Exam 1

Question 1

What is Anthropology?

Answer 1

Anthropology seeks to understand human identity, human behavior, human nature in terms of both biology and culture.

Question 2

Characteristics of Anthropology

Answer 2

1. Holistic
2. Focuses on human populations
3. Comparative and cross-cultural
4. Fieldwork
5. Evolution

Question 3

The 5 Subfields of Anthropology

Answer 3

1. Physical (Biological) Anthropology
2. Ethnology (The study of the culture of living groups)
3. Linguistics
4. Archaeology
5. Applied Anthropology

Question 4

Material Culture

Answer 4

1. Traditionally refers to what archaeologists find at sites: artifacts, biological material, features.
2. Can also refer to created or modified landscapes, standing buildings, mortuary art, etc.
3. Material culture is given meaning by people, past and present.

Question 5

Historical Archaeology

Answer 5

1. Typically refers to using material culture, texts, and oral history to examine Post-Columbian cultural change.
2. It does not privilege one source of information over another.
3. It has a global perspective.

Question 6

The development of American Anthropology

Answer 6

Close relationship between American archaeology and ethnology, focus on Native American sites.

Little work done at non-indigenous historic sites until early 1900s. Not seen as important by American archaeologists.

Question 7

What are the three types of sources of info that a historical archaeologist may use?

Answer 7

1. Material culture
2. Written text
3. Oral history

Question 8

What does it mean to privilage one source over another?

Answer 8

It essentially means thinking that one type of source is better than another, which is never a good idea in practice.

Question 9

What did archaeologists do to find William Longley’s grave and to determine if it was him or not?

Answer 9

1. They used old photographs and compared them to today to attempt to pinpoint the grave (using landmarks, foliage, etc.)
2. They examine the remains to see if they could find specific physical characteristics on the bones.
3. The examined what trinkets were in the grave to confirm it that was what he had when he was alive.
4. They did a DNA test to see if it matched Longley’s.

Question 10

Dr. Carl Fish

Answer 10

1. American History at University of Wisconsion
2. Historical interpretation depended on three sources: “written, spoken, and that which is neither written nor spoken.”
3. Historians made interpretations, higher-order thinking.
   Technicians provided historians with information that they used.
4. Archivists and editors found, preserved, and organized written documents for use of historians.
5. Historical archaeologists found, preserved, and organized monuments for historians.

Question 11

Antiquities Act of 1906

Answer 11

1. The president can designate and set aside for protection “national monuments” on federal land. These are resources of national importance to be protected. Not all federal lands are protected.
2. Important resources include prehistoric sites, historic sites, natural landscapes, or huge blocks of natural environments.
3. No set procedure for evaluation or public comment.

Question 12

Historic Sites Act of 1935

Answer 12

National Park Service (NPS) charged as the central agency in historic preservation, oversaw all national monuments and national battlefields.

Question 13

1930s New Deal Archaeology

Answer 13

National Park Service funded excavations to provide information for historians to ‘reconstruct’ past structures, which could be open for public viewing. Museums at sites.

Question 14

Early Historic Preservation

Answer 14

Shared common roots with historical archaeology and public history—patriotic and commemorative. Emphasis on public buildings or elite architecture.

Question 15

1940s - 1950s

Answer 15

Growing recognition that archaeologists working at historic sites should share data and ideas with each other.

Question 16

J.C. Harrington, 1955

Answer 16

1. Goals and achievements of Historical Archaeology are too limited.
2. Historical archaeology had contributed to ‘historical data’ but not to history.

Question 17

National Historic Preservation Act of 1966

Answer 17

1. Established National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).
2. Placed the National Park Service as the Keeper of the NRHP.
3. Resources on the NRHP have potential protection from federally funded or licensed projects. Agencies must avoid disturbing those resources or mitigate them.

Question 18

What are the two schools of thought that developed around archaeology in the 1960s and 1970s.

Answer 18

Traditionalists: who saw historical archaeology as ‘the handmaiden’ of history. Chronology was important. Work on sites that are important for national history or national image.

Anthropological archaeologists: who saw the field as producing data for themselves. Human culture is so patterned that scientific archaeology can discover the underlying patterns and laws.

Question 19

What does “The New Archaeology” mean in the context of the two schools of thought?

The 1960s and 1970s debate

Answer 19

Prehistoric archaeology in America was too much about chronology and not about people. Should also be about culture process.

Question 20

The National Register of Historic Places

Answer 20

The National Register contains resources that have been determined to be ‘significant.’

Question 21

Cultural Resource Management (CRM) of Federal Projects.

Answer 21

Before a Federally funded or licensed undertaking is started, there has to be environmental impact statements of both the natural and cultural environment.

Question 22

Historical Archaeology Today

Answer 22

1. Recent developments of Historical Archaeology focus on how the field can reveal past social identity and complexity: Class, race, and gender.
2. But overemphasis on just one dimension of social identity leads to pitfalls.
3. Other themes of historical archaeology today: colonialism, domination, resistance.

