ANT104 Ch. 1 Textbook Vocab
scope: optimism versus pessimism
Traditional archaeologists often stressed that archaeological data were not well suited to the reconstruction of social organization or cognitive systems. The New Archaeologists were more positive, and argued that it would never be known how hard these problems were until archaeologists had tried to solve them.
explanation: culture process versus culture history
Traditional archaeology was seen to rely on historical explanation: the New Archaeology, drawing on the philosophy of science, would think in terms of culture process, of how changes in economic and social systems take place. This implies generalization.
Midwestern Taxonomic System
correlated sequences in the Midwest by identifying similarities between artifact collections
Grahame Clark
developed an ecological approach with even more direct relevance for archaeological fieldwork. Breaking away from the artifact-dominated culture-historical approach of his contemporaries, he argued that by studying how human populations adapted to their environments we can understand many aspects of ancient society. Collaboration with new kinds of specialists was essential.
Margaret Conkey & Janet Spector
drew attention to the androcentrism (male bias) of the discipline of archaeology
Julio Tello
"America's first indigenous archaeologist" He was one of the first to stress the autonomous rise of civilization in Peru, and he also founded the Peruvian National Museum of Archaeology.
Neolithic Revolution
(10,000 - 8,000 BCE) the development of agriculture and the domestication of animals as a food source This led to the development of permanent settlements and the start of civilization; a turn in the stone age that gave rise to the development of farming, and later an Urban Revolution, which led to the first towns and cities. *Influenced by Marxist ideas and the relatively recent Marxist revolution in Russia, Gordon Childe proposed that it was this that gave rise to the development of farming, and later an Urban Revolution, which led to the first towns and cities. a.k.a. the "New Stone Age"
principles of conservation
1.) The material record of the past is a public resource that should be managed for the public good. 2.) When practical circumstances make inevitable some damage to the material record, steps should be taken to mitigate the impact through appropriate survey, excavation, and research. 3.) The developer pays: the persons or organizations initiating the eventual impact (usually through building works undertaken for economic reasons) should fund the necessary actions in mitigation.
Willard Libby
1949--American chemist and inventor of radiocarbon dating (a scientific aid for archaeology)
Gordon Willey & Philip Phillips
1958--argued for a greater emphasis on the social aspect, for a broader study of the general processes at work in culture history (a "processual interpretation")
W.C. McKern
A group of scholars led by him devised what became known as the Midwestern Taxonomic System, which correlated sequences in the Midwest by identifying similarities between artifact collections.
Sir William Flinders Petrie
A younger contemporary of Pitt-Rivers, he was likewise noted for his meticulous excavations and his insistence on the collection and description of everything found, not just the fine objects, as well as on full publication. He employed these methods in his exemplary excavations in Egypt, and later in Palestine, from the 1880s until his death.
the nature of archaeology: explanatory versus descriptive
Archaeology's role was now to explain past change, not simply to reconstruct the past and how people had lived. This involved the use of explicit theory.
Gordan Willey
Perhaps the most direct archaeological impact of these ideas can be seen in his work, one of Steward's graduate associates, who carried out a pioneering investigation in the Virú Valley, Peru. This study of some 1500 years of pre-Columbian occupation involved a combination of observations from detailed maps and aerial photographs, survey at ground level, and excavation and surface potsherd collection to establish dates for the hundreds of prehistoric sites identified. He then plotted the geographical distribution of these many sites in the valley at different periods and set the results against the changing local environment.
choice of approach: quantitative versus simply qualitative
Quantitative data allowed computerized statistical treatment, with the possibility of sampling and significance testing. This was often preferred to the purely verbal traditional approach.
research focus: project design versus data accumulation
Research should be designed to answer specific questions economically, not simply to generate more information, which might not be relevant.
