ANTH 9 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Ethnoarchaeology, Taphonomy, Stone Tool
Document Summary
Low-level theory = basic observations and interpretations from fieldwork. Middle-range theory = links archaeological observations with human behavior or natural processes that produced them. Reproducing of activities and tech that are no longer practiced (making bows/arrows) Replicative experiments only demonstrate that a given technique was possible, but very difficult to prove how something was made/done. Ethno-archaeology studying modern peoples" material culture to assist archaeological interpretation, often used for studying social behavior. Sometimes archaeologists use ethnographic data to learn more about the relationship between material culture and human behavior. Taphonomy study of how materials become incorporated into the archaeological record (how bodies decompose, how food is digested by animals, geophysical processes) Analogy = nothing between 2 entities and inferring from that similarity to that an additional attribute of one is also true of the other. Formal = analogies justified by similarities in formal attributes.