Goals%20of%20Archaeology%20(Patty%20Jo%20Watson)

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Goals of Archaeology (Patty Jo Watson)
2/3/06

1. Develop Chronology in the Absence of writing (
   Culture History)
2. Reconstruct Past Lifeways ( New Archaeology as
   Culture Reconstruction)
3. Explain Culture Change (New Archaeology as
   Culture Process)

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PARADIGMS IN ARCHAEOLOGY

• CULTURE HISTORY
• 2. CULTURE PROCESS
• (BOTH CULTURE RECONSTRUCTION AND CULTURE PROCESS)

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WHAT IS A PARADIGM

• Defined by Thomas Kuhn in his famous book, The
  Structure of Scientific Revolutions
• Paradigm The world view of science during
  particular periods. Examples
• -Ptolomaic cosmology
• -Copernican cosmology
• -Darwinian Evolution
• -Plate Tectonics
• 3. Anomalies within paradigms that can not be
• Explained. Causes paradigm shift.

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Paradigm shifts

• Occurs when anomalies
• Outweigh the prevailing world view
• New Paradigms are described as incommendsurable
  with previous paradigm
• Paradigm shifts are periods of revolutionary
  science
• normal science operates
• when paradigm appears adequate

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CRITIQUES OF KUHNIAN PARADIGM

• Are paradigms incommensurable?
• Is the paradigm model of scientific change
  appropriate for social sciences?

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CULTURE HISTORY AS A PARADIGM

• Defined and well stated goal establishing
  chronology in the absence of writing
• Methods and techniques used by culture historians
  developed through archaeological investigations
  that began in the mid-late 19th century
• Developed in academic departments of
  anthropology. The first was Columbia, under
  Franz Boas in 1901
• Major investigative procedures included
• discovery, mapping, excavation, analysis
• and inference

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DIMENSIONS OF ARCHAEOLOGY Time Space Form Bec
ause time is a concept and not observable,
culture historians constructed chronologies
through constructing time from the analysis of
space and form CH extracted time from space and
form. Two Critical temporal methods stratigraph
y seriation