Lewis Binford

Lewis Roberts Binford (born November 21, 1931 in Norfolk , Virginia , † April 11, 2011 in Kirksville , Missouri ) was an American archaeologist and anthropologist . In the 1960s he was one of the initiators of New Archeology (also: "Processual Archeology" ).

Life

Lewis Binford studied until 1952 at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and - after completing his military service - anthropology at the University of North Carolina up to a bachelor's degree. He then moved to the University of Michigan , where he received his master's degree in 1958 and his doctorate in 1964 . As a university lecturer, Binford was later active at the University of Michigan, the University of Chicago , the University of California, Santa Barbara and from 1968 to 1991 at the University of New Mexico . From 1991 until his retirement in 2003 he was a University Distinguished Professor emeritus ( Emeritus ) at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.

In 2001 he was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences . In 1996 he became a corresponding member of the British Academy . In 2006 he received the Fyssen Foundation's International Prize endowed with 60,000 euros.

Research priorities

Binford first became known through a high-profile debate about the southern French city of Moustérien , which he fought out with the archaeologist François Bordes from the University of Bordeaux . While Bordes attributed the variability of different inventory types of the Moustériens to different tribes, Binford saw the functionality of stone tools and their interpretation in the foreground.

Binford's theoretical work had a significant influence on the theoretical discussion and the self-image, especially in English-language archeology. His essay "Archeology as Anthropology", published in 1962, is considered the basis of New Archeology , which was very influential in the USA in the 1960s and 1970s . Against the background of the subject's increasing focus on the natural sciences , he called for work in the areas of experimental archeology , ethno- archeology and historical archeology as a basis for archaeological interpretations .

Binford himself gave significant methodological impulses, for example with the monograph "Bones: Ancient Men and Modern Myth" published in 1981 on taphonomic processes on animal bones. The study systematized human manipulations for the first time, in particular the cutting marks on the bone surfaces. He used ethnological studies of hunting processes of the Nunamiut (a group of the Inupiat ) as a comparison.

Publications (selection)

• Archaeological and Ethnohistorical Investigation of Cultural Diversity and Progressive Development among Aboriginal Cultures of Coastal Virginia and North Carolina. 1964 (Ann Arbor MI, University of Michigan - Department of Anthropology, Ph. D. Dissertation 1964).
• as editor with Sally R. Binford: New Perspectives in Archeology Aldine Publishing, Chicago IL 1968.
• An Archaeological Perspective. Seminar Press, New York NY et al. 1972, ISBN 0-12-807750-6 .
• as editor: For Theory Building in Archeology. Essays on Faunal Remains, Aquatic Resources, Spatial Analysis and Systematic Modeling. Academic Press, New York NY et al. 1977, ISBN 0-12-100050-8 .
• Nunamiut Ethnoarchaeology. Academic Press, New York NY et al. 1978, ISBN 0-12-100040-0 .
• Bones. Ancient Men and Modern Myth. Academic Press, New York NY et al. 1981, ISBN 0-12-100035-4 .
• In Pursuit of the Past. Decoding the Archaeological Record. Thames and Hudson, London 1983, ISBN 0-500-05042-2 (In German: The prehistory was completely different. Methods and results of the new archeology. Harnack, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-88966-008-8 ).
• Working at Archeology Academic Press, New York NY et al. 1983, ISBN 0-12-100060-5 .
• Faunal Remains from Klasies River Mouth Academic Press, Orlando FL et al. 1984, ISBN 0-12-100070-2 .
• Debating Archeology. Academic Press, San Diego CA et al. 1989, ISBN 0-12-100045-1 .
• Constructing Frames of Reference. An Analytical Method for Archaeological Theory Building using Hunter-Gatherer and Environmental Data Sets. University of California Press, Berkeley CA et al. 2001, ISBN 0-520-22393-4 .

literature

• Robert L. Kelly: Lewis R. Binford (1931-2011). In: Science . Volume 332, 2011, p. 928 full text .
• Clive Gamble: Lewis Roberts Binford, 1931-2011 . In: Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the British Academy . tape XV . British Academy, 2016, p. 101-119 ( thebritishacademy.ac.uk [PDF]).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ SMU Anthropology Professor Elected to National Academy of Sciences ( Memento of the original from September 28, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ^ Deceased Fellows. British Academy, accessed May 5, 2020 . 
3. ↑ http://www.fondationfyssen.fr/prixinternational_oa_US.htm  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ^ Lewis Binford: Archeology as Anthropology. American Antiquity 28, 1962, pp. 217-225

Web links

• Literature by and about Lewis Binford in the catalog of the German National Library