ABSTRACT
A critical evaluation of the archeological evidence that can be obtained from late or historic settlements, supplemented by oral tradition, provides a promising means of resolving some of the problems of conflicting data as between present-day and early-contact times and also for the immediately previous period. Only during the last ten years or so has systematic excavation and study of artifact distribution on Lower Paleolithic living floors been undertaken in the Old World. Such studies have shown that it is quite possible to find sealed occupation sites that have suffered little or no natural disturbance before or after burial. There are many other matters having a more general bearing on the interpretation of the behavior of prehistoric hunting and gathering populations that the new 'ethnoarcheological' studies may clarify. Most of the hunting and gathering groups existing today are living in some of the least favorable habitats and have for long been in contact with more complex societies and technologies.
