Hannah T. answered • 05/07/19
Honors BA in Anthropology, current PhD student in Anthropology
Hi there!
Ethnoarchaeology is a useful method for exploring how particular practices and traditions, from subsistence strategies to craft production, have been shaped over time. Through observation of contemporary culture and practice in a particular place, archaeologists can better understand how that process may have been in the past.
It sounds like your interests here cover a fairly wide range of practices--it will be difficult to find sources until you narrow the list a bit. Try to focus on a specific practice, in a specific region, with a specific group of people.
For instance, as a cultural anthropologist, I study contemporary pottery production in rural Latin America. Pottery is a long-standing tradition in the community where I work, but little information is known about the origins of this practice, and limited archaeological investigation has been done. By observing contemporary pottery production practices, conducting ethnographic research and interviews, and comparing modern pieces to older vessels, I am able to trace how major social, economic, and environmental changes shaped this tradition over time. This is not quite ethnoarchaeology because I use this work to understand modern rather than past human patterns, but the comparative element of past and present provides a close example.
Again, I recommend narrowing your search to a specific people/place/practice. It's easy to get bogged down with complex and mixed information on ethnoarchaeology---some anthropologists don't even recognize this as a discipline and constantly debate if it's its own area of study or not!
If you are looking for some very foundational work in ethnoarchaeology, try reading some classics from Lewis Binford, one of the first to do this type of research. A more modern title that will provide an overview and some examples is Ethnoarchaeology in Action (David and Kramer 2001).
Hopefully this helps a bit!
