Anthro 2Ac Midterm 1 Terms

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Alex Baer

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Grew up in New Mexico, loved the archaeology and old native american sites; participated in CRM and did summer work in Figi; became interested in Pacific Islands; completed a masters thesis on Easter island with large head sculptures --> led him to ask, "what allowed people to create these?" --> mapped agricultural features + discovered different methods for farming in high altitudes
Current research: in Hawaii, how did early agriculture effect the development of the state?; how to understand agriculture and the development of complex society; combo of oral traditions, environmental research, and archaeology --> examined food remains to learn about caste system, wet vs. dry zones and cultural responses to different environments, archaeology (remote sensing, air photo analysis, surveying, excavation), and temples/palaces along volcano

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Anaerobic

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oxygen reduced environment, won't support microbes and bacteria that decompose remains.
Ex: Ozette mudslide site, Peet bogs, underwater sites

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Anthropology + subfields

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study of the human species from biological, social, and cultural perspectives using synchronic/diachronic views --> holistic approach
Subfields: biological/physical, linguistic, cultural, and archaeology

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antiquarians

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nonprofessional who studies the past for its artistic/cultural value

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archaeological record

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physical remains produced by past human activities, which are sought, recovered, studied, and interpreted by archaeologists to reconstruct the past

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archaeological region

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area with multiple archaeological sites located close together

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artifact

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portable objects whose form is modified or created by human activity

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association

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occurrence of an item of arch. data adjacent to another and in or on the same matrix

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behavioral processes

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acquisition, manufacture, use, and deposition of materials
Differential deposition --> Ex: sea otter bones not found at Alaskan camp even though they were decimated; magazines like national geographic not found in regular trash

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CA Missions/spanish colonialism

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involved many native americans for labor but they also brought with them theology and the mind to "civilize" and convert the native americans

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ceramics (shards)

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materials made out of clay, fired hard

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China camp state park

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after 1906 earthquake in SF, many poor chinese relocated to the park, where they performed traditional ways of life and left evidence of it. later excavated and studied. example of a palimpsest

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classical archaeology

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arch. investigation of the ancient greek and roman civilizations

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coast miwok

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native californian group

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collaborative arch.

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scientific values come together with cultural traditions. need to follow cultural traditions of the native people --> indigenous/ethnocritical arch.

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culture areas

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a spatial unit defined by ethnographically observed cultural similarities within a given geographical area; use arch. to define spatial limits to cultures

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cultural anthro

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synchronic, little time depth, only deals with the here and now; focuses on long-termed evolutionary development of latest sequences of evolution/development of people/communities

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synchronic

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little time depth, micro scale

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culture relativism

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each culture is unique/different in its own right, so no two cultures can have the same set of cultural norms --> no generalization

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Culture Resource Management (CRM)

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conservation and selective investigation of prehistoric and historic remains; specifically the development of ways and means, includinglegislation to safeguard the past

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culture contact (missionaries vs. merchants)

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spanish missionaries: theology based system, wanted to convert natives and change social customs
russian merchants: purely interested in money, not in creating neophytes
both have a biased view of the Indians and focus on primitive characteristics

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culture history approach

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arch. interpretation based on temporal and spatial syntheses of data and the application of general descriptive models, usually derived from a normative view of culture --> trying to set a geographical barrier on a culture and only focus on the differences between cultures
1920-1960
- chronology building (stratigraphy, superposition, seriation), paleo-indian sites, historical particularism, normative model of culture and cultural relativism

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cyrus thomas

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around 1900, dug mounds and challenged mound builders myth
early UCB Anthro Dept
one of the first to use a direct historical approach, smithsonian gave him money to discover who built the mounds
used integrated sets of data to show the direct link between mound builders and native americans today

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dendrochronology

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study of tree-ring growth patterns, which are linked to develop a continuous chronological sequence

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deposition

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last stage of behavioral processes in which artifacts are discarded

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descendant communities

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later generations of the past people being analyzed --> stakeholders

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diachronic

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pertaining to phenomena as they occur/change over time --> development over long periods of time
chronological perspective

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direct historical approach

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holistic anthro perspective: use knowledge of the present to reconstruct the past
extrapolate backwards in time from known historical periods into prehistory
Ex: native americans were still using traditional tools, homes, and practices as they did many years before --> direct historical link b/w people today and people in the past --> beginning of ethnographic research

