Book Reviews Due Today!
If you are here before 10:00 am, you
may place your Book Review in the
appropriate pile at the front of the
lecture hall.
If you are late, you will need to wait
until the break or the end of class to
do the same.
Judith Habicht-Mauche, UCSC, Spring 2004
Unit 7 Quiz
Must be completed by midnight
tonight.
Judith Habicht-Mauche, UCSC, Spring 2004
Unit 8
The Archaeology of
Ideology, Ritual, and Symbolism
Judith Habicht-Mauche, UCSC, Spring 2004
Humans face common problems
that require rationalization:
Individual Needs:
To explain how
world works
For sense of control
in face of crisis
To cope with death
and fate of human
psyche
Judith Habicht-Mauche, UCSC, Spring 2004
Societal Needs:
To create consensus
about right and
wrong
To validate
transitions in
personal and
communal life
To legitimize social
institutions
Ideology: broad set of rationalizations for
common human problems and experiences.
Religion: ideology that deals with
understanding the relationship between
humans and the supernatural.
structures of the mind
culturally-constructed; shared and learned in
social contexts
influence how we perceive and act in the
material world of our experience
Judith Habicht-Mauche, UCSC, Spring 2004
Material Aspects of Ideology:
Ritual: stereotyped behavior that enacts
some aspect of ideology
Symbols: arbitrary, abstract signs that carry
or create meaning in a particular context
Buildings, Features, Public Spaces
Objects
Artistic Representations (Iconography)
Judith Habicht-Mauche, UCSC, Spring 2004
Processualist/Functionalist
Approaches
 Focus on FUNCTION of ideology in organization
and regulation of society
 Seen as evolutionarily “adaptive”--solves some
organizational problem and contributes to survival
 Regulates human-human or human-environment
interactions by appealing to morally correct
behavior
Emile Durkeim (1915)
Sacred: forbidden, unquestioned, holy
Profane: everyday, ordinary
Judith Habicht-Mauche, UCSC, Spring 2004
Example:
Origins of Katchina Religion in SW
14th c. evidence for new ritual practices:
kivas murals, rock art, plazas, glaze ware
bowls
Interpreted as “social glue” that held large
aggregated pueblos together
Calendrical rituals: triggered certain actions
at certain times; especially agricultural
activities
Judith Habicht-Mauche, UCSC, Spring 2004
FIVE MINUTE BREAK
If you can’t possibly stay to the end
of the lecture, then place your Book
Review in the appropriate box on the
stage at the front of the lecture hall.
Judith Habicht-Mauche, UCSC, Spring 2004
Post-Processual/Structuralist
Approaches
 Ideology reflects system of cognitive
STRUCTURES
 Structures imprinted on material world-repetition, patterning.
 Relationship between this system of cognitive
structures (“worldview”) and experience in
material world is recursive, reflexive.
 Archaeologist need to study the role that ideology
plays in structuring the social and material world.
Judith Habicht-Mauche, UCSC, Spring 2004
Example:
James Deetz (1977)
In Small Things Forgotten
Argument: between 1607 and 1760 English
colonists experienced major transformation
in how they conceived, ordered and lived in
the world. This change left distinct imprint
on their material world.
Examples: Ceramics, Domestic Architecture
Judith Habicht-Mauche, UCSC, Spring 2004
Anglo-American Worldview
 17th-early 18th c.
 Medieval Mindset
 Group oriented,
corporate, organic,
vernacular
 Mid 18th c.
 Georgian Order
 Focus on individual,
formal, orderly, more
academic, popular
Result of expansion of merchantile capitalism
Rise of literate, secular, middle class
Artificial means to impose balance and order on
increasingly uncertain material world
Judith Habicht-Mauche, UCSC, Spring 2004
Marxist or Post-Structuralist
Critique
Mark Leone (1980s) Historic Anapolis, MD
Critiqued structuralists for not taking into
account issues of POWER AND AGENCY
Internal contradictions: Rich/Poor;
Free/Slave; British/American
Threat to economic and political stability of
new American middle class
Judith Habicht-Mauche, UCSC, Spring 2004
William Paca’s Garden, Anapolis
 Ostentatious displays of Power and Wealth
 Symmetry and Order demonstrate control over
nature
Ordering Nature = Naturalizing Order
Discursive acts designed to stabilize and assert
individual prosperity and power--not just a
material reflection of it.
Judith Habicht-Mauche, UCSC, Spring 2004