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Not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. A response to Gosselain's article

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 December 2017

Valentine Roux
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Abstract

In a provocative article published recently in Archaeological dialogues (23(2)), Olivier Gosselain proposes ‘to get rid of ethnoarchaeology once and for all, and join forces with other, more serious, disciplines’. In this reaction article, I challenge Gosselain's sweeping statements about ethnoarcaheology. In particular I argue against the notion that methodological weakness is unique to ethnoarchaeology, that the questions under study ignore the complexity of the social context, and that the search for cross-cultural regularities denies the historical dimension of technical practices. In conclusion, I suggest that rather than getting rid of ethnoarchaeology, it would be more helpful to meet the ambitious goals of ethnoarchaeology by improving and strengthening the methodology.

Keywords

ethnoarchaeologyanalogiessocial theory
Type
Reaction
Information
Archaeological Dialogues , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , December 2017 , pp. 225 - 229
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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