ABSTRACT
Archaeology, like the rest of western thought, suffers from over-compartmentalization. Too often its procedures take the form of analysis-breaking down, dividing-rather than combining and synthesizing. Such separating procedures are useful where they foster specialist skills, but dangerous if their subject-matter is left in isolation. The purpose of this contribution is to assert that the word often used to describe an important part of our subject-matter-‘subsistence’—is not an autonomous domain, but is best considered as one aspect of a larger set of relationships. ‘Subsistence’ is a misleading category within which to work; the textbook division between ‘subsistence and settlement’ and ‘trade and exchange’ should be abolished as a hindrance to understanding.
