Anthro Unit 4

General Explanation

-"Regularity" patterns in data -Turns to the philosophy of science for help -All explanations should be framed in terms of natural law -X always implies Y

Canadian Archaeology

-1855, Father Felix Martin was commissioned to explore and excavate the site of Sainte-Marie -Sainte Marie was a small outpost that brought Christianity to local Huron Indians -Site was known as the "pulsating heart of French missionary effort in America" -Father Martin identified the site's location, mapped and described the ruins, painted several watercolors of it and conducted limited excavations

Kennewick Man

-9000 year old skeleton that caused controversy between Indians and scientists on ownership of the past

Survey

-A key part of planning is an assessment of the likely effects of such development upon what may be termed as archaeological resources -Assessment requires the use of satellite imagery as well as aerial photography -Field survey is needed using field walking -This is done so unknown archaeological sites can be located and evaluated before development begins

Beyond Plantation Archaeology: New York City's African Burial Ground

-A place where in 1991, the bones of 427 enslaved Africans were found beneath a parking lot in downtown New York City -In 1626, the Dutch imported 11 African American men and 3 African American women to New York to help with a labor shortage -They claim to have treated the African Americans like half-white as they were allowed to intermarry with white citizens -Blacks continued to be imported as slaved -New York City had the highest proportion of enslaved people to Europeans of any northern settlement -Slavery had a significant hand in building colonial New York -African Americans were not permitted to be buried within the city borders, so about 10,000-20,000 people were dumped in a cemetery just outside the city's border -Eventually city growth overtook the cemetery and construction went over the top of it -Later on, a construction project took place there and according to law it had to be excavated first. An astonishing amount of well preserved bones were found which attracted the attention of the New York African American community and prevented further building and a 5 year research project was planned -The bodies found indicated severely brutal treatment which contradicted the historical record of the Dutch. Over half of the people had died before reaching the age of 12

Great Zimbabwe

-A stone-walled enclosure found in Southeast Africa. -Has been associated with trade, farming, and mining.

Hidden History: The Archaeology of African Americans

-African American history is deeply linked to slavery -Plantation archaeology started in 1931 at George Washington's home in Mount Vernon -Until the 1980s, few of the plantation archaeologies addressed the issue of slavery explicitly and would instead focus on the large home and the grandeur of the elite who lived there -Charles Fairbanks changed to focus to the salves and to dispel myths that lead to segregation and inequality

Historical Archaeology Corrects Inaccuracies: The Battle of the Little Bighorn

-American settlers were moving west through the land of the Lakota tribe and things began to be hostile when they constructed homes and forts of Lakota land -A treaty was made that said the Lakota would cease hostility if whites would make no settlements on a decided piece of territory -White men found gold on the property they were not supposed to enter, and a gold rush started -General Custer attacked a large band of Lakota, but lost and was killed along with all of his men -Paintings depict Custer standing with his men surrounded on all sides by the Lakota -However, the Lakota survivors tell a different story: their painting show a bloody battle full of carnage and confusion. The white settlers had no great and final last stand -Archaeological perspective on the battle: Gun parts, belt buckles, button, bridle pieces and human remains were found as well as spent cartridges and bullets. Many brass cartridges were found which differs from the original story. No evidence points to the fact that Custer did fight; all that is known is the place of his death -Many white soldiers froze in fear and accepted their inevitable death -The battle ended not on Custer Hill, but in a ravine -Custer and the soldiers had a battle filled with chaos and did not fight to the last bullet. They scarcely had time to shoot their guns before the Indians were in close hand to hand combat range

New Archaeology/Processual Archaeology

-An approach to archaeology based firmly on scientific method and supported by a concerted effort aimed at the development of theory

Cognitive-Processual Archaeology

-An approach to archaeology that combines the methods of processual and postprocessual researchers

The Sevso Treasure

-An assemblage of silver vessels was acquired by the Marquess of Northampton, but in court was claimed by Hungary, Croatia and Lebanon -Possession was maintained by the marquess who found that the treasure was unsalable and sued his formal legal advisers in London -Hungary is still seeking the material

