STRUCTURE OF
MODERN
ARCHAEOLOGICAL
INQUIRY
(or how archaeologists think about the past)
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ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORD
The body of physical evidence relating to the human past - not
written.
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3
THE SCIENTIFIC
METHOD
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1. Observe (collect data)
2. Generate hypothesis or possible explanation (through inductive
reasoning) for what has been observed
3. Deduce specific things that must be true if the hypothesis is valid
4. Test the hypothesis by checking the deductions
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THEORY
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archaeological
THEORY
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LOW LEVEL
Data. Relevant facts about the archaeological record (artifacts,
structures, features, etc) based on observation
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MID LEVEL/RANGE
Links specific set of archaeological data with the human behavior
or natural processes that produced them.
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HIGH LEVEL
Goes beyond the archaeological specifics to address “big
questions” that are of concern to many social and historical
domains.
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THEORETICAL
PARADIGMS
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
CULTURE HISTORY
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CULTURE HISTORY
An archaeological theoretical paradigm which emphasizes defining
historical societies into distinct ethnic and cultural groupings
according to their material culture.
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The premise of the cultural evolutionists was that all societies
progress through an identical series of distinct evolutionary
stages
Edward Tylor (1832-1917)
Proposed that human cultures developed through three basic
stages, savagery, barbarism, and civilization
Lewis Henry Morgan (1818-1881)
Morgan also used the terms savagery, barbarism, and
civilization, but expanded on these to give us seven levels of
cultural evolution - all based on technological development
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Stone Age

Bronze Age

Iron Age

Christian Thomsen
➊ CULTURES
➋ DIFFUSION
➌ INDUCTIVE REASONING
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➊ CULTURES
Past human history can be divided into “cultures” distinct from one
another - based primarily on their material culture.
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BADARIAN CULTURE
CULTURES = ETHNICITY
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➋ DIFFUSION
social change in past cultures was explained through diffusion the concept that cultural items (ideas, styles, religions,
technologies, languages) spread from one culture to another
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MESOPOTAMIA
EGYPT
4th Millennium BC
MESOPOTAMIA
EGYPT
➌ INDUCTIVE REASONING
arguing from specifics to generalities. Developing generalities
(eventually hypotheses) based on observed phenomena.
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EXCAVATE

CATALOG

DESCRIBE

MAKE TIMELINE


PROCESSUAL
ARCHEOLOGY
(The New Archaeology)
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“American archaeology is
anthropology or it is nothing”
Gordon Willey and Philip Phillips
Method and Theory in American Archeology (1958)
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Goals of
archaeology are
the goals of
anthropology
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SCIENCE!
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+
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=
43
=
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PEOPLE!
SOCIETY!
CULTURE!
culture is

EXOSOMATIC
culture change happens

PREDICTABLE
FRAMEWORK
culture change is

EVOLUTIONARY
PROCESS
HOW?
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LEWIS BINFORD
ETHNO-ARCHAEOLOGY
Studying modern groups through their material culture in order to
understand the cultures themselves or to reconstruct past
lifeways.
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CULTURE
MATERIALISM
e
c
o
r
p
f
o
t
r
a
p
vital
m
s
i
l
a
ssu
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MARVIN
HARRIS
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CULTURAL MATERIALISM
The (simple) idea that human social life (culture) is a response to
the practical problems of “earthly existence.”
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CULTURAL MATERIALSM
TECHNOLOGY
 SOCIAL ORGANIZATION
 IDEOLOGY

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NOT WITHOUT ITS CRITICISM
ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINISM
 NO HUMAN AGENCY
 CULTURES ARE HOMEOSTATIC
 IGNORES GENDER, ETHNICITY, IDENTITY,
SOCIAL RELATIONS

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NOT WITHOUT ITS CRITICISM
ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINISM
 NO HUMAN AGENCY
 CULTURES ARE HOMEOSTATIC
 IGNORES GENDER, ETHNICITY, IDENTITY,
SOCIAL RELATIONS

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NOT WITHOUT ITS CRITICISM
ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINISM
 NO HUMAN AGENCY
 CULTURES ARE HOMEOSTATIC
 IGNORES GENDER, ETHNICITY, IDENTITY,
SOCIAL RELATIONS

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NOT WITHOUT ITS CRITICISM
ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINISM
 NO HUMAN AGENCY
 CULTURES ARE HOMEOSTATIC
 IGNORES GENDER, ETHNICITY, IDENTITY,
SOCIAL RELATIONS

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NOT WITHOUT ITS CRITICISM
ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINISM
 NO HUMAN AGENCY
 CULTURES ARE HOMEOSTATIC
 IGNORES GENDER, ETHNICITY, IDENTITY,
SOCIAL RELATIONS

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
POST-PROCESSUAL
ARCHEOLOGY
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post-processualism was a
REACTION
to processualism
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OBJECTIVE
VS
SUBJECTIVE
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PROCESSUALISM: OBJECTIVE
POST-PROCESSUALISM: SUBJECTIVE
archaeology is
INTERPRETATION
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processualism is
UNETHICAL
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PROCESUALISM...
OPPRESSION OF ORDINARY PEOPLE
 PROMOTED SOCIAL INJUSTICE
 COLONIALIST
 PROFESSIONAL ELITISM

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“very diverse strands of
thought coalesced into a
loose cluster of traditions”
Matthew Johnson
Archaeological Theory: An Introduction (1999)
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POST PROCESSUALISM
EMPHASIZES IDEOLOGY
 STRUCTURALISM
 HUMAN AGENCY
 GENDERED ARCHAEOLOGY, INDIGENOUS
ARCHAEOLOGY

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POST PROCESSUALISM
EMPHASIZES IDEOLOGY
 STRUCTURALISM
 HUMAN AGENCY
 GENDERED ARCHAEOLOGY, INDIGENOUS
ARCHAEOLOGY

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STRUCTURALISM
The idea that meaning is produced and reproduced within a
culture through various practices, phenomena, and activities that
serve as systems of signification.
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POSTMODERNISM
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PROCESSUAL+

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HUMANISTIC
ARCHAEOLOGY
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 attempting to get at the past peoples' own views of how they
did things and what was significant
tool to describe or document historical events or
 aphenomena
(classical archaeology, egyptology). Social theory
not of primary importance
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NEXT CLASS DISCUSSION

CAN SCIENTIFIC METHOD BE APPLIED
TO THE PAST?
IS ARCHAEOLOGY A SCIENCE?
 IS ARCHAEOLOGY (AS A SCIENCE)
UNETHICAL?


POST PROCESSUALISM VS.
PROCESSUALISTM (MAKE THE ARGUMENT)
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