religion and scales of interpretation Flashcards
what is religion?
no clear and simple def
- most people know what they do and do not believe in
religion and archaeology - why is hard for us to study past religion?
archaeologists have a disadvantage ; there are usually no people to ask questions, they just study the material left behind
- we study the aftermath of human behaviour
what is the approach archologicsts use
they go after material culture cause that is generally is all that is left
what do we have good archeological understandings of
how tools we made or animals butchered
we are good at understanding how certain animals were hunted and shared and how plants and animals were domesticated
are behaviours easy to understand and interpret from the past?
no, we try to describe the changes in social structure
or the shifts in who is important in society and what they accomplish
archeologist try to ________ the past behaviorus using _____ left behind
reconstruct
materials
what is the scale of difficulty
an ascending scale in recognizing human activities using material culture
what are the levels of the scale of difficulty from easiest to hardest
- technology, diet
- economy and subsistence
- social and political organization
- ideology
how do archaeologists see changes in social structure
see a shift of who is important in society and who their parents are - are they born into social status
how do archaeologists see this change in who is important (change in social status)
generally by looking at how people are buried and what is buried with them,
what is the second hardest things to determine for archeologists
political organizations
what is the hardest thing to determine from the past
the thought processes of people
