28 Facts About Lewis Binford

Lewis Roberts Binford was an American archaeologist known for his influential work in archaeological theory, ethnoarchaeology and the Paleolithic period.

Lewis Binford is widely considered among the most influential archaeologists of the later 20th century, and is credited with fundamentally changing the field with the introduction of processual archaeology in the 1960s.

Lewis Binford was born in Norfolk, Virginia, on November 21,1931.

Previously a mediocre student, Lewis Binford excelled in college and considered pursuing an academic career in biology until he was put off the idea when a professor suggested that there were "still a few species of blind cave salamanders" that he could be the first to study.

Lewis Binford became involved with the recovery of archaeological material from tombs on Okinawa that were to be removed to make way for a military base.

The military subsidy he received was not enough to fund his study completely, so Lewis Binford used the skills in construction he learned from his father to start a modest contracting business.

Lewis Binford gained a second BA at UNC and then in 1957 transferred to the University of Michigan to complete a combined MA and PhD.

Lewis Binford's thesis was the interaction between Native Americans and the first English colonists in Virginia, a subject he became interested in while still at UNC.

Lewis Binford first became dissatisfied with the present state of archaeology while an undergraduate at UNC.

Lewis Binford felt that culture history reflected the same 'stamp collecting' mentality that had turned him away from biology.

Lewis Binford criticised what he saw as a tendency to treat artifacts as undifferentiated traits, and to explain variations in these traits only in terms of cultural diffusion.

Lewis Binford proposed that the goal of archaeology was exactly the same as that of anthropology more generally, viz.

Lewis Binford moved to the University of California, Santa Barbara for a year and then on to UCLA.

Lewis Binford did not like the atmosphere at UCLA's large faculty, and so took the opportunity to relocate to the University of New Mexico in 1969.

Lewis Binford withdrew from the theoretical debates that followed the rapid adoption of New Archaeology in the 1960s and 70s, instead focusing on his work on the Mousterian, a Middle Palaeolithic lithic industry found in Europe, North Africa and the Near East.

Lewis Binford joined the Southern Methodist University faculty in 1991, after teaching for 23 years as a distinguished professor at the University of New Mexico.

Lewis Binford's last published book, Constructing Frames of Reference, was edited by his then wife, Nancy Medaris Stone.

Lewis Binford died on April 11,2011, in Kirksville, Missouri, at the age of 79.

Lewis Binford had a son, Clinton, who died as a result of injuries sustained in a car accident in 1976.

Lewis Binford frequently collaborated with his third wife, Sally Binford, who was an archaeologist; the couple married while they were graduate students at the University of Chicago, and co-edited New Perspectives in Archaeology, among other works.

Lewis Binford is mainly known for his contributions to archaeological theory and his promotion of ethnoarchaeological research.

Lewis Binford placed a strong emphasis on generalities and the way in which human beings interact with their ecological niche, defining culture as the extrasomatic means of adaptation.

Lewis Binford was involved in several high-profile debates including arguments with James Sackett on the nature and function of style and on symbolism and methodology with Ian Hodder.

Lewis Binford has spoken out and reacted to a number of schools of thought, particularly the post-processual school, the behavioural school, and symbolic and postmodern anthropologies.

Lewis Binford was known for a friendlier rivalry with French archaeologist Francois Bordes, with whom he argued over the interpretation of Mousterian sites.

Bordes interpreted variability in Mousterian assemblages as evidence of different tribes, while Lewis Binford felt that a functional interpretation of the different assemblages would be more appropriate.

Lewis Binford was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2001.

Lewis Binford received a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008 from the Society for American Archaeology and an honorary doctorate from Leiden University.