Posing Questions for a Scientific Archaeology
Product details
- ISBN 9780897897532
- Publication Date: 30 Jun 2001
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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Although many believe that archaeological knowledge consists simply of empirical findings, this notion is false; data are generated with the guidance of theory, or some sense-making system acting in its place whether researchers recognize this or not. Failure to understand the relationship between theory and the empirical world has led to the many debates and frustrations of contemporary archaeology.
Despite years of trying, the atheoretical, empiricist foundations of archaeology have left us little but a history of storytelling and unsatisfying generalizations about historical change and human diversity. The present work offers promising directions for building theoretically defensible results by providing well-designed case studies that can be used as guides or exemplars. Evolutionary theory, in at least some form, is the foundation for a scientific archaeology that will yield scientific explanations for historical change.
TERRY L. HUNT is Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of Hawaii./e
CARL P. LIPO is a systems architect at Intemap Network Services and Affiliate Graduate Faculty at University of Hawaii./e
SARAH L. STERLING is a doctoral candidate in Anthropology at the University of Washington./e
