ANTH-3010 exam 3 Flashcards
Shamanism
medico-religious semi-specialist in small scale societies
Three-tiered universe
- upper world –> spirits
- lower world –> spirits
- middle world –> middle Earth
Sociobiology
the study of social life, change and causes and consequences of human behavior
Altered States of Consciousness (ASC)
-Trance like state in between real and spirit world
-Related to animism & shamanism
-visions hallucinations
Ju/’hoansi “trance dance”
A ritual preformed for social reasons where they chant and dance until they self-induce into a trance-like state
Hunting Hypothesis
Hunting = primary source of
food
* Males do all the hunting
* Therefore, men account for all
the food
* Provision mates / offspring with food
* Females produce / rear offspring
Woman the Gatherer
Sociobiology theoretical framework
* Questioned some of the Man the Hunter
assumptions
- Actually reinforced others! Just think about title!
* Struggled b/c it started w/ many of the same
premises as Man the Hunter
- Look for covering generalizations
- Didn’t acknowledge / explain variability
Agta women’s hunting
-Limited gendered division of labor
-Philippines
- General female participation in fishing and hunting
activities
- (Male participation in plant collecting / horticulture)
- Some women who specialize in solo hunting
- Variability in the prevalence of female hunting, though
generally not uncommon
Inupiaq men’s hunting
-Inupiaq gendered division of labor
* Men do all the hunting BUT…
* Complex interdigitated gendered division of labor
in staging hunting trips:
- Producing / maintaining gear
- Highly specialized cold-weather clothing and other gear
- Long logistical trips to target marine mammals
- Post-hunt processing and cooking
- Ritual attraction of prey animal done by women
Ethnoarchaeology
Sub-field of archaeology designed to learn about how archaeological sites form, how technology works, etc.
- I’m not a hunter-gatherer!
- If I were, I could make sense of archaeological phenomena using “common sense”
- Since I’m not, I have to observe modern hunter- gatherers to learn how to understand archaeological sites
“Middle range” research
aka “Middle Range Theory”
* Archaeological sites = static 3D arrangements of material objects + features
- Human behaviors
- Animal activities, e.g. carnivore bone chewing
- Geological processes
* Results from dynamic processes
* Need to learn about how dynamic processes related to static archaeological phenomena
* Analogy of the bear and track
Archaeological site formation
Deposition of discard debris (i.e.
garbage)
- Site abandonment dynamics
- Post-depositional disturbance
- Sedimentation, burial, etc
-Taphonomy
Taphonomy
related to site formation
Revisionism
Trend in the 1980s-1990s
* Recognition that H-Gs were not “living fossils from
the stone age…”
* H-Gs have:
- had long histories of interactions with agricultural
neighbors
- lived in modern states for a long time
- Experienced colonialism in particularly extreme fashion
* H-Gs are NOT analogs for prehistoric societies /
hominin ancestors
* Postmodern theoretical bent…
“Kalahari Debate”
focused on Kalahari hunter-gatherers, esp. Ju/’hoansi
* Initial view in 1950s-1960s:
- Kalahari H-Gs were isolated relics of the Stone Age
- Had little contact with outside agricultural societies
- Preserved prehistoric practices
Later view in 1980s-1990s:
- Ju/’hoansi had long histories of contact / exchange with neighboring Iron Age agricultural societies, e.g. Tswana
- Were hunter-gatherers BECAUSE they were exploited
- Ju/’hoansi as “rural proletariat”
Outcomes: acrimonious and both views were flawed but initial one was more flawed then later view
