Ethnoarchaeology
(Ethinic archaeology)
Indigenous daily schedule
Let us figure out how the daily schedule of an ancient Indian would look
like.
The schedule would include, for sure, activities to get food, such as
hunting, fishing, planting or collecting fruits and roots from the bushes.
Such provisions had to be prepared; thus our Indian would go after firewood
to light a fire, water to drink, clay pots and pans to cook.
He could also make some repairs to his house, to visit friends and relatives
living in neighboring settlements. In the evening, he would be telling
tales to a group of people or would discuss details of a celebration that
would happen in the next rainy season.
Now, let us figure out that hundred of years latter an archeologist's
team researches the area where the imaginary Indian had lived. Out of
the entire group of activities that the Indian had developed, which ones
the researchers could rescue?
Very few, in fact. Firstly because the archeologist's basic document are
the material remains left from the activities. And as we have seen, not
all activities leave material elements as, for example, talking to friends,
visiting other settlements, collecting products from the bushes, making
war and so on.
Besides, many activities leave material remains that do not resist to
time and therefore do not serve as a document for the archaeologist. Included
here are the food remainders, straw-made objects, wood and roofing for
cabins, garments, feather adornments and so many others. In truth, the
archeologist deals with about 20% of the material remainders fabricated
and utilized by the indigenous group he studies. All the rest is gone
with time, disintegrating in the soil.
How then archaeologist manages to retell the history of a people, mainly
in what relates to ways of thinking, uses and beliefs? Well, the modern
Archaeology has been discussing and testing a series of possible approaches,
Among them, a knowledge area named "Ethnoarchaeology" stands out.
Ethnoarchaeology: what is that?
As we have seen, certain aspects of the human history are more difficult
to recover through the material remains that the archaeologist can access.
Such limitations have led some researchers to search for reference elements
in living societies, mostly in the so-called "traditional societies" such
as indigenous, Negro and 'caiçara' (Paisant) (half-breed people living
at the coastline) groups. Thence Ethnoarchaeology was born as a discipline
that looks for understanding, precisely, how the set of objects produced
and utilized by a society may inform about the behavior of people and
the entire social, political and economical related structure.
From his studies, the Ethnoarchaeologist provides present models of human
occupation that will be utilized in archaeological context for building
research assumptions. This is named "analogy", what means a way for indirect
reading of the human past through situations observed at present.
The Ethnoarchaeologist also endeavors to understand how these material
remains come to incorporate into the archaeological record, that is, what
pattern the objects followed since the moment they were abandoned by those
people who produced and utilized them until being excavated by the archaeologist,
many years, centuries or millennia latter.
Many Ethnoarchaeologists also document the manner how the Indians fabricated
the objects, following all the work phases. For example, in the case of
fabrication of a clay pot, the researcher will document since the choice
and collection of clay from the riverbank to burning the piece in the
fire, by describing and taking photos of each process phase.
For working close to living communities, the Ethnoarchaeologist has access
to an entire universe of behaviors and evidences that the Archaeologist
ignores. This is precisely the universe that the Ethnoarchaeologist intends
to unveil, by looking for new ways of researching, by providing explanatory
models and by proposing more suitable investigation methodologies so that
researchers can understand, more and more, the alternatives and solutions
found by ancient societies.
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) Daily life in Xerente settlement at Tocantins: straw basket production . Asset: Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia - USP (Ethnology and Archaeology Museum-USP) Photo: Walter F. Morales |
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) Gathering information on the ethnological-archaeological research among the Xerente groups, TO. Asset: Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia - USP (Ethnology and Archaeology Museum-USP) Photo: Walter F. Morales |
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