ANTH 240 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Grave Goods, Venus Figurines, Parietal Art
7 Nov 2016
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Document Summary
La chapelle-aux-saints, france neanderthal remains found in a partially man-made ditch in a cave. Bones were covered up quickly after death no animal: when is archaeological evidence mortuary practice v. arbitrary? gnawing or years of weathering. Difficult to translate symbols of dead culture. Element of fashion/display to monuments don"t necessarily reflect emotion. Makes a practice a tradition: hard to understand how/why traditions form. Hard to interpret whether or not a grave is finished . Hard to see a tradition without a good chronology: animals can mourn, and have responses to death, cultural boundaries/variations. Processual archaeologists explained variations w/ emergence of social hierarchy. Cognitive archaeology: studies past ways of thought and symbolic structures by using material remains: studies art, writing, religion, intentional burial, technology/design. Prehistoric art: graphic symbols often get ignored. Squiggly lines etc. are repeated in different caves across ice age. Possible method of written recording: usual earliest forms of writing are for record- keeping, parietal art: can"t be transported.
