Midterm Exam #1 Flashcards
What are the 4 subfields of Anthropology?
- Cultural Anthropology
- Biological Anthropology
- Linguistic Anthropology
- Archaeology
What are the 3 Evidence of Human Activity
- Artifacts
- modified by human
- portable - Features
- not portable
- modified by human - Ecofacts
- portable
- not modified by human
- transported by human
Define Sedentism
Shift from nomadic to sedentary lifestyle
Define Social Complexity
Shift from egalitarian to hierarchal social organization
Canadian Patrimony Laws
- regulation is mostly at provincial level
- depending on the province, First Nations have a greater role in regulating cultural heritage
Saskatchewan Heritage Property Act
- Burials not found in a recognized cemetery are property of the Crown
- Royal Saskatchewan Museum developed protocol with Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations
- Human remains are scientifically studied, then repatriated to the tribes for reburial
Ontario Cemeteries Act
- Scientific study of human remains is prohibited without the permission of a representative of the deceased
- The owner of the land negotiates what will happen to the remains with descendants
- Archaeologists have no say
Historic Sites and Monuments Act of 1985
-Provides for the administration, preservation and maintenance of designated sites
Canada Shipping Act of 2001
- Establishes jurisdiction over preservation of shipwrecks
- No protection for sites along coastlines and ocean beds
Canada Impact Assessment Act of 2019
- Requires gov’t departments to assess the impact of construction projects on the environment
Cultural Property Export and Import Act of 1985
Prohibits the illicit import, export or transportation of ownership of cultural property that is of importance to archaeology, prehistory, history, literature, art or science
UNESCO 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property
- Prohibits the international trafficking of cultural objects
- Canada signed in 1978
National Heritage Sites in Alberta
- Designated National Historic Sites are protected under the Jurisdiction of Parks Canada
- Have to be cared for in a way that protects historical pieces
UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Alberta
Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks
Dinosaur Provincial Park
HSIBJ
Writing-on-Stone
Provincial Heritage Sites
owned by the Government of Alberta
Kwaday Dan Ts’inchi
- in his 20s
- immediately called gov’t
- 300 years old
- well preserved
- mtDNA showed relation to wolf clan
- 17 descendants - 15 from wolf clan
- traveled 100km before death
- name given by elders
- collaborative from the start
Kennewick Man
- Oldest skeletal remains in North America
- Deliberate burial
- thought to have European features
- claimed by 5 tribes under NAGPRA
- 2 decades to repatriate
- He is Indigenous
- in his 30s
- spear in pelvis
9000 years old
contested from the start
Pan-Indianism
Idea that there is a single “Indian” experience/Indigenous culture, language, belief, system, traditions and people
Current population of Indigenous in Canada
- over 1.6 million
- roughly 4.5% of Canada’s total population
- Fastest growing demographic in Canada
- About 50% are under 25
First Nation
- 977,230 Indigenous people identify as First Nation
- autonomous, self-governing collective entities with distinct languages, religions, economics and customary law
Inuit
- Nunavut is only gov’t in Canada governing itself fully
- Indigenous people of Northern Alaska, Arctic Canada and Greenland
- Currently in Canada 65,024 Indigenous People identify
- 3/4 of Inuit live in Inuit Nunaat
Metis People
- originated in 1700s from fur traders who married Indigenous women
- 587,545 identify as Metis
- Unique culture of Michif developed
- Alberta is only province that has designated land with 8 settlements
Dating Techniques in the past
- no way of knowing how long people have been living on earth
- Archbishop James Ussher (1581-1656) calculated an age for human history of approx 6000 years
Historical Trajectories in Europe
- Antiquity
- time periods
- nationalism
- History of Nations
- Prehistory
Historical Trajectories in North America
- no time depth
- geographical areas
- appropriation
- natural and cultural areas
- anthropology
Mystery of The Mound Builders
Adena-Hopewell civilizations - 500 BC- AD200
Mississippian civilization - 800 AD - 1500AD
Europeans came in late 18th century - towns no longer inhabited - cities are gone but mounds are still there
Speculating origins of mounds - Europeans argued indigenous people were incapable of building these structures
Thomas Jefferson
- Interested in solving the mystery of the mound builders.
- Began a series of excavations on his Virginia estate.
- Paid careful attention to stratigraphy.
- North America’s first archaeologist?
- Ceramics in mounds were similar to the ones modern indigenous people were using in the area
- Didn’t solve the mound builders mystery
The Smithsonian Institution - Major John Wesley Powell
Formed in states - played important role in development of archaeology
1. Indigenous cultures are disappearing because of colonization
2. Examine Indigenous culture before doing anything
The Smithsonian - Research on the Mound Builders
surveyed/excavated and wrote about research on mounds
1. Ephraim Squire + Edwin Davis
- Classified mounds
- Suggested north American Indigenous people didn’t make them but people from central America did
2. Cyrus Thomas - solved the mystery
- Compared to items Indigenous peoples
- Found out that modern day indigenous peoples were descendants of mound builders
Culture Areas
- based on similarities in material culture
- created by boaz and students
- still in use
Development of Archaeology in Canada
- Archaeology emerged much more slowly as an academic discipline in Canada.
