David Nicholas, Kramer Carol. Ethnoarchaeology in Action

Cambridge University Press, 2001. — 508 p. — (Cambridge World Archaeology). — ISBN: 0-521-66779-8.Ethnoarchaeology in Action is a first and comprehensive study of what remains, despite its centrality and multiple linkages, one of anthropology’s lesser-known subdisciplines. First developed as the study of ethnographic material culture from archaeological perspectives, it has expanded its scope and relevance over the past half-century. The authors are leading practitioners, and their theoretical approaches embrace both the processualism of the New Archaeology and the postprocessualism of the 1980s and 1990s. The book takes a case-study approach and is balanced in its geographic and topical coverage, including consideration of materials in French and German. Three chapters introduce the subject and its history, survey the broad range of theory required, and discuss field methods and ethics. Ten topical chapters treat formation processes, subsistence, the study of artifacts and style, settlement systems, site structure and architecture, specialist craft production, trade and exchange, and mortuary practices and ideology. The book concludes with an appreciation of ethnoarchaeology’s contributions, actual and potential, and of its place within anthropology. Generously illustrated, it includes photographs of leading ethnoarchaeologists in action.Ethnoarchaeology: its nature, origins, and history.
Theorizing ethnoarchaeology and analogy.
Fieldwork and ethics.
Human residues: entering the archaeological context.
Fauna and subsistence.
Studying artifacts: functions, operating sequences, taxonomy.
Style and the marking of boundaries: contrasting regional studies.
Settlement: systems and patterns.
Site structures and activities.
Architecture.
Specialist craft production and apprenticeship.
Trade and exchange.
Mortuary practices, status, ideology, and systems of thought.
Conclusions: ethnoarchaeology in context.