Ethics and Methods in Physical Anthropology and Archaeology

1. 3 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 have ethical obligations to their scholarly field, to the wider society and culture, to the human species, other species, and the environment • Anthropologists should be guided by The American Anthropological Association (AAA) Code of Ethics 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 • 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 • AAA Code states that researchers should reciprocate in appropriate ways

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

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 • 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 • Bone Biology Forensic anthropologists work in a legal context to recover, analyze, and identify human remains and determining the cause of death

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

17. Methods • 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 • Paleoanthropology

18. Survey and Excavation • 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 • Systematic Survey

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

20. Survey and Excavation • Layers or strata that make up a site help archaeologists establish a relative chronology for the material recovered • During an excavation, scientists recover remains by digging through the cultural and natural stratigraphy 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 • There are many sites • Excavation is expensive and labor intensive • Cultural resource management (CRM) concerned with excavating sites that are threatened by modern development • Nobody digs a site without a clear reason

22. Survey and Excavation • 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 • Mapping a Site

23. Survey and 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 • Excavation

24. Survey and 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 • Archaeologists use a range of techniques to recover materials from the excavation

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

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

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 • 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 • Relative Dating

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

31. Dating the Past • 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) • Absolute Dating: Radiometric Techniques

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

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