ANT2100 Final Exam Study Guide!!!Introduction• Anthropology = The study of human beings• Subfieldso Archeological – Study of past societies and their cultural patterns/processes through analysis of their material remains (tools, food remains, and cities) o Cultural – Study of cultures and societies of human beings and their very recent past. o Linguistic – Study of language, how it’s structured, and its social/cultural contexts across space and time.  Sociolinguistics – Investigates relationships between social and linguistic variation.o Physical/Biological – Study of human evolution and variation biologically, both in the past and currently.  Focuses on interaction between culture and biology (Human genetics, growth and development, evolution)• Ethnography – Fieldwork in a particular culture, providing an account of that community, society, or culture. o Uses data that is collected in the field.o Descriptiveo Refers to a specific group or community• Ethnology – Comparative, cross-cultural study of ethnographic data, society and culture.o Uses data that is collected by researcherso Synthetico Used to compare and study a group of different cultures. • Theory – A set of ideas formulated (based on reasoning and facts) to explain something. o Used to promote new understanding. • Association – An observed relationship between two or more measured variables.• Anthropology is:o Holistic – Considers all aspects of a culture, its economic system, religion, kinship, politics, history, and biology making everything interrelated.  It considers the whole rather than only parts. Chapter 1: History of Archaeology• Speculative Phaseo 14th – 17th Century Europe = Mass looting of sites These people called themselves “Natural Historians”o William Stukeley – First to perform systematic studies of monuments.• Excavatingo 18th Century researchers began digging around major sites.  Goal was to loot treasure for personal collections.o First ‘Scientific’ Excavation performed by Thomas Jefferson through a Native American burial mound.  Concluded by deductive reasoning that the ‘mounds’ had been used repeatedly over many generations by Native Americans to bury their dead. o Mid 19th century – Archaeology is established as a field• Uniformitarianism – Processes acting and shaping the world today were in operation in the past – the earth has great antiquity. • “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection” by Charles Darwin challenged scientific thought by claiming:o Species were not created in their present form, but evolved from ancestral species.  Species are Mutable not fixed.o Proposed mechanism for evolution Natural selection o Traits are inherited and passed to the next generation. o There is biological variation within all species.• Three Age System –o Stone Age o Bronze Age o Iron Age • Unilinear Evolution – o Savagery – Pre-Agriculturalo Barbarism – Pottery and Agricultureo Civilization – Writing• 1822 Jean-Francois Champollion deciphered the Rosetta stone making it possible to decipher Egyptian Hieroglyphics.• Blueprint Strategyo Reconnaissanceo Rank sites chronologicallyo Organize into sequenceso Stratigraphic excavation (careful removal and analysis of each different layer of soil)o More detailed regional survey and dating• Cultural Ecology – Cultural change due to adapting to change in the environment. o Associate geographical distributions of site over time against changing environmentso Examines differences in floral and faunal remains to reconstruct prehistoric environments.• Radiocarbon Dating – The ability to efficiently date sites and materials across the world back to when they were created.• Objectivity (Lewis Binford) – The idea that a conclusion should be based on an explicit framework of logical argument (DATA).o Goal was to explain objectively (logically), not simply describe artifact typology or classification.• Traditionalist Approach – Used to explain general ideas and try to answer big questions like ‘Why are we here?’o Descriptiveo Historical Explanationo Inductiveo Based on Authorityo Data Accumulationo Qualitativeo Pessimistic• Processual Approach – Used to study specific groups and cultures and accumulate data/hard facts in order to answer specific questions about them. o Explanatory Cultural Processeso Deductiveo Testingo Project Designo Quantitativeo Optimistic• Women in Archeology – Harriet Boyd Hawes discovered the Bronze Age site of Gournia by riding around Crete for several seasons. Chapter 2: Evidence We Study• Artifact – Objects used, modified, or made by people (not the same as a tool)• Ecofact – Organic and environmental remains (Seeds, skeletal remains, soils, pollen, poop)• Features – More permanent artifacts (non-portable) such as hearths, postholes, floors. • Sites – Locations where artifacts, features, ecofacts, structures, and organic and environmental remains are found. o Places with evidence of human activity• Tell – A site humans have occupied over long periods of time (Example: ROME) • Provenience – Horizontal and vertical positions in the matrix (gravel, sand, clay)• Human Ancestors = Stone tools found in a closed matrix with extinct animal bone.• Taphonomy – Study of site formation processes.o Cultural Formation – Deliberate or accidental activity of human beings.o Natural Formation – Natural processes that effect the burial and survival of archaeological remains (flood, volcano, earthquake) Natural processes can also destroy the primary context• Flint Knapping – Creation of stone tools to study their practical use in past civilizations. • Cutso Hunting = Cuts on the meaty bones of an animal.o Scavenging = Cuts on other bones of the animal like the ribs or head.• 4 Main Activities of Original Human Behavioro Acquisition of raw materialo Manufactureo Use and distributiono Disposal or disposal when the tool is no longer workable• Burialso Artifacts are placed in burials intentionallyo Artifacts can tell us what others thought about the person buriedo Hoards can be a great source of archaeological remains.  Individuals bury valuables with the intention of coming back to dig them up. o Premise – People who are treated differently in life will be treated differently in death.  A person’s grave represents that person’s status. • Natural Formation