ARKY 303 - Midterm 1

flashcards based on lecture notes from ARKY 303

What are the 4 subfields of anthropology

• Archaeology

• Cultural Anthropology

• Bio Anthropology

• Linguistics

Archaeology

study of past societies through careful recovery and detailed analysis of material remains

Culture

humankind’s extra-genetic means of adaptation within the world that encompasses beliefs, practices, norms, and material objects.

culture area

geographic region where the culture and environment are similar

History

the study of the human past as revealed in written sources

prehistory

the span of time before written records

*this term is problematic*

How do we do archaeology?

excavations, tests, survey and ethnographic research to explore materials we find in the archaeological record

Archaeological record

the total body of objects made by, used by, or associated with humanity, including artifacts and ecofacts

ethnography

a branch of anthropology that studies and describes modern human cultures

excavation

the digging up and recording of archaeological sites, including uncovering and recording the provenience, context, and 3D location of archaeological finds

context

the position and associations of an artifact, feature, or archaeological find in space and time

in situ

artifacts or features found in there natural or original position

site

where humans conducted some activity and left evidence of it behind

artifact

portable object manufactured, modified, or used by humans

ecofacts

archaeological finds that are of cultural significance, but not manufactured by humans, ex. bones and vegetal reamains

Feature

any physical structure or element that is made or altered by humans, but not portable and cannot be removed from a site

ex. post hole, wall, pit

lithic

if its stone, its gonna be lithic

Midden

garbage pile

Sedentism

shift from nomadic to sedentary lifestyle

Domestication

shift from hunting-gathering-fishing to food production

social complexity

shift from egalitarian to hierarchical social organization

why is environment important?

• used in the classification of human “culture areas” in NA

• culture later viewed as a means of adaptation to environment

• often seen as holding the key to understanding why human cultures have changed through time

Speculative period

• societies evolve from savagery → barbarism → civilization

  • NEED to begin at the bottom and move up

• Hunter-gathering is an early stage of evolution

The Mystery of the MoundBuilders

the large earthworks of the Adena-Hopewell Civilizations and MIssissippian civilizations couldn’t possibly have been by the Indigenous people currently living there cause they weren’t evolved enough

obviously untrue

Thomas Jefferson

• father of Archaeology in America

• interested in solving the mystery of the moundbuilders

• began a series of excavations on his Virginia estate

  • actually did a good job of looking at the stratigraphy

why was the Smithsonian founded?

Indigenous cultures in NA were disappearing due to impacts of colonial contactand there was a need to preserve and study their artifacts and heritage.

John Wesley Powell

• first director of the smithsonian (?)

• started explorations through the US

• decided environment and indigenous cultures were linked → “wilderness heritage”

  • destruction of the environment = destruction of Indigenous cultures

when did archaeology start in Canada?

~1880s

who was responsible for archaeology in Canada before proper departments were created?

Officers with the Geological Survey of Canada

David Boyle

Canada’s first professional archaeologist, set up a museum in the Canadian institute to prevent artifacts from leaving the country

Diamond Jenness

• ethnographer and archaeologist on the Canadian arctic expedition

• conducted the first systematic archaeological excvations in the North American Arctic

Classificatory-historical period

stratigraphic observation and seriation used to construct local and regional chronologies in the US

criticized later for no attempting to discover the processed behind these changes

why was the book Method and Theory in American Archaeology a turning point for NA arky?

• advocated the use of an anthropological approach in NA arky

• paved the way for more explanatory approaches

John William Wintember & Harlan Ingersol Smith

• worked for the geological survey of Canada (GSC)

• curator at the National Museum of Canada

• did an extensive survery of the north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence

  • attempted to define the geographic extent of Iroquois culture

• used multiple means of analysis such as ethnography and experimental arky

Thoman Mcllwraith

founded the first anth department in Canada at UofT

Norman Emerson

established the first academic program to train archaeologists in Canada

what is the main reason that archaeology is done in Canada?

CRM

why was culture history practiced for much longer in Canada than in the US?

