Midterm 1 Flashcards
(40 cards)
Different Definitions of Historical Archaeology
Deetz: 15th century and onwards, influence of europeans globally, focused on literacy
Orser: hard to seperate history - it is continuous. Focus on recent history - reflection of own culture
How does text-aided archaeology relate to historical archaeology
most historical archaeology is during a time when written records exist - can aid because can give more information
helps to date
insider vs outsider perspective
Different Definitions of Modernity
processes that shape and characterize our world
Deetz: seek to understand processes that make us american (becoming american = becoming modern)
modernity varies across different settings
Latour: never been modern
Orser: look onto self
Taylor: multiple modernities
Why study modernity with archaeological techniques
ideas - objects, ideas - words, objects - culture
reveal what is left out of the written record
reflection onto ourselves
James Hall
1856: dug up ancestor’s house (Deetz’s earliest example of historical archaeology)
Data sets in Historical Archaeology
oral record, written record, mean ceramic dating, etc
Emic
internal perspective
Etic
outside/observational perspective
ethnohistory
Benefits and challenges of working with text and archaeology
benefits: gives more information about what looking at
challenges: not everyone writes - the information that you are getting could be very skewed
terminus post quem
date after (site as old as the newest thing)
terminus ante quem
date before (ex: items are missing, guessing it’s before those items)
post-medieval archaeology
studied in Europe
mostly historical + landscape (not anthro)
division between medieval and post - 1400s
challenges of prehistory/history divide
cant label based on literacy
labels simply sued to minimize scope but history is continuous
oral cultures still exist today - are in no way “less” than written culture
Georgian order
normative worldview based on time of King George
culture/nature
mechanic/organic
symmetrical/asymmetrical
whiteness/org. colors
individual/collective
studying modernity as a process
modernity is our world - study how came to be
What is TPR trying to accomplish?
show that classification is more than pipes = race
interconnectedness - if can examine relationship between pipe makers and users, can break down social structure at the time
power + perspectives
look at pipes in present - want to find how humans classified in past (break down current archaeological processes)
pragmatism: care about what things do in teh world, not just what it means
Pots = people (and critiques)
don’t know if who made the pots are connected to who the pots are used by
material culture: modified through culturally determined behaviour, but not end all be all
identify people by pots
normative mindset - doesn’t account for individuals
Sainte Marie I
1639: Jesuits mission on Huron
1855: Father Felix Martin goes to study - comissioned by government
Canadian National Parks Act (and relevance)
preserve sites of national importance
Historic Sites Act (and relevance)
preserve sites, buildings, etc for public use
gave jobs to archaeologists
Jamestown
wanted ready to present to the public in 1957
thought eroded into the river until 1990
discovered wells - indicate drought
starving as a problem
buried inside because scared of Powhatan
evidence for medical treatement
evidence of cannibalism
Barbara Little’s discussion of Jamestown
Understand based on what’s going on before
tense relations between Powhatan and Monocan - Monocan have more copper
colonists come and trade copper to the Powhatan - good relationship, but then copper is diluted & there is a drought; explains shift in relations
Archaeology of Abe Lincoln
1930s-40s
started with insurance policy
tried to associate object w Lincoln but had trouble
moved to architectural history in great detail
Flood Control Act
1944: construct dams
found archaeological sites - focus on architecture
