The Strong Case Approach in Behavioral Archaeology

Although all archaeologists subscribe in principle to building strong cases in support of their inferences, behavioural archaeology alone has created methodology for developing strong cases in practice. The behavioural version of the strong case approach rests on two main pillars: (1) nomothetic (generalising) strategies, consisting of research in experimental archaeology, ethnoarchaeology, and long-term processes of behavioural change to produce principles necessary for inference; and (2) the formation processes of supporting evidence when constructing inferences.

About the author

Michael Brian Schiffer is a research associate at the Lemelson Center, National Museum of American History, the Smithsonian Institution. He is retired from the University of Arizona, where he was the Fred A. Riecker Distinguished Professor of Anthropology.

Charles R. Riggs is professor of anthropology and curator of Archaeological Collections at Fort Lewis College in Durango, CO, where he also directs the college's archaeological field school.

J. Jefferson Reid is University Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the School of Anthropology at the University of Arizona, and was director of that university's archaeological field school at Grasshopper Pueblo from 1979 to 1992.

Product details

• Authors: Michael Brian (EDT)/ Riggs Schiffer
• Assisted by: J Jefferson Reid (Editor), J. Jefferson Reid (Editor), Charles Riggs (Editor), Michael Brian Schiffer (Editor)
• Publisher: The University of Utah Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.10.2017
• EAN: 9781607815761
• ISBN: 978-1-60781-576-1
• No. of pages: 288
• Series: Foundations of Archaeological; Foundations of Archaeological Inquiry; Foundations of Archaeological; Foundations of Archaeological Inquiry
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Pre and early history; Non-fiction book > History > Pre and early history, antiquity