Theme:
4. Persisting with Change: Theory and Archaeological Scrutiny
Session format:
Regular session
Title:
Ethnographic Analogy and the Pleistocene Archaeological Record: Re-assessing Potentials and Pitfalls
Content:
Ever since the concept of a deep human past rose to widespread scientific acceptance in the 1800s, ethnographic and anthropological data have been considered valuable tools for understanding and interpreting the prehistoric archaeological record. Severe criticism of the fallacious and dangerous belief in modern hunter-gatherers as ‘living human fossils’ – an idea particularly prevalent in the early 20th century – was levelled against this approach, from which emerged a more mature consideration of ethnographic data as a potentially powerful source of testable hypotheses, when applied with appropriate caution.
In Africa for example, the 1960s-1970s witnessed intense debate over the relevance of ethnographic observations and models to the Early Stone Age (ESA) the settled result being archaeological traces >1.8 Ma are better understood using primate rather than human analogues. Ethnography approaches found a new niche in the 1980s as the Middle Stone Age (MSA) (~0.4-0.03 Ma) was recognised as the likely source of the behaviour of Homo sapiens and its immediate precursors. With current archaeological evidence pushing back the appearance of some characteristic MSA behaviours into the late Acheulean/Early Pleistocene, it is worth revisiting the potentials and limits of ethnographic approaches to the African Stone Age.
This session welcomes current data bearing on all Stone Age periods, as well as comparative work from Europe and Asia. How far back in time modern observations and datasets can be meaningfully employed? How does their applicability vary between social, economic, and technological spheres? To what degree does ecology impact the accuracy and usefulness of ethnographical parallels? We particularly encourage case studies focusing on the interpretation of multi-stranded archaeological datasets, lithic and organic technologies, wider socio-cultural and economic factors, and the role of site formation processes, among others.
Keywords:
Ethnography, Stone Age, Paleolithic, Africa, Eurasia
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
yes
Session associated with CAA:
no
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:
Main organiser:
Marianna Fusco (Italy) 1,2
Co-organisers:
Nicholas Taylor (United Kingdom) 3,4
Affiliations:
1. Sapienza University of Rome
2. Universitat Rovira i Virgili Tarragona
3. Stony Brook University, New York
4. Turkana Basin Institute
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