Critique of Archaeological Reason
8. Monographs: Wynn

Introduction

Giorgio Buccellati – October 2013

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Goal: main purpose of the monograph

Thomas Wynn’s early monograph Spatial Competence, 1989 (see Wynn 1989 Evolution) is a model of archaeological inferential analysis, and I give here an extensive overview of its content. This slender book is of the great significance, and it has great relevance for the central argument of CAR (see Buccellati G 2017 C A R).

I refer briefly to the significance of the work in the summary entry about Wynn 1989 ((see Wynn 1989 Evolution)) within the bibliography. Here I give an extensive set of excerpts, organized thematically, with special reference to the topics pertinent to my own central argument. The sequence is reproduced in the table below.

GENERAL NOTIONS
Methodology
     Developmental sequence
     Nature of progress
     Structure
     Bracing
     Typology and taxonomy
     About archaeology
Spatial competence
     Spatial thinking
     Overall shape
     External perspective
     Symmetry
     Intentionality
INTUITIVE GEOMETRIES
Topological concepts
     1. Proximity
     2. Order
          pairing
          ordered sequence
          reversed sequence
     3. Continuity
Projective concepts
          straight edge
          cross section
Euclidean concepts
          measurement
          parallel axes
          bilateral symmetry
INTELLIGENCE
This section forthcoming.

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