In Pursuit of The Past, Decoding The Archaeological Record
In Pursuit of The Past: Decoding The Archaeological Record
基本命題
- 靜態的考古資料如何轉化為動態的過去生活(靜態材料-->動態解讀);
The challenge that archaeology offers, then, is to take contemporary observations of static material things and, quite literally, translate them into statements about the dynamics of past ways of life and about the conditions in the past which brought into being the things that have survived for us to see. (20)
- 靜態資料-->X-->動態現象;
- X-->中程理論(中距理論,Middle-range Theory)-->民族學考察
- 民族學考察-->現代人類生活+實驗考古+民族志文獻
- 自然科學
...... archaeology should adopt the methods of the natural sciences. (Eng. 21)
- 靜態資料-->民族學考察(中程理論)-->動態解釋;
- 理解考古遺存的形成原因、過程(什麼事/因素形成今天能看到的考古學材料的形態特征);
- 考古材料形式和位置的信息;
Information about decisions of this kind, decisions which modify the form and arrangement of material objects, is critical if archaeologists hope to be able to 'decode' and 'read' the archaeological record in terms of those aspects of the past that interest them. (20)
- 考古學材料由實物及空間關係組成-->遺跡、器物、動物遺存的空間分佈;
- 遺址由不同分佈的設施、活動面和物件組成-->配合起來建立一個整體的遺址結構
The archaeological record is not made up of symbols, words or concepts, but of material things and arrangements of matter. (19)
The study of site structure - that is, the spatial distribution of artefacts, features, and fauna on archaeological sites - was one of the challenges I took up when I began ethnoarchaeological research. (144)
Just as the bony skeleton provides the framework for the body around which the muscles and organs operate, so the arrangement of facilities on a site provides the skeleton around which activities are organised; the flow of persons and goos is accommodated to the facilities within a site. (145)
This is what I call the analysis of site structure: how spatial models mesh within the structure of a site as an entity in its own right. (172)
- 地方、勞工、方法-->人類文化系統
Recall for a moment the different kinds of sites which were illustrated in Chap. 6: they demonstrated repeatedly that a living system is composed of internally differentiated (1) places, (2) labor forces, and (3) sets of tactics. Archaeologists must recognise that different archaeological complexes represent expressions of functional differentiation within single systems, not necessarily differences between systems. (191)
- 考古學與歷史學研究的材料有很大差異,表達語言也不同。
It has to be recognised how fundamentally different are the types of data used by the two disciplines. (20)
- 使用正確的術語描述考古遺存的變化(Describe What)
- 觀察考古遺存時空變化的方法?(How)
三大問題
早期人類的行為特徵
- 漸變 v. 突變;人類與其他動物的差異,理解演變過程
- 早期人類利用生活空間的方式
...... one of the Big Questions archaeologists are currently seeking ways to understand is how early man organised hist life space - the location and the spatial relationship of activities such as sleeping, eating, food-getting, tool manufacture, etc. (144)
農業起源
It is concerned with the origins of agriculture and the conditions that led man to settle into ways of life which were much more sedentary than at any time in his mobile hunting and gathering past. (29)
- 反思:定居不是農業起源的原因:The complex societies in California & Northwest coast
- 環境與適應系統的互動-->反思漸變論(外在影響力驅動改變)
- 定居、遷徙的原因?
- 現代狩獵采集部落並沒有否定遷徙的生活模式
- 環境某種資源的突然驟減,沒有根本性影響狩獵采集部落的生活(1910年)
- 狩獵採集-->農業:出現阻止流動性成為食物安全保障的東西(post-Pleistocene Period,後更新世)
What would force a group of people to shift from a system based on an information bank (hunting and gathering) to one based on a labour bank (agriculture)? ...... In my opinion, the critical constraint must have been something that prevented mobility as a security opinion. (208)
- 人口過剩-->流動難度增加-->流動性下降-->「流動」無法再成為保障資源的策略
As the region fills up, then, a band comes to have little or no option about where it can move next. By packing the region with people, mobility is restricted and resource exploitation becomes concentrated. Packing, in fact, thwarts the normal strategy of hunters and gatherers to use mobility as a source of security. (210-211)
- 馴化農作物 v. 定居生活:孰先孰後?
