Midterm 1 Flashcards
Different Definitions of Historical Archaeology
Deetz: 15th century and onwards, influence of europeans globally, focused on literacy
Orser: hard to seperate history - it is continuous. Focus on recent history - reflection of own culture
How does text-aided archaeology relate to historical archaeology
most historical archaeology is during a time when written records exist - can aid because can give more information
helps to date
insider vs outsider perspective
Different Definitions of Modernity
processes that shape and characterize our world
Deetz: seek to understand processes that make us american (becoming american = becoming modern)
modernity varies across different settings
Latour: never been modern
Orser: look onto self
Taylor: multiple modernities
Why study modernity with archaeological techniques
ideas - objects, ideas - words, objects - culture
reveal what is left out of the written record
reflection onto ourselves
James Hall
1856: dug up ancestor’s house (Deetz’s earliest example of historical archaeology)
Data sets in Historical Archaeology
oral record, written record, mean ceramic dating, etc
Emic
internal perspective
Etic
outside/observational perspective
ethnohistory
Benefits and challenges of working with text and archaeology
benefits: gives more information about what looking at
challenges: not everyone writes - the information that you are getting could be very skewed
terminus post quem
date after (site as old as the newest thing)
terminus ante quem
date before (ex: items are missing, guessing it’s before those items)
post-medieval archaeology
studied in Europe
mostly historical + landscape (not anthro)
division between medieval and post - 1400s
challenges of prehistory/history divide
cant label based on literacy
labels simply sued to minimize scope but history is continuous
oral cultures still exist today - are in no way “less” than written culture
Georgian order
normative worldview based on time of King George
culture/nature
mechanic/organic
symmetrical/asymmetrical
whiteness/org. colors
individual/collective
studying modernity as a process
modernity is our world - study how came to be
What is TPR trying to accomplish?
show that classification is more than pipes = race
interconnectedness - if can examine relationship between pipe makers and users, can break down social structure at the time
power + perspectives
look at pipes in present - want to find how humans classified in past (break down current archaeological processes)
pragmatism: care about what things do in teh world, not just what it means
Pots = people (and critiques)
don’t know if who made the pots are connected to who the pots are used by
material culture: modified through culturally determined behaviour, but not end all be all
identify people by pots
normative mindset - doesn’t account for individuals
Sainte Marie I
1639: Jesuits mission on Huron
1855: Father Felix Martin goes to study - comissioned by government
Canadian National Parks Act (and relevance)
preserve sites of national importance
Historic Sites Act (and relevance)
preserve sites, buildings, etc for public use
gave jobs to archaeologists
Jamestown
wanted ready to present to the public in 1957
thought eroded into the river until 1990
discovered wells - indicate drought
starving as a problem
buried inside because scared of Powhatan
evidence for medical treatement
evidence of cannibalism
Barbara Little’s discussion of Jamestown
Understand based on what’s going on before
tense relations between Powhatan and Monocan - Monocan have more copper
colonists come and trade copper to the Powhatan - good relationship, but then copper is diluted & there is a drought; explains shift in relations
Archaeology of Abe Lincoln
1930s-40s
started with insurance policy
tried to associate object w Lincoln but had trouble
moved to architectural history in great detail
Flood Control Act
1944: construct dams
found archaeological sites - focus on architecture
Lucy Foster
excavated 1943
freed black woman - compared architecture of her house to slave cabins
Ideas from Carl Russel Fish, JC Harrington, Ivor Noel Hume
Fish: strong connection to history
Harrington: auxillary science to American history
Ivor Noel Hume: handmaiden to
history - assist
Anthropology vs History
History: what happened, descriptive, micro
Anthropology: human culture, why, comparative, macro
Significance of historical archeology becoming more anthropological
archaeologists studying culture
consider every day life, not just architecture
New/Processual Archaeology
Lewis Binford
study cultural processes
man’s extrasomatic means of adaptation (ranking for how adapt)
systems theory
Plimoth Plantation
Deetz study how pilgrims change over the years
Wampanoag world before Mayflower - trade, seasonality, water travel
long term history of fish fertilizer
Historical Archaeological studies of people wihtout much power
tell stories that are not documented
ex: Archaeology of Enslaved Africans
Yaugham and Curiboo Plantations - see slave dwellings cahnge to european style houses, diet, and potter - by choice?
ex: Archaeology of Gold Miners
“single gender” “male” spaces
lots of imported food - show how make home, liminal space
What can we learn from studying those who didn’t write?
we can learn about their day to day life and social interactions
Summary of the history of historical archaeology
culture history
then processual
then post processual
Culture History
study and describe artifacts and how patterns and artifacts change
explain all through diffusion
Processual
science - how cultures adapt to external enviornment
if there is change, external stimulus
Postprocessual (basics)
what objects mean to individuals, symbolism
Functional or stuctural functionalism or systems theory
variety of factors that work together as a system to influence behavior
ex: pot - who made the pot? how do they have the resources to only make pots? who assigns roles?
Lewis Binford
1962 - push archaeology to anthropology
different artifacts have different culturally specific functions
Normativity
worldviews, everything is happening for the same reason, everyone has same normative mindset
Pragmatism v Functionalism v Structuralism
Pragmatic: Who cares why it’s there
Functionalism: What used for
Structuralism: Apply order to everything
