Module 1

Question 1

Anthropology

Answer 1

The study of humans, human ancestry, and close relatives (primates); literal definition: the study of man (“man” referring to all humans, not just males).

Question 2

Four fields of anthropology

Answer 2

Cultural anthropology, biological (or physical) anthropology, linguistic anthropology, archaeology.

Question 3

Understanding past human behaviour from material remains

Answer 3

Basic definition of archaeology

Question 4

Cultural anthropology

Answer 4

Study of a living culture of which the researcher is not a member

Question 5

Sociology

Answer 5

Study of a living culture of which the researcher is a member

Question 6

Biological anthropology

Answer 6

Study of human biology, including genetics, skeleton, evolution, living primates, forensic sciences, etc.

Question 7

Linguistic anthropology

Answer 7

Study of languages that traditionally had no written form or of ancient writing systems

Question 8

Archaeology

Answer 8

Study of past human behaviours from material culture

Question 9

Mechanisms of culture change

Answer 9

Attempting to explain why cultures (including material culture) changes through time.

Question 10

Material culture

Answer 10

The objects created and used by humans; the “stuff” we use all the time, ranging from clothing to electronics to houses to transportation, etc.

Question 11

Science

Answer 11

a means of obtaining reliable, factual, objective information about the world around us.

Question 12

Pseudoscience

Answer 12

heavily biased, though convincing-sounding, attempts to offer nonsensical explanations for events in the world around us.

Question 13

Underlying reasons for claims about extraterrestrial aliens in the past

Answer 13

Extraterrestrial and other fantastic claims often have thinly veiled racist motivations

Question 14

Darwin’s concept of evolution and its influence on archaeology

Answer 14

Idea of biological evolution (change due to variability and adaptation); provided the first sound basis for believing in humanity having any antiquity, rather than simply being created “as is.”

Question 15

Uniformitarianism

Answer 15

The principals that apply today also applied in the past. Example: if a landslide creates a lake where a river once flowed today, the same forces would have been present – with the same outcome – in the past.

Question 16

The Marxist origins of archaeological theory

Answer 16

V. Gordon Childe had strong Marxist leanings; explained major cultural changes as the result of “revolutions”.

Question 17

The direct historic approach to culture history

Answer 17

Assuming that the immediate predecessors of modern (or historic) groups of people had generally the same way of life as those who could actually be observed.

Question 18

Processual (or “new”) archaeology

Answer 18

A way of explaining the past, rather than describing it. Relied on deductive reasoning, scientific methods, and hypothesis testing.

Question 19

Analogous reasoning

Answer 19

It is impossible to observe the past directly, so we use modern behaviours / events as “analogues” – comparables. Example: if a modern campfire results in a blackened ring of rocks, an ancient ring of blackened rocks is likely the remains of a campfire.

Question 20

Ethnographic analogy

Answer 20

Using a documented history of a particular group of people as a comparative way to explain the patterns found in archaeological materials. Example: if Group X is recorded as having always waited until summer to hunt for birds, it is assumed that the presence of bird remains in an archaeological site indicates summer hunting.

Question 21

Ethnoarchaeology

Answer 21

Archaeologists directly observing – and often excavating – modern groups of people who have similar ways of life to ancient people. Example: archaeologists observe how people make and maintain stone tools, and document what is left behind; when similar patterns of refuse are discovered in an archaeological site, it is considered to be the result of a similar activity.

Question 22

Behavioural archaeology

Answer 22

The study of past human behaviours (ancient or recent) from observing the material culture traces left behind, taking formation processes into account.

Question 23

material culture

Answer 23

The buildings, tools, and other artifacts that constitute the material remains of former societies.

Question 24

Culture

Answer 24

A term used by anthropologists when referring to the non biological characteristics of a society.

Question 25

prehistory

Answer 25

The period of human history before the advent of writing.

Question 26

radiocarbon dating

Answer 26

An absolute dating method that measures the decay of the radioactive isotope of carbon

Question 27

Paleolithic

Answer 27

The archaeological period before c. 10,000 BCE, characterized by the earliest known stone tool manufacture. (old stone age)

Question 28

site

Answer 28

A distinct spatial clustering of artifacts, features, structures, and organic and environmental remains—the residue of human activity.

Question 29

Stratigraphy

Answer 29

Superimposed layers of rocks (strata) help to recognize older and younger layers. Used as a relative dating technique. Vertical time dimension of layers of horizontal space.

Question 30

deduction

Answer 30

A process of reasoning by which more specific consequences are inferred by rigorous argument from more general propositions (cf. induction).

Question 31

uniformitarianism

Answer 31

The principle that the stratification of rocks is due to processes still going on in seas, rivers, and lakes, i.e. that geologically ancient conditions were in essence similar to, or “uniform with,” those of our own time.

Question 32

* List (in chronological order) the 3-ages employed in C.J. Thompson’s system of classification.

Answer 32

1. Stone age 2. Bronze age 3. Iron Age He divided prehistory into these stages but it is not distributed equally amongst these stages- Stone Age has the most.

Question 33

Neolithic

Answer 33

An Old World chronological period characterized by the development of agriculture and, hence, an increasing emphasis on sedentism. (New stone age)

Question 34

Rosetta Stone

Answer 34

Inscribed on the stone were parallel texts written in both Egyptian and Greek scripts. The Frenchman Jean-François Champollion used this bilingual inscription finally to decipher the hieroglyphs in 1822, after fourteen years’ work.

Question 35

Mesolithic

Answer 35

An Old World chronological period beginning around 10,000 years ago, between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic.

Question 36

reconnaissance

Answer 36

A broad range of techniques involved in the location of archeological sites

Question 37

Midwestern Taxonomic System

Answer 37

A framework devised by W.C. McKern to systematize sequences in the Great Plains area of the United States, using the general principle of similarities between artifact assemblages.

Question 38

assemblage

Answer 38

A group of artifacts recurring together at a particular time and place, and representing the sum of human activities.

Question 39

New Archaeology

Answer 39

A new approach advocated in the 1960s that argued for an explicitly scientific framework of archaeological method and theory, with hypotheses rigorously tested, as the proper basis for explanation, rather than simply description

Question 40

processual archaeology

Answer 40

An approach that stresses the dynamic relationship between social and economic aspects of culture and the environment as the basis for understanding the processes of culture change. It uses the scientific methodology of problem statement, hypothesis formulation, and subsequent testing. The earlier functional-processual approach has been contrasted with the cognitive-processual approach, where emphasis is placed on integrating ideological and symbolic aspects.

Question 41

typology

Answer 41

The systematic organization of artifacts into types on the basis of shared attributes.

Question 42

postprocessual archaeology

Answer 42

A range of approaches formulated in reaction to the perceived limitations of functional-processual archaeology. It eschews generalization in favor of an “individualizing” approach that is influenced by structuralist archaeology, Critical Theory, and neo-Marxist thought.