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1/27/05 2/1

• Small Group Discussion
• Differences between science and
  post-processualism as intellectual structures
• role of ideas in both
• meaning of theory in both
• explanation versus interpretation

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Development of the Discipline

• Definition of a archaeology as a discipline
• coherent set of ideas,methods and techniques to
  investigate the human past
• 1860 establishment of archaeology as a
  discipline. Why?
• deep time for humans

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• SPECULATIVE PERIOD IN AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY
• Archaeology as the study of the human past is a
  western European discipline
• Curiosity about origin of American Indians
• is as old as Columbian voyages. Who are they
  people? What is their origin?
• no archaeology involved

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Bartolomé de las Casas 1520

• Dominican Priest
• Defender of American Indians
• American Indians were lambs of God. They were
  not natural slaves
• Must be protected by the Spanish Crown

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Doctrine of Progress

• 18th C Scalae Natura (The Scale of
  Nature)
• All people can improve, regardless of orgin
• 19th C Social Darwinism
• Biology and Cultural progress Scaled

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LOUIS HENRY MORGAN SOCIAL DARWINIST
Robert Fitzroy, Captain Of the Beagle
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Summary

• From 1492 on, there was curiosity and discussion
  regarding the American Indians. Who they were?
  How they related to the story of creation in the
  Bible?
• Because the Bible was Judeo-Christian, all
  societies were viewed from a European
  perspective
• Result A genuine racism (from a contemporary
  view point) develops---American Indians as
  inferior.
• This position becomes incorporated in the social
  darwinism of the late 19th and early 20th century

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Issues that resulted in the Development of
American Archaeology

• Mound Builder Debate
• Resolved in the late 19th c.
• An American Paleolithic
• The discovery of Folsom in 1927

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Ephraim Squier
Great Mound at Marietta Ohio
High bank Ohio
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Smithsonian Institution
Cyrus Thomas, Director of Mound Survey
Mound Stratigraphic Cross Section Etowah
Copper Breast Plate, Etowah Georgia
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Summary

• 1. Gave American Indians back their birth right.
• 2. Political Context By the late 19th century,
  European hegemony in the United States
  established. Indian groups subdued
• 3. Systematic empirical investigation resulted in
  the establishment of Method and Technique (
  archaeology)

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Debate regarding Age of Native Populations in the
Americas

• Resolved in 1927 at Folsom New Mexico when a
  human spear point was found embedded in the Ribs
  of an extinct Bison.
• Humans coexisted with extinct megafauna.
• Therefore time depth to the Native American Record

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Bifaces and Extinct Megafauna
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The American Paleolithic (Folsom NM, 1927)
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Summary What Weve Covered

• Development of Archaeology as a Discipline
• Occurred because of questions that could only be
  answered by empirical investigation. (Had to stop
  speculating and examine the archaeological
  record)
• Significant Consequences
• a. Developed a coherent set of methods and
  techniques ( many derived from geology). In the
  US, Government investigations of the MB resulted
  in standardization
• b. Establishment of the Discipline
• c. Establishment of Human Antiquity overturned
• Biblical accounts of the creation of humans