Concepts of Time and Approaches to Analogical Reasoning in Historical Perspective

Abstract

Analogy is fundamentally important to archaeological inquiry, yet archaeologists remain profoundly ambivalent about its use. In this paper I address issues of how we develop and subsequently apply analogical models. Selecting an analogue requires that we have some implicit or explicit sense of its relevance to the case at hand. In the past, archaeologists often assumed that principles of relevance implied extensive similarities between the ethnographic and archaeological contexts and diverted attention away from the need to compare the analogical model with the archaeological context. In the first part of the paper, which is historically oriented, I examine the role that concepts of time (e.g., stone age, traditional, modern) have played in selecting relevant analogues. Fabian's critique of how anthropologists have used time to distance contemporary peoples guides this inquiry. In the remainder of the paper I explore the implications of recent historical-anthropological studies that document tremendous changes that resulted from European contact; this literature challenges archaeologists to develop more critical approaches to the use of so-called traditional societies as analogical models. In the final sections of the paper I explore the need for enhanced source-side criticism in developing relevant analogues, and advocate a comparative approach to the application of analogical models.