ANT200Y1 Lecture 4: Lecture 4 - Interpreting Material Culture
Document Summary
Paradigms/themes: culture history - description, processualism - explanation, post-processualism - interpretation. Slow, gradual process; limited in scope influences, e. g. diffusion, migration and conquest. "woodbury culture" as defined by hodson: norms are shared and transmitted through enculturation and one generation to the next, result: continuous cultural tradition - patterns through time, important, artifacts reflect "pre-existing" ideas and identities. Exist in the mind, style is difficult to define: artifacts as "containers" Contain ideas: transmission of cultural traits related to degree of interaction between individuals and groups, material culture as "yardstick" Instead of archaeology being a descriptive exercise and mental templates. Archaeologists in the 60s were finally free from the shackles of the past: no one "best" classification, classification needs to be problem-oriented, classifications need to be dependent on and derived from theory. How to hunter-gatherers organize themselves to go hunting or make tools: classifications need to be explained.
