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Sampling of Data Derived from Historical Documents in Anthropological Research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Thomas H. Foster II  and
Arthur Cohen
Thomas H. Foster II
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Antonio J. Waring Archaeological Laboratory, University of West Georgia, Carrollton, Georgia 30228 (tfoster@westga.edu)
Arthur Cohen
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Science, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 2920
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Abstract

In response to Joshua Piker's (this issue) comment on our article (Foster and Cohen 2007), we point out that our article was a description of a test of a hypothesis. Piker's (this issue) criticism of our paper is grounded in the differences between historians and anthropological archaeologists. The historic literature that Piker (this issue) cited does not inform about whether or not Creek Indians hunted where we performed the sediment cores. It merely points out that Creek hunters may have hunted with greater frequency elsewhere. But that is irrelevant to our study, which tested whether the eighteenth-century deerskin trade increased the frequency of forest fires in a particular region. Archaeologists will benefit from using historical documents but archaeologists still have to be clear about the potential biases of those interdisciplinary data sources.

Resumen

Resumen

En respuesta a Joshua Piker en nuestro comentario del artículo (Foster y Cohen 2007), señalamos que nuestro artículo es una descripción de una prueba de una hipótesis. Piker la crítica de nuestro papel se basa en las diferencias entre los historiadores y arqueólogos antropológico. La literatura histórica que Piker citados no informa acerca de si o no indios creek de caza, donde se realizó la sedimentos. Se limita a los puntos que pueden tener creek cazadores cazados con mayor frecuencia en otros lugares. Pero eso es irrelevante para nuestro estudio que la prueba para ver si el siglo XVIII el comercio de gamuza aumentado la frecuencia de los incendios forestales en una región en particular. Los arqueólogos se beneficiarán del uso de documentos históricos, pero los arqueólogos aún tienen que ser claros sobre los posibles sesgos de las fuentes de datos interdisciplinaria.

Type
Comments
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 75 , Issue 4 , October 2010 , pp. 973 - 977
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 2010

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References

References Cited

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