I have just put into production this week a book on Artifact
Classification by Dwight Read. I don't know if Dwight is on this list
to provide more details, but the book outlines his theories on how
classifications should be structured and critiques previous attempts.
The book should be available in May and copies (or proofs) should be at
the SAA meeting. 
mitch allen
Left Coast Press, Inc.


--- Ron May <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>  
> I have been waiting for Rich Sprague to reply to his thread. After
> several  
> years of attending SHA conference symposia and hearing the problems
> many people 
>  encountered with Stanley South's model, I elected to work with
> Sprague's  
> functional model for analysis of collections recovered at the Ballast
> Point  
> Whaling Station and Chinese fishing camp (CA-SDI-12953) at San Diego,
>  
> California. I corresponded with Sprague and launched into the
> analysis, which is  nearly 
> complete. I expect to produce a report on this work by the end of
> next  
> summer. 
>  
> My problem with the South model is that it is so static. Other people
>  
> applied their data to the model and it simply did not work. Sprague's
> model, on  the 
> other hand, enables analysis of the behavioral variables within a
> site due  
> to factors such as ethnicity, gender, and economic class. I am more
> interested  
> in the variations than trying to force the data into some rigid
> model.
>  
> Ron May
> Legacy 106, Inc.
>  
> In a message dated 1/24/2007 1:18:06 P.M. Pacific Standard Time,  
> [log in to unmask] writes:
> 
> Larry
> 
> We have exchanged much of this already but HISTARCH  readers may not 
> be aware of some of the details.  As indicated, what  you are looking
> 
> for has already been done and used with great frequency in  western 
> North America.  It was published as:  Roderick Sprague,  1981, A 
> Functional Classification for Artifacts from 19th and 20th Century  
> Historical Sites.  North American Archaeologist,  2(3):251-261.
> 
> Stan and I carried on good humored correspondence (before  email) for
> 
> many months on our different approaches to question of  functional 
> classifications.  Statements such as "laundry lists" vs.  "where and 
> what I did today" were part of that correspondence and should  not be
> 
> taken seriously or misinterpreted.   Why this work has  been little 
> used east of the Mississippi except by my former students has  always
> 
> been a mystery to me.
> 
> Changes suggested, such as those by  Cathy Spude, are usually ones 
> that are made to make specific adjustments  for some special issue
> and 
> are encouraged.  Unfortunately more often  changes are made to make 
> the decision process easier and generally violate  the functional 
> first level of decision.  For example cartridges are  grouped as just
> 
> that rather than within functional groups of hunting, self  defense, 
> recreation, national defense, etc.  This is also most often  
> erroneously done with bottles and cans.
> 
> Rick
> 
> Roderick  Sprague
> 625 N Garfield St
> Moscow, ID   83843
> 208-882-0413
> 
> At 09:39 AM 1/22/2007, you wrote:
> >Our  staff is working on the analysis of artifacts from a data 
> recovery
> >project on a 1910s to 1940s lumber mill town, Ravensford, on  the
> edge of
> >the Great Smoky Mountains in southwestern North  Carolina.  The
> >collection includes over 170,000 artifacts from 22  distinct house
> lots,
> >commercial lots, and several  dumps.
> >
> >We are trying to adapt South's functional category  scheme to serve
> as an
> >intermediate step in the artifact analysis. We  are tweaking it to
> >accommodate 20th century items as well as to try (as  others have
> done)
> >to minimize the inherent problems in forcing certain 
> multifunctional or
> >ambiguous items into fixed  categories.
> >
> >We are looking for references to discussions (in  publications, gray
> >literature, dissertations, or meeting presentations)  of similar
> attempts
> >at broader functional categorization of historic  period artifact
> >collections, based on South or other  approaches.
> >
> >Thanks in advance for any suggestions from list  members.
> >
> >Larry McKee, Ph.D.
> >Branch Manager/Senior  Archaeologist
> >TRC Inc.
> >1865 Air Lane Dr, Suite  9
> >Nashville TN  37210-3814
> >Office: 615 884-4430  Fax:  615 884-4431
> >Mobile: 615  482-7378
> >[log in to unmask]
> 


Mitch Allen
Publisher
Left Coast Press, Inc.
1630 N. Main Street, #400
Walnut Creek, California 94596
925 935-3380 phone and fax
[log in to unmask]
www.LCoastPress.com