The middle range theory in archaeology links archaeological data describing how people use objects with the human behaviors or natural processes associated with this use. Middle range research attempts to provide archaeology with the tools needed to infer behaviors from the archaeological finds.
Lewis Binford, the main advocate of the middle range theory, conducted ethnographic fieldwork among the Nunamiut Eskimo, the Navajo, and the Australian aborigines. He tested the theory applying archaeological concepts and methodology to the analysis of contemporary garbage. Binford developed the middle range theory concept as applied in archeology from the sociological middle range theory of Robert K. Merton.
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“Don’t confuse hypothesis and theory. The former is a possible explanation; the latter, the correct one. The establishment of theory is the very purpose of science.”
—Martin H. Fischer (1879–1962)