Anthropology, Space, and Geographic Information Systems (Spatial Information Systems)

305 Pages·1996·36.82 MB·English

by  Mark Aldenderfer

Anthropology, Space, and
Geographic Information Systems
Spatial Information Series
General Editors
M. F. Goodchild
P. A. Burrough
R. McDonnell
P. Switzer
Anthropology, Space, and
Geographic Information Systems
Mark Aldenderfer
Herbert D. G. Maschner
New York Oxford
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
1996
Oxford University Press
Oxford New York
Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogota Bombay
Buenos Aires Calcutta Cape Town Dar es Salaam
Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi
Kuala Lumpur Madras Madrid Melbourne
Mexico City Nairobi Paris Singapore
Taipei Tokyo Toronto
and associated companies in
Berlin Ibadan
Copyright © 1996 by Oxford University Press, Inc.
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Anthropology, space and geographic information systems / [edited by]
Mark Aldenderfer, Herbert D. G. Maschner.
p cm. — (Spatial information systems)
Papers from a conference held in Santa Barbara, January, 1992.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-19-508575-2 (cloth)
1. Anthropology—Data processing—Congresses. 2. Cartography—
Data processing—Congresses. 3. Geographic information systems—
Congresses. 4. Spatial analysis (Statistics)—Congresses.
I. Aldenderfer, Mark S. II. Maschner, Herbert D. G. III. Series.
GN346.5.A57 1996
301'.0285—dc20 95-32350
3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
Preface
Although spatial thinking has long been a part of anthropological inquiry, it
has waxed and waned in its perceived utility and centrality to the field. Much
anthropological thought at the beginning of the twentieth century was con-
cerned with the concept of diffusion and the definition of culture areas on a
continental scale. Scholars—using material culture, kinship systems, house
form, and social institutions, for example—attempted to identify centers of
diffusion and thus used the notion of spatial proximity to explain similarities
and differences between cultures. Archaeologists of the era used similar con-
cepts to describe the distribution of material culture, and were concerned with
tracing the movement of peoples or charting the origins of agriculture and the
emergence of civilization. Anthropology and archaeology parted ways after
1940 in their thinking about the role of space in their fields.
Anthropologists rejected most diffusionist theories and in their place began
to develop new schools of thought and theories, few of which integrated space
and spatial thinking in a meaningful way into the research process. In one
sense, anthropology turned inward and sought to demonstrate the roles of
history, place, and locality as the primary means by which an understanding of
human cultural diversity could be appreciated. Space thus became passive and
sterile as an analytical concept. Archaeologists, however, maintained their in-
terest in space, and in the 1950s, with the emergence of settlement archaeol-
ogy, began to explore more sophisticated ways in which to employ spatial think-
ing and concepts. With the emergence of the "New Archaeology" in the 1960s
and its emphasis on explanation, quantitative thinking, and a scientific per-
spective on the past, archaeologists increasingly turned to other fields, notably
geography, for tools and ideas for spatial analysis. Geographical information
systems (GIS), as they became practical tools for spatial analysis in the early
1980s, were quickly seized upon by archaeologists, who immediately recog-
nized their potential.
Despite the inward turn of anthropological thought, significant subfields,
such as development and ecological anthropology, managed to retain an ap-
preciation of space and—independent of developments in archaeology—dis-
covered the value of GIS and how it could help them achieve their own re-
search goals. This became especially important for those scholars concerned
with finding ways to integrate the results of traditional anthropological in-
quiry, which tends to be small-scale and personal, with data obtained from
research into regional-scale phenomena, such as deforestation.
By the early 1990s, it became clear to many of us working with GIS that it
vi Preface
was time sample the field, identify the areas of strength in the use of GIS
within it, and demonstrate the value of GIS to our colleagues. To that end, a
conference was held at the University of California (UCSB) in Santa Barbara
in January 1992 entitled "The Anthropology of Human Behavior Through
Geographic Information and Analysis: An International Conference." A total
of 22 papers was presented. The papers in this volume are good representa-
tives of the variety of issues discussed in the conference. While it is clear that
much remains to be done to demonstrate the utility of GIS to a broader
anthropological audience, we feel these papers mark an important first
step toward that goal.
Many organizations and people were instrumental to the success of the
conference and the appearance of this volume. The National Center for Geo-
graphic Information and Analysis (NCGIA), directed by Mike Goodchild,
