ANTHROP 1AA3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Prehistoric Archaeology, Historical Archaeology, Sociocultural Anthropology

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Anthropology
• Course: ANTHROP 1AA3
• Professor: Andrew Wade

Document Summary

Study of past societies and their cultures using material culture (tools, ceramics, sites) Contextual (circumstances, envi"s, beliefs (=context) shape human behaviour) Holistic (whole/ entire pic, biological and cultural) Sociocultural anthropology- contempt cultures + societies defined as transmitted, learned behaviour. Ethnography: a description of an aspect of culture within a society. Prehistoric archaeology - no written documents, evidence from artifacts in sites". 1: historical archaeology - more recent, evidence= written. Evidence/artifacts are recorded, labelled, photographed, + mapped systematically. Excavation method depends on challenges + problems associated with site. Studies the construction + use of language by human society"s. Sociolinguistics- relationship bet language + social behaviour in dif cultures. Historical linguistics - how languages are related to each other + how they changed overtime. All aspects of the biology + behaviour of the human species (+ our close relatives), past + present. No anthropologist is an expert in all 4 branches of anthro. Many do research that crosses over subfields (interdisciplinary)