Anthropology and Archaeology

Vocabulary flashcards defining key terms, subfields, concepts, and individuals from the anthropology and archaeology lecture notes.

Archaeology

A subdiscipline of anthropology that studies humanity and past human behavior by analyzing material remains left behind, such as objects, structures, homes, possessions, or bodies.

Paleoanthropology

The anthropological study of human evolution.

The past is a foreign country

A phrase borrowed by L.P. Harvey expressing the concept that the past is a location that can be explored.

Lost Village

A site characterized by the material remains of human behavior, such as homes, possessions, or bodies.

Cultural Anthropology

A subfield of anthropology focused on the study of living people, including ethnography (individual cultures and societies) and ethnology (cross-cultural studies).

Ethnography

The study of living people and individual cultures or societies.

Ethnology

Cross-cultural studies of living people within cultural anthropology.

Physical/Biological Anthropology

A subfield of anthropology that studies human evolution, human variation, and primatology.

Anthropological Linguistics

A subfield of anthropology dedicated to the study of language.

Syncretism

The combination or blending of religious beliefs and practices, such as when Native Americans in the New World interpreted introduced Christian saints as embodiments of traditional gods and spirits.

Forensic Anthropologist

A professional, such as Al Harper, who identifies human skeletons for police agencies.

Biruté Gablikas

An anthropologist listed alongside Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey who studies primates.

Holistic Approach

An anthropological perspective that broadly studies the totality of the human experience, recognizing that human behavior consists of component parts that work together.

Integrative Nature of Anthropology

The practice in anthropology of putting together various aspects of the human experience and trajectories of the past.

Sarah Parcak

A space archaeologist who uses satellite imagery to identify and protect archaeological sites and received the ted prize in 2016.