Dorothy Garrod
the first woman professor in any subject at Cambridge, and probably the first woman prehistorian to achieve professorial status anywhere in the world Her ground-breaking excavations at Zarzi in Iraq and Mount Carmel in Palestine provided the key to a large section of the Near East, from the Middle Paleolithic to the Mesolithic, and her find of the fossil skull of a Neanderthal child in 1925 became crucial to the understanding of the relationship between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. With her discovery of the Natufian culture, the predecessor of the world's first farming societies, she posed a series of new problems still not fully resolved today.
cultural ecology
the geographic study of human-environment relationships *Julian Steward christened the study of ways in which adaptation to the environment could cause this cultural change.
prehistory
the period before written records and history (meaning the study of the past using written evidence) *Conventional historical sources begin only with the introduction of written records in around 3000 bce in Western Asia, and much later in most other parts of the world. Archaeologists operate in a time frame much larger than the periods studied by historians.
logical deduction
the process of moving from a general rule to a specific example; the sound approach of Thomas Jefferson
iconography
the study of a group of representative pictures or symbols
stratification
the study of arrangement in superimposed layers or strata It was demonstrated that the stratification of rocks was due to processes that were still going on in seas, rivers, and lakes. This was the principle of uniformitarianism: that geologically ancient conditions were in essence similar to, or "uniform with," those of our own time, introduced by the great geologist Sir Charles Lyell.
archaeology (2nd definition)
the study of former societies through the remains of their material culture and, in the case of such literate cultures as those of Mesopotamia or Mesoamerica, such written records as have survived The practice is like a science. The scientist collects data, conducts experiments, formulates a hypothesis (a proposition to account for the data), tests the hypothesis against more data, and then devises a model (a description that seems best to summarize the pattern observed in the data). It is a humanity as well.
linguistic anthropology
the study of how speech varies with social factors and over time
physical or biological anthropology
the study of human biological or physical characteristics and how they evolved
cultural (or social) anthropology
the study of human culture and society
anthropology
the study of humanity: our physical characteristics as animals, and our unique non-biological characteristics
archaeology
the study of past material culture; the only way that we can answer questions about the evolution of our species and the developments in culture and society that led to the emergence of the first civilizations and to the more recent societies that are founded upon them
stratigraphy
the study of rock layers and the sequence of events they reflect
Kathleen Kenyon
trained on Roman sites in Britain under Sir Mortimer Wheeler, and adopted and developed his method, with its close control over stratigraphy She subsequently applied this approach in the Near East at two of the most complex and most excavated sites in Palestine: Jericho and Jerusalem. At Jericho, in 1952-58, she found evidence that pushed back the date of occupation to the end of the Ice Age, and uncovered the walled village of the Neolithic farming community commonly referred to as "the earliest town in the world."
New Archaeology
dubbed by a group of younger archaeologists, led by Lewis Binford, who set out to offer a new approach to the problems of archaeological interpretation; argued that archaeological reasoning should be made explicit and conclusions should be based not simply on the authority of the scholar making the interpretation, but on an explicit framework of logical argument *In their enthusiasm to use a battery of new techniques and analytical tools, they drew also on a range of previously unfamiliar vocabularies, which their critics tended to dismiss as jargon. Indeed in recent years, several critics have reacted against some of those aspirations to be scientific.
Sir Mortimer Wheeler
fought in the British army in both world wars and, like Pitt-Rivers, brought military precision to his excavations, notably through such techniques as the grid-square method of dividing and digging a site He is particularly well known for his work at British hillforts, notably Maiden Castle. Equally outstanding, however, was his achievement as Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India, where he held training schools in modern field methods, and excavated at many important sites.
