ARCH 112 CHAPTER 1

Archaeology

is a subdiscipline within the broader field of anthropology

Anthropology

the study of humanity.

archaeologists

people that concentrate on the cultural evolution of past human beings., accomplish this through the study of our biological remains and, especially, the analysis of the physical objects that they made, used, and left behind.

archaeological site

A site is a place where people lived and/or worked and where the material objects that they made,used,lost, or discarded can yet be recovered and analyzed.

Paleoanthropology:

Anthropological study of the evolution of our species.

Archaeology:

The study of humanity through the analysis of the material remains of human behavior: the study of the things that people made and used in the past and that have been fortuitously preserved.

Anthropology

The study of humanity. A broad social science with varied foci on human biological and cultural adaptations, human origins, and biological and cultural evolution as well as modern cultures.

Holistic:

The approach in modern anthropology to view human biology and behavior together, as a whole, to understand our species.

Integrative

Within a holistic approach, anthropologists recognize that human behavior can be broken down into a series of component parts that work togetherto allow people to survive.

Ethnographer:

Cultural anthropologist who lives among a group of people or a cultural group.

Ethnology:

The comparative study of culture. Ethnologists study human behavior cross-culturally, looking for similarities and differences in how people behave.

Anthropological Linguistics

Subfield of anthropology that focuses on language.

Primatologist

A person who studies primates: prosimians, monkeys, or apes.

Primate

Members of the taxonomic order _. Animals possessed of grasping hands and feet, stereoscopic vision, and relatively large brains (in proportion to body size).

Forensic Anthropologist

A biological anthropologist who specializes in the identification of the human skeleton, often in the investigation of a crime.

cultural evolution

Just as biological evolution posits ordered change through time among biological organisms, _ posits ordered change through time among cultures.

culture

The invented, taught, and learned patterns of behavior of human groups. The extrasomatic (beyond the body or beyond the biological) means of adaptation of a human group.

Artifact:

Any object manufactured by a human being or human ancestor. Usually defined further as a portable object like a stone spearpoint or clay potto distinguish it from larger more complex archaeological features.

Creationist:

One who believes that the universe, earth, life and humanity are the product of the creation of an all powerful god

Catastrophist:

An adherent to the perspective that the current appearance of the earth can be best explained as having resulted from a series of natural catastrophes— for example, floods and volcanoes.

Uniformitarianism

The belief that the appearance of the earth could best be understood as resulting from the slow action of known processes over a very long period of time.

Erosion:

The disintegration and transportation of geological material by wind, water, or ice.

Weathering:

The decomposition and disintegration of rock, usually at or near the earth's surface.

Stratigraphic (Stratigraphy):

Related to the geological or cultural layer in which something has been found.

Three-Age System

Chronological breakdown of the history of human culture into a stone, bronze, and iron age. Developed in 1836 by J. C. Thomsen.

Unilineal Evolution

The no longer accepted view that all cultures change or evolve along the same pathway, usually one of increasing complexity.

Multilinear Cultural Evolution:

The view that there are many pathways of change a culture may take over the time span of its existence.

Evolution:

Systematic change through time of biological organisms or human cultural systems.

Adaptation

Mode or strategy for survival, can be a physical or a cultural behavior.

Adapted

The state of being biologically capable or culturally prepared to survive in a given environment.

Natural Selection

The process proposed by Charles Darwin for how species evolve. Those individuals in a species that possess advantageous characteristics are more likely to survive and pass down those characteristics than are individuals that do not possess those advantages.