Science in Archaeology: The Saints Go Marching In

Abstract

AbstractThe New Archaeology has been said to involve a new view of culture and a heightened appreciation of the way to do science. By way of examining these claims, a review is made of three well known studies in which archaeologists popularly assigned to that movement attempt to relate the distributions of archaeological materials to patterns of post-marital residence. One of the studies is found to be possibly successful, the others probably unsuccessful, and the conclusion is that no such relationship is demonstrated. Although the conceptual framework of the studies is impressive, at least two of them are found to suffer from an insufficiency of rigor in testing their hypotheses. It is suggested that the conceptual framework is not peculiar to the New Archaeology, and that the shortcomings in testing relate to a misapprehension of scientific method.