Ethnoarchaeologists study modern-day society’s behavior in order to better understand prehistoric people’s activities. They look for clues to human behavior rather than just studying artifacts left behind in archaeological sites. Ethnoarchaeologists can infer from current societies that artifacts served a similar purpose in the past as they do now. They construct a hypothesis based on the material left behind by ancient societies and existing groups of people’s cultural information.
Archaeologists use traditional methods to identify, classify, interpret, and date artifacts discovered at archaeological sites. They try to figure out how people adapted to their surroundings by looking at what was left behind. To gain a better understanding of prehistoric life, ethnoarchaeologists add human behavior to the mix. Data from museums, experiments, and observations of living societies are all included.
The Nunamiut Eskimos of northern Alaska were the subject of one of the most well-known ethnoarchaeological studies. Lewis Binford, an archaeologist, attempted to decipher the seemingly random nature of animal bones discovered in prehistoric archaeological sites throughout the region. He began to study the Nunamiut culture and how they conducted caribou hunts twice a year.
The research looked into how the Eskimos adapted to their harsh environment. Winters were bitterly cold, and more than half of the year was spent in complete darkness for this hunter-gatherer society. Binford discovered that the Nunamiut lived in base camps and hunted in smaller, temporary camps. In the hunt camps, animals were butchered and bones were left behind, along with tools used to cut and prepare the meat.
Ethnoarchaeologists looked at Native American populations and Australian aborigines in their research. Certain activities, according to some scientists, have served common purposes throughout history. They come to the conclusion that while there is no way to know for sure what happened in the past, studying the present adds to archaeological knowledge.
Ethnoarchaeologists study how people prepare food and use tools that are essential for survival. They want to know how prehistoric people evolved and used new technology to help them survive. When exploring archaeological sites using traditional methods, these scientists use published and unpublished information passed down through generations to help them understand the past.
Traditional archaeologists are skeptical of ethnoarchaeology, which they refer to as “new archaeology.” They argue that theories developed by studying modern people provide nothing more than a speculative analogy that may or may not be accurate. The empirical evidence found at prehistoric sites, according to these researchers, should stand apart from modern-day inferences.