Hostname: page-component-54dcc4c588-54gsr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-09-30T11:21:00.972Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Comment on Bettinger: Problems in Archaeological Interpretation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Frederick C. Munday  and
Thomas R. Lincoln
Frederick C. Munday
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59801
Thomas R. Lincoln
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59801
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Bettinger attempted to find out if change occurred in prehistoric land-use patterns in the Owens Valley, California, by comparing artifact and site distributions with those expected given Steward's ethnographic model for this area. Bettinger's conclusions are found to be faulty because they are contradictory, ignore other potential determinants of archaeological variability, and are based, in some instances, on erroneous interpretation of poorly conceived or inadequate data. We discuss additional factors that should be considered and possible interpretation of Bettinger's results.

Information

Type
Comments
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 44 , Issue 2 , April 1979 , pp. 345 - 351
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1979

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

References Cited

Ammerman, Albert J., and Feldman, Marcus W. 1974 On the “making” of an assemblage of stone tools. American Antiquity 39:610–616.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baumhoff, M. A., and Heizer, R. F. 1965 Postglacial climate and archaeology in the Desert West. In The Quaternary of the United States, edited by Wright, H. E. and Frey, D. E., pp. 697–707. Princeton University Press, Princeton.Google Scholar
Bettinger, Robert L. 1977 Aboriginal human ecology in Owens Valley: prehistoric change in the Great Basin. American Antiquity 42:3–17.Google Scholar
Binford, Lewis R. 1973 Interassemblage variability—the Mousterian and the “functional” argument. In The explanation ofculture change: models in prehistory, edited by Renfrew, C., pp. 227–254. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
Davis, Wilber A. 1966 Theoretical problems in western prehistory. In The current status of anthropological research in the Great Basin, edited by Warren, D'Azevedo et al. Desert Research Institute Social Sciences and Humanities Publications 1:147–165.Google Scholar
Gould, R. A., Koster, Dorothy A., and Sontz, Ann A. L. 1971 The lithic assemblage of the Western Desert Aborigines of Australia. American Antiquity 36:149–169.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heizer, R. F. 1956 Recent cave explorations in the lower Humboldt Valley, Nevada. University of California Archaeological Survey Reports 33:50–57.Google Scholar
Jennings, Jesse D. 1957 Danger Cave. Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology 14.Google Scholar
Jennings, Jesse D. 1964 The Desert West. In Prehistoric man in the new world, edited by Jennings, J. D. and Norbeck, E., pp. 149–174. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Jennings, Jesse D. 1968 Prehistory of North America. McGraw-Hill, New York.Google Scholar
Marks, A. E., and Larson, Paul A. Jr. 1977 Test excavations at the Natufian site of Rosh Horesha. In Prehistory and paleoenvironments in the Central Negev (Vol. 2), edited by Marks, A. E., pp. 191–232. SMU Press, Dallas.Google Scholar
Munday, F. 1977 The Mousterian in the Negev: a description and explication o/intersite variability. Ph. D. dissertation, Southern Methodist University, University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Napton, Lewis K. 1969 Lacustrine subsistence pattern in the Desert West. Kroeber Anthropological Society Papers Special Publication 2:29–98.Google Scholar
Smith, Bruce D. 1977 Archaeological inference and inductive confirmation. American Anthropologist 79:598–617.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steward, Julian H. 1933 Ethnography of the Owens Valley Paiute. University of California Publications in American Archaeologyand Ethnology 33:233–350.Google Scholar
Steward, Julian H. 1934 Two Paiute autobiographies. University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 33:423–438.Google Scholar
Steward, Julian H. 1938 Basin-Plateau aboriginal socio-political groups. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 120.Google Scholar
Thomas, David H. 1972 A computer simulation model of Great Basin Shoshonean subsistence and settlement patterns. In Models in archaeology, edited by Clarke, David L., pp. 671–704. Methuen, London.Google Scholar
Thomas, David H. 1973 An empirical test for Steward's model of Great Basin settlement patterns. American Antiquity 38:155–176.Google Scholar
Tindale, Norman B. 1965 Stone implement making among the Nakako, Ngadadjara and Pitjandjara of the Great Western Desert. Records of the South Australian Museum 15:131–164.Google Scholar