* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Download Chapter 2 - HCC Learning Web
Survey
Document related concepts
History of anthropometry wikipedia , lookup
Ethnography wikipedia , lookup
Discovery of human antiquity wikipedia , lookup
Social Bonding and Nurture Kinship wikipedia , lookup
Political economy in anthropology wikipedia , lookup
Community archaeology wikipedia , lookup
Indigenous archaeology wikipedia , lookup
Cultural ecology wikipedia , lookup
American anthropology wikipedia , lookup
Archaeology wikipedia , lookup
Social anthropology wikipedia , lookup
Evolutionary archaeology wikipedia , lookup
Culture-historical archaeology wikipedia , lookup
Cultural anthropology wikipedia , lookup
Transcript
Chapter 2 The Structure of Archaeological Inquiry Chapter Outline What’s an Anthropological Approach? What’s a Scientific Approach? The Structure of Archaeological Inquiry How Archaeological Inquiry Works An Anthropological Approach Anthropologists believe the best understanding of the human condition arises from a global, comparative, and holistic approach. What holds anthropology together is its insists that every aspect of every human society, extant or extinct, counts. Archaeologists are anthropologists who specialize in ancient societies, drawing upon each of the subfields of anthropology. Kinds of Anthropologists Anthropology embraces four primary fields of study: Biological anthropology Cultural anthropology Linguistic anthropology Archaeology Kinds of Anthropologists The Culture Concept Brings together the subfields of anthropology. Archaeology is concerned with how cultures change overtime. Integrated system of beliefs, traditions, and customs that govern or influence a person’s behavior. Culture is: Learned Shared by members of a group Symbolic, based on the ability to think in terms of symbols How Anthropologists Study Culture Anthropologists study cultures in two basic ways: Ideational perspective Focus on ideas, symbols, and mental structures as driving forces in shaping human behavior. Adaptive perspective Isolates technology, ecology, demography, and economics as the key factors defining human behavior. Culture as Ideas This perspective emphasizes ideas, thoughts, and shared knowledge and sees symbols and their meanings as crucial to shaping human behavior. According to the ideational view of culture, one cannot comprehend human behavior without understanding the symbolic code for that behavior. Culture as Adaptation An adaptive perspective privileges“culture as a system.” Social and cultural differences are viewed as responses to the material parameters of life (i.e. food, shelter, and reproduction). We need both perspectives to understand human diversity and history. Both fall within an overarching scientific approach. A Scientific Approach 1. Science is empirical, or objective. 2. Science is systematic and explicit. 3. Science is logical. 4. Science is explanatory and consequently, predictive. 5. Science is self-critical and based on testing. 6. Science is public. How Science Explains Things: The Moundbuilder Myth Colonial Americans justify the taking of Native American lands in several ways, and one involved archaeology. Some mounds were constructed as early as 5,500 years ago, in the Southern Mississippi Valley, by 3,000 years ago the practice was widespread across the Eastern U.S. The moundbuilders might have been anyone, except the ancestors of Native Americans. 19th century scholars saw the Indians as late-arrivers marauders, destroyers of a magnificent civilization. This view of history gave colonists the sense of innate superiority and the rights to avenge the mound builders by disposing Native Americans of their land. Moundbuilders The Scientific Method 1. Define a relevant problem. 2. Establish one or more hypotheses. 3. Determine the empirical implications of the hypotheses. 4. Collect appropriate data. 5. Test the hypothesis by comparing these data with the expected implications. 6. Reject, revise, and/or retest hypotheses as necessary. Scientific Methods Components Hypothesis – a proposition proposed as an explanation of some phenomenon. Inductive reasoning - working from specific observations to more general hypotheses Deductive reasoning – reasoning from theory to account for specific observations or experimental results Testability – the degree to which one’s observations and experiments can be reproduced Science is Self-correcting Science insists that we ask: Do we really know what we think we know? Deductive reasoning is required to uncover these logical outcomes. The conclusions must be true, given that the premises are true. Generally take the form of “if”… “then” Science is Reiterative The scientific cycle does begin and end with facts. http://mail.colonial.net/~hkaiter/scientific_method.html Science is Not Infallible Science is subject to false starts, dead ends, preconceived notions, and cultural biases. http://scene.asu.edu/habitat/s_method.html The Structure of Archaeology Inquiry Theories answer the “why” questions