Factor Analysis and Artifact Typology

In: American anthropologist: AA, Volume 71, Issue 6, p. 1125-1130

Abstract

The general utility of r‐mode factor analyses for screening and ordering artifact characteristics is severely restricted by the presence of nominal categories in typological attribute systems. Even where a correlation coefficient appropriate to qualitative data can be used, factor analysis generates spurious correlations stemming from the interdependencies that nominal attributes usually share. The resulting factors may also obscure or distort the contingent interactions that can strongly influence typological patterning, especially among lithic artifacts. R. A. Benfer's factor analysis of stone projectile points illustrates these problems, in addition to yielding factors that largely reflect the redundancy with which certain aspects of typological variation are expressed in his raw data. [factor analysis, statistics, artifact typology, archeology]