Introduction Flashcards
What is Archaeology
Archaeology is the study of the human past through its material remains.
What is a. cultural anthropology; b. physical anthropology? In what ways do these disciplines overlap with archaeology?
Cultural anthropology = the study of human culture and society. It is divided into:
- Ethnography = first hand study of individual living cultures.
- Ethnology = looks to compare cultures and derive general principles about human society.
Overlap = ethnography looks at past human civilizations, the material remains could be objects that the society used (vases, house appliances, transportation, people, etc), and ethnology has us study the past to understand how our society has become what it is today.
Physical anthropology = the study of human biological or physical characteristics and how they evolved.
This is related to archaeology as it lets us understand physical characteristics past societies to see how we differ from them today (height, weight, strength and speed, mental state, health, etc).
What is the difference between ancient history and archaeology? In what way do these disciplines overlap?
Ancient History refers to studying written records (around 3000 BCE, Hieroglyphics), only can account for 1% of our past.
Archaeology refers to studying the material remains of human history and can account for 100% of our past.
Both study the past in which humans existed.
In what ways do archaeologists and ancient historians cooperate?
Archaeologists and historians help to date material findings, as well as give different perspectives to similar questions.
Historians provide important background.
Archaeologists provide texts for historians.
In what way does archaeology overlap with the natural sciences?
Archaeologists and natural sciences have to use the scientific method.
Archaeologists use it to form a picture of the past to determine how old and the significance of the past is.
Why does archaeology always have an anomalous position within academia?
Archaeology is very vast, can’t assign all of archaeology to one discipline.
