ANTH 202 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Experimental Archaeology, Linguistic Anthropology, Ethnoarchaeology
Document Summary
Chapter 2 chapter summary: the structure of archaeological inquiry. Anthropologists believe that a true understanding of humankind can arise only from a perspective that is comparative, global, and holistic. Anthropology includes four subfields: biological, cultural, and linguistic anthropology, and archaeology. The concept of culture unites these diverse fields. Culture is a learned, shared, and symbolically based system of knowledge that includes traditions, kinship, language, religion, customs, and beliefs. There are two major approaches to the study of human culture. The ideational perspective deals with ideas and symbols; it sees culture as an instrument to create meaning and order in one"s world. The adaptive perspective emphasizes those aspects of culture that articulate with the environment, technology, and economics; it sees culture as the way in which humans adapt to their natural and social environment. These approaches are reflected in the two major paradigms of modern archaeology: processual and postprocessual archaeology.
