ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the proposition that the most serious failings in present models for interpeting archeological evidence are directly related to the fact that they incorporate numerous analogies with modern groups. Prehistoric research has attained a new level of sophistication in the gathering and interpretation of archeological materials. The use of analogy in archeological interpretation has been due to a desire to construct categories of cultural development, 'levels' of economic organization or social complexity, under the assumption that such constructs are the goal of evolutionary studies, and that the principles of the classification are derivable from our knowledge of the evolutionary process. The chapter explains that analogical reasoning from modern behavior must be kept to a minimum in the construction of models of past cultural systems. To be of utility to the prehistorian, the definition of the 'social unit' must include special-purpose groups or 'parties' as well as corporate groups.
