Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-fv566 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-16T11:46:35.552Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Limitations of Archaeological Inference: An Information-Theoretic Approach with Applications in Methodology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

John S. Justeson
John S. Justeson*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A framework is established for the application of information-theoretic concepts to the study of archaeological inference, ultimately to provide an estimate of the degree to which archaeologists, or anthropologists in general, can provide legitimate answers to the questions they investigate. Particular information-theoretic measures are applied to the design elements on the ceramics of a southwestern pueblo to show the methodological utility of information theory in helping to reach closer to that limit.

Type
Articles
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 38 , Issue 2 , April 1973 , pp. 131 - 149
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1973

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Burling, Robbins 1966 Cognition and componential analysis: God's truth or hocus-pocus? American Anthropologist 66:20–28.Google Scholar
Gorman, Frederick 1970 Symbol as strategy: toward a synthetic view of material culture. Department of Anthropology, Field Museum of Natural History. xeroxed.Google Scholar
Hatch, Marion P. 1971 An hypothesis on Olmec astronomy, with special reference to the La Venta site. In Papers on Olmec and Maya Archaeology, no editor. Contributions of the University of California Archaeological Research Facility 13:1–64.Google Scholar
Helgert, Hermann J. 1967 On a bound for channel capacity. IEEE Transactions on Information Theory 13:124–126.Google Scholar
Herdan, Gustav 1966 The advanced theory of language as choice and chance. Springer-Verlag, New York.Google Scholar
King, Thomas F. 1971 A conflict of values in American archaeology. American Antiquity 36:255–262.Google Scholar
Kotz, S. 1966 Recent results in information theory. Methuen 's Review Series in Applied Probability, Volume 5.Google Scholar
Mackay, Alan 1965 On the type-fount of the Phaistos Disk. Statistical Methods in Linguistics 4:15–25.Google Scholar
Margalef, Ramon 1968 Perspectives in ecological theory. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Postal, Paul M. 1971 On the surface verb “remind.” In Studies in linguistic semantics, edited by Charles J., Fillmore and D. Terence, Langendoen, pp. 180–270. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, New York.Google Scholar
Quastler, Henry 1956 Studies of human channel capacity. In Information theory; third London symposium, edited by Colin, Cherry, pp. 361–371. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Sonntag, Richard, and Gordon, Van Wylen 1966 Fundamentals of statistical thermodynamics. Wiley, New York.Google Scholar
Wiley, Carole 1971 Social interaction and economic exchange in the Hay Hollow Valley 900-1200 A.D. Department of Anthropology, Field Museum of Natural History. mineographed.Google Scholar
Wolfowitz, J. 1961 Coding theorems of information theory. Springer-Verlag, Berlin.Google Scholar