Weighing in on Multi-scalar Approaches

Summary

Scales and levels of organization are important reference frameworks for archaeological explorations of past human behavior, but they are often confusingly interwoven in the literature. Overarching themes of investigation may include several, overlapping scales of evidence. For example, in organizing units of analysis to investigate community scales of action, archaeologists may contend with aggregates of organized human activity oriented along relationship continuums that include portions of a family, a clan, a village, or a language group. In geospatial terms, relational scalar units of space use may include households, plazas, agricultural systems, or watersheds, among others. Further examples of multiscalar practices include related temporal dimensions of food analysis, such as the often quotidian nature of meal preparation, versus the less frequent production of cooking pottery, and even longer cycles of pastoral or agricultural production. These have all proven to be useful thematic frameworks, for example in suggesting the strategic use of identity in Genizaro New Mexican contexts, but when interrogated as multi-scalar practices, may or may not be commensurate within or between themes.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2014   •
• Questions that Will Count in the Future: Global Perspectives on Historical Archaeology

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): SYM-7,08