Exam #2 Flashcards
Ethnoarchaeology
the practice of doing ethnographic research on living populations to better interpret the archaeological record
Social archaeology
social interpretations of the past, particularly Identity, landscapes, ritual, archaeological theory, and cultural heritage
archaeobotany
the study of plant remains
zooarchaeology
the study of animal remains
characteristics of bands/mobile hunter-gathers
Less than 100 people, not sedentary only temporary shelters, hunter-gathers (no farming or domesticated animals), egalitarians (no hierarchy), seasonality
characteristics of tribes/segmentary societies
No more than a few 1000, they are sedentary (can hunt but have a home base), pan-tribal associations, permanent huts, burial mounds, shrines, early farmers
characteristics of chiefdoms/Intermediate societies/middle-range societies
5000-20,000 people, kinship-based ranking under hereditary leader high-ranking warriors (social status is based on how closely related you are to the chief), large scale monuments
characteristics of Early states
Generally 20,000+, 5,000 in a city alone, Clear social stratification under king or emperor (low, middle, and upper class), Military and police forces to enforce laws, palaces, temples, and other public buildings
What are the 2 examples of ethnoarchaeology
- Example 1: From studying contemporary hunter-gatherer societies, Binford was able to develop a model of hearths outside of tents that better matched the archaeological record.
- Example 2: From ethnoarchaeology on the Tugen, Njemps, and Pokot tribes, Hodder concluded that ear decorations were used to emphasize tribal differences while pottery barely varied
What’s a prehistoric example of social archaeology?
Social archaeology includes the study of gender and gender roles and some artifacts are interpreted as symbols of female power, such as a romanian neolithic vase with arms and a curvy figure
Explain how archaeologists can link ceramics to identity while also being cautious of the fact that “pots do not equal people.”
- Link ceramics to certain cultures or time periods with absolute dating and specific pot types/design patterns
- designs/time frames can show a lot about particular cultures
- Can be cautious because they can spread through familial generations, leaving them in different stratums of time
- Movement of pots doesn’t mean the movement of people
- Bell beakers: thought it was very specific in who migrated and what culture due to the dispersion. They were wrong, they were traded, moved, etc
Describe the different types of macrobotanical remains
bigger types of plant remains such as seeds, fruit casings, nut shells, wood
Describe the different types of microbotanical remains
starch grains, pollen, phytoliths (terrestrial plant remains), and diatoms (algae)
Describe how zooarchaeologists typically determine sex, age at death, and domestication
- Aging: absence or presence of certain sutures in the skull; examining of the development of limb bones; teeth eruption; epiphyses (end part of the bone that is separated in younger indivudals
- Biological sex: examining the pelvis; looking for absence or presence of particular macroremains
- Seasonality: season at death; animals born in spring; presence or absence of antlers on male deer
- Domestication: Tools can indicate domesticated animals (e.g. plows, yokes)
- Deformities and disease on animal bones can also provide evidence for domestication
Define critical theory/critical archaeology
“Critical theory is a practice that uses insights from the social sciences, philosophy, and the humanities to critique contemporary and past societies.”
- “Exposing hegemonic ideologies that support the power elite is vital to a critical analysis. Archaeologists do it with material culture by revealing the recursive power of artifacts. Objects don’t just passively reflect the values of the groups that use them. They actively work to create and reinforce these values.”
Explain the William Paca garden case study in relation to social archaeology
William Paca Garden Case Study: William Paca was an 18th aristocrat who, during his decline in prestige, built an elaborate garden using perspective and optical illusion to show that he was sophisticated and had control of the laws of nature; this was meant to reinforce that his position was deserved and natural.
18th -19th century dining practices case study in relation to social archaeology
18th-19th century dining practices case study: Complexity of dining services increased drastically over time. For example, more different types of plates with different uses and more matching sets. Used etiquette rules to draw a clear line between those who knew them (belonged) and those who did not (did not belong).
**From Pollock’s article, Did Akkadian ideology take hold when they conquered lands? Provide an example of the archaeology of hidden transcripts using clay figurines.
**Clay figurines differ in temple vs. domestic contexts: figures in temple are plain while domestic ones have elaborately decorated hair
Temple = public transcript
Domestic = hidden transcript
In general, how do zooarchaeologists calculate MNI (e.g. what is the role of unfused epiphyses, counting skeletal elements)?
To calculate MNI: zooarchaeologists find the number of specimens/fragments/body parts that have to be from different individuals. For example if one bone has unfused epiphyses (juvenile) and the other has fused epiphyses (adult), then there are at least 2 individuals. If there are three right hip bones then there are at least 3 individuals, whereas if there were 2 right hip bones and one left hip bone then there only needs to be 2 individuals since the left hip bone could be from the same individual as one of the rights.
