Module 4

Question 1

Band

Answer 1

A term used to describe small scale, societies of hunter gatherers, generally fewer than 100 people, who move seasonally to exploit wild undomesticated food resources. Kinship ties play an important part in social organization.

Question 2

Ethnoarcheogy

Answer 2

The study of contemporary cultures with a view to understanding the behavioral relationships that underlie the production of material culture

Question 3

Segmentary societies

Answer 3

Relatively small in autonomous groups, usually agriculturalists, who regulate their own affairs; in some cases, they may join together with other comparable segmentary societies to form a larger ethnic unit

Question 4

Tribes

Answer 4

A term used to describe a social grouping, generally larger than a band, but rarely numbering more than a few thousand; unlike bands, tribes are usually settled, farmers, but they also include somatic pastoral groups who’s economy is based on the exploitation of livestock. Individual communities tend to be integrated into the larger society through kinship ties

Question 5

Lineages

Answer 5

A group claiming descent from a common ancestor

Question 6

Redistribution

Answer 6

Emotive exchange that implies the operation of some central organizing authority. Goods are received or appropriated by the central authority, and subsequently some of them are sent by that authority to other locations.

Question 7

Settlement analysis

Answer 7

The main method investigating past social organization, data are collected by survey and excavation, but the specific methods used Convery greatly depending on the society in question

Question 8

Burial analysis

Answer 8

Rank and social status, our best revealed by the analysis of grave goods with an individual burials

Question 9

Ethnicity

Answer 9

The existence of ethnic groups, including tribal groups. So these are difficult to recognize from the archaeological record, the study of language in linguistic boundaries shows that ethnic groups often correlate with language areas.

Question 10

Prestige goods

Answer 10

A term used to designate a limited range of exchange goods to which is a society a scribes high status or value

Question 11

Archaeological culture

Answer 11

Shorthand for describing similarities in material culture over a defined area and time period.

Question 12

Inventing cultures

Answer 12

The way in which archaeologists use material culture to define ancient cultures

Question 13

Shorthand for describing material culture

Answer 13

Realistic approach to viewing archaeologically defined cultures

Question 14

Archaeological phase

Answer 14

Pattern of material culture – distinct from what came before and after – used to categorize a particular time period in a specified geographic area

Question 15

Culture history

Answer 15

Pattern of material culture – distinct from what came before and after – used to categorize a particular time period in a specified geographic area

Question 16

Material culture change and phase change

Answer 16

Changes in material culture within a region – such as a change from living in pit houses to living in surface structures – considered sufficiently significant to warrant a new, distinct name

Question 17

Socioeconomic complexity

Answer 17

Evidence for some people or groups of people having access to material culture to which other individuals / groups lack access

Question 18

Inherited wealth & power versus achieved wealth & power

Answer 18

Wealth & privilege that a person is born into vs wealth & privilege that a person earns over their lifetime

Question 19

Authority
vs
Legitimacy

Answer 19

The ability to tell others what they can and cannot do
vs
The ability to have others obey orders of what they can and cannot do

Question 20

Economic Organization

Answer 20

The system by which groups of people obtain food

Question 21

Social Organization

Answer 21

The way a society structures itself

Question 22

Egalitarian society

Answer 22

Society in which all people are inherently equal, lacking permanent positions of social power

Question 23

Formalized leadership

Answer 23

Society with permanent positions of social power

Question 24

Central accumulation
and
Central redistribution

Answer 24

Practice of collecting resources (typically food) that are produced by the society; most common in societies where at least some individuals have social roles that include little or no food production
and
Practice of distributing collected resources (typically food) that are produced by the society to various members of that society; most common in societies where at least some individuals have social roles that include little or no food production

Question 25

Primary context

Answer 25

Item location has not been subjected to formation processes – it is unmoved from its abandonment location

Question 26

Households

Answer 26

Group of individuals who live in proximity to each other, recognized by material culture such as structures; typically, households are related in some way, although this is not always the case

Question 27

Bureaucracy

Answer 27

System of social control involving regulations imposed by government officials

Question 28

Tribute vs Taxation

Answer 28

A form of taxation paid not in money but in goods or services vs Money collected by government bureaucracy

Question 29

Community organization

Answer 29

The pattern or patterns used to organize a community spatially

Question 30

Social aspects of household

Answer 30

Boundaries of a living / activity area for a household group; this may include exterior locations, particularly in warmer climates

Question 31

Economic aspects of household

Answer 31

Economic activities – such as food preparation – accomplished within a household group; may include exterior locations

Question 32

Functional aspects of household

Answer 32

Differential use of spaces within a defined household – sleeping areas, food preparation areas, etc.

