ANTH 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Processual Archaeology, Paleoanthropology, Hominini
Document Summary
Archaeology is the study of the human past focusing on material culture. Archaeological record consists of all material objects made by humans or near-humans revealed by archaeology. Historical record is more recent and consists of time periods where we have written texts. Traditional approaches focused on reconstructing the material remains of the past by re- assembling pots, statues or building. Next, archaeology sought to reconstruct past lifeways or cultures of the people who left those objects. Since the 1960s, processual archaeology sought to explain the cultural processes behind these cultures such as the development of social complexity bands, tribes, chiefdoms, and states. More recently, post-processual archaeology stresses the symbolic and cognitive aspects of social structures and social relations: post-processual archaeology stresses individual and group agency in the face of environmental challenges. Site precise geographical location of the material remains of past human activities. Artifacts objects that have been deliberately and intelligently created by human activity.
