Finals Flashcards
Define bioarchaeology, its major research topics, and the biocultural approach.
Celise Chilcote
Bioarchaeology: study of bones and other biological materials found in archaeological remains in order to provide information about human life or the environment in the past
Major Research Topics: human evolution; modern human biology; identification of individual remains; past human social behaviors
Biocultural Approach: interest in reconstructing biological footing of cultural body and framework that together create social spaces and the creatures that inhabit them; emphasis on population level
Things that can be learned from bones (& how) – 6
- Age: dentition development; epiphyseal fusion; suchey-brooks method of studying pubis symphysis
- Sex: sexual dimorphism = difference between the sexes morphological, physical, and behavioral features; sexual difference on skeleton only become clearly defined after skeletal maturation
- Growth, development & stress: comparisons of long bone growth with dental development to possibly identify disruptions in growth (eg. physiological stress, disease, or malnutrition)
- Cultural modifications: unintentionally changing one’s physiological or skeletal structure (for the worse) in an effort to attain a desired feature
- Trauma: in relation to violence, the different treatment of social classes, ages, or sexes lead to a demographic profile of trauma victims to better understand the nature of interpersonal violence; sharp force (narrow, small wounds) vs. blunt force (large, big area) vs. projectile (small wound caused by air bound object; usually has an entrance and exit wound)
- Activity patterns: “form reflects function”; used to reconstruct aspects of past lifestyles; determined through analysis of biomechanics (bone adaptation via load environment), muscle attachments (direct correlation between size and amount of use), osteoarthritis (3 stages of porous, lipping, and bone-on-bone contact), and NGNMs (non-genetic, non-metric)
Define paeleoethnobotany and its major research topics,
Geoff Taylor
Paleoethnobotany: study of relationship between people and plants of the past
Major research topics: studies domestication processes, political ecology, trade economy, use of space and domestic technology, human practices, preferential tastes, foraging strategies, seasonality, mobility, reconstruction of the human diet, environment reconstruction, ritualistic thought
Case Study: Sage Canyon, CA - Kawaiisu people & precontact food sources – four types of produce; seasonality and storage potential
- Pinyon pine: highly desirable and nutritious food choice
- Acorn: breaking of shells not contributed to burning trash heap because the location of mortars were farther away from camp
- Chia: aka sage
- Buckeye: requires lots of processing because the raw nuts can kill you; cleaned with sulphuric water; eaten for survival rather than for taste/health
Seasonality and storage potential of different food sources: presence of chia ties site to spring and summer habitation; stored juniper, pine, and acorn but not buckeye which suggests autumn habitation
Define zooarchaeology and its major research topics.
Alexandra McCleary
Zooarchaeology: systematic analysis of and interpretation of archaeological faunal remains; considers meat as a food source; helps reconstruct paleoenvironments
Major Research Topics: human-animal relationships (domestication, animal husbandry, foodways [valued foods, access, hierarchy, etc.]) and environmental conditions (long term perspective on extinction and/or climate change); hunting and culling (system of resource management to ensure the herd continues to be a renewable resource + optimal foraging method); animal domestication (breeding for desirable traits until a sub-species emerges that is dependent on human husbandry for survival); commensal species (some species exist in higher densities around human settlements than they do in the wild); butchery techniques
Define macrobotanicals, microbotanicals, flotation, and taxa. ** paleoethnobotany
Macrobotanicals: charred/carbonized (found through flotation) vs. dessicated remains (preserved through extreme weather conditions) → charcoal wood analysis is able to be taken apart for analysis without having the specimen disintegrate immediately
Microbotanicals: starch grains (starch lasts a long time if not exposed to heat or water), phytoliths (silica absorbed by plants from the soil replaces the cell frames during decay), pollen (able to identify certain species/proximity)
Flotation: process of separating substances based on the density and size of materials in water; different mesh sizes pick up different things
Taxa: plural of taxon; species, family, or class
Define laboratory analysis and ethnoarchaeology/experimental zooarchaeology. ** zooarchaeology
LABORATORY ANALYSIS:
- Primary analysis: taxon/taphonomic identification
- Secondary analysis: NISP (Number of identified specimens), MNI (minimum number of individuals)
ETHNOARCH + EXPERI. ZOOARCH:
subdivisions of zooarchaeology; eg. comparison of kerf marks used in sheep butchering to apply to past butchering techniques
Case Study: Genizaro communities in Northern New Mexico
Ethnic & racialized identities as seen via cuisine: looks at cuisine (no results yet) in relation to identity; originated from Native American that were sold into slavery; may also be referred to as Coyotes
Interpretations: Archaeology of the African Diaspora
debate over whether any African culture was preserved during the middle passage (trauma vs. retention); shared ideological or cultural “home” somewhere else as a result of a shared experience of migration; shared experience of cultural adaptation and change in a new environment
Film: Digging for Slaves
