Matthew Estrada Chap. 6-7

Matthew Estrada Chap. 6-7

1. Chapter 6

   • Anthropology: The study of the physical, social, and cultural development of man.
   • Culture
     • Culture is the production and exchange of meanings within a society. Meaning is how various things are used, said, and thought
     • Coltaire Rapaille, anthropologist, published The Culture Code: An Ingenious way to Understand Why People Around the World Live and Buy As They Do
       • Argued that culture can be seen as a series of codes that are learned throughout life and shape the behavior in several areas.
       • Rapaille considered a group of experiences as well as the emotions felt during those experiences to be imprints.
       • Argued that every artifact reflects a certain national, cultural, or subcultural attitudes and values have been imprinted on young children living in a given culture.
   • Mary Douglas: social anthropologist who offered different perspectives which states that the objects and services are culturally defined and are linked to our lifestyles.
     • Social scientists, Michael Thompson, Richard Ellis, and Aaron Wildavsky explained that when an individuals environment is characterized by strong group boundaries and binding prescriptions resulting in hierarchies.
     • Culture is the result of myriads of individual choices as well as the different types of relationships people experience.
   • Myth and Material Culture
     • Myths are defined as sacred narratives that shape cultural values and behavior.
     • When objects are purchased, they are related to myths even though we are unaware of the fact that the purchase was made based on those myths.

2. Chapter 7

   • Archaeological theory offers a different perspective on how to think about ancient objects and artifacts.
   • Processual Theory: started with a paper written by Lewis Binford titled Archaeology as Anthropology.
     • The paper addressed the issue of adaptation and change within different societies by identifying the environmental, social, and ideological contexts of that society.
   • Post-processual Theory: The emphasis on interpretation is that different social interests will construct the past differently.
     • Highlights the limits of archaeology as a science and shows the limits of what is known about the past, as well as highlights how multiple interpretations are possible from the same object depending on the viewpoint of the observer.
   • The Chaine Opératoire
     • The term means "operational chain" or "operational sequences" and refers to the attempt to reconstruct the way artifacts were manufactured and used and, in addition to understand the place technical activities played in older human societies.