1/27/05 –2/1

Small Group DiscussionDifferences between science and post-processualism as intellectual structures role of ideas in both meaning of theory in both explanation versus interpretation

Development of the Discipline

Definition of a archaeology as a discipline

coherent set of ideas,methods and techniques to investigate the

human past1860: establishment of archaeology as

a discipline. Why?

deep time for humans

SPECULATIVE PERIOD IN AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY

Archaeology as the study of the human past is a western European discipline

Curiosity about origin of American Indians

is as old as Columbian voyages. Who are they people? What is their origin?

no archaeology involved

Bartolomé de las Casas 1520

Dominican Priest Defender of American

Indians American Indians

were “lambs of God”. They were not natural slaves

Must be protected by the Spanish Crown

Doctrine of Progress

18th C: “Scalae Natura” (The Scale of Nature)

All people can improve, regardless of orgin

19th C: Social Darwinism

Biology and Cultural progress Scaled

Robert Fitzroy, Captain Of the Beagle

LOUIS HENRY MORGAN

SOCIAL DARWINIST

Summary

From 1492 on, there was curiosity and discussion regarding the American Indians. Who they were? How they related to the story of creation in the Bible?

Because the Bible was Judeo-Christian, all societies were viewed from a European perspective…

Result: A genuine racism (from a contemporary view point) develops---American Indians as inferior.

This position becomes incorporated in the social darwinism of the late 19th and early 20th century

Mound Builder Debate

Resolved in the late 19th c.

An American Paleolithic

The discovery of Folsom in 1927

Issues that resulted in the Development of American

Archaeology

Ephraim Squier Great

Mound at

Marietta Ohio

High bank Ohio

Cyrus Thomas,

Director of Mound Survey

Copper Breast Plate, Etowah

Georgia

Mound

Stratigraphic

Cross Section

Etowah

Smithsonian

Institution

Summary

• 1. Gave American Indians back their birth right.

• 2. Political Context: By the late 19th century, European hegemony in the United States established. Indian groups subdued

• 3. Systematic empirical investigation resulted in the establishment of Method and Technique ( archaeology)

Debate regarding Age of Native Populations in the Americas

Resolved in 1927 at Folsom New Mexico when a human spear point was found embedded in the Ribs of an extinct Bison.

Humans coexisted with extinct megafauna.

Therefore time depth to the Native American Record

Bifaces and Extinct Megafauna

The American Paleolithic (Folsom NM, 1927)

Summary: What We’ve Covered

1. Development of Archaeology as a Discipline2. Occurred because of questions that could only be

answered by empirical investigation. (Had to stop speculating and examine the archaeological record)

3. Significant Consequencesa. Developed a coherent set of methods and techniques ( many derived from geology). In the US, Government investigations of the MB resulted in “standardization” b. Establishment of the Disciplinec. Establishment of Human Antiquity overturnedBiblical accounts of the creation of humans