Admission requirements
Advanced Archaeological Theory or Advanced Scientific Methodology in Archaeology obtained;
This course is intended for Archaeology RMA/RMSc students and PhD candidates exclusively.
Description
Archaeological research is confusingly multiparadigmatic. The epistemology of archaeology (and anthropology) does not look at archaeological (or anthropological) data as such, but at the various, and often conflicting (“incommensurable”), ways data is handled in terms of basic presuppositions and conceptual tools of researchers.
Even elementary archaeological concepts (such as “site,” “intention,” “ritual deposition”) and periodisations (“Mousterian”, “human adaptive grade”) are theory-laden and part of a specific theoretical discourse. They are inextricably connected to other notions, rules, assumptions, values, etc., in the discourse.
A major theoretical/conceptual divergence (some argue: divide) in archaeology and anthropology, connected to conflicting views of disciplinary identity, is that between on the one hand, culturalist/interpretive (and cf. “post-processual”) humanities approaches, and on the other hand, life sciences (ecological, “processual”) ones.
The anthropological disciplines thus, to some degree, have been, and continue to be, a contested arena between the humanities and the life sciences.
This seminar takes a history-and-philosophy-of science approach to various debates and theoretical developments of the last few decades. It does so in terms of several case studies, against the broader canvas of (1) the aforementioned methodological divergence and (2) the latter’s roots in specific developments in 20th-century philosophy.
We will juxtapose (/compare /confront) etic neo-Darwinist life-sciences perspectives on cultural behaviours (such as altruism theory, costly signalling, gene-culture coevolution, ecological determinism) with emic interpretative (in particular Maussian) perspectives to the same or similar behaviours (see the case studies, below) - and try to work out how the two relate.
We will more specifically focus on “Maussian” interpretive vs. ”Hobbesian”, neo-Darwinist approaches on conflict and contract in the constitution of sociality in non-modern traditions; and, connected, the reciprocal exchange of objects(-in-motion) as constitutive of (individual and social) identity.
A general framework for this aspect of the seminar is provided by an emergent paradigm in the life sciences: the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (including Gene-Culture Co-evolution). (See Royal Society Publishing or Wikipedia).
Course set-up
Meeting 1: An epistemological introduction (Hilary Putnam on the "theory-laden" character of observation; interpretation vs. explanation; “the metaphysics of apes”);
Meeting 2: Case Study - Anglo-Saxon sociality as reflected in the Beowulf manuscript (Maussian - cf. Profs. Fontijn, Theuws - versus life-sciences approaches to conflict, cooperation and personal identity);
Meeting 3: Case Study - Tobelo (Moluccas) marital exchanges (Maussian versus life-sciences approaches to “conflict and contract”, cont’d, based on Leiden University fieldwork and footage);
Meeting 4: Case study - Conceptualising narrative, myth and (narrative) meaning: Ricoeur’s (interpretive) “hermeneutics of the Self” compared to explanatory “literary Darwinism” and cognitive science approaches to self-conscious agency;
Meeting 5: Case study - Paradigms in lithic analysis: Acheulean handaxes (phenotypic plasticity, various forms of learning, cultural niche construction and gene-culture co-evolution versus more traditional typological/technological approaches);
Meeting 6: Pecha kucha presentations on some of your own research from an epistemological perspective;
Meeting 7: Hobbesian wrap-up: “Nature red in tooth and claw”.
See the Reading list below for the corresponding readings.
Course objectives
You will become more aware of some major discussions in present-day epistemology (philosophy of science) and how these are relevant to you as a practicing archaeologist;
You will reflect in a critical, philosophically informed manner on your own ways of handling archaeological data conceptually, and revise or reconfirm these;
You will sharpen your insight in presuppositions, research and recent debates regarding the abovementioned case studies;
You will acquire some new conceptual tools which can be useful to your research;
You will improve your ability to critically establish connections between the above and your own preferred period, region and/or research topic;
You will become more familiar with some fundamental philosophy, relevant to you as an academic in general and an archaeologist/anthropologist in particular.
Timetable
Course schedule details can be found in MyTimetable.
Log in with your ULCN account, and add this course using the 'Add timetable' button.
Mode of instruction
Interactive lectures;
Weekly assignments, consisting of posting your comments on each week’s readings on Brightspace.
Assessment method
Exam with open questions (75%);
Weekly postings on Brightspace (25%).
