Anthropology
557
Seminar:
Theory and Method in Archaeology:
The
Archaeology of Landscapes
Spring
2005
Wednesdays 9-12:00
Office 435 UM; tel. 898-2282
The
Sayhuite Stone: A carved Inka shrine depicting an idealized landscape with
humans,
felines, canals, terraces, paths, and buildings (from Carrion Cachot 1955).
Traditionally, archaeological research has focused on the "site." Regional investigation tends to stress settlement pattern and settlement system determined through archaeological site survey. This seminar will stress the space between the sites or "points" on the landscape. Most previous attempts at "landscape archaeology" tended to focus on the relationship of sites and the natural environment. This course will highlight the cultural, "anthropogenic," or built environment--in this case human modification and transformation of the natural landscape in the form of pathways, roads, causeways, monuments, walls, agricultural fields and their boundaries, gardens, astronomical and calendrical alignments, and water distribution networks. Features will be examined in terms of the "social logic" or formal patterning of cultural space. These can provide insights into indigenous structures such as measurement systems, land tenure, social organization, cosmology, calendrics, astronomy, cognition, and ritual practices. Ethnographic, ethnohistorical, and archaeological case studies will be investigated from both the Old and New Worlds.
Requirements: Active participation in the weekly seminar and the
presentation of an oral and written seminar paper.
Prerequisites: Graduate or advanced undergraduate standing in
Anthropology or AAMW or a strong background in Cultural Anthropology and
Archaeology.
Anthropology 557: The Archaeology of Landscapes Homepage (includes on-line syllabus and course information
Department of Anthropology Homepage
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology