Module 4 Flashcards
Band
A term used to describe small scale, societies of hunter gatherers, generally fewer than 100 people, who move seasonally to exploit wild undomesticated food resources. Kinship ties play an important part in social organization.
Ethnoarcheogy
The study of contemporary cultures with a view to understanding the behavioral relationships that underlie the production of material culture
Segmentary societies
Relatively small in autonomous groups, usually agriculturalists, who regulate their own affairs; in some cases, they may join together with other comparable segmentary societies to form a larger ethnic unit
Tribes
A term used to describe a social grouping, generally larger than a band, but rarely numbering more than a few thousand; unlike bands, tribes are usually settled, farmers, but they also include somatic pastoral groups who’s economy is based on the exploitation of livestock. Individual communities tend to be integrated into the larger society through kinship ties
Lineages
A group claiming descent from a common ancestor
Redistribution
Emotive exchange that implies the operation of some central organizing authority. Goods are received or appropriated by the central authority, and subsequently some of them are sent by that authority to other locations.
Settlement analysis
The main method investigating past social organization, data are collected by survey and excavation, but the specific methods used Convery greatly depending on the society in question
Burial analysis
Rank and social status, our best revealed by the analysis of grave goods with an individual burials
Ethnicity
The existence of ethnic groups, including tribal groups. So these are difficult to recognize from the archaeological record, the study of language in linguistic boundaries shows that ethnic groups often correlate with language areas.
Prestige goods
A term used to designate a limited range of exchange goods to which is a society a scribes high status or value
Archaeological culture
Shorthand for describing similarities in material culture over a defined area and time period.
Inventing cultures
The way in which archaeologists use material culture to define ancient cultures
Shorthand for describing material culture
Realistic approach to viewing archaeologically defined cultures
Archaeological phase
Pattern of material culture – distinct from what came before and after – used to categorize a particular time period in a specified geographic area
Culture history
Pattern of material culture – distinct from what came before and after – used to categorize a particular time period in a specified geographic area
Material culture change and phase change
Changes in material culture within a region – such as a change from living in pit houses to living in surface structures – considered sufficiently significant to warrant a new, distinct name
Socioeconomic complexity
Evidence for some people or groups of people having access to material culture to which other individuals / groups lack access
Inherited wealth & power versus achieved wealth & power
Wealth & privilege that a person is born into vs wealth & privilege that a person earns over their lifetime
Authority
vs
Legitimacy
The ability to tell others what they can and cannot do
vs
The ability to have others obey orders of what they can and cannot do
Economic Organization
The system by which groups of people obtain food
Social Organization
The way a society structures itself
Egalitarian society
Society in which all people are inherently equal, lacking permanent positions of social power
Formalized leadership
Society with permanent positions of social power
Central accumulation
and
Central redistribution
Practice of collecting resources (typically food) that are produced by the society; most common in societies where at least some individuals have social roles that include little or no food production
and
Practice of distributing collected resources (typically food) that are produced by the society to various members of that society; most common in societies where at least some individuals have social roles that include little or no food production
