Module 1 Flashcards
Anthropology
The study of humans, human ancestry, and close relatives (primates); literal definition: the study of man (“man” referring to all humans, not just males).
Four fields of anthropology
Cultural anthropology, biological (or physical) anthropology, linguistic anthropology, archaeology.
Understanding past human behaviour from material remains
Basic definition of archaeology
Cultural anthropology
Study of a living culture of which the researcher is not a member
Sociology
Study of a living culture of which the researcher is a member
Biological anthropology
Study of human biology, including genetics, skeleton, evolution, living primates, forensic sciences, etc.
Linguistic anthropology
Study of languages that traditionally had no written form or of ancient writing systems
Archaeology
Study of past human behaviours from material culture
Mechanisms of culture change
Attempting to explain why cultures (including material culture) changes through time.
Material culture
The objects created and used by humans; the “stuff” we use all the time, ranging from clothing to electronics to houses to transportation, etc.
Science
a means of obtaining reliable, factual, objective information about the world around us.
Pseudoscience
heavily biased, though convincing-sounding, attempts to offer nonsensical explanations for events in the world around us.
Underlying reasons for claims about extraterrestrial aliens in the past
Extraterrestrial and other fantastic claims often have thinly veiled racist motivations
Darwin’s concept of evolution and its influence on archaeology
Idea of biological evolution (change due to variability and adaptation); provided the first sound basis for believing in humanity having any antiquity, rather than simply being created “as is.”
Uniformitarianism
The principals that apply today also applied in the past. Example: if a landslide creates a lake where a river once flowed today, the same forces would have been present – with the same outcome – in the past.
The Marxist origins of archaeological theory
V. Gordon Childe had strong Marxist leanings; explained major cultural changes as the result of “revolutions”.
The direct historic approach to culture history
Assuming that the immediate predecessors of modern (or historic) groups of people had generally the same way of life as those who could actually be observed.
Processual (or “new”) archaeology
A way of explaining the past, rather than describing it. Relied on deductive reasoning, scientific methods, and hypothesis testing.
Analogous reasoning
It is impossible to observe the past directly, so we use modern behaviours / events as “analogues” – comparables. Example: if a modern campfire results in a blackened ring of rocks, an ancient ring of blackened rocks is likely the remains of a campfire.
Ethnographic analogy
Using a documented history of a particular group of people as a comparative way to explain the patterns found in archaeological materials. Example: if Group X is recorded as having always waited until summer to hunt for birds, it is assumed that the presence of bird remains in an archaeological site indicates summer hunting.
Ethnoarchaeology
Archaeologists directly observing – and often excavating – modern groups of people who have similar ways of life to ancient people. Example: archaeologists observe how people make and maintain stone tools, and document what is left behind; when similar patterns of refuse are discovered in an archaeological site, it is considered to be the result of a similar activity.
Behavioural archaeology
The study of past human behaviours (ancient or recent) from observing the material culture traces left behind, taking formation processes into account.
material culture
The buildings, tools, and other artifacts that constitute the material remains of former societies.
Culture
A term used by anthropologists when referring to the non biological characteristics of a society.
prehistory
The period of human history before the advent of writing.
radiocarbon dating
An absolute dating method that measures the decay of the radioactive isotope of carbon
Paleolithic
The archaeological period before c. 10,000 BCE, characterized by the earliest known stone tool manufacture. (old stone age)
site
A distinct spatial clustering of artifacts, features, structures, and organic and environmental remains—the residue of human activity.
Stratigraphy
Superimposed layers of rocks (strata) help to recognize older and younger layers. Used as a relative dating technique. Vertical time dimension of layers of horizontal space.
deduction
A process of reasoning by which more specific consequences are inferred by rigorous argument from more general propositions (cf. induction).
uniformitarianism
The principle that the stratification of rocks is due to processes still going on in seas, rivers, and lakes, i.e. that geologically ancient conditions were in essence similar to, or “uniform with,” those of our own time.
- List (in chronological order) the 3-ages employed in C.J. Thompson’s system of classification.
- Stone age
- Bronze age
- Iron Age
He divided prehistory into these stages but it is not distributed equally amongst these stages- Stone Age has the most.
Neolithic
An Old World chronological period characterized by the development of agriculture and, hence, an increasing emphasis on sedentism. (New stone age)
Rosetta Stone
Inscribed on the stone were parallel texts written in both Egyptian and Greek scripts. The Frenchman Jean-François Champollion used this bilingual inscription finally to decipher the hieroglyphs in 1822, after fourteen years’ work.
Mesolithic
An Old World chronological period beginning around 10,000 years ago, between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic.
reconnaissance
A broad range of techniques involved in the location of archeological sites
Midwestern Taxonomic System
A framework devised by W.C. McKern to systematize sequences in the Great Plains area of the United States, using the general principle of similarities between artifact assemblages.
assemblage
A group of artifacts recurring together at a particular time and place, and representing the sum of human activities.
New Archaeology
A new approach advocated in the 1960s that argued for an explicitly scientific framework of archaeological method and theory, with hypotheses rigorously tested, as the proper basis for explanation, rather than simply description
processual archaeology
An approach that stresses the dynamic relationship between social and economic aspects of culture and the environment as the basis for understanding the processes of culture change. It uses the scientific methodology of problem statement, hypothesis formulation, and subsequent testing. The earlier functional-processual approach has been contrasted with the cognitive-processual approach, where emphasis is placed on integrating ideological and symbolic aspects.
typology
The systematic organization of artifacts into types on the basis of shared attributes.
postprocessual archaeology
A range of approaches formulated in reaction to the perceived limitations of functional-processual archaeology. It eschews generalization in favor of an “individualizing” approach that is influenced by structuralist archaeology, Critical Theory, and neo-Marxist thought.