- Poor funding and an absence of anthropology departments in Canadian Universities
- Officers with the Geological Survey of Canada were responsible for archaeology
- End of 1960s 10 professional archaeologists in Canada
- 1st institute - canadian institute - focus on ethnographic research
- Harlan Ingersol Smith and John William Wintemberg: self taught archaeologists.
In 1926 Thomas McIllwraith founded the first anthropology department at the University of Toronto.
By 1948, J. Norman Emerson had established first academic program to train archaeologist
Expansion of Canadian Universities during the 1950’s resulted in an additional department of anthropology.
Absence of Canadian PhD’s meant that faculty had to be imported from the United States and Europe.
Heritage legislation, culture resource management, and increasing funding provided opportunities for newly minted Canadian archaeology PhD’s
David Boyle
Canada’s First professional archaeologist.
Set up a museum in the Canadian Institute to prevent artifacts from leaving the country.
Used careful and systematic recording methods in excavation.
Typifies early archaeology because he was self-taught
Wasn’t formally trained in archaeology
1884 joined Canadian institute
Convinced institute to have museum and institute
Diamond Jenness
Ethnographer and archaeologist on the Canadian Arctic Expedition (1913-1918)
Conducted the first systematic archaeological excavations in the North American Arctic.
Received academic training in anthropology and worked as ethnologist and archaeologist
Culture History practiced in Canada longer than the US?
Canadian geography.
Small numbers of archaeologists.
Focus on Historical Particularism and Salvage Anthropology
Material vs Data
Material
- artifacts, Eco facts, features
Data
- observations made on materials
Low Level Theory
Describe data
Middle Level Theory
Describe Function
High Level Theory
Explain
Unilinear Cultural Evolution
Why and how do cultures change over time?
Herbert Spencer (1820–1903)
Sir Edward B. Tylor (1832–1917) and Lewis Henry Morgan (1818–1881)
Culture History
The description and chronological and spatial ordering of archaeological data
Interpretation consisted primarily of description of the diet, technology, migrations, and lifeways of past societies.
How does cultural history address change?
Historical Particularism
Franz Boas
use of ethnographic data
culture areas
Direct Historical Approach
- working backwards in time from historically known Indigenous peoples to Pre Contact Times
- Alfred Kidder
Cultural Ecology
- developed by Julian Steward
- an approach to the study of environment and culture change
- 3 basic principles
Cultural Materialism
Material conditions of existence are the main determinants of culture change
Human strives to meet basic needs
Processual Archaeology
Lewis Binford advocating for deductive reasoning - generating hypothesis and testing it
Computers - 1960s - better access to computing data sets - run models
Use of Middle Range Theory - use of analogy - bridging argument - linking observations from present to the static archaeological record - through ethnographic research
Instead of being descriptive - focused on explaining cultural change - based on hypothesis testing
Universal laws that explain why cultures change - culture isn’t specific - universal - interrelated system - external causes of cultural changes
Systems approach
Systems Theory
Simplistic system processualists are referring too
If one changes all other aspects change along with it
Take out subjectivity from culture - natural system
Archaeologists found it difficult to study cultural in an objective way - provides framework for describing things - doesn’t get to true aspect
Universal laws proved incorrect because of the diversity of culture
Models still useful informative tool - optimal foraging theory
Post Processual Archaeology
Came out in the 90s
Reacting to positivist scientific approach
Advocated for by Ian Hodder - interested in ethno archaeologists - humanistic approach
Deconstructing scientific approach
Archaeology is inherently political
Interpretation over hypothesis testing - full explanation of past
Adds in the Symbolic - 1st time its seen as primary driver of culture
Continuity and change resulting in actions of people operating in a system
Meaning, agency, bias, contingency, social responsibi;ity - important aspects to post processual archaeology
No research is objective neutral; all research is political - more than 1 version of the past
Ideology and social organization determining economy/infrastructure
Formal Analogies
Based on similarities in formal attributes of archaeological and ethnographic objects and features
Relational Analogies
based on cultural continuity between archaeological and ethnographic cases/similarity in general cultural form
Ethnohistory
Study of the past using Indigenous historical records and oral histories
Cross-disciplinary method, combining historical research and ethnographic studies
Beyond “normal” written sources
Brings a historical lens to culture change in Indigenous cultures
Ethnoarchaeology
Study of living societies to aid in understanding and interpreting the archaeological record
Understanding the relationship between people and material culture
Experimental Archaeology
Conducts controlled experiments to explore the mechanical properties of material culture, to compare with observations in the archaeological record
Constructing bridging arguments in controlled settings
