ANT 253 McGill NCSU test 1

Anthropology

The study of human culture and biology in the past and present

Anthropology subfields

Cultural, Linguistic, Biological, Archeology, Applied

Cultural anthropology

study of living people, participant-observation, ethnography

Linguistic Anthropology

Study of language in relation to people. i.e not grammar but dialects and accents, the culture

Biological Anthropology

1)forensics

2)human growth & bio

3)primatology

4)paleoanthropology

(humans=learned and biological traits, nature AND nurture)

paleoanthropology

study of the fossil record of humankind and related primates throughout all human history

Archeology

scientific study of past human societies using their material or physical remains

applied anthropology

using ANT to help modern people "5th" ant category

Culture

-learned behaviors

CAPITAL C- group associated with certain behaviors

- not programmed into us or biological

-created by humans for humans

Artifact

"material culture"

History of Archeology- three streams of thought

1) nature of humans

2) cultural differences among societies (including civilization)

3) The biological origins & evolution of humans

Antiquarianism

16th-century idea century people love old stuff, start of archaeology

Three-Age system

Stone age, Bronze age, Iron age

Social / Unilineal evolution

we all evolve in the same way, but at different points

scientific method

1) hypothesis

2) test hypothesis

3) Collect data

4) re-examine hypothesis (reject or fail to reject)

Jean-Jacques Roassuau

founder of degenerationism (we are degenerating from old times, logic is greece and rome fcking rocked)

John Locke

progressivism (started primitive and is going up)

epistemology

Renaissance idea that says positivism, things are explained by other things NOT by myths or gods. use EVIDENCEE

Charles Darwin

Origin of Species 1859 and Descent of Man 1871, made the ideas of natural selection and evolution

Ways of knowing about the past (4)

1) material remains

2) oral histories

3) written records

4)Images

Archaeological method 7 steps

1 research

2 Induce a hypothesis

3 survey and recovery of data

4 analysis and interpretation

5 hypothesis re-examination

6 data curation

7 publication

CRM

cultural resource management

Principles of Archaeological Ethics

1) stewardship

2) responsibility

3) commercialization

4) public education and outreach

5) preservation of the archaeological record

6) reporting

7) training and resources

8) safe educational and workplace environments

9) diversity and inclusion

archaeological site

any space in which human acitiviy has occured and left material evidence

excavation techniques

Horizontal- exposes a slice of time, "plan view"

vertical- exposes change over time, profile view/stratigraphy

data collection phases

phase 1- reconnaissance

phase 2- testing

phase 3- excavation

phase 4- processing and analysis

dating techniques

RELATIVE- sequencing, stratigraphy (Harris Matrix), typological (seriation dating)

ABSOLUTE- calendar date ranges for specific objects, organic materials date with C14 method, rocks K-Ar, ceramics TL, trees dendrochronology

Hominin

bipedal apes

evo began 6-8 mya

marks divergence from chimps

Australopithecines

many species from 4.2-1 mya

two types Gracile & robust

traits

-small brain

-large eyebrow ridges

- large zygomatic arches (cheekbones)

-bipedal

- no control of fire, speech, clothes

Laetoli footprints

from species A. afarensis (aka the Lucy one) footprints in Tazmanina

dated securely 3.7 mya by eruption

Homo habilis

1st genus Homo

2.5-1.7 mya

only in africa

traits

-primative

-short

-good climbing

-20% larger brain

-tools (oldowan)

oldowan stone tools

earliest stone tool

used by Homo habilis

flintknapping (strike core against stone)

Homo erectus

First to leave Africa

1.7 mya

primative traits

-large brow ridges

-sloping foreheads

Derived traits

- smaller flat face and teeth

-big brian 30% larger than H. habilis

-modern limbs

Acheulean hand-axe

used by homo erectus

1.5 mya- 250,000 ya

-advanced biface, meticulously produced

- becomes more refined over time

Homo naledi

NOT DIRECT ANCESTORS, BIPEADAL PRIMATES 2013-2015 find

-230,000 ya

Austral like traits

-brain size

-pelvis

-fingers (curved)

-shoulders

-ribcage

Derived, human like traits

-thumb, wrist

- small teeth and jaw

neandertals

cold-adapted humans (larger nasal aperture, broad & short trunk, robust limbs)

died bc they couldn't deal with the warm temps

We know through archaeology about their..

- burials

-art

-diet

-migration/DNA

Blombos Cave

earliest cave drawings 73,000 ya

Jwalapuram site, India

AMH move into asia 74,000 ya

Homo floresiensis

little people of flores

"insular dwarfism"

not genitally ancestors but bipedal

Great Australian Silence

Early explorers/Archaeologists said that the Aboriginal people of Australia were Stone Age level

Lake mungo burials

50,000- 40,000 ya

burial site, the earliest in Australia

ground-edge axe in Australia

44,000-49,000 ya

significant bc it took less time for australia to make this axe than the rest of the world. its at LEAST 50,000 ya but that's the limit of carbon dating

Easter Island

NOT mass forest burn

caused by rats eating the trees

bones show that they were healthier than Europe at the time 1400~ AD

Geophysics

non-invasive investigations of land, like metal detection and stuff