ANTHROPOLOGY 6700

Memorial University
Department of Anthropology and Archaeology Winter 2008

Instructor: Dr. Lisa Rankin Phone: 737-4808
Office: QC-4009 lrankin@mun.ca

This is a seminar course which relies directly on the students to initiate and engage in class debate. Seminars will examine and compare the goals, methods, evidence, and perspectives used in interpreting archaeological data. Is it true that the post-processual movement developed “historical interpretations” while the processualists used “scientific interpretations”? What is the difference? Can historic and scientific interpretations even be divided? Were they ever divided?

The course will begin with a discussion of how archaeological data is presented. We will then look at different types of explanation in order to identify the unique elements of archaeological interpretation.

Evaluation:

Weekly Submissions 25%

Participation in weekly seminar 25%

Seminar 10%

Short paper 15%

Final Paper 25%

Weekly Submissions
Students will submit and present brief weekly reports of readings to a maximum of ½ page single spaced per reading. Commentaries which zero in on a key issue and attempt to be critical are more likely to be effective than reports which attempt to summarize the publications in question. These will be submitted during each class. Email submissions are not acceptable. **April 4th submissions will relate to your paper.

Participation
It is up to everyone in the course to make the seminar work. It will work best when everyone is fully engaged and arrives ready to discuss the issues.

Seminar
Each student will be responsible for leading one seminar between January 25 and March 14, 2008. This means that you will begin class with a 20-30 minute presentation based on the daily topic and then suggest ideas for discussion. You are also expected to contribute one more reading on your seminar topic to the weekly reading list that everyone will read beforehand.

Short Paper
Summarize a particular historical perspective and its potential links to archaeology and prehistory, OR review a monograph-length archaeological analysis and interpretation that adopts a more explicitly historical perspective. Maximum 5 pages. Due February 22.

Final paper
Apply the interpretive strategies discussed in class to a research project of your choosing. Maximum 15 pages. Due April 11.

Reading List by Week

Jan. 18
Presenting Data
Banning 2000:277-292, Parker 2001, Tufte 1983, 1991, 2003 (or 2006 instead of 2003).

Jan. 25
Science vs. History
Bamforth and Spaulding 1982:179-182, Binford 1989:50-62, Carr 1961:7-30, Evans 1997 (volume), Hodder 1999:20-29, Hodder 2003:1-13&125-152, Peebles 1991:108-124, Patterson 2000:12-18.

Feb. 1
Collingwood
Collingwood 1946 (volume).

Feb. 8
Braudel
Braudel 1980 (volume), Clarke 1985:177-198.

Feb. 15
Annales and the Scales of Analysis
Barker 1991:34-56, Bintliff 1991:1-33,Duke 1992:99-111, Hodder 1987:1-8,Hodder 1999:129-146, Smith 1992:23-34, Woollett 2007:69-84.

Feb. 22
Languages of Archaeology
Joyce 2002 (volume), Hodder 1989:268-274.

Feb. 29
Narratives
Burke 1992:233-248, Landau 1984:262-268, Pulciennik 1999:653-678, Terrel 1990:1-29.

March 7
Imagined Reconstruction, Literary Reconstruction and Theatre
Denning 1996:101-127, Tilley 1989:275-280, White 1978:41-62, White 1987:26-57.

March 14
Context and Contingency
Bintliff 1999 (volume),Cannon 1998:57-67, Gould 1989:277-291.

March 21
Good Friday

March 28
class cancelled

April 4
Sources, Texts and Databases - submit yours**
Gladwell 2002

Reading List

Bamforth, Douglas B. and Albert C. Spaulding
1982     Human Behavior, Explanation, Archaeology, History, and Science. Journal of
Anthropological Archaeology 1:179-182.

Banning, E.B.
2000     The Archaeologist's Laboratory: The Analysis of Archaeological Data. New York,
Klumer. Pp. 277-292 (also available as electronic book).

Barker, Graeme
1991     Two Italys, One Valley: An Annaliste Perspective. In The Annales School and
Archaeology, edited by John Bintliff, pp. 34-56. Leicester University Press,
Leicester.

Binford, Lewis R.
1989     The “New Archaeology”, Then and Now. In Archaeological Thought in America,
edited by C.C. Lamberg-Karlovsky, pp. 50-62. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.

