Function and configuration in Archaeology

Citation: Steward and Setzler (1938) Function and configuration in Archaeology. American Antiquity 4 (1), 1938 (RSS)
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Summary

Steward and Setzler criticized the taxonomic methodologies in archaeology, and proposed that we should stress the general cultural problem, such as the relationship between human and environment and the function of archaeological materials. First, Steward and Setzler discussed the objects in archaeology are concrete artifacts and their associations. In addition, identifying the culture elements and arranging them into historical setting is also an important task for archaeologists. However, they argued that the focus of materials contradicts to the aim to study the human culture. For example, the archaeological materials usually imply the descriptive headings, such as stone or bone instead of hunting or food preparation.

Rather than chronological and spatial arrangements, Steward and Setzler inclined to explore the conditions of the origin, development, diffusion, and interaction of cultural elements. In other words, they thought that archaeology should focus on broader cultural problems. In addition to the details of lists of the archaeological materials, we should discuss more about the general features of a culture, such as the subsistence, the population distribution, and the relationship between culture and environment. They suggested that a culture is adapted to its environment, which refers to the basic economy of a culture, and emphasized the study of human ecology. For example, we should explore food getting, cooking, or hunting and gathering, which relates to human adaptation.

Moreover, Steward and Setzler suggested archaeological objects should be treated as tools employed by human. Therefore, we need to explore the function al place of objects in the total activity. They also pointed out not all culture has all elements which are equally integrated in a culture. For different archaeological materials in a culture, some might have basic importance for the economy of this culture, but others do not. That means every culture element might play different meaning in human activities, and we should explore the manner in which culture elements were linked with one another in order to get general picture of a culture.