MnTC #07-149R
CCO
October 8, 2007
October 27, 2007
Anthropology 1126 CCO 2 14 02
Appendix is included.
Anthropology Mission Statement is included.
Normandale Community College
Common Course Outline
Effective date: October 2007
Anthropology 1126: Archaeology and Prehistory: Discovering the Human Cultural Past
Credits: 4 credits Prerequisites: None
Catalog Description: 4 CR FALL, MNTC: Goals 2, 5, and 10
4 CR SPR Archaeology and Prehistory: Discovering the Human Cultural Past. Study of the material remains of past cultures. Major ecological revolutions in human history. Theories of cultural evolution. Methods of excavation and artifact analysis. Lab included.
Course Description: Archaeology seeks to reconstruct past cultures and understand their transformations over time by studying cultural remains preserved in the soil. This course in archaeology and prehistory surveys cultural evolution from the earliest cultures of small-brained hominids in the African savannas to the rise and fall of urban “civilizations.” The lay person might assume this survey to be the story of humanity's evolutionary progress. In fact, this course is the story of several major ecological revolutions in prehistory and the transformation of human societies from one type of cultural and ecological adaptation to another. The student identifies broad trends in prehistory and investigates particular localized traditions. In lab sections the student examines methods and theories used by archaeologists in the study of archaeological sites and artifacts and gains practice in analyzing and interpreting archaeological data. Finally, the student looks at the relevance of archaeology to recent history and contemporary society.
Texts: At the discretion of the instructor, typically a general text supplemented by one or two case studies and/or a set of shorter readings.
Major Topic Areas:
1. The nature and scope of anthropology and archaeology
2 Basic concepts: culture, adaptation, cultural ecology, cultural evolution, band, tribe, chiefdom, state, “collapse” and so forth
3. Archaeological research methods
4. Methodological terms: site survey, provenience, datum, controls, stratigraphy, levels, law of superposition, interpretation by analogy, feature, artifact, and so forth
5. Cultural ecology
6. The relationship between biological and cultural evolution
7. Dating methods
8. The Paleolithic
9. The expansion of human populations in the Eastern Hemisphere and the peopling of the Western Hemisphere
10. The Archaic/Mesolithic
11. Theories explaining the origin of farming and its consequences
12. The Neolithic
13. Bronze Age and Iron Age chiefdoms
14. The rise and fall of state systems (“civilizations”) and the evolution of selected state systems
15. In-depth analysis in of selected case material—such as, the rise and fall of the Maya; cataloguing and interpretation of an artifact collection, interpretation of real or simulated archaeological traditions or archaeological sites
16. Historical archaeology
17. Legal and ethical aspects of archaeology
18. The uses of the past
Course Objectives and Learning Outcomes:
In this course students will
1. develop and use concepts, terms, and intellectual frameworks necessary for understanding and adaptation and cultural evolution in the archaeological record. (MnTC 5ac, 10a)
2. use and critique the methods of scientific inquiry as they apply to archaeology and prehistory. (MnTC 5ac)
3. gain practice in the analysis and interpretation of archaeological data. (MnTC 2bc, 5abc, 10 abe)
4. through a survey of selected archaeological cultures demonstrate knowledge of major trends in cultural evolution and ecological adaptation in several areas of the world and develop explanations for the cultural and ecological adaptations of these peoples. (MnTC 2bcd, 5 abc, 10 abe)
a. Paleolithic: hunting and gathering cultures
b. Mesolithic/Archaic: broad-spectrum postglacial foragers
c. Neolithic: the first farmers
d. the early complex, stratified, urban societies (so-called civilizations)
e. cultures of North America
f. cultural sequences of other selected areas in the world
5. develop and evaluate some explanations and interpretations of selected cultures and their histories. (MnTC 2abcd, 5abcd, 10 abe)
6. interpret selected cultures and institutions by working with some case material in depth (MnTC 2abcd, 5abc, 10 abe)
7. demonstrate awareness of the legacy of prehistoric cultures and the cautionary tales and implications for contemporary society and its problems. (2bcd, 5bcd, 10 abe)
Evaluation system:
Objective and/or essay exams will be used to evaluate students.