Assessment deadlines
All assessment deadlines (exams, retakes, paper deadlines etc.) can be found in MyTimetable.
Log in with your ULCN account, and add this course using the 'Add timetable' button. To view the assessment deadline(s), make sure to select the course with a code ending in T and/or R.
Deadlines for the weekly assignments will be posted on Brightspace.
Reading list
Meeting 1:
Corbey, R., 2001. A Note on Hilary Putnam. Unpublished ms;
The Introduction, Ch. 5, and the concluding Ch. 7 from R. Corbey (2005, 2011), The Metaphysics of Apes: Negotiating the Animal-Human Boundary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (online access through the Leiden University Library);
Three sections from the English-language Wikipedia on Hilary Putnam’s position during the 1980s/1990s. The three sections are: Metaphilosophy and ontology; Metaphilosophy and ontology; Neopragmatism and Wittgenstein;
Bransen, J., 2001. "Verstehen and Erklären: The Philosophy of –" in: N.J. Smelser & P.B. Baltes (eds), International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Oxford: Elsevier Science Ltd., 16165-16170.
Case study 1:
Corbey, R., 2006. "Laying Aside the Spear: Hobbesian ‘warre’ and the Maussian Gift", in: T. Otto, H. Thrane & H. Vandkilde (eds), Warfare and Society: Archaeological and Social Anthropological Perspectives. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 29-36;
Corbey, R. & A. Mol, 2012. "By Weapons Made Worthy: A Darwinian Perspective on Beowulf", in: M. Collard & E. Slingerland (eds), Creating Consilience: Integrating the Sciences and the Humanities. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 372-384.
Case study 2:
J. Platenkamp, "The Severance of the Origin; A Ritual of the Tobelo of North Halmahera", in: Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 1990 (146): 74-92 (via Google Scholar, or through the Leiden University Library);
Two bio-/doxographic essays on this brilliant Maussian scholar in L. Prager et al. (eds.), Parts and Wholes: Essays on Social Morphology, Cosmology, and Exchange in Honour of J.D.M. Platenkamp, München: Lit Verlag, 2016, pp. 1 ff (by Prager), pp. 23 ff. (by Vermeulen); available through Google Books - select what you think is relevant.
Case study 3:
E. Ochs & L. Capps. Narrating the Self, in: Annual Review of Anthropology 25 (1996): 19-43;
Section 5 of the entry on Paul Ricoeur in the online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and Section 5 of the entry on Paul Ricoeur in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Case Study 4:
Roebroeks W. & Corbey R. 2008, "Axe Age" (review of the book Axe Age: Acheulian Tool-Making from Quarry to Discard, Goren-Inbar N., Sharon G., Eds., 2006), in: Lithic Technology 34: 53-59;
Corbey, R. et al. 2016. The Acheulean Handaxe: More Like a Bird's Song Than a Beatles' Tune? in: Evolutionary Anthropology 25: 6-19;
Corbey R. 2020, "Baldwin Effects in Early Stone Tools", in: Evolutionary Anthropology 2020: 1-8.
Meeting 6:
Pecha Kucha presentations.
Meeting 7:
R. Dawkins, "God's Utility Function", in: Scientific American, Nov. 1995, p. 80-85; also available as Ch. 4 of his River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life, 1996 - check out some serious reviews of this book;
A. Lawler, The Battle over Violence, in: Science, 18 May 2012, 829-830; - available online through the Leiden University Library or Google Scholar (for the latter, in the Leiden University Library catalogue choose "other catalogues, a to z");
E.O. Wilson, "On the Inevitability of War", available on the internet, through the Leiden University Library, or Google Scholar;
The Introduction and (the concluding) Ch. 7 from Corbey R.H.A. (2005, 2011), The Metaphysics of Apes: Negotiating the Animal-Human Boundary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (online access through the Leiden University Library).
Registration
For lectures, tutorials, and exams, enrolment through MyStudymap is mandatory.
You are also required to confirm your exam in MyStudymap. No confirmation = no participation!
General information about registration can be found on the Course and Exam Enrolment page.
Contact
For more information about this course, please contact prof. dr. R.H.A. (Raymond) Corbey.
Remarks
Compulsory attendance. You are allowed to miss 1 meeting, but will need to compensate with a paper (approximately 400 words) on some aspect of the subject matter you missed out on.