Holistic Mapping: Towards an Epistemological Foundation for Evolutionary Cognitive Archaeology

Evolutionary cognitive archaeology (ECA) is an emerging discipline that attempts to reconstruct the properties of ancient cognitive systems from the study of the material remains found in the archaeological record. Although there has been substantial interest in this area in recent years, scholars have tended to pay little attention to the methodologies used to formulate their theories. This has fostered an unfortunate situation of incommensurability between competing lines of argument. In this paper, I will attempt to provide a way out of this stagnation, using the methodology of “holistic mapping,” which represents a rational tool for theory validation in ECA. The lack of a shared methodology is a symptom of the wider neglect of deeper epistemological aspects of ECA, which in turn has given rise to the even more problematic questioning of the very foundations of the whole ECA enterprise. The absence of direct access to the ancient mind is associated with barriers to empirical testability, which fosters the production of “just so stories,” therefore evoking the specter of relativism. Building upon the previous methodological considerations, I will attempt to defend the epistemic validity of ECA, by discussing how holistic mapping can lead to the acquisition of reliable knowledge even if the object of science can only be indirectly reconstructed. Firmer epistemological foundations for ECA will be established by contextualizing this methodology within a middle-ground position in archaeological theory defined as “realism.” This epistemological perspective allows rejecting both the narrow empiricism and corrosive relativism currently threatening ECA.