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
Primary context
Item location has not been subjected to formation processes – it is unmoved from its abandonment location
Households
Group of individuals who live in proximity to each other, recognized by material culture such as structures; typically, households are related in some way, although this is not always the case
Bureaucracy
System of social control involving regulations imposed by government officials
Tribute
vs
Taxation
A form of taxation paid not in money but in goods or services
vs
Money collected by government bureaucracy
Community organization
The pattern or patterns used to organize a community spatially
Social aspects of household
Boundaries of a living / activity area for a household group; this may include exterior locations, particularly in warmer climates
Economic aspects of household
Economic activities – such as food preparation – accomplished within a household group; may include exterior locations
Functional aspects of household
Differential use of spaces within a defined household – sleeping areas, food preparation areas, etc.
Religious aspects of household
Household positioning / patterning often reflects cosmological beliefs, ritual activities
Household groups
Houses may include multiple structures, not necessarily physically connected
Patio groups
Structures arranged around a central open space
Symbolic meaning of domestic architecture
Construction of houses / household groups may reflect particular systems of belief or cosmological views (doors facing the rising sun, etc.)
Intrasite analysis
Comparison of materials within a single site
Intersite analysis
Comparison of materials between multiple sites
Social Stratification
Evidence for social divisions, with some people having more access to certain items than other people have
Social Control
Evidence for certain individuals being able to decide what people will do and how / where they will do it
Central place theory
Idea that sites tend to be dispersed over the landscape, with a single large site at the centre, medium-sized sites at equal distances in the cardinal directions, and small sites between large and medium-sized sites
Site catchment analysis
Study of the geographic distribution of resources (food, tool-making materials, etc.) over the landscape in association with a known archaeological site
Site exploitation area
Areas of the landscape with known resources; associated with site catchment analysis
Locational analysis
Distribution of sites over landscape relating to social elements – such as placing a fortified site one day’s march apart
Ecological determinants
Distribution of sites over landscape relating to ecology – sites near water sources, near sources of raw material for tool production, etc.
Site hierarchies
Looking at relative frequencies of sites of different sizes within a defined geographic area
Economic catchment area
Areas of potential resource availability at some distance from known sites; associated with site catchment analysis
Hexagonal lattice of site placement
Spatially, the most efficient way to locate sites at equal distances from each other
Carrying capacity
The maximum population of any species that can be supported by the available food supply
Floor space model
Method for determining the number of individuals that might have lived in a single structure
Analysis of scale
Method of attempting to determine the number of person days required to build a structure; provides a means to compare the level of effort needed for different construction projects
Poorly defined territorial boundary
Common feature of many traditional societies, particularly hunter-gatherers; argued to be an important reason for the construction of burial mounds
Mounds as centres for dispersed society
Human-built mounds (burial or not) become a feature of the landscape that could be used as a potential focal point for gathering
Emblem glyph
Maya writing symbol that represents a particular city or polity
City-state
Concept of a city that also functions like a state (or country)
Weak state
Model that suggests shifting power structures involving multiple states; idea is that none of the states is powerful for very long, making these weak states
Peer polity
Model that suggests that multiple states are all equal in power, making these peers
Monumental depictions of kings vs monumental depictions of deities
Argued to represent a societal change, where the veneration of deities is replaced by the veneration of living individuals, suggesting these living individuals were extremely powerful
Arrival statements
Statements found in Maya writings that specifically define when the founding lineage first came to a particular city. Argued to indicate that these rulers took office somewhere else, possibly under the influence of other polities
Overking
A king or other powerful individual who literally decides who will rule certain polities; a king to which other kings are subjects
