ANT210H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Pseudoarchaeology, Liangzhu Culture, Ancient Aliens
Document Summary
Ant210 lecture 10: mysteries of ancient civlizations (03-20-19) What is civilization : anthropologists generally don"t use concept in formal sense, examples. Instead, refer to sociopolitical complexity, chiefdoms, states, hierarchies, heterarchies: ancient egypt, cahokia (north america, liangzhu cultures (china, fringe anthropology questions the intelligence and capabilities of previous civilizations. Arcaheological work: archaeological research involves, experimental work and real experiments, listening to locals. Involvement with local community: research and science not rigidly constrained, pseudoarchaeology tends to not do this. Lineages organized in ranked relationship to paramount chief. Public buildings, palaces, temples, 3 or more tiers of settlements. Increasing quantities, varieties, specialization of material goods: cahokia (ad 700-1400, settlement ranking, 4 tiers (levels) of communities, hierarchy reflecting political organization, population of 30,0000, mississippian chiefdom, eastern north american example. Pyramid built to send message to future generations; egyptians were inheritors of ancient knowledge and wisdom . Absurd to suggest that, as egyptologists do, that monuments were creation of infancy of a civilization.