Describe unaltered materials
- Raw
- Time period of artifacts: beginning of human history to present
- Ex: Stone, wood, animal (bone, antlers, shell, silk (from worms), leather, fur)
Describe altered materials
- Created through the control of fire (pyrotechnology)
- Time period of artifacts: Neolithic to present, but generally prehistoric
Define experimental archaeology and provide an example
- Created through the control of fire (pyrotechnology)
- Time period of artifacts: Neolithic to present, but generally prehistoric
- Ex: Pottery and Metal
Describe different types of trade and exchange in the ancient world
- Societies and economies depend upon the exchange of:
1) information (ideas, symbols, inventions, values)
2) actual goods - Every transaction of the above implies some social interaction between individuals or groups of people
Describe the material-sourcing microscopic thin-section analysis
Microscopic thin-section analysis: e.g. origin of clay used for making pottery
- Using microscopy and thin section sampling the optical properties of a sample are able to be investigated.
- Mineral properties in the sample are able to be isolated and identified.
- Basically going through and seeing what kind of minerals are in the clay to determine where it came from
Describe the material-sourcing trace-element analysis
Trace-element analysis through X-ray fluorescence (XRF) (e.g. origin of obsidian for stone tools)
- a non-destructive technique used to determine the elemental composition of materials
Describe the material-sourcing isotopic analysis
Isotopic analysis (e.g. origin of lead source for making weapons via analysis of lead isotope ratios)
- the identification of isotopic signature, abundance of certain stable isotopes of chemical elements within organic and inorganic compounds
From De Leon’s article, What were the results of use-wear analysis on objects/belongings left behind by migrants crossing into the U.S.?
- Use-wear analysis – close examination of the wear marks/patterns on an artifact to understand how it was used
- Examination of modified objects to understand habitual suffering
- The extreme smells of sweat and other bodily fluids on objects demonstrates how they suffer in the desert, wearing the same clothes the entire time
- Destroyed footwear showcases the rough terrain
- Emptied water bottles show that migrants run out of water on their journey’s
- Migrants personalize, repair, and repurpose their belongings
Define the main components of queer theory/queer archaeology
- Heteronormativity/Heteronormalcy
- Anti-essentialism: a philosophical stance that rejects the idea that things possess inherent, fixed, or essential characteristics that define their nature or identity, arguing instead that categories and identities are socially constructed and fluid
- Influenced by Foucault – we are unconscious of how we naturalize certain types of sexual behavior as “normal” and others as “deviant”
describe the Ross Female Factory case study as an example of queer archaeology
- Female prison built in 1833
- Historical context: Letters between prisoners indicate intimate same-sex relations between prisoners
- Illicit objects: liquor & tobacco
- Sexual economy: One Solitary Cell had sheep bones, kaolin clay pipe stem fragment, olive glass alcohol bottle base, and a square ferrous food container
Blackmore compares NE-1 to NE-3. What anti-essentialist conclusions are made?
From the comparison of NE-1 to NE-3, the anti-essentialist conclusions drawn challenge the idea of a fixed “commoner” identity in ancient Maya society. This study highlights the fluidity of identity formation. The contrast between NE-1 and NE-3 shows that even within a single settlement, commoners engaged in different strategies to assert social identity and power. NE-1 relied on private acts of ritual to maintain historical authority as the founding group. Meanwhile, NE-3, as a later settlement, publicly performed rituals to establish legitimacy suggesting that identity was constructed in response to shifting social and political dynamics. This transformation demonstrates that identity is negotiated and redefined in response to broader social and political changes.
Define bioarchaeology
the archaeological study of human remains
Define paleopathology
the study of ancient diseases and injuries in organisms
Define microbial archaeolog
investigates the relationships between people and microorganisms in the past
How do bioarchaeologists determine sex?
examining the pelvis (the female pelvis is wider). Males also have larger mandibles and more prominent brow bones
How do bioarchaeologists determine age at death?
They used teeth and fusing of the bones
- Examination of the eruption/emergence of milk teeth (baby teeth) or permanent dentition
- Skeletal elements fuse at different times within a person’s lifetime
- Microscopic analysis: number of circular osteons increase as we age and they start to move towards the edge of a bone
How do bioarchaeologists determine nutrition?
Isotopic analysis on teeth
How do bioarchaeologists determine malnutrition?
- Harris lines (horizontal lines in bone from lack of vitamin D), detected by x-rays on bones and teeth, indicate periods of stunted growth
- General size and condition of a skeleton’s bones
- Abrasions on teeth (ex. acorns)
- Stable carbon isotope analysis of teeth (ex. Detection of C4 plant diet)
How do bioarchaeologists determine disease?
