STUDY GUIDE FOR INTRO TO ARCHAEOLOGY FINAL CHAPTERS Chapter 9 Cognitive Archaeology The study of past ways of thought and symbolic structures from material remains Cognitive map An interpretive framework of the world which it is argued exists in the human mind and affects actions and decisions as well as knowledge structures Landscape Archaeology The study of individual features including settlements seen as single components within the broader perspective of the patterning of human activity over a wide area Iconography An important component of cognitive archaeology this involves the study of artistic representations which usually have an overt religious or ceremonial significance KEY CONCEPTS FROM CHAPTER 9 Early Human Symbolizing Faculties The development of language and self consciousness Evidence of design in tool manufacture Evidence of the procurement of materials and planning The deliberate burial of human remains Representations and art Working With Symbols The marking of place and the definition of territory The construction of systems of measurement Design mapping and the planning of future actions Shaping and reflecting social realities including identity and power relationships Communicating with supernatural powers in the Other World IN CLASS NOTES Cognitive Archaeology doesn t ask WHAT is depicted it asks WHY it s depicted Why is it important enough to be depicted It is impossible to translate a symbol in isolation It has to have context Symbols can be made ambiguous on purpose To limit a general understanding down to a select few RELIGION How to tell at a site a focus Architecture evidence of perceived worlds or boundaries depictions of supernatural deities evidence of offerings documentation of repeated actions of symbolic nature Caves are common Religion must include human interaction Archaeologists can only study artifact remains Religious activities are usually centralized Natural hills caves springs Manmade special buildings CHAPTER 10 Structuralist Interpretations which stress that human actions are guided by beliefs and symbolic concepts and that underlying these are structures of thought which find expression in various forms Marxist Archaeology Based principally on the writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels this posits a materialist model of societal change Change within a society is seen as the result of contradictions arising between the forces of production and the relations of production Evolutionary Archaeology The idea that the processes responsible for biological evolution also drive culture change KEY CONCEPTS Migrationist and Diffusionist Explanations rely on rather simple ideas of the supposed migrations of peoples or the often ill defined spread of ideas Processual Attempts to provide more general explanations sometimes using law like formulations and framing hypotheses and testing deductions from these against the data Postprocessual or Interpretive Emphasizes the specific context drawing sometimes on structuralist or neo Marxist ideas stressing often the role of the individual and avoiding the generalizations of the processual approach IN CLASS NOTES Low level theories observations and hand on field work Middle level theories hypothesis that links observations and behavior High level theories why Paradigm Processual Paradigm General Explains social economic and cultural changes that occur because of adaption to material conditions Postprocessual Paradigm Individual Focuses on humanistic approaches and rejects scientific objectivity more concerned with interpreting the past then testing the hypothesis Archaeology of change Synchronic Change occurs at the same time across geographical space Diachronic change requires info on the pattern being studied from at least 2 time periods It studies both the presence AND absence of change Migrations movement of a population Replace Absorbed Blending Evidence of Migrations New language and symbolic system New burial patterns New artifact types New settlement types New settlement patterns Invention vs Diffusion Invention creation of new technology doesn t necessarily mean migration Innovation creating new ways of doing something Diffusion movement of materials ideas Why did the Titanic sink Proxima explanation because it hit an iceberg Ultima explanation because it had a hole in it and if filled with water Mayan collapse Proof of severe drought Rapid depopulation Abandonment of administration Buildings and things were left unfinished Interpretive Approach Structuralism recurrent Patterns in human thought regardless of culture Neomarxist Theory Places more emphasis on ideology rather than economy Ideology a society s boy of belief mythology and social norms Pseudoarchaeology The use of selective archaeological evidence to promulgate nonscientific fictional accounts of the past Chapter 11 KEY CONCEPTS N A IN CLASS NOTES This was the lecture of our guest on Thursday the 12th There were no notes to be taken down really but I will put the end of chapter study questions to give you an idea to what the chapter was about Who owns the past What are some ways in which symbols from the past have led to conflict What are ethics What sorts of ethical issues do archaeologists encounter Why are many archaeologists critical of pseudoarchaeology What are illicit antiquities Summary from the chapter The past has different meanings for different people and often personal identity is defined by the past Increasingly archaeology is playing a role in the definition of national identity where the past is used to legitimize the present by reinforcing a sense of national greatness Ethnicity which is just as strong a force today as in earlier times relies upon the past for legitimization as well sometimes with destructive consequences Ethics is the science of what is right and wrong or morality and most branches of archaeology are seen to have an ethical dimension Until recent decades archaeologists gave little thought to such questions as who owns the past Now every archaeological decision should take ethical concerns into account The archaeology of every land has its own contribution to make to the understanding of human diversity and hence of the human condition Although earlier scholars behaved with flagrant disregard for the feelings and beliefs of native peoples interest in these matters today is not an attempt further to appropriate the native past Perhaps the saddest type of archaeological destruction comes from the