Cultural Laws and the Reconstruction of Past Lifeways

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Abstract
It is suggested that in solving a specific problem of reconstructing past lifeways, one is dependent on arguments of relevance, which, it is argued, are lawlike propositions stating relationships between variables of the behavioral and spatio-material dimensions of a cultural system. This point is illustrated by a largely unsuccessful attempt to determine the extent that Basket Maker III subsistence made use of domesticated plant resources (a 50% estimate is derived). The tenuous nature of extant arguments of relevance suggests that archeologists might profitably investigate the relatively unexplored domain of behavioral-spatio-material relationships.

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