UCR Anth005 Midterm 1

Science

A process of understanding phenomena through observation, generalization, verification, and refutation.

Scientific Method

Self correcting set of procedures for gaining and testing our knowledge of the world.

Anthropology

study of humankind through scientific methods.

Four subfields of anthropology

Linguistics

Cultural or Social

Archaeology

Physical anthropology

Linguistics

human language

the study of communication through the use of language

Cultural or Social

Fieldwork= participant observation

Ethnography: the study of individual contemporary cultures.

Ethnology: the comparative analysis of various living societies.

Archaeology

study of human beings through their material remains

Fieldwork= survey, excavation

Physical anthropology

study of human biology and its interaction with culture

Anthropological holism

Economics, Literature, Religion, Biology, Medicine, Political Science, Psychology.

Paleontology

the study of ancient lifeforms except humans

Ex: dinosaurs

Important questions of archaeology

1. Hunter and Gatherers- Sedentism- Agriculture

2. Monumental Architecture

3. Human diversity.

-cooperation vs. Segregation

-Social inequality

4. State, cities, and urbanism

Reasons for archaeology

-Scientific understanding

-Critical evaluation of our perceptions

-Who we are and where we are going

-Human diversity

Synchronic

view that emphasizes the contemporary state of human societies with little or no time depth.

Diachronic

view that stresses development through time.

Define Archaeology (from textbook)

the study of the human past through its material remains.

Time

B.P. (before present) -1950

B.C. (before Christ)

A.D. (Amno Domini) (=in the year of the Lord)

-Today=A.D. 2018 (although we tend to omit A.D. for modern periods)

2,000 B.C.=4,000 B.P.

my=million years

ky=thousand years

mya=million years ago

History

-oral history: preserves extensive historical knowledge, especially among peoples who rely less exclusively on written information than does modern Western society.

-document history: focuses primarily on societies with writing.

Previous view of historical trajectories

surplus-leisure time-technological and cultural development-better life?

Our notions of the world

-glorious progress to civilization

-Hunter-gatherer life:

-Misery

-Hunger

-Hardwork

Popular images of the Stone Age

-"caveman"

-natural beings

-savages

-harry images

-hide, axes, etc.

Popular images of Egyptian Kings

evil or ban pharaoh

1. Who built the Egyptian pyramids?

Workers, free Egyptians who were well-fed and cared for.

2. Where did they live during construction?

Workers lived in the downtown area of Egypt, away from the sacred and pyramids.

3. How was the pyramid builder's diet?

Workers were fed bread

4. How and where were they buried?

Workers were buried with their director.

Mound builders

-Aliens?

-Lost tribes of Israel?

-Hindus?

-Atlantis?

-Africans?

Past in the Present

Formation process: Archaeological contexts have changed

Interpretation: our past exists in a modern context

Pseudoarchaeology

while looters destroy precious evidence before it can be used to understand the past, some individuals may misuse archaeological evidence for misleading or even harmful ends.

1.Use the past for their benefits

2.Manipulate data for their goal

3.Limits human potential

-Interpretations: we must be careful with our interpretations and sensitive to how how they affect others.

Looting and destruction of cultural heritages

-illegal, indiscriminate taking of archaeology remains. These are often sold for profit.

-illegal trade in antiquities is the world's fourth most lucrative business after drugs, guns and money laundering.

-It is problematic because of destruction of cultural heritage and the loss of information for understanding human history.

National Historic Preservation Act (1966)

federally assisted agencies need to take into account the effects of their projects on historic properties and give the advisory council on historic preservation the opportunity to comment on them.

-SHIPO: state historic preservation office.

-affirmative management programs for the preservation of historic sites.

Archaeological and Historic Preservation Act (1974)

requires federal agencies to document historic and archaeological properties that may be impacted by land management activities

Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) (1990)

-refers to native americans and native hawaiian organizations.

-requires federal agencies to consult with native american tribes prior to the excavation of native american graces on federal land.

Return cultural items to lineal descendants and culturally affiliated tribes.

It covers human remains, funerary offerings, sacred objects, and other objects considered to be cultural patrimony.

UNESCO Convention (1970)

convention on the means of prohibiting the illicit import, export and transfer of ownership of cultural property but no mechanism for its return

UNIDROIT Convention (1995)

Convention on stolen illegally exported cultural objects.

-privilege pieces stolen from individuals, although there is a provision for compensation to be paid to the person or institution that currently has it.

Why archaeology? Beyond scientific research

1.Site documentation and preservation

2.Reconstruction of culture history

3.Preservation of excavated features and artifacts

4.Archiving of records for future use (field notes, maps, forms, etc.)

