Week 01: Introduction

Question 1

Political/Cultural Contexts behind The Curse of King Tut

Answer 1

• 1882 British Army occupied Egypt
• Egypt was a protectorate until the declaration of Egyptian independence on 28 Feb 1922
• Within that context, King Tut (disc. Nov 1922) was a symbol of nationalism and the curse was a rejection of colonial dominance
• the very essence of Egyptian identity was fighting back against the British

Question 2

Is the curse of King Tut true?

Answer 2

No, but this example shows the anthropological approach and the power that mummies have over public discourse, knowing cultural context is everything

Question 3

Define Anthropology

Answer 3

Anthropology is the study of humans, past and present. To understand the full sweep and complexity of cultures across all of human history, anthropology draws and builds upon knowledge from the social and biological sciences as well as the humanities and physical sciences

Question 4

What are the 4 sub disciplines of Anthropology

Answer 4

Sociocultural, Biological (Physical), Archaeology, Linguistics

Question 5

Key Perspectives of Anthropology

Answer 5

• The cross cultural perspective, ethnographic perspective, evolutionary perspective

Question 6

What is the cross-cultural perspective of Anthropology?

Answer 6

• studies, such as the study of mummies, examine phenomenon in a variety of cultures, trying to understand similarities and differences and what leads to those similarities and differences

Question 7

What is the ethnographic perspective in Anthropology

Answer 7

• a holistic approach to culture, involves first-hand experience, often qualitative research methods, most mummies belong to past cultures (but not all of them)

Question 8

What is the evolutionary perspective in Antrhopology

Answer 8

• the understanding that we have evolved as a species within the context of the environment, recognizes that the environment has both physical (nature) and cultural (nurture) components

Question 9

Archaeology definition

Answer 9

archaeology, is the science that studies human cultures through the recovery, documentation and analysis of material remains and environmental data, including architecture, artifacts, bio facts, human remains and landscapes

Question 10

What is the goal of archaeology

Answer 10

to document and explain the origins and development of human culture, understand culture history, chronicle cultural evolution, and study human behaviour and ecology, for both prehistoric and historic societies

Question 11

What does BC stand for?

Answer 11

Before Christ

Question 12

What does BCE stand for?

Answer 12

Before Common Era

Question 13

What does AD stand for

Answer 13

anno domini

Question 14

What does years CE stand for

Answer 14

Common Era

Question 15

What does BP stand for?

Answer 15

Before Present, technically before 1950 (nuclear testing)

Question 16

dates in years, however, described, are called…

Answer 16

chronometric or absolute dates

Question 17

law of superposition - statigraphy

Answer 17

things that are lower underground are usually older than things closer to the surface, relative dating

Question 18

Define biological anthropology

Answer 18

Physical/biological anthropology is the study of the past and present evolution of the human species and is especially concerned with understanding the causes of the human species and is especially concerned with understanding gate causes of present human diversity.

Question 19

Fields within biological anthropology

Answer 19

human palaeontology, evolutionary biology, human genetics, comparative anatomy and physiology, primate behaviour, human behavioural ecology, and human biology. Human biology broadly covers the areas of modern human biological variation, human ecology, nutrition and demography. What makes physical/biological anthropology unique is that it brings all of these areas to bear on our understanding of the human condition.

Question 20

What specific area of archaeology is central to the study of mummies?

Answer 20

Bioarchaeology

Question 21

Define bioarchaeology

Answer 21

the study of human remains from archaeological contexts, field emphasizes integrative, interdisciplinary analysis of the links between biology and culture in past societies, this approach has contributed to an informed understanding of the range of social, behavioural, and economic conditions and circumstances that have shaped the human experience, especially health and well-being, lifestyle, and quality of life

Question 22

bio archaeology has evolved from

Answer 22

modern use has evolved from paleopathology,

Question 23

Bioarchaeology scope focuses on…

Answer 23

quality of life: the living and the dead, behaviour and lifestyle, population and society

Question 24

What does quality of life look into as a bioarchaeology subspecialty

Question 25

Define Mummy Studies

Answer 25

mummy studies bio archaeology with the added dimensions of preserved soft tissue and associated cultural material related to the means of preservation

Question 26

limitations of mummy studies

Answer 26

often dealing with small sample sizes, tension between the preservation of valuable specimens and destructive examination, need to adapt methods drawn from other analytical contexts

Question 27

Mummy studies is inherently…

Answer 27

interdisciplinary

Question 28

define interdisciplinary

Answer 28

mode of research by teams or individuals that integrates information, data, techniques, tools, perspectives, concepts, and/or theories from two or more disciplines or bodies of specialized knowledge to advance fundamental understanding or to solve problems whose solutions are beyond the scope of a single discipline or area of research

Question 29

What is a Mummy?

Answer 29

any mortal remains that preserve soft tissue can be human or anima, can be anthropogenic or natural

Question 30

What is an anthropogenic mummy?

Answer 30

man made mummy

Question 31

What is a natural mummy

Answer 31

a mummy made by nature

Question 32

Who discovered the Rosetta Stone

Answer 32

Napoleon

Question 33

How were mummies monetized?

Answer 33

mummia - medicine
paint- mummy brown
fertilizer
mummy paper
active mummy trade to museums and collectors in the 1800s

Question 34

Peru and Mummies

Answer 34

• spanish conquistadors encountered mummies of the Inca in the mid 1500s
• attempted to stop veneration of the dead
• Europeans recognized the skill of the Inca embalmers
• 1700s-1800s- mummies collected for European museums
  -popularity came after Napoleonic Egyptian mummies captured the imagination of the European public
  -systemic archaeological excavation and study that started in late 1800s

Question 35

What is it about mummies that fascinates us?

Answer 35

they’re a little scary, they’re a part of history, remind us of our mortality, from exotic places, above all they’re people, it is easy to identify with them, no better way to understand cultures of the past than to study the people themselves

Question 36

What is the Anthropological/Scientific Motivation for the Study of Mummies?

Answer 36

they are microcosms of information about ancient biology (health and disease), they are microcosms of information about ancient culture - and how it affected the body during life and after death

Question 37

Arthur Aufderheide

Answer 37

Professor of pathology, established the World Congress on Mummy Studies, worked principally on mummies from Egypt, Peru and Chile, emphasized importance of assembling large bodies of data
- takes the position that the scientific information gathered from mummy studies is sufficient justification for mummy studies

Question 38

Lonfat et al. group

Answer 38

• perspective is based on modern clinical research, where the focus is on the effective treatment of, and respect for the patient, their objective is to extend those principles to the “patients” of the past

Question 39

Egypt has called for the repatriation of

Answer 39

Ramses I