Defining and Measuring Diversity in Archaeology

Another Step Toward an Evolutionary Synthesis of Culture

Metin I. Eren, Briggs Buchanan, Metin I. Eren, Briggs Buchanan

• Publisher: Berghahn Books
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN:
  9781800734296
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781800734302
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

Calculating the diversity of biological or cultural classes is a fundamental way of describing, analyzing, and understanding the world around us. Understanding archaeological diversity is key to understanding human culture in the past. Archaeologists have long experienced a tenuous relationship with statistics; however, the regular integration of diversity measures and concepts into archaeological practice is becoming increasingly important. This volume includes chapters that cover a wide range of archaeological applications of diversity measures. Featuring studies of archaeological diversity ranging from the data-driven to the theoretical, from the Paleolithic to the Historic periods, authors illustrate the range of data sets to which diversity measures can be applied, as well as offer new methods to examine archaeological diversity.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Foreword
• Introduction. On the Challenges of Measuring Diversity in Archaeology
• Chapter 1. Dispersion and Diversity: Parfleche Variation on the Great Plains vs. the Columbia Plateau
• Chapter 2. The Diversity of North America’s “Old Copper” Projectile Points
• Chapter 3. Diversity in Hunter-Gatherer Architecture
• Chapter 4. The Potential of Coverage-Based Rarefaction in Zooarchaeology
• Chapter 5. Diversity and Lithic Microwear: Quantification, Classification, and Standardization
• Chapter 6. Intensification Mechanisms Driving Dietary Change among the Great Plains Big Game Hunters of North America
• Chapter 7. Challenges and Prospects of Richness and Diversity Measures in Paleoethnobotany
• Chapter 8. Quantifying Evenness of Paleoindian Projectile Point Forms within Geographic Regions of Eastern North America
• Chapter 9. Thinking about Diversity in Material Culture at Multiple Scales
• Chapter 10. Measuring and Comparing Class Diversity in Archaeological Assemblages: A Brief Guide to the History and State-of-the-Art in Diversity Statistics
• Epilogue. Diversity Metrics are Convenient, but Their Archaeological Meanings Are Still Obscure
• Index