Garbology Assignment Response

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Fanshawe College *

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Anthropology

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Jan 9, 2024

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ANTH 1022, Winter 2020 Assignment 3 – Garbology After carefully reviewing the PDF of garbage items from 8 different households in London Ontario, answer the questions provided below and upload your worksheet to the Assignments tab in OWL. Remember to upload this template as a Word document (do not convert to Pages or PDF). Question 1  Select 4 of the 8 households and delete the other four from the box below.  What do the items from each of these four residences suggest about the people who live there? Think in terms of the following characteristics: age, gender, ethnicity, socio-economic status, dietary choices, how many people live in the house, and anything else you think is relevant.  How does the evidence support these interpretations? Provide specific examples of how certain items support particular interpretations. Also indicate if there are things from the list of characteristics above that the available evidence does not allow you to interpret. Note: 150-word limit = range 135-165 words (for all 4 households, not each household) Household 1: By evaluating these items, I can infer these products are being used by a young healthy woman with a cat. The food items are very health conscious and she also has multi vitamins marketed “for her”. The cat food assumes there is a cat. Household 2: These items suggest a family with a gluten-free young child as many of the foods which are usually eaten for school are gluten free. The toys and toothpaste suggest a toddler or young school age child. Household 5: The items in this household suggests it is occupied by French speaking elderly people shown by the newspaper and medication. Most likely retirees. Household 7: This garbage sample shows this is a very large family as they buy most of their products in bulk. There are also children shown by the children’s medication. These items are usually bought at membership warehouse clubs like Costco. The word count of my response is: 150 Question 2  What are some of the challenges when making such interpretations?  What assumptions did you have to make in formulating your interpretations above? Note: 100-word limit = range 90-110 words. The challenges to make some of these interpretations were finding out specifics like how many people live in the households and the ages of children. Most items were very general. The size of a household is hard to infer as we don’t know exactly how much food a person eats. I assumed food in bulk was a large family, children’s food was a small family and general food was either a couple or single. The ages of the adults were had to infer as well as there is no set diet differences between a teenager and middle age. The word count of my response is: 98 1

ANTH 1022, Winter 2020 Question 3  What other kinds of material evidence (besides garbage) could you use to evaluate (provide additional support for or contradict) the interpretations you made based on the garbage presented in the PDF file? Note: 100-word limit = range 90-110 words. Another kind of material evidence that could be used for interpretations are features. Features are non-portable artifacts which can allow archaeologists to make inferences. These features could be the types of homes which can allow inferences on family size and socioeconomic status, and types of neighbourhoods they lived in which usually can help us make inferences about the family’s race, socioeconomic status and size. Other artifacts could be the modes of transportation used by the family whether it is a single vehicle (car, motorcycle, bicycle, etc.), multiple vehicles, or none. This usually can be an indicator of socioeconomic status, size of family, age, and sometimes gender (gender marketed bicycles). The word count of my response is: 109 Question 4 Now put yourself in the shoes of archaeologists 2000 years in the future.  How would material bias affect the garbage items from each of the four households you selected ? Be specific about how particular kinds of objects would be impacted.  In the absence of other kinds of evidence, how would these changes impact your interpretations? Note: 150 word limit = range 135-165 words. Material bias affects the garbage as some of the items would not be preserved as well as others. Inorganic items almost always preserve better than organic ones therefore, in 2000 certain items would not be the same. Examples in the households chosen would be that the plastic containers and items would be preserved for longer but organic items like the banana peel in Household 1 would not be preserved at all after 2000 years. The cardboard items like the cereal boxes and juice boxes would not preserve as well and eventually dissolve. We would only be able to make interpretations on the items made of plastic like the rice bags in household 5 and glass and metal jars in household 1. All organic food items in each household would be dissolved. The metal and glass items would preserve the best and would possibly be the best items to make interpretations from. The word count of my response is: 151 2

ANTH 1022, Winter 2020 Grading Rubric • Please do not delete this rubric. The TAs will use this rubric to grade your assignment. • The Assignment will be graded out of 20 marks. Exemplary Response Meets Expectations Needs Improvement Total Q1 -Provides logical interpretations of 3 or more household characteristics (e.g. composition/income/dietary restrictions/ethnicity) for every chosen household -Clearly explains: links between evidence and interpretation and/or lack of evidence for certain characteristics -Provides logical interpretations of at least two household characteristics for all 4 households -Most links between evidence and interpretation and/or lack of evidence for certain characteristics are well explained - Limited number of interpretations AND/OR - Links between evidence and interpretation poorly explained 6 4-5 1-3 Q2 -Correctly identifies at least two challenges to interpretation -Clearly explains 2 or more relevant assumptions -Illustrates discussion of all challenges and assumptions with examples from Q1 - Ideas are logical and clearly communicated. - Correctly identifies at least 1 challenge and 1 assumption -Illustrates most points with examples from Q1. - Assumptions and challenges are poorly explained, and/or not relevant. 4 3 1-2 Q3 -Identifies at least 3 types of material evidence and explains how each could provide information about several household characteristics (e.g. household composition/income/ethnicity) -Consistently uses effective examples to illustrate explanation -Identifies 1-2 types of material evidence -Explains how they could provide information about several household characteristics -Usually illustrates explanations with examples Links between other types of material evidence and household characteristics are poorly explained and/or unfounded 4 3 1-2 Q4 - Clearly explains how garbage items made of different materials would be affected by material bias, making reference to specific items from the selected households. -Outlines multiple ways this would impact interpretation of the households and always illustrates with examples. - Clearly explains impacts of material bias on the household garbage. - Outlines at least two ways this would impact interpretation of the selected households. -Provides some examples to illustrate. -Material bias poorly explained AND/OR -Few or no impacts AND/OR -Poorly explains and/or illustrates its effects on interpretation 6 4-5 1-3 Total /20: Note: -1 point for over/under word count; -1 for >10 spelling/grammar/punctuation errors; -1 for submitting PDF/Pages rather than Word document 3

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Garbology Assignment Response

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