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dynamic cultural landscape

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long-term use and modification of landscape
- stratigraphy

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pompeii premise

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materials "frozen" in time; idea that arch. in the fossil record of past human activities --> only applies to a few contexts (distasters mainly)

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stratigraphy

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used to interpret different layers (sterile layers in between sites, when geological processes bury first strata)
can be disrupted by human activity/animals
layers are on top of each other

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ecofact

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non-artifactual natural remains that have cultural relevance, not creating or destroying their original form
Ex: pollen plant remains, food remains, faunal remains

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ethnocentrism

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an observational bias in which other societies are evaluated by the standards relevant to the observer's culture

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ethnography

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the description of contemporary cultures --> part of the sub-discipline of cultural anthropology

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ethnographic analogy

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using contemporary info and cultures to help interpret the past

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ethnohistory

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the study of ethnographic cultures and indigenous customs by examining historical records

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excluded pasts/neglected history

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dichotomy b/w prehistory and history: prehistory = people without history, like Native Americans, who don't have a written record, except for what europeans wrote about them, which is very uninformed

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faunal analysis/zooarchaeology

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study of animal remains in an archaeological site

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feature

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non-portable human-made remains that cannot be moved without destroying or altering their original form

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flora/paleoethnobotany

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study of plant remains in an archaeological site

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flotation

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filling a bucket with water so that lighter material floats to the top --> poured out to find charred material; mainly ecofacts that recover what people ate

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Fort Ross/Colony Ross

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1812-1841 --> brought in Indian and native alaskan labor to work fort/colony
only interested in money

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francis mcmanamon

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wrote about archaeology with native americans --> collaborative archaeology and being respectful when working with native groups

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garbology/william rathje

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analyze garbage collections from households (along with other info about families) and excavate landfills to analyze disposal patterns
reveals that people distort their own accounts of their lives, even when they know what is being examined and what can be proved false

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historical particularism

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all humans are unique and must be understood in its own terms and have its own unique history that helps to shape it
defines culture areas back through time using direct historical approach

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historical anthro

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transcends ancient and recent history; employs different data sets/lines of evidence including material culture, written records, and oral traditions
- prehistory and recent history

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historical arch.

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arch. concerned with literate societies and often allied with history

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in situ

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preserved at a single moment in time (eg. pompeii, ozette site)

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kashaya pomo

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native CA group still living near fort ross, lived with native alaskans during russian american company's settlement

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kathleen deagan

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africans and african americans in US --> excluded past
- important for exploration and labor, but not a lot is written about them and their alliances with the native americans against the europeans

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law of superposition

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principle that the sequence of observable strata from bottom to top reflects the order of deposition from earliest to latest

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lithics

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stone tools

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matrix

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physical medium surrounding/supporting other arch. material

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micro scales

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short-term changes, small period of time

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macro scales

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long-term changes, longue duree --> more applicable to arch.

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modal artifact types

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trying to reconstruct mental template for how/why something was created --> proper way things were made int he mind of the creater --> accepted ways became definitive types for that culture; can be used to identify type with a specific time

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mound builders debates

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who built the late prehistoric mounds of midwest/SE? most were abandoned by the time of euro settlement
1. contemporary people built them
2. built by lost civilization
cyrus thomas: mounds built by a local, native people

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types of mounds

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platforms (for chiefs + their families)
geometric
burial

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NAGPRA

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1990 law: Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
1. museums - repatriation of funerary objects/remains
2. field work - preserve/protect sacred sites + permits required on government land
3. perspectives - archaeologist wants material to analyze, but also wants to respect natives/cultural practices
--> mostly good b/c of collaboration, but also viewed as bad b/c of loss of data
--> tribes = stewards and stakeholders

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native alaskans

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brought down to fort ross by russian merchants --> decimated sea otter population: still no sea otter remains found at sites b/c they buried the bones at sea and gave skins to russians
--> example of behavioral processes and excluded past

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nels nelson

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discovered SF Bay area shell mounds in a regular pattern, near creeks that lead into the bay in clusters. could be huge, with complex stratigraphy/artifacts, great organic preservation b/c of calcium carbonate
--> student

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max uhle

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emeryville shell mound
--> professor

