Chapter 2

Question 1

anthropology

Answer 1

the study of all aspects of humankind–biological, cultural, and linguistic; extant and extinct–employing a holistic, comparative approach and the concept of culture

Question 2

biological anthropology

Answer 2

a subdiscipline of anthropology that views humans as biological organism; also known as physical anthropology

Question 3

cultural anthropology

Answer 3

a subdiscipline of anthropology that emphasizes nonbiological aspects; the learned social, linguistic, technological, and familial behaviors of humans

Question 4

linguistic anthropology

Answer 4

a subdiscipline of anthropology that focuses on human language; its diversity in grammar, syntax, and lexicon; its historical development; and its relation to a culture’s perception of the world

Question 5

archaeology

Answer 5

the study of the past through the systematic recovery and analysis of material remains

Question 6

culture

Answer 6

an integrated system of beliefs, traditions, and customs that govern or influence a person’s behavior. Culture is learned, shared by members of a group, and based on the ability to think in terms of symbols

Question 7

ideational perspective

Answer 7

the research perspective that defines ideas, symbols, and mental structures as driving forces in shaping human behavior

Question 8

adaptive perspective

Answer 8

a research perspective that emphasizes technology, ecology, demography, and economics in the definition of human behaviro

Question 9

science

Answer 9

the search for universals by means of established scientific methods of inquiry

Question 10

scientific method

Answer 10

accepted principles and procedures for the systematic pursuit of secure knowledge. Established scientific procedures involve the following steps:

(1) define a relevant problem
(2) establish one or more hypotheses
(3) determine the empirical implications of the hypotheses
(4) collect appropriate data through observation and/or experimentation
(5) compare these data with the expected implications
(6) revise and/or retest hypotheses as necessary

Question 11

hypothesis

Answer 11

a proposition proposed as an explanation of some phenomenon

Question 12

inductive reasoning

Answer 12

working from specific observations to more general hypothesis

Question 13

deductive reasoning

Answer 13

reasoning from theory to account for specific observational or experimental results

Question 14

testability

Answer 14

the degree to which one’s observations and experiments can be reproduced

Question 15

theory

Answer 15

an explanation for observed, empirical phenomena. It seeks to explain the relationships between variable; it is an answer to “why” question

Question 16

low-level theory

Answer 16

the observations and interpretations that emerge from hands-on archaeological field and lab work

Question 17

data

Answer 17

relevant observations made on objects that then serve as the basis for study and discussion

Question 18

rockshelter

Answer 18

a common type of archaeological site, consisting of rock overhand that is deep enough to provide shelter but not deep enough to be called a cave (a cave must have an area of perpetual darkness)

Question 19

ecofact

Answer 19

plant or animal remains found at an archaeological site

Question 20

feature

Answer 20

the nonportable evidence of technology, such as fire hearths, architectural elements, clusters, garbage pits, and soil stains

Question 21

middle-level theory

Answer 21

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

Question 22

high-level theory

Answer 22

theory that seeks to answer large “why” questions

Question 23

paradigm

Answer 23

the overarching framework, often unstated for understanding a research problem. It is the researcher’s “culture”

Question 24

processual paradigm

Answer 24

the paradigm that explains social, economic, and cultural change as primarily the result of adaptation to material conditions. External conditions (ex: the environment) are assumed to take casual priority over ideational factors in explaining change

Question 25

general systems theory

Answer 25

an effort to describe the properties by which all systems, including human societies, allegedly operate. Popular in processual archaeology of the late 1960s and 1970s

Question 26

postprocessual paradigm

Answer 26

a paradigm that focuses on humanistic approaches and rejects scientific objectivity. It sees archaeology as inherently political and is more concerned with interpreting the past than with testing hypotheses. It sees change as arising largely from interactions between individuals operating within a symbolic and/or competitive system

Question 27

deconstruction

Answer 27

efforts to expose the assumptions behind the allegedly objective and systematic search for knowledge

Question 28

stelae

Answer 28

stone monuments erected by Maya rulers to record their history in rich images and hieroglyphic symbols. These symbols can be read and dated