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129 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
Economy
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A society's means of satisfying wants and needs
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Are economic relations socially embedded?
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Yes
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Production
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Intentional actions that incorporate objects into human social life
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What process transforms "raw materials" into objects of value that also may imbue objects with symbolic value and social potential?
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Production
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What determines a commodities value?
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- Determined by wants and needs
- Often exchanged with other "objects of values" |
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What is an example of a practical need?
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Nutritional, Utilitarian, etc.
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What is are examples of culturally defined "wants"
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- pigs in traditional Melanesian society
- cattle for Maasi of East Africa - automobiles for North Americans |
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What are the social benefits of having objects of value?
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Signal status/prestige
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How are raw materials obtained socially?
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1. By coordinated tasks at the the household level and/or
2. By reciprocal exchange, tribute, taxes, etc. |
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What are some examples (ancient and modern) of divisions of labor?
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- potting guilds
- plantation slavery - production in factories |
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Specialization equals...
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... interdependence mediated by social interactions
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Is work a social practice?
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yes
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What are the social reasons to work?
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- support household members
- accumulate wealth for household - enhance or maintain indiv. or family status - forced labor = power relations |
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Determining who does what work in a society involves...
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identity, status, and power
Examples: - Navajo weavers are women - Mesoamerican potters are born into a potter family |
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Exchange
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- most societies are defined by degrees of specialized production
- exchange moves products through society - establishes, mediates, negotiates social relationships |
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What are the types of exchange?
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Reciprocity, Redistribution, Market
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What are some examples of how exchange establishes, mediates, and negotiates social relationships?
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- marriages, status change (age, rank)
- non-residential group memberships - guild production or trading partnerships |
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Reciprocity
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creates relationships of mutual obligation and dependency
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Balanced reciprocity
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Partners give/receive roughly equally and simultaneously
(ex. Christmas gift) |
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Generalized reciprocity
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- partners reciprocate at different times than they receive- but expect to be reciprocated
ex. taking a friend out for coffee |
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Redistribution
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Surplus is gathered in by a person, corporate group, or government
- distributed according to need - used to fund projects, buy loyalty, etc. |
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What are examples of redistribution?
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- Aztec granaries- rations given to people in times of need/on ritual occasions
- progressive income taxes fund government services - government surplus food stores |
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Markets
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- common locales for exchange
- extra-political: organized without political intervention - politically-embedded: protected, policed markets, tax supported |
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Barter
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goods-for-goods
- household to household or larger scale |
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Currency
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Goods exchanged for widely used marker of value
e.g. Chumash shell beads |
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How do archaeologist identify if something had Utilitarian Value?
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- Animal or plant remains used for everyday subsistence
- large scale production and storage = commodification of subsistence goods |
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How do archaeologists identify Symbolic value?
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- Measures of relative rarity or labor costs
- Specific foods used in elaborate feasts - Material items restricted to certain social classes |
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Evidence for Specialized production
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1. Substantial material evidence of production
2. Distinct items in different households |
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Social Contexts of Production
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1. Households: commoner, elite, etc. vs.
2. Workshops: non-domestic space vs. 3. Royal courts: client artisans, members of nobility, etc. |
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Workmanship
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Techniques Used
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What is standardization an indicator of?
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Mass production
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Hascherkeller, Germany
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Early Iron Age farmstead site in Bavaria
- large enclosure ditches - pits across site Peter Wells identified specialized metalurgic production - hammerstones - casting waste - molds - loom weights = weaving? Production beyond the level of household needs = workshops? |
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Colono Ware in the Chesapeake and Caribbean
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Pottery produced by African slaves in SE and Caribbean
Virginia and South Carolina - Deetz/Leland Ferguson - Diversity in form, technique, morphology - Household production? Caribbean - Mark Hauser - Standardization in types, techniques, morphology - Workshop production? |
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Conclusions of Judith's Research
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- Potters in Central Rio Grande used Cerrillos ore exclusively, even if other ore was available
- Lead ore circulating in different contexts and at broader regional scale than whole pots - Reflects diverse, cross-cutting and overlapping social networks |
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"Household" or "Domestic Group"
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People who live together, often work together
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Residential Groups in "The Hearth"
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- Maya extended households (close kind)
- Teotihuacán compounds (not all kin) - Roman familia (servants, slaves) |
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Non Residential Social Groups
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- Do not live together
- Can be organized by a range of pirinciples |
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What are the main range of principles that non-residential social groups can be organized by?
