ANTHR 130: Archaeology and Cultural Prehistory

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ANTHR 130Archaeology and Cultural Prehistory

• Introduction Archaeology as Anthropology

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The Speculative Period 1492(?)-1840

• Nabonidus
• Petrarch
• Thomas Jefferson
• Notes on the State of Virginia
• Native American burial mounds
• systematic excavation
• reporting of finds
• research questions

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• The Speculative Period is the age when the idea
  of archaeology was conceived.
• It is called the Speculative Period because this
  was the time directly following Columbus's voyage
  to the Americas and many people were questioning
  or speculating about the new people and other
  never before seen things and places in the New
  World

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• The first trend in the Speculative Period was in
  the 16th and 17th centuries and primarily
  concentrated on Latin America.
• This trend was composed of stories and chronicles
  of people (mainly priests and other
  administrators) who had traveled with the Spanish
  conquistadors.
• These chronicles were narratives in story form
  and were generally non-scientific in nature.

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• The second trend was in the 18th and 19th
  centuries and like the first trend consisted of
  the narratives of explorers and travelers.
• However, it differs from the first trend in that
  it was more scientific in tone and method.
• These people actually used scientific ideas and
  methods instead of merely describing and forming
  untested theories about what they observed.

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• The third trend originated in the 18th and 19th
  centuries, which overlapped the second trend.
• It is differentiated from the first two trends,
  because in this period, archaeology became the
  main concern of the explorers and travelers.
• It was not merely a byproduct of their
  exploration of the area while looking for land
  and gold.

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Classificatory-Descriptive Period1840-1914

• This period is characterized by a distinct change
  of attitude and outlook by many important
  archaeological writers and workers who strived to
  change archaeology into a scientific, systematic
  discipline.

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• The Classificatory/Descriptive period received
  its name from people wanting to scientifically
  classify and describe the phenomenon that they
  found. These people lay the groundwork for the
  twentieth century.
• Franz Boas and Historical Particularism a
  rejection of late 19th C. uniliner evolutionism
  and an emphasis on fieldwork and collecting data
  from all areas.

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Classificatory-Historical Period I 1910-1940

• The Classificatory-Historical Period was also
  concerned with scientifically classifying the
  phenomenon, but differed because it also
  attempted to place the information into
  historical context.

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• This period was concerned with the concept of
  chronology which means placing different cultures
  and artifacts within their appropriate time
  periods.
• It had two main trends.
• The first was concerned more with precise
  scientific methods of excavation.
• It stressed the importance of stratigraphic
  excavation -- A.V. Kidder at Pecos Pueblo and the
  development of seriation as a chronological tool
  (A.L. Kreober).
• It also stressed the importance of artifact
  (especially pottery) typologies as aid to
  seriation.
• The Direct Historical Approach

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Classificatory-Historic Period II 1940-1960

• The second trend is differentiated by the concern
  with placing the artifacts found into context and
  to find their function within the culture studied
  and within history.
• Focus
• artifacts as the material evidence of cultural
  and social behavior
• the relationship between culture and the natural
  environment
• the attention placed on the settlement patterns
  of the cultures studied are characteristics of
  this trend.
• Low-level theory (data collection, description)

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Explanatory Period (Processual Archaeology)
1960-Present

• The final period, the period we are presently in,
  is the Explanatory Period, which started in 1960.
  
• This period is set apart by its concern with
  evolutionary theory, general systems theory and
  deductive reasoning.

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The New Archaeology

• Unifying sense of dissatisfaction with old
  theories
• Wanted to test hypotheses of the past instead of
  constructing chronologies
• Focused more on people than on just material
  culture
• Focused on generalities rather than particulars

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• New ways of doing archaeology involved
• stating of biases
• systems theory, scientific approach
• ethnographic analogy
• middle-range theory
• examining variability

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• Main tenets
• emphasizes evolutionary generalizations, not
  historical specifics
• seeks universal laws
• explanation is explicitly scientific (includes
  statistical procedures)
• attempts to remain objective and ethically
  neutral
• views culture from a systemic perspective
• deals with etic phenomena
• defines culture as humanity's extrasomatic means
  of adaptation
• adopts a strongly positivist position

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• Proponents
• Lewis Binford (educated at UNC - CH)
• James Deetz (last taught at UVa)
• Walter Taylor
• Examples
• Taylors A Study of Archaeology
• Binfords work with the Nunamiut Eskimos
• Deetzs work with New England grave stones

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Post-processualism 1980- Present

• Saw a need to address cognitive factors from a
  perspective that wasnt necessarily based in
  science.
• problems with positivism
• problems with middle-range theory and analogy
• reject ideas of processualism
• Brought together Structuralism, neoMarxism, and
  feminism to generate theories and test models.
• Examples
• Feminist views on artifact assemblages (Brumfiel)
• Deconstruction of tours of historical sites
  (Leone)
• Discovery of latent social stratification
  (McGuire)