[LATE PLEISTOCENE AND EARLY HOLOCENE FORAGER ORGANIZATIONS IN SOUTHEAST ASIA] Beyond typologies: The reduction thesis and its implications for lithic assemblages in Southeast Asia
Year: 2008
Type: article
Abstract: Stone artefact archaeology in mainland Southeast Asia has not enjoyed the same level of interest and productivity as studies of stone artefacts in other parts of the world.Although there are a number of reasons for this, a significant one is the use of essentialism as the underlying philosophy of lithic classification.Essentialism is a flawed approach to classifying stone artefacts because of the continuous nature of artefact reduction.Case studies are presented that show essentialism has additional problems, such as inefficiency, compression of variation and inability to explain historical change.An alternative approach, nominalism, is better suited to lithic classification and analysis.Existing nominalist approaches can easily be adapted for Southeast Asia assemblages and promises to liven-up stone artefact archaeology in mainland Southeast Asia.
Author: Ben Marwick
Institution: Australian National University
Language: English
Subfield: Anthropology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W1994835741