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Broken K Revisited: A Short Discussion of Factor Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Joseph J. Lischka
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Abstract

The use of factor analysis in archaeology has increased considerably in recent years as archaeologists have recognized the advantages of using a statistical technique that can elicit otherwise unrecognizable patterns in a set of data. But there are several questions relating to scaling transformations and reliability assessments that must be answered within the context of specific research designs before reliable results can be obtained. A re-analysis of pottery type distributions at Broken K Pueblo is used to illustrate these questions. The factor solutions produced by the re-analysis exhibit relatively low reliability levels, indicating that the ratio of specific and error variance to common variance in the data is somewhat high.

Type
Comment
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 40 , Issue 2Part1 , April 1975 , pp. 220 - 227
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1975

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