ABOUT THIS BOOK

Explores W. C. McKern's use of Linnaean taxonomy as the model for development of a pottery classification system

By the early 20th century, North American archaeologists had found evidence of a plethora of prehistoric cultures displaying disparate geographic and chronological distributions. But there were no standards or algorithms for specifying when a culture was distinct or identical to another in a nearby or distant region.

Will Carleton McKern of the Milwaukee Public Museum addressed this fundamental problem of cultural classification beginning in 1929. He modeled his solution—known as the Midwestern Taxonomic Method—on the Linnaean biological taxonomy because he wanted the ability to draw historical and cultural "relationships" among cultures. McKern was assisted during development of the method by Carl E. Guthe, Thorne Deuel, James B. Griffin, and William Ritchie.

This book studies the 1930s correspondence between McKern and his contemporaries as they hashed out the method's nuances. It compares the several different versions of the method and examines the Linnaean biological taxonomy as it was understood and used at the time McKern adapted it to archaeological problems. Finally, this volume reveals how and why the method failed to provide the analytical solution envisioned by McKern and his colleagues and how it influenced the later development of Americanist archaeology.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

R. Lee Lyman is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Missouri—Columbia and coeditor of Setting the Agenda for American Archaeology.

Michael J. O'Brien is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Missouri—Columbia and coeditor of Changing Perspectives on the Archaeology of the Central Mississippi Valley.

REVIEWS

“An excellent account of the little-known history of the Midwestern Taxonomic, or McKern, System. This is the third book in a series by O'Brien and Lyman presenting documentation of aspects critical to the early history of Americanist archaeology and will be of great interest to students in the field.”
—Charles H. McNutt, University of Memphis

“(This) is the third in a series of books by Lyman and O'Brien that closely reexamine the contributions of the culture history paradigm to Americanist archaeology. . . . A well-researched, well-written work that covers an under-documented period in American archaeology.”
—Southeastern Archaeology

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

List of Illustrations

List of Tables

Preface and Acknowledgments

PART I: W. C. McKern and the Midwestern Taxonomic Method

1. Introduction

2. Taxonomic Classi¤cation and Biological Taxonomy

3. Developing the Midwestern Taxonomic Method, 1930–1935

4. Subsequent Developments, 1935–1940

5. Applications, Comments, and Later Proposals

6. The Midwestern Taxonomic Method in Light of Biological Systematics

PART I I: Historical Documents

7. Culture Type Classification for Midwestern North American Archaeology

8. A Suggested Classification of Cultures

9. Local Types and the Regional Distribution of Pottery- Bearing Cultures

10. The Problem of Culture Classification

11. Certain Culture Classification Problems in Middle Western Archaeology

12. Some Assumptions and Implications of the McKern Classification System

13. Review of Rediscovering Illinois: Archaeological Explorations in and around Fulton County

14. The McKern and Related Systems of Classification

15. The Midwestern Taxonomic Method as an Aid to Archaeological Culture Study

16. Application of the Midwestern Taxonomic Method

17. Taxonomy and the Direct Historical Approach

18. Regarding Midwestern Archaeological Taxonomy

19. An Inaccurate Description of Midwestern Taxonomy

References Cited

Index