Other graded assignments or projects will be given as deemed appropriate by the instructor.
Individual instructors devise their own specific methods and weighting systems.
SEE APPENDIX BELOW
APPENDIX: These pages explain how specific competencies relate to the objectives and learning outcomes of Anthropology 1126: Prehistory and Archaeology
GOAL 5: HISTORY AND THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES
a. Employ methods and data that historians and social and behavioral scientists use to investigate the human condition.
The student in this course will recognize and use anthropological terminology that makes it possible to frame accurate statements about cultural processes in the archaeological record.
The student will examine and evaluate the research strategies used by archaeologists to select, date, and research the sites they study, and may practice making judgments about research steps in a simulated archaeological problem such as the computer program Fugawiland.
Throughout the course the student will examine information about sites and cultural remains from a variety of prehistoric periods and, using this data, work with problems of making inferences from archaeological data. A diagram of a seemingly simple burial can be used to make rather convincing inferences about environment, economy, occupational specialization, ranking system and political organization, and so forth. Since archaeology can be thought of as the analysis of the trash of prehistory, students may examine the trash in a parking lot or trash from home to make inferences and judgments about our own culture, and to compare and contrast our culture with others.
Students will identify the kind of cultural and archaeological data needed to test a particular hypothesis or prove a particular conclusion about an archaeological culture.
The student in this course will consider and debate concrete ethical problems in archaeological research (such as the ethics of excavating burials or destroying sites by building a highway over a site).
Students will consider the ways in which historical data, ethnographic data, and archaeological data can complement each other. Students will work with the problems of making inferences from such materials as archeological data, ethnographic description, and historical record. For example, the archaeology of slave quarters in the antebellum south gives us insight into the relationship between slaves and their plantation owners that is not be revealed in historical data. Janet Spector’s archaeological analysis of a Dakota site published in her book What This Awl Means is a wonderful example of a blend of archaeological, historical and ethnographic analysis.
b. Examine social institutions and processes across a range of historical periods and cultures.
In this course the student will survey archaeological cultures in ecological and evolutionary (historical) perspective.
The student will identify what can be inferred about the institutions (cultural subsystems such as subsistence, family, religion, stratification) and analyze the relationships between these institutions (for example, the relationship between foraging and warfare, or between surplus agriculture and stratification).
The student will make comparisons between unrelated cultural traditions that have a similar subsistence base, and will describe and analyze the evidence for new social and cultural institutions as the subsistence base evolves and changes.
The student will be able to recognize and use the concepts and vocabulary that make it possible to talk about the sociocultural phenomena encountered.
c. Use and critique alternative explanatory systems or theories.
This course emphasizes both descriptive fact as well as interpretation and explanation. The student will critique several evolutionary theories put forward to explain major evolutionary changes, such as the origin of big game hunting, the origin of farming, and the origin of large, complex, urban societies. The student will be able to explain correlations discovered.
The student will evaluate rival hypotheses and perspectives put forward to explain and make sense of both continuity and change and the organization of particular kinds of societies. For example, in the 1970’s and 1980’s archaeologists often focused on ecological changes or population pressure to explain changes seen in archaeological traditions. In the last ten or twenty years anthropologists have looked to other factors, such as the popularity of a new prestige system, the resolution of a political rivalry, or the power and popularity of a leader or political faction. There is evidence, for example, that the rise of the famous city-state of Teotihuacan began with the migration of an enthusiastic group following their leaders into a relatively unpopulated valley known to be sacred as well as fertile. Among some polities of the ancient Maya the rather rapid change from organization as a chiefdom to organization as a state system may have been initiated by the anointing of a an ordinary chief, thus transforming him into a semi-sacred king, and may have been embraced by his followers as a way of gaining prestige and useful alliances in the world of Mayan international relations.
d. Develop and communicate alternative explanations or solutions for contemporary social issues.
