Ethnohistory and Archaeology

Anthropology 380K

Samuel M. Wilson, Department of Anthropology, University of Texas

Syllabus

Course Description: This course is about the practice of anthropology using archaeological and ethnohistorical data conjointly. Our goal, on one level, is to explore methodologies which combine ethnohistorical and archaeological data and research strategies in ways which produce greater anthropological understanding than either strategy or data set would allow of itself. Such conjoint methodologies are still rather poorly defined.

At another level, our task is to understand the relationships among the disciplines of social or cultural anthropology, history, and archaeology, broadly defined. Upon what kinds of analytical constructs, data, theory, epistemologies, research strategies, and intellectual traditions are these disciplines based? Where among them does "ethnohistory" fit in, leaving aside for the moment the myriad "compound" disciplines of historical archaeology, historical geography, ethnoarchaeology, archaeo-ethnology, historical sociology, and historical anthropology?

• Archnet's collected information on Ethnhistory and Archaeology
• ArchNet's Resources for North American Archaeology , c ontains information on North American Ethnohistory
• Syracuse program in Historical Archaeology, with professors Douglas V.Armstrong, Christopher R. DeCorse, Theresa Singleton, and LouAnn Wurst
• Eureka index of Anthropological Literature, covering over 1,000 journals, colloquia, symposia, and Festschriften in the fields of archaeology, art history, ethnohistory, folklore, linguistics, and physical anthropology published since 1984.
• Connecticut Historical and Industrial Archaeology Bibliography, compiled by David A. Poirier and Robert R. Gradie.
• Archaeological Resource Guide for Europe, an extensive collection of European links
• Classical Archaeology Links, put together by the UT Classics department
• Center For World Indigenous Studies' Fourth World Documentation Project-- a collection of texts and documents relating to social, political, strategic, economic and human rights issues.
• Cyber Review of Modern Historiography, with an archive of important works of historiography