ABSTRACT
Richard Gould (1978c, 1980a; Gould and Watson 1982) has made positive claims for his inferential approach, at the same time implying that approaches used by others are limited in various ways. His arguments touch upon important issues currently under debate. For instance, Gould addresses patterns of butchery and the sharing of meat in his discussions of method and procedure. These are issues currently discussed among archaeologists trying to elucidate the behavioral significance of very early archaeological sites. Glynn Isaac (1978a, 1978b, 1980) has been a strong advocate of the view that early man lived in base camps and was organized into social groups within which the sharing of the meaty parts from animals was basic to their way of life. I have challenged this view (Binford 1981a, 1985a) and have been concerned to learn how we might render from the archaeological record an unambiguous interpretation as to whether or not early man was sharing meat (see Binford 1978a:272–273).
