Social archaeology and the irrational

Journal/Book: Curr Anthropol. 1996; 37: 5720 S Woodlawn Ave, Chicago, IL 60637. Univ Chicago Press. 609-627.

Abstract: Social archaeologists' ability to make warranted statements about past societies from material remains is conditioned by the social-behavioral models that inform their interpretations. Current rational-actor models, although practical, clearly underconceptualize the complexity of social conduct by overrationalizing it. I offer the provisional outline of a more realistic composite model that conceives of social behavior as following a mode of limited rationality much of the time but also engendering irrationality. I use the model to inform a reanalysis of archaeological patterns in Bronze Age Sardinia. The approach holds important insights for social archaeology in general that include the potentially significant role of normative-cultural traditions in the reproduction of nonrational institutions, the importance of historical trajectories in preconditioning social adaptations, and the importance of structural contradictions in creating opportunities for political ascent in noncentralized societies. The thesis acknowledges remaining difficulties in reconciling concepts of rationality with those of adaptation and function and difficulties arising from its mistaken classification as either universalistic or relativistic.

Note: Review GS Webster, Penn State Univ, Mt Alto, PA 17237 USA

Keyword(s): PROCESSUAL ARCHAEOLOGY; DISTINGUISHED LECTURE; BRONZE-AGE; EVOLUTION; STRATIFICATION; ORGANIZATION; CHIEFDOMS; EUROPE

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