What is archeology related to?

Question

does one typically get to archeology through studying cultural anthropology or physical anthropology?

i always thought it was cultural. but then someone on here said it was related to physical. does anyone actually know?

Answer 1

Back when I got my degree, if you majored in archaeology you had to take classes in both physical and cultural anthropology.  At that time it fell under physical.  One thing I never understood, though, was why the two-year degree was an A.S., buth the Bachelor's was a B.A.

Answer 2

It's both. In archeology you study both the cultural and the physical characteristics.

I'll give you an example, it will be clear to you after this.

Suppose you are studying about the Spartans (they are hot these days.. ;o) .. 300?)

Now you won't get the perfect picture about them unless you consider both their physical and cultural anthropologies.

Do you get it?

Spartans were culturally a warring tribe, and had larger frames than rest of the Europeans. Now knowing both the cultural aspects and the lineage from which they evolved will help you unravel the Spartan puzzle much more quickly than if you only restrict yourself to their cultural evolution without accounting for their massive builts which might have at some point of time made them feel that they are superior to others....

that's about it..

tc

:o)

Answer 3

Within the field of anthropology there are 4 subfields: archaeology (the study of past cultures through material means), cultural (the study of culture through observation), linguistic (the study of language), and physical (the study of human evolution). There is historical archaeology, which studies past cultures through written documentation during historical times (for example: the written accounts of what Europeans observed and participated in with the indigenous peoples of North America).  If an archaeologist comes across a burial, physical anthropology will come in handy, though normally you will have an archaeologist that focuses on one particular location and subject of the past (such as Plains Indian pottery) who will have a specialist come and look at the burial (a physical anthropologist).