Anthro 3ac
Cultural History
- In archaeology…’the culture region’
- regional chronologies
- description of ‘tool kits’
- lots of emphasis on sites with long term occupations
- direct historical approach…working back through time to understand histories
Cultural History: Seriation
- a relative dating technique to put things in a series
- relative dating techniques depend on another line of information to know which end is the beginning and which is the end…stratigraphic level is the most common source of information
‘New Archaeology’ (processual archaeology)
- the new archaeology was facilitated by changes in technology – the introduction of radiocarbon dating
- Willard libby 1949…now evidence from side could be directly dated..no long needed to construct complex chrologies
- while new archaeology is seen as starting with lewis binford in the early 1960’s, a number of folks were already raising same issues
13th of Feb
Highlights of Processual Archaeology
-instead of focusing on when and whats, archaeologists should be looking at ‘why’ and ‘hows’ of ‘cultural process’ (changed through time)
-influenced by Julian Steward and Leslie’s White’s ideas of Cultural Ecology
- Emphasis on hyper-scientific data collection and ‘hypodeductive’ scientific methodology
-large cooperative projects with lots of specialists
-new attention to environmental data and techniques for recovering that data
-modernist – people are economically rational
Lowlights of Processual Archaeology
-intended to create universal laws of culture change…ended up not working
-emphasis on rationality and science meant certain aspects of human life are ignored…most work focused on environment and economy (food, trade)
Post Processual Archaology
-grew out of 1980’s
-Ian Hodder is credited with being the father of the School but there were a number of Marxists and feminists raising the same issues
-critique of archaeology as too focused on big men and big
- In archaeology…’the culture region’
- regional chronologies
- description of ‘tool kits’
- lots of emphasis on sites with long term occupations
- direct historical approach…working back through time to understand histories
Cultural History: Seriation
- a relative dating technique to put things in a series
- relative dating techniques depend on another line of information to know which end is the beginning and which is the end…stratigraphic level is the most common source of information
‘New Archaeology’ (processual archaeology)
- the new archaeology was facilitated by changes in technology – the introduction of radiocarbon dating
- Willard libby 1949…now evidence from side could be directly dated..no long needed to construct complex chrologies
- while new archaeology is seen as starting with lewis binford in the early 1960’s, a number of folks were already raising same issues
13th of Feb
Highlights of Processual Archaeology
-instead of focusing on when and whats, archaeologists should be looking at ‘why’ and ‘hows’ of ‘cultural process’ (changed through time)
-influenced by Julian Steward and Leslie’s White’s ideas of Cultural Ecology
- Emphasis on hyper-scientific data collection and ‘hypodeductive’ scientific methodology
-large cooperative projects with lots of specialists
-new attention to environmental data and techniques for recovering that data
-modernist – people are economically rational
Lowlights of Processual Archaeology
-intended to create universal laws of culture change…ended up not working
-emphasis on rationality and science meant certain aspects of human life are ignored…most work focused on environment and economy (food, trade)
Post Processual Archaology
-grew out of 1980’s
-Ian Hodder is credited with being the father of the School but there were a number of Marxists and feminists raising the same issues
-critique of archaeology as too focused on big men and big