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Ethnography, Archaeology, and the Late Pleistocene

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2022

Kim Sterelny
Kim Sterelny*
Affiliation:
School of Philosophy, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
*
Email: Kim.Sterelny@anu.edu.au
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Abstract

The use of ethnography to understand archaeology is both prevalent and controversial. This paper develops an alternative approach, using ethnography to build and test a general theory of forager behaviors, and their variations in different conditions, one which can then be applied even to prehistoric sites differing from contemporary experience. Human behavioral ecology is chosen as the framework theory, and forager social learning as a case study. The argument is then applied to social learning in the late Pleistocene, and hence to a famous archaeological puzzle: the late Pleistocene acceleration of technical innovation and regional differentiation.

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Article
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Philosophy of Science , Volume 89 , Issue 3 , July 2022 , pp. 415 - 433
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© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Philosophy of Science Association

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