1/27 - how do we know what happened in the past?

Question 1

Uniformitarianism

Answer 1

Principle asserting that the processes now operating to modify the earth’s surface are the same processes that operated throughout geological time.

Question 2

Analogy

Answer 2

Noting similarities between two entities and inferring from that similarity that an additional attribute of one is also true of the other.

Question 3

Formal Analogy

Answer 3

Analogies justified by similarities in the formal attributes of archaeological and ethnographic objects and features - similarities in form

Question 4

Relational Analogy

Answer 4

Analogies justified on the basis of close cultural continuity between the archaeological and ethnographic cases or similarity in general cultural form.

Question 5

Middle Range Theory

Answer 5

Hypothesis that links archaeological observations with the human behavior or natural processes that produced them.

Question 6

Taphonomy

Answer 6

The study of how organisms become part of the fossil record in archaeology, it primarily refers to the study of how natural processes produce patterning in archaeological data.

Question 7

Ethnoarchaeology

Answer 7

The study of contemporary peoples to determine how human behavior is translated into the archaeological record.

Question 8

Experimental Archaeology

Answer 8

Experiments designed to determine the archaeological correlates of ancient behavior; may overlap with both taphonomy and ethnoarchaeology.

Question 9

Cultural Burning

Answer 9

Burning returns nutrients to the ground. Permits a plot of land to be farmed for a limited number of years.