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Ethnoarchaeology, Vol. 3, No. 2 (Fall 2011), pp. 203–220.
Copyright © 2011 Left Coast Press, Inc. All rights reserved.
A Retrospective Review of Richard A. Gould’s
Living Archaeology.
1980 (Re-issued 2009). Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press. 288 pp. $42.00 (paper), ISBN-10: 0521299594.
Reviewed by Simon J. Holdaway and Harry Allen,
he University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand,
sj.holdaway@auckland.ac.nz and h.allen@auckland.ac.nz
hree components provide the structure for Richard Gould’s book
Living Archaeology. he irst component presents his original re-
search into the cultural ecology and behaviour of Aboriginal groups
living in the Australian desert. his section also includes informa-
tion on Gould’s excavations at Puntutjarpa rock shelter located in the
Western Desert and the James Range East shelter in the Central Des-
ert. he second component of the book presents Australian ethnohis-
torical and archaeological research, which provides a continent-wide
context for Gould’s work. Finally, there are a number of connecting
chapters and sections that advance Gould’s theoretical arguments
concerning the nature of the archaeological record and how ethno-
graphic observations by archaeologists assist its interpretation. In this
retrospective, we consider irst his motivations for undertaking eth-
noarchaeological work, then his theoretical position, and inally his
contribution to Australian archaeology.
Ethnoarchaeology
Richard Gould and Richard Lee were contemporaries in the doctoral
programme at UC Berkeley (Gould [1965] 1966, Lee 1965) and there
is every indication that Gould shared in the excitement generated by
the Kalahari ethnoarchaeological project. A year later, Richard Gould
arrived at Warburton Mission in Western Australia to begin his own
ethnoarchaeological study among the people of the Western Desert.
Between 1967 and 1998, Richard Gould published some 37 articles
and ive books or monographs on his Australian research. Living
Archaeology reproduces work covered in some of the earlier stud-
ies up to and including 1977 and presents these within a connecting
narrative.