ANTHR206 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Radiocarbon Dating, Zooarchaeology, Pseudoscience
8 Mar 2018
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Document Summary
Anthropology - holistic (all aspects of humans) and comparative (compare characteristics between cultures) Four major subtypes: cultural, archeological, classical, zooarchaeology, biological, linguistic. Archeology - the systematic study of the human past through its material remains. Study cultural change: reconstruct cultural chronology, understand archeological record (artifacts, preserving heritage. Purposes of archeology: understand the human species, how humans have dealt with challenges and lived in different environments. Find out how we came to be how we are. Characteristics: use radiocarbon dating, use stratigraphy, use artifacts instead of sources, both a history and a science. Selective: huge claims, vague definitions, use irrelevant data to their advantage, a grossness of comparisons, whether they are related or not, expectation of huge reward (ex. Oak island show: obsession with esoterica (specific fields of interest, ex. In pop culture: pop culture can distort and negatively impact the image of archeology. Indiana jones - meant to entertain, not educate.
