Anthropology 3
Exam #1 Study Guide
Fall 2005
This document is a GUIDE; use this to organize your exam preparation. All topics may not be covered on the exam. Lecture
material is the most important source of information, but you are responsible for reading material whenever we covered that
material, or I explicitly told you to know certain material. The exam will consist of questions in various forms: multiple choice,
fill-in, listing, definitions, and short answer. The short answer questions are meant to be answered in 3-6 sentences. These
questions are more thought-provoking and will emphasize theoretical concepts and methodological applications presented in class.
The exam is worth 100 pts. and is designed to last 60 minutes.
General terms/topics:
artifact, ecofact, feature, site, context (primary and secondary), stratigraphy
Anthropology vs. archaeology;
prehistoric vs. historic archaeology
Culture, Ideational vs. Adaptive views of culture
pseudoarchaeology
Background:
examples of early interest in past (Egyptian excavations, etc.)
Three Age system (Thomsen and Worsae)
people: Kidder, Jefferson, Binford, Squire and Davis;
antiquitarian vs. archaeologist
political influences: Moundbuilder myth/racism;
direct historical approach
Louis Leakey example: skills: patience and keen observation (learned from Kikuyu)
Background: time in East Africa and England; learned fossil preparation
Gamble’s Cave: 28 feet occupation, 7 months, hundreds of tools, evidence for climate change
Lake Victoria/Kanjera Peninsula: poor records, nearly ruined career give strata problems
Olduvai Gorge: Beds II-IV: younger, axes; Bed I: cruder choppers and flakes
Early hominds: Homo habilis and Zinjanthropus boisei
Contributions: big thinker, public speaking, contributions to all subfields
Goals of Archaeology:
Artifacts and Typology
a) reconstructing culture history, b) reconstructing past lifeways (subsistence, organization, etc.)
c) Explaining cultural change
d) preserving the archaeological record
typology/type
why create types?
style: what is it?
attribute: 3 categories (not function!)
Problems/Solutions associated with typology
Class activity
Explaining the Past:
1) culture history: what is it?
Mechanisms of culture change: invention, migration, diffusion, inevitable variation
2) Processual/ ‘New’ archaeology:
Definition
related topics: systems approach and cultural ecology
major traits: application of science, explaining changes, universal laws/big explanations;
Lewis Binford…angry young man…why opposed to culture history? Why scientific method?
3) Post-processual archaeology: definition
agency
Reactionary/critique; loose grouping of different theoretical approaches
Major contributions: meaning, social responsibilities, “people without history”
4) cognitive processual: definition
focus on religion and beliefs
2 major research foci: cognitive abilities of early humans/hominids; cognitive aspects of humans last 40,000 yrs.