Archaeology in Ludlow

-Archaeologists did not only want to confirm what had happened in the past, but to go further -Goal was to determine what the daily lived experience was like during the strike -With historic sites, since the technology is recent, it is possible to identify the exact functions of artifacts -Finds: The Ludlow tent camp was deliberately ordered and well maintained. Constructed cellars beneath the tents showed that the strikers intended to hold out a long time. Inhabitants relied strongly on canned goods. Strikers had little to no weaponry. -Archaeological excavation on the actual site is difficult because much of the artifacts have been cleared and the land is privately owned

Popular Archaeology vs Pseudo-archaeology

-Archaeologists must communicate with the wider public -Pseudoarchaeology: the formulation of extravagant, but ill-founded stories about the past -Archaeology can additionally be subverted when people manufacture false evidence

The Processual Approach

-Attempts to isolate and study the different processes at work within a society, and between societies, placing emphasis on relations with the environment, on subsistence and the economy, on social relations within the society, on the impact that the prevailing ideology and belief systems have on things, and on the effect of the interactions taking place between the different social units. -Focused on ecological and social factors -Lewis Binford -A more people focused approach -Less scientific

Practice of CRM in the United States

-CRM = Cultural Resource Management -It is made up of complex of laws, regulations, and professional practice designed to manage historic buildings and sites,cultural landscapes, and other cultural and historic places. -AKA "Applied Archaeology" -The government is required to consider the impoacts of their actions including effects on historical, archaeological, and cultural values -When a signifiant site is located where a construction site is planned to take place, ways to mitigate any negative effects are considered. Often this step involves redesigning the project and if cannot be avoided then significant data needs to be taken from the site before it is destoyed -Some dilemma with this is large survey work before a site is demolished takes many time and resources, and it usually underfunded.

Material Engagement

-Change arises from conscious and often purposeful human activities -Seek to overcome the duality in discussion of human affairs between the practical and cognitive, material and conceptual -Gives greater attention to things and the material properties of things and the different interactions between humans and the material world that come about through developing technologies and changing social and economic relations

Modern Historical Archaeology

-Change occurred in the 1960s due to the growing impact of cultural resource management -Archaeology had to be completed before construction projects -The field today is highly specialized with its own journals and professional societies -Studies today in America go from the first colonial settlements to nineteenth-century mining camps to WWII battlefields

The Hydraulic Hypothesis

-Civilizations whose agriculture was dependent upon large-scale waterworks for irrigation and flood control -Monocausal

The Native Americans and Artifacts

-Complaints from these people has restricted archaeological excavations -Collections in museums have had to be returned to them -The Chumash people refused to let archaeologists touch the remains of what could be the oldest human skeleton in California, insisting that the remains should be destroyed in accordance with nature's law. They are distressed with how other remains of their ancestors have been treated -Archaeologists have had to promise to return the bones after they conduct their studies -In 1990, an organization decided that if the dead could be traced back to the Native America people, the skeletons had to be promptly returned

Archaeology and Memory

-Cultures can have selective memories -The past is powerful because it led to the future -This is a reason why many archaeologist have do what they do

The Point of Historical Archaeology

-Documented sources are selective and biased -An example of selectivity is a slave owner not writing about a slave's life because they considered it unimportant and most slaves were illiterate

Archaeological Ethics

-Ethics is the science of morals -Most branches of archaeology have an ethical dimension -There is a balance between respecting our ancestors and trying to benefit science that is hard to choose between

Monocausal Explanation

-Explanations of culture change (e.g. for state origins) which lays stress on a single dominant explanatory factor.

Multivariate Explanation

-Explanations of culture change that stress the interaction of several factors operating simultaneously

Evolutionary Archaeology

-Explores the notion that the processes responsible for biological evolution also drive culture change -The modern mind is a product of natural selection -Darwinian evolution explains why we are the way we are today

Agricultural Damage

-Forest plantations now cover what used to be open land and tree roots are destroying archaeological sites -Mechanized agriculture destroys unprotected artifacts

Postprocessual/New Archaeology

-Highly criticized after the mid 1970s -Some found it too constraining -Others thought that more attention should be focused on the ideological and symbolic aspects of societies -Some thought that archaeology's closest links were with history, and wanted to see the role of the individual in history more fully recognized -

