College of Social and Behavioral Sciences

Syllabus

Anthropology 635, Fall 2001, 3 credit hours

Archaeological Theory

Seminar, Thursdays, 2:20-4:50 in DuBois Bldg. Room 30;

Discussion groups to be arranged by students.

Professor: Dr. Kelley Hays-Gilpin

Office: Anthropology 211A, Phone: 523-6564

Laboratory: Bilby Research Center 160, 523-4450

e-mail: kelley.hays-gilpin@nau.eduNOSPAM (please use e-mail to make appointments, etc. Note that voice mail not only does not work well unless you speak slowly and clearly, but regularly malfunctions in other ways).

Office hours:  Office hours: Mondays 10 – 12, Thursdays 9 – 12.

 Course Prerequisites: Admission to MA program in Anthropology or Quaternary Sciences.

Course Description: This course introduces archaeological theory, emphasizing the primary theoretical approaches used in archaeological practice, and introducing recent and controversial approaches. The course examines the major historical changes occurring in the discipline from its inception to the present. Viewpoints of the major proponents and critics of changing  theoretical frameworks will be addressed.

Course Objectives: The course objectives are to provide a basic overview of the history, goals, and theoretical perspectives in applying basic archaeological theory to understanding past cultures. We therefore will address various views and approaches. To accomplish this, you will read and become familiar with some of the “classics” of archaeological literature, and a variety of recent and current examples of a very wide variety of approaches. By familiarizing yourself with the proponents and critics of the various approaches you will gain a critical and creative understanding of archaeological theory and practice. By the end of the course you should have an excellent grasp of the archaeological literature, understand the major theoretical approaches, and perceive the major issues, research problems, ethical matters, and possible solutions that confront today’s archaeologists.

Course Structure/Approach: Seminar

Course Requirements: This course requires significant amounts of reading and class participation. You are required prepare for lecture and discussion by reading the assigned material BEFORE class. You are required to attend class, and take part in discussions. You are strongly encouraged to form discussion groups of four to six students to meet once a week and discuss the readings and assignments. There will be a number of short summary assignments on the readings, designed to facilitate class participation and to provide detailed, early guidance on writing skills and style. A take-home comprehensive essay mid-term, a take-home comprehensive essay final exam, and a term paper will also be assigned.

Evaluation: Grades will be based on the following; a straight scale will probably be applied:

                short assignments 15

                participation         15

                mid-term                50

                paper draft        15

                paper                      40

                presentation         15

                final                        50

Total possible points: 200

Course Policies: you must do readings before class. It would be unwise to miss more than one class session; missing more than two will result in loss of all participation points. Five points will be deducted for each day an assignment is late. Attending this course after the first session signifies agreement to appropriate, respectful conduct toward fellow students and the instructor. Discussion will proceed politely, please, and promote a safe classroom atmosphere, i.e. arrive on time, take turns, do not monopolize, stay on the subject, offer constructive criticism only, and do not interrupt frequently. Be respectful of others’ possible discomfort with sensitive subjects but try to help everyone expand their horizons and apply critical thinking. Humor is entirely appropriate but must not be hurtful, else we risk our ability to have open discussion for all.

University Policies: As stated in the NAU student handbook, “ACADEMIC DISHONESTY is a form of misconduct that is subject to disciplinary action under the Student Code of Conduct and includes the following: cheating, fabrication, fraud, facilitating academic dishonesty and plagiarism.” Please see the attached page discussing policies on learning disabilities/physical handicaps, Institutional Review Board, and safe working and learning environment.

Textbooks: Bruce Trigger, A History of Archaeological Thought, Cambridge Univ. Press.

Johnson, Matthew, Archaeological Theory, Blackwell, London.

Whitley, David S. editor, Reader in Archaeological Theory, Routledge, London.

All are required.

Additional Readings will be available for 2-hour checkout in the Anthro. Bldg. front lounge area. Please be considerate of others and do not take more than a few at a time. Do not keep readings out longer than 2 hours, except for overnight (after 4:30 pm and return them by 8:30 am.). We will place as many readings as possible on Electronic Reserve at the Cline Library. It will not be possible to place more than two or three per week on Electronic Reserve.

