Lewis Roberts Binford (November 21, 1931 – April 11, 2011) was an American archaeologist known for his influential work in archaeological theory, ethnoarchaeology and the Paleolithic period.
Previously a mediocre student, 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.
After graduating he was drafted as an interpreter and assigned to a group of anthropologists tasked with resettling people on the Pacific islands occupied by the United States during World War II.
The military subsidy he received was not enough to fund his study completely, so Binford used the skills in construction he learned from his father (a carpenter) to start a modest contracting business.
to "explicate and explain the total range of physical and cultural similarities and differences characteristic of the entire spatio-temporal span of man's existence.
[14] By the time this volume was published he had left Chicago – dismissed, according to Binford, because of increasing tension between himself and the senior archaeologists in the faculty, particularly Robert Braidwood.
[17] In 1969 he decided to undertake ethnographic fieldwork among the Nunamiut in Alaska, in order to better understand the periglacial environment that Mousterian hominins occupied, and to see first hand how hunter-gatherer behavior is reflected in material remains.
[18] This methodology—conducting ethnographic fieldwork to establish firm correlations between behavior and material culture—is known as ethnoarchaeology and while not being invented by Binford, was shaped by his incorporation with Processual (New) Archaeology.
He frequently collaborated with his third wife, Sally Binford, who was also an archaeologist; the couple married while they were graduate students at the University of Chicago, and co-edited New Perspectives in Archaeology (1968), among other works.
After his marriage to Sally ended, Binford married Mary Ann Howell nee Wilson, an elementary school teacher.
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.
His subsequent inability to explain the Mousterian facies using a functional approach led to his ethnoarchaeological work among the Nunamiut and the development of his middle-range theory.