Population Growth

-Human population tends to grow to the limit permitted by the food supply -When a population exceeds the food supply, there is an increased death rate and lower fertility -OR technologies are introduced to produce more agriculture

Internal Conflict

-Igor Diakonoff -Explanation for state origin that that imposes order on class conflict which arises form increased wealth

Countering the Traffic in Illicit Antiquities

-In 1970, the UNESCO had a convention about the Means of Preventing Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property -Principles are not directly enforced by international law and depend largely on national legislation and bilateral agreement between nations -Although the problem has decreased, it is still a large problem

Warfare

-Increasingly seen as an agent of change -Can either be several small disagreements over a long period of time or a result of conquest -Kent Flannery

Rasmi Schoocongdej: University Professor, Thailand

-Initailly was interested in journalsim, but then became interested in archaeology -Devotes her time to helping students became aware of cultural heritage and a sense of responsibility to society -Research is focused on understanding hunter-gatherer mobility organization in the western border of Thailand -Proudest discovery is of two of the oldest Homo Sapiens found in Nothern Thailand and the largest stone tool workshop in Thailand -Hopes to end illegal antiquity trade

Agency

-Introduced to permit discussion of the role of the individual in promoting change -It is difficult to determine clearly how the actions of one individual had a wider and long-term impact

The Getty Affair

-J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles was in the spotlight when one of its curators, Marion True, went on trial in Italy for excavating antiquities illegally in Italy -He was fired and the artifacts were returned to Italy and adopted a strict law against illicit trade in artifacts

Marxist Archaeology

-Man known for his analysis of history in terms of conflict between social classes -Change within a past society was caused mainly by the contradictions that arise between the forces of production and social organization -Contradictions emerge as a struggle between classes -The ideology of a society is seen as largely determined by the nature of the economic base

Excavating Burials: Should we Disturb the Dead?

-Many cultures feared the disturbance of the dead so it would seem disrespectful to dig them up -Tombs have been robbed long before archaeology even began -Some tomb stones have been taken and made into other things INCLUDING TOILETS IN ROME

Early Historical Archaeology

-Meant to be a "Handmaiden to History" -They surveyed only the wealthy and the military - Main goal was to uncover historical buildings -Digs were not done carefully and showed little interest in trash middens and smaller structures

International Protection

-Measures of conservation and mitigation operate at the level of nation states. Only in few cases does something broader prevail

Re-examining America's History: The Colorado Coalfield War

-Miners in Colorado were paid for how much coal they mined, not per hour, so many safety precautions were not taken and the death rate was high -Men were payed very little and since people were desperate for work, if someone died or quit, there was always someone else to take their place

Damage in War

-Monuments are artifacts are sometimes deliberately destroyed in armed conflict -Many building and structures are destroyed solely due to differing ethnicities -During war, when prized artifacts are found, they are either damaged or looted -Many looted artifacts are sold under illicit circumstances and it is sometimes nearly impossible to relocate them

Conservation and Mitigation

-Most nations ensure a degree of protection for their major monuments -The American Antiquities Act was singed in 1906 by Theodore Roosevelt that said: 1. damage, destruction or excavation of historic or prehistoric ruins is prohibited 2. the president would have the authority to establish national landmarks and associated reserves on federal land and 3. permits could be granted for the excavation or collections of archaeological materials on federal land to qualified institutions that pursued such excavations for the purpose of increasing knowledge of the past and preserving the materials -The approach is to think of entire landscapes and their conservation, rather than focusing upon isolated archaeological sites -Sometimes it is unavoidable to have to destroy a site

Archaeology at the Fringe

-New archaeological approaches emerged that scientists considered to be fanciful and extravagant -Fringe theories share 4 characteristics 1. They celebrate a remarkable lost world, the people of which possessed many skills surpassing those of the present 2. They account for the most of the early accomplishments of prehistoric and early state societies with a single explanation: all were the work of skilled inhabitants of the lost world 3. That world vanished in a catastrophe of cosmic proportions 4. Nothing of that original homeland is available for scientific examination, nor are any artifacts surviving