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- Political affiliation
- Religious affiliation - Kin-based, but not coresidential - Ritual/Social Functions |
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Community
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Social Relationships at residential AND non-residential level
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Do sites overlap with community perfectly?
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No, individuals of same site can have more than one community, sections of one site can be divided into many communities, and "site" may not cover all types of social relationships.
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Social Status
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Rights, duties, privileges, powers, liabilities, and immunities of individual people
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What are some factors of social status?
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- Age, gender
- Kinship - Birth into class or locality - Education, Achievement, etc. |
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Achieved Status
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Assigned based on person's owned accomplishments
(eg knighthood) |
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Ascribed Status
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assigned by membership in a group that passes on status only to their members
eg. princes |
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What is the make up of Egalitarian Societies in terms of social organization (ie hunter gatherers vs state)?
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mobile hunter-gatherers, pastoralists, some farming people
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Can people achieve status in egalitarian societies?
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Yes
- fine hunter, gatherer, mother, many herds - brave warrior - ritual knowledge, etc. |
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Ranked Societies
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- Status is ascribed by birth or adoption
- Elite family lineages distinct from commoners (few, directly inherited) - "Upward mobility" sometimes possible |
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Class Societies
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- Status ascribed by birth
- Marry within group, relatively numerous - Upwards mobility possible |
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Markers of Status
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- Irreversible body modifications
- Bodily decoration - Sumptuary regulations - Controlling exotic, rare, costly objects |
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Studying Social Relations Archaeologically
What do you need to identify in the archaeological record to study social relations? |
2. Identify Social/Domestic space (Architecture: Walls and Features: hearths)
3. Identify Consumption Patterns ("artifact function: tasks, production roles" and distributions: activity areas) 4. Identify Individuals (Burials: diet, health, genetics, social status markers) |
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What is important to note about funerary objects/tombs and burial/social status?
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- Constructed by living
- Signify Status of Dead |
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How is status marked in burials?
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Dress, ornament, funeral furnishings, grave construction, sacrifices, and offerings
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If a young child is buried with lavish grave goods and high-status objects, is this society's social status ascribed or achieved?
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Ascribed (they're too young to have achieved their status in life)
ex. King Tut |
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Moundville, Alabama
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- 13th to 15th Century AD
- 20 large platform mounds - mounds served as burials and temple platforms Christopher Peebles: - some goods common, some limited to particular people Identification of specific status groups based on prevalence of prestige good? |
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If I was buried with coper, axes, earspools, gorgets, beart teeth, stone discs, galena, etc in Moundville, Alabama, what is my status level?
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Highest Status
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If I am buried with ceramic bottles, bowls, or no goods, in Moundville, Alabama, what is my status level?
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Lowest status
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Basic Steps in Finding Households
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1. Define domestic space (walls, hearth, domestic debris)
2. Mobile groups harder to ID than settled, but look for (hearths, primary vs secondary refuse analysis) |
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Primary Refuse
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Where people cooked, ate, worked
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Secondary Refuse (middens, dumps)
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- Spacial relation to houses, hearths
- Samples longer span, wider range of activities |
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Site (Inter Household) Level Analysis
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Comparison of Households across sites can inform on social identity, status, etc.
