#archaeological theory

[anthropoclock]

Phenomenological Archaeology

Y'know those tumblr posts that are like

"Every time I carry a laundry basket on my hip I'm transported back to the 1400s"

When I was little, I used to CRAVE this feeling. I loved history (still do), and these little sentences always made me feel like I was part of history: connected to the stories of all those who have come before.

Well flash forward 7 years or so and I'm in an archaeology lecture learning about phenomenology.

Phenomenology is the use of feelings in deciphering archaeological finds and sites (or non-sites...landscape archaeology things). For example, let's say I find the ruins of a castle. I stand at the doorway and think "Wow! This architecture is cool! The people of the past probably thought this architecture is cool too!".

This is 100% my oversimplified explanation (if you're into this type of stuff and want a better explanation, Christopher Tilley is the main person involved in this approach). I'll also leave a big quote at the end to explain better.

Anyways, I think it's so cool that there's an approach to archaeology that's about how humans have always been humans, and that we all feel emotions and interact with our environments in similar, human ways.

In short, yeah. If I put a laundry basket on my hip and feel productive and inspired to do my laundry, then I think that's valid archaeological thinking. And a great way to get my laundry done.

Extra explanation, for those interested:

Warning: this quote is from Wikipedia (I promise I don't normally do this but this is a relatively uncommon approach and academic article availability is rough off-campus)

"In The Materiality of Stone: Explorations in Landscape Archaeology (2004), Christopher Tilley proposes that all people who seek to engage with and understand a non-neutral 'humanized' space have a human body, and will therefore engage with the landscape in similar ways. By paying close attention to, and documenting, their bodily engagement with the archaeological site and landscape, Tilley says that archaeologists can use phenomenology to better understand prehistoric humanized space. Phenomenological methods therefore include approaching a place from different directions, experiencing it from every angle, spending time there, and exploring its relationships to other landmarks such that one starts to develop “a feeling for the place.”[4] Tilley says that this process allows one to make observations one never could have otherwise. Phenomenological methods are therefore highly reliant on the archaeologists own senses of sight, smell, and hearing as they enter and move about the landscape that they are studying."

#archaeology #archaeological theory #phenomenology #anthropology #academia

[belle-epochalypse]

Looking forward to this meme still being milked years from now (unless Sweden chooses not to share the milk)

#sorry for incoming cringe tags #tumblr archaeology #tumblr memes #color theory #children’s hospital #ball shaving ads #horse plinko #sweden #connecticut clark #apollo gift of prophecy #do you love the color of the sky #atla #avatar the last airbender

[creature-wizard]

"""Progressive""" conspiracy theorists will be like "archaeology and anthropology are tools of colonialism!!!" and then advocate the most racist pseudohistory white people came up with.

#hint hint you can't be progressive and be a conspiracy theorist #all conspiracy theories are about justifying some kind of bigotry #conspiracism #conspiracy theories #conspiracy theorists #pseudohistory #history #archaeology #anthropology #racism #colonialism

[blackberryjambaby]

video essays i adore (and you should watch)

when hollywood speaks chinese, i cringe

salvador dali's 'the persistence of memory': great art explained

nighthawks by edward hopper: great art explained

the baghdad battery? archeologist reacts! (reaction to & correction of awful archaeology ep 6: the baghdad battery)

remembering with a twist - a jojo rabbit & the book thief video essay

why is cottagecore so gay?

bo burnham's inside and "white liberal performative art"

overanalysing barbie movies with queer marxist theory

how white supremacists hide in plain sight

the constructive narrative of kitchen nightmares

life and death in medieval london with dr eleanor janega

the counteract: why the one direction fandom is predominantly queer

in search of a flat earth

the true horror of midsommar (feat. jack saint)

the rise and fall of abby lee miller part one (part two isn't up yet)

elvis (2022) and the mediocrity of bipocs

#rj speaks #i have so many more but this feels long already #video essays #idk how to tag this #hollywood #chinese #salvador dali #persistence of memory #nighthawks #edward hopper #baghdad battery #awful archaeology #jojo rabbit #the book thief #cottagecore #bo burnham inside #liberal perfomance art #barbie #marxist theory #queer #kitchen nightmares #white supremacy #medieval london #eleanor janega #one direction #flat earth #midsommar #abby lee miller #elvis (2022)

[gremlins-hotel]

Everyday I grow closer to strangling a driver in this fucking city hit and run bastards this is my thirteenth reason

#callsign gremlin checking in #after having someone with no knowledge argue anthropological/archaeological theory with me #adamantly #for two hours last night #bro I’m gonna commit #I’ll probably delete this later but bro goddamn

[aleserzal]

Crowley's theory after watching Good Omens season 2

Oi!

