Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T22:50:39.078Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Quantification of Artifactual Assemblages: Some Implications for Behavioral Inferences

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Aubrey Cannon
Aubrey Cannon*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, CanadaV5A 1S6
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

It is argued that the reliability of archaeological inferences based upon artifactual assemblages is in part a function of the methods used to quantify the assemblages. Using ethnoarchaeological data, this proposition is tested by comparing associated artifactual assemblages with the presence or absence of specialists in individual households. Assemblages are quantified in terms of absolute frequency, diversity, and proportional frequency. The correlation between each measure and the presence or absence of specialists is assessed. The analysis reveals assemblage diversity to be one of the strongest and most consistent indicators of specialization and further reveals an inherent flaw characteristic of proportional frequencies.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 48 , Issue 4 , October 1983 , pp. 785 - 792
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1983

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

References Cited

Conkey, Margaret W. 1980 The Identification of Prehistoric Hunter-gatherer Aggregation Sites: The Case of Altamira, Current Anthropology 21:609–630.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deal, Michael 1983 Pottery Ethnoarchaeology Among the Tzelta J Maya. Chiapas, Mexico. Unpublished Ph. D. dissertation. Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia.Google Scholar
Ebert, James I. 1979 An Ethnoarchaeological Approach to Assessing the Meaning of Variability in Stone Tool Assemblages. In Ethnoarchaeology; Implications of Ethnography for Archaeology, edited by Carol, Kramer, pp. 59–74. Columbia University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Hayden, Brian 1981 Material Systems in Contemporary Maya Households. Paper presented at the 46th annual meetingof the Society for American Archaeology, San Diego.Google Scholar
Hayden, Brian, and Cannon, Aubrey 1982 The Corporate Group as an Archaeological Unit. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 1:132–158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marascuilo, Leonard A., and McSweeney, Maryellen 1977 Nonparametric and Distribution-free Methods for the Social Sciences. Brooks/Cole, Monterey.Google Scholar
McNemar, Quinn 1962 Psychological Statistics (3d ed.). Wiley, New York.Google Scholar
Orton, Clive 1980 Mathematics in Archaeology. Collins, London.Google Scholar
Rathje, William L. 1978 Archaeological Ethnography … Because Sometimes it is Better to Give Than to Receive. In Explorationsin Ethnoarchaeology, edited by Gould, Richard A., pp. 49–75. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Reid, J. Jefferson 1978 Response to Stress at Grasshopper Pueblo Arizona. In Discovering Past Behavior: Experiments inthe Archaeology of the American Southwest, edited by Paul, Grebinger, pp. 195–213. Gordon and Breach, New York.Google Scholar
Rice, Prudence M. 1981 Evolution of Specialized Pottery Production: A Trial Model. Current Anthropology 22:219–240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salmon, Merrilee H. 1975 Confirmation and Explanation in Archaeology. American Antiquity 40:459–464.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salmon, Merrilee H. 1976 Deductive versus Inductive Archaeology. American Antiquity 41:376–381.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Bruce D. 1977 Archaeological Inference and Inductive Confirmation. American Anthropologist 79:598–617.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sullivan, Alan P. 1978 Inference and Evidence in Archaeology: A Discussion of the Conceptual Problems. In Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory, vol. 1, edited by Schiffer, Michael B., pp. 183–222. Academic Press. New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, David Hurst 1976 Figuring Anthropology. Holt, Rinehart & Winston, New York.Google Scholar
Thomas, David Hurst 1978 The Awful Truth About Statistics in Archaeology. American Antiquity 43:231–244.CrossRefGoogle Scholar