- Bone lesions: Diseases like tuberculosis and syphilis leave distinctive bone damage.
- Arthritis: Degenerative joint diseases can indicate physical activity levels and stress.
- Trauma: Healed or unhealed fractures reveal injuries and possibly violent deaths.
Antemortem, perimortem, and postmortem injuries
How do bioarchaeologists determine how dead people were related to others?
- DNA survives well in cold conditions
Mitochondrial DNA or mtDNA analysis - Ex. supports out-of-Africa theory
Ancient DNA (aDNA) analysis - Ex. Early Native American burials indicate a close relationship to modern populations in Siberia (aligns with Bergina theory)
Soto argues that the US government played a role in unnecessary deaths – what is the evidence?
- COVID: the US government’s structural racism and other forms of discrimination meant differential access to medical care which lead to higher COVID death rates for some groups
- PTD: The US government is intentionally forcing migrants to go through a dangerous area so that the landscape will kill them.
- The government undercounting deaths covers up the problems and means that the deaths continue
Why does Soto argue that “the dead must be counted”?
Official death tolls (given by the government) don’t account for everything and to “count faithfully can help give social meaning to a person’s death, to say ‘We see you. We acknowledge that your life had value. Making preventable deaths visible through accurate counts is a step toward mitigating such fatalities in the future.”
According to the documentary, Explain the role of strontium isotope analysis in illuminating Caitim’s life history
Caitim: Strontium isotope analysis revealed she was born at Síi Túupentak, lived somewhere else during adolescence, came back before death
According to the documentary, Explain the role of strontium isotope analysis in understanding marriage patterns
Marriage patterns: Showed a patrolocality marriage system from 400-150 years before present, where more men were born at the site and more women were born away from the site, showing that women were likely moving to live where their husbands were.
What is strontium isotope analysis?
Strontium isotope analysis is the analysis of the strontium isotope composition of bones, teeth, hair which reflects their diet and surroundings so by looking at local signatures, this analysis can determine where a person lived in their life
Define structuralism
- Structuralism is a theory that sees every aspect of culture as the creation of unconsciously applied rules, like those of language, based in the unchanging structure of the human mind.
- ‘the mind doesn’t begin as an empty page ready to be printed on by experience. Instead, it filters information and organizes the data according to certain pre-existing structures in order to make sense of it all.”
- “These structures underlie how we perceive reality, create culture, and ultimately condition how we make history.”
Who are the main thinkers of structuralism?
- Ferdinand de Saussure (linguist): each language has its own rules but they all have the same underlying structure, all have words that are arbitrarily symbols referring to a thing.
- Claude Lévi-Strauss (Anthropologist): used structural analysis to understand totemism—the way some societies divide themselves into groups that claim a different supernatural animal, their totem, as their ancestor. He believed that the relationship between the creatures and the clans they represent is based on characteristics that the scientific mind could not deduce because it is has no apparent function… The rule requires that clan totems have opposite characteristics and has nothing to do with the supposed nobility of the eagle or the strength of the bear.
- André Leroi-Gourhan (Archaeologist): Structuralism as an alternative to functionalism in understanding cave paintings. Looked at different elements in relation to each other and saw some as being “male” and some as being “female”
describe case studies from 1) cave art
Cave art: Instead of thinking of it as art for the sake of art or something with supernatural purpose (functionalist perspective). Instead, looking at the relationships between the depicted elements, revealed (for structuralists) that certain elements for “male” and others were “female” and the depictions showed the interactions between the two.
Describe case studies from material culture from 17th-18th century America
Material culture from 17th-18th century America: Deetz saw that ceramics in this time period varied over quantity, color, and vessel forms, instead of seeing it as difference in taste, he theorized that early on material culture was heavily influenced by England (1600s), then influence was more of an american folk culture (1700s), then there was a “reanglicization” due to more European influences (1800s).
What are some structuralist interpretations that Hodder makes in “The Meaning of Discard: Ash and Domestic Space in Baringo” (p.619)?
Hodder makes several structuralist interpretations regarding the relationship between pottery decoration and burial modes. He notes that changes in the organization of pottery decoration correspond with shifts in burial practices, suggesting that these changes reflect underlying social tensions and contradictions within the community. For instance, he observes that “communal burial continues into the early TRB period, but… settlement pattern changes to short-term, transitory communities”. This indicates a contrast between stable burial practices and unstable settlement patterns, which Hodder argues helps to “naturalize” social categories and reinforce traditional ties to ancestors.
What is one critique that Watson makes of Hodder’s structuralist approach to the prehistoric past?
One critique that Watson makes of Hodder’s structuralist approach to the prehistoric past is that it may lead to an overemphasis on the mental processes of past societies, which are difficult to access.
