Introduction Cont’d: Lesson 2

Prof Wazi Apoh

Lecture outline

• What is Archaeology?

• How is it different from History?

• What is Culture?
 Archaeology?

• It is a practice and discipline that conducts research into the things

that humans once produced, used and discarded in order to
reconstruct past behavior, preserve the past and to exhibit the
findings in museums to promote education and tourism

• Archaeologists engage in scientific excavation, description, analysis

and interpretation of their finds before the publication or the
exhibition of their findings

• So what is your own definition of Archaeology?

 ARCHAEOLOGY VRS HISTORY

• How is archaeology different from history?

• Archaeology is the grandparent of history…it begets history by excavating material

culture and providing deep time cultural knowledge beyond the periods of written
records and oral histories

• It studies the human ancestry from 4 million BCE until current times

• History on the other hand concentrates on oral history, past events and areas with
written records

• However the link between the methodologies of both disciplines is that both deal with
the documentation of human culture…but one goes back further in time than the
other through the use of scientific excavations.
WHAT IS CULTURE?
 What is culture
• Culture is a term that refers to the
behavioural products, material cultural
products, and Intangible ideological
products of our cognitive thinking processes
which are often influenced by the
environment, politics, history, globalization
and societal cultural practices.
 Atomic Structure of Culture

T, HI
EN SO STO
N M GL CIE RY,
RO S, OB TY EN
V I IC A , P VI
E N IT LI OL RO
, OL N Z A IT NM
RY P IO T I IC
,
O TY A T ON S, EN
I T
S IE LIZ CULTURAL BEHAVIOR/ T,
H C A IDEOLOGY/
Mannerism
O
S LO B MATERIAL CULTURE
Intangible culture/ policies/
Speech
G THINGS
rituals
Rituals

HISTORY, ENVIRONMENT, SOCIETY,

POLITICS, GLOBALIZATION
 Origins and Development of Culture

• The atomic structure of culture is found imbedded in every new

practice or invention

• A new practice evolves to become a cultural habit

• A habit evolves to become a cultural norm
• A norm evolves to become a cultural tradition and a cultural institution

• The atomic structure of culture is never lost but reshaped, influenced

and transformed by changing environments, history/time/generations,
government policies and societies/globalization
Study Question

• What is meant by this phrase?

• The cultural context of development.