Midterm #1 Flashcards
What is the purpose of anthropology?
The purpose of anthropology is to study human beings, seeking to understand both universals and differences in human populations worldwide and throughout time, answering biological and cultural questions for academic and practical purposes.
What are the modern and ancient versions of Biological, Cultural, and Applied anthropology?
Biological Anthropology:
- Modern: Physical Anthropology
- Ancient: Paleoanthropology
Cultural Anthropology:
- Modern: Sociocultural and Linguistic Anthropology
- Ancient: Archaeology
Applied Anthropology:
- Modern: Forensic and Socio-Linguistics Anthropology
- Ancient: Cultural Resources Management
What does the cannonball analogy in anthropology signify?
The cannonball analogy implies that knowing the past helps shape the future, and those who cannot remember the past are condemned to fulfill it.
What are some negative changes that have occurred in society as it has evolved?
Negative changes in society as it has evolved include increased living expenses, greater productivity leading to longer work hours, population growth, and increasing social inequalities.
How did anthropology start in Canada?
Anthropology in Canada originated with French Canadian missionaries in the 1600s who were deeply interested in understanding the ways of life and beliefs of Indigenous people they lived among.
It was later established as a professional field in 1910 by Prime Minister Wilfred Laurier, and it has since grown and developed in academic institutions across the country.
What is the scope of anthropology?
Anthropology has a broad geographical and historical scope, focusing on people of all periods to ensure that any generalizations about human beings apply universally across all times and cultures.
What does the holistic approach mean in anthropology?
The holistic approach in anthropology involves studying various aspects of human experience as an integrated whole, seeking patterns of traits and relationships between seemingly unrelated characteristics.
What is anthropology’s distinctive curiosity?
Anthropology’s distinctive curiosity is marked by its broad scope, holistic approach, and a willingness to uncover patterns and connections that might not be found in other disciplines concerned with human beings.
What are the fields of anthropology?
Anthropology consists of four traditional fields:
biological anthropology (which includes paleoanthropology),
cultural anthropology (including ethnology,
linguistic anthropology
and archaeology
fifth field called applied anthropology, which cuts across all four and focuses on the practical application of anthropological knowledge.
What is the role of explanation in anthropology?
In anthropology, explanation involves providing associations (observed relationships between variables) and theories (explanations of associations).
It helps researchers understand and make sense of observed patterns in human behaviour and culture.
What is the process of operationalization? Why is is important in anthropology?
Operationalization involves specifying how to measure variables involved in relationships being studied, making predictions based on theories, and conducting investigations to test those predictions.
It’s important in anthropology as it helps ensure that research can be replicated and provides a clear basis for testing theories.
Why is measurement and statistical evaluation valuable in testing explanations in anthropology?
help test the validity of explanations and theories.
They provide objective ways to assess whether observed associations are statistically significant and whether theories are likely to be correct.
Why is anthropology relevant?
Anthropology is relevant because it contributes to our understanding of human beings across time and cultures, helps prevent misunderstandings between peoples, and provides insights into different cultures and societies.
It also helps us understand the past and its impact on the present and future.
What are the key characteristics of culture according to the “UPCHAD” acronym?
Culture is
Unique to human beings,
Patterned (exhibits cultural universals),
Compulsory (acquired through enculturation),
Holistic (an all-inclusive perspective),
Adaptive (can change in response to the environment), and
Dynamic (subject to change for internal and external reasons).
What are Hominins, and what is their significance in anthropology?
Hominins are a group of hominoids consisting of humans and their direct ancestors. They include at least two genera, Homo and Australopithecus, and are significant in anthropology as they are central to the study of human evolution and the emergence of our species.
What is the significance of a statistically significant association in anthropology?
A statistically significant association suggests that the observed relationship between variables is unlikely to have occurred by chance alone.
It provides support for the validity of a hypothesis or theory in anthropological research.
Describe the processes that create sites
Site formation processes are environmental and cultural factors that affect how and where materials are deposited at an archaeological site or fossil locale
Cultural factors:
ex. Past population dumping waste in the same area for a long duration of time → creates a garbage heap (midden)
Ex. a community’s dwellings → were they nomadic (moved around), or sedentary (still)
The study of taphonomy - post-depositional changes to remains - is crucial for reconstructing the past
Differentiate fossil locales and archaeological sites
- Archaeological sites are locations where evidence of the past has been buried and preserved → defined by assemblages of artefacts, ecofacts, and/or features.
- Fossil locales are places where fossils are recovered
Describe the different kinds of evidence that we can use to understand the past.
What is the archaeological context?
Fossils: once-living organisms that have had their structure preserved in stone
Artifacts: portable objects partly or wholly modified from human activity
Ecofacts: natural objects that have a cultural significance (ex. bone)
Features: non-portable artifacts
Archaeological context: the association of artefacts, ecofacts, and features with one another
Provenience : the association of remains in a 3D space
Describe the different ways that sites can be found.
Site prospection, or reconnaissance, is the primary way of finding sites and determining post-depositional effects on remains
Reconnaissance techniques can be divided into two groups: surface and subsurface
Surface: includes surveying and field walking
Subsurface : includes shovel testing, augering, test pitting, and trenching
Non-invasive techniques = aerial survey
Explain how sites are excavated.
- Careful and detailed recording of the relationships between and among artifacts, ecofacts, fossils, and features is key to excavation
- Excavation requires control over spatial aspects of a site through the use of a grid system
- Detailed mapping and documentation of recoveries are related to the grid system to that all data can be incorporated at the end
What are the 3 contexts of archaeological remains?
