Requirement
8. A group who lived in your area over 100 years ago
Required Often forgotten
THREE JOBS, NOT ONE. Their way of life across eight named categories, then what you would expect to find at an archaeological site where they lived, then how they influenced your current community. The first is long enough to feel like the whole requirement, and the other two are the ones left out.
Notes and warnings
Warning. THREE JOBS, AND THE FIRST ONE IS LONG ENOUGH TO FEEL LIKE ALL OF THEM. Job one is their way of life, across eight named categories: housing, clothing, arts and crafts, tools, trade and markets, rituals and religions, diets, and their relationships with other groups in the area. Job two is what you would expect to find at an archaeological site where they lived, which is an archaeology question rather than a history one and is where requirement 2's artifact identification step earns its keep. Job three is how those people influenced your current community. Jobs two and three are the ones that get left out. FOR SOURCES, try a county historical society, the local history room of a public library, a state or tribal historic preservation office, or a university anthropology department. Every one of those is also somewhere to ask the requirement 10 question while you are there.
Where this step comes from
- Archaeology Merit Badge Requirements (Merit Badge Hub, last modified 2025-12-31), Requirement 8 · The requirement names housing, clothing, arts and crafts, tools, trade and markets, rituals and religions, and diets, and relationships with other groups of people in the area.