ANT100Y1 Lecture : Analysis and Interpretation

• School: UTSG
• Department: Anthropology
• Course: ANT100Y1
• Professor: Christopher Watts

Document Summary

Analysis and interpretation (re)construction: careful analysis of the environment in which materials are found in order to say something about the circumstances by which that material came to be there, circumstance = natural and human agencies. May or may not be necessary; depends on the artifact: cataloguing. Process by which we assign items to categories (classes) in a pre-arranged system determine whether an item belongs or does not belong to a class. Data organization: one popular method of classification & analysis is through the use of a typology. Emic insider"s view" of culture; the type was recognized by its manufacturer as meaningful. Etic outsider"s view" of culture; the type is only meaningful to the analyst: typically, we distinguish between: Faunal remains animal bones not used as tools. Floral remains plant materials not used as tools. Flintknapping" one of earliest industrial arts: flaked lithic tools. Emerged with homo habilis some 2. 5 mya. Involves removing flakes from cores in a controlled manner.