ANTH1008 Lecture 3: Ethno-Archaeology and Cultural Heritage Management
ANTH1008 Lecture Three: Ethno-Archaeology and Cultural Heritage
Management
Archaeology
• The word comes from two Ancient Greek words, archaeo and logos, meaning old study.
And archaeology is the study of old things; the study of the past, ideas and meaning
shown through artefacts
• Archaeologists study the distant and recent past.
• In recent archaeology, archaeologists interview descendants, they check historical
records, study photographs, films, old maps, and interpret evidence
• In distant archaeology, archaeologists survey sites and record things concerning it,
excavate the land and the sea (shipwrecks etc.), record rock art, laboratory analysis
(wear from use, residue, etc.), interpret evidence.
• Archaeology is important because it's more than stones and bones, it's tangible evidence
from the past. It's proof of the existence of ancestors (Greer 1999)
• It is possible to understand the past from artefacts alone. An analysis of artefacts can
determine its past use (use wear, residue analysis), how an artefact was manufactured
(reduction analysis), and can determine source of raw material (trade relationships). An
analysis of food remains is also conducted. It determines the foods eaten, which
resource areas were exploited, understand how they processed their foods, and
determine seasonality. The analysis of fireplaces can also determine age of cultural
materials (carbon dating on coal), the location of firewood collection, and seek other
types of food remains. An analysis of human bones can determine the age of death, the
diseases that the person suffered, and can help determine the level of care for the sick.
An analysis of sediments can determine preservations/taphonomy (actions that occur to
the body after burial), and determine the type of environments
• However, the reliability of analysis of artefacts can easily be tampered with, either with
the acidity of the soil eating away at the remains, taphonomy can be fucked with
because of scavenging or even rivers washing buried remains away. People also
hoarding materials can also be in implication, either for recycling or reusing.
• Archaeology is more than describing the physical remains of the past, and
interpretations are made in various ways:
-processual archaeology: a fairly old way of looking at archaeology. It's describing the
past, reconstructing past lifeways (ethnography; historical documents; environmental
reconstruction, artefact analysis; bone analysis), explaining culture over time
(reconstructing past social processes), understanding the archaeological record
considering the contemporary world (middle range theory; experimental archaeology),
and the setting up of meta-narratives of the past.
-post-processual archaeology: recognises that the past in a construct, recognises the
constructivist anthropology approach where archaeology is a challenge to such meta-
narratives, that there are multiple ways of viewing the past, there are community
archaeology approaches, as well as more scientific approaches, it is multi-vocal in the
interpretation of evidence. Post-processual archaeologists need to recognise and
acknowledge all the different voices. Along with anthropologists, these archaeologists
have voices of power when it comes to cultural heritage management
-ethno-archaeology: provides alternative interpretations. "Ethnographical analogy
appears as the representation of the present, but also of our understanding of how
human action [in the past] is to be interpreted and explained." (Murray 1988:7) It is the
use of ethnographic and ethno-historical information to help us to understand the
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Archaeology: the word comes from two ancient greek words, archaeo and logos, meaning old study. And archaeology is the study of old things; the study of the past, ideas and meaning shown through artefacts: archaeologists study the distant and recent past. In recent archaeology, archaeologists interview descendants, they check historical records, study photographs, films, old maps, and interpret evidence. In distant archaeology, archaeologists survey sites and record things concerning it, excavate the land and the sea (shipwrecks etc. ), record rock art, laboratory analysis (wear from use, residue, etc. ), interpret evidence: archaeology is important because it"s more than stones and bones, it"s tangible evidence from the past. It"s proof of the existence of ancestors (greer 1999) It is possible to understand the past from artefacts alone. An analysis of artefacts can determine its past use (use wear, residue analysis), how an artefact was manufactured (reduction analysis), and can determine source of raw material (trade relationships).
