- Background
- What is anthropology?
- Archeology schools
- What does archaeological anthropology study?
- Study examples
- References
The archaeological anthropology is a science in construction using both techniques of archeology and anthropology. It seeks to know the interactions between the cultural subsystems that make up the graphic societies; that is, those lacking in writing.
In recent times this science has advanced in the study of the material and immaterial manifestations of the peoples studied. For this it has a theoretical and methodological body that is its own. Trying to explain what prehistoric human beings were like and how they interacted constitutes the starting point of this science.
Its initial foundation was the study of the material elements found in archaeological excavations. However, the search led to the understanding that it can serve to understand all ancient, ancient and contemporary cultures.
The analysis of the already extinct cultures is achieved with diachronic studies, far from the experience of the researchers. The study of contemporary non-graphic cultures is approached from the synchronic analysis, in line with the experience of the experts.
Background
Those who were initially grave robbers gave way to people interested more in knowledge than in treasures. Such was the case of Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890), a bourgeois born in Mecklenburg (Germany), son of a humble Protestant pastor. The boy fell in love with The Iliad and The Odyssey because his father read them to him before he went to sleep.
The boy had three talents: potential for languages, ability for business and great curiosity. At age 20 he spoke 13 languages, when he was 30 he was already a businessman, and at 50 he was unearthing Troy and giving life to archeology.
Archeology quickly took shape and became a science for describing and interpreting ancient cultures. This science investigates through constructions, works of art, utensils and different forms of writing.
Just one of the problems with the Agraphic cultures is that they do not have their own Rosetta stone. She was the one that allowed the experts to understand the Egyptian hieroglyphs, since she had the translation in two different scriptures already known.
What is anthropology?
Anthropology is the science that studies the human being both for their physical characteristics and for their cultural production. It takes place in the eleventh century and its study is made possible by the break with religious dogmas and the emergence of research without prejudice of faith.
However, anthropological science reached the 20th century with watertight spaces, with dark areas. The absence of written records often impeded the understanding of a culture and its protagonists.
During the first half century, Europeans and their purely archaeological proposals marked the research. His process was to extract, unearth, classify objects and, as a maxim, date them with carbon 14.
Archeology schools
In 1962 the American Lewis Binford wrote Archeology as Anthropology. There he proposes a methodology to study man from the artifact.
Five years later, archaeologist Kwan Chi Chang, also from the United States, develops a comprehensive vision to understand the findings. Between the two they open new trails that will become known as American archeology.
Several schools walk in parallel in the process. The classic works with the calculation and analysis of the object itself. The evolutionist focuses on changes in the environment.
The third school, the processual school, allows learning from the object and understanding the adaptation of the human being to the environment. Finally, the systemic appears, which is based on the understanding of the structure and social processes that occur around the element studied.
By 1995 the idea of this science had already been integrated into studies, documents and proposals at universities. In this science the processes of anthropology and archeology are synthesized.
What does archaeological anthropology study?
Starting from more than the qualitative, it seeks to understand non-graphic societies through three subsystems. To do this, first review the technological; that is to say, the technofact elements, any device or device conceived and manufactured by people.
Then it goes to the social organization: the socio-facto elements. It is about intangible or immaterial constructions. These are kinship relations, representations of beliefs or propositional structures in sociocultural conventions.
Third is the ideological: the ideofact elements. They are the constructs to implant lines of thought as an instrument of socio-psychological domination by the holders of power.
So, archaeological anthropology relies on objects, sociocultural and ideological structures to study the humans who give body to these elements. This aims to understand and perceive the evolutionary line of cultures.
Study examples
With this science you can not only study the cultures of Prehistory, but also many contemporary ones. What is sought is to know those cultures that, even without writing, generate oral narratives, music, songs, religious proposals and social conventions.
In any rural community, where written expression is nil, archaeological anthropology can dedicate itself to understanding the sociocultural phenomenon from its integral production. Some specific cases will be mentioned below:
- A study on cremations such as that of Francisco Gómez Bellard from the Complutense University is part of this science. It seeks to comparatively explain the reasons for this procedure in different societies without writing.
- Social constructs such as graffiti could also be worked on. From the depth of what is written on the walls, they can reveal characteristics of the society expressed there.
- The ancient expressions of the spiritual rituals of Latin American cultures could be studied.
References
- Bellard, FG (1996). The anthropological analysis of cremations. Complutum Extra, 6 (2), 55-64. School of Legal Medicine. School of Medicine. Complutense University. Spain. Recovered at: books.google.es
- Rodríguez, JA (1986). Theoretical and methodological planning referred to research design. Notebooks of the National Institute of Latin American Anthropology and Thought, 11, 163-191. Argentina. Recovered in: magazines.inapl.gob.ar
- Rodríguez, GR (2001). Smudge Pits: the archaeological thought between Binford and Hodder. Minius: Magazine of the Department of History, Art and Xeography, (9), 9-24. University of Vigo. Spain. Recovered at: minius.webs.uvigo.es
- S / D, Archaeological Anthropology. Recovered at: sociologyguide.com
- UC Santa Cruz. Archaeological Anthropology. Recovered at: anthro.ucsc.edu