Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T16:16:54.393Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Archaeo-Ethnology of Hunter-Gatherers or the Tyranny of the Ethnographic Record in Archaeology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

H. Martin Wobst
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Many of the constructs of space, time and behavior in the ethnographic literature on hunter-gatherers may be partly determined by the severe constraints on ethnographic fieldwork. This paper discusses the genesis of some of these constructs, points out that the anthropological theory consumed by archaeologists is often based on, or developed for these constructs, and suggests that some of these constructs may be insensitive to deal with behavioral variability expressed in the archeological record, even though they can be made to fit any data. Their application to the archaeological record may merely be ethnography with a shovel in which the form and the structure of the ethnographic record are reproduced in the archaeological one.

Type
Articles
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 43 , Issue 2 , April 1978 , pp. 303 - 309
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

Barth, F. (Editor) 1969 Ethnic groups and boundaries. Little Brown and Co., Boston.Google Scholar
Binford, L. R. 1965 Archaeological systematics and the study of culture process. American Antiquity 31:203–10.10.2307/2693985 S0002731600088454 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Binford, L. R. 1973 Contemporary model building: paradigms and the current state of Paleolithic research. In Models in archaeology, edited by Clarke, D. L., pp. 109–66. Methuen: London.Google Scholar
Binford, L. R. and Binford, S. R. 1966 A preliminary analysis of functional variability in the Mousterian of Levallois facies. American Anthropologist 68, part 2:238–95.Google Scholar
Birdsell, J. B. 1958 On population structure in generalized hunting and collecting populations. Evolution 12:189–205.10.2307/2406029 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fried, M. H. 1975 The notion of tribe. Cummings, Menlo Park, CA.Google Scholar
Gábori, M. 1969 Paläolithische Schnecken-Depots von Szob .Acta A rchaeologica (Budapest) 21:3–11.Google Scholar
Harris, M. 1968 The rise of anthropological theory. Crowell, New York.Google Scholar
Hofmann, I. 1975 Wege and Möglichkeiten eines Indischen Einflusses auf die Meroitische Kultur. Studia Institui Anthropos 22. Google Scholar
Jarman, M. 1972 A territorial model for archaeology. In Models in Archaeology, edited by Clarke, D. L., pp. 705–34. Methuen, London.Google Scholar
Kozlowski, J. K. 1972/3 The origin of lithic raw materials used in the Palaeolithic of the Carpathian countries. Acta ArchaeologicaCarpathica 13:5–19.Google Scholar
Leacock, E. G. 1954 The Montagnais “hunting territory” and fur trade. American Anthropological Association Memoir 78.Google Scholar
Lee, R. B. 1968 What hunters do for a living, or how to make out on scarce resources. In Man the hunter, edited by R. B.Lee and I. DeVore, pp. 30–48. Aldine, Chicago.Google Scholar
Lee, R. B. 1969 !Kung Bushman subsistence. In Environment and cultural behavior, edited by Vayda, A. P., pp. 47–79. Natural History Press, Garden City.Google Scholar
Lee, R. B. 1972 IKung spatial organization: an ecological and historical perspective. Human Ecology 1:125–48.10.1007/BF01531351 Google Scholar
Lee, R. B. and DeVore, I. (Editors) 1976 Kalahari hunter-gatherers: studies of the IKung San and their neighbors. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Okladnikov, A. P. (editor) 1968 IstorijaSibiri. Vol. 1. Nauka: Leningrad.Google Scholar
Piatt, J. R. 1964 Strong inference. Science 146:347–53.10.1126/science.146.3642.347 Google Scholar
Schrire, C. 1977 Hunter-gatherer studies and interpreting Paleolithic data: how far have we come. Paper delivered at theSymposium on Contemporary Theory and Paleolithic Data. SUNY Binghamton, March 5, 1977.Google Scholar
Soffer, O. 1977 Models for trade in the Upper Paleolithic. Paper delivered at the Symposium on Contemporary Theoryand Paleolithic Data. SUNY Binghamton, March 5, 1977.Google Scholar
Speck, F. G. and Eiseley, L. C. 1939 The significance of hunting territory systems of the Algonkian in social theory. American Anthropologist 41:269–80.10.1525/aa.1939.41.2.02a00080 Google Scholar
Struever, S. and Houart, G. L. 1972 An analysis of the Hopewell Interaction Sphere. In Social exchange and interaction, edited by E. N.Wilmsen, pp. 47–80. University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology, Anthropological Papers 46. Google Scholar
Thorbahn, P. F. 1976 The precolonial ivory trade in eastern Africa. Paper on file at the Department of Anthropology, Universityof Massachusetts, Amherst.Google Scholar
Tindale, N. B. 1974 Aboriginal tribes of Australia. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Vayda, A. P. and McCay, B. J. 1975 New directions in ecology and ecological anthropology. Annual Review of Anthropology 4:293–306.10.1146/annurev.an.04.100175.001453 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wallerstein, I. 1974 The modern world-system. Academic Press, New York. Google Scholar
Weiss, K. M. 1976 Demographic theory and anthropological inference. Annual Review of Anthropology 5:351–82.Google Scholar
Williams, B. J. 1974 A model of band society. Society for American Archaeology Memoir 29.Google Scholar
Wobst, H. M. 1976 Locational relationships in Paleolithic society. In The demographic evolution of human populations, edited by Ward, R. H. and Weiss, K. M., pp. 49–58. Academic Press, London. 1977 Stylistic behavior and information exchange. University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology, Anthropological Paper 61:317–42.Google Scholar
Yellen, J. and Harpending, H. 1972 Hunter-gatherer populations and archaeological inference. World Archaeology 4:244–53.Google Scholar