones, based on a cultural linkage of the two. bad because it assumed slow and minimal cultural change, good because it prompted archaeologists to actually spend time with living native peoples

Normative Models of culture

defines culture as a set of shared ideas, or norms. ex: idea that finding the same stuff in a certain area means that the same people were there.

Franz Boas

father of American anthropology, cultural relativism, participant observation method of anthropological research, but he did not allow cross-cultural approaches, HISTORICAL PARTICULARISM (MORE DEFINITIONS)

Ian Hodder

known as a main figure in PP Archaeology.

Archaeological Landscapes

larger regions that contain multiple archaeological sites

Archaeological Interpretation

methods by which archaeological data are analyzed and interpreted. leads to the creation of different theories and ways of looking at archaeology, history, and the data that is recorded during excavations.

Culture History

most common approach before 1960s, goals: order arch material in time and space. lots of descriptive reports but little analysis emphasis on sequence and defining spatial distribution of past events; uses a normative model of culture: the interpretive process is a chronicle of events and general trends of culture change and continuity in the prehistoric past Typology important here

Ecofacts

naturally occurring but implicated in human use.

Artifacts

objects made and used by humans, size is such that they are portable

Culture - different definitions through time

overarching definition: both what people do and what/how people think. it is learned, shared, and exchanged and changed over time through contact with other cultures.

Antiquarianism

period of archaeology in which the study of antiquities/artifacts was largely for the sake of the objects themselves, not to understand the people or culture that produced them

Nels Nelson

pioneer of stratigraphic archaeology, worked with the bay area shell mounds. excavated the emeryville shellmounds and did a survey of shellmounds in the bay area.

Agent/Agency

post-processualist idea that goes against processualist idea that people are always rational. argues that we have the ability to make certain choices, whether they be rational or irrational

Systems Theory

processual & binford. we are all parts of a machine that tries to stay balanced so we stay alive. we are looking for homeostasis, and if there is change, culture changes as a result as well.

Typologies

result of the classification of things according to their physical characteristics. The products of the classification, i.e. the classes, are also called types.

Rosemary Joyce

retired archaeological feminist, an expert in evaluating the archaeological records of society and the implications that sexuality and gender play in culture.

The Emeryville Shellmound

shellmound in emeryville that has a long history. sacred site of ohlone tribe consisting of burials, shell refuse, and building foundations created over the period of thousands of years. it was partially destroyed in the mid to late 19th century to make an amusement park. after the park was shut down, it was able to be studied briefly before it was completely leveled to build a paint factory. after the paint factory was shut down, lots of burials were found and relocated, and a shopping complex was built on top. a point of contention over the lack of preservation concerning sacred native sites.

Ethnoarchaeology

studies living societies to see how behavior is translated into the archaeological record (shellfish and optimal foraging theory)

Depositional context

the context in which an artifact/ecofact/feature was found. is spatial and temporal....provenience?

Cultural Ecology

the study of the relationship between a culture group and the natural environmental it occupies

Equifinality

there is/can be more than one explanation for something.

technomic

type of artifact in which its form and nature arose from the environment

sociotechnomic

type of artifact that connects people together (usually socially)

idiotechnic

type of artifact that signified ideological rationale of the social system in which artifact was found (ex: religious artifact)

Contemporary Archaeology

umbrella term for the archaeology of the recent past, often focusing on the 20th and 21st century. focused on the combination of ethnography and archaeology...allows us to study behavior as it is happening

Site Histories

what went down on a particular site???

Archaeological Cultures

when several sites have the same assemblage; answers bigger questions about culture process, change, contact, exchange, etc

Palimpsest

when something/somewhere is used more than once, simultaneously adding to the archaeological record and destroying parts of it as well