STRUCTUREOF MODERN

INQUIRY

ARCHAEOLOGICAL

ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORDThe body of physical evidence relating to the human past - not written.

THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD

GENERATE HYPOTHESIS OR POSSIBLE EXPLANATION (THROUGH INDUCTIVE REASONING) FOR WHAT HAS BEEN OBSERVED

DEDUCE SPECIFIC THINGS THAT MUST BE TRUE IF THE HYPOTHESIS IS VALID

OBSERVE (COLLECT DATA)

TEST THE HYPOTHESIS BY CHECKING THE DEDUCTIONS

u

v

w

x

GENERATEy THEORY

GENERATE HYPOTHESIS INDUCTIVE REASONING) FOR WHAT HAS BEEN OBSERVED

DEDUCEHYPOTHESIS IS VALID

OBSERVE

TEST THE HYPOTHESIS

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v

w

x

GENERATEy THEORY

THEORY IN ARCHAEOLOGY

v MID RANGE THEORYw HIGH LEVEL THEORY

u LOW LEVEL THEORY

LOW LEVEL THEORYData. Relevant facts about the archaeological record (artifacts, structures, features, etc) based on observation

MID RANGE THEORYLinks specific set of archaeological data with the human behavior or natural processes that produced them.

HIGH LEVEL THEORYGoes beyond the archaeological specifics to address “big questions” that are of concern to many social and historical domains.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS

v PROCESSUAL ARCHAEOLOGY

u CULTURE HISTORY

w POST-PROCESSUAL ARCHAEOLOGY

v PROCESSUAL ARCHAEOLOGY

u CULTURE HISTORY

w POST-

CULTURAL HISTORYAn archaeological theoretical framework which emphasizes defining historical societies into distinct ethnic and cultural groupings according to their material culture.

EDWARD TYLOR (1832-1917)Proposed that human cultures developed through three basic stages, savagery, barbarism, and civilization

LEWIS HENRY MORGAN (1818-1881)Morgan also used the terms savagery, barbarism, and civilization, but expanded on these to give us seven levels of cultural evolution - all based on technological development

v BRONZE AGEw IRON AGE

u STONE AGE

v DIFFUSIONw INDUCTIVE REASONING

u “CULTURES”

“CULTURES”Past human history can be divided into “cultures” distinct from one another - based primarily on their material culture.

BADARIAN CULTURE

BEAKER PEOPLE

“CULTURES” = ETHNICITY (RACE)

DIFFUSIONsocial change in past cultures was explained through diffusion - the concept that cultural items (ideas, styles, religions, technologies, languages) spread from one culture to another

MESOPOTAMIA

EGYPT

4th Millennium BC

MESOPOTAMIA

EGYPT

INDUCTIVE REASONINGarguing from specifics to generalities. Developing generalities (eventually hypotheses) based on observed phenomena.

v CATALOGw DESCRIBE

u EXCAVATE

x MAKE TIMELINE

v PROCESSUAL ARCHAEOLOGY

u CULTURE HISTORY

w POST-PROCESSUAL ARCHAEOLOGY

“American archaeology is anthropology or it is nothing”

Gordon Willey and Philip Phillips!Method and Theory in American Archeology (1958)

THE GOALS OF ANTHROPOLOGY ARE THE GOIALS OF ARCHAEOLOGY

SCIENCE!

SCIENCE!+

≠

=

PEOPLE

SOCIETY

CULTURE

v CULTURE CHANGE PREDICTABLE FRAMEWORK

w CULTURE CHANGE IS AN

u CULTURE IS

v CULTURE CHANGE PREDICTABLE FRAMEWORK

w CULTURE CHANGE IS AN

u CULTURE IS EXOSOMATIC

v CULTURE CHANGE PREDICTABLE FRAMEWORK

w CULTURE CHANGE IS AN

u CULTURE IS EXOSOMATIC

v CULTURE CHANGE HAPPENS ACCORDING TO A PREDICTABLE FRAMEWORK

w CULTURE CHANGE IS AN

u CULTURE IS

v CULTURE CHANGE PREDICTABLE FRAMEWORK

w CULTURE CHANGE IS AN EVOLUTIONARY PROCESS

u CULTURE IS

LEWIS BINFORD

ETHNO-ARCHAEOLOGYStudying modern groups through their material culture in order to understand the cultures themselves or to reconstruct past lifeways.

CULTURAL MATERIALISM

MARVIN HARRIS

CULTURAL MATERIALISMThe (simple) idea that human social life (culture) is a response to the practical problems of “earthly existence.”

v IDEOLOGYw SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

u TECHNOLOGY

v IDEOLOGYw SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

u TECHNOLOGY

v IDEOLOGYw SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

u TECHNOLOGY

v IDEOLOGYw SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

u TECHNOLOGY

NOT WITHOUT ITS CRITICISMSENVIRONMENTAL u

NO HUMAN AGENCY v

CULTURES ARE w

IGNORES x

NOT WITHOUT ITS CRITICISMSENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINISMu

NO HUMAN AGENCY INVOLVED IN CULTURAL CHANGEv

CULTURES ARE w

IGNORES x

NOT WITHOUT ITS CRITICISMSENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINISMu

NO HUMAN AGENCY INVOLVED IN CULTURAL CHANGEv

CULTURES ARE HOMEOSTATICw

IGNORES x

NOT WITHOUT ITS CRITICISMSENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINISMu

NO HUMAN AGENCY INVOLVED IN CULTURAL CHANGEv

CULTURES ARE HOMEOSTATICw

IGNORES GENDER, ETHNICITY, IDENTITY, SOCIAL RELATIONSx

v PROCESSUAL ARCHAEOLOGY

u CULTURE HISTORY

w POST-PROCESSUAL ARCHAEOLOGY

VS

OBJECTIVE

SUBJECTIVE

PROCESSUALISM: OBJECTIVE

POST-PROCESSUALISM: SUBJECTIVE

INTERPRETATIONARCHAEOLOGY IS

UNETHICALPROCESSUALISM IS

PROCESSUALISM…LEADS TO THE OPPRESSION OF ORDINARY PEOPLEu

PROMOTED SOCIAL INJUSTICEv

PERPETUATED COLONIALIST PERSPECTIVESw

ENCOURAGED ELITISMx

“very diverse strands of thought coalesced into a loose cluster of traditions”

Matthew JohnsonArchaeological Theory: An Introduction (1999)

POST-PROCESSUALISM…EMPHASIZES IDEOLOGYu

FOCUSES ON A STRUCTURALIST MODEL OF CULTUREv

RECOGNIZES HUMAN AGENCYw

INCLUDES GENRED ARCHAEOLOGY & INDIGENOUS ARCHAEOLOGYx

POST-PROCESSUALISM…EMPHASIZES u

FOCUSES ON A v

RECOGNIZES w

INCLUDES x

STRUCTURALIST

STRUCTURALISMThe idea that meaning is produced and reproduced within a culture through various practices, phenomena, and activities that serve as systems of signification.

PROCESSULAISM+

HUMANISTIC ARCHAEOLOGY

ATTEMPTING TO GET AT THE PAST PEOPLES' OWN VIEWS OF HOW THEY DID THINGS AND WHAT WAS SIGNIFICANT

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A TOOL TO DESCRIBE OR DOCUMENT HISTORICAL EVENTS OR PHENOMENA (CLASSICAL ARCHAEOLOGY, EGYPTOLOGY). SOCIAL THEORY NOT OF PRIMARY IMPORTANCE

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CLASSICAL ARCHAEOLOGY

EGYPTOLOGY

THE END