04-19-2004, 08:46 PM
Cariovalda,<br>
<br>
Marvin Harris is kinda past tense now in the US. Harris was a response to the old school archaeologist "If we don't know it is... it's a religious artifact". Harris argued all things are ultimately materialistic, and any cultural mythology was developed to shine on the blue-collar folks. Plain and simple. Binford argued all artifacts found in a dispositional or cultural context functioned at one time within the system of that culture. The occurrence is in a meaningful pattern that has a systematic relationship with the economy, social structure and ideology within their use. Unlike Harris, who attributed everything to materialism, Binford argued artifacts were at the mercy of transient fashion and decorative style. These factors themselves having a functional quality of use or rejection within a society. Binford argued with proper analysis artifacts reveal the intangibles that went into the form of the object-- "data relevant to most, if not <strong>all</strong>, the components of past sociocultural systems are preserved in the archaeological system." In history poor areas, like the 3rd century, this approach could be a useful tool. It's done in an intuitive sense anyway. And archaeologist still use the "religious significance " as a default.<br>
<br>
Sidebar story: A Chacoan "artifact of unknown function", the T'chamajila, which is wooden 4 ft. long curved stick, sharp on the outer side, has been interpreted (mostly by strictly academicians) as a ceremonial hoe. This based on a perception of Chacoan society as peacful agrarians. A friend and archaeologist, Tony Lewtonski, made some copies, and being a combat vet, saw it had a sword like function similar to a Japanese boken. (The interpretation, depending on your socio-political up-brought is apparent here). He wrote a paper "The Scream of the Butterfly" on it. In fact, when a T'chamajila is handed to any itinerant martial artist not knowing what it was, they would inevitable swing it with great glee at anyone passing by. Any attempt to hoe with it was awkward and left wear patterns not found on the original. I dont think Tony's paper got the recognition it deserved, but he was a known Republican.<br>
<br>
This is a bit OTalso, but... I tried to use GIS based systems theory to do systems theory based predictive modeling in Police work with limited success. I always had to fight to do it, and though the analysis was <strong>always</strong> sucessful, it was never repeated. Police, as a subculture, are very reluctant to change, and proudly illiterate. They can't accept that a college boy can "kick some ass" And now that, here, the State Police run EVERYTHING behind the scenes, I quit trying. No one had the slightest interest in trying to document the problem domain (first step) and then, (second step) to predict criminal behavior in space/time. The State Police invented "the box", and enforce that it is tight and contained, despite the rising crime rate and cover-ups that they have been recently endicted+ with. I have attempted to explain an analytic approach to crime analysis to elected officials, some of whom are even highschool graduates with no sucess.<br>
<br>
Enough.<br>
This has little to do with Kalkrise...<br>
<br>
Gaius<br>
<br>
<p></p><i></i>
<br>
Marvin Harris is kinda past tense now in the US. Harris was a response to the old school archaeologist "If we don't know it is... it's a religious artifact". Harris argued all things are ultimately materialistic, and any cultural mythology was developed to shine on the blue-collar folks. Plain and simple. Binford argued all artifacts found in a dispositional or cultural context functioned at one time within the system of that culture. The occurrence is in a meaningful pattern that has a systematic relationship with the economy, social structure and ideology within their use. Unlike Harris, who attributed everything to materialism, Binford argued artifacts were at the mercy of transient fashion and decorative style. These factors themselves having a functional quality of use or rejection within a society. Binford argued with proper analysis artifacts reveal the intangibles that went into the form of the object-- "data relevant to most, if not <strong>all</strong>, the components of past sociocultural systems are preserved in the archaeological system." In history poor areas, like the 3rd century, this approach could be a useful tool. It's done in an intuitive sense anyway. And archaeologist still use the "religious significance " as a default.<br>
<br>
Sidebar story: A Chacoan "artifact of unknown function", the T'chamajila, which is wooden 4 ft. long curved stick, sharp on the outer side, has been interpreted (mostly by strictly academicians) as a ceremonial hoe. This based on a perception of Chacoan society as peacful agrarians. A friend and archaeologist, Tony Lewtonski, made some copies, and being a combat vet, saw it had a sword like function similar to a Japanese boken. (The interpretation, depending on your socio-political up-brought is apparent here). He wrote a paper "The Scream of the Butterfly" on it. In fact, when a T'chamajila is handed to any itinerant martial artist not knowing what it was, they would inevitable swing it with great glee at anyone passing by. Any attempt to hoe with it was awkward and left wear patterns not found on the original. I dont think Tony's paper got the recognition it deserved, but he was a known Republican.<br>
<br>
This is a bit OTalso, but... I tried to use GIS based systems theory to do systems theory based predictive modeling in Police work with limited success. I always had to fight to do it, and though the analysis was <strong>always</strong> sucessful, it was never repeated. Police, as a subculture, are very reluctant to change, and proudly illiterate. They can't accept that a college boy can "kick some ass" And now that, here, the State Police run EVERYTHING behind the scenes, I quit trying. No one had the slightest interest in trying to document the problem domain (first step) and then, (second step) to predict criminal behavior in space/time. The State Police invented "the box", and enforce that it is tight and contained, despite the rising crime rate and cover-ups that they have been recently endicted+ with. I have attempted to explain an analytic approach to crime analysis to elected officials, some of whom are even highschool graduates with no sucess.<br>
<br>
Enough.<br>
This has little to do with Kalkrise...<br>
<br>
Gaius<br>
<br>
<p></p><i></i>