Question 33

Religious aspects of household

Answer 33

Household positioning / patterning often reflects cosmological beliefs, ritual activities

Question 34

Household groups

Answer 34

Houses may include multiple structures, not necessarily physically connected

Question 35

Patio groups

Answer 35

Structures arranged around a central open space

Question 36

Symbolic meaning of domestic architecture

Answer 36

Construction of houses / household groups may reflect particular systems of belief or cosmological views (doors facing the rising sun, etc.)

Question 37

Intrasite analysis

Answer 37

Comparison of materials within a single site

Question 38

Intersite analysis

Answer 38

Comparison of materials between multiple sites

Question 39

Social Stratification

Answer 39

Evidence for social divisions, with some people having more access to certain items than other people have

Question 40

Social Control

Answer 40

Evidence for certain individuals being able to decide what people will do and how / where they will do it

Question 41

Central place theory

Answer 41

Idea that sites tend to be dispersed over the landscape, with a single large site at the centre, medium-sized sites at equal distances in the cardinal directions, and small sites between large and medium-sized sites

Question 42

Site catchment analysis

Answer 42

Study of the geographic distribution of resources (food, tool-making materials, etc.) over the landscape in association with a known archaeological site

Question 43

Site exploitation area

Answer 43

Areas of the landscape with known resources; associated with site catchment analysis

Question 44

Locational analysis

Answer 44

Distribution of sites over landscape relating to social elements – such as placing a fortified site one day’s march apart

Question 45

Ecological determinants

Answer 45

Distribution of sites over landscape relating to ecology – sites near water sources, near sources of raw material for tool production, etc.

Question 46

Site hierarchies

Answer 46

Looking at relative frequencies of sites of different sizes within a defined geographic area

Question 47

Economic catchment area

Answer 47

Areas of potential resource availability at some distance from known sites; associated with site catchment analysis

Question 48

Hexagonal lattice of site placement

Answer 48

Spatially, the most efficient way to locate sites at equal distances from each other

Question 49

Carrying capacity

Answer 49

The maximum population of any species that can be supported by the available food supply

Question 50

Floor space model

Answer 50

Method for determining the number of individuals that might have lived in a single structure

Question 51

Analysis of scale

Answer 51

Method of attempting to determine the number of person days required to build a structure; provides a means to compare the level of effort needed for different construction projects

Question 52

Poorly defined territorial boundary

Answer 52

Common feature of many traditional societies, particularly hunter-gatherers; argued to be an important reason for the construction of burial mounds

Question 53

Mounds as centres for dispersed society

Answer 53

Human-built mounds (burial or not) become a feature of the landscape that could be used as a potential focal point for gathering

Question 54

Emblem glyph

Answer 54

Maya writing symbol that represents a particular city or polity

Question 55

City-state

Answer 55

Concept of a city that also functions like a state (or country)

Question 56

Weak state

Answer 56

Model that suggests shifting power structures involving multiple states; idea is that none of the states is powerful for very long, making these weak states

Question 57

Peer polity

Answer 57

Model that suggests that multiple states are all equal in power, making these peers

Question 58

Monumental depictions of kings vs monumental depictions of deities

Answer 58

Argued to represent a societal change, where the veneration of deities is replaced by the veneration of living individuals, suggesting these living individuals were extremely powerful

Question 59

Arrival statements

Answer 59

Statements found in Maya writings that specifically define when the founding lineage first came to a particular city. Argued to indicate that these rulers took office somewhere else, possibly under the influence of other polities

Question 60

Overking

Answer 60

A king or other powerful individual who literally decides who will rule certain polities; a king to which other kings are subjects