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•An explanation for observed, empirical phenomena.
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•It is empirical and seeks to explain the relationships between variables
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•observations and interpretations from hands-on field and lab work.
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•hypothesis that links archaeological observations with human behavior or natural processes that produced them.
–Ethnoarchaeology
–Experimental Archaeology
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•theory that seeks to answer large “why” questions.
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•The overarching framework, often unstated, for understanding a research problem.
•It is a researcher’s “culture.”
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–Explains social, economic, and cultural change as the result of adaptation to material conditions.
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–Focuses on humanistic approaches and rejects scientific objectivity; more concerned with interpreting the past than testing hypotheses.
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Emphasizes evolutionary generalizations, and regularities, downplays the importance of the individual.
Views culture from a systemic perspective and defines culture as adaptation.
Explanation is explicitly scientific and objective.
Attempts to remain ethically neutral; claims to be explicitly nonpolitical.
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Postprocessual Archaeology |
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Definition
Rejects the search for universal laws
and regularities.
Rejects the systemic view of culture.
Rejects scientific methods and objectivity.
Argues that all archaeology is unavoidably political.
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Asking the question “Why”- high level theory |
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–How researchers go about interpreting and studying the archaeological record is dependant on what lens they use to see the world.
–Their preferred paradigm
•Diffusionist
•Processual
•Postprocessual
•Cognitive
•Agency
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§Occurs at the same general time across geographic space
§Seen in environments, languages, economies, and cultures that exist in different places at that time
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§Change observed over time
§Requires information on the pattern being studied from at least two time periods
§Absence/presence of change
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§The movement of a population from one locality to another
§Replace
§Absorbed
§Blend
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§A major mechanism of change
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Reconstructing Population Movements |
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§From the archaeological record…detect, then determine when, where, how and why
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§Each culture has a unique cultural assemblage
§A population moves with its assemblage
§Assemblages can be traced and identified
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when a new group enters an area they potentially bring with them... |
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Definition
1.1.A new language and symbolic system
2.2.New burial patterns
3.43.New artifact types
4.4.New settlement types
5.5.A new settlement patterns
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§the creation of a new technology in response to a need
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§creating new ways of doing things with preexisting methods and/or technologies
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§movement of materials and ideas
§Independent invention → must consider when studying the distribution of traits
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Social and Political Movements |
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§Political and social movements may leave a mark on material culture
§Change from internal stimuli
§Spread of Christianity
§Spread of market economies
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–Researchers cannot deny that populations move
–Or that ideas, innovations, artifacts move
–We can see the movements in the arch. record
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•Problems with diffusion/migration: over use- This is not explanatory
–Why are the movements occurring in the first place?
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•War, overpopulation, trade, …
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•Attempts to isolate and study the different processes at work within and between societies.
•Emphasis is placed on environment, subsistence, and economy – influences on cultural ideology, organization, and beliefs
–Middle range theory
•Ethnoarchaeology
•Experimental archaeology
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Definition
•Change within a culture is caused by the contradictions between the forces of production and the social organization
–Struggle between classes
•The entire social system is based on economic organization (have and have not)
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•What if there are no social classes?
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–Then struggle between individuals
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•The study of the human past from the strict perspective of Darwinian evolution
•Modern mind is a product of biological evolution and adaptation to hunter-gatherer lifestyle
•Cultural traits (beliefs, customs, …) get passed down through the generations like genes
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–more detailed, culturally specific
•Only used in particular locations, time periods, circumstances
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try to create “natural laws”
Statements that work for multiple situations, circumstances, and cultures
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They are never universals!
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