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ANTH 206 > Topic 10: Reconstructing Culture > Flashcards

Topic 10: Reconstructing Culture Flashcards

1
Q

what are the 5 major types of society categories?

A

Bands, tribes, chiefdoms, states, empires

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2
Q

What evidence is used to distinguish between society categories?

A

In general: societies are based on economic, social and political systems!
- size of population
- size of settlement
- sedentariness/territoriality
- subsistence strategies
- monuments and architecture
- evidence of specialization

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3
Q

What are bands? How do we distinguish them?

A
  • smaller groups
  • do not have rigid territories, high mobility because they primarily hunted and gathered
  • egalitarian, equal society
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4
Q

What are segmentary societies? How do we distinguish them?

A
  • tribes and chiefdoms
  • sedentary, small scale pastoralists and horticulturalists
  • smaller groups integrated into a larger community
  • living permanently or semi permanently in one area
  • increase in population means an increased need for political organization, which leads to a rise in inequality
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5
Q

What are states? How do we distinguish them?

A
  • bureaucracy, with a single ruler
  • society based on socioeconomic wealth
  • large scale permanent settling
  • complex road system
  • standardization of measures (lbs, currancy)
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6
Q

Why is type of society approach problematic?

A
  • obscures variability
  • fails to predict what we might expect archaeologically
  • both neglects and reflects cultural institutions that perpetuates inequality
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7
Q

What is inequality? How do we determine if it is present in a society?

A
  • differences in/of status and access to resources within a group
  • we can determine it by looking at differences in burial practices, skeletal remains (for signs of malnutrition), houses and goods, distribution of goods
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8
Q

What are the three kinds of equality/inequality?

A

Egalitarian: everyone in group has roughly same status and access to resources
Ranked: everyone has a different status
Stratified: class system, differences between classes

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9
Q

What is exchange? What does it provide information about?

A
  • exchange is the movement of material culture
  • provides information about social organization, subsistence, politics and ideology
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10
Q

3 modes of exchange

A
  • reciprocity (equal exchange, gift giving)
  • redistribution (all goods collected and redistributed by a leader)
  • market (bartering/trading for goods and services, capitalism)
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11
Q

What is Provenance?

A

The sources of an object, where the object was made AND/OR what the original sources of the raw materials was.

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12
Q

What is the study of distribution?

A
  • the study of transport (by land, sea)
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13
Q

What are the mechanisms for trade?

A
  • direct access (a person directly goes to the source to procure the item)
  • down the line (trading between people for different items)
  • freelance/middleman/trader (person who facilitates the exchange of objects)
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14
Q

What do archaeologies of gender focus on?

A
  • how archaeologists study gender
  • how archaeologists represent gender
  • focuses on the cultural constriction of gender and sexuality
  • focuses on challenging ideas that humans have always recognized heteronormativity
  • focuses on gender inequalities in the practice of archaeology
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15
Q

How do we look for evidence of children in the archaeological record?

A
  • evidence of play and learning
  • representations of art, fingerprints
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16
Q

What is a symbol?

A
  • an object that can be recognized as a depiction/representation of an object in the real world.
17
Q

What are some of the uses of symbols?

A
  • regulating and organizing relations between humans
  • regulating and representing human relations with the supernatural or transcendental world
  • as symbols of measurements (units of time, length, weight)
  • recording and documenting
  • establishment of place through delimitation of territory
  • as a way to describe the world through depiction
18
Q

What is style?

A
  • traits associated with decoration
  • culturally dependent and often difficult to analyze
19
Q

What are materials of prestige value? Why are they important?

A
  • “valuables” in a limited range of materials to which a society attributes a high value
  • most have no use at all other than display!
  • ex, feathers, shells, jade, gemstones, textiles
20
Q

How do archaeologists reconstruct group and individual identity?

A

Major evidence archaeologists use to construct identity are:
- artifacts
- symbols
- nutrition/diet
- mortuary data

21
Q

What is the archaeology of children and childhood?

A
  • study of children and childhood in the past, as active participants in past cultures rather than regarding them mainly for their effect on adult life
  • studies evidence of play, learning, artwork
22
Q

What are some of the archaeological approaches to art?

A
  • semiotic (meaning of symbols)
  • formal (style to determine tradition)
  • functionalist (purpose of art)
  • processual (how art helps humans adapt to their environment)
  • critical (how art reflects/legitimizes/criticizes power)
23
Q

What is fall-off analysis?

A

Spatial analysis of artifact distribution, predicts that the greatest quantity should be found near the source for down-the-line exchange, and near central places for redistribution systems.

24
Q

What are interaction systems?

A
  • how trade can drive cultural change
  • as trade networks develop there is an increased need for control of the system
  • this can lead a down-the-line system to develop into a redistribution system
25
Q

What is the hopewell interaction?

A
  • refers to a very large peer-polity exchange network that moved many goods across north america in 100bc-500ad
  • widespread exchange of prestige goods accompanied by a symbolic system adopted in each independent region
26
Q

What is function?

A

traits association with artifact form

27
Q

Who was Martin Wobst?

A
  • argued that style has a function!
  • differences in styles are used to communicate messages about group affiliations and identities
28
Q

Who was Polly Weissner?

A
  • worked on african projectile points, showed that style is seen in 2 ways: Emblemic style and assertive style.
29
Q

What is emblemic style? Assertive style?

A

Emblemic style: Meant to convey information to other groups of people
Assertive style: meant to convey information about the makers personal identity mostly to the group in which they live
(weissner)

30
Q

What was James Sachett?

A

Questions Polly Weissner’s conclusions on style, developed Isochrestic style

31
Q

What is isochrestic Style?

A
  • choices made between variants that are functionally equivalent
  • decisions on individuals are shaped by the traditions within their own community, which had developed its own way over time.
    (Sachett)

ANTH 206 (12 decks)

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