World Prehistory Ch.1

• Publisher of the book On the Origin of Species which contains the Theory of Evolution
• Studied the Galapagos Islands species to prove adaptation

an approach to the stud of human society which argues that change results in large part from the response of human societies to the challenges and opportunities of their environments

Argued that humans had undergone a evolution of progress in society, from savagery to civilization

Consciously adopting the features of another society

Invented radiocarbon dating

The development of new artifacts and techniques

• 1. Helped make cultural ecology influential in North America
• 2. Defined Cultural Ecology as "the study of the adaptive processes by which the nature of society, and an unpredictable number of features of culture are affected by the basic adjustment through which man utilizes a given environment"  
• 3. studied irrigation in early societies

individuals in the past were knowledgeable actors. Though they were constrained, they still affected change.

Movement by humans from one location to another with the purpose of settling, temporarily or permanently. 

Imaging and mapping of site to determine features. Including GPS, Magnetic Imaging. 

Categorized Human Societies into Bands, Tribes, Chiefdoms, and States. 

Unconscious spreading of ideas through adjacent societies. 

Founder of Processual Archaeology and ethnoarchaeology.

Study of religious and symbolic behavior and the evolution of the human mind.

Understanding the how and why of human behavior. Focuses on the cultural process. 

Tasks or objects from the past are replicated to compare with their archaeological remains. 

Rejects the notion that we can ever obtain an objective knowledge of the past. 

Study of the human past through material remains. 

An approach emphasizing the role of females in past societies.

Study of the past through writings.

Before writing.

Successive deposition of superimposed layers (either natural or cultural materials). 

Arrangement of events or dates in their order. 

Use of symbols in language. 

Measurement of the ratio of C-14 to C-12 in order to date artifacts. Accurate up to 40k years ago. 

Corrections of dates based upon new evidence. 

Ancient DNA, compromised by organic decay. Potential to show relationships in hominid species. 

• Stone Age
•      Paleolithinc
•      Neolithic
• Bronze Age
•      Early 
•      Middle 
•      Late
• Iron Age 
•      Early
•      Middle
•      Late

How species evolve based upon adaptation to their environments. 

10,000+ people, Ruled by a large institutional governance that controls wealth and rank without regard for kinship. 

Ethnographic Study of Peoples for archaeological reasons.