In the Essay written by Gumerman, George J. and Warburton, Miranda 'The Universe in a
Cultural Context: An Essay', in Fountain, John W. and Sinclair, Rolf M (eds.) Current
Studies in Archaeastronomy : Conversations Across Time and Space, Durham NC.; Carolina
Academic Press 2005 pp 15-24, the authors Gumerman and Warburton have presented a
paper promoting the value of Archaeoastronomical studies being integrated into the disciplines
of Archaeology and Anthropology and explore the failure to utilize the results of mutual research
to further advance the integration of the disciplines.
The authors discuss the difficulties encountered in the integration of archaeoastronomy into
archaeology and anthropological cultural studies and in particular, explore the notion of re
framing the questions asked by these disciplines of their data collection. The paper, by their
own admission, was aimed at the already converted so it would be difficult to disagree with
their premise but by the same token, the essay would carry more weight if it were to be
supported by examples of successes in the merging of these disciplines. The authors did
state, however, they had left out examples of archaeoastronomical contributions since further
reading of the volume would include them.
The authors introduce the concept of “culture as a system”----the interaction of detailed
subsystems. Is, indeed cosmology “writ large” [1] in our material records? From the text the
reader is invited to conclude that a defining example of how “culture as a system” works is the
October 4th celebration at Magdalena de Kino (Mexico/US border).
[1] Gumerman, George J. and Warburton, Miranda 'The U...
... middle of paper ...
...pological studies. It is difficult to disagree with Gumerman and
Warburton in their enthusiasm for the incorporation of archaeoastronomy within the syllabi of
other disciplines. The authors have, though, given hope with new trends in changing opinions
demonstrating a willingness of the three disciplines to compliment each others findings with
their own expert judgement and knowledge from their chosen field.
Works Cited
Gumerman, George J. and Warburton, Miranda 'The Universe in a
Cultural Context: An Essay', in Fountain, John W. and Sinclair, Rolf M (eds.) Current
Studies in Archaeastronomy : Conversations Across Time and Space, Durham NC.; Carolina
Academic Press 2005 pp 15-24
Benedict, Ruth Patterns of Culture ( Routledge 1935)
Ruggles,Clive and Saunders, Nicholas Astronomies and Cultures ( University Colorado Press
1993)
In Alan Lightman’s, “Our Place in the Universe,” he describes his experiences in the Greek Isles explaining how meek it made him feel to be surrounded by the vast ocean with no land in sight except a small strip of brown in the distance. Great thinkers throughout history, have been exploring the visible variety of shapes, colors, and sizes, though the greatest of these are size, from the smallest atom to gargantuan stars. These massive differences in size change the way we view ourselves in the universe. (470) Garth Illingworth, from the University of California, has studied galaxies more than 13 billion light years away from us.
Hume, Kathryn. "Science and Imagination in Calvino's Cosmicomics" Mosaic: a journal for the interdisciplinary study of literature. Winnipeg: Univ. of Manitoba, (34:1) 2001.
Hawking, Stephen. “Our Picture of the Universe.” Fields of Reading. 6th ed. Ed. Nancy R. Comely et al. New York: St. Martin’s, 2001. (565-574)
The culture of a community invariably determines the social structures and the formation of a society. Developed over time, culture is the collection of beliefs and values that a group of people maintain together. Culture is never constant, and thought to be continually renewed over years as new ideas and concepts become mainstream. It ranges from how people live, day to day topics for conversations, religion, and even entertainment. It is analogous to guidelines, or the rulebook of the said group of people. Society, on the other hand, emanates from the social structure of the community. It is the very institutions to which create a regulated and acceptable form of interaction between peoples. Indeed, culture and society are so perversely intertwined in a
historically derived and selected) ideas and especially their attached values; Culture systems may, on the one hand, be considered as products of action, and on the other as conditioning elements of further action.”
Culture, what is culture? For some people, it is viewed as the ways of life. It’s the norms and values of the society. For instance, politics, economics, religions, arts, laws and others. Culture for Geertz (1973:44-5) is a “set of control mechanisms”. Those include rules, plans, and recipes for behavior governing. He also argues that culture views begin with the assumption that human thought is basically both social and public. Example, our natural habitat which is our home, but also including the market place and the town. Geertz’s interpretation of culture has the requisite implications of power and control mechanisms embedded in culture, which allow for the exploration of gender inequality.