5.Disseminating information to the public (publication)

6.Access to these materials and records for future study (Museum)

7.Protection of the rights of the living descendants of the ancient society

Cultural Resource Management (CRM)

is concerned with the identification and evaluation of archaeological sites to protect them from disturbance or destruction and the investigation of those that cannot be saved.

-About 80% of all professional archaeologists

-Identification and evaluation of archaeological sites to protect them from disturbance or destruction

-Investigation of those that cannot be saved

Archaeological data for other specialists

1. Epidemiologists

2. Linguists

3. Ecologists and geographer

4. Exhibit designers and museum curators

5. Site interpreters

6. Re-enactors

7. Forensic studies

Epidemiologists

examine data for evidence of disease patterns, which help them understand the history of epidemics.

Linguists

use remarkable techniques to reconstruct language and population emigrations.

Ecologists and geographer:

look to archaeology for evidence of environmental practices not recorded by history.

Ex: helps show when forests were cut and erosion increased.

Exhibit designers (museum curators)

use archaeological research for educational programs and interpretive displays.

Site interpreters

extensively use archaeological data to report accurately the details of the past.

Re-enactors

closely study archaeological reports and historical documents to more accurately reenact events from the past such as civil war battles.

Forensic studies

use archaeological techniques to reconstruct the events surrounding the death and burial of exhorted individuals.

Stasis (John Ray)

never changing world. Observing that the sequence of earthen layers reflected the passage of time.

John Ray (english naturalist,1691) "the works created by god at first and by him conserved to this day in the same state and condition in which they were first made."

Young World (Bishop James Ussher)

Bishop James Ussher (1581-1656) calculated the age of the world at around 6,000 years, placing its inception at 4004 B.C. using the lifespans of biblical figures.

Antiquarians

-a nonprofessional who studies the past for its artistic or cultural value.

backward-looking curiosity (The speculative Era).

Excavation and collection without control or documentation.

-Europe

-China

Provenience vs. Provenance

Provenience: where things are found (its spatial context). A three-dimensional location of any kind of archaeological data.

Provenance: where things are made (its origin)

Herculaneum and Pompeii

the first half of the 18th century, under the auspices of king charles III of Naples.

-volcanic eruption

Early Archaeology in the Americas

-Thomas Jefferson: excavated a mound and concluded that it was built not by european people but native americans.

-John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood: best seller books, 1841 incidents to travel in central america, Chiapas, and Yucatan.

Uniformitarianism

(analogical thinking) natural processes today are the same as those in the past.

Rise of Modern Archaeology Impact of Geology

-Uniformitarianism

-Deep time

-Gradualism

-Stratigraphy Evolutionary theory

-Charles Darwin

-Natural selection: variation-reproductive success-these individuals increase in a population while others decrease.

-Peppered moth: industrial Rev. caused changes in the camouflage of moths, change to the color of their environment.

-Implication

Unilinear Cultural Evolution

a 19th century version of cultural evolution holding that all human societies change according to a single fixed evolutionary course, passing through the same stages, described as savagery, barbarism and civilization by Lewis Henry Morgan.

Multilinear evolution

a theory of cultural evolution that sees each society pursuing an individual evolutionary career shaped by accumulated specific cultural adaptations, rather than seeing all societies as pursing the same course

Edward Tylor

primitive culture (1871), societies passes through stages of development over time.

Lewis Henry Morgan

Ethnocentric system, Ancient society (1877) introduced his "natural progression" of human societies. Savagery-Barbarism-Civilization.

Elman Service

(1915-1996) bands, chiefdoms, tribes, states

C.J. Thomsen

Three-Age System: (Stone, Bronze, and Iron age) the dawn of topology

(ex: the sequential, ordered, arrangement of objects from the past)

Hyperdiffusionism

is a hypothesis stating that one civilization or people is the creator of all logical and great things, which are then diffused to less civilized nations.

Analogy

ethnographic resources to interpret the archaeological record.

Processualism

explain external factors for cultural change

(ex: environmental change and adaptations to it)

-Ecological theories:

-Cultural Evolutionary theory

-Cultural Ecology,

-Evolutionary ecology

Cultural Evolutionary theory

(unilinear cultural evolution)

-human societies evolve in linear fashion

-notion of progress

-Lewis Henry Morgan: Savagery-> Barbarism-> Civilization.

Cultural Ecology

Julian steward (1902-1972)

-all aspects of how human societies adapt to and transform their environment

-emphasis on synchronic view

-framework for testing hypothesis

Neo-evolutionary theory

(multilinear cultural evolution) independent development of human groups in different parts of the world, determined by the success of adaptation to natural environment.