I'll start straight away. Crowley was actually an archangel before he fell. I now proceed to explain my theory:

1. Crowley has immense power. He has demonstrated it more than once, but what strikes me the most is that he still has that tool, that mechanism that he used to start the creation of the universe, and honestly, I don't think they put an ordinary angel on such an IMPORTANT task. Besides, with that mechanism, he can create a safe space, one where time doesn't exist. We saw it in season 1, where Crowley used it to give Adam Young a few seconds to clear his head and come up with a plan. Or when he "saved" Aziraphale (I put it in quotes because he really could have saved himself, but he loves to leave it to Crowley because it makes him so happy) from dying on the gallows in France. AND next to inmense power... He is a shapeshifter.

2. And to return to my point number one, Crowley can STOP time. Something that has not been seen with others in this story… and ONLY archangels can do that.

3. When, at the beginning of the first episode of the second season, Aziraphale and Crowley meet for the first time, Aziraphale does introduce himself, he tells Crowley his name! but Crowley responds with a simple "Nice meeting you".

4. A lot of people know Crowley, even from before he fell, from being a demon… but he ALWAYS claims NOT to remember all those faces/names. It's true that thousands of years can make you forget some faces, but… all of them? Even Saraqael's, where they worked together in the creation of the Horsehead Nebula. (This further reinforces my point number 1). There's also furfur, which he also forgot, among others. Perhaps… his memory was erased like Gabriel's?

5. If we follow the clues, we have met: Gabriel, Michael, Uriel, Sealtiel (also known as Saraqael) and Sandalphon. I mean, there are still many on that list, so I can't tell you EXACTLY which one could be Crowley. It could be Raphael, Raziel, Barachiel, Zadquiel… and a few more names (I invite you to look them up and try to guess who Crowley might be). All of whom know who exactly Crowley is, and not only know him because of his approach with Aziraphale.

6. Finally. The Metatron knows a LOT more than that naive old man would have us believe. We can see how he looks at Crowley and the tense music. We can see that he DOES know him because he mentions him to aziraphael while they are talking outside in the cafeteria. We can see how he insists on bringing Crowley back into the angelic ranks, hence why he chose Aziraphale as the position for Gabriel. In fact after the kiss scene, The Metatron enters the bookshop and first of all asks him about Crowley, Aziraphale tells him he didn't want to and Metatron replies: "always did want to go his own way… ALWAYS ASKING DAMN FOOL QUESTIONS". The Metatron knows WHO CROWLEY REALLY IS. And finally that look and "sigh" that he gives in the lift when he sees that he is taking Aziraphael with him to heaven.

I think I have enough points in my favour to be right…. But you never know what can happen in the fantastic mind of Gaiman and the rest of the writers.

Let me know what you think and who you think he might be!

#good omens 2 #good omens 2 spoilers #good omens s2 #good omens 2 theory #crowley #aziraphale #the metatron #archaeology #archangel fucking gabriel #archangel #good omens #good omens season 3 predictions

[aibidil]

On “Civilization” from The Dawn of Everything

One problem is that we’ve come to assume that ‘civilization’ refers, in origin, simply to the habit of living in cities. Cities, in turn, were thought to imply states. But as we’ve seen, that is not the case historically, or even etymologically. The word ‘civilization’ derives from Latin civilis, which actually refers to those qualities of political wisdom and mutual aid that permit societies to organize themselves through voluntary coalition. In other words, it originally meant the type of qualities exhibited by Andean ayllu associations or Basque villages, rather than Inca courtiers or Shang dynasts. If mutual aid, social co-operation, civic activism, hospitality or simply caring for others are the kind of things that really go to make civilizations, then this true history of civilization is only just starting to be written.

