Anth Final Exam Terms

Food Production

Food Production

Farming and herding

Herding/Husbandry

Intervention in reproduction and subsistence of animals

Sedentism

To reside in one location for extended periods of time, often using that location as a base for exploiting diverse, surrounding resources in the area.

Neolithic

12,000 - 6500 BP. Use of tools and pottery, life in permanent villages, and food production (agriculture and herding)

Agriculture

Supports large populations, enables division of labor, and enables complex societies

Pottery

Appeared in Neolithic era. Last stage to southwest Asia food production

Domestic plants and animals

Better food sources. Leads to improved health and nutrition

Southwestern Asia

Earliest farming societies

Holocene

11,700 BP. Coincides with beginning of agriculture

Younger Dryas

Cold and arid climate. Reduced availability of wild foods

Abu Hureyra

Early evidence for rye domestication

Rye

Easy to thresh, easier to prepare as food

“2nd choice” foods

Common domestic plants (rye, wheat, legumes)

Population growth

Possible from increased food production, but leads to more use of 2nd choice foods

Domestic cats

All came from one monophyletic group. Hunted is agriculutral fields but didn’t depend on human food

Commensal pathway

One partner benefits, one does not

Rodents in agricultural fields

Rodents attracted to agriculture fields, cats attracted to rodents. Good food source for cats.

Wrong assumptions about food production

Farmers work less thanhunter-gathers

Domestication led to better health

Domesticated plants and animals are better food sources

Why did agriculture start in SW Asia

Arid climate meant poor wild food production. Needed to rely on new source… agriculture

Status

Rights, duties, privileges, powers, etc… Determined by age, gender, birth class, education, etc.

Ascribed Status

Assigned status thats passed on. Prince, Earls, etc…

Achieved status

Based on accomplishments.

Egalitarian societies

Means equal society. People must achieve their status (hunting, warrior, etc.)

Ranked societies

Status ascribed by birth or adoption. Like an elite family lineage

Class societies

Status ascribed by birth. (going to college/trade school, winning american idol…)

Status as indicated by: Irreversible body modification

Tattoos, cranial deformation, tooth removal, foot deformation

Status as indicated by: Bodily decoration

Exotic feathers, crowns, fancy staff

Status as indicated by: Housing, furnishings

Owning nice horses, fancy horse carriage, nice house

Status as indicated by: Costly/rare/exotic objects

Owning things like obsidian, exotic feathers, sea shells

Identifying households

Walls, footings, post holes, special structures, etc..

Burials, grave goods

Status marked by things a person is buried with.

Turkana pillar sites

30 burials in 4 square meters. GPR releaves extent of burial cavity. All ages buried and all sorts of good buried with.

Nubian cemeteries (Kadero, A-Group, Kerma)Egyptian imports

A range of burial sites which include many burial goods and evidence of sacrifice

Egyptian imports

Exotic items from outside Egypt to show high status and prestige

Moundville

Burials with a range of status. Clear hierarchy in burial treatment

Kadero Burials

Neolithic burials show status differences, some people are buried with rich grave goods. Burials with grave goods include some children = ascribed status

Nubian A Group burials

high status individuals (rulers) buried with imports from Egypt Imports signal high status

Kerma Burials

High status burials accompanied by sacrifices

Power

Potential to influence and initiate.

Sources of power

Economic, ideological, political, military, etc.

Politics

How a society organizes itself in order to make and enforce decisions, to resolve conflicts, and to control access to and distribution of social status and power

Managerial theories vs coercive theories of complex societies

Managerial Theories: • Leaders emerge to manage societal demands • Leaders served integrative functions Coercive Theories: • Leaders are out for their own self interests

• Propertied class makes decisions. Probably a combination of both factors in different contexts

Nekhen (Hierakonpolis)

• Political center • Large settlement • Social stratification (mastabas = tombs for leaders) • Palaces, temples • By 3500 BCE Hierakonopolis = capital of upper Egypt

Mastaba

Tombs for leaders and officials. Not for Pharos

Unification of Upper and Lower Egypt = Early Dynastic Period

Depicted on The Narmer Palette. Depicts unification of Upper and Lower Egypt into a single STATE • Long process, accomplished through military means • Development of state religion headed by a god-king

King Narmer, the Narmer Palette

King Narmer: Dynasty I, Narmer Palette depicts unification of upper and lower Egypt

Graves of rulers at Abydos

King lists at Abydos. Each king’s name (in a cartouche) is recorded

Old Kingdom Egypt

2500-2200 BCE. Rapid political consolidation, bureaucracy expands, military force is established

Pyramids

Burial sites for Pharos

Sed festival

Every 30 years, held at Saqqara. Ritual rebirth of king, eventually took form of jubilees, celebrating success of the Pharaoh

Taxation

In place by 2nd dynasty • Egypt divided into many districts • Taxes collected

Nomes, nomarchs

The name for a district of Egypt, each ruled by a nomarch

Intermediate periods

• 2195-2066 BCE • Old Kingdom period comes to an end • Drought • Social + political upheaval • Nomarchs gain more power • 18 kings & 1 queen in 20 years! • No monumental architecture for royal burials

Water management

River irrigation management. Was a debunked theory about the flourish of Egypt

Circumscription

Population growth vs limited land and resources. Did not effect Egypt due to Nile River

Redistribution

• Managerial, service oriented model. • State extracts tribute/taxes, funnels it toward social services • Build pyramids in sync w/ agricultural cycle • workers build during growing season and supported by the state • workers supported later by tribute/taxes

