Chaîne Opératoire and Reduction Sequence

Abstract

National traditions of archaeological thought are a popular subject today. This essay concerns art apparent difference between interpretative concepts in two traditions of lithic analysis: the French chaîne opératoire and the American reduction sequence. To speak of French or American traditions of thought reifies the characteristic to the categorical, done to simplify not because the characterizations are accurate to the last detail. The American reduction sequence concept arose in the 1890s and matured around 1970. The French chaîne opératoire originated in the 1960s and came into common use in the 1990s. The intellectual and historical contexts of the concepts differ. Yet the two are substantially the same thing despite the efforts especially of chaîne opératoire's advocates to claim originality.

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