Foundations of Archaeological Inquiry – serie

Behavioral archaeology is an emerging branch of anthropology emphasizing the study of relationships between human behavior and artifacts (material culture) in all times and places. As such, it aspires to make contributions beyond the confines of archaeology to other behavioral sciences and to society in general. Behavioral Archaeology is a selection of writings by Michael Schiffer, one of the field's primary proponents. The chapters include important works published between 1972 and 1987, the formative period of behavioral archaeology. Schiffer has crafted a lengthy introduction to the coume, a personal history that contextualizes the development of these works. Also new is the last chapter, which lists - and keys to the preceding chapters - the field's most important principles, tenets, and premises. Readers will discover that although behavioral archaeologist have put archaeological inference on a scientific footing and have fostered the growth of experimental archaeology and ethnoarchaeology as research strategies, behavioral archaeology is not confined to methodology. Indeed, cultivation of the fields established here is leading to the development of new behavioral science focused on studies of people-artifact interactions. By closely juxtaposing method and theory, principles and applications, science and history, this book illustrates the coherence and scope of behavioral archaeology's conceptual framework.

In the broadest sense this book is concerned with describing and explaining how particular places contain the key elements necessary for understanding the social worlds constructed, maintained, and modified by those who once inhabited them. This is achieved through the investigation of biographical, topographic, geopolitical, ideological, cosmological, and mnemonic facets of place, beginning with processes of place making and continuing with the development of networks among and between places and broader landscapes. Diverse spatial and temporal contexts in two culture areas--Mesoamerica and the Greater Southwest--serve as backdrops for nine chapters in which fourteen contributors show how place is an ideal starting point to begin unravelling the human past. Several authors further address the enduring significance of places of the past for contemporary peoples. Among the many strengths of this volume is the careful way in which powerful concepts, diverse lines of thought and empirical models are integrated to reveal the multiple facets of meaningful places, and to illustrate ways in which places may be approached archaeologically, theoretically, and culturally. Ultimately, the book's contributor’s champion the notion that place is a valid and useful analytical unit for describing, reconstructing, interpreting, and explaining the form, structure, and temporality of the meanings humans ascribe to their environment.

Although plastic and metal vessels offer significant advantages and have almost universally supplanted ceramics throughout the world, pottery fragments are one of the most ubiquitous artifacts in the archaeological record.The southwestern region of Ethiopia is one of the few places in the world where locally made pottery is still the dominant choice for everyday domestic use. The Gamo people continue to produce and use pottery for transporting water, cooking, storing, and serving. Ethnoarchaeology undertaken in a society where people still use low-fired ceramics in daily life provides a powerful framework for archaeological inferences, especially since little behavioral information exists concerning the relationship between status, wealth, and household pottery.Based on John Arthur’s extensive fieldwork, this study sheds light on some of the puzzles common to archaeology in any region. It also helps decipher evidence of inter- and intravillage social and economic organization and offers insight on markers for pottery-producing and nonproducing villages and socioeconomic variability.

Edited by Susan M. Alt Foundations of Archaeological Inquiry Jim Skibo, Series Editor Anthropology and Archaeology Many archaeologists have long been frustrated with the traditional, reductionist representation of complexity. Yet, even after years of debate, there seem to be never ending disagreements over the complexity of places like Chaco Canyon, Cahokia, and Poverty Point. This matters, because there are political and scholarly implications to calling any place or people more or less complex. In North America especially, given historical biases and the mound-builder myth, archaeologists need to rethink complexity as they seek to explain the past. Based on a Society of American Archaeology symposium, Ancient Complexities offers a current overview of what is meant by cultural complexity and how archaeologists study the development of complex societies in North America. Taking a critical look at how accepted definitions of complexity have bounded our thinking about ancient societies, this volume presents new theoretical perspectives and states a case for the need for different definitions in order to move this discussion ahead. This collection by scholars of North American archaeology is a must read for anyone wishing to be abreast of the most current dialogue on complexity taking place in modern archaeology.

Behavioral archaeology, defined as the study of people-object interactions in all times and places, emerged in the 1970s, in large part because of the innovative work of Michael Schiffer and colleagues. This volume provides an overview of how behavioral archaeology has evolved and how it has affected the field of archaeology at large.The contributors to this volume are Schiffer’s former students, from his first doctoral student to his most recent. This generational span has allowed for chapters that reflect Schiffer’s research from the 1970s to 2012. They are iconoclastic and creative and approach behavioral archaeology from varied perspectives, including archaeological inference and chronology, site formation processes, prehistoric cultures and migration, modern material culture variability, the study of technology, object agency, and art and cultural resources. Broader questions addressed include models of inference and definitions of behavior, study of technology and the causal performances of artifacts, and the implications of artifact causality in human communication and the flow of behavioral history.

Although all archaeologists subscribe in principle to building strong cases in support of their inferences, behavioural archaeology alone has created methodology for developing strong cases in practice. The behavioural version of the strong case approach rests on two main pillars: (1) nomothetic (generalising) strategies, consisting of research in experimental archaeology, ethnoarchaeology, and long-term processes of behavioural change to produce principles necessary for inference; and (2) the formation processes of supporting evidence when constructing inferences. The chapters employ a wide range of data classes, demonstrating the versatility and productivity of the approach for fashioning rigorous inferences in history, historical archaeology, ethnoarchaeology, and prehistory. By illustrating the strong case approach with convincing case studies from behavioural archaeology, the editors aim to alert the archaeological community about how the process of archaeological inference can be improved.