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VJver forty years ago Gordon R. Willey (1953b:361) stated that
"[t]he objectives of archeology ...are approached by the study and
manipulation of three basic factors: form, space, and time. " A few
years later, Albert C. Spaulding (1960b:439) repeated this thought
using different words: "[AJrchaeology can be defined minimally as
the study of the interrelation- ship of form, temporal locus, and
spatial locus exhibited by artifacts. In other words,
archaeologists are always concerned with these interrelation-
ships, whatever broader interests they may have, and these
interrelation- ships are the special business of archaeology. "
Many of the means Americanist archaeologists use to examine formal
variation in artifacts and the distribution of that variation
across space and through time were formulated early in the
twentieth century. The analytical tenets, or principles, underlying
the various methods and techniques were formalized and axiomatized
in later years such that by the 1930s they con- stituted the first
formal paradigm for Americanist archaeology-a paradigm commonly
termed culture history. This paradigm began with a very specific
goal-to document the history of the development of prehistoric
cultures in the Americas. Although it fell from favor in the 1960s,
many of its central tenets were carried over to newer paradigms and
thus continue to be fun- damental within Americanist archaeology.
With Willey's and Spaulding's conceptions as our guide, we
elsewhere reprinted (Lyman et al.
VJver forty years ago Gordon R. Willey (1953b:361) stated that
"[t]he objectives of archeology ...are approached by the study and
manipulation of three basic factors: form, space, and time. " A few
years later, Albert C. Spaulding (1960b:439) repeated this thought
using different words: "[AJrchaeology can be defined minimally as
the study of the interrelation- ship of form, temporal locus, and
spatial locus exhibited by artifacts. In other words,
archaeologists are always concerned with these interrelation-
ships, whatever broader interests they may have, and these
interrelation- ships are the special business of archaeology. "
Many of the means Americanist archaeologists use to examine formal
variation in artifacts and the distribution of that variation
across space and through time were formulated early in the
twentieth century. The analytical tenets, or principles, underlying
the various methods and techniques were formalized and axiomatized
in later years such that by the 1930s they con- stituted the first
formal paradigm for Americanist archaeology-a paradigm commonly
termed culture history. This paradigm began with a very specific
goal-to document the history of the development of prehistoric
cultures in the Americas. Although it fell from favor in the 1960s,
many of its central tenets were carried over to newer paradigms and
thus continue to be fun- damental within Americanist archaeology.
With Willey's and Spaulding's conceptions as our guide, we
elsewhere reprinted (Lyman et al.
Americanist Culture History reprints thirty-nine classic works of
Americanist archaeological literature published between 1907 and
1971. The articles, in which the key concepts and analytical
techniques of culture history were first defined and discussed, are
reprinted, with original pagination and references, to enhance the
use of this collection as a research and teaching resource. The
editors also include an introduction that summarizes the rise and
fall of the culture history paradigm, making this volume an
excellent introduction to the field's primary literature.
Publication Series No. 7, West Virginia Archeological Society.
Publication Series No. 7, West Virginia Archeological Society.
Systematics in Prehistory was originally published in 1971. It soon
became an essential book for anyone who wished to understand the
principles of classification and how they are applied in
archaeology. The book clarifies differences among the various kinds
of classification (paradigmatic, taxonomic) and discusses the
appropriate uses of each. It also discusses groups and grouping
devices and how they differ from classification. This continues to
be an area of considerable confusion in archaeology. This book is
as useful to graduate students and professionals in archaeology now
as it was 30 years ago. Its materials have not become dated nor
have they been superceded by more recent treatments. This work
remains a crucial foundation for knowledgeable application of
systematics in archaeology. Dunnell's primary goal was to develop a
conceptual framework for the study of prehistory based on
systematics. Part I of the book provides an introduction to
systematics. Here Dunnell builds a precise and beautifully
consistent structure of concepts applicable to phenomena in
general. Part II proceeds to illustrate the application of
systematics to prehistory. The treatment is concise and rigorous.
From an original review of the book in Mankind: "This book makes
two original contributions of considerable value to the literature
of archaeological theory. First, it not only recognizes the debt
which the "new" archaeology owes to the "old" archaeology but it
attempts reconciliation between the two. Second, it examines with
precision and rigor the basic concepts which prehistorians use
implicitly and attempts to make both their usage and their
definition explicit." After graduate work at Yale, Dr. Robert C.
Dunnell was appointed Professor of Anthropology at the University
of Washington, Seattle, where he remained for thirty years. He
retains graduate training responsibilities at the University of
Washington, where he is emeritus. The central intellectual theme of
his career has been recreating archaeology as science. While he
pursued this objective along traditional lines early in his career,
by the late 1970s this recreation had led him to evolutionary
theory and nearly all his published work since that time touches on
evolution and its application to the archaeologic record. He is
widely regarded as the principal exponent of evolutionary
archaeology today.
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