Archaeological Anthropology: Perspectives on Method and Theory
For centuries, the goal of archaeologists was to document and describe material artifacts, and at best to make inferences about the origins and evolution of human culture and about prehistoric and historic societies. During the 1960s, however, a number of young, primarily American archaeologists, including William Longacre, rebelled against this simplistic approach. Wanting to do more than just describe, Longacre and others believed that genuine explanations could be achieved by changing the...
Search in google:
For centuries, the goal of archaeologists was to document and describe material artifacts, and at best to make inferences about the origins and evolution of human culture and about prehistoric and historic societies. During the 1960s, however, a number of young, primarily American archaeologists, including William Longacre, rebelled against this simplistic approach. Wanting to do more than just describe, Longacre and others believed that genuine explanations could be achieved by changing the direction, scope, and methodology of the field. What resulted was the New Archaeology, which blended scientific method and anthropology. It urged those working in the field to formulate hypotheses, derive conclusions deductively and, most important, to test them. While, over time the New Archaeology has had its critics, one point remains irrefutable: archaeology will never return to what has since been called its "state of innocence." In this collection of twelve new chapters, four generations of Longacre prot g s show how they are building upon and developing but also modifying the theoretical paradigm that remains at the core of Americanist archaeology. The contributions focus on six themes prominent in Longacre s career: the intellectual history of the field in the late twentieth century, archaeological methodology, analogical inference, ethnoarchaeology, cultural evolution, and reconstructing ancient society. More than a comprehensive overview of the ideas developed by one of the most influential scholars in the field, however, Archaeological Anthropology makes stimulating contributions to contemporary research. The contributors do not unequivocally endorse Longacre s ideas; theychallenge them and expand beyond them, making this volume a fitting tribute to a man whose robust research and teaching career continues to resonate.
Foreword: The New Archaeology and After Patty Jo Watson viiThe Intellectual Legacies of an Archaeological Paradigm Michael W. Graves Ezra B. W. Zubrow 3Middle Range Theory in Historical Archaeology Mark P. Leone 21Archaeological Anthropology and Strategies of Knowledge Formation in American Archaeology Alan P. Sullivan III 40Some Thoughts on the Archaeological Study of Social Organization Michael Brian Schiffer 57Smudge Pits and Hide Smoking Revisited James M. Skibo John G. Franzen Eric C. Drake 72A History of the Kalinga Ethnoarchaeological Project Miriam T. Stark James M. Skibo 93Midden Ceramics and Their Sources in Kalinga Margaret E. Beck Matthew E. Hill Jr. 111Contingency Theory and the Organizational Behavior of Traditional Pottery Production Mark A. Neupert 138A Holistic Approach to Pre-Hispanic Craft Production Izumi Shimada Ursel Wagner 163Learning about Learning Patricia L. Crown 198Migration, Population Movement, and Process at Grasshopper Pueblo, Arizona J. Jefferson Reid Stephanie M. Whittlesey 218Epilogue Lewis R. Binford 236References 243About the Contributors 295Index 301
