Distinguished Lecture in Archeology: Beyond Criticizing New Archeology

This article was presented as the Distinguished Lecture in Archeology at the 91st Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, December 4, 1992, in San Francisco.     

Methods of Phytolith Analysis

Methods of phytolith analysis adopted from abroad as well as the authors' own experiences are introduced. It consists of two parts: The field method and the laboratory method of phytolith analysis; the former consists of plant collection, surface soil, stratum and archaeological samplings and the latter includes use of modern plants, soil sediment and archaeological phytolith analysis.     

Distinguished Lecture in Archeology: In Defense of the Seventies—The Adolescence of New Archeology

The core of this article was first presented as the Distinguished Lecture in Archeology at the 88th annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association, November 17, 1989, in Washington, D.C.     

微滴培养技术的新应用

微滴培养技术在卵母细胞培养和胚胎早期发育研究中有广泛的应用.近期研究发现这项技术又有新的应用范围.有科学家发现将该技术应用于胚胎干细胞可以实现高效传代,在精原干细胞培养和精子发生相关过程的研究方面也可取得很好效果,同时,对早期人类胚胎干细胞的分离过程的监控和对精原干细胞生长过程的观察也相对容易.这些研究结果显示,微滴培养技术在这些新领域的研究与常规培养方法相比具有独特的优势.回顾微滴培养技术的主要发展过程,重点探讨微滴培养技术的最新应用及其优点.     

Phytolith Analysis as a Means of Plant Identification: Arundo donax and Phragmites communis

Despite the wide range of research that has involved phytolithanalysis, including studies of palaeosols and palaeovegetation,palaeoenvironmental reconstruction, and archaeological interpretation,examples of applications to the systematic identification ofmodern plants are scarce, and are not applied rigorously. Thepresent study suggests that phytolith analysis may be usefulfor identification of certain grasses unidentified or misidentifiedin the field. Leaf samples of Arundo donax and Phragmites communis,giant reedgrasses important to past and present societies inthe eastern Mediterranean, are distinguished through phytolithanalysis and serve as new examples of the potential use of phytolithsin systematic botany. Arundo donax, Phragmites communis, Phragmites australis, Bromus inermis, giant reedgrasses, phytolith analysis, Schulze solution     

History Written in Stone: Evolutionary Analysis of Stone Tools in Archeology

Populations of living things evolve over time, but do other things? Evolution involves transmission, be it of genes, ideas, or designs. What is transmitted, how and by whom, influences tempo and mode of evolution. In recent years, archeologists have applied evolutionary logic and processes to their study of things made and used by ancient people. Despite differences in subject units and in modes and patterns of transmission, evolutionary processes and the transmission modes that accompany them are worth seeking in archeological data. Stone spear points are abundant in the archeological record, yet we lack a theory to explain the creation, duration, and divergence of point types. Evolutionary studies of New World Late Pleistocene Paleoindian points are a step toward such theory, but limit the form of data and the evolutionary processes considered. An alternative in the study of Paleoindian points is geometric morphometric methods that do not constrain how point size and form are characterized nor assume branching divergence between taxa. Evolutionism should not dominate archeology, but it should become a major area of research within the field.     

Shading the Past: Models in Archeology

Archeologists create and interpret the past. Attempts to arrive at the "best explanation" of that past are misguided, ignoring the differing perspectives of those who are looking backward, as well as the imperfections in our cognitive abilities. The latter is the focus of this article: How do we best relate our models, as metaphors, to a presumed real past world? Archeological thought is argued to be embedded in traditional Western dichotomies by which we view the world in general. Different models are not necessarily in competition; rather, they provide different modes of understanding. Several models for the "origin" of agriculture are examined in this light and are then applied to the prehistory of the American Midwest.     

Distinguished Lecture in Archeology: Constraint and Freedom—A New Synthesis for Archeological Explanation

This article was presented as the second annual Distinguished Lecture in Archeology at the 89th annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association, November 30, 1990, in New Orleans, Louisiana.