(Ex: bushman-like egalitarian organization- new guinea-like emergent leaders- hawaii-like chiefdoms- states rulers)

Evolutionary Archaeology

culture change is a product of evolutionary processes that are analogous to those that drive biological evolution. The combination of ecology, evolution, and society yields within each culture a series of unique cultural lineages, each produced by a process of selection and change through time.

Behavioral Archaeology

-formation processes

-life history of artifacts and sites

Marxism

-historical materialism

-focuses on mode of production and class struggles -infrastructure->superstructure, introduced late in the united states.

-stages in development

-material conditons

-production

-conflict

-class formation

-social formation

Post Processualism

-internal factors of culture change

-symbolism

-political factor

-agency=people are agents of cultural change

-change bases on human interactions and culturally conditioned behaviors and beliefs.

-trade and exchange

-gender

-ideologies and beliefs.

Feminist Archaeology

-roles of women in the past

-nuanced studies of gender.

-looking for evidence of women in the archaeological record and correcting male centered bias of men being active and powerful while women were cast as passive, powerless or simply absent.

Practice Theory

action & thought

-people are not always rational

-people's everyday practices change social structures

-which in turn enable or constrain people's subsequent practices.

-Agency: people's capacity of doing thing.

Phenomenology

-use our experiences to understand the experiences of the past

-our experiences are the same as people in the past?

Cognitive Archaeology

-looks at cognitive processes and symbol systems from a more processualist position.

-Karl Marx

-Max Weber: (164-1920)

-superstructure-> infrastructures

-power is the ability to achieve desired ends despite resistance from others (Possessive power).

-The protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905).

Infrastructure vs. Superstructure

Multidimensional power

power is possessive, power is relational, power is conditional → everyone is in the web or power (including rulers)

Franz Boas (1858-1942)

-father of american anthropology

-four unified fields of anthropology

-cultural particularism= cultures are unique

-scientific methods

-no link bt race and culture

-against ethnocentrism

Processual models

explain external factors for cultural change (ex:environmental change and adaptations to it.)

Post-Processual models

explain internal factors for cultural change (human interactions, agency)

-symbolism

-trade and exchange

-gender

-ideologies and beliefs

Artifact

portable objects created or modified by humans.

Ecofact

unmodified remains of biological materials Ex: carbonized seeds

Feature

non-portable archaeological remains constructed by humans= hearths, burials, storage pins, roads, and dams.

Site

a spatial cluster or artifacts, ecofacts, features and or structures.

Region

-beyond the limit of a single site, defined by both natural and cultural factors.

-the largest and most flexible spatial clusters of archaeological data bounded by mountains and bodies of water.

Formation Processes

(Michael Schiffer)

-Natural transformation: organic decay, animal activities, volcanic eruption, etc.

-Cultural transformation: Plowing, looting, renovation, destruction

Primary context

undisturbed conditions

Secondary context

disturbed conditions

Nominal

Name (cat, Bob, lithic type, etc.)

Ordinal

Rank (small, medium, large)

Interval

No true zero (Calendar date: 300 B.C., Celsius temperature, elevation)

Ratio

the zero (weight, height, kelvin temperature)

Problem-oriented research

1. Previous research

2. Formulation

3. Permission and funding

4. Building an archaeological team

5. Logistic, camp, and provisions

6. Data collection

7. Data processing and analysis

8. Interpretation

9. dissemination

Previous research

-History

-geography

-geology

-archaeology

-ethnohistory

Formulation

What is Research Design?

-A scientific plan conceived in the mind.

1. Formulate a question

2. Develop a hypothesis

3. Test hypotheses through the collection and analysis of data

4. If the hypothesis is verified (many times) it can be converted into a theory.

Funding

federal funding in the U.S. from federal institutes (NSF)

Sampling Strategy

-Population(in most cases unavailable for social sciences)

-Variable:a measurable characteristic of the population

-sample:a portion of elements to make inferences about the population

Non-Probabilistic

-use prior knowledge to guide your choice

-Non-random (Judgmental): decide a specific method that must be followed systematically

Probabilistic

-Systematic

-Simple random:

-Stratified random

-Cluster

-Adaptive

Cluster sampling

-select excavation units instead of selecting 100,000 ceramic sherds from all the bags

-faster than a simple random

-more sampling errors.

Adaptive sampling

modifying sampling designs according to values obtained during the study

simple random

ensures that each sample unit has an equal chance for selection

systematic sampling

is a variation of simple random sampling that selects the first sample unit randomly, while the remainder are selected by a predetermined, equal interval from the first (such as every third or ninth unit)