• canadian geography

• small numbers of archaeologists

• focus on historical partcularism

• many early archaeologists in Canada learned from Franz Boas

• archaeological research driven by developments

borden system

alphanumeric coding system for archaeological sites, used to indicate small sections of territory in Canada

what are examples of archaeology that emerged during the explanatory period - post 1960?

• processual archaeology

• post-processual archaeology

• feminist archaeology

• indigenous archaeology

• digital archaeology

what is the archaeological chronology in NA

• Paleo Indian (18,000-8000 BCE)

• Archaic Period (8000 - 1000 BCE)

• Post-Archaic Period (1000 BCE - present)

Indigenous

umbrella term for First Nations (status and non-status), Metis and Inuit

First Nations

refers only to those who have Indian status under Canadian law as part of a recognized community

Metis

are a distinct Indigenous people with a unique history, culture, language, and way of life

Inuit

Indigenous peoples of the Arctic

how many distinct sovereign First Nations were there pre-contact?

more than 50

each uniquely adapted to local ecology

Doctrine of Discovery

• developed in the 15th century Terra Nullius

• provided justification for the Europeans to colonize

• Indigenous people were seen as non-human because they weren’t Christian

Royal Proclamation 1763

constitutional framework for the negotiation of treaties between Indigenous peoples of Canada and the Crown

Gradual Civilization Act 1857

Bill passed by the 5th parliament of the Province of Canada; put imperial laws into place → lead to Christianization, civilization, and integration of Indigenous people to become Citizens of the Crown

Gradual Enfranchisement Act of 1869

move towards removing the rights of Indigenous peoples through acts of civilization such as education, army, ministry, marriage; land ownership, professional designation

Indian Act 1867 (1951;1985)

Canadian federal legislation that governs the relationship between the government and Indigenous peoples, outlining their rights and responsibilities.

Constitutional Act 1867 (1982) Section 35

gave the federal government exclusive legislative authority over Indigenous peoples and their lands

how many numbered treaties does Canada have?

11

what was the main motive of the first wave of treaties?

advancing European settlement across the Prairie regions as well as the development of the CPR

what was the main motive of the 2nd wave of treaties?

resource extraction

difference between reserve and reservation

reserves are in Canada

reservations are in the US

reserves

a tract of land set aside under the Indian Act and treaty agreements for the exclusive used of an Indian band

what percent of Canada’s land mass has been set aside as reserve status?

0.36%

Indian Residential Schools

government-sponsored religious institutions that were established with the direct aim of assimilating Indigenous children into the accepted Euro-Canadian culture

what was the timeframe that residential schools were operated?

1831 and 1996

how many children attended residential schools?

more than 150,000

60s scoop

large numbers of Indigenous children were taken from their homes throughout the 60s

most of these children were adopted by non-Indigenous families in Canada and the US

why was the 60s scoop so successful in being able to take children away from their homes?

by law social workers did not have to ask for permission from parents or communities to take children

how many children were adopted between 1960 and 1990 due to the 60s scoop?

between 11,000 to 20,000

what percent of children in foster care today are Indigenous?

over 50%

how much higher is the homicide rate for Indigenous women

6 times higher than for other women

intergenerational trauma

collective trauma stemming from colonization, the effects of which are passed on from one generation to the next

what are some ways an individual could participate in reconciliation?

• read the Calls to Action

• learn about Indigenous history and the residential school system

• identify and acknowledge the territory where you live

• listen and learn

• attend a national truth and reconciliation events

• explore indigenous voices

• support indigenous non-profits

• support indigenous creators and businesses

how can archaeology play a role in reconciliation initiatives?

providing “evidence” Indigenous histories, cultures, land claims and oral histories

Kennewick man

an ancient skeletal remains that sparked debates over Indigenous rights and archaeological research.

North American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NGPRA) in 1990

one of the most influential pieces of legislation in terms of impact to archeological practice regarding Indigenous populations

addressed long-standing requests from federally recognized tribes for the return of unlawfully collected human remains and cultural artifacts to their homelands

Indigenous archaeology

recognizes the rights and ownership that Indigenous peoples have their own land, historical representation and cultural transmission as well as prioritizes multivocality and the incorporation of different worldviews

decolonizing archaeology

a movement that aims to correct past injustices and make archaeology more inclusive and equitable. It involves rethinking the discipline's foundations and working with Indigenous communities to recover lost knowledge

who settled Greenland

Erik the Red who began sporadic exploration of Davis Strait

where does most information of Erik the Red’s journeys come from?

