From Primitives to Primates: A History of Ethnographic and primatological analogies in the study of prehistory

Preface......Page 11
Introduction......Page 13
Analogies in science......Page 25
Analogies in archaeology......Page 26
Models and analogies......Page 28
Analogy as a process......Page 30
The structure of analogy......Page 31
Truth and validity......Page 33
Entities and relations......Page 35
An ideal case......Page 38
Strengthening the analogy......Page 39
The practice of analogy......Page 44
The analogical algorithm......Page 45
A reading grid......Page 48
A corpus of texts......Page 50
A choice of focus......Page 53
Conclusion......Page 54
The comparative method......Page 55
Early ethnographic parallels......Page 56
A revolution in antiquarian thought?......Page 60
The dualism of Sven Nilsson and Daniel Wilson......Page 63
Comparative ethnography, folklore and ‘the parallax of man’......Page 66
An important device......Page 70
The antiquity of man and early social evolutionism......Page 71
The first generation of social evolutionists......Page 72
The function of contemporary savagery......Page 75
Ethnographic enthusiasm......Page 81
Degenerationism and classical evolutionism......Page 83
Degenerationist doubts......Page 84
A second round......Page 86
Morgan’s scheme......Page 91
A zenith of similarity......Page 92
Archaeology and anthropology diverge......Page 94
Tylor and the Tasmanians......Page 96
The comparative method’s swan-song: Sollas......Page 101
Divergence of opinion......Page 103
Conclusion......Page 104
The dormancy of ethnographic analogy......Page 107
Innovations in the Interbellum......Page 109
Marxism and folklore......Page 113
Postwar pessimism in Britain......Page 117
The situation in the United States......Page 124
Cultural continuity......Page 126
The new analogy and the New Archaeology......Page 127
Fieldwork and cautionary tales......Page 132
Hypothetico-deductive reasoning or the benefits of testing......Page 136
Between critique and inspiration......Page 140
The heyday of ethnoarchaeology......Page 141
The impossibility of independent testing......Page 142
A thriving subdiscipline......Page 147
Beyond analogy?......Page 150
Place and population: a case study......Page 157
Source and subject-side strategies......Page 166
Decline and fall of ethnoarchaeology......Page 169
The isolation of hunter-gatherer ethnoarchaeology......Page 170
Anthropological doubts about hunter-gatherers......Page 175
Contextual ethnoarchaeology......Page 177
Post-processual archaeology......Page 187
An age of extremes......Page 197
Conclusion......Page 198
The strength of ethnoarchaeological analogies......Page 200
Optimism, pessimism and the redundancy of analogy......Page 204
The idea of a primate model......Page 207
First episode: from primate anatomy to human anatomy......Page 209
Second episode: from living to fossil anatomy......Page 212
Third episode: from primate behaviour to human behaviour......Page 214
Fourth episode: from primate behaviour to early human behaviour......Page 217
Converging circumstances......Page 222
Baboons......Page 224
Washburn’s baboons: from typical primates to terrestrial specialists......Page 225
The canonization of the baboon model......Page 239
Why baboons?......Page 243
Social carnivores and geladas......Page 246
From subsistence to society: the social carnivore analogy......Page 247
From dentition to diet: the gelada analogy......Page 252
Remote sources and logical consistency......Page 257
Chimpanzees......Page 259
The feminist critique......Page 260
A perfect analogy......Page 265
The seductiveness of similarity......Page 270
The disputed bonobo model......Page 271
Bonobo behaviour......Page 277
Entrapped by resemblance......Page 279
The crisis of traditional modelling......Page 280
The weaknesses of referential modelling......Page 281
Phylogenetic comparison or cladistics of behaviour......Page 286
Behavioural ecology......Page 290
Ethoarchaeology......Page 293
The ongoing lure of referential models......Page 296
Beyond single-species models......Page 298
The strength of primate models......Page 300
A change in approach......Page 303
Primate modelling, primatology and archaeology......Page 305
Projections and processes......Page 309
The impact of functionalism......Page 312
Archaeologists and primate models......Page 313
Primatologists and ethnographic models......Page 315
Divergent debates......Page 321
Proximity, privilege, projection and paradoxes......Page 324
Differences......Page 328
Similarity but no continuity......Page 329
Conclusion......Page 333
Epilogue......Page 341
References......Page 343
Curriculum Vitae......Page 385