2.1 - 2.3

Question 1

Absolute Dating

Answer 1

Measuring the age of a certain object

Question 1

Relative dating

Answer 1

Comparing the ages of objects

Question 2

Assemblage

Answer 2

A group of objects associated with each other

Question 3

Association

Answer 3

Objects found near each other at the same sight

Question 4

Context

Answer 4

The area in which an artifact is discovered

Question 5

Excavation

Answer 5

Digging Archaeological sites

Question 6

Lithic

Answer 6

Something that is made of stone or relating to stone

Question 7

What are the different era’s of the stone age?

Answer 7

• Paleolithic (Oldest / Past)
• Mezzolithic (Middle)
  -Neolithic (New)

Question 8

Matrix

Answer 8

All the elements of an archaeological site

Question 9

Provenience

Answer 9

The place of origin of an object

Question 10

Stratigraphy

Answer 10

Studying layers of dirt to indicate how old an object is

Question 11

What is superposition?

Answer 11

An objects position in the ground, indicating how old the object is

Question 12

What are the main sub-fields of anthropology?

Answer 12

Physical
Archaeological
Cultural
Linguistic

Question 13

What is Ethnography?

Answer 13

Embedding yourself in the environment

Question 14

What is longitudinal studies?

Answer 14

Capturing data over an extended period of time

Question 15

Who is Margaret Mead?

Answer 15

An ethnographer who did a study on Oceania, specifically Samoa

Question 16

What is a rite of passage?

Answer 16

A ceremony or ritual of passage when an individual leaves a group and joins another

Question 17

What are the stages of life?

Answer 17

Childhood
Adolescence
Adulthood
Old age

Question 18

Who is Victor Turner?

Answer 18

Known for his work on symbols, rituals and rites of passages

Question 19

What are the three phases of a rite of passage?

Answer 19

Separation (Leaving the familiar)
Transition (Learning and growth)
Return (Reincorporation and Reintegration)

Question 20

What is liminality?

Answer 20

The transition phase, refers to the disorientation or confusion experienced in the mid stages of the process of transitioning

Question 21

What is communitas?

Answer 21

Ideal view of culture / society

Question 22

Who is Franz Boa?

Answer 22

• Margaret Mead’s Teacher
• One of the founders of anthropology
• Specialist in north american aboriginal culture
• Ethnographer
• Gathered physical objects to study
• Functionalist
• Founder of the culture history school

Question 23

What is functionalism?

Answer 23

Everything in society serves a function

Question 24

Who is Marcel Mauss

Answer 24

European sociologist that founded ethnography.

Question 25

What is structuralism?

Answer 25

Society is structured into contrasting elements that connect to the overall structure

Question 26

Who is Marvin Harris?

Answer 26

American anthropologist

Question 27

What is cultural materialism?

Answer 27

The materials of culture dictate human behavior

Question 28

What is technological determinism?

Answer 28

Technology dictates human behavior

Question 29

What is archaeology?

Answer 29

The study of past human activity and society through the discovery and analysis of material culture and remains

Question 30

What is material culture?

Answer 30

The physical objects created and left behind by a culture

Question 31

What do archaeologists study?

Answer 31

Artifacts (objects created and used by humans)
Features (Human modifications)
Ecofacts (Natural Objects)

Question 32

What kind of cultures do archaeologists study?

Answer 32

Prehistoric - Before culture and society were recorded
Historic - Cultures and societies that were recorded in written records

Question 33

What is the history of archaeology?

Answer 33

Used to be very finders keeper, similar to treasure hunting before the mid 20th century when it became more sophisticated

Question 34

How do artifacts become buried over time?

Answer 34

Water
Landslides
Winds
Organisms (earth worms)

Question 35

What do archaeologists typically excavate?

Answer 35

They rarely find organic material, durable artifacts are discovered more commonly

Question 36

Which environments better preserve artifacts?

Answer 36

• Extremely dry regions
• Certain very wet environments
• Frozen environments

Question 37

What is mummification?

Answer 37

Process of preservation

Question 38

What is Sempuku?

Answer 38

Honorable suicide

Question 39

What are the core roles of an archaeologist?

Answer 39

-Reconstruct (What do material remains tell us about the people who lived in the past)
-Chronologize (How can we order these moments? What does this tell us about how societies and cultures changed over time?)
-Hypothesize (What explains these changes? Archeologists will hypothesize and rigorously test hypotheses.)

Question 40

What is a site?

Answer 40

A site is a place in which evidence of past activity is preserved and can be investigated

Question 41

How are sites discovered?

Answer 41

Surface surveys (Experts look for certain features in a landscape)
Aerial surveys (Airplanes are used to identify unusual phenomena from the sky)

Question 42

Most common excavation method called?

Answer 42

Wheeler Kenyon method / Grid method

Question 43

How does an excavation occur?

Answer 43

Soil screening
Use tools, observe
Record the evidence
Analyze

Question 44

What happened in the beginning?

Answer 44

Homo Habilis (East Africa)
- Used the first stone tools
- Lived 2.5 million years ago

Homo Erectus (Asia and Europe)
- Shelters, hearths, used fire
- Lived 1-2 million years ago

Question 45

What is the 12 part timeline to agriculture?

Answer 45

1. Began as foraging
2. 12, 000 years ago farming began in modern day Syria
3. Stone tools more defined
4. New tool for processing plant foods
5. Domesticated cattle, sheep
6. Large scale intensive agriculture
7. Job specialization
8. Craftsmen, leaders, merchant
9. Classes, including ruling class
10. Religion
11. Writing
12. Record keeping