As we’ve been showing throughout this book, in all parts of the world small communities formed civilizations in that true sense of extended moral communities. Without permanent kings, bureaucrats or standing armies they fostered the growth of mathematical and calendrical knowledge. In some regions they pioneered metallurgy, the cultivation of olives, vines and date palms, or the invention of leavened bread and wheat beer; in others they domesticated maize and learned to extract poisons, medicines and mind-altering substances from plants. Civilizations, in this true sense, developed the major textile technologies applied to fabrics and basketry, the potter’s wheel, stone industries and beadwork, the sail and maritime navigation, and so on.

A moment’s reflection shows that women, their work, their concerns and innovations are at the core of this more accurate understanding of civilization. As we saw in earlier chapters, tracing the place of women in societies without writing often means using clues left, quite literally, in the fabric of material culture, such as painted ceramics that mimic both textile designs and female bodies in their forms and elaborate decorative structures. To take just two examples, it’s hard to believe that the kind of complex mathematical knowledge displayed in early Mesopotamian cuneiform documents or in the layout of Peru’s Chavín temples sprang fully formed from the mind of a male scribe or sculptor, like Athena from the head of Zeus. Far more likely, these represent knowledge accumulated in earlier times through concrete practices such as the solid geometry and applied calculus of weaving or beadwork. What until now has passed for ‘civilization’ might in fact be nothing more than a gendered appropriation – by men, etching their claims in stone – of some earlier system of knowledge that had women at its centre.

—The Dawn of Everything, Graeber and Wengrow

#civilization #history #anthropology #archaeology #political philosophy #human nature #sharing because I love this so much and need everyone to read it 🥲 #finally some good fucking food #these guys spend the entire first chapter absolutely tearing apart all the enlightenment thinkers theories about social evolution #the dawn of everything

[clumio]

I’m not gonna lie I didn’t even end up caring about the rest of the arguably more important parts of this episode, I really just wanted to read this person’s academic work 😭

#tmagp #the magnus protocol #it reads like archaeological theory/space and memory theory!!! #but with a random ghost story in the middle. I do want to know more about this guy’s thoughts on architecture #and memory though #Ives.txt

[micewithknives]

My 11 year old son wants to know why archaeologists like flannel shirts so much? I had a few theories, but then it occurred to me that I could go straight to the source for a more accurate answer! 😄

You may inform him of the following:

You can get both very light ones and very warm ones. Also you can roll the sleeves up and down. Unbutton them and tie them up. Or button them up. Very good versatility.

A lot of times you can get them on the cheaper side! We're going to cover them in dirt and they will not be recoverable. Do not wear expensive clothes during archaeology. There will be regrets.

They are super super classy and 10/10 when it comes to a fashion statement. we may have pretty coloured ones and if we try hard enough can get ones that look different to everyone elses

Finally - archaeologists are sentimental pack creatures. We have simply gotten very attached to our flannelette shirts and you can pry them from our cold dead hands.

#please ask your son if this is a satisfactory answer #and that i love his question #i would love to hear your scientific theories though #ask #archaeology #archaeologist problems

[clearancecreedwatersurvival]

Reminder that people who have been in one high control group tend to end up joining other high control groups (including the guy who developed the BITE model).

Reminder internet movements/communities/pipelines often become high control groups.

Reminder that online communities that demand you at all times police yourself and everyone else around you, and/or sell you a worldview of complete nihilism where people not in the in group are evil or stupid and only you the people in the group Know The Truth and embody Goodness because what the group believes is the only correct way to be Are High Control Groups and if you find yourself in one you should consider getting the fuck out of there.

If it walks like a cult and quacks like a cult, it’s probably a fucking cult.

Flat-earthers/Q-anon/Atlantean/ancient alien conspiracy theorists (all of which are rooted in anti-semitism and most of which originated with the Nazi party) are high control groups, and most of the people in those communities are also in fundie Christian cults.

The ‘rationalists’ who push shit like the imminent evil ai which must be protected against and simulation theory and a Lot of Eugenics and also that one extremely notorious Harry Potter fanfic back in the day are high control groups.