When you think of the word “culture” what comes to mind? Many elements can contribute to
The father of quantitative analysis, Rene Descartes, thought that in order to know and understand something, you have to measure it (Kover, 2008). Quantitative research has two main types of sampling used, probabilistic and purposive. Probabilistic sampling is when there is equal chance of anyone within the studied population to be included. Purposive sampling is used when some benchmarks are used to replace the discrepancy among errors. The primary collection of data is from tests or standardized questionnaires, structured interviews, and closed-ended observational protocols. The secondary means for data collection includes official documents. In this study, the data is analyzed to test one or more expressed hypotheses. Descriptive and inferential analyses are the two types of data analysis used and advance from descriptive to inferential. The next step in the process is data interpretation, and the goal is to give meaning to the results in regards to the hypothesis the theory was derived from. Data interpretation techniques used are generalization, theory-driven, and interpretation of theory (Gelo, Braakmann, Benetka, 2008). The discussion should bring together findings and put them into context of the framework, guiding the study (Black, Gray, Airasain, Hector, Hopkins, Nenty, Ouyang, n.d.). The discussion should include an interpretation of the results; descriptions of themes, trends, and relationships; meanings of the results, and the limitations of the study. In the conclusion, one wants to end the study by providing a synopsis and final comments. It should include a summary of findings, recommendations, and future research (Black, Gray, Airasain, Hector, Hopkins, Nenty, Ouyang, n.d.). Deductive reasoning is used in studies...
The United States is a country with a diverse existing population today; this country is known as a melting pot of different cultures, each one unique in its own respect. Culture; differentiate one societal group from another by identification beliefs, behaviors, language, traditions, Art, fashion styles, food, religion, politics, and economic systems. Through lifelong, ever changing processes of learning, creativity, and sharing culture shapes our patterns of behavior as well thinking. The Culture’s significance is so intense that it touches almost every aspect of who and what we are. Culture becomes the telescope through which we perceive and evaluate what is going on around us. Trying to define the perplexing term of culture with varying component of distinguishable characteristics is difficult to restrict. Presenly, culture is viewed as consisting primarily of the symbolic, untouched and conception aspects of human societies.
the role of symbols in society that guide action. Culture, according to Geertz, is “a system of
Cultures are infinitely complex. Culture, as Spradley (1979) defines it, is "the acquired knowledge that people use to interpret experiences and generate social behavior" (p. 5). Spradley's emphasizes that culture involves the use of knowledge. While some aspects of culture can be neatly arranged into categories and quantified with numbers and statistics, much of culture is encoded in schema, or ways of thinking (Levinson & Ember, 1996, p. 418). In order to accurately understand a culture, one must apply the correct schema and make inferences which parallel those made my natives. Spradley suggests that culture is not merely a cognitive map of beliefs and behaviors that can be objectively charted; rather, it is a set of map-making skills through which cultural behaviors, customs, language, and artifacts must be plotted (p. 7). This definition of culture offers insight into ...
Culture can be defined as “A pattern of basic assumptions invented, discovered or developed by a given group as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration that has worked well enough to be considered valid, and therefore to be taught to the new members as the correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to those problems”. Schein (1988)
Data Collection and Analysis Questionnaire The research was carried out on both quantitative and qualitative approaches. It began with a quantitative approach—questionnaire. Bryman and Bell (2003) asserted that mail or postal questionnaires are the most popular forms of questionnaires. Another form—self-completion questionnaire—was also common because of the overlap with postal questionnaire to some extent.
According to The Society for American Archaeology, the definition of Archaeology is, “to obtain a chronology of the past, a sequence of events and dates that, in a sense, is a backward extension of history.” The study of ancient civilizations and archaeology is rather ambiguous due to the primitive nature of the time period. With little imagery and even less textual evidence, professionals in the field must work diligently when studying their subjects. Naturally, archaeologists cannot see or communicate with those whom they are studying, so they must be extraordinarily meticulous when analyzing past cultures. This relates to all aspects of the ancient world including; foods, raw materials, artifacts, agriculture, art work and pottery. All of these elements can collectively provide new and innovative information to curious archaeologists who may wish to gain a better understanding of those who came before us. This information is equally beneficial for both historians and archaeologists who plan to compare the histories of societies from all around the world. In the world of archaeology, archaeologists strive to better explain human behavior by analyzing our past. Therefore, the study of archaeology is a key element in understanding a time before our own.
Kroeber, A. and C. Klockhohn, Culture: A Critical Review of Concept and Definition New York: Vintage Books, 1989.