Low-Level Theory The observations and interpretations that emerge from hands-on archaeological field and lab work. Begins with archaeological objects and generates relevant facts or data about those objects. Data depends on theory much as theory depends on data. Archaeologists don’t excavate data but objects, data are observations made on these objects. Middle-Level Theory Necessary to infer human behavior and natural processes from archaeological data. Hypothesis that links archaeological observations with the human behavior or natural processes that produced them. Moves past observable to invisible, or relevant, human behaviors or natural processes of the past. Situations that require observations of ongoing human behavior or natural processes, or evidence of the material results of that behavior or those processes High-Level Theory Theory that seeks to answer large “why” questions. Goes beyond the archaeology specifics to address the “big questions” of concern to many social and historical sciences. Paradigms – overarching framework for understanding how the world works. A lot like culture; learned, shared and symbolic. Are not open to direct open empirical verification, they are just useful or not. Paradigms in Modern Archaeology Processual – explains social, economic, and cultural change as primarily the result of adaptation to material conditions. External conditions (i.e. environment) are assumed to take causal priority over ideational factors in explaining change. Culture viewed as a system – general systems theory Postprocessual – focuses on humanistic approaches and rejects scientific objectivity Concerned with interpreting the past, more than with testing hypotheses Change arises largely from interactions between individuals operating within a symbolic and/or competitive system. Processual-Plus – middle road. All archaeologists view history as the combined result of the actions of individuals. How Archaeological Inquiry Works Processual paradigm: Paradigms provide specific guidelines for high-level theory. Paradigms generate more specific claims about a region’s prehistory. Postprocessual paradigm: May look at other social and economic factors for changes within a past society. Contrast between Processual and Postprocessual Archaeology Processual Archaeology Postprocessual Archaeology Emphasizes evolutionary generalizations and regularities not historical specifics; downplays the importance of the individual Rejects the search for universal laws and regularities Views culture from a systemic perspective and defines culture as adaptation Rejects the systemic view of culture and focuses on an ideational perspective Explanation is explicitly scientific and objective Less enthusiastic about scientific methods and denies possibility of objectivity Attempts to remain ethically neutral: claims ot be explicitly nonpolitical Argues that all archaeology is unavoidably political Testing Ideas Hypotheses must be constructed to test the competing propositions, processual or postprocessual. Adequate middle-level theory can define what constitutes relevant archaeological data. Archaeologists must design fieldwork to generate adequate data. Reconstructing the Past Hypothesis testing requires reconstructing the past. A complete picture of the past will always elude us. To reconstruct the past, some issues are important and others can be downplayed. Modern archaeologists know that results need to be conveyed to a broader public. This professional and public feedback might require a revisit and even a revision of the research propositions. Videos The Scientific Method Explained http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA3yhdNXiFM&fe ature=fvwrel Questions of Doom: Processual vs. Post-Processual: The Great Schism? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjnR4uGVglU Quick Quiz 1. Which of the following would an anthropologist study? A. Biology B. Languages C. Linguistics D. Humans living in the past E. All of the above Answer: E Archaeology, Biological anthropology, Cultural anthropology, and Linguistic anthropology are subfields of anthropology. 2. The ideational perspective of anthropology: A. Focuses on ideas, symbols, and mental structures as forces in human behavior. B. Considers the ideas of technology, ecology, demography, and economics as factors that define behavior. C. Is primarily concerned with “culture as a system.” D. All of the above. Answer: A The ideational perspective of anthropology focuses on ideas, symbols, and mental structures as forces in human behavior. 3. Which of the following are characteristics of science? A. Objective, logical, and explanatory B. Objective, subjective, and processural C. Based on an untested idea D. Objective, logical, explanatory, and unproven E. All of the above Answer: A Science is objective, logical, and explanatory. 4. Processual archaeology rejects the search for universal laws and regularities. A. True B. False Answer: B Postprocessual archaeology reject the search for universal laws and regularities