Humanities and social sciences glossary and general information Flashcards
What does MYA stand for?
Millions of years ago
What is Chronology?
The science of arranging events in their order of occurrence in time.
What does BP stand for?
Before the present
What does CE stand for?
Common era
What does BCE stand for
Before the common era
What does linear mean?
arranged in or extending along a straight or nearly straight line
What does measurable mean?
Able to be measured
What are primary sources?
Sources from the time of the event
What are general sources?
Sources about the time that are written in the present
What are academic secondary sources?
Sources about the time but written by an expert e.g. someone with a degree or works at a prestigious university
What are knowledge stories/dreaming stories
Knowledge connected to specific Country, places or things, with deepening levels, connected to dance, song, art, ceremony and cultural practices, passed on through kinship
What is oral history?
The recording of past events in a spoken form, including songs, stories or dances
What is diversity?
A range of different people, ideas or things
What are language groups?
A community of people who speak a common language, often reflecting cultural, historical and ancestral ties
Who are the custodian/traditional owners of the land?
Knowledge holders respected by First Peoples, often called Aunty or Uncle
What are artefacts?
Object from the past. E.g. grindstones, rock art, axes + other tools, shelter, fireplaces
What is material culture?
What the artefacts reveal about how they lived
What is archeology?
The study of human history and prehistory through the excavation of sites and the analysis of artefacts and other physical remains.
What is paleontology?
The branch of science concerned with fossil animals and plants.
What are fossils?
Any preserved remains impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age.
What is dating in geology?
To establish the age of a rock or a fossil, researchers use some type of clock to determine the date it was formed.
What does Circular Time/Everywhen mean?
An aboriginal way to say all the time
What is dreaming time/the dreaming?
A term devised by early anthropologists to refer to a religio-cultural worldview attributed to Australian Aboriginal beliefs.
What is the definition on evolved?
To change or develop slowly often into a better, more complex, or more advanced state over a longer period of time.
What is the definition on geology?
The science that deals with the earth’s physical structure and substance, its history, and the processes that act on it. (The study of the earth i.e. rocks)
What are Homo Sapiens?
Our species of humans or “Thinking humans”
What is a ground survey?
When single researcher or team will walk slowly through the target area looking for artifacts or other archaeological indicators on the surface, often recording aspects of the environment at the time.
What is a strata?
Layers of rock dirt, sediment etc. laid down over time
What is stratigraphy
The study of strata to reveal the events of the past
What is the “out of Africa” theory?
A theory that all human life started in Southern Africa
What is a nomad
A person who moves from place and doesn’t have a fixed home
What does nomadic mean?
A person who lives their life moving from place to place
Speleologists
A scientist who studies caves
What does Kutikina mean?
Kutikina - meaning spirt