- 馴化作物-->定居生活:舊大陸、秘魯之間
- 定居生活-->馴化作物:中美洲、北美洲之間
文明起源
The third problem area is again one of great general fascination: the origins of civilisation. (29)
- 社會需要儲備(Storage)-->糧食資源散點分佈(空間上集中)-->壟斷了資源、糧食)-->產生權力(可政治聯盟,可小型內部分化系統:掌握/壟斷關鍵的生計資源)
I believed that power derived from productive monopolies and that monopolies were to a large extent a functional response of societies which were every dependent on storage and whose food resources were patchy or highly aggregated in space. (215)
- Marshall Sahlins
- 玻里尼西亞首領再分配資源-->分配制度與地位關聯-->資源流動,非人
- Lewis R. Binford
- Big Man System-->與其他社群成員協作-->人流動,非資源
社會複雜化
- 生產>需求(供過於求)的原因?
- 處理過剩生產的方式?
- 問題出現(系統受到壓力)-->方法出現-->增加生產-->強化某種生產
貿易、交換
- 交換的範圍是否如想像中大?
- 需要更可靠的推理方法,從考古材料推導過去歷史
We need simultaneously to investigate the questions ‘what does it mean?’ and ‘What was it like?’, if we ever hope to make progress with the really big question:’ Why did it happen?’.
Middle-range Theory(中程理論)
- 社會學概念、社會結構主義
- Robert K. Merton(羅伯特.默頓), Social Theory and Social Structure);
- 在兩個極端社會情況之間建立聯繫
- 考古學家需要自己的中程理論,而不是歷史學、民族學的一般理論
We must abandon the idea that plausibility itself serves as ample justification for the meanings we give to archaeological observation: better procedures than this are needed. (192)
Archaeologists, in general, have not recognised the need for middle-range theory of their own. They have instead adopted the general theoretical arguments advanced by historians and ethnographers and accommodated observations from the archaeological record the them...... We need to concentrate on the development of middle-range theory - an area where ethnographic and historical observations are crucial in testing - and to use the methods for inference developed in this way to get answer to questions such as 'What does it mean?' and 'What was it like?'. Only if reliable answers to these questions can be obtained might work on the question 'Why did it happen?' be profitable.(194)
案例1:南方古猿(Australopithecus)
- Raymond Dart(雷蒙.達特)
- 判斷為早期人類有三個主要行為特征(行為模式>身體構成)
- 經常吃肉
- 取火和用火
- 製造工具(骨器)
- A. R. Hughes發掘鬣狗活動層,沒發現其他骨頭-->鬣狗不收集骨頭-->無法否定Dart的假說。
反例
- 南方古猿體重過輕,不是強悍的獵人,反而被鬣狗捕獵。
Washburn, S. L. 1957 'Australopithecines: the hunter or the hunted?', American Anthropologist 59, 612-614.
- 文獻記載鬣狗會收集骨頭+獵豹、獅子會處理骨頭-->需了解動物行為對骨骼堆積的干預-->古代骨骼的堆積成因。
Obviously, we needed to know much more about these animals if we were to understand their potential role as the agents contributing to deposits containing evidence of man himself. (37)
案例2:奧杜威東非人(Zinjanthropus)
- Louis Leakey(路易斯.利基)
- 支持南方古猿的證據?
