Anthropology: The Exploration of Human Diversity 3 Ethics and Methods in Physical Anthropology and Archaeology Anthropology: The Exploration of Human Diversity 11th Edition Conrad Phillip Kottak

Ethics and Methods Overview Ethics Methods Survey and Excavation Kinds of Archaeology Dating the Past

Overview Anthropologists’ foremost ethical obligations are to the people, species, and materials they study

Ethics Problems involving contrasting systems of ethics and values are especially lively when anthropologists work outside their culture of origin

Ethics Paleoanthropology—study of human evolution through the fossil records—often require physical anthropologists and archaeologists to work together Generally requires international works which exposes physical anthropologists and archaeologists to varying national and cultural procedures, value systems, and ethical and legal codes

Ethics Anthropologists should be guided by The American Anthropological Association (AAA) Code of Ethics Anthropologists have ethical obligations to their scholarly field, to the wider society and culture, to the human species, other species, and the environment Problems involving contrasting systems of ethics and values are especially likely when anthropologists work outside their culture of origin

Ethics With living humans, informed consent is a necessity Informed consent—agreement to take part in research, after the people being studied have been told about that research’s purpose, nature, procedures, and potential impact on them.

Ethics AAA Code says anthropologists should not exploit individuals, groups, animals, or cultural or biological materials

Ethics AAA Code states that researchers should reciprocate in appropriate ways Include host country colleagues in your research plans and funding requests Establish collaborative relationships with those colleagues and their institutions Include host country colleagues in the publication of the research results It should not be forgotten that the researcher’s primary ethical obligation is to the people being studied

Methods Multidisciplinary Approaches Physical anthropologist and archaeologists collaborate with scientists from diverse fields in the study of sites, fossils, and artifacts Paleontology—study of ancient life through the fossil record, used in the study of sites where fossils and/or artifacts have been found

Methods Palynology—study of ancient plants through pollen samples from archaeological or fossil sites in order to determine site’s environment at the time of occupation Bioarchaeologists examine human remains to reconstruct physical traits, health, and diet

Methods Use of aerial photos (taken from airplanes) and satellite images to locate archaeological features not visible to the naked eye In Costa Rica, images from a NASA satellite have been used to locate buried footpaths that linked a cemetery to a spring and quarries.

Methods Primatology Close study of primates Primate studies conducted in zoos and natural settings Like ethnographers, primatologists must establish rapport with the individuals they are studying

Methods Anthropometry Measurement of human body parts and dimensions, including skeletal parts (osteometry) Used to evaluate a person’s fitness Knowledge about how contemporary humans adapt and use energy can be used to understand human evolution

Methods Bone Biology Forensic anthropologists work in a legal context to recover, analyze, and identify human remains and determining the cause of death Study of bone as a biological tissue, including its genetics; cell structure; growth, development, and decay; and patterns of movement Paleopathology—study of disease and injury in skeletons from archaeological sites

Methods Molecular Anthropology Uses genetic analysis, involving comparison of DNA sequences, to determine evolutionary links and distances among species and among ancient and modern populations

Methods Paleoanthropology Study of hominid and human life through the fossil record Paleoanthropologists work to reconstruct the structure, behavior, and ecology of early hominids Locate and excavate sites where hominid fossils are found

Survey and Excavation Systematic Survey Information gathered on patterns of settlement over a large area; provides a regional perspective on the archaeological record Provides a regional perspective by gathering information on settlement patterns over a large area Settlement pattern—distribution of sites within a particular region

Survey and Excavation Systematic Survey Excavation Archaeologists recognize sites aren’t usually discrete and isolated, but parts of larger (regional) social systems Excavation Digging through the layers of deposits that make up an archaeological or fossil site

Survey and Excavation During an excavation, scientists recover remains by digging through the cultural and natural stratigraphy Layers or strata that make up a site help archaeologists establish a relative chronology for the material recovered Superposition states that in an undisturbed sequence of strata, the oldest is on the bottom and each successive layer above is younger than the one below

Survey and Excavation Nobody digs a site without a clear reason There are many sites Excavation is expensive and labor intensive Cultural resource management (CRM) concerned with excavating sites that are threatened by modern development

Survey and Excavation Mapping a Site Before a site is excavated, it is first mapped and surface data is collected so that the archaeologist can make an informed decision about where to dig A grid is drawn to represent and subdivide the site Collection units as well as the excavation units on the surface of the site

Survey and Excavation Excavation Digging can be done either in arbitrary levels or by following the natural stratigraphy Using arbitrary levels is quicker, but less refined and important information can be lost Following the natural stratigraphy is more labor intensive but more precise

Survey and Excavation Archaeologists use a range of techniques to recover materials from the excavation Pass excavated soil through screen to recover small and fragmented remains Flotation used to recover carbonized and very small materials like fish bones and seeds

Kinds of Archaeology Experimental archaeologists—try to replicate ancient techniques and processes under controlled conditions Historical archaeologists—use written records as guides and supplements in their study of societies with written histories

Kinds of Archaeology Classical archaeologists—study the literate civilizations of the eastern region of the Mediterranean, such as Greece, Rome, and Egypt Underwater archaeologists—investigate submerged sites

Dating the Past Paleontology—study of ancient life through the fossil record Anthropology and paleontology interested in establishing a chronology for primate and human evolution

Dating the Past Taphonomy—study of the processes that affect the remains of dead animals, such as their scattering by carnivores and scavengers, their distortion by various forces, and their possible fossilization Much dating depends upon stratigraphy, which is the study of the sequence of geographical layers

Dating the Past Relative Dating Dating technique, for example, stratigraphy, that establishes a time frame in relation to other strata or materials, rather than absolute dates in numbers Uses the natural layers or strata to establish a relative chronology Association with known fossils most common method of fossil dating

Dating the Past Fluorine dating is another relative dating technique Used to expose the Piltdown Man hoax

Dating the Past Absolute Dating: Radiometric Techniques Dating techniques that establish dates in numbers or ranges of numbers Based on known rates of radioactive decay in elements found in or around fossils 14C dating Potassium argon (K/A) dating Thermoluminescence (TL) Electron spin resonance (ESR)

Dating the Past Dendochronology—tree-ring dating, method of absolute dating based on the study and comparison of patterns of tree-ring growth Crossdating—process of matching ring patterns among trees and assigning rings to specific calendar years Also provides information about climatic patterns in specific regions

Dating the Past Molecular Dating Uses genetic materials to create an evolutionary tree and estimates when each branching event took place Based on the contentious assumption that genetic mutations in humans are constant

Dating the Past Absolute Dating Techniques Insert Table 3.1