The archaeological literature is currently awash in edited volumes dedicated to digital and geospatial techniques. Even before the initial widespread application of geographic information system and remote sensing methods in the 1990s, it could be argued that archaeologists have always been the “gearheads” of anthropology. It should not be a surprise, therefore, to find any number of “new technology” approaches to archaeological research published each year. In contrast, other anthropological subfields tend to have far fewer examples of research that seeks to apply and explore new methods in geospatial analysis. The exceptions are paleoanthropology, which tends to follow an archaeology-like attitude to fieldwork, and biological anthropology, with its morphological approach to skeletal analysis.
The volume by Anemone and Conroy is presented as case studies in new geospatial approaches that are intended to crosscut all of the major anthropological subfields. The collection of chapters evolved from an advanced seminar in 2016 at the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe. As the editors state, “From this interchange of ideas came the realization that geospatial analysis in the broadest sense holds great promise for anthropological inquiry across all the subdisciplines” (p. 2). In the first chapter, they provide an overview of geographic information science (GIScience) literature in various anthropological disciplines and then summarize each case study and how they may contribute to the ongoing dialogue.
Overall, the chapters are well written and coherent, at least from the perspective of someone familiar with the terminology. The second chapter, though, does an admirable job of explaining much of what may not be known to readers not familiar with current GIScience literature. Despite the limitations of black-and-white publication, the graphics are mostly clear, though perhaps on the small side. However, several chapters would have benefited from full-color graphics or more detailed illustrations. Rather than address each chapter individually, I would just like to point out some particularly interesting or innovative approaches presented in the volume.
Many of the analyses discussed in several chapters deal with “big data,” satellite imagery, and data mining. Unsupervised image and land classifications are techniques that have long-standing predictive utility in archaeology and which are now being applied in the search for hominid fossil or primate nesting sites. Although the techniques are not entirely new, they are being ever refined, and more powerful processors are becoming capable of handling larger and larger datasets. Like most data mining techniques, however, these approaches are not so much about answering questions of human (or hominid) behavior as mostly about finding as-yet-unidentified physical datasets.
Several chapters address techniques of 3-D modeling, through either LiDAR/laser scanning or photogrammetry. Again, this technology has been around for some time now and has been applied to enormous numbers of archaeological research projects. These approaches, though, are still in their infancy within other anthropological disciplines. One particularly interesting idea presented in this volume is the use of quantitative and geographic information system analysis on the 3-D microtopography of dental use wear. Too frequently, we think of geospatial analysis on the scale of large landscapes. However, it makes perfect sense to use the same analytical tools on much smaller scales. This kind of innovation has yet to be fully realized, but it also should have appeal for those interested in artifact use wear or rock art surfaces, for example.
Chapters 8 and 9 go further than others in exploring approaches to understanding human decision making. The first develops an agent-based model to simulate pastoral intensification, while the second uses pseudo-hydrology modeling to get at similar questions of pastoral landscape use. Agent-based modeling has now become widespread and is perhaps the technique most often applied in nonarchaeological subfields of anthropology. The application of hydro-modeling tools for something other than modeling hydrology is an excellent example of just how much we should be “thinking outside the box” with geospatial analysis.
Although each case study is engaging and interesting to read, almost all of the chapters are either archaeological or paleoanthropological studies. The techniques described do have applications in other areas of anthropology or related research, such as cultural anthropology, ethnology, human geography, and linguistics. Those applications, however, are not explicitly explored in this volume, only implied. This is not particularly a problem for an archaeological or paleoanthropological audience, but it falls short of fully reaching across the disciplinary “silos” or improving the limited scholarly communication the editors decry. I think that this volume, though certainly worthy of a place on my archaeological bookshelf, is still unlikely to turn the ethnologist in the office next door into a “gearhead” like me.
