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Ethnoarchaeology: Building Frames of Reference for Research

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Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology

Introduction and Definition

Ethnoarchaeology is a powerful strategy for structuring archaeological research questions that uses ethnographic information to make inferences about the material residues of past human activities. Ethnoarchaeology is not a theoretical approach per se, so it can investigate research questions generated from a wide variety of theoretical perspectives. Ethnoarchaeological scopes and scales of research are expanding rapidly in geography, chronology, method, and theoretical stance, from variables conditioning the manufacture of traditional technology to the evolution of symbolic expression and ritual behaviors.

Ethnoarchaeologists are uniquely positioned to construct frames of reference to aid archaeological inquiry. In this entry, “frame of reference” is defined as a research strategy that makes projections from a better-known domain of knowledge to a less-well-known domain. Ethnoarchaeologists examine variation in characteristics of an independent, related...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Park Service, University of Montana, Missoula, MT, USA

    Pei-Lin Yu

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  1. Pei-Lin Yu
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Correspondence to Pei-Lin Yu .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Archaeology, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Claire Smith

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Yu, PL. (2014). Ethnoarchaeology: Building Frames of Reference for Research. In: Smith, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_962

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_962

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