The Rise of Modern Archaeology

typologies and diffusion

• focus on ordering data into categories

• tendency to explain culture change through external forces

hyper-diffussionism

theory that proposed all major civilizations and cultural innovations originated from a single, ancient source, like atlantis or ancient egypt

analogy

ethnographic resources to interpret the archeological record

theoretical frameworks

are intellectual frameworks that provide a foundation fot interpreting material remains from the past, guiding how archaeologists analyze and understand data

cultural particularism

the approach of understanding past cultures based on their own unique historical context rather than applying a universal theory or a linear model of cultural evolution

Franz Boas

• father of american anthropology

• four unified fields of anthropology

• historical particularism

•  scientific method

• no link between race and culture

• against ethnocentrisms

functionalism

a theoretical framework that focuses on how cultural traits or phenomenon fit into a systematic whole

processualism

a theoretical approach in archaeology that uses the scientific method to study past societies by focusing on the dynamic processes and systems that shaped them

unilinear theory

• unilinear cultural evolution

• human societies evolve in linear fashion

multilinear theory

• multilinear cultural evolution (neo-evolution)

• independent development of human groups in different parts of the world, determined by the success of adaptations

neo-evolutionary theory

views cultural change as a process of adaptation, driven by factors like enviornment, technology, and energy use, rather than the unilinear and ethnocentric stages of classical evolutionism

cultural ecology

studies how ancient human societies adapt to their environments, with a focus on how technology and subsistence strategies (like farming or hunting) were shaped by the environment

evolutionary ecology

a subfield that combines principles of evolutionary ecology and archaeology to study how past human behaviors and cultures evolved in response to ecological pressures

behavioral archaeology

a subfield of anthropology that studies the relationships between human behavior and material culture by treating artifacts as evidence of past and present human interactions

marxist archaeology

an approach that views the past through the lens of historical materialism, focusing on how social structures, class struggle, and the mode of production - including both the forces and realtions of production - shape societieis

middle range theory

• lewis Binfords version of formation processes

  • ethnoarchaeology

  • experimental archaeology

selectionist archaeology

• using Darwinian theory to explain culture change

contemporary processualism

• cognitive archaeology

• complexity theory

• resilience theory

postprocessualism

a movement that emerged in the late 1970s as a critique of processual archaeology, arguing that interpretation is subjective and influenced by social, political, and cultural factors, including the archaeologists own biases

feminist archaeology

• roles of women in the past

• nuanced studies of gender

• critique of androcentric

• black feminist archaeology

• queer theory

practice theory

• the recursive relationships between action and thought

• regency

• people are not always rational

• peoples everyday practices change social structure, which in turn guide or constrain peoples subsequent practices

phenomenology

• using our experiences to understand the experiences of people in the past

Karl Marx

marxist Archaeology

• stages in development

• material conditions

• production

• conflict

• class formation

• social formation

julian Steward

• all aspects of human societies adapt to and transform their enviornment

• emphasis on synchronic view

• framework for testing hypothesis

• optimal foraging theory

Lewis Binford

• their version of formation processes

  • ethnoarchaeology

  • experimental archaeology

Ian Hodder

• work in archaeological theory concerning Post-Processual archaeology

• involved in the research of neolithic europe, ethnoarchaeology, and symbolic and structural archaeology

Christopher Tilley

• key figures in creating a new intellectual synthesis between archaeology and anthropology and subsequently in the development of material culture at UCL

Michael Schiffer

one of the founders ad pre-eminent exponent of behavioral archaeology

Thomas Patterson

distinguished professor and chair anthropology at the University of California at Riverside

Colin Renfrew

• work on prehistoric societies, the application of scientific methods to archaeology and his theories on cultural diffusion the emergence of civilization and the origins of Indo-european languages

formation processes

the natural and cultural events that shape how an archaeological site is created, buried, and preserved over time

natural transformation

• organic decay

• animal activities

• volcanic eruption

• etc

cultural transformation

• plowing

• looting

• renovating

• destructive

primary context

undisturbed conditions

secondary context

disturbed conditions