The instructor reserves the right to change, add, move, or delete readings.

The following edited volume will be cited more than once, and is abbreviated below as follows:

CCLK = C.C. Lamberg-Karlovsky, editor, 1989, Archaeological Thought in America, Cambridge University Press. It is on 4 hour reserve at the Cline Library.

Also on reserve are: Walter Taylor’s A Study of Archaeology; Skibo, Walker, and Nielson’s  Expanding Archaeology and anything else you would like to have on reserve.

Course Outline:

Week 1: Aug. 30. Course introduction. What is archaeology; Goals.

            Readings:

• Trigger pp. 1-26
• Johnson preface
• Feder, K., 1996            New Age Prehistory/Arizona in the New Age, in Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries, Second edition, pp. 232-236.

Week 2: Sept. 6. Antiquarianism, and the beginnings of science in archaeology

Readings: 

• Johnson Chapter 1
• Trigger 27-147
• Feder, Kenneth, 1996, The Myth of the Moundbuilders, Chapter 7 in Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries. (OK to use 1^st edition)

pick one or more:

• Hinsley, Curtis, 1981, Savages and Scientists, chapter 5
• Judd, Neil, 1967, The Bureau of American Ethnology: A Partial History, Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 pp. 56-77.
• Givens, Douglas, 1992, Alfred Vincent Kidder and the Beginnings of Americanist Archaeology, chapter 3 and chapter 5, pp. 29-76 and 121-129

Week 3: Sept. 13.  Cultural Historical Explanations and Functionalism

            Readings:

• Trigger 148-206, 244-288
• Braidwood, R.J., 1960, The Agricultural Revolution. Scientific American 203(3)130-148.
• Haury, E., 1958 (original) 1986 (reprint), Evidence at Point of Pines for a Prehistoric Migration from Northern Arizona. In Emil W. Haury’s Prehistory of the American Southwest.
• Skim: Willey, Gordon, and Philip Phillips, 1958, Method and Theory in American Archaeology

FIRST SHORT ASSIGNMENT DUE

Week 4: Sept. 20.  The “New Archaeology”

            Readings:

• Johnson Chapter 2
• Trigger 289-326
• Binford, L. 1962, Archaeology as Anthropology, American Antiquity 28:217-225
• Flannery, K. 1967, Culture History vs. Culture Process, Scientific American 217:119-122
• Clarke, David, 1972, Archaeology and the Loss of Innocence, Antiquity XLVII:6-18.
• Skim: Taylor, Walter, 1948, A Study of Archaeology, chapters 2 and 3

Recommended:

• Taylor, Walter, 1972, Old Wine and New Skins, in Contemporary Archaeology, edited by Mark Leone, pp. 28-33, Southern Illinois Univ. Press.
• Cordell, Linda, and Fred Plog, 1979, Escaping the Confines of Normative Thought: A Reevaluation of Puebloan Prehistory. American Antiquity 44:405-429.
• Binford, L. in CCLK, chapter 3, The New Archaeology, Then and Now.

Week 5: Sept. 27.  Science

Readings:

• Johnson chapter 3
• Feder, Kenneth, 1996, Epistemology, How You Know What You Know, Chapter 2 in  Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries (OK to use 1^st edition)
• Platt, John R., 1962, Strong Inference, Science, 146(3642):347-353.
• Hanen, Marsha, and Jane Kelley, 1989, Inference to the Best Explanation in Archaeology, in Valerie Pinsky and Alison Wylie, eds., Critical Traditions in Contemporary Archaeology, University of New Mexico Press

Pick: one of last week’s recommended readings

SECOND SHORT ASSIGNMENT DUE

Week 6: Oct. 4. Middle-Range Theory: Formation Processes, Experimental Archaeology, and Ethnoarchaeology

            Readings:

• Johnson Chapter 4
• Binford, L. 1980, Willow Smoke and Dogs’ Tails: Hunter-Gatherer Settlement Systems and Archaeological Site Formation.
• Schiffer, M.B., 1983, Toward the Identification of Formation Processes, in Schiffer 1995
• Schiffer, M.B. and James Skibo, 1987, Theory and Experiment in the Study of Technological Change, in Schiffer 1995
• Gould, R., 1990, The Emics and Etics of Ethnoarchaeology, Chapter 3 in Recovering the Past, pp. 64-92, Univ. of New Mexico Press.

