Archaeology and Anthropology: The Contribution of Archaeologists, Essay Example

Abstract

This work in writing examines the contributions of archaeologists to anthropology.

Introduction

Anthropology is the study of human being and of how various cultures of human beings are created and how the evolution of humankind has occurred both physically and culturally. The stated goal of anthropology is the understanding of what human beings do and why it is that they do these things. Four divisions of cultural anthropology exist including: (1) cultural anthropology: a focus on living cultures; (2) biological anthropology – the study of the long term evolution of human beings in a biological world; Language – the use of language; and (4) archaeology – a focus on how people adapted to their environments and the change of culture. The work of Binford (1962) entitled ‘Archaeology as Anthropology” states that arguments have been made that archaeology “has made few contributions to the general field of anthropology with regard to explaining cultural similarities and differences.”

Binford writes that a systematic and understandable picture of the total extinct cultural system is presented by the formal structure of artifact assemblages. (1962, paraphrased) Binford states that one major class of artifacts that the archaeologists recover can be termed socio-technic and it is stated that these artifacts were the primary materials that had their main functional context in “the social sub-systems of the total cultural system.” (Binford, 1962) Binford explains that it is only possible to explain socio-technic components of archaeological assemblages and observable differences “with reference to structural changes in the social system and in terms of processes of social change and evolution.” (Binford, 1962) This means that the contribution to the investigation of social evolution can only be contributed to by archaeologists in only an indirect manner. (Binford, 1962, paraphrased)

References

Binford, Lewis R. (1962) Archaeology as Anthropology. American Antiquity. Vol.28, No.2 (Oct., 1962) Retrieved from: http://www.anthro.utah.edu/PDFs/binford_1962.pdf

Archaeology as Anthropology (2003) Maricopa Education. Retrieved from: http://www.mesacc.edu/dept/d10/asb/archaeology/anthropology.html