@article {9541,
	title = {Sur les approches {\`a} la complexit{\'e} sociale chez les chasseurs-cueilleurs pr{\'e}historiques: particularisme, g{\'e}n{\'e}ralisme et m{\'e}thode comparative},
	journal = {Canadian Journal of Archaeology/Journal canadien d{\textquoteright}arch{\'e}ologie},
	volume = {29},
	year = {2005},
	pages = {153-164},
	abstract = {<p>A review of recent work on social complexity among prehistoric hunter-gatherers reveals tension between particularist and generalist approaches in archaeology. We identify two major divisions in approaches to complex hunter-gatherers: those that describe complexity vs. those that define it, and those that trace the origin of complexity to the emergence of inequality vs. those that trace it to the emergence of specialization. Authors who take a definitional approach to complexity tend to emphasize specialization and general law-like processes, while those that take a descriptive approach tend to emphasize inequality and historical context. Interestingly, there is a near absence of theorists who seek to define complexity while emphasizing inequality or of theorists who tend to describe complexity while emphasizing specialization. We note that both descriptive-particularist and definitional-generalist approaches play an important role in the eventual solution of the problem of the origin of social complexity, one of the most theoretically difficult and important problems facing archaeology and anthropology in general.</p>},
	author = {Andr{\'e} Costopoulos and Samuel Vaneeckhout}
}