Difficulties of Distribution Archaeology

-Not always accurate and does not necessarily indicate migration

Fraud in Archaeology

-Not new to archaeology and takes many forms -More than 1200 fake antiquities are displayed in some of the world's leading museums -Fujimura, an archaeologist in Japan, had faked artifacts in 168 of the sites he had dug which had an impact on the previous thought of ancient Japanese culture

Characteristics of Historical Archaeology

-Often maintains a postprocessual slant -Texts help with knowing a lot about a site before any excavation work is actually started -Deals with time periods that are much shorter than those of prehistoric archaeology -They focus on specific events instead of large spans of time -Historical Archaeology is close to us emotionally because it is recent and connected to our identities

Nationalism and its Symbols

-Our cultural inheritance is rooted in a deeper past: origins of language, faith and customs -Archaeology plays a role in national identity, particularly for nations without written records -Sometimes misunderstanding of artifacts can cause conflict within a state (For example, artifacts point to more territory belonging to a nationality than previously though which can lead to rioting between two territories)

Conservation in Mexico City

-People wanted to protect the Aztec ruins from further destruction -They found a temple and raised the structure which revealed there was a lot more to the area than previously thought -The land has no been turned into a museum and a national monument

Neo-Marxist Thought

-Places a much greater emphasis on the significance of ideology in shaping change in societies than does traditional Marxism -Pays attention to population and class structure

The Australian Aborigines

-Previous people have been very disrespectful of Aborigines sacred sites and desecrated many of them -Unfortunately archaeologists are being blamed for this -The people want all that was taken to be given back to them -The AAA (Australian Archaeological Association) is willing to return remains that are quite modern or known for sure to be of Aborigines ancestry -Most everything has been returned to the Aborigines for reburial out of respect

Lapita Culture

-Provides a record of the rapid movement of islanders eastward across a vast uninhabited area -The original settlers of many areas of the Pacific, including Melanesia, most of Polynesia, and parts of Micronesia -Dates between 1600 and 1000 BCE

Archaeology and Ideology

-Sectarian sentiments often find expression in major monuments -Religious extremism can cause many acts of destruction for archaeology (Taliban destroyed two major Buddhist temples) -People who disagree with past ideology destroy precious buildings and artifacts that tell us so much about the history of the past

Specific Explanation

-Seeks to know more and ore of the details that surround an event -If we can establish the details that led up to an event, the event itself will become clearer to us -"Historical"

Museums and the Return of Cultural Property

-Statues and artifacts have been sold to one country to another in conditions that the country might not have appreciated, and now those countries want their artifacts back -Sometimes artifacts are illegally taken from one country to another

Structuralist Approaches

-Stress that human actions are guided by beliefs and symbolic concepts, and that the proper object of study is the structure of thought -These archaeologists argue that there are recurrent patterns in human thought in different cultures, many of which can be seen in polar opposites -Categories seen in one sphere of life will be seen also in other spheres

Critical Theory

-Stresses that any claims to seek "objective" knowledge are illusory -Call into question most of the procedures of reason by which archaeology has operated -Does not discriminate whatsoever between anyone's view of the past (weights all views equally)

Symbolism and Interaction

-Study of religion and symbolism -Religion brings about a great change in the way a society acts and behaves

Protecting the Cultural Heritage in Times of War

-The 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultrual Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, and its protocols offer some proptection for cultural heritage -Has not been that effective and have only recently been ratified by the United Kingdom and the United States -most safeguarding must take place at a national level

Environmental Circumscription

-The environment does not always have the resources available to provide for a population

The Wider Audience

-The fundamental purpose of archaeology is to provide people with a better understanding of the human past -Often archaeologists will have to open sites to the public to be able to get funding to continue their research

Slave Archaeology at Monticello

-The home of Thomas Jefferson -Jefferson owned about 200 slaves, but had mixed feelings about slavery -He knew that without enforced labor, the agrarian economy of the day would collapse. However, he also thought slavery was brutal and immoral, favoring its abolition. -He did not think that blacks and whites could form a biracial society that had peace, and wanted to transport free blacks back to Africa or elsewhere -Archaeology proves that slaves were treated fairly well and would inherit unwanted materials from the main household -Archaeology tells us that multiple families occupied slave dwellings, but later the houses became smaller and were occupied by only one family

Salvage Archaeology

-The location and recording (usually through excavation) of archaeological sites in advance of highway construction, drainage projects, or urban development.