Ma’at

Balance and order. Represented by Pharaoh of Horus

How Pyramids are leveled

Dig down to bedrock and fill with water, when chip away rock until water no longer spilled out

Why a true state failed to form a Copan

Throughout its history, the growth was always limited by the competing lineage heads and the political skills of the king

What are the differences in residences of royalty vs nobles vs commoners

Royalty’s residences needed extensive labor. Noble’s residencies needed less labor… About a 1/3rd of royalty’s. Commoners needed little labor… About 1/90th of Noble’s. Archaeologists began to wonder if the nobles began to seriously challenge the power of the kings

Ideology

• Culturally specific ideas about the way the world is, and why • Legitimizes social relations and institutions • Structures how individuals perceive and act e.g. gender ideologies • Makes intelligible (or “natural”) a set of human relations with other humans, plants, animals, the world

Religion

A particular aspect of ideology. Aims to understand and mediate the relationship of humans to the supernatural • gods, spiritual beings • ancestors • forces beyond human control • weather, luck, death • Often involves ritual practices but not all rituals are religious

Ritual

Stereotyped behavior aimed at producing certain internal states in participants

Expresses fundamental ideological tenets • Catholic mass • Graduation ceremonies • Presidential inauguration

Symbols

an object or act (verbal or nonverbal) that by cultural convention stands for something else with which it has no necessary connection

Art

A set of material practices and performances • Evokes feelings and responses • Not separable from worldview, politics, economy • Part of social life • Way of making meaning • Must be understood in local and historical context

Upper Paleolithic lifeways

Rich, diverse environments • Seasonal but predictable resources • Mobile hunter-gatherers; collecting strategies • Required coordination and cooperation

Shamanism

Culture of performing rituals (Things like sacrifices and symbolic activities)

Functionalist approach to cave art

• Caves were sacred sites or sanctuaries• Painting were part of rituals preformed to increase success in hunting (“sympathetic magic”)

Structuralist approach to cave art

Paintings part of elaborate system of meaning with specific structure or grammar (“mythogram”)

Context and symbols

Redundant symbols link to central ideas.

Altamira

seasonal aggregation site--group hunting of red deer and shell-fish collecting

Differences in processual and post-processual/feminist views of ideology

Processual believes ideology and religion are “adaptive” because they integrate diverse groups into a functional whole, contribute to individual mental health and survival, and regulate social interactions by encouraging morally correct behavior

Post-processual often makes “natural” social inequality

Ex: “this race is biologically incapable of intellectual work,” or “women will damage their reproductive organs if educated,” etc.

Where is cave art usually found and what is depicted

Typically found in Spain and France and often depicts animals

What hominin species is the Upper Paleolithic in Europe associated with? What time period?

Homo sapiens in the Pleistocene era (Ice age)

Theory of practice - Bourdieu

• Structures of the Body • Habitus: our internalized, embodied view of how the world works and how things should be done. • Constituted in practice; in how we go about our daily lives; in how we experience the world. • Manifested materially • Continually reproduced or transformed

Deetz

English colonists experienced a major shift in ideology

Vernacular vs academic architecture

Loosely planned construction architecture vs blue-printed, thought-out construction with careful construction

Hall and parlor

Academic architecture saw the appearance of common spaces, like halls and parlors, in the household which separated into individual rooms

Medieval mindset

Group oriented, corporate, organic. Little planning.

Georgian Order

Focus on individual, formal,orderly, more academic, popular

Georgian architecture

Mid 18th century. Orderly, planned, and based on popular, academic principles of design architecture

17 th C foodways

Medieval Mindset. Ingredients stewed together. Food served in trenchers, beverages. Use of ceramic cook/serving vessels

Trencher

A communal vessel. Like a large, shallow wooden bowl

Georgian meals

Order. Separation between main ingredients in meals.

Individual place settings.

Georgian meals. Served on individual plates/bowls

Death’s head

Most popular in 18th century. Skull with wings

Willow & urn

Became very popular in 19th century. Depicted willow tree limbs above an urn

Gravestones

Motif changes linked to ideological shifts. Very good for dating.

Leone

He built of Deetz model. He critiqued Deetz for not taking into account issues of power and agency

William Paca’s garden

Symmetry and order demonstrate control over nature and society. Displays power and wealth in the household.

Order over nature

Designed to stabilize and assert individual prosperity and power

The Garbage Project

By William Rathje. Focuses on consumption and refuse disposal patterns today.

Antiquities Act (AA)

First Archaeology Legislation. Allowed US Presidents to create national monuments from historic/prehistoric landmarks.

National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA)

Provides better processes for identifying and evaluating cultural resources beyond executive orders. Created systematic, nationwide program of historic preservation.

Cultural Resource

All the physical evidence of past human activity. Includes below ground, submerged, and surface remains.

Cultural Resource Management (CRM)

Archaeology related to compliance with legislation that protects cultural resources. Accounts for about 90 percent of field archaeology conducted today in the United States. Deal with federal level.

State Historic Preservation Office

Keeps records on all cultural resources in their state, reviews CRM projects, and issues permits to developers and archaeologists

National Register of Historic Places

Used to evaluate the significance of a cultural resource and decide if a site should be protected or mitigated

Significance of cultural resources

Determines:Level of allowable destruction from development and disturbance, degree of protection, and prioritization due to climate change threats

Archaeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA)

Protects federal sites and properties from looting. Made it illegal to sell, receive, or transport artifacts illegally removed from federal lands. Creates criminal consequences such as fines and jail time for looters