Some Unilinear Evolution and Funsies
founding father of anthropology
Franz Boas
Method that entails the grouping of artifacts’ morphological characteristics
Typology
This author called to make archaeology more anthropological and popularized the view that there is a baseline to human behavior
Lewis Binford (1962)
HBE considers this to be the primary cause of culture change
Adaptive behaviors in response to unique environmental and social contexts
Post-processualism entails a shift away from considering artifacts' function to.....
Considering the social meaning of artifacts. Meaning is viewed as encoded in artifacts through beliefs/cultural values and the practices that reinforce such meaning via use.
Why: Ian Hodder Thing-Theory = good example
human ancestor whose footprints were found in Laetoli, Tanzania
Australopithecus afarensis
rejected the usefulness of types. belief that types are inherently biased
James Ford 1954
Theory that thinks the complexities of all cultures can be reduced to some basic set of organization structures
Systems Theory
cultural transmission does not assume this quality in behavior whilst HBE models do
Optimization.
Why: CT allows for people to do things that aren't optimal. CT tries to understand what historical processes influenced past behaviors and impacted culture change.
Post-processualism is often critiqued for embracing historical particularism because ....
it allows for too much subjectivity in interpretation. this encourages less "rigidity" in methods used to study the past
This is the idea of cultures as geographically discrete entities. It promotes the idea that culture is defined by the material items they produce.
Culture Areas
Work done in New Mexico that correlated the frequency of different ceramic types with spatiotemporal variables and produced a more accurate chronology. It is also notable for use of stratigraphic excavation
Nels Nelson 1916, San Cristobal
Poses that at the center of all cultures are their responses to the environment through subsistence mechanisms. Peripheral to this are aspects of social life, such as kinship, spirituality, impacts of historical processes.
Julian Steward's Culture Core
Amassing a surplus of resources has traditionally been viewed as driving this social condition
Social Inequality
belief and action, material and historical context, negotiation, and material culture are aspects of this theory outline by this popular author
Social Action Theory, Ian Hodder (1985)
Myth explored by a former Founding Father to address a feature's unknown nature by paying careful attention to the subsurface orientation of its material culture.
Moundbuilder Myth
Method used when stratigraphy is not useful. Assumes change over time is gradual by not jumping from one artifact type to another without some intermediate.
Similarity Seriation
View of material culture that began w/ processualism
Material culture reflects human behavior
Evolutionary theories typically study this type of society which employs daily tasks and habits to procure wild resources. They are considered to have a wide diet breadth. Resources pursued are those which are the most efficient to procure.
Foragers, Hunter Gatherers, Small Scale Societies
Hodder (1985) criticized ethnoarchaeology for this reason
It risks assuming universality in the human experiences and ignores the social/historical processes endured by contemporary societies. it is viewed as assuming there is objective knowledge about the human condition rather than subjectivity.
The oldest known shoes in the world are on exhibit at this museum 6-8 hours north of us. They were also found in this state.
University of Oregon, the big E
culture change is viewed as
Characterized by the historical processes and is treated as something that can be explained by understanding the sequencing of different styles AND/OR by building a chronology. Culture was viewed as distinct to specific regions and groups of people. Culture as ordered.
Method that uses empirical data about contemporary communities to describe the archaeological record. Can rely on human behavior being "regular."
Ethnographic Analogy
Optimal foraging models consider what selected (subsistence-related) behaviors lead to reproductive success. These models, and others in HBE, have been criticizing for not considering these factors...
Individual variability and agency.
Why: there are different kinds of people in societies; men, children, women, elderly etc. There are exceptions to these models given the constraints of particular individuals.
This principle advocates for archaeologists to use multiple perspectives in their interpretation of data and has been essential for developing practices in community-based archaeology
Multivocality