The Responsibility of Collectors and Museums

-The market in illegal antiquities has because a major incentive for looting of archaeological sites -Funding is provided by private collectors and unethical museums -Context of an artifact is crucial in telling us about the past -When an artifact is lacking context in an exhibit, it is likely that it came there via the illicit market -It is difficult to prosecute looter unless they are caught red-handed which is almost impossible -Sometimes, unintentionally, lovers of artifacts are increasing the amount of looting because they unwittingly pay the looters for artifacts

Publication, Archives, and Resources

-The pace of discovery through surveys is remarkable -Results are not always well published or made avaliable to specialists or to the public -In the United States, it is required that environmental impact statements should be lodged with the state archive, but not that it should be published -Greece for years has failed to fund publication of the official record of nationally funded excavations -Publication is often not well coordinated -Online publication can solved this problem somewhat -In the United Kingdom, people who find artifacts with a metal detector can voluntarily report their finds to a reporting officer. The results are published online

Historical Archaeology

-The study of human behavior through material remains, for which written history in some way affects its interpretation

Cognitive Archaeology

-The study of past ways of thought and symbolic structures from material remains -Wishes to explain than to just describe -Emphasizes the role of generalization within its theoretical structure and stresses the need to both formulate and test hypothesis -Science or history are not completely focused on, but are just part of the process -Cognitive developments also indicate social developments -Theories must be tested against facts

The World Heritage List

-The world heritage comittee can place sites on the World Heritage List -There are 759 cultural sites on the list with 200 natural and mixed sites -Being on the list acts as incentive for the responsible nation state to ensure that recognized standards are met -Addtionally there is a World Heritage in Danger list

What Use is the Past?

-Today there is a growing awareness that humankind needs to feel and to know that it has a past -Without our roots, we are lost -Things that are part of people's cultures can be enriched by archaeological support -We can continually learn about what it means to be human

1st Archaeological Experiment in the Americas

-Took place more than 150 years ago -James Hall had ancestors on the Mayflower and wanted to learn more about them -Located the Standish homestead in Massachusetts and conducted detailed excavations -Notes stayed hidden until found in 1960s in Mexico -Hall's way of excavation parallels with today's standards of acceptable archaeological practice

External Trade

-Trading links may be an explanation for formation of a state -The need for materials causes states to form

The destruction of the Past

-Two main agents of destruction are human induced: Construction and agricultural intensification -A third agent of destruction is war -Fourth and fifth would be tourism and looting -More ancient remains have been lost in the last two decades than ever before in the history of the world

The UCL Aramaic Incantation Bowls

-University College London sought after the location of 654 incantation bowls that they were lending from a Norwegian scholar -The bowls had been illegally exported and the man who exported them had payed the man who gave them to him to keep quiet

Lisa J. Lucero: University Professor, USA

-Wanted to know at a young age how much a movie or book was based on history and facts -Led her to go into anthropology -Explored the foundation of political power -Excavated the Maya civilization and leanrned the labor restoredon the mjority: commoners and farmers -Claims it is valuable to learn that challenges people of the past could not overcome to help history keep from repeating itself -Studied how climate change played a role in the demise of Classic Maya

The Ludlow Massacre: Colorado Coalfield War

-Workers made a list of 7 demands to the CF&I after losing patience with brutal conditions -The CF&I agreed to all conditions except recognizing the UMWA and 10,000 men ended up leaving the mines and the company threw them out of their homes -These men went on strike which resulted in a massacre of the death of 12 women and children -The men who went on strike were never allowed to come back to work in the mines, but the owner, John D Rockefeller, was so moved by the deaths that he set out a plan to improve conditions in the mining towns

Themes in Historical Archaeology

1- Modern historical archaeology has shied away from a focus on the "oldest", "largest", and "most historically significant" sites. Study is favored on historically disenfranchised groups like the history of African-Americans and Asian-American cultures 2- Commonly tackles questions about the recent past that historic books don't give a satisfactory answer to 3- Research of European colonialism, development of the capitalist economic system, and their effects of indigenous and other peoples. This approach challenges citizens to think more critically about their history and encourages them to change the ongoing economic inequality.