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neophytes

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converted natives/christians; a lot of arch. done to get Indian perspective
--> addresses inconsistencies b/w oral history of indians and historical record of spanish
--> many still retained traditional practices

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normative model of culture

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each unique culture is characterized by normative/ideal rules that prescribe behavior + how to relate to others socially

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ohlone/costanoan

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created shell mounds in bay area

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oral history/oral tradition

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spoken accounts of past that maintain historical traditions without reliance on written documents

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organics/inorganics

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material from plants/animals vs. those from non-living sources

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ozette/Makah/Fagan/Daugherty

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500 BP mudslide buried much of Makah village; large, quick, deep burial with O free environment (anaerobic), so woodwork/basketry preserved

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palimpsest

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when occupations of different people are smeared together, making it difficult to discriminate the different people and time sets
--> must consider cultural landscape; an accumulation of history in one place
Ex: Zeta Psi Frat house

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Paleo-Indian sites (folsom/clovis)

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really old Native american sites; human tools found with prehistoric/extinct animals --> evidence of ice people
--> led to migration models of big game hunters and maritime people; ancient histories of native americans

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phytoliths

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microscopic silica bodies that form in living plants and provide floral ecofact to identify plants in arch. deposits

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prehistory/ancient history

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time before written records
--> often implied that it doesn't have a history

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4 factors of preservation

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1. type of material (inorganic vs. organic)
2. context of deposition (surface, mixed up, deep, distinct, etc.)
3. post-depositional context (undisturbed or affected by burrowing/looting)
4. local environmental conditions (temp, moisture, acidity)

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best conditions for preservation

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stable anaerobic conditions, freezing, arid
--> only certain material are preserved, some are altered/transformed; makes it harder to interpret

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provenience

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3D location of arch. material within the matrix

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public outreach

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educational projects to stop looting and destruction of arch. sites + selling of artifacts

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recovery

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how artifacts are recovered from deposition; can vary based on how it is deposed in the arch. site and what has happened since deposition

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sampling

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involves destruction of sites during excavation --> brings up ethical reasons for sampling preservation; must protect sites for future generations
- also too expensive to sample everything

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scientific colonialism (zimmerman)

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imperialist arch: changing from treating native people and their material culture as study of the other --> arch. adopt native voice to speak for stakeholders now
--> no info from the people themselves, minimal consultation with stakeholders

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seriation

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used to order materials in a relative dating sequence so that adjacent items are more similar to each other than those farther apart

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shellmounds

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dirt, shell, ash, and rock --> huge mounds along bay and river systems; recognized as ancestral and sometimes sacred sites by natives
--> few ethnographic studies on them; some used in colonial times, but no documents from spanish; mounds = place of refuge away from spanish
--> emeryville, trash dumps, village complex, cemetaries, ceremonial centers

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Phoebe Hurst

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widowed wife of george hurst; became 1st UC regent; financed all research for arch., including mound research

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frederick ward putnam

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established dept of anthro, 1st prof and chair of dept; interested in early sites and made shellmounds #1 study for anthro dept

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alfred kroeber

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influential study of shellmounds, 2nd chair of dept at UCB

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midden

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accumulation of debris resulting from human disposal and removed from areas of manufacture and use; tend to be lots of shells

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smithsonian institutions

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thomas, nelson, mound builder debates --> funding

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stakeholders

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people with close connection to arch record of a local place --> descendent communities

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stewards/stewardship

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those who own, control, and speak for the past --> caretakers of the past; led to repatriation of many native american artifacts

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stratigraphic excavation

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showing different layers of deposition

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taphonomy

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study of transformational processes affecting organic ecofacts after death of original organisms; natural agents, human agents = influence

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three-age system (thomsen/Worsaae)

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traditional diachronic model describing the sequence of technological periods in the old world --> stone, bronze, iron
--> utilizes law of superposition

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time-space grids

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synthesis of temporal/spatial distributions of data used in culture history approach based on period sequences within cultural areas
--> transformational processes: changes by natural/human agents
--> differences in modal types at different sites were defined as different cultures; defined geographically
--> emphasize differences and assumed diffusion if they saw similarities

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Zeta psi/arch. building

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Ex. of palimpsest --> multiple people using it and stages of construction are obvious; many phases of history visible in one building