Sociology, Anthropology, By Lewis Binford

He could see, through his excavations, that there were separate groups of humans that he came across and therefore the phrases urban and industrial revolution came about. Childe didn’t merely describe and correlate the culture sequences he attempted to account for their origin as well (Renfrew and Bahn, 2012:36). Not only could Childe notice different cultures but “in 1942, Childe used the distribution of tombs on Rousay to estimate the size and distribution of population on this Scottish island during the Neolithic period (Trigger, 2006:376),” and later on whilst he was excavating at sites such as Skara Brae the “analysis of the community and the estimation of population size became much easier (Renfrew and Bahn, 2012:190).” Throughout his life “as early as 1925, Childe had employed a functional view of culture to facilitate his culture-historical analysis (Trigger, 2006:397),” this concept of culture –historical approach is still being considered and thought about in archaeology today. “During the years of 1928 and 1957 Childe revolutionised specific words relating to the past. These terms became important, not just for archaeologists but also historians and more importantly the public. This terminology that was introduced allowed for clear stages that can be seen throughout the chronological timeline of the past (Greene, 1999:97).” These words such as, urban

The handling of human remains and sacred sites of prehistoric people still remains as a hunge controversial subject in the field of Anthropology. Archaeology are bounded by all kinds of laws and regulations, guidelines are strictly followed by archaeologists to ensure a legal, ethical, and professional conduct of archaeological research. Complex ethical issues arise when an archaeologist tries to excavate a prehistoric site. Archaeologists must be careful when handling Native American remains as they might violate laws if they mishandle the human remains. All these laws existed to protect the basic human rights for the Native Americans. In this paper, perspectives from both Native Americans and archaeological researchers would be discussed.

Death by Theory, written by Adrian Praetzellis, is an engaging and informational book written in a novelistic way that engages the reader to think critically about archaeology. Compared to other forms of informational text about archaeology, Death by Theory teaches archaeological theory by telling a story that incorporates the different theories of archaeology in a realistic setting. While standard textbooks about the theory of archaeology can come off a bit dry, Death by Theory skips the standard definitions and applies this in a way that aids the reader in understanding how these theories and terms can be applied in an actual archaeological setting. This text illustrates the adventure of plucky archaeologist Dr. Hannah Green and her nephew Sean Doyle as they seek to explain an unusual archaeological site while dealing with real life archaeological struggles. The protagonists deal with an egotistical colleague of Dr. Green who sought her out as a consult on a particularly strange archaeological case. All the while dealing with cults, the media, and incompatible data.

This essay will aim to cover several archaeology techniques and methodologies that would have been used during excavation of archeological sites, in particular the New Kinord site. These methods will provide an insight into a wide range of information that I am interested in discovering. These include what the inhabitants of the site did for a living, their diet and how the term of occupation can be determined.

American archaeologist and anthropologist, Stephen Plog, wrote an account of the pre-Columbian natives of the Americans titled Ancient Peoples of the American Southwest. Plog’s purpose is to communicate the cultural and ritualistic lifestyles of the prehistoric natives of the southwest, which spans across the states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Nevada with some mention of trade with Mexico. The author has demonstrated an effective approach of an objective viewpoint on the lives of the prehistoric south westerners using sources from excursions from previous archaeologists such as, Paul S Martin and David R Wilcox among many others who excavated the vacant villages of the southwest.

Archaeology provides clues to the past when no written record existed, making the field the only way to expand the existing knowledge of the Clovis and pre-Clovis cultures. In South America, there is an abundance of archaeological sites dating to both Clovis and pre-Clovis times, but in North America, specifically on the East coast, there are only a handful of excavated sites. In reference to pre-Clovis, this statement is especially true, with varied sites that have not been fully excavated or are not convincing enough to be considered hard hitting evidence in favor of their existence. These sites are the basis for the debate over who came first and if pre-Clovis really existed or not, making the analysis of excavations a key factor to understanding

The history of archaeology plays an important role in the controversial issues surrounding the science. Archaeology has only recently become a concrete science. Although mankind has always had an interest in the past, the root of archaeology is believed to have started in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. During this time period, artifacts were mainly sought after for collecting. The upper class of the Renaissance period collected artifacts from places such as Rome and Greece to display in their homes as art. As time went on, the lure of historical art and artifacts increased. “Classical archaeology” is the direct result of this curiosity. The “classical archaeologists” were mainly wealthy men that collected artifacts for their homes and studied where they

