Abstract:
I show how archaeologists have two problems. The construction of scenarios
accounting for the raw data of Archaeology, the material remains of the past, and the
explanation of pre-history. Within Archaeology, there has been an ongoing debate
about how to constrain speculation within both of these archaeological projects, and
archaeologists have consistently looked to biological mechanisms for constraints. I
demonstrate the problems of using biology, either as an analogy for cultural processes
or through direct application of biological principles to material remains. This is done
through setting out the requirements of a Darwinian Archaeology, and then
measuring various approaches against these requirements.
This approach leads to the conclusion that archaeologist's explanations of the past
must include within their formulations an account of human cognitive capacities
within their explanatory framework. The limits of our understanding of the human
past will be the limits of our understanding of Homo sapiens.