(consumption patterns, labor to make buildings, etc) |
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Intra-Household Level Analysis
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Comparison of features within households can reveal social relations within residential groups
Example: Forbidden City, Beijing - collectively signifies elite status - Interior complexed reveal diverse social status (cooks, slaves, empereror, noble, etc) |
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Virginian Plantation Communities
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- Material landscape of status inequality
For example, - Architectural difference (main house vs slave quarters) - Material Culture differences (imported vs locally made utilitarian products, luxury wares and goods in main house) - Material patterns correspond to power and social dynamics |
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Virginia Plantation Households
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- For most of 17th century, Masters and slaves lived together
- Architecturally marked by a pattern (simple houses with accretionary growth as plantations expanded) |
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Virginia Plantation: From Households to Community
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1. Social Tensions emerged in late 17th century (Rise of slavery, economic crisis, popular revolt)
2. Servants/slaves moved out of main house into "quarters" Social tension = actual change in architecture and community structure |
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Androcentrism
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Practice, wether conscious or not, of emphasizing men usually to the exclusion of women
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Public/Private Dichotomy
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Man = Public/Active
Female = Private/Passive |
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Man-the-Hunter Model
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Uses ethnographic and ethnohistoric analogy to define gendered division of labor; men's activities seen as prime movers of cultural and biological evolution
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Princess of Vix
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Iron Age Burial, East France 500-480 BC: originally identified as a transvestite priest due to mix of "male" and "female" grave goods
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Identity
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1. Sense of belonging: individuals' identification with broader groups on the basis of difference socially sanctioned as significant
2. Focus on one aspect of identity to the exclusion of others; partly an intellectual bias and partly an issue with data |
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Intersectionality
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complex interaction between a range of discourses, institutions, identities, and forms of exploitation that structures subjectivities (and the relations between them) in elaborate, heterogeneous, and often contradictory ways
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Ideology
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- Culturally specific ideas about the way the world is and why.
- Structures how individuals are perceived based on how they act - Makes "natural" a set of human relations with other humans, plants, animals, the world |
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Religion
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- Subset of Ideology
- Aims to understand/mediate relationship of humans with supernatural - Often involves ritual practice, but not all rituals are religious |
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Ritual
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- Stereotyped behavior aimed at producing certain internal states in participant
- Expresses fundamental ideological tenets Types: Calendrical (Easter) Transitional (Communion) |
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PROCESSUAL view of Ideology
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1. Culture is system,ideology is product of subsistence adaptations and social relations
2. Ideology/religion are "adaptive" 3. Cultural meanings of ideology CAN'T be inferred from archaeological evidence |
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POST PROCESSUAL/ CRITICAL/ FEMINIST view of Ideology
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1. Ideology pervades all human thought/action
2. Even subsistence & technological activities are performed in ideological context (ie "women's work" vs "man's work") - Ideology often masks, makes "natural" the existing social inequalities - Social relationships and ideology supporting them may NOT be equally beneficial to all members of society |
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Architecture and Ideology
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1. Material expression of ideas (more sedentary the society = more architecture)
2. Public architecture = sites for critical or calendrical ritual activities 3. Archaeastronomical architecture: made for calendrical ritual (stonehenge) |
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Iconography
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Expresses central symbols
(eg Paleolithic cave art) |
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Mortuary symbols and ideology
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Mortuary practices = ritual behavior (repeated patterns reflect ritualized actions)
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Context and Archaeological Ideology
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Relation among different evidence reveal symbolic associations
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Art
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- set of material practices/performances
- evokes feeling & responses - not separable from worldview, politics, economy - part of social life - way of making meaning - must be understood in local/historic contexts |
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How old is Paleolithic Cave Art?
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32,000 to 10,000 BP
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When was Paleolithic Cave Art discovered?
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late 19th century
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Where is Paleolithic cave art concentrated and how many have been found?
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Concentrated in north Spain and South France. Over 300 found
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What are the most famous cave art sites?
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Altimira Cave, Spain; Lascaux and Grott Chauvete, France
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Portable Art
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Figurines, personal ornaments, engraved plaques
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How did Abbé Henri Breuil (1940s and 1950s) interpret Upper Paleolithic Cave Art?
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- Functionalist approach
- Caves were sacred sites/sanctuaries - Painting were part of rituals performed to increase hunting success ("sympathetic magic") |
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How did Andre Leroi-Gourhan (1965) interpret Upper Paleolithic Cave Art?
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- Paintings part of elaborate system of meaning with specific structure or "grammar"
- Based on division of world into male/female |
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How did Margaret Conkey (1980s+) interpret Upper Paleolithic Cave Art?
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- Contextual approach
- Art as social practice (abstract, ambiguous) constructs meaning through production and use in specific social contexts - Must be understood in broader context of Upper Paleolithic lifeways |
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What were the Upper Paleolithic lifeways?
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Upper Paleolithic characterized by social life of materiality, mobility, and creation of meaning in cultural landscape
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According to Conkey, Upper Paleolithic Cave Art..
