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The Behavioral Approach to Lithics and the Use of Ethnographic Analogy: A Comment on Odell

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Deborah Rowland Sabo
Deborah Rowland Sabo*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701
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Abstract

George Odell's article calls attention to the need for more creative uses of the results of lithic use-wear studies. However, the structure of his argument is precarious because it is based on a hierarchy of assumptions about the stone tools themselves, as well as about the behavioral contexts of their use. A major failing of the argument is the lack of a rigorous methodology for construction and application of ethnographic analogies. The present comment argues for the use of general analogy, based on consideration of a range of pertinent ethnographic examples.

Type
Comments
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 47 , Issue 1 , January 1982 , pp. 187 - 191
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1982

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