ANTHRO 2AC Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Cognitive Model, Cultural Relativism, Materialism
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Anthro 2AC Fall 2017: Midterm #2 Study Guide
1.
Culture History
(defining features) -
o define cultures in space and time
o archeological interpretation based on temporal and spatial
syntheses of data
o application of general descriptive models usually derived from a
normative view of culture.
o Historical particularism
o Benefits:
§ Good descriptions of sites & artifacts.
§ Improved field & lab techniques.
§ Developed standardized ways of defining color, shape &
texture.
§ Considerable work in chronology (arrangement of events in
time).
o Critiques:
§ Too much emphasis on artifact classification, too little on
behavior of past people and how they used these artifacts.
§ Lost sight of people behind the artifacts.
§ Explained all change through diffusion. Didn't ask; "What did
these people do and why did they change over time?"
2.
Historical Particularism
- All human cultures are unique and must be
understood on their own terms, each culture is shaped by its own unique history.
3.
Processual Archaeology
(defining features and differences from Culture
History) -
o Stresses dynamic relationship between social and economic aspects
of culture
o environment as the basis for understanding the processes of culture
change
o Archaeology becomes independent from anthropology --
explanation over description
o Cultural processes approach
