Chapter 8 Flashcards
What is the difference between analogy and middle-level theory?
Analogy and middle-level theory both seek to make inferences about human behavior from archaeological remains.
Analogy is one way to reconstruct the past but is limited to societies that have very close geographic and cultural counterparts (preferably ones with a historical connection) or to fairly low-level inferences. The greater the number of similarities, the greater the probability that the analogy is correct.
Middle-level theory uses modern data from taphonomy, experimental archaeology, and ethnoarchaeology to explain why particular natural processes or human behaviors can be inferred from particular material remains. Middle-level theory relies on the principle of uniformitarianism.
What are the principles of uniformitarianism?
The “facts” of archaeology are incapable of speaking for themselves; therefore, archaeology follows geology’s principle of uniformitarianism, studying ongoing processes and their material consequences to develop ways of making inferences from archaeological data.
The principle of uniformitarianism does not assume that the past and the present are the same; it does assume that the processes of the past and the present are the same. This is why we can use modern observations, such as the material effect of sunlight on bone, or the relationship between house posts and house permanence (μονιμότητα), to help us interpret the archaeological record.
What do taphonomy, experimental archaeology and ethnoarchaeology study?
Taphonomy studies the natural processes that help produce archaeological sites.
Experimental archaeology recreates behaviors that no longer exist today, such as stone tool manufacture, or replicates behaviors, events or processes that need controlled observation.
Ethnoarchaeology studies living people in order to see how human behavior is translated into material remains.