Week 7: Oct. 11.  Marxism and Neo-Marxism

            Readings: 

• Johnson chapters 5-6
• Trigger 207-243 and 329-367
• McGuire and Saitta (in Whitley, chapter 14)

pick one:

• McGuire, R., 1992, Death and Society in a Hohokam Community, Chapter 7 in A Marxist Archaeology, Academic Press.
• Paynter, Robert, 1988, “Steps to an Archaeology of Capitalism: Material Change and Class Analysis,” in M. Leone and P.B. Potter, Jr. (eds) The Recovery of Meaning: Historical Archaeology in the Eastern United States, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C., pp. 407-433.
• Gilman, Antonio in CCLK chapter 4, Marxism in American Archaeology

THIRD SHORT ASSIGNMENT DUE

Week 8: Oct. 18. The Post-Processual Critique

            Readings:

• Johnson chapter 7
• Shanks and Hodder, in Whitley, chapter 4
• Flannery, K., 1982, The Golden Marshalltown: A Parable for the Archaeology of the 1980s, American Anthropologist 84:265-278.

pick one:

• Bintliff, John, 1993, Why Indiana Jones is Smarter than the Post-Processualists, American Antiquity 26:2:91-100.
• Hodder, Ian, 1997, Always momentary, fluid and flexible: towards a reflexive excavation methodology. Antiquity 71:691-700.
• Trigger, Bruce, 1991, Post-Processual Developments in Anglo-American Archaeology, Norwegian Archaeological Review 24(2):65-76

Recommended:

• Bradley, Richard, 1993, Archaeology: The Loss of Nerve, in Archaeological Theory: Who Sets the Agenda?, edited by N. Yoffee and A. Sherratt, pp. 131-134, Cambridge Univ. Press.

MID-TERM TAKE-HOME EXAM HANDED OUT

Week 9: Oct. 25. Cognitive and Structural Approaches

            Readings:

• Leone, Mark, 1986, in Whitley, chapter 3.
• Whitley volume Part III, Prehistoric Cognition, pp. 133-175

Recommended:

• Renfrew, Colin, 1994, Towards a Cognitive Archaeology, in The Ancient Mind, ed. by Renfrew and Zubrow, Cambridge Univ. Press.
• Conkey, Margaret, in CCLK, chapter 9, The Structural Analysis of Paleolithic art

MID-TERM EXAM DUE   

Week 10: Nov. 1. Symbolic and Contextual Approaches

            Readings:

• Whitley (in Whitley volume, chapter 13)
• Watson, P.J., and M. Fotiadis, 1990, The Razor's Edge:  Symbolic-Structuralist Archeology and the Expansion of Archeological Inference.  American Anthropologist 92:613-629.
• Whitley, Part II, The Meanings of Things, pp. 99-130

Recommended:

• Fritz, J.,1978, Paleopsychology Today:  Ideational Systems and Human Adaptation in Prehistory.  In C.L. Redman (ed.): Social Archaeology:  Beyond Subsistence and Dating, pp. 37-59.  Academic Press.
• Shafer, Harry J., 1995, Architecture and Symbolism in Transitional Pueblo Development in the Mimbres Valley, SW New Mexico. Journal of Field Archaeology 22:25-46.

Week 11: Nov. 8. Gender and Archaeology

            Readings:

• Watson and Kennedy (chapter 11 in Whitley)
• Knapp (chapter 12 in Whitley)
• Hays-Gilpin, K., 2000 Feminist Scholarship in Archaeology. Annals of the Association of Social and Political Sciences 571:89-106.
• A set of recommended readings will appear in the readings box.

Term paper prospectus/outline due (OK to turn it in before this). Be prepared to present a brief summary to the class for feedback.