provided the most of the funding for the conference, and we are grateful for
his support and encouragement. Staff members of NCGIA who cheerfully
assisted us with the financial and other myriad details of running a complex
conference were Judith Parker, Sandi Glendenning, Yasmina Mhemedi, and
Carol Wasteneys; to each of them, we offer our thanks. We also owe a debt of
gratitude to the Social Science Computing Facility (SSCF) at UCSB. Joan
Murdoch, its director, allowed attendees of the conference access to E-mail
and other computing services; further, she helped us overcome a variety of
logistical and other problems. Other SSCF staff members who provided use-
ful assistance were Chris Arnold and Jeff Stein. The UCSB Department of
Anthropology also lent us a number of services: Dirk Brandts prepared con-
ference brochures, while Brian Billman, Pat Lambert, and Nelson Siefkin cheer-
fully acted as chauffeurs and assistants. Thanks also go to Stephanie Golledge
of the Department of Geography, who ran the slide projectors and supervised
the audiovisual equipment used in the conference.
This book could not have been assembled without the skills of Karen
Doehner, who had the patience to deal with questions about page layout and
graphic design from impatient and ignorant editors. Without her, in fact, we
would still be trying to churn this manuscript out on our word processors. She
was ably assisted at crucial moments by Dirk Brandts and John Kantner. We
would also like to express our gratitude to the authors of these papers, who have
exhibited remarkable patience in the light of the difficult genesis of this volume.
Santa Barbara, Calif. M. A.
January 1995
Madison, Wise. H. M.
January 1995
Contents
1
Introduction 3
Mark Aldenderfer
2
Land Degradation in the Peruvian Amazon: Applying GIS in Human Ecology
Research 19
William M. Loker
3
The Use of GIS to Measure Spatial Patterns of Ethnic Firms in the Los Ange-
les Garment Industry 44
Christopher G. Arnold and Richard P. Appelbaum
4
A Formal Justification for the Application of GIS to the Cultural Ecological
Analysis of Land-Use Intensification and Deforestation in the Amazon 55
Clifford A. Behrens
5
Integrating Socioeconomic and Geographic Information Systems: A Method-
ology for Rural Development and Agricultural Policy Design 78
Susan Stonich
6
Empirical and Methodological Problems in Developing a GIS Database for
Yanomano Tribesmen Located in Remote Areas 97
Ken McGwire, Napoleon A. Chagnon, and Charles Brewer Carias
7
A Time to Rend, A Time to Sew: New Perspectives on Northern Anasazi
Sociopolitical Development in Late Prehistory 107
Carla Van West and Timothy A. Kohler
8
Moving from Catchments to Cognition: Tentative Steps Toward a Larger
Archaeological Context for GIS 132
Vincent Gaffney, Zoran Stancic, and Helen Watson
viii Contents
9
An Analysis of Late-Horizon Settlement Patterns in the Teotihuacan-
Temascalapa Basins: A Location-Allocation and GIS-Based Approach 155
AmyJ. Ruggles and Richard L. Church
10
The Politics of Settlement Choice on the Northwest Coast: Cognition, GIS,
and Coastal Landscapes 175
Herbert D. G. Maschner
11
The Role of GIS in the Management of Archaeological Data: An Example of
Application for the Spanish Administration 190
Conception Blasco Bosqued, Javier Baena Preysler, and Javier Expiago
12
The Role of GIS in the Interdisciplinary Investigations at Olorgesailie, Kenya,
a Pleistocene Archaeological Locality 202
Richard Potts, Tom forstad, and Daniel Cole
13
Danebury Revisited: A English Iron Age Hillfort in a Digital Landscape 214
Gary R. Lock and Trevor M. Harris
14
Geographic Information Systems and Spatial Analysis in the Social Sciences 241
Michael F. Goodchild
References 251
Contributors
Mark Aldenderfer Department of Anthropology
University of California-Santa Barbara
Richard P. Appelbaum Department of Sociology
University of California-Santa Barbara
Christopher G. Arnold Department of Anthropology
University of California-Santa Barbara
Javier Baena Preysler Servicio de Cartograffa
Universidad Autonoma de Madrid
Clifford A. Behrens Information Sciences Research
New Jersey
Concepcion BlascoBosqued Servicio de Cartograffa
Universidad Autonoma de Madrid
Charles Brewer Carias Department of Anthropology
University of California-Santa Barbara
Napoleon A. Chagnon Department of Anthropology
University of California-Santa Barbara
Richard L. Church Department of Geography
University of California-Santa Barbara
Daniel Cole Department of Paleobiology
Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.
Javier Espiago Servicio de Cartografia
Universidad Autonoma de Madrid
Vincent Gaffney Department of Archaeology
University of Reading
Michaeol F. Goodchild Department of Geography
University of California-Santa Barbara
Trevor M. Harris Department of Geography
University of West Virginia
Tom Jorstad Department of Paleobiology
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Gary R. Lock Institute of Archaeology
University of Oxford
William M. Loker Department of Sociology, Anthropology,
and Social Work
Mississippi State University
Herbert D. G. Maschner Department of Anthropology
University of Wisconsin-Madison