Inferring mode of acquisition from lithic conveyance: A pesky middle-range problem

Abstract

Inferring mode of acquisition from lithic conveyance is a long-standing middle-range problem. Given archaeologists’ reliance on patterns of lithic conveyance to understand how prehistoric populations organized themselves in relation to their landscape, its resources, and each other, resolution of this problem would be significant. Drawing on research in the North American Great Basin and Middle Atlantic, we argue that the concepts archaeologists often use to derive insight into landscape use and sociocultural organization from patterns of lithic conveyance warrant greater scrutiny. We argue that archaeologists may better be able to infer landscape use and sociocultural organization from patterns of lithic conveyance if we remember that our conceptions (e.g., residential and logistical mobility, direct and indirect procurement, embedded and “dis”embedded procurement) sit in physical and social space – landscapes characterized by the distribution of food and nonfood resources (including stone), as well as other people.