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... is way of creating knowledge/meaning in material world
... makes personal experience public .... transmits social info ... aesthetically/symbolically charged representation of real world |
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Status
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Collection of rights/duties that accrue to a recognized/named social position
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Is status associated with different amounts of power based on social identities?
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Yes. Factors include age, gender, kinship, ability, occupation, residence, alliances, etc.
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What are the two types of status?
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Achieved vs ascribed
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Power
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Potential to influence or initiate social action
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Types of power
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Constructive, cooperative: "power to"
Exploitative/coercive: "power over" resisting/circumventing: "power NOT to" |
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Sources of Power
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Economic
Ideological Political Military/Coercive |
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Are sources of power mutually reinforcing?
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Yes
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Politics
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How a society organizes itself to make decisions, resolve conflicts, control distribution of social status and power
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Political Organization of Small Scale Societies
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political structures are informal/situational
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Political Organization of Large Scale Societies
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political power in formal institutions of government, coded in law, and backed by coercive force
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"Egalitarian" Societies Structure
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1. Scale- up to 2 dozen, rarely more than 100
2. Social org- ties of kinship (marriage or inherited) 3. Political organization- no formal leaders, no economic difference between members of society 4. Economic Organization: simple farmers/hunter-gatherers 5. Religious Organization: shamanic, ad hoc rituals |
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Band
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Single family lineage
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Tribes
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groups of lineages united by clan ideology
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What is the scale of a chiefdom?
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5,000 to 20,000
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What is the social organization of a chiefdom?
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- Kinship based
- Ranked society |
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What is the political organization of a chiefdom?
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- hereditary leader
- legitimate authority (people accept chief's rule) |
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What is the economic organization of a chiefdom?
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- intensified production/agriculture
- centralized accumulation/redistribution |
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Is there centralized redistribution/accumulation in a chiefdom?
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Yes
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What is the religious organization of a chiefdom?
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- chief does ritual duties
- rituals emphasize link between Gods and Ancestors |
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Is a chiefdom a complex society?
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Yes
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Is a band a complex society?
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No
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Is a state a complex society?
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Yes
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is a tribe a complex society?
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No
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What are the two types of egalitarian societies? Are they complex or simple?
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Simple
- Bands - Tribes |
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What is the scale of an Early State?
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More than 20,000
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What is the social organization of an early state?
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Class stratified society (by job title, position)
ie nobles versus priests vs craft specialists |
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What is the political organization of an early state?
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- King or Emperor
- Monopoly of coercive power - Centralized bureaucracy |
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What is the economic organization of an early state?
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- State institutions/Markets redistribute goods
- Tribute/Tax based (king owns territory) |
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What is the religious organization of an early state?
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- Priestly class
- State religion |
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Managerial Theory of "Why Complex Societies Arise"
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- Leaders emerge to manage social demands
- Leaders serve integrative functions |
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Coercive theories of "Why Complex Societies Arise"
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- Leaders are out for their own self interests
- Propertied class makes decisions |
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How can archaeologists Identify social complexity?
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1. Scale of social integrations
2. Evidence for social inequality |
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Western European Neolithic
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1. Minimal status difference in burials
2. Settlement in long houses = lineages = "tribal society" |
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The Megaliths
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- Scandinavia, Britain, Ireland, France, Spain, West Med, Corsica, Malta
- Appear between 4,500 and 4,000 BC (Early Neolithic) - Dolmen and Barrows - Mostly smal structures (5-10,000 worker hours = 20 workers for 50 days) - Often contain multiple burials |
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Why Build Megaliths?
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- Territorial control?
- "Houses of the Dead" making symbolic statements about ancestral places - Communal burial customs reflect lineage (social organization) |
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Barrow --> Henge --> Stone Henge
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Increasing complex political system, took to organize these structures. Increasing focus on individual graves.
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Chieftain of Stonehenge
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In 2001, 2 miles from Stonehenge a burial was found. Very rich. 2400-2200 BC (stge 3)
Items found: exotic flint projectiles, copper daggers, gold earring, archer's wristguard, central european pots |
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What were the four burial groups of Moundvile?
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Group A: Chief's Lineage
Group B: Nobles Group C: Commoners Group D: Non-persons |
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What is a "non-person"
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Person with no status in Moundville society (slaves, war captives)
- retainer sacrifices - serve as status marker for chiefs |