Sagas of Greenlanders, Sagas of Icelanders

Vinland Map

supposedly a 15th century map, redrawn from a 13th century original depicting a large island west of Greenland in the Atlantic called Vinland

the map describes the region as having been visited during the 11th century

why is the vinland map controversial

paper radiocarbon dated to 1423-1445 but the ink contains titanium dioxide not manufactured until 1920s

what archaeological evidence shows Norse settlement on Ellesmere Island?

excavations of Thule culture semi-subterranean whale bone houses dating to the 12th century revealed many Norse artifacts such as chain mail, nails, ship rivets, carpenter’s plane and fragments of non-inuit copper and iron

done by Dr Peter Schledermann

L’Anse aux Meadows

located in northern Newfoundland

dates to about 1065-1080 AD

found by Helge Ingstad and Anne Stine working for Parks

consists of the remains of eights sod-walled structures on a terrace overlooking a shallow bay

other buildings included a smith shop, work shed, and bath house

first known Norse settlement of NA

cores

the rock you hit to make a stone tool out of

hammerstone

the rock you hit the core with

flakes

the piece of rock that comes off the core

debitage

waste material created when stone tools are made

flakes, chips, shatter and other broken lithics

uniface

a stone tool that has been flaked on one surface only

biface

a stone tool that has been flaked on both surfaces

Father Jose de Acosta

Spanish Jesuit missionary who worked in Peru during the 16th century, was among the first to posit a northeast Asian origin

Solutrean Hypothesis

Solutreans from Europe used watercradt to move along an ice sheet across the Atlantic to people the Americas around 21,000 years ago

based on similarities between Clovis and Solutrean lithic technologies

not really supported

Siberian connection

Siberian origins in reference to the peopling of the Americas are generally accepted based on environmental, genetic, dental, linguistic and other archaeological evidence

Beringia

• between Canada and Russia, at times created a land bridge connecting the two continents

• diversity of large herbivores and other species

• this diversity dependent on diversity of plant communities

• movement of people across probably occurred slowly and in both directions

• hard to study since its now underwater

Mal’ta Buret’ Culture

• lifeway focused on exploitation of Pleistocene megafauna

• lithic tool kit comprised of microliths with predominant use of unifacial flaking

• bone, ivory, and antler tools reflect and adaptation to a steppe tundra environment

• represents a unique transition between upper Paleolithic and Siberian cultures

Mal’ta Buret’ art

produced mainly portable art

artifacts depicting human female figures and birds are common and are often found in burials

includes venus figurines

what’s the deal with Mal’ta Buret’ genetics?

genetic research on a 24k year old boy suggests that they belonged to an extinct population that is closely related to the genetic ancestry of siberians, native americans and Bronze-age Yamnaya peoples

Dyuktai Complex

• various sites in Siberia from 35-12k years ago

  • lots of variation are all of these sites one cultural group?

• late sites have some strong technological similarities to North American groups

• debated whether they’re ancestral to Nenana, Clovis or Denali

short chronology theory

the first movement of people beyond Alaska into the New Word occured no earlier than 15,000-17,000 years ago

followed by successive waves of immigrants

mainstream view

long chronology theory

suggests the first people entered the new world anywhere from 21,000-40,000 years ago

a later mass secondary wave of immigrants

much of the evidence is controversial

biogeography

study of the patterns of geographic distribution of organisms and the factors that determine those patterns

holocene

last 11,700 years of Earth’s history, small climate shifts, but overall is characterized` by being a relatively warm period

western north america during the early holocene

climatic instability, pleistocene megafauna extinction, rising sea levels

western NA during the middle holocene

transitional; climatic warming; desiccation of areas like Great Basin; higher cycles of rainfall

western NA during the late holocene

climatic stability; establishment of modern vegetation zones