Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-05T13:18:54.676Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Optimal Location in Settlement Space: A Model for Describing Location Strategies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

John J. Wood
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Optimal choices of locations for settlement are made with reference to a simplified model of the environment. Since archaeological site locations reflect the outcomes of choice, a simplified model of the environment can be described, with the aid of multidimensional scaling, by considering the relationships among site locations and critical resources in terms of the costs in obtaining resources. Optimal location strategies can be assessed using the decision criteria of uncertainty, reformulated as propositions about strategies for different classes of site diversity and function. An example application using data from Folsom sites in the Rio Grande valley, New Mexico (Judge 1973), demonstrates the utility of this model for describing the location component of prehistoric cultural adaptation.

Type
Articles
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 43 , Issue 2 , April 1978 , pp. 258 - 270
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1978

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.)

References

Adams, E. C. 1974 Location strategy employed by prehistoric inhabitants of the Piedra District, Colorado. SouthwesternLore 40:13–26.Google Scholar
Anderberg, M. R. 1973 Cluster analysis for applications. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Camilli, E. 1975 Prehistoric settlement pattern on Cedar Mesa, southeastern Utah. Unpublished M. A. thesis. Departmentof Anthropology, Northern Arizona University.Google Scholar
Dawson, J. and Judge, W. J. 1969 Paleo-indian sites and topography in the middle Rio Grande valley of New Mexico. Plains Anthropologist 14:149–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fabrycky, W. J. and Thuesen, G. J. 1974 Economic decision analysis. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs.Google Scholar
Golledge, R. G. and Rushton, G. 1972 Multidimensional scaling: review and geographical applications. Commission on College Geography,Technical Paper No. 10. Association of American Geographers, Washington, D. C. Google Scholar
Golledge, R. G. and Rushton, G. (Editors) 1976 Spatial choice and spatial behavior: geographic essays on the analysis of preferences and perceptions. OhioState University Press, Columbus.Google Scholar
Grawoig, D. E. 1967 Decision mathematics. McGraw-Hill, New York.Google Scholar
Gumerman, G. J. (editor) 1971 The distribution of prehistoric population aggregates. Prescott College Anthropological Reports No. 1. Prescott College Press, Prescott.Google Scholar
Hill, J.N. 1971 Research propositions for consideration, Southwestern Anthropological Research Group. In Gumerman(1971:55-62).Google Scholar
Hudson, J. C. 1969 A location theory for rural settlement. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 59:365–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hutchinson, G. E. 1957 Concluding remarks. Cold Spring Harbor Symposium on Quantitative Biology 22:415–27.Google Scholar
Judge, W. J. 1971 An interpretive framework for understanding site locations. In Gumerman (1971:38-44).Google Scholar
Hutchinson, G. E. 1973 Paleoindian occupation of the central Rio Grande valley in New Mexico. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Hutchinson, G. E. 1975 Personal communication.Google Scholar
Longacre, W. A., Hill, J. N., Plog, F., Gumerman, G. J., and Green, D. 1974 SARG: a co-operative approach towards understanding the locations of human settlement. World Archaeology 6:107–16.Google Scholar
Miller, D. W. and Starr, M. K. 1967 The structure of human decisions. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs.Google Scholar
Newell, A. and Simon, H. A. 1972 Human problem solving. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs.Google Scholar
Page, R. L. 1974 Algorithm 479, a minimal spanning tree clustering method [Z]. Communications of the Association forComputing Machinery (ACM) 17:321–3.Google Scholar
Parsons, J. R. 1972 Archaeological settlement patterns. In Annual Review of Anthropology, Volume 1, edited by Siegeland, B. J. others, pp. 127–50. Annual Reviews, Inc., Palo Alto.Google Scholar
Pielou.E.C., 1969 An introduction to mathematical ecology. Wiley-interseience, New York.Google Scholar
Powers, P. 1975 Personal communication.Google Scholar
Rappaport, R. A. 1971 Nature, culture, and ecological anthropology. In Man, Culture and Society, edited by Shapiro, H. L., pp. 237–67. Oxford University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Simon, H. A. 1957 Models of man: social and rational. John Wiley & Sons, New York.Google Scholar
Thomas, D. H. 1973 An empirical test for Steward's model of Great Basin settlement patterns. American Antiquity 38:155–76.Google Scholar
Tisdell, C. 1975 Concepts of rationality in economics. Philosophy of the Social Sciences 5:259–72.Google Scholar
Wood, J. J. 1971 Fitting discrete probability distributions to prehistoric settlement patterns. In Gumerman (1971:63-82).Google Scholar
Wood, J. J. and Matson, R. G. 1973 Two models of sociocultural systems and their implications for the archaeological study of change. In TheExplanation of Culture Change, Models in Prehistory, edited by Renfrew, C., pp. 673–83. Duckworth, London.Google Scholar
Young, F. W. 1968 A FORTRAN IV program for nonmetric multidimensional scaling. The L, L. Thurstone PsychometricLaboratory, Number 56. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.Google Scholar
Zahn, C. T. 1971 Graph-theoretical methods for detecting and describing gestalt clusters. IEEE Transactions on Computers, C-20: 68-86.Google Scholar
Zar, J. H. 1974 Biostatistical analysis. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs.Google Scholar