Week 12: Nov. 15. Behavioral, Evolutionary, and Selectionist Archaeology

            Readings:

• Reid, Schiffer, and Rathje, 1975, Behavioral Archaeology: Four Strategies, American Anthropologist 77 no. 4, and reprinted in Skibo, Walker and Nielson, Expanding Archaeology, 1995.
• Reid, J. Jefferson, 1995, Four Strategies after Twenty Years: A Return to Basics. In Skibo, Walker, and Nielson, Expanding Archaeology
• Johnson, Chapter 9

Pick one:         

• O’Brien, M., and T.D. Holland, 1990, Variation, Selection, and the Archaeological Record, in Archaeological Method and Theory vol. 5, pp. 1-42, U of Arizona Press.
• Dunnell, Robert in CCLK, chapter 2, Aspects of the Application of Evolutionary Theory in Archaeology.  
• Boone, Janes, and E.A. Smith, 1998, Is It Evolution Yet? A Critique of Evolutionary Archaeology, Current Anthropology 141-173. Be sure to read comments and authors’ response.
• Leonard, R. and H. Reed, 1993, Population Aggregation in the Prehistoric American Southwest: A Selectionist Model. American Antiquity 58(4):648-661.

Week 13 November 22 is Thanksgiving. No Class. Read Johnson Chapter 10 and Trigger pp. 370 - 407.

Week 14: Nov. 29. Applied Archaeology / Archaeology and Native Americans

            Readings:

• Johnson chapters 11-12
• Tilley (in Whitley, chapter 15), White Deer (chapter 16)
• Downum, C., and L. Price, 1999, Applied Archaeology, Human Organization 58:3:226-239.
• Green and Doerschuk, 1998, Cultural Resource Management and American Archaeology, Journal of Archaeological Research 6:121-176.

Additional optional readings will be found in the readings box (Wood & Powell, Goldstein & Kintigh, Klesert & Powell). These would also be useful for next week.

TERM PAPER DRAFT DUE (OK to turn it in before this)

Week 15: Dec. 6. Ethics in Archaeology

Suggested Readings:

• Arnold, Bettina, 1990, The Past as Propaganda: Totalitarian Archaeology in Nazi Germany, Antiquity 64:464-478.
• Powell, Shirley, C. Garza, and A. Hendricks, 1993, Ethics and Ownership of the Past: The Reburial and Repatriation Controversy. Archaeological Method and Theory 5:1-42.
• Lynott, M. and A. Wylie, eds., Ethics in American Archaeology: Challenges for the 1990s, Society for American Archaeology Special Report. Free to members, or send $10. Check for info. See especially Zimmerman, Regaining our Nerve: Ethics, Values and the Transformation of Archaeology, pp. 64-67.

• pick a topic. If not covered above, see the instructor for some readings, or find some on your own:

                        repatriation of artifacts

                        using human remains in museum collections vs. repatriation

                        excavating human remains, and their treatment in the field

                        destructive analyses of human remains

                        pothunting, and using illegally obtained objects as data

                        language and terminology (i.e. Anasazi, prehistoric, slang terms)

                        preserving records and photographs

                        who owns field and analytical data? who gets to use/publish data?

                        intellectual property--who owns traditional cultural knowledge?

                        studying sensitive subjects (cannibalism, race, sex, conflict, etc.)

                        “authenticity” and archaeology’s role in living history museums

FINAL EXAM HANDED OUT (2 take-home essays)

Week 16: Dec. 13 FINAL EXAM AND TERM PAPER DUE

TERM PAPER SUGGESTIONS

Pick a region and discuss what theoretical approaches have been applied there (i.e. Chaco Canyon: culture history/ecological/symbolic-structural). Compare, contrast, and critique.

Do the theory chapter of your thesis, pending instructor and committee chair approval

Do a review article of a theoretical approach, i.e. Marxism in Archaeology, Ethnoarchaeology. See Annual Reviews in Anthropology for examples, but DON’T pick a topic they’ve already covered in the last five years.

Do a review article of approaches to/debates about a particular ethical problem in archaeology.

A book review article: typically, three to four entire books are thoroughly critiqued and compared. The books should be ones published in the last five years. They can be grouped by theoretical approach, by geographic region, by level of social complexity (i.e. three books on the emergence or collapse of states), etc.

Pick a theoretical approach from another discipline and show how it might help archaeologists. For example, Gregory Johnson applied Scalar Stress Theory from business and management systems to archaeology.