ARCHY 485A
Introduction to Paleoethnobotany: Seminar
Instructor: Dr. Jade d'Alpoim Guedes jguedes@uw.edu
TA:
Seminar Meeting: Friday 12:30- 2:20 pm Denny 403
Office hours: by appointment
1.) Course Description:
Plants lie at the base of every food chain and are critical not only to humans but also other animals. Ancient plant remains constitute some of the most ubiquitous forms of ecofacts found on archaeological sites. They can inform us not only about what people ate in the past, but also how they managed their forests and selected wood, and can allow us to reconstruct the past state of the environment in which domestic and wild animals grazed as well as when and how plants were domesticated and what changes happened to plant morphology as they were domesticated. This seminar course presumes that you have some basic knowledge of the origins of agriculture and or traditional plant use in prehistory. This course is meant to be taken in conjunction with ARCHY 459A “Introduction to Paleoethnobotany: Lab”.
Learning Outcomes:
By the end of this class, you will be able to:
- Discuss and debate historical and current trends in archaeobotanical research and understand the social and archaeological relevance of this work,
- Critically assess published research and reports for research design, choice of methods, data presentation and interpretive decisions.
2.) Course Requirements:
You will comment on your reading assignments due weekly. You will also be evaluated on leading a seminar session as a group.
Grading:
A.) Seminar discussion lead (60%)
B.)Hypothesis Annotations (40%)
i.) Seminar presentations: One week during the quarter, you/your group will be assigned a group of articles on which you will lead seminar. Articles assigned for presentation are starred by an *.
You/your group can choose how you lead the seminar and can be creative. You could create a traditional powerpoint presentation or even podcast or a video animation presenting the set of articles assigned for the week.
When your group leads seminar on the assigned articles of the day, try address the following:
1.) Why did I assign this group of articles together? What is the objective of the articles? What problem did they seek raise or address? What issue does it attempt to resolve? What hypotheses are evaluated?
2.) What are the strengths of this reading? What aspects are handled well in the data analysis? Which aspects of the paper are well argued?
3.) What are the weaknesses? What is the lasting significance of this article? Why should it be read beyond when it was published?
4.) Why are these influential pieces of scholarship? I highly recommend doing some background reading to situate each of these pieces in their current context.
As seminar lead, your group should field questions from other students about the reading and create a handout that outlines the key take home points from this set of readings.
ii.) Reading comments: You will write short form comments on the readings by 11:30 pm the night before class using Hypothesis. There will be a total of 20 reading comments. These short-reading and writing assignments will be placed on and turned in on the course website. You will see them appearing in the modules section of the course.
Collaboratively annotating the reading will allow you to share perspectives, ask and answer each other’s questions, and make visible reflections and connections about the text. You can review a quick-start guide for how to add annotations.
As you review the text, add at least 2-3 annotations. Here’s some guidance for what you might include in your annotations:
- Identify the major research questions explored in the article and paraphrase them in your own words.
- Summarize: What is the state of prior research on this topic? What research gaps does the author intend to ameliorate?
- Summarize the major theoretical propositions.
- Answer: How does the author use the concepts from these theoretical propositions in their study?
- Identify and summarize the data that are used to examine the research questions and test the theoretical propositions.
- Identify and summarize the major findings and the overall implications of the study.
- Answer: What would you challenge or critique about this study?
- At the end of the text, add an annotation to summarize what you believe to be the key ideas/points of the text, or ask a question that you feel was left unanswered, or which you’re still unsure about.
- Reply to a classmate with an additive annotation (add to the conversation by answering their question or extending their response). Here are some ideas on how to start an additive response to a classmate:
- What did you mean by …
- Did you consider …/ You might consider …
- I connect with …/It made me think …
Important notes about annotating:
- Make sure you hit “post” after you complete your annotation, or else your annotation will not be saved.
- Make sure it says “post to [this class]” and not “post to only me,” or else your annotation won’t be able to be reviewed.
- If someone replies to your annotation, you will not receive a notification. Check back periodically to continue the conversation!
Course Policies
We will use an absolute grading scale and will not grade on a curve. The following grading scale will be used:
Percent = Grade
95 = 4.0 88 = 3.3 81 = 2.6 74 = 1.9 67 = 1.2
94 = 3.9 87 = 3.2 80 = 2.5 73 = 1.8 66 = 1.1
93 = 3.8 86 = 3.1 79 = 2.4 72 = 1.7 65 = 1.0
92 = 3.7 85 = 3.0 78 = 2.3 71 = 1.6 64 = 0.9
91 = 3.6 84 = 2.9 77 = 2.2 70 = 1.5 63 = 0.8
90 = 3.5 83 = 2.8 76 = 2.1 69 = 1.4 60-62 = 0.7
89 = 3.4 82 = 2.7 75 = 2.0 68 = 1.3 <60 = 0.0