The Science and the Humanities

Anthropology

• Holistic study of humans—biological, cultural, linguistic, archaeological.

• Uses global, comparative, 4-field approach.

The Explanatory Period

• Shift from description to explaining culture change.

• Introduced: renewed evolutionism, systems theory, ecosystem concept, and deductive reasoning.

• Much of this was packaged as Processual / New Archaeology.

Julian Steward - Cultural Ecology

• Argued that environment + resources shape a culture’s core features.

• Studied Shoshone and Virú Valley to link subsistence, tech, and land use to environment.

• Saw culture change as multi-linear evolution (different paths in different ecologies).

Cultural Core

• Parts of culture most directly tied to environmental adaptation.

• Includes: subsistence & technology, social organization, economic practices.

• Distinguished from “secondary” traits (art, religion, ideology) shaped more by history.

Leslie White

• Neo-Evolutionary Theory.

• Divided culture into technological, sociological, and ideational sectors.

• Saw culture as humans’ exosomatic (outside-the-body) means of adaptation.

• Cultures “evolve” as they become more efficient at capturing energy from the environment.

Systems Theory and Ecosystem Concept

• Culture seen as interacting subsystems (tech, social, ideology) within an ecosystem.

• Borrowed from engineering + ecology (cybernetics).

• Computers allowed simulation models and complex data handling.

Processual Approaches - Methods List

• Deductive reasoning (hypothesis → test).

• Ethnographic analogy (direct-historical & comparative).

• Middle-range research (bridging arguments).

• Experimental archaeology.

• Ethnoarchaeology (actualistic studies).

Franz Boas and Four Field Anthropology

• Founded U.S. four-field model: bio, cultural, linguistic, archaeology.

• Promoted holism and rigorous science.

• Pushed salvage anthropology: document Indigenous cultures before colonial destruction.

Salvage Anthropology

• Rapid recording of languages, stories, tech, and lifeways of Indigenous peoples.

• Response to disease, residential schools, land loss, cultural suppression.

• Shaped North American anthropology’s integration of archaeology with ethnography.

Four Subfields of Anthropology

• Biological/Physical Anthropology: evolution, human variation, forensic/bioarchaeology.

• Cultural Anthropology: living cultures; ethnography; participant observation.

• Linguistic Anthropology: language structure, history, sociolinguistics.

• Archaeology: past cultures through material remains.

What is culture

• Learned, shared, symbolic system shaping human behavior.

• Includes beliefs, knowledge, customs, morals, arts (Tylor).

• Transmitted through enculturation.

Cultural idiolect

• Individual variation in how people express culture (dress, style, behavior).

• Analogy to an individual’s idiolect in language.

• Visible in potlatch costumes, personal adornment, etc.

Enculturation

• Process where individuals learn cultural norms, values, behavior.

• Key to cultural continuity and change.

Culture: Ideational Perspective

• Focuses on ideas, symbols, mental structures shaping behavior.

• “Get inside people’s heads” to understand meaning.

• Emphasizes symbolic codes.

Culture: Adaptive Perspective

• Focuses on subsistence, technology, demography, ecology.

• Culture = system that adapts humans to environment.

• Linked to cultural ecology (Steward).

KW Potlatch

• Example of ideational vs. adaptive culture.

• Ideational: symbolic prestige, status competition, ritual meaning.

• Adaptive: redistributes food, builds alliances, buffers resource shortages.

• Both perspectives necessary.

Scientific approach: Processual

• Uses hypothetico-deductive method.

• Objective, systematic, explicit, empirical.

• Seeks general laws, causal explanations, predictions.

• Associated with Binford.

Scientific method: Archaeology

1. Define problem

2. Form hypotheses

3. Identify expectations

4. Collect data

5. Compare data to expectations

6. Revise/retest
   (Shown in Moundbuilder case).

Humanistic approach

• Post-processual.

• Emphasizes meaning, symbolism, agency, historical context.

• Argues no single objective truth; interpretations are situated.

• Reflexive, emic perspective; influenced by postmodernism.

• Associated with Ian Hodder.

Scientism

• Critique.

• Incorrect belief that scientific method alone yields infallible truth.

• Archaeology rarely retests previous hypotheses due to funding priorities.

• Chaos theory shows limits of prediction in complex systems.

Lewis Binford and The New Archaeology

• Sought rigorous, scientific archaeology using hypotheses and testing.

• Emphasized culture as a system (technic, sociotechnic, ideotechnic).

• Used ethnographic analogy + middle-range theory.

Systems Theory

• Culture seen as interrelated subsystems: technology, social organization, ideology.

• Borrowed from engineering and ecology.

• Enabled modeling, simulation, use of computers.

Deductive reasoning

• Start with hypothesis → derive expectations → test with archaeological data.

• Contrast to earlier inductive “let the data speak” approach.

• Sometimes over-relied on positivism.

Ethnographic analogy

• Processual use.

• Uses living cultures to infer past behavior.

• Direct-historical or comparative analogy.

• Often limited by lack of detailed analogs.

Middle Range Research

• Bridges dynamic behavior ↔ static archaeological patterns.

• Uses ethnoarchaeology + experimental archaeology.

• Essential to explaining site formation & activity patterns.

Experimental archaeology

• Controlled replication of past activities (toolmaking, structure-building).

• Tests feasibility; produces archaeological correlates.

• Limited because modern conditions differ from past.

Ethnoarchaeology

• Observes living people to understand material consequences of behavior.

• Challenges: short observation period, reoccupation, natural disturbance.

Postmodern Influence

• Rejects universal truths; emphasizes subjectivity, power, context.

• Multiple realities; narratives shaped by social position.

• Archaeology becomes interpretive & reflexive.

Low-level Theory

• Basic observations from field/lab (artifacts, features, soils).

• Empirical description and classification.

• Foundation for higher-level interpretation.

Middle-Level Theory

• Links material remains → behaviors that produced them.

• Ethnoarchaeology + experiments + taphonomy.

• Core of Processual archaeology.

High-level Theory

• Broad social theories about cultural change, meaning, organization.

• Why questions: inequality, identity, ideology, complexity.

• Includes processual & post-processual debates.

Emic perspective

• Insider’s view; subjective, culturally embedded meaning.

• Used by humanists, symbolic anthropologists, post-processualists.

• Example: understanding Azande witchcraft beliefs.

Etic perspective

• Outsider’s analytical, objective viewpoint.

• Used by processual scientists; seeks general patterns.

• Example: functionalist explanations of institutions.

Ideational vs Adaptive Strategies

• Ideational: focus on meaning, symbols, mental models.

• Adaptive: focus on environment, subsistence, technology, demography.

• Maps onto emic/etic divide.

Moundbuilder Myth

• Early colonists believed mounds built by a lost “superior race.”

• Jefferson’s excavation disproved battle-victim hypothesis.

• Cyrus Thomas (1894) concluded mounds built by ancestors of Native Americans.

• Demonstrates hypothesis testing & rejection.

Potlatch in Cultural System Terms

• Idiolect: masks, costumes, personal styles.

• Shared Modal Aspects: rules, reciprocity, ranked society.

• Cultural System: redistributes wealth; reinforces hierarchy; adaptive + symbolic roles.

Talthelei Snow Cache Example

• Taltheilei lacked boulder caches found in Inuit sites.

• Ethnoarchaeology showed Inuit using snow caches for meat storage.

• Soil analysis revealed elevated Fe, Zn, Cu, Mn → blood/fat residues.

• Supports hypothesis that snow caches were used but left no archaeological trace.