Alma Frutos
Research Mentor: Emily Swafford
Mentor Department: Rackham Graduate School, Other
Author(s): Alma Frutos, Emily Swafford
Session: Session 3 (11:00 AM – 11:50 AM)
Presentation Type: Poster 105
Abstract
Since its establishment in the late 19th century, archaeology has become more systematic and established as a discipline. Dissertations granted by Rackham Graduate School these past 150 years in databases—Proquest and DeepBlue, provide a timeline of the changes in the discipline as well as how global factors such as war affect higher education. The first archaeology dissertation was granted in 1928 to Donald Harden on his work in “Roman Glass From Kom Aushim In The Fayoum,†a dissertation based on Professor Kelsey’s excavation at the site of Karanis in the Fayum region of Egypt. Harden’s dissertation reflected an early shift in the archaeology practice; rather than individual expeditions to dig up artifacts, researchers conducted excavations for a museum or university. Reflecting the early culture-historical phase in archaeology, Harden and other dissertations of this time focused on classifying objects based on material conditions, rather than trying to find out what and how people used it for and what it might have meant to them. As the culture-historical method began to evolve, it drew more on a Darwinistic perspective to analyze human cultures, assuming that civilizations improved over time. The culture-historical approach reigned from the 1900s to 1950s, followed by processual archaeology, sometimes called the “New Archaeologyâ€, which began to develop a scientific method for archaeology based on theorizing why and how artifacts might have been used. As processual archaeology developed, one can also see other academic factors that contributed to how research was done, changing the discipline again. In certain fields, including archaeology, researchers shifted their focus to the United States along with sites in neighboring countries. Both of these features, a more scientific approach to archaeology as well as a focus on sites based on the Americas, can be seen within the University of Michigan dissertations. Post 1980s into today, archaeology relies on post-processualism, the practice of acknowledging researcher bias when studying human behavior, sometimes leading to conflicting analysis of the same evidence. Dissertations granted at this time emphasize the importance of ethics and honoring a culture’s history, reflecting a larger shift in the discipline as a whole.