uniformitarianism
geologically ancient conditions were in essence similar to, or "uniform with," those of our own time, introduced by the great geologist Sir Charles Lyell; rationale for rock stratification
Sir Charles Lyell
introduced the principle of uniformitarianism: that geologically ancient conditions were in essence similar to, or "uniform with," those of our own time
phenomenological (postprocessualism) approach
lays stress on the personal experiences of the individual and on the way in which encounters with the material world and with the objects in it shape our understanding of the world
praxis (or practice) postprocessualism approach
lays stress upon the central role of the human "agent" and upon the primary significance of human actions (praxis) in shaping social structure; many social norms and social structures are established and shaped by habitual experience (and the notion of habitus similarly refers to the unspoken strategy-generating principles employed by the individual, which mediate between social structure and practice); the role of the individual as a significant agent is thus emphasized
C.J. Thomsen
proposed that prehistoric artifacts could be divided into those coming from a Stone Age, a Bronze Age, and an Iron Age, and this classification was soon found useful by scholars throughout Europe
hermeneutic (or interpretive) postprocessualism view
rejects generalization, another feature of processual archaeology; emphasis is laid, rather, upon the uniqueness of each society and culture and on the need to study the full context of each in all its rich diversity
post-positivist (postprocessualism) approach
rejects the emphasis on the systematic procedures of scientific method that are such a feature of processual archaeology, sometimes seeing modern science as hostile to the individual, as forming an integral part of the "systems of domination"
processual archaeology
sought to explain rather than simply to describe, and to do so, as in all sciences, by seeking to make valid generalizations (induction); tried to avoid the rather vague talk of the "influences" of one culture upon another, but rather to analyze a culture as a system that could be broken down into subsystems (such as technology, trade, or ideology), which could be studied in their own right. They placed much less emphasis on artifact typology (a sequence of design styles) and classification. The group of younger archaeologists, led by Lewis Binford (who offered the new approach of "New Archaeology") were advocates of such archaeology.
Mesolithic
the "middle" Stone Age of Europe, Asia and Africa, between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic ages
Cultural Resource Management (CRM)
the branch of applied archaeology aimed at preserving sites threatened by dams, highways, and other projects
reconnaissance
the examination of a defined area; to locate archaeological resources using methods that do not include disturbance of subsurface deposits, but may involve limited surface
Alfred Kidder
As well as being a major figure in Maya archaeology, he was largely responsible for putting the Southwest on the archaeological map with his excavations at Pecos Ruin, a large pueblo in northern New Mexico, from 1915 to 1929. His survey of the region, An Introduction to the Study of Southwestern Archaeology (1924), has become a classic. *He was one of the first archaeologists to use a team of specialists to help analyze artifacts and human remains. He is also important for his "blueprint" for a regional strategy: (1) reconnaissance; (2) selection of criteria for ranking the remains of sites chronologically; (3) organizing them into a probable sequence; (4) stratigraphic excavation to elucidate specific problems; followed by (5) more detailed regional survey and dating.
Three Age System
Colt Hoare had recognized a sequence of stone, "brass," and iron artifacts within the barrows he excavated, but this was first systematically studied in the 1830s by the Danish scholar C.J. Thomsen. He proposed that prehistoric artifacts could be divided into those coming from a Stone Age, a Bronze Age, and an Iron Age, and this classification was soon found useful by scholars throughout Europe. Later, a division in the Stone Age was established—between the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age and the Neolithic or New Stone Age. It established the principle that by studying and classifying prehistoric artifacts, they could be ordered chronologically.
The First Searchers: The Speculative Phase
During the revival of learning in Europe known as the Renaissance (14th-17th centuries), princes and people of refinement began to form "cabinets of curiosities," in which curios and ancient artifacts were displayed rather haphazardly with exotic minerals and all manner of specimens illustrative of what was called "natural history." Scholars began to study and collect the relics of ancient Greece and Rome. At this time these were mainly the field monuments—those conspicuous sites, often made of stone, which immediately attracted attention. Stukeley and his colleagues, through systematic studies and accurate plans still useful today, successfully demonstrated that these monuments had not been constructed by giants or devils, as suggested by such local names as the Devil's Arrows, but by people in antiquity. Stukeley was also successful in phasing field monuments, demonstrating that, since Roman roads intersected barrows, the former must have been built after the latter. *The credit for conducting what has been called "the first scientific excavation in the history of archaeology" traditionally goes to Thomas Jefferson, who in 1784 dug a trench or section across a burial mound on his property in Virginia. Jefferson's work marks the beginning of the end of the Speculative Phase. ^ In Jefferson's time people were speculating that the hundreds of unexplained mounds known east of the Mississippi River had been built not by the indigenous Americans, but by a mythical and vanished race of "Moundbuilders." Jefferson adopted what today we would call a scientific approach, that is, he tested ideas about the mounds against hard evidence—by excavating one of them. His methods were careful enough to allow him to recognize different layers (or stratigraphy) in his trench, and to see that the many human bones present were less well preserved in the lower layers. From this he deduced that the mound had been reused as a place of burial on many separate occasions. Although Jefferson admitted, rightly, that more evidence was needed to resolve the Moundbuilder question, he saw no reason why ancestors of the present-day Native Americans themselves could not have raised the mounds.
