ANTH 9 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Processual Archaeology, Cultural Evolution, Earthenware
3 Sep 2020
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Document Summary
Cultural historical: assume archaeological record accurately reflects human behavior and behavior in time and space can be reconstructed from that record based upon the frequency of attribute occurrence and their distribution. Processual: based on some theory of human behavior, e. g. hunter-gathers are logistically organized subsistence groups-behavioral. Have two frameworks that we apply to get a cultural process over time: We characterize societies as a system of interrelated parts or subsystems. A change in on subsystem can profoundly affect the effective functioning of other parts of the larger system later in time. The system gives us a synchronic view of culture and a change in system states at different points in time gives us a diachronic perspective. E. g. easter island: our model of society can be viewed as a functioning system a decline in productivity in the agricultural subsystem impacts survival and reproduction in the population subsystem.