- 早期人類並非想象中強大,可能只是狩獵動物中的邊緣群組。
案例3:狩獵動物行為
- C. K. Brian
- 古代遺存如何堆積?-->現代動物行為觀察
- 了解骨骼的堆積成因及過程-->解讀石器、動物骨骼、人類行為的聯繫
- 狩獵動物會把獵物帶到窩巢附近,然後啃咬進食-->(久而久之)動物的碎骨會較集中積存在某個區域
- 特例:獵豹則把獵物掛在樹上
- 外營力沖刷-->小型骨骼落入地下洞穴或裂縫(Waterholes)
R. Broom G. Schepers Lewis R. Binford,狼窩 Andrew Hill,獅子、鬣狗 Richard Klein,鬣狗窩
案例4:印第安人營地
- Lewis R. Binford
- 季節性營地(夏季 v. 冬季)
案例5:居址面=中心營地
- 格林.依薩克
- 居址:使用工具、消費食物、睡覺的地方
案例6:水坑
- Lewis R. Binford
- 觀察水坑和不同動物的行為
- Elandsfontein遺址
案例7:文明進化(歷時性)
- 皮特-里弗斯
- 樹枝-->簡單工具-->複雜工具
- 人類文明從簡單到複雜、具有邏輯、不斷進步,不斷進化
- 累積前面的知識,成為後來知識的基礎
案例8:平行譜系(共時性)
- 阿貝.步日耶
- 舊石器時代同時存在多個文化傳統
- 各異的文化傳統在時間和空間上有不同的分佈特征-->不同的文化傳統=不同種類的人群
- Dorothy Garrod,手斧、石片並行發展的同時,石葉可能已出現
- 文化進化模型-->平行譜系-->平行傳統模型
案例9:莫斯特難題
- 弗朗斯瓦.博爾德-->形態類型
- 石器分類系統、量化描述石器組合的技術
- 地方原料特征-->影響石器製作技術的因素-x->無助於文化史、族群、文化群體關係
- 4種莫斯特類型:阿舍利傳統莫斯特、典型莫斯特、鋸齒莫斯特、夏爾丹組
- 遺址特征:工業交替、平行譜系、保守文化
反例
- 博爾德文化觀點與現代世界紀錄的環境不同
- 現代族群的邊界不清(愛斯基摩營地)
案例10:波爾多石器、獸骨
案例11:愛斯基摩營地
- Lewis R. Binford
- 愛斯基摩人
- 以遺址(努那繆提人營地)為中心看季節性遷徙中居址形態的變化
- 居住核心區域
- 狩獵采集者利用不同的區域,直到環境退化(約10年;木材、動物)-->不會長期住在一個地區
- 活動時長-->周轉率-->長時間活動在室外,短時間在室內
- 土地循環利用特征
- 出生區(Birth Territory)-->成長區(Becoming Territory;Female:Courting Territory)-->出生區(依賴親屬維持基本生計)
- 人類利用環境的形態實際上非常複雜,並非考古學可以直接解答的
案例12:Anavik Springs Site Complex
- Lewis R. Binford
- Nunamiut
- Site Complex(遺址群)
- 狩獵遺址:收穫肉食-->勞動分工
- 獵殺遺址:屠宰肉食-->環繞著一隻動物作業-->環形分佈區域
- 石窯遺址:儲存肉食-->(有例子曾被誤認成房址)-->石塊封存肉食,用鹿角標記
案例13:Tulugak Lake Site Complexes
- Lewis R. Binford
- Nunamiut
- 引導線(Drive Lines):石塊砌成的路線(或其他物料)-->驅趕馴鹿至圍欄
- 狩獵遮蔽所:等候獵物、取暖(燒石塊)
- 中心營地:湖邊的居住營地,靠近難以運輸的資源-->燃料、淡水
- 把所有遺址看成一個更大系統的組成部分
- 認出單個遺址的特定功能-->拼接所有單個遺址-->認識單個遺址中的不同類型行為-->組合史前土地利用系統
In other words, archaeology's basic unit is the individual site, but its goal is to employ these units to study past human behavior; and in order to accomplish this task, we need to develop an appropriate methodology for identifying the role of single sites within an overall system. (132)
案例14:Kongumuvuk
- Lewis R. Binford
- Nunamiut
- 特殊用途(Special-Purpose Sites)
- 帳篷圈(Tent Rings):石砌
- 狩獵觀察點(Hunting Stands)
- 設施(Facilities):落石陷阱