Gordon Childe
He had almost single-handedly been making comparisons of this sort between prehistoric sequences in Europe. Both his methods and the Midwestern Taxonomic System were designed to order the material, to answer: To what period do these artifacts date? With which other materials do they belong? This latter question usually carried with it an assumption that he made explicit: that a constantly recurring collection or assemblage of artifacts (a "culture" in his terminology) could be attributed to a particular group of people. *He was one of the few archaeologists of his generation bold enough to address this whole broad issue of why things happened or changed in the past. Most of his contemporaries were more concerned with establishing chronologies and cultural sequences.
Charles Darwin
His fundamental work, On the Origin of Species, (published in 1859), established the concept of evolution to explain the origin and development of all plants and animals. *The idea of evolution itself was not new—earlier scholars had suggested that living things must have changed or evolved through the ages. What Darwin demonstrated was how this change occurred. The key mechanism was, in his words, "natural selection," or the survival of the fittest. In the struggle for existence, environmentally better-adapted individuals of a particular species would survive (or be "naturally selected"), whereas less well-adapted ones would die.
validation: testing versus authority
Hypotheses were to be tested, and conclusions should not be accepted on the basis of the authority or standing of the research worker
Beatrice de Cardi
Initially an assistant of Sir Mortimer Wheeler, she undertook field surveys in the Persian Gulf and Baluchistan and then in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates *At the age of ninety-three she ceased active fieldwork and concentrated on writing. At the time of her death she was "the world's oldest practicing archaeologist."
reasoning: deductive versus inductive
Instead of the traditional task of "piecing together the past," like a jigsaw puzzle, the appropriate procedure was now to formulate hypotheses, constructing models, and deducing their consequences.
neo-Marxist postprocessualism approach
It is the duty of the archaeologist not only to describe the past, but also to use such insights to change the present world.
Edward Tylor & Lewis Henry Morgan
Strongly influenced by Darwin's ideas about evolution, they both published important works in the 1870s arguing that human societies had evolved from a state of savagery (primitive hunting) through barbarism (simple farming) to civilization (the highest form of society). Morgan's work was partly based on his great knowledge of living Native Americans.
postprocessual archaeology
a collective term for a number of approaches to the past, all of which have roots in the post-modernist current of thought that developed in the 1980s and 1990s There is no single, correct way to undertake archaeological inference, and the goal of objectivity is unattainable. One of the strengths of the interpretive approach is to bring into central focus the actions and thoughts of individuals in the past. It argues that in order to understand and interpret the past, it is necessary to "get inside the minds" and think the thoughts of the people in question.
Midwestern Taxonomic System
a framework devised by McKern to systematize sequences in the Great Plains area of the United States, using the general principle of similarities between artifact collections or assemblages
assemblage
a group of different artifacts found in association with one another, that is, in the same context
Marija Gimbutas
a pioneer in the emphasis of the importance of women in prehistory Her research in the Balkans led her to create a vision of an "Old Europe" associated with the first farmers whose central focus was (or so she argued) a belief in a great Mother Goddess figure.
typology
a sequence of design styles (avoided emphasis in processual archaeology)
Paleolithic
a.k.a. "Old Stone Age": the period of the Stone Age associated with the evolution of humans; it predates the Neolithic period
culture-historical approach
an approach to archaeological interpretation that uses the procedure of the traditional historian (including emphasis on specific circumstances elaborated with rich detail, and processes of inductive reasoning)
public archaeology
archaeology supported through resources made available as a public obligation
Walter W. Taylor
argued for an approach that would take into consideration the full range of a culture system
General Augustus Lane-Fox Pitt-Rivers
brought long experience of military methods, survey, and precision to impeccably organized excavations on his estates in southern England Plans, sections, and even models were made, and the exact position of every object was recorded. He was not concerned with retrieving beautiful treasures, but with recovering all objects, no matter how mundane. He was a pioneer in his insistence on total recording, and his four privately printed volumes, describing his excavations on Cranborne Chase from 1887 to 1898, represent the highest standards of archaeological publication.
