Hostname: page-component-f554764f5-rvxtl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-10T16:31:32.175Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Consideration of Archaeological Research Design*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Lewis R. Binford
Lewis R. Binford*
Affiliation:
University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

It is argued that the methodology most appropriate for the task of isolating and studying processes of cultural change and evolution is one which is regional in scope and executed with the aid of research designs based on the principles of probability sampling. The various types of observational populations which archaeologists must study are discussed, together with an evaluation of the methodological differences attendant upon adequate and reliable investigation of each. Two basic sampling universes are discussed, the region and the site, together with their methodological and research-design peculiarities. These are used as a basis for discussion and past and current research programs are evaluated in terms of what are believed to be major limitations in obtaining the "facts" pertinent to studies of cultural processes.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 29 , Issue 4 , April 1964 , pp. 425 - 441
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1964

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

*

This paper was presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, May, 1963.

References

Adams, Robert M. 1960 The Evolutionary Process in Early Civilizations. In The Evolution of Man: Mind, Culture, and Society, edited by Sol Tax, pp. 153–68. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Arkin, H. and Colton, Raymond 1957 Tables for Statisticians. Barnes and Noble Inc., New York.Google Scholar
Binford, Lewis R. 1962 Archaeology as Anthropology. American Antiquity, Vol. 28, No. 2, pp. 217–25. Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Braidwood, Robert J. 1959 Archaeology and the Evolutionary Theory. In Evolution and Anthropology: A Centennial Appraisal, edited by Meggers, Betty J., pp. 76–89. The Anthropological Society of Washington, Washington.Google Scholar
Brew, John Otis 1946 Archaeology of Alkali Ridge, Southeastern Utah. Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Vol. 21. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Cole, Fay-Cooper 1951 Kincaid, A Prehistoric Illinois Metropolis. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Deming, William Edwards 1950 Some Theory of Sampling. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York.Google Scholar
Duncan, O. T., Cuzzort, Ray P., and Duncan, Beverly 1961 Statistical Geography. The Free Press of Glencoe, Glencoe.Google Scholar
Gearing, Fred 1962 Priests and Warriors. Memoirs of the American Anthropological Association, No. 93. Menasha.Google Scholar
Haag, William G. 1959 The Status of Evolutionary Theory in American History. In Evolution and Anthropology: A Centennial Appraisal, edited by Meggers, Betty J., pp. 90–105. The Anthropological Society of Washington, Washington.Google Scholar
Parten, Mildred 1950 Surveys, Polls and Samples: Practical Procedures. Harper and Brothers, New York.Google Scholar
Spaulding, Albert C. 1960 The Dimensions of Archaeology. In Essays in the Science of Culture: In Honor of Leslie A. White, edited by Dole, Gertrude E. and Carneiro, Robert L., pp. 437–56. Thomas Y. Crowell Company, New York.Google Scholar
Steward, Julian H. 1960 Evolutionary Principles and Social Types. In The Evolution of Man: Mind, Culture and Society, edited by Sol Tax, pp. 169–86. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Taylor, Walter W. 1948 A Study of Archaeology. Memoirs of the American Anthropological Association, No. 69. Menasha.Google Scholar
Vescelius, G. S. 1960 Archaeological Sampling: A Problem of Statistical Inference. In Essays in the Science of Culture: In Honor of Leslie A. White, edited by Dole, Gertrude E. and Carneiro, Robert L., pp. 457–70. Thomas Y. Crowell Company, New York.Google Scholar
Wagner, Philip 1960 The Human Use of the Earth. The Free Press of Glencoe, Glencoe.Google Scholar
White, Leslie A. 1959 The Evolution of Culture. McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York.Google Scholar
Willey, Gordon R. and Phillips, Philip 1958 Method and Theory in American Archaeology. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar