ANT210H5 Final: Ant210 full set of notes
EXAM REVIEW-ANT210
Chapter and Week 1: Science and Archeology and Pseudoscience
●Science = Understanding the world through logical thought
●Pseudoscience= ideas put forth as scientific when they are not actually (some claims rely solely
on myths and legends for validity)
●Why is archeology so popular?
●Money/fame/nationalists/religion/romantic past/racism
●Graham Hancock=pseudo archaeologist, wrote books on several ancient monuments such as
pyramids of giza and the sphinx
●Why is the world fascinated with him? Well because he relies on myths and legends for validity
and people have a fascination with the unseen
●Archeology= focuses on people and their past through artifacts and remains
●We study it to discover our history, who we are and who we were
Chapter and Week 2: Epistemology
●Epistemology=study of knowledge/why do we know what we know
●How does Science work as a way of knowing?
●Hypothesis formulation and testing
●hypothesis=idea that is testable (tentative assumption) that is testable
●theory=scientifically acceptable body of principles to explain a phenomena
●There’s a real and knowable universe
●Universe operates on certain laws and rules
●uniformitarianism=was the past really a time of magic that
●How do we verify hypothesis?
●Testing and examining implications not proving
●How does it work with the past and what’s a good hypothesis
●Lower Yangzi river basin=Tian Loushin site
●What do we know?
●They produced rice/peaches/raised pigs/ and managed oaks for acorns and manage other plants
such as tea herbs medicines etc
●Hunting and fishing also important
●egalitarian=no evidence of classes and authority
●Crops identified=plums acorns peaches foxnut water caltrop
●Domesticated plants with record in China=bottle gourd peach and rice
●rice=domesticated vs wild oryza sativa
●So basically hypothesis 1 for this is=Rice domestication and early agriculture was caused by food
stress (growing pop. and climate change caused people to shift to agriculture way of life.
●Hypothesis 2= idk
●To test these hypotheses, they developed the Shanghai culture project (origins of agriculture in
lower yangtze river)
●This was done in Huxi where the site was tested for remains of rice crops and they found some
●New revised hypothesis is after testing:rice production arose in upland floodplains south of
Hangzhou Bay as a result of risk reduction decisions in a relatively rich area about 11,000-8400
yrs ago.
●made adjustments to these rich habitats where rice was a significant component of the flora
wetlands attracted people because of the rich flora AND fauna;
●also had easy access to low mountains and their resources
●People actively making decisions related to changing the local environment (e.g. ditches) thus
bringing rice near human villages, helping to make the connection between people and rice.
● Both technology and food relevant to the importance of rice at the time.
●Occam’s razor or Occam’s rule: help to explain phenomenon, require the simplest theories be
preferred to more complex of unknown phenomena
●while more complicated solutions may prove correct in absence of certainty – fewer assumptions
that are made, the better used to shift burden of proof
Chapter 3:Fujimura (Anatomy of an Archaeological Hoax)
●Cardiff Giant=in world cultures there are many mentions of giants
●For example in Indian Ramayana (KumbhaKarna), Goliath etc.
●So George Hull made up a hoax where he planted a fake fossil of a giant
●This caused the economy to boom, people were paying like crazy to come see the fossil in the
museum
●Giant found in New York farmer’s (Stub Newell) barn that made huge economic impact and
started a bidding war, eventually sold for half a million dollar (today currency) o Giant was put
into an exhibit and businessmen investors who bought share in giant made back the investment in
few weeks
● o Rumors began that giant is fake – Daniel Luce (local resident) told Syracuse Standard that he
had spotted an extremely large wagon, carrying a sizeable heavy load travelling toward Cardiff
the previous year.
●Newell bragged about the giant being fake to relatives and stakeholders made him sign if it is fake
he will return the money
●Many comparisons made between goliath and cardiff giant-people believe for religious reasons
and money
●So what makes a hoax successful?
●Give people what they want marketing research, reason for audience to accept your superstition
● o Don’t be too successful leads to skepticism and investigation to take place (Fujimura) o Learn
from your mistakes
●Why people believe in weird things?
●Excerpt:
●Weird things=beliefs=any claim that isn’t supported with proof
●Intelligent people can support and defend these claims and beliefs
●Smart people believe in weird things because they are skilled at defending their beliefs
●Seeing is believing but not always the truth-the dog and lion picture example
●Brain: finds pattern/attaches meaning to pattern/confirms belief by finding evidence
●Cynical=distrustful of human sincerity
●Skeptical=not convinced,having doubts
●Credulous=having readiness to belief things
●apophenia=connections to unrelated phenomena
●psychopathy=psychiatric pathology
●Individuals appear confident
●mind=more than just the brain/Something beyond nature (brain is just neurons)
●Face in the hills of hat Alberta
●Types of Errors=
●Type 1 and Type 2
●1=accept falsehood
●2=reject truth
Week 4: Fujimura and Piltdown=
●Fujimura and 2 other people in lab to study Japan’s paleolithic
●motivations:money/competition with china (nationalism)/group security etc.
●He planted artifacts into the site and was caught when a reported filmed him placing the artifacts
he was to find the next day.
●He agreed it was a hoax and it seemed he didn't do it for the money like Newell and Hull.
●He planted on 42 sites
●Piltdown hoax:
●Charles Dawson in 1912 found remains in Sussex England that belonged to missing link between
ape and human
●Parts of the orangutans jaw and human skulls combined to make this skull
●Nationalism
The moundbuilders:
●Myth about a vanished race-accepted by many Americans
●5 arguments as to why american Indians could not have been the people who build moundbuilder
culture
○Indians too primitive
○Mounds more complex than their capacity
The prehistoric people of Central and South America are known worldwide for their fantastic
architectural and cultural achievements. However, North American natives are not known as great
builders. But that does not mean they didn't build. It also doesn't mean that they didn't have civilizations.
Atlantis-the lost civilization
●Source of Atlantis:
●Plato-in his timaeus and critias dialogue
●He talks about a civilization which had a large military and navy, advanced artwork in silver and
gold, structures and lived in a perfect society with lots of elephants etc.
●In the Timaeus Dialogue- plato gets critias to state the atlantis is destroyed 9000 years ago before
Solons time- but no tale of atlantis in egypt at time of solon
●There is no history of Athens winning any war with Atlantis- in any records by the Athenians
Document Summary
Chapter and week 1: science and archeology and pseudoscience on myths and legends for validity) Science = understanding the world through logical thought. Pseudoscience = ideas put forth as scientific when they are not actually (some claims rely solely. Graham hancock=pseudo archaeologist, wrote books on several ancient monuments such as pyramids of giza and the sphinx. Well because he relies on myths and legends for validity and people have a fascination with the unseen. Archeology= focuses on people and their past through artifacts and remains. We study it to discover our history, who we are and who we were. Epistemology =study of knowledge/why do we know what we know. Hypothesis =idea that is testable (tentative assumption) that is testable. Theory=scientifically acceptable body of principles to explain a phenomena. Universe operates on certain laws and rules. Uniformitarianism=was the past really a time of magic that. How does it work with the past and what"s a good hypothesis.