conducted by Dr. Leland Ferguson and Dr. Betsy Reith; desired to find daily activities of slaves in slave villages; asked how did Jefferson keep peace with his value of liberty and ownership of slaves (model master theory: slaves enjoyed material comforts and good housing but remained enslaved); also studied different contexts of free vs. enslaved; found differing severity of slavery; found that slaves made a lot of tools for everyday usage
Anthropological debate over “Africanisms” Archaeology & Africanisms – colonoware, pipes
identifying africanisms has distracted archaeology and led to a search for artifacts, not contexts; a search for Africa, not an understanding of African Americans; African American colonial pottery borne out of intercultural exchange
Case Study of Enslavement: New York African Burial Ground – CIRCUMSTANCES OF RESEARCH AND FINDINGS
deposited 1712-1796; excavated in 2001; found and removed over 400 human bodies without public consultation; public outcry forced halting of excavations and prompted consultation with the descendant community; Congress turned excavations over to Howard University with Dr. Michael Blackey for exploration and analysis in consultation with the public; mitochondrial DNA indicates African birth; dental modifications indicate a variety of west African cultural origins; signs of heavy labor indicated by prevalence of infection, malnutrition, high infant/early adult mortality rates, and other skeletal impacts
Interpretations: Archaeologies of Sex and Gender
Sex-Gender System proposed by Gayle Rubin in 1975
- Nature (sex) vs. Culture (gender) → refutes biological determinism (eg. people’s roles); cultural meanings attached to biological differences become something to study
- “Man” and “Woman” as Empty/Overflowing → empty because no ultimate transcendental meaning; overflowing because contains alternative, denied, or suppressed definitions
- Problems: doesn’t critique notion of biology being the basis of our identity or deal critically with sexuality; creates a continuum model where biology and culture are intertwined (what we see as “natural” is actually culturally constructed)
Case Study of Enslavement: New York African Burial Ground – DESCENDANT COMMUNITY IMPACT ON RESEARCH
highlights ethical concerns in the practice of archaeology even when illegal things have not been done + importance of working with stakeholders; first team [Historic Conservation and Interpretation Archaeology] research questions focused on perpetuating racial stereotypes and belief that race is biologically based by objectifying the people being studied and manipulating the distribution of data; second team [Howard Univ + John Milner Associates] more oriented research towards the needs of the descendant community, approach characterized by a priority given to “civic engagement” and descendant community directly affected research agenda,choice to have African American scholars lead the project, and the insistence on respectful treatment/re-interment of the skeletal remains
Define sex and gender; what are three components of interest between archaeology and gender? What does “Studies of Masculinity” refer to?
Sex: biological basis for differentiating people based on the reproductive organs and secondary sex characteristics someone has
Gender: social meanings or roles attached to biologically differential males and females; what is means to be a certain gender or sexuality in a specific cultural time and space
3 components of interest: bias correction (critique of androcentrism); challenging discrimination in the present; understanding gender in the past
Studies of Masculinity: “gender” has often been a kind of code for “women”; only fairly recently have archaeologists taken a look at what it meant to be a man in different cultures/times/places
Contrast new versus old viewpoints on sex and gender.
Newer ways of looking at sex/gender:
- Performativity (Judith Butler): aka gender performance theory; “gender is the repeated stylization of the bod, a set of repeated acts within a highly rigid regulatory frame that congeal over time to produce the appearance of substance of a natural sort of being”
- Biology as culturally mediated (Anne Fausto-Sterling): reality of intersexed individuals show us that biology is not simple; biology does not exist “outside” culture because bodies and culture are very intertwined
“Old”/Historical views of sex & gender:
Thomas Laqueur, One-Sex Model: from time of Greeks to 19th Century, there was one sex and two genders (gender because women could change)
Looking for women: Janet Spector & task differentiation of the Hidatsa
start of archaeological approach to the study of gender; task differentiation framework based on previously published ethnographies which plotted out tasks of who did what where when and with what
Challenging discrimination in the profession: Joan Gero, research funding & gender
males are the ones in the field, gathering raw data and finding revolutionary artifacts; females do the archaeological “housework” and process/organize the artifacts; credit given more to males than females because of their “active vs. passive” roles
Understanding gender in the past: Rosemary Joyce, crafting gendered Mayan individuals in Honduras
“girling the girl and boying the boy”; children were seen as precious raw materials that needed to be shaped from birth into properly gendered adults
Case Study: Zeta Psi fraternity house, Laurie Wilkie
first house (civilized, controlled behavior, and etiquette; household table ceramics and decorum) vs. second house (tough, tough, and physical; tableware embossed with fraternity crest; beer drinking as a brotherhood; emphasis on hunting/sports; hosted displays of physical prowess to glorify masculine strength) - Transition from victorian ideals of manliness (first house) to masculinity & material culture associated with it : shift from controlled/knowledge to strength/testosterone
Define Archaeology-Related Legislation and CRM; explain the difference between looting and excavation.