Terfs are a high control group, and so are the community which is basically their inverse: the black-pilled part of the manosphere/incels. Once again most people in those groups are also in or formerly from fundie Christian cults. In the case of terfs, some people in the community genuinely believe that they are progressive and feminist which I find very darkly funny given that the entire terf movement has been proved to be intentionally created and spread by, you guessed it, the same fundamentalist Christian evangelical death cultists who are trying to seize governmental power and proposing anti trans bathroom laws and bans to anything remotely sexual or divisive in internet spaces.

Multi-level-marketing companies form high control groups out of their ‘sales rep’ consumer bases who don’t realize that 96% of them will never make a profit and they’re not supposed to, because they are actually the company’s market. And yes, mlms are incredibly popular with people who are also in a fundie cult, which is why they’re the most popular in the United States in Utah.

And the anti-shipping community is also a high control group which has found extreme purchase in algorithmic rabbitholes on tiktok and twitter. And it’s pretty apparent that most people in that community are either currently in some sort of repressive Christian religious environment or formerly so, given how many of them keep telling people to burn in hell for disagreeing with them.

#I watched another minuteman video about an archaeology related conspiracy theory and it got me thinking about cults again so #also I forgot to mention them but there are So Many mlm in the Maoist sense not marketing sense groups that are HCGs #read a extremely long document about all the fucked up shit this one Maoist cult in Texas did to its members. anyways #high control groups #internet pipelines #Christian fundamentalism #terf shit #shipping discourse #caitie speaks

[eucanthos]

Rare Neolithic marble statuette from Çatalhöyük, UNESCO world heritage site.

Archaeologist Ian Hodder, leader of the 2016 Stanford excavation team that found the artifact, believes that, even though a ritual object, the figurine represents an older woman of high social status!

The craftsmanship, the anatomical details and a pragmatic knowledge of the human body leave no room for representational mistakes.

The 1 kgr figurine, wrought from recrystallized limestone between 6300 and 6000 B.C., is a very rare find.

thnx thethreerobbers

https://news.stanford.edu/2016/09/29/archaeologists-find-8000-year-old-goddess-figurine-central-turkey/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%87atalh%C3%B6y%C3%BCk

#paleontology #archaeology #marble #sculpture #plus size #masterpiece #odd #research #Çatalhöyük #detail #age #theory #gif

[redsolon]

Historical Materialism Course

I've spent years reading and watching things about history. Eventually I decided to compile all the useful things I've watched into a course for history from a Marxist perspective. Of course I'm limited to what videos I can find, so not everything is covered as well as I'd like, and many videos are made by liberals or even reactionaries, who may make an important point in the video, but leave out important further context. That said, I feel like video documentaries are how a lot of younger people absorb history now, so we might as well compile resources that are actually good for them.

I've broken up the videos into a series of playlists covering various periods of history. It goes from the beginning of the universe to the beginning of the Cold War. (Cold War history from a socialist perspective is so complicated and full of misinformation that at that point you really just have to delve into the books and primary sources yourself. Summary videos won't suffice.)

#history #historical materialism #dialectical materialism #revolutionary history #class struggle #Marxist theory #Marxism #communism #socialism #capitalism #feudalism #economics #economic history #archaeology #anthropology #sociology #political science #political economy #Marx #Youtube #education #dialectics #complexity theory #complex systems #Bronze Age #Iron Age #Stone Age #colonialism #imperialism #settler-colonialism

[creature-wizard]

https://youtu.be/U8NNHmV3QPw?si=6aInyR5QVTAT3z0R Watch if you're bored but you might be surprised 🤷🏻‍♀️.

It's about spirit science

GHJKSD when you said this video was about Spirit Science, I thought you were gonna like, link to a video talking about how the Spirit Science guy Jordan Duchnycz is a rapist or his weird obsession with Emma Watson or his antisemitic claim that Jews come from another planet. I didn't expect you were going to link to like, an actual Spirit Science video.

In brief, what Jordan's putting out here is straight-up baloney. A lot of it's pretty bog-standard New Age pseudohistory based on unsubstantiated conjecture, misinterpretation of various mythological traditions, and shit somebody just pulled straight from their ass. Not only is there no actual evidence to support any of the stuff he's putting out there, the actual evidence we do have inevitably precludes it.

