Cross-Cultural Comparative Approaches in Archaeology

Cross-cultural comparative approaches have been used widely in archaeological research, yet to date none seem to have achieved their full potential. Synchronic cross-cultural comparisons have provided a number of material correlates of behavior, as well as a few causal and noncausal associations that allow behavior to be inferred from material remains. However, large areas of material culture, such as ceramics and lithics, have not yet been subject to extensive comparative analysis, and thus large areas of archaeological research that might be aided by synchronic comparative findings have been left unassisted. Diachronic cross-cultural comparisons have been used extensively to chart and analyze cultural evolution. However, these comparisons are typically based on grab-bag samples and only rarely employ statistics to aid in the discovery or testing of evolutionary patterns. New research tools providing a statistically valid sampling universe and information resources for coding archaeological data are being developed to facilitate cross-cultural comparisons.