1. Anthropology: The Exploration of Human Diversity3
Ethics and Methods in Physical Anthropology and Archaeology
Anthropology: The Exploration of Human Diversity
11th Edition
Conrad Phillip Kottak

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

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

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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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.

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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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.

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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

25. 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

26. 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

27. 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

28. 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

29. 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

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

31. 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)

32. 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

33. 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

34. Dating the Past
Absolute Dating Techniques
Insert Table 3.1