ANTH 201 Lecture 11: Analogy in Archaeology
18 Feb 2019
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Document Summary
Analogy: use of info from one context to help explain or interpret data found in another. It is needed in archaeology because we cannot observe the activities that produce the remains that were studied. Because we don"t actually observe the activities that created the archaeological record, we have to infer them. Analogy assumed the principle of uniformitarianism -- the present is not different from the past in terms of things like geological processes. If i light a campfire, the ash that is produced, the burning and discoloring --> the same today as it was a thousand years ago, although the soil underlaying the fire and its temperature might be slightly different. The basic principle will produce the same effects today as it did in the past. Archaeologists use different kinds of analogies; some might be pretty strong [if you find a similar pattern you can assume a fire was there too], however some analogies are weak.