Bintliff, John
1991     The Contribution of an Annaliste/Structural History Approach to Archaeology. In
The Annales School and Archaeology, edited by John Bintliff, pp. 1-33. Leicester
University Press, Leicester.

1999     Structure and Contingency: Evolutionary Processes in Life and Human
Societies. Edited by John Bintliff, London. Leicester University Press.

Braudel, Fernand
1980     On History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Burke, Peter
1992     History of Events and the Revival of Narrative. In New Perspectives on Historical
Writing, edited by Peter Burke, pp. 233-248. University Park: Pennsylvania State
University Press.

Cannon, Aubrey
1998     Contingency and Agency in the Growth of Northwest Coast Maritime Economies.
Arctic Anthropology 35:57-67.

Carr, E.H.
1961     What is History? London: Macmillan. Pp. 7-30.

Clark, Stuart
1985     The Annales Historians. In The Return of Grand Theory in the Human Sciences,
edited by Quentin Skinner, pp. 177-198. Cambridge, Cambridge University
Press.

Collingwood, R.G.
1946     The Idea of History. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Denning, Greg
1996     Performances. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Pp. 101-127.

Duke, Philip
1992     Braudel and North American Archaeology. In Archaeology, Annales and
Ethnohistory, edited by A. Bernard Knapp, pp. 99-111. Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge.

Evans, Richard J.
1997     In Defense of History. London: Granta.

Gladwell, Malcolm
2002     The Social Life of Paper. New Yorker (March 25).

Gould, Stephen Jay
1989     Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History. Norton, New York.
Pp. 277-291

Hodder, Ian
1987     The Contribution of the Long Term. In Archaeology as Long-Term History, edited
by Ian Hodder, pp. 1-8. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

1989     Writing Archaeology: Site Reports in Context. Antiquity 63:268-274.

1999     The Archaeological Process: An Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell. Pp. 20-29 &
129-146

2003     Reading the Past: Current Approaches to Interpretation in Archaeology.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 1-13 & 125-152.

Joyce, Rosemary A.
2002     The Languages of Archaeology. Oxford, Balckwell.

Landau, Misia
1984     Human Evolution as Narrative. American Scientist 72:262-268.

Parker, Ian
2001     Absolute Powerpoint. New Yorker (May 26).

Patterson, Thomas C.
2000     Bridging the Gap Between Archaeology and History. In The Entangled Past:
Integrating History and Archaeology, edited by M. Boyd, J.C. Erwin and M.
Hendrickson, pp. 12-18, Calgary, The Archaeological Association of the
University of Calgary.

Peebles, Christopher S.
1991     Annalistes, Hermeneutics and Positivists: Squaring Circles or Dissolving
Problems. In The Annales School and Archaeology, edited by John Bintliff, pp.
108-124. Leicester:Leicester University Press.

Pluciennik, Mark
1999     Archaeological Narratives and Other Ways of Telling. Current Anthropology
40:653-678.

Smith, Michael E.
1992     Braudel's Temporal Rhythms and Chronology Theory in Archaeology. In
Archaeology, Annales and Ethnohistory, edited by A. Bernard Knapp, pp. 23-34.
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Terrel, John
1990     Storytelling and Prehistory. In Archaeological Method and Theory, vol. 2, edited
by Michael B. Schiffer, pp. 1-29. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.

Tilley, Christopher
1989     Excavation as Theatre. Antiquity 63:275-280.

Tufte, Edward R.
1983     The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. Cheshire, Graphics Press.

1991     Envisioning Information. Cheshire, Graphics Press.

2003     The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint. Cheshire, Graphics Press.

2006     The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint: Pitching out Corrupts Within. Cheshire,
Graphics Press.

White, Hayden
1978     The Historical Text as Literary Artifact. In The Writing of History: Literary Form and
Historical Understanding, edited by Robert H. Canary and Henry Kozicki, pp. 41-
62. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

1987     The Content of the Form: Narrative Discourse and Historical Representation.
Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press. Pp. 26-57

Woollett, J.
2007     Labrador Inuit Subsistence in the Context of Environmental Change: An Initial
Landscape History Perspective. American Anthropologist 109(1):69-84.