[LATE PLEISTOCENE AND EARLY HOLOCENE FORAGER ORGANIZATIONS IN SOUTHEAST ASIA] Beyond typologies: The reduction thesis and its implications for lithic assemblages in Southeast Asia

Abstract

Stone artefact archaeology in mainland Southeast Asia has not enjoyed the same level of interest and productivity as studies of stone artefacts in other parts of the world. Although there are a number of reasons for this, a significant one is the use of essentialism as the underlying philosophy of lithic classification. Essentialism is a flawed approach to classifying stone artefacts because of the continuous nature of artefact reduction. Case studies are presented that show essentialism has additional problems, such as inefficiency, compression of variation and inability to explain historical change. An alternative approach, nominalism, is better suited to lithic classification and analysis. Existing nominalist approaches can easily be adapted for Southeast Asia assemblages and promises to liven-up stone artefact archaeology in mainland Southeast Asia.

Looking Forward by Studying the Past in East and Southeast Asian Archaeology: The Next 50 Years

“…This paradigm uses the Three-Age system, progressive/complexity narratives, and core-periphery framework to construct a normative view of Southeast Asia's past. This normative paradigm, based on essentialist or nominalist thinking (Marwick 2008), seeks closeness of fit with modal types instead of testing multiple working hypotheses that could explain the patterning, and produces what Binford (1981) called post-hoc accommodative arguments rather than new knowledge about the region's archaeological record. The paradigm is constraining, Eurocentric (Shoocongdej 2011:17), and normative in Southeast Asian archaeology, at least.…”

Missing Types: Overcoming the Typology Dilemma of Lithic Archaeology in Southeast Asia.

“…An approach to the characterization of Hoabinhian assemblages themselves was given by Ben Marwick (Australian National University) in his talk "Beyond typologies: The reduction thesis and its implications for lithic assemblages in Southeast Asia" (Marwick 2008). Two different analytical systems have to be distinguished: a) essentialism, looking for discrete categories (typology), and b) nominalism, stating that there are no discrete types but only tendencies which can be abstracted (e.g.…”

Shouldered Adzes, Bifaces, and Chert Prisms: A Characterization of Mimotien Stone Tool Assemblages From Later Cambodian Prehistory

“…It is not intended here to set up a detailed morphotypological classification of the Mimotien lithic artefact inventory; the problems of snapshots from different phases of the life cycles of artefacts grouped together in typological classes are well-known and discussed elsewhere, as are the problems of different to contrasting categorizations if the samples are analysed with a technological or functional perspective (see Boer-Mah 2008;Marwick 2008;Pawlik 2008). Rather, it is meant to give an impression of the variety of different morphotype groups of lithic artefacts present in Mimotien assemblages.…”