ABSTRACT
The most profitable inquiry of archeology is the search for the origin of epoch-making ideas in order to comprehend the history of civilization. Archaeology, by etymology the study of beginnings, has historical reconstruction for its objective. If seeking origins and tracing the history of culture was one task of archeology, some researchers considered a further aim to be the reconstruction of the lifeways of the peoples responsible for the archeological remains. Reconstructing culture history consists of arranging cultural units in a way which accurately reveals their generic affinities. It is evident that each culture trait tabulated in obtaining the ratio which measures degree of genealogical affinity must be evaluated to determine whether the similarity between traits arose as a function of lineal transmission, diffusion between cultural units, or independent development within each cultural unit. The reconstruction of the lifeways of extinct peoples is the second aim of archeology which we will examine in order to evaluate traditional methods.
