MODULE ONE

Topic Jumpstation:
Printer Friendly Version
Behavioral Archaeology
Dating the Past
History of Archaeology in the Southwest
Study Terms

BEHAVIORAL ARCHAEOLOGY

Reid, J. Jefferson, Michael B. Schiffer, and William L. Rathje
1975     Behavioral Archaeology: Four Strategies. American Anthropologist, December
             77(4):864-869.
William L. Rathje
1989     Rubbish!. Atlantic Monthly, December:99-109.

You must have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your system to download the articles! If you do not, download it for free at:

Anthropology is the study of humankind. It is both scientific and historical. It is comparative in studying people at all times and places, and it is holistic in studying all aspects of human experience. This holistic approach is best represented in the four fields of American anthropology. Biological or physical anthropology investigates the biological characteristics of humankind. Cultural anthropologists study the ecology, sociology, and ideology of living peoples, usually non-Western European peoples, and the interaction of these three areas of human activity. Often called ethnographers or ethnologists, they are the scholars who have written about the historical and contemporary native peoples of the Southwest. Linguists study language, that unique human capacity to process information quickly and to transmit ideas, observations, and commands as well as poems and stories to others with words.

Archaeologists study material culture or artifacts and technology and their relation to what people think and do. Behavioral archaeology — invented at the University of Arizona — is the study of material culture at all times and all places in order to describe and explain human behavior. All times is both the past and the present, and all places includes both the exotic, faraway ruins as well as yesterday's urban garbage. The four strategies of behavioral archaeology contribute in various ways through various methods to understanding human behavior in the past and the present.

Strategy 1: Past material objects are used to understand past human behavior.
1) prehistory -- the traditional domain of archaeology; survey and excavation are the 2 methods by which we know the past.
2) historical archaeology -- in the SW, post A.D. 1540; we have documents and texts, but such records can be incomplete or inaccurate. Archaeology assists in interpreting past behavior at a particular locality.

Click on thumbnail to enlarge the slide image.

Strategy 2: Present material objects are used to understand past human behavior.
1) ethnoarchaeology -- archaeologists go out to another culture, generally a third world culture, upon which modern technologies and behaviors have not intruded. These cultures are generally situated in natural, nonindustrial settings where the archaeologist observes behaviors that might replicate those that occurred in the past. Material remains from the present are compared to material remains from the past for similarities.
2) experimental archaeology -- archaeologists create situations in the lab or in the field to test the performance characteristics of particular objects. Results of these tests are used to develop general principles to apply to past behaviors.
3) living archaeology -- historical recreations are done in an attempt to replicate past behaviors

(Continued)