Prehistory and archaeology offers cautionary tales for the contemporary period. Archaeologists often study those societies that have not been successful over time: the ruins or buried archaeological sites are those of societies and cultures no longer with us. Why did they flourish for a time, and then decline? The Maya declined in part because they cut down so much of the rainforest and they over-cropped their fields. The ancient Indus civilization appears to have declined because of shortages of water associated with erosion and perhaps with ecological change. The solutions so effective for the short term often had devastating consequences for the long term.
GOAL 10: PEOPLE AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Students will be able to
a. explain the basic structure and function of various natural ecosystems and of human adaptive strategies within those systems.
The student in this course will review basic principles of ecology and demonstrate an understanding of the patterned relationships between the various species in an environment and the relationship between the various species and physical and climatic aspects of an ecosystem.
The student in this course will demonstrate a knowledge of the climate and habitat zones in which selected prehistoric peoples lived, the availability or scarcity of particular resources to human groups living within these zones, and the use or neglect of various resources by selected prehistoric peoples. The student will consider not only how the habitat might affect human groups, but also how the human groups might affect the environment. The student will consider several aspects of cultural adaptation (for example, technology, social organization, ideology, knowledge of the habitat and animal behavior). It is clear, for example, that foragers survived as much or more through their knowledge of plants and of animal behavior as through technology and material culture.
The student will demonstrate an understanding of the change in the relationship to the environmental resources in cultural evolution (for example, opportunistic foraging by low density populations in the Paleolithic v. broad-spectrum, systematically scheduled foraging in several microenvironments by the denser populations of the Mesolithic/Archaic).
The student will compare the cultural ecology of different kinds of subsistence strategies: foraging v. food production, for example, and heavy use of plant resources v. heavy use of fish v. heavy use of other animal resources.
The student will articulate the causes and consequences of societally caused environmental degradation in societies that had high-density populations (for example, the deforestation of the rainforest by the ancient Maya).
b. discern patterns and interrelationships of bio-physical and sociocultural systems.
The student in this course will compare and evaluate the way in which different kinds of cultures have used particular habitat zones by looking at cultural sequences (cultural evolution) in a particular area.
The student will articulate and critique theories about evolutionary culture change that stress ecosystem variables.
e. propose and assess alternative solutions to environmental problems.
The student will demonstrate that prehistoric cultures had significant,if locally restricted environmental problems. The student may be asked to discuss the solutions to environmental problems found in prehistoric cultures and the possible lessons for us today.
c. describe the basic institutional arrangements (social, legal, political, economic, religious) that are evolving to deal with environmental and natural resource challenges.
d. evaluate critically environmental and natural resource issues in light of understandings about interrelationships, ecosystems, and institutions.
f. articulate and defend the actions they would take on various environmental issues.
While these issues may be touched upon in this course, indeed will inevitably be discussed, they are not central to this course in prehistory and archaeology.
Goal 2: Critical Thinking: To develop thinkers who are able to unify factual, creative, rational, and value-sensitive modes of thought. Critical thinking will be taught and used throughout the general education curriculum in order to develop students’ awareness of their own thinking and problem-solving procedures. To integrate new skills into their customary ways of thinking, students must be actively engaged in practicing thinking skills and applying them to open-ended problems.
Student competencies: Students will be able to
a. gather factual information and apply it to a given problem in a manner that is relevant, clear, comprehensive, and conscious of possible bias in the information selected.
In this course a student might do a research paper based on two or more sources that espouse rather different points of view. The student will have to sort out these differences in point of view. For example, where and when did the immediate ancestors of North American Indians come from? This is a rather hot topic in archaeology and prehistory today, and people argue heatedly about the issue.
b. imagine and seek out a variety of possible goals, assumptions, interpretations, or perspectives which can give alternative meanings or solutions to given situations or problems.
Prehistorians have developed hypotheses and theories to interpret the data found. In this course students examine rival hypotheses and theories to interpret various sites, traditions, and changes in prehistory.
c. analyze the logical connections among the facts, goals, and implicit assumptions relevant to a problem or claim; generate and evaluate implications that follow from them.
