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49
G
ustavo
G. P
olitis
Reflections on Contemporary Ethnoarchaeology
PYRENAE,
núm.
46
vol.
1
(2015)
ISSN: 0079-8215 EISSN: 2339-9171 (p. 41-83)
In parallel with these main trends, basically from Anglo-American origin, there is
a francophone ethnoarchaeology with antecedents in the classic French ethnographic
studies on material culture (González-Ruibal, 2003: 21-22). This trend focuses on the
identification of technological procedures (pottery, metallurgy, etc.), paying attention to
the broader social context and to learning processes. Recently, Roux (2013) has sum-
marized the francophone ethnoarchaeology recognizing three main approaches. Firstly,
that based on Gardin’s logicism program (1979), which intended to discover regularities
whose condition of application to the archaeological data was explicit. These regularities
sought to achieve the rank of “laws”. The research by Gallay (1991, 1992, 2007) and
Gelbert (2002, 2003) derives directly from this approach, as well as Roux’s (2000, 2007),
with a more positivist and nomothetical methodology, who has been studying ceramic and
bead production in India, giving special attention to learning and specialization processes.
Secondly, an approach that proposes “typological regularities”, which links material traits
with different domains
.
The ethnoarchaeological studies made by Anne-Marie and Pierre
Fig. 1.
Brazilian ethnoarchaeologist Fabiola Silva among the Asurini in the Kwatinemu village (Brazil). She was organizing a trip with
the Asurini to find the ancient villages along the Ipiaçava creek. 2010. Photo courtesy of Fabiola Silva.