The Strong Case Approach in Behavioral Archaeology (Foundations of Archaeological Inquiry) - Softcover

Michael Brian Schiffer (editor); Charles Riggs (editor) & J. Jefferson Reid (editor)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1607815761 ISBN 13: 9781607815761

Publisher: The University of Utah Press, 2018

Synopsis

Although all archaeologists subscribe in principle to building strong cases in support of their inferences, behavioural archaeology alone has created methodology for developing strong cases in practice. The behavioural version of the strong case approach rests on two main pillars: (1) nomothetic (generalising) strategies, consisting of research in experimental archaeology, ethnoarchaeology, and long-term processes of behavioural change to produce principles necessary for inference; and (2) the formation processes of supporting evidence when constructing inferences.

The chapters employ a wide range of data classes, demonstrating the versatility and productivity of the approach for fashioning rigorous inferences in history, historical archaeology, ethnoarchaeology, and prehistory. By illustrating the strong case approach with convincing case studies from behavioural archaeology, the editors aim to alert the archaeological community about how the process of archaeological inference can be improved.

About this title

About the Author

Michael Brian Schiffer is a research associate at the Lemelson Center, National Museum of American History, the Smithsonian Institution. He is retired from the University of Arizona, where he was the Fred A. Riecker Distinguished Professor of Anthropology.

Charles R. Riggs is professor of anthropology and curator of Archaeological Collections at Fort Lewis College in Durango, CO, where he also directs the college's archaeological field school.

J. Jefferson Reid is University Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the School of Anthropology at the University of Arizona, and was director of that university's archaeological field school at Grasshopper Pueblo from 1979 to 1992.

Edition details

• Publisher: The University of Utah Press
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1607815761
• ISBN 13: 9781607815761
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288