- 處理遺址(Processing Sites)
案例15:The Birhor Camp
- 需辨析單個遺址的使用方法
At a still lower level of analysis, archaeologists need methods to study the patterns of use that take place within individual sites. (138)
- 居住房址:最基本的建築單位
- Yellen,!Kung Bushman residential camps
- 環形分佈的茅屋(單個家庭)
- 中間一片共用空地
- 外圍是特殊用途區域
- 半環形分佈
- 同一聚落-->分開的群體空間-->自然空間距離-->社會距離
案例16:火塘
- 圍繞火塘活動-->普遍的空間使用規則
- 側向火源
- 保持一臂距離
- 愛斯基摩群體-->圍繞火塘,小物件在火塘周邊,大物件廢棄在身後
- Hearth)--Drop Zone)--Toss Zone
- 原處分散遺落
- 分散拋棄至一地方
- 集中拋棄至一個地方(活動區/工作區邊緣)
- 室內 v. 室外
- 室內:石塊圍爐-->防止灰燼外散
- 室外:火塘中心隨活動移動,不太關心灰燼;隨風向轉換活動方位-->躲避煙霧
- 睡覺區域-->床位與火塘的分佈形態
- 澳大利亞土著、泰國馬拉布里人
- 利用火塘隔開單人、雙人床位
- 床上進食-->殘渣被搬移至室外(近門邊)
案例17:活動空間
- Alywara人燒烤-->野外捕獵,燒烤進食(防止返回營地前腐爛)
- 燒烤坑
- 火堆
- 挖坑的土
- 柴木……
案例18:打石器
- Alyawara土著-->剝離石片落在腿間,成品放在前方擺成弧形(一臂遠)<--愛斯基摩人
案例19:! Kung Bushman Camp, Nunamiut Eskimo, Nagatatjara Aborigines
- 相同的人類身體-->相似的營地(house, sleeping area, external hearth)佈局-->狩獵採集者營地的空間佈局相似
案例20:Pulangana House
- Lewis R. Binford
- 愛斯基摩人冬季居所
室內(以火塘為中心)
- 北側半環形分布小骨片(兩膝之間、腿邊的小骨渣)
- 東南側幾乎沒有碎骨片-->準備糧食的地方
- 西南側-->燧石小石片密集分布,小碎骨片較少-->靠近窗戶(?),利用光源
- 室內活動中心隨光源轉移:日間,窗戶-->夜間,火塘
- 室內火塘活動與性別區分(相對頻率)
- 較明亮區域-->女
- 較陰暗區域-->男-->Men's House:相對住房的獨立空間(臨時窩棚)
- 木頭、鹿角加工-->集中分布在床位之間、做飯人的右側手臂範圍內(左臂處理火塘事務?)
室外
- 戶外院落空間:沒有高度分化、頻繁使用
- 季節性影響
- 儲物平台(例:冬季儲肉架)-->冬季不常用
案例21:Eskimo Butchering Sites
- Michael Schiffer
- Clean-up Strategies
- Preventive Maintenance(預防性維護)-->頻繁使用的區域-->Primary Refuse(原生廢棄);Secondary Refuse?
- Post Hoc Maintenance(特定維護)-->清理某個區域-->垃圾轉移至特定傾倒區域
- 材料的結構形態-->物質的組織關係
So understanding the organisational relationships among items recovered from the site depends on teasing out structural patterns in the observed data , not on some conventional separation, made on purely formal grounds, between primary and secondary refuse. (190)
案例22:Texcoco
- Niederverger發掘墨西哥遺址,發現人類生存所需的遺存(Garden of Eden)-->人因此定居-->物資減少,於是開始輔助生產:農業
概念備忘:
Processual Archeology(過程考古學;新考古學)
- 文化變遷的過程比文化系統本身更重要
- 重視人類的行為
- 借鑒人類學的理論與資料
Propinquity Theory (Oasis Theory, Desiccation Theory,綠洲理論)
- 氣候變化驅使人類馴化農作物-->農業起源