Measurement and Meaning of Archaeological Diversity - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Measurement and Meaning of Archaeological Diversity write by Virginia Marie Betz. This book was released on 1987. Measurement and Meaning of Archaeological Diversity available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Archaeologists use diversity as one way of characterizing their assemblages. Diversity refers to both the number of artifact classes present (richness) and the proportional representation of classes (evenness). Numerical diversity indices measure one or both components. Archaeologists use assemblage diversity to infer behavior of prehistoric cultures. Archaeological inferences about behavior occur at two levels of analysis: (1) micro-scale analyses in which diversity is an attribute of artifactual assemblages, and (2) macro-scale analyses in which diversity is an attribute of the culture. This study evaluates theories used to justify behavioral inferences based on macro-level diversity of material culture. Assumptions about behavior made on the basis of the diversity of archaeological assemblages are compared with information about behavioral diversity drawn from ethnographic sources. The ethnographic analysis considers four macro-scale models that establish archaeological correlates for systemic cultural behaviors. All the models infer behavioral diversity from artifactual diversity. They are: (1) a group size model that relates artifactual diversity to population density, (2) a niche width model that relates archaeological diversity to subsistence practices, (3) a complexity model that relates archaeological diversity to social organization, and (4) a stress-response model that relates archaeological diversity to systemic perturbation. Four behavioral variables from the Human Relations Area Files Standard Cross-Cultural Sample are recoded to represent each behavioral diversity model. The results of a rank-order correlation procedure indicate that the behaviors associated with group size, niche width, complexity, and stress-response basically occur independently of one another in culture groups. This finding validates the archaeological approach which uses functionally-specific systemic behavior sets. Archaeological sites often do not yield the artifactual and contextual data to use behavioral models. The generalized diversity of artifactual forms is interpreted therefore as diversity of many behavioral responses. A general diversity variable (the sum of the four individual behavioral variables) produces the list of sample cultures ranked by generalized diversity. Because the diversity concept is not drawn from anthropological theory, archaeologists frequently interpret generalized diversity in terms of ecological or evolutionary models. The data show that biological models of diversity do not explain the general diversity rankings. The direct analogic application of theoretical biological diversity models to explain behavioral diversity needs reassessment in terms of ethnographic observations. Archaeologists should work towards building a distinctly anthropological theory which accommodates a generalized concept of behavioral diversity.
Defining and Measuring Diversity in Archaeology
Defining and Measuring Diversity in Archaeology - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Defining and Measuring Diversity in Archaeology write by Metin I. Eren. This book was released on 2022-07-18. Defining and Measuring Diversity in Archaeology available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Calculating the diversity of biological or cultural classes is a fundamental way of describing, analyzing, and understanding the world around us. Understanding archaeological diversity is key to understanding human culture in the past. Archaeologists have long experienced a tenuous relationship with statistics; however, the regular integration of diversity measures and concepts into archaeological practice is becoming increasingly important. This volume includes chapters that cover a wide range of archaeological applications of diversity measures. Featuring studies of archaeological diversity ranging from the data-driven to the theoretical, from the Paleolithic to the Historic periods, authors illustrate the range of data sets to which diversity measures can be applied, as well as offer new methods to examine archaeological diversity.
Quantifying Diversity in Archaeology
Quantifying Diversity in Archaeology - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Quantifying Diversity in Archaeology write by Robert D. Leonard. This book was released on 1989-04-25. Quantifying Diversity in Archaeology available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Quantifying Diversity in Archaeology aims to examine what we mean by diversity.
Something Out of the Ordinary? Interpreting Diversity in the Early Neolithic Linearbandkeramik and Beyond
Something Out of the Ordinary? Interpreting Diversity in the Early Neolithic Linearbandkeramik and Beyond - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Something Out of the Ordinary? Interpreting Diversity in the Early Neolithic Linearbandkeramik and Beyond write by Luc Amkreutz. This book was released on 2016-04-26. Something Out of the Ordinary? Interpreting Diversity in the Early Neolithic Linearbandkeramik and Beyond available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. More than 7000 years ago, groups of early farmers (the Linearbandkeramik, or LBK) spread over vast areas of Europe. Their cultural characteristics comprised common choices and styles of execution, with a central meaning and functionality attached to ‘doing things a certain way’, over an enormous geographical area. However, recent evidence suggests that the reality was much more varied and diverse. The central question of this book is the extent to which notions of ‘uniformity’ and ‘diversity’ have caused a wider shift in archaeological perspective. Using the LBK case study as a starting point, the volume brings together contributions by international specialists tackling the notion of cultural diversity and its explanatory power in archaeological analysis more generally. Through discussions of the domestic architecture, stone tool inventory, pottery traditions, landscape use and burial traditions of the LBK, this book provides a crucial reappraisal of the culture’s potential for adaptability and change. Papers in the second part of the volume are devoted to archaeological case studies from around the globe in which the tension between diversity and uniformity has also proved controversial, including the Near Eastern Halaf culture, the North American Mississippian, the Pacific expansion of the Lapita culture, and the European Bell Beaker phenomenon. All provide exciting theoretical and methodological contributions on how the appreciation of cultural diversity as a whole can be moved forward. These papers expose diversity and uniformity as cultural strategies, and as such provide essential reading for scholars in archaeology and anthropology, and for anyone interested in the interplay between material culture and human social change.
The Archaeologist's Laboratory
The Archaeologist's Laboratory - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook The Archaeologist's Laboratory write by E.B. Banning. This book was released on 2006-04-11. The Archaeologist's Laboratory available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. This text reviews the theory, concepts, and basic methods involved in archaeological analysis with the aim of familiarizing both students and professionals with its underlying principles. Topics covered include the nature and presentation of data; database and research design; sampling and quantification; analyzing lithics, pottery, faunal, and botanical remains; interpreting dates; and archaeological illustration. A glossary of key terms completes the book.