Question 23

What does it mean to ‘give voice’ to marginalized people?

Answer 23

It is to help marginalized people get their stories and histories out into the world when they have been pushed down and never discussed. It also gives them a chance to speak about from their perspectives.
Examples: People with ancestors who were slaves, Native Americans.

Question 24

Field techniques at New Philadelphia

What were the findings from the New Philadelphia pedestrian surveys?

Answer 24

They found bricks, buttons, a lot of ceramics, and a variety of glass (flat, curved, etc.)

Question 25

New Philadelphia

What techniques or technology did they use at New Phili?

Answer 25

Techniques: Pedestrian survey, test pits
Technology: Trowels, sifting screen, tape, geological scanner (?)

Question 26

New Philadelphia

How and why do Archaeologists investigate African-American past lives?

Answer 26

By going through archives, talking to decendents, and conducting excavations.
To shed light on what their lives were like and to give them a voice to their history.

Question 27

New Philadelphia

How can Geological Information Sytem (GIS) be used in Historical Archaeology?

Answer 27

Can be used to detect abnormalities below the ground before excavation begins.

Question 28

Why isn’t radiocarbon (Carbon-14) dating that useful in historical archaeology?

Answer 28

Because the half life of carbon 14 is 5730 years, which decays overtime. Thus, it would only be useful for dating things at/over 5730 years old, which is not the span of time historical archaeology focuses on.

Question 29

What is terminus post quem and terminus ante quem

Answer 29

terminus post quem: The day after which (depends on dated artifacts)
terminus ante quem: The day before which (on the absence of particular dated artifacts)

Question 30

What do each of the following terms mean?
1. Heirloom effect
2. Hand-me-down effect
3. Curation effect
4. Human life-cycle effect
5. Fashion effect
6. Set effect
7. Dumping effect
8. Rural effect

Answer 30

Heirloom: Items passed down through generations
Hand-me-down: Given to another person
Curation: Stored
Human life-cycle: Skeletal evidence and documents
Fashion: Dress code at the time
Set: More than one of one thing
Dumping: Thrown away
Rural: Agriculture, geographical context

Question 31

What sort of country records can be used to help interpret historic sites?

Answer 31

1. Population census
2. Slave census
3. Agricultural census
4. Industrial census
5. Land ownership records
6. Tax records
7. Court records

Question 32

How can probate records be useful to an archaeologist?

Answer 32

They can be used to determine what the person had and what they left behind for others.

Question 33

How can drawings, maps, and photographs be used to study the past.

Answer 33

They can provide us with a good comparison on how a site used to be in the past and how the people living their used it.

Question 34

What records were used by archaeologists in studying the Nathen Boone cabin site?

Answer 34

They used sales documents of personal goods.

Question 35

What do Little and Harlow say about early excavation and its role in myth building?

Answer 35

They write that early work was done at famous battle sites or the homes of leaders. This obsession with the glory of America helped create a lot of patriotic myths

Question 36

What do little and Harlow say about preservation?

Answer 36

Little describes the role of preservation as originally a supplement to the historical record used for nationalist sentiment and then changed in 60s-70s to analysis and sometimes positive rewrites to help interpret or present our past more honestly
2.Harlow calls into question preservation from the 1890s-1950s which was used for racism and xenophobia.

Question 37

What does Harlow say about the role of women in preservation?

Answer 37

She talks about their efforts in the 1890s to preserve Deerfield and keep it as a idillic 18th century style village. Their work shared nationalist and xenophobic attitudes found in 1950s preservation but there buildings and history were not popular because they were women. Essentially the past they had made did not involve men in power and so later generations did not look back on it as a “golden past”

Question 38

What do authors say about past and future of historical archaeology?

Answer 38

They talk about its past as a supplement to history use in nationalist preservation and racism.
Its future involves working together as equally important facets to interpret and present the past, if not in a team then perhaps in a way in which historical archaeology and history become one profession

Question 39

What does De Cunzo say is the role of historical archaeology and how does it avoid privileging?

Answer 39

She says its role is to act as a means to interpret and analyze American culture past and present. In sealing to understand people and viewing it as a tool for the whole culture, it can avoid emphasis on privileged people’s.

Question 40

What does De Cunzo say about the debate in historical archaeology.

Answer 40

She talks about people struggling with the co history/humanities history of the discipline of historical archaeology. She says instead of fighting over which to focus on, draw from both and a knowledge that both people and their culture are joint goals to understand.

Question 41

What does De Cunzo say is most important in the historical archaeology self identity debate?

Answer 41

Context. She says the context of materiel systems both past and present as well as context of social norms values and beliefs both past and present are the key to a wholistic understanding of the past and also ourselves and how our social context may be coloring our interpretation.