Chapter Two

Question 1

Anthropology has long been concerned with…

Answer 1

the study of culture

Question 2

What are the characteristics of culture? (3)

Answer 2

• learned
• shared
• symbolic

Question 3

What are the two basic ways to study culture?

Answer 3

• ideational perspective: culture as ideas (or symbols of shared ideas, knowledge, and meanings)
• adaptation perspective: culture as adaptation (or response to the material parameters of life such as technology, subsistence, settlement, social organization)

Question 4

Describe the Kwakwaka’wakw Potlatch from an ideational and adaptation perspective. (4)

Answer 4

• competitive feasts of complex indigenous fishing-hunting-gathering societies in the Pacific Northwest Coast
• high-ranking family/families host a multi-day feast that expresses conspicuous consumption
• ideational: goal is to express the idea of prestige; who has it and who doesn’t
• adaptation: goal is to spread wealth, gain allies, gain labor; increased prestige offers material benefits for rank-and-file villagers

Question 5

Science is…

Answer 5

a systematic body of knowledge about a field

Question 6

What are the characteristics of a scientific approach? (6)

Answer 6

• empirical and objective
• systematic and explicit
• logical
• explanatory and predictive
• self-critical and based on testing
• public

Question 7

What are the steps of the scientific method? (6)

Answer 7

• define a question
• establish one or more hypotheses
• empirical implications of the hypotheses or deriving predictions as logical consequences
• collect appropriate data through observation and/or experimentation
• test the hypothesis by comparing these data with expected implications
• reject, revise, and/or retest hypotheses as necessary

Question 8

Who made the ancient North American mounds found in the colonial frontier? (4)

Answer 8

• colonial settlers/farmers: lost race
• Ephraim Squier/Edwin Davis: Aztecs
• Thomas Jefferson: Indians/Indigenous groups
• Cyrus Thomas: Indians/Indigenous groups

Question 9

Describe the different aspects of scientific reasoning. (5)

Answer 9

• hypothesis: idea proposed as an explanation of some phenomenon
• inductive reasoning: working from specific observation to more general ideas or hypotheses
• deductive reasoning: reasoning from theory to predict specific observational or experimental results; expressed as “if … then” statements
• testability: degree to which one’s observations and experiments can be reproduced
• implications of the hypothesis must be measurable in some way with the same results obtained by different observers

Question 10

What are some characteristics of science? (4)

Answer 10

• scientific method is cyclical, not linear
• scientific cycle begins and ends with facts
• science is subject to false starts, dead ends, preconceived notions, and cultural biases
• the goal of science is to create knowledge

Question 11

What is theory?

Answer 11

explanation for observed, empirical phenomena

Question 12

What is low-level theory?

Answer 12

observations and interpretations from objects archaeologists collect and excavate in the field; essentially transforming objects such as artifacts, features, and ecofacts from archaeological investigations into data

Question 13

What is middle-level theory?

Answer 13

hypothesis that links archaeological measurement with human behavior or natural processes that made them

Question 14

What is high-level theory?

Answer 14

theory that seeks answers to the big “why” questions in archaeology

Question 15

What is culture history?

Answer 15

describing things and answering questions of “when” and “where”

Question 16

What is processual archaeology?

Answer 16

searches to explain how social economic, and cultural change happened; change thru adaptation; environment plays role in change

Question 17

What is postprocessual archaeology?

Answer 17

informed by post-modern critique of science; focuses on humanistic approach, change thru interaction with individuals

Question 18

Describe the processual approach. (5)

Answer 18

• evolutionary generalizations
• focuses on group; focuses on material factors
• culture is a system with a process that can be studied
• attempts to be ethically/politically neutral
• attempts to be ethically/politically unbiased

Question 19

Describe the postprocessual approach. (5)

Answer 19

• rejects universal laws in interpreting the past
• focuses on individuals and their negotiations/relationships
• favors an ideational view of culture
• doesn’t think we can be objective
• archaeology is unavoidably political