Archaeology-Related Legislation: needed for preservation and protection of archaeological record from looting and destruction in the name of progress
CRM: aka culture resource management; way of doing archaeology through contract jobs; fulfills requirement for Section 106; type of salvage archaeology; archaeology that is conducted to comply with federal and state laws that protect archaeological sites
Looting vs. excavation: preservation of context and association through careful excavation and record keeping; what the former does not have but the latter does
Name three important acts of legislation that relates to archaeology.
Antiquities Act of 1906: first national legislation to protect archaeological sites; made i t illegal to collect artifact sor excavate on federal lands without a permit; restricted permitting only entities that would make results publicly accessible; allowed President or Congress to create national monuments to protect historic and cultural resources
National Historical Preservation Act (NHPA) of 1966: created National Register of Historic Places; created state historical preservation offices to oversee protection of cultural resources on the state level; most important for archeology because of the birth of CRM
Archaeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA) of 1979: updated penalties for looting and made it a felony to vandalize or do anything without a permit; made it illegal to sell, receive, or transport artifacts illegally removed from federal or Indian lands; allowed for civil penalties
Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) of 1990 – How is this different from previous legislation? What does it do? What are the strengths or limitations?
How this is different from previous archaeology-related legislation: shifted focus from protecting stuff to issues of human rights and contemporary efforts of modern research
What it does: recognizes tribal authority, protects and prohibits commercial selling of native american remains; requires federally funded institutions to inventory and repatriate human remains, associated grave goods, sacred objects, and “objects of cultural patrimony” to (federally recognized) tribes that can demonstrate “cultural affiliation”
Strengths & limitations: gives natives a voice; mandates consultation process and therefore promotes communication to forward progress; more attention to minimally or non-destructive techniques; forced study of under-utilized museum collections → only applies to federally recognized tribes; law doesn’t deal with cultural affiliation or depth of time
Case Study: Kennewick Man
stakeholders were Army Corps. of Engineers, five local native tribes, and involved archaeologists; radiocarbon dating placed remains at 841 +/- 60 BP; Army Corps. decide to repatriate but legal decision was that NAGPRA did not apply since natives did not have a strong case for cultural affiliation; remains to be studied and are currently curated in the Burke Museum of Anthropology at University of Washington; 2010 Native American Technical Corrections Act amended NAGPRA, saying that all human remains older than Columbus’ discovery of North America in 1492 are to be considered Native American and tribes can claim cultural affiliation if remains were found near historical tribal lands
Video: Who Owns the Past?
stakeholders from Kennewick Man case; conflict between doing what is is right versus what is legal, and desire for educational insight versus moral code of human compassion, scientific value versus human ethics; brought up underlying animosity between natives and archaeologists due to grave disturbances of native burial grounds and lack of communication
Define ethics; what are the changing views of the ethical responsibilities of archaeologists?
Ethics (vs. laws): set of principles or values that guide actions or sanction conduct; often encoded in professional situations; can have a floor (minimum) and ceiling (aspiration) standard; can be active (firm, set, already established) or passive (reaction based); historically contingent, and therefore is reevaluated/changed over time (“know more, do better” concept); different from laws because ethics are “shoulds” whereas laws are “must”
Changing views of the ethical responsibilities of archaeologists: from objects to people : Zimmerman, Vitelli, and Hollowell propose three main categories (responsibility to archaeological record; responsibility to diverse publics; responsibility to colleagues, employees, and students); Randall McGuire proposes that ethical considerations now emphasize people over objects
Society for American Archaeology’s Principles of Ethics + limitations
- Stewardship
- Accountability
- (Non) Commercialization
- Public Education and Outreach
- Intellectual Property
- Public Reporting and Publication
- Records and Preservation
- Training and Resources
Limitations: asked questions like is stewardship the end-all, be-all of archaeological investigation? What does “benefit for all” mean and can it be attained? Should politics be a part of archaeology? How can archaeologists work with and balance the interests of non-archaeologists? Can we justify excavating sites that aren’t endangered?
Define stake holders and descendant communities.
Stakeholders: one who has a stake in an enterprise; one who is involved or affected by a course of action (eg. African burial ground: African American community of 1990 New York City and surrounding)
Descendant Communities: culturally, ethnically, or racially affiliated OR biologically/linearly related; those with a compelling interest in the past (eg. McGuire and Reckner: familial relation and people sharing conditions/experiences of people in the past being studied)
What are some common features of collaborative archaeologies?
Common features of collaborative archaeologies: basically the same approach given different names; power sharing where partial control is held by the non-archaeological community (eg. devising research questions, deciding on field practices, data collection/analysis methods, dissemination of results)
Define the Civic Engagement Approach.
used in the NYC African Burial Grounds case study conducted by Howard University + John Milner Associates; collaboration with the descendant community; active engagement with contemporary social issues; de-centering of the archaeologist as the central authority
