Quantifying Diversity in Archaeology

by Edited by Robert D. Leonard , George T. Jones

• ISBN13: 9780521108508
• ISBN10: 0521108500
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-04-09
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

One of the enduring aims of archaeological research has been to explain why human material culture is so diverse, both across the world and through history. Recognising that diversity exists is not, however, to explain it nor to measure it effectively. The aim of the contributors to Quantifying Diversity in Archaeology is therefore to examine what we mean by diversity, to review the methods of measurement and formulae we an apply and assess the pitfalls that exist. Richness and evenness, the two main components of diversity measures developed in the biological sciences are considered, as are the value of diversity measures in the study of style, ecology, cultural geography and faunal, lithic and spatial analysis. Subsequent papers consider critically why the archaeological remains of particular cultures vary so markedly between sites, localities and regions.

Table of Contents

Preface

The diversity concept

The concept of diversity: an introduction

The theory and mechanics of ecological diversity in archaeology

Diversity, variation and selection

Components of diversity: richness, evenness and factors influencing their assessment

Sample size, significance and measures of diversity

Formation processes of Broken K Pueblo: some hypotheses

Structure and diversity in intrasite spatial analysis

Measures of diversity and expedient lithic technologies

Sample size and relative abundance in archaeological analysis: illustrations from spiral fractures and seriation

Assessments of archaeological diversity

Diversity in hunter-gatherer cultural geography

The effect of urbanisation on faunal diversity: a comparison between New York City and St Augustine, Florida, in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries

Changing strategies of Anasazi lithic procurement on Black Mesa, Arizona

Ceramic diversity, production and use

The use of diversity in stylistic analysis

Commentary

The concept of diversity in archaeological theory

Diversity in archaeology: a group of measures in search of application?

References

Index

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