Evolution and Modern
Archaeology Theory
January 28, 2015
Anth 130
Darwin and Evolution
• Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of
Species in 1859….everything changes!
• “Evolution is the change in the inherited
characteristics of biological populations over
successive generations”
• What does this mean for the way we study
culture?
Cultural Evolution Theory
• The idea that cultural “evolves” over time to
create a more “civilized” species
• societies evolve from savagery through
barbarism to civilization
What other two ideas occurred to
bring about a scientific approach to
archaeology?
Classification-Historical Period
(or Culture History)
• Lasted from the late 1800s-1960
• Central concern was chronology
• Looked at ancient civilizations and tried to
figure out a time frame for their cultures
• The question that was trying to be answered:
To what period do this artifacts date? With
which other materials do they belong? Who
made them?
• Artifact assemblages=culture
Flinders Petrie
(1853-1942)
• Worked in Egypt and later Palestine
• Devised a dating method called “serration” to
establish chronology
• Believed in collecting
Everything found in the
Field
Gordon Childe
(1892-1957)
• Worked on making comparisons between
prehistoric communities in Europe
• Attempted to account for artifacts origins
• Was very influenced by Marxist theory
• Addressed why things changed in the past
Cultural History Archaeologist believed
• Change happened in one of three ways:
migration, invention, diffusion
• Space needed to be organized into “cultural
areas”
• Culture evolved unilineal
What are the problems with this
approach?
Do Pots=People?
Native American Language
Families
Native American Cultural
Areas
Do all cultures evolve unilineally?
Willey and Philips’ 1958:
New World Developmental Stages
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Postclassic- metallurgy, cities
Classic- craft specialization, ceremonial centers
Formative- pottery, agriculture, permanent towns
Archaic- groundstone, semi-permanent towns
Paleo-Indian- chipped stone tools, mobile huntergatherers
Good things to come out of Culture
History!
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New apparition for attention to detail
Stratigraphic excavation
Typology
New dating techniques: serration
Processual Archaeology
(or New Archaeology)
• 1960-Present
• Want to answer the question Why?
• Looks at different processes at work within a
society
• Looks to explain a culture instead of describe
a culture
Lewis Bindford
(1931-2011)
• Argued against the approach of using
archaeology to write a “counterfeit history”
• Had a more optimistic view of what
archaeology could do for our understanding of
the past
• Believed that interpretation should be based
on a framework of logical arguments
• Archaeology should EXPLAIN history not
DESCRIBE history
• Analyze cultures as a system which could b
broken down into subsystems
• Led to the study of certain aspects of culture
in their own right: trade, subsistence,
technology etc..
• Less emphasis on artifact typology
• Turned away from the approach's of history
and towards those of science
Focused on a Ecological view of
culture
• The idea that societies adapt to their
environment by culture…
• Cultures interact with not only each other but
with their environments as well.
• Does this mean that cultures are
environmentally determined?
Gordon Willey
(1913-2002)
• Studied pre-Columbian occupation in the Viru
Valley in Peru
Also focused on a Materialistic view of
culture
• A society’s solution to basic biological needs
affects higher forms of organization
• The idea that human cultural is a “response
to practice problems of earthly existence”
• It is a scientific research strategy which uses
the scientism method
• Infrastructure is the most significant force
behind the evolution of culture
Important things to come out of
Processual Archaeology
• Radiometric dating
• Plant and animal studies
• Raw material analysis
• Deductive Reasoning
• Multilineal cultural evolution
Post-Processual Archaeology
• 1980’s-Present
• No single correct way to interpret archaeological
data
• Also known as the “interpretive approach”
• Goal is to explain the past with an “insiders”
perspective…Why and What did it mean?
Post-Processual Archaeology focuses
on
• Multiple perspectives from different theories and
disciplines
• Focuses on minority groups and their role
(gender, ethnic etc.)
• Rejects the strictness of the scientific method
• Social awareness
• Stresses the idea of the “individual” or “agent”
• Rejects generalization
Four different ways to interpret
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Antiquarianism
Culture History
Processual Archaeology
Post-Processual Archaeology
In groups discuss the difference between the
four theoretical movements in
archaeology…which do you agree with the
most?
Example: Four Approaches to Interpreting
a Barrow
What is a Barrow?
 A mound
containing a tomb
 Found in W. Europe
 Part of the Neolithic
cultural landscape
that also included
henges and circles
Antiquarian Approach
1849:
John Merewether dug
West Kennett and 34
others in 4 weeks!
Results:
few artifacts, little of
interest.
Antiquarian Approach
• What’s wrong with this approach?
• Isn’t there more to prehistory than the
potential for finding treasure?
• Is this pace of excavation ethical?
Culture History Approach
1955-1956:
Stuart Piggott
conducted large-scale,
systematic excavations
Mapped the
architecture and
artifacts
Illustrated and analyzed
the pottery
Culture History Approach
Results:
• West Kennett Barrow assigned to the “SevernCotswold” barrow type
• Pottery placed into types: e.g.“Peterborough
ware”
• Discussed distribution of types
• Speculated about origins of barrow idea
(diffusion, migration, innovation).
Culture History Approach
• What’s wrong with this approach?
• Is it too descriptive?
• Why are there norms? Why do they change?
Processual Approach
• Observation:
– Radiocarbon dates show that European
barrows are older than those on Crete.
Must find local explanation.
• Research questions:
– Why did people build barrows? What
function did they serve?
Processual Approach
• Observation:
– barrow builders were farmers, and barrows
are regularly spaced on good farming land.
• Hypothesis:
– communal tombs serve as land claim
markers where land is scarce
• Based on ethnographic analogy
Processual Approach
Interpretation:
Long barrows were
an element of an
adaptive system
that enabled some
groups to work
together and hold
onto valuable land.
Processual Approach
• What’s wrong with this approach?
• Does it seem too mechanical?
• Don’t people’s needs go beyond basic
food and shelter concerns?
Postprocessual Approach
• Questions:
– What did the barrow mean to it’s builders?
– What was its long-term context?
• Observations:
– Farming came to Britain from Europe through
diffusion or migration.
– British long barrows are similar in form to
earlier European long houses
Postprocessual Approach
Long houses
Barrows
Postprocessual Approach
• Interpretation:
– Long Barrows are metaphors for houses
– Meaning: community meeting places, living
and dead are reunited
– Mingling of bodies emphasizes equality
• What’s wrong with this approach?
• Can we prove these conclusions?