Chapter 8

Question 1

what are the two types of anthropologists that study the past?

Answer 1

Paleoanthropologists and archeologists

Question 2

what do Paleoanthropologists focus on?

Answer 2

skeletal fossils and genetic remains
- compare us to our ancestors

Question 3

What Do archeologists focus on?

Answer 3

reconstructing changes in past human societies using the archeological record (all human material and objects) - long term perspective - determine the how and why

Question 4

Archaeological record

Answer 4

The record consists of material evidence of human modification of the physical environment.

Question 5

what are the 3 main goals of archeology?

Answer 5

• reconstruct how humans lived in the past
• identify how cultures have changed
• understand the influence of changes

Question 6

What is the archaeological process and what are the main methods?

Answer 6

• scientific methods used from biologists and geologists
• dig
• identify precise location of remains

Question 7

what are processual archeologists?

Answer 7

• view archeology as an objective - empirical science
• use math to determine distribution of materials
• emphasize human adaptations to different environments

Question 8

what are post-processual archaeologists?

Answer 8

• emphasize human agency and ideas and values when they study past cultures
• stress symbolism
• examine power, domination, internal contradictions

Question 9

what is an archeological survey?

Answer 9

• a physical examination of geographical regions to determine is they are promising sites
• walk area, research, photograph
• use GPR and GIS systems to show buried remains
• dont harm the area

Question 10

what are artifacts?

Answer 10

objects that have been deliberately and intelligently shaped by humans or hominin ancestors

Question 11

what are features?

Answer 11

non-portable items created by humans (house)

Question 12

what are ecofacts?

Answer 12

biological remains that are likely associated with food consumption or other human activities

Question 13

when an object is found they record three things, what are they?

Answer 13

the matrix
the provenance
the other remains around it

Question 14

what is the immediate matrix?

Answer 14

soil, gravel, clay, sand

Question 15

what is the provenance?

Answer 15

the 3D position of the artifact found

Question 16

Stratigraphy is what?

Answer 16

In archaeology, stratigraphy is the layering of soil and other materials in the earths surface. This layering can be naturally caused (e.g. by geological processes) or artificially caused (e.g. by someone digging a well that has since filled in).

Question 17

ethnoarchaeology

Answer 17

the study of the way present day societies use artifacts and structures and how those objects became part of the archeological record.

Question 18

Taphonomy

Answer 18

the study of how the various processes that may have affected the formation of a particular site

Question 19

what is another name for the post-processual archologists?

Answer 19

interpretive

Question 20

what is GPR?

Answer 20

remote senstivity technology

Question 21

what is GIS?

Answer 21

Geographic Info Systems

Question 22

what is excavation?

Answer 22

• we use it when we want to know a lot about a little area of a site
• the systematic uncovering of arch. remains through careful removal of the matrix (soil)

Question 23

what is substinance?

Answer 23

food
clothes
shelter
basic needs

Question 24

what are substiance strategies?

Answer 24

the ways people meet their basic needs - basically how humans lived and survived in the past

Question 25

What three factors do anthropologists need to know in order to study the major transformation in human material adaptations?

Answer 25

Ecological factors (e.g. climate change/environmental change)
Economic factors (e.g. emergence of agriculture)
Sociocultural factors (e.g. emergence of complex societies and change in human’s life ways)

Question 26

Ecological factors

Answer 26

climate change/environmental change

Question 27

Economic factors

Answer 27

emergence of agriculture

Question 28

Sociocultural factors

Answer 28

(e.g. emergence of complex societies and change in human’s life ways)

Question 29

what are the two ways that anthropologists divide their societies into?

Answer 29

• food collectors
• food producers

Question 30

what is the difference between food collectors and food producers?

Answer 30

collectors - gather, fish, hunt
producers - depend on domesticated plants animals or both

Question 31

what are pastoralists?

Answer 31

animal herders

Question 32

what are farmers?

Answer 32

• people who cultivate crops using extensive, intensive, and mechanized agriculture

Question 33

what is extensive agriculture?

Answer 33

cultivate small plots that are moved each year

Question 34

what is intensive agriculture?

Answer 34

use plows animals irrigation and large land

Question 35

what is mechanized agriculture?

Answer 35

food production on a large scale - depend on technology

Question 36

what is feminist archeology?

Answer 36

recognizes that traditional approaches have often ignored the presence of women.

Question 37

what is gender archaeology?

Answer 37

questions then binary male-female distinction
-looks into variation in sex and gender

Question 38

what is cosmopolitanism?

Answer 38

• move comfortably between cultural settings - different cultures may view artifacts differently
• used to question western approaches.