Janet Spector’s book What The Awl Means is a break-way writing that reflects on many relevant issues within archeology during twentieth century. Spector expresses her internal conflict on the lack of divergent views and limited knowledge acquired when excavating Indian sites. She demonstrates this causes a shortage towards influential archeology because there is “no framework for understanding Native American perspective and perception only the intense wish to know” (Spector 3). However, Spector sets specific motives to dismantle the ignorance people hold towards Native American specifically in archeology. She introduces her primary intensions to replace orthodox archeological methods, by integrating Native American voices into her project. While Spector raises a legitimate critique by acknowledging Eurocentric biases in archeology, she also falls prey to them herself, as demonstrated by her failure to

American Journal of Archaeology 2000: 743. JSTOR

Finding an arrowhead is a dream every child has held at one time or another. The ones who hold that dream the longest become archaeologists. Studying the lithic material from a site can seem tedious and dull, but the information that can be gleaned from it is invaluable. The type of lithic material can provide insight into the lifestyle, tool production, trading habits, and a possible time period of habitation. We aimed to discover some of this information from the items recovered during the two weeks of excavation at the East Carolina University Summer Ventures Archaeological Field Methods class.

Participation by archaeologists in the indigenous construction of heritage remains a difficult and controversial issue (McGuire 1992:37, Nicholas and Andrews 1997a:12, 1997b:277; Trigger 2006:177-189). Following the critical theory of Habermas (1971:14-22, 1973:32-40) and its use in archaeology (Leone et al. 1987:283-292; Lyons 2005:1; Wylie 1985:138), archaeological practice is clearly a socio-political action in and for the present (Tilley 1989:105). Collaborative research with stakeholders may influence interpretation and results for social and political gain (McGhee 2008:580-581). This influence may

This anthropologist and archeologist have discovered the existence of this fascinating connection between culture and art among hunter-gather societies dating back to the 19th century. For anthropologist, culture is the foundation that many societies are built on; it is recognized as a community shared values, religions, traditions, sense of communication and behaviours (Creese, 2011 pg. 5). The knowledge and understanding a society culture is beneficial for determining the motivation or actions of a particular group and can be used to discover the communities’ way of living. Cultural aspects of life are critically important for hunter-gathers particularly the Native Americans and are the inspiration for many forms of art. Art is closely related to culture, as it is universal characteristic and behavior of humankind. For the Native American the use of art moved past the aesthetics and became a reflection of their culture brought into reality through painting, drawing and carvings. These exceptional forms of art became a heavily respected element of aboriginal’s ceremonies, traditions, religion, and social behaviors (Creese, 2011 pg. 5). The theory of a close relationship between art and culture is currently by supported by multiple archeologists who are continuously discovering caves covered in

The purpose of a Stage 3 assessment is to asses the cultural heritage value or interest of each archaeological site identified in a Stage 2 assessment, to determine whether it has been sufficiently documented or if further measures are required to protect or document the site fully. In the case of this Stage 3 assessment, two sites will be considered. Site 1 is a small pre-contact site located on a prominent sandy knoll in a ploughed field. Site 2 is a large pre-contact site located in a ploughed field. Both sites suggest pre-contact habitation as a result of having found pre-contact artefacts on the subject properties. The objectives will be to determine the extent of the archaeological site and the characteristics of the artefacts, to collect a representative sample of artefacts, to assess the cultural heritage value or interest of the archaeological site, and to determine the need for mitigation of development impact and recommend appropriate strategies for mitigation and future conservation. For the purpose of this Stage 3 proposal, I

It cannot be argued that there are obvious contradictions between archaeological accounts of the past and Indigenous accounts. However, we cannot have one without the other because these two points of view provide us with a more in-depth and thorough understanding of the past, present, and future. For example, Nicholas and Markey (2014) state that Aboriginal medicine was once viewed as unscientific, but now it is valued in the search for new drugs (Nicholas & Markey 2014, 300).

The sociological perspective was defined by Peter Berger as seeing the general in particular. What this means is that by using the sociological perspective, sociologists can observe trends by looking at how individuals within groups act. Sociologists use the sociological perspective to observe how society impacts individuals, whereas psychologists observe individuals and how their own experiences influence their lives and choices. Someone using a political perspective would think about how the political world can influence individuals, and someone with a religious perspective would think about how the presence or lack of religion would affect an individual.