Buried Civilizations of the Americas

3. Anthropology & Archaeology: History and Key Concepts

• History of Anthropological Theory
• Anthropology grew out of curiosity about "the other"
• Started in classical times
• In the 14th C Arabic World, Ibn Khaldun:
• "the past resembles the present as one drop of water resembles another"
• argues that world history is characterized as a dispute between nomadic pastoral people and civilized townspeople
• Evolutionism
• As a formal discipline anthropology developed in the mid 1800s out of evolutionary scientific revolution
• Evolutionary Stages of Lewis Henry Morgan
• Savagery
• Lower-language,
• Middle-fire,
• Upper-bow and arrow
• Barbarism:
• Lower-pottery,
• Middle-domestication,
• Upper-iron
• Civilization-writing
• More recent typology of Marshall Sahlins and Elman Service
• Band - relatively egalitarian, generally mobile
• Tribe - achieved status, generally sedentary
• Chiefdom - hereditary elite and commoners, tribute
• State - formal bureaucracy
• Explanation in Anthropology
• Formal, hard science approach, often evolutionary
• Interpretive or Narrative Approach (Clifford Geertz)
• Post-modern approach
• Subfields of Anthropology
• Social or Cultural Anthropology (participant observation)
• Physical Anthropology
• Linguistics
• Archaeology
• Archaeology
• The study of culture and cultural change using the material remains of people as evidence.
• Reconstruction
• Explanation
• Value of archaeology
• Handicaps & advantages
• History of Archaeological Theory
• Archaeological and Ethnographic Collecting - 1870s-1910
• goal: discovery, collection, specific explanation
• activity: often unsystematic excavation of large sites, for museums
• approach: ad hoc
• Classificatory Historical 1910-1960s
• goal: time-space systematics, normative explanations
• activity: excavate large & stratified sites, classify artifacts, order cultures in time & space
• approach: normative
• concepts: type, trait, diffusion, migration, direct historical approach
• Processual Archaeology 1970s-90s
• key individual: Lewis Binford
• goal: processual explanation
• activity: survey & excavation, all types of sites
• approach: systemic, functional, processual
• concepts: system, functionalism, environmental determinism
• Post-processual Archaeology 1980s-1990s
• key individual: Ian Hodder
• goal: extraction of meaning
• activity: historical, often intrasite
• approach: human agency, anti-scientific, critical
• concepts: practice, structure, agency, ideation
• Archaeological Activities:
• Research Design (goal-directed research plan)
• Archaeological Survey
• Pedestrian survey, locate archaeological sites: location with evidence of past human activity (not just buildings)
• Find position, map, record site characteristics
• Surface collect artifacts (items made or used by people, e.g., pottery, chipped stone)
• Excavation
• Digging, usually structures
• Recover architecture and artifacts
• Laboratory work and Writeup
• lab: measure, classify & count, composition
• write: reports, articles and books
• more time-consuming than fieldwork