Demographic Estimates in Archaeology: Contributions From Ethnoarchaeology on Mesoamerican Peasants [and Comments and Reply]

Anthropological archaeologists often employ ethnohistoric and ethnographic data to interpret the archaeological record. Of special concern to the subdiscipline of "action" or "living" archaeology is the problem of devising reasonably accurate methods for estimating the population of a site or of a prehistoric household. Techniques developed by various researchers are here summarized and critiqued. Then the available ethnographic evidence on household size and dwelling area in Mesoamerica, including data from two Guatemalan highland communities examined especially for this paper, is surveyed. On the basis of this evidence, new estimates are offered for pplication in the Mesoamerican context.