All science and social science is concerned with connections: with patterns, with correlations, and with cause-effect relationships. Much of archaeological analysis is involved in looking at those kinds of correlations. An important term in archaeology is provenience, which refers to the exact location of an object. An excavated site documents the provenience of artifacts, ecofacts, and features. And then the job of the archaeologist is to look at the spatial relationships between these things in order to find patterns—connections—that can reveal the nature of the social life and culture of that particular community. Once archaeologists have made that analysis it follows that the archaeologist (and student of archaeology and prehistory) needs to look at the significance of the site, how it relates to traditions earlier in time or to later traditions, for example, or how it changes what we know or assume about a particular kind of society or particular period in time.
d. recognize and articulate the value assumptions which underlie and affect decisions, interpretations, analyses, and evaluations made by ourselves.
Has life gotten better and better through time? Can we speak of prehistory as the story of social progress? Among the widely held value assumptions that underlie our view of prehistory and cultural evolution is the idea that each major change in ecological adaptation through time has been an advance, a piece of cultural progress. The archaeological record challenges simplistic notions of progress. Is a stratified urban society in which there are haves and have-nots intrinsically better than the societies based on foraging nomadic bands? If they weren’t better, then why have they prevailed and expanded at the expense of small-scale societies?
What kinds of questions have archaeologists forgotten to ask because of value assumptions? For example, if most archaeologists have been men from male-dominated cultures, are there aspects of sites not analyzed? Where are the menstrual huts in archaeological reports, and is the word “menstrual hut” appropriate?
Archaeologists have told the story of man the hunter in early prehistory. Where is the story of woman the gatherer in the early prehistory of humankind and what assumptions have led to neglecting archaeological research on women’s activities?
We look at the flaked stone tools of prehistory. What about our failure to analyze string and twining in the same early sites?
Is it ethical to excavate burials? Who owns the past? These are questions archaeologists and society at large must answer, and students discuss these issues in class.
SEE ANTHROPOLOGY MISSION STATEMENT BELOW
Anthropology Mission Statement
Anthropology at Normandale Community College encourages awareness of human nature and society in the broadest possible perspective. Our course offerings encourage understanding of the biological and cultural evolution of our species and of the cultural worlds past, present and future, local, national, and global which have shaped us and which we continuously shape. We encourage our students to critically assess as well as celebrate the cultural diversity of our world and participate with decreased ethnocentrism in it. We educate students to use and critique anthropological methodology. We are committed to up-to-date quality courses and teaching and to appropriate assessment of student work. To these ends we encourage faculty development and alliances with other departments and institutions. We believe in the practical, lifelong importance of anthropological perspectives in the personal, professional and public pursuits of us all.
Faculty Development
· Foster currency in substantive and theoretical trends in anthropology.
· Sustain awareness of trends and new opportunities in pedagogy.
· Encourage individual professional development and renewal.
· Maintain cohesive Anthropology/Sociology Department relationships and alliances with other departments, other colleges, the community, and relevant scholarly organizations.
Teaching and assessment
· Continuously assess needs of a diverse student population, student outcomes, quality of instruction, and the departmental program.
· Provide quality instruction that addresses effectively important, basic substantive goals.
· Provide curriculum that transfers to other schools, yet includes unique, innovative learning components.
· Provide an academic program that can address a broad range of student expectations:
1. fulfill general education needs.
2. meet the requirements of the AA degree and MnTC required competencies.
3. provide a strong foundation for students hoping to major or minor in anthropology or in related social science and health fields.
4. encourage critical thinking, social awareness, and informed citizen participation in our diverse worlds.
5. address the problems of ethnocentrism, as well as the limits of cultural relativism.
· Link courses to lifelong learning and provide service learning opportunities.
World Citizenship and Critical Thinking
· Encourage awareness of ignorance, bias, and narrow ethnocentrism in social analysis, social interactions, and social policy. Enhance the ability to see the world from somebody else’s point of view.
· Facilitate critical and scientific thinking about ethnicity, class, gender, religion, power and so forth in our own culture and cross-culturally.
· Encourage analysis of the relationship between human population, environmental resources, and culture at the local level and globally.
· Support interaction among students from diverse cultures both in and out of the classroom.
· Encourage community involvement and informed, ethical activism.