archaeology

    Ethnoarchaeology is the ethnographic study of peoples for archaeological reasons, usually focusing on the material remains of a society, rather than its culture. Ethnoarchaeology aids archaeologists in reconstructing ancient lifeways by studying the material and non-material traditions of modern societies.

    Archaeologists can then infer that ancient societies used the same techniques as their modern counterparts given a similar set of environmental circumstances. Ethnography can provide insights of value to archaeologists into how people in the past may have lived, especially with regard to their social structures, religious beliefs and other aspects of their culture. However, it is still unclear how to relate most of the insights generated by this anthropological research to archaeological investigations.

Traditional Bronze Casters in Tamil Nadu

    This a project represents a long-term study of the social context of traditional metal casters in the village of Swamimalai, located ca. 275 km southwest of Chennai (Madras), in India’s southern state of Tamil Nadu.  Tamil Nadu was home to the Chola Empire.  The Cholas came to power in the late 9th century A.D., and until the late 13th century A.D., they ruled most of South India, Sri Lanka, the Maldive Islands, and even parts of the Indonesian island of Java from their homeland near Thanjavur (Tanjore) around 30 km from the Swamimalai study area.  Specifically, I am interested in the social organization of traditional metal production and the patterns of consumption of the bronze statuary produced by the workshops in Swamimalai.  As such, this project is an ethnoarchaeological study of contemporary craft production.  Ethnoarchaeology refers to the study of contemporary cultures with the aim of understanding the behavioral relationships that underlie the production of material culture.  Using the observational methods of cultural anthropologists, archaeologists conduct ethnoarchaeological research with the aim of producing models (based on observations of contemporary societies) that are applicable to the archaeological record.  This study is an outgrowth of my long-term interest in the role of metallurgy in the social evolution of societies in the Near East.  As such this ethnoarchaeological research of traditional bronze casters has important processual implications for my research of historic, Iron Age (ca. 1200 – 500 B.C.), metal production in southern Jordan.
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Dr. Nikos Efstratiou, University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Dr. Joan Segui, Ethnographic Museum,Valencia, Spain
   
    Ethnoarchaeology today  is a dynamic branch of archaeological inquiry which can offer useful insights into the past. Either by critically evaluating existing explanatory propositions through the testing of theoretical archaeological and methodological  practices or by generating alternative explanations using contemporary ethnographic observations, ethnoarchaeological studies are considered an integral part of present-day archaeological reasoning helping to explore the complexities of human behavior and institutions.
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