Here are some links that explain why and how we know that people like Jordan are just wrong:

The Sirius Mystery: did the Dogon know about Sirius B?

The Truth About Atlantis

Atlantis @ Bad Archaeology

The Weird Case of Atlantis-Mu in the Madrid Codex

Lemuria, the weirdest continent that never existed

Naacal @ Wikipedia

Close encounters of the racist kind

The Ancient Astronaut Hypothesis Is Racist And Harmful

Zechariah Sitchin @ Bad Archaeology

"The Emerald Tablets of Thoth": A Lovecraftian Plagiarism

Left- vs. Right-Brained: Why the Brain Laterality Myth Persists

Are the Egyptian pyramids aligned with the stars?

Criticisms of Drunvalo Melchizedek @ Wikipedia

Detailed deconstruction of the "face" and pyramids on Mars claims

"Christ" @ Wiktionary

"Allah" @ Wiktionary

Charles Hapgood @ Wikipedia

It’s better light, not worse behaviour, that explains crimes on a full Moon

Sphinx water erosion hypothesis @ Wikipedia

Egyptian Hieroglyphs @ World History Encyclopedia

Predynastic Period in Egypt @ World History Encyclopedia

Sumer @ World History Encyclopedia

Debunking the Myth: The Council of Nicaea and the Formation of the Biblical Canon

First Council of Nicaea @ Encyclopedia Britannica

Did Jesus Go to India? A Modern Gospel Forgery

Also, the fact that Jordan appeals to channeled information is a massive red flag. Channeling is fun and sometimes produces some interesting things, but a source of reliable information it is not.

He also claims that a pole reversal makes the planet start spinning the other way, which is literally not how pole reversals work at all.

And of course, Jason's claim that thirteen powerful families are controlling the world is that general conspiracy theory shit derived from The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, early modern witch panic, and blood libel. The whole thirteen families thing in particular comes from Fritz Springmeier, a far right conspiracy theorist who proudly cites other hateful kooks like Edith Starr Miller and Alexander Hislop and basically claims anything that isn't good wholesome Christian entertainment is actually Satanic programming.

Basically, Jordan Duchnycz is just another New Age conspiracy theorist pushing the same old garbage as loads of others like him.

#answered #spirit science #jordan duchnycz #jordan spiritpatch #conspiracy theories #conspiracy theory #conspiracism #conspirituality #ancient aliens #ancient astronauts #ancient astronaut hypothesis #aliens #extraterrestrials #pseudohistory #history #pseudoscience #science #pseudoarchaeology #archaeology #new age #new agers #atlantis #lemuria #resources

[crabs-with-sticks]

I should get hazard pay for two men at the library mansplaining what scientific theory is (and being utterly wrong) to me, young woman in science who is just trying to scan her books about local oral histories.

#I don't normally refer to myself as a scientist because I have more background in the humanities side of archaeology #but fuck those guys #flat out saying to me (a professional archaeologist) that its not a science #And then also not understanding what scientific theory is??? #like the old guy was very adamant evolution was “”real“” and not a theory #he also could not wrap his head around why we were studying Maori archaeology?? #Like he kept asking me why #and I would explain about pa sites and taro gardens #and then he would confusedly ask 'are you Maori' like thatsthe only reason you could find it interesting #fuck that guy #knew things were going downhill after he started talking about how he has a physics backgrouns #then brought up Nikola Tesla then went straight to the muskrat #sigh #At least a bunch of teenage schoolgirls got to see me absolutely smoke those men in an argument while being feminine and wearing a dress #Also shout out to the librarian who had my back #she was a real g #yeah suprise surpise #all the people who were backing me up were women #rant post

[jayaaaa]

I'm starting a new conspiracy theory, there's no way people who hadn't even invented computers yet built this, I think atlanteans ahd to come from the sea to teach them.

#archaeology #miniminuteman #conspiracy theories

[state-of-franklin]

Important screenshots from Milo’s teaser:

(Aka miniminuteman)

#miniminuteman #milo rossi #awful archaeology #professor milo #my theory is an archaeology across America trip on his motorcycle #bc the original teaser had his helmet and bike on it #as well as some lettering #that I could not make out unfortunately #anyway any theories would be cool :)