Physical (space) → time-space systematics
Temporal (time) → “”
Cultural contexts → reconstruct past lifeways, explain process of change, reconstruct meaning, not just what people did at the time but why
What is the archaeological record?
- Sites = spatial clusters of artifacts, features, and ecofacts
- Regions = clusters of similar materials at a group of sites
What are two important questions to ask to understand the archaeological record?
- What influences the archaeological record? (there’s still things that have an impact)
- What are the material traces of behaviours? (does it leave a chemical trace, does it leave a genetic trace?)
What is the systemic context and what are the two different objects in a systemic context?
Living breathing society is what we want to learn about
Objects:
Secondary use → same object - different use, not extensively modified
Recycling → object transformed into a new product and modified quite a bit
What is the archaeological context and the two kinds of transformation processes?
Relationship amongst soils, artefacts, ecofacts, etc., at the time of excavation
- There’s a bunch of time that occurs between when something is discarded and when it’s recovered → that’s called the transformation process , and we want to understand what happened within that time
- Two kinds of transformation processes:
Natural (how it was deposited)
Cultural (how was it modified, what did people do)
What are depositional processes? (natural and cultural)
Natural: deposition of soils
- Pedogenic processes - soil evolution
- Catastrophic burial (very rare) → mudslides, volcanic ash falls, sand dunes, etc.
Cultural:
- Casual discard of materials (like garbage)
- Unintentional discard (loss, abandonment/decay of buildings, etc.)
- Intentional burial → retrieval (hiding food), burials of the dead
What are disturbance processes (natural and cultural)?
Anything that alters the archaeological record after it has formed
Natural:
- Ex. burrowing creatures affecting archaeological sites
Cultural:
- Reclamation → modern farmers reclaiming fields
- Scavenging → taking something that’s already been used and using it for something else
- Reuse
Explain how sites are dated from different kinds of evidence.
Techniques for dating archaeological material contribute to determining the context of finds
Relative dating:
Determining the age of archaeological materials relative to material of known ages
Ex. stratigraphy → provides a basis for determining whether a feature or object is younger or older than another features or objects in adjacent layers
Absolute dating:
Determined the age of archaeological deposits or materials by providing the age in years
Each technique has difference sources or error, so it’s important that different techniques be used as check on each other
What are some reasons for selecting to survey certain archaeological sites?
They’re going to be damaged or destroyed anyways
They hold great potential to answer questions
What is the first step of a site survey?
Look at the site records → many nations should have a catalogue of site records in a database
Get an understanding of everything that’s already known
Foster further research
Make sure cultural heritage is not being destroyed
What are the different kinds of aerial survey?
- Airborne Prospecting (aerial photography)
Can look at human modifications of the land and supplement to observations made during fieldwork
- Multi-spectral and thermal imaging
Looking at how the earth holds heat differently → things that are constructed by humans will be different
- Photogrammetry
Converting optical images to digital images → create 3 dimensions
Ex. scan a tooth and send pic to an expert to observe
- Drones
Better depth models than satellite imagery
Can be used where access and surveying is difficult
Limitations → piloting skill and environment
What are the different kinds of surface survey?
- Pedestrian survey is always step one
Going to the site and walking around
- Ground-level photography
Can be done over and over again - things will always look different
- Topographic survey
Maps the boundaries, features, and levels of the site → determines changes in elevation of the land
How we have interacted with the land leaves a trace on the landscape → much finer understanding and a slower, old fashioned process
- Underwater survey
Many limitations, very slow and expensive
Dive formations → very systematic
What are the different kinds of subsurface surveys?
- Resistivity
Measuring the electronic current passed through the ground
More resistance = not just natural soil
Can be used to target excavations
- Magnetic survey
Looking for anomalies of the normal magnetic field
- Ground penetrating radar
Waves converted to electronic signals - can get deeper into the surface
All about soil density and the quality of your took
3 different kinds of scans → A, B, C
- Seismic survey
Underwater survey - side sonar scanning (hangs off the boat)
- Shovel Testing
Digging square hole
- Augering
Large drill used in specific soils
- Coring
Getting deep in the soil - geological conditions
- Deep Testing
Machine operator
What are three common types of sites?
Campsites and caves : people stay and go
Permanent settlement : associate with adoption of farming
Cemeteries : any location used for the disposal of the dead
What are the different kinds of sampling strategies?
Random : assign numbers to everything and randomly select numbers- no bias
Systematic : ransom start but a non-arbitrary sequence
Judgmental: people have worked there before, you see something in the ground, experts have done it before → this is much more accurate
What is the F-U-N trio?
Fluorine, uranium, and nitrogen tests (relative dating technique)
- Bones and teeth slowly transform in their chemical composition - this transformation reflects the mineral content of the groundwater where they are buried
- The older a fossil is, the higher its fluorine and uranium content will be, and the lower its nitrogen content
- Cannot be used to compare the relative ages of specimens from widely separated sites
What is sequence dating?
- Comparing popularities of artifact styles (within a site and between sites)
- Stylistic seriation : presence/absence of styles (black pots vs. white pots) (relative dating)
- Cross-dating: artifacts at one site used to cross-date other sites in sequence (anchor with absolute dates)
What is historical dating?
Using historical records to help us guide our study
Not really relative or absolute
Bringing things back to a standard way of viewing time - like a shorthand
Deals with solar and lunar calendars
Provenience:
The location of an artefact or feature within a site
Taphonomy:
The study of changes that occur to organisms or objects after being buried or deposited
