Lewis R. Binford

1930-present

    Lewis R. Binford was born on November 21, 1930 in Norfolk Virginia and graduated from the University of North Carolina after earning his Bachelor of Arts degree; later he attended the University of Michigan where he earned his Master of Arts degree and his Ph.D.

    After college he married Sally, who was also an archaeologist. Binford is best known as the pioneer of a movement called the "New Archaeology" which began along with a few others in the 1960's; part of this was ethnoarchaeology, which is a prevalent specialization in modern archaeology which argues that an understanding of the archaeological record is only possible through an understanding of the process through which it was formed; thus, ethnoarchaeology includes the study of living peoples and their material cultures with the goal being the more complete understanding of the archaeological record.

    Many of Binford's ideas have been incorporated in the theory and methodology of modern archeology and can be found in the books he has authored or co-authored:

 -An Archeological Perspective
-Bones: Ancient Men & Modern Myths
-In Pursuit of the Past: Decoding the Archeological Record
-Working in Archeology

 

 References

Former link, http://www.biography.com/cgi-bin/biomain.cgi, 2006

Binford, Lewis R., Toolworks Multimedia Encyclopedia

Binford, Lewis R., An Archeological Perspective

 

Written By: Anthropology Students at Minnesota State University, Mankato, 1998