The normative model of culture is the central model in

culture history Culture-historical archaeology is an archaeological theory that emphasises defining historical societies into distinct ethnic and cultural groupings according to their material culture. It originated in the late nineteenth century as cultural ...

, a theoretical approach to cultures in

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...

and

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

. In essence it defines culture as a set of shared ideas, or norms. The normative model was the dominant model in

archaeological theory Archaeological theory refers to the various intellectual frameworks through which archaeology, archaeologists interpret archaeological data. Archaeological theory functions as the application of philosophy of science to archaeology, and is occasion ...

up to the rise of

processual archaeology Processual archaeology (formerly, the New Archaeology) is a form of archaeological theory. It had its beginnings in 1958 with the work of Gordon Willey and Philip Phillips, ''Method and Theory in American Archaeology,'' in which the pair stated ...

. Some argue that current views of culture history are simplified and attack a

straw man A straw man fallacy (sometimes written as strawman) is the informal fallacy of refuting an argument different from the one actually under discussion, while not recognizing or acknowledging the distinction. One who engages in this fallacy is said ...

Basic assumptions

The normative model of culture assumes that a culture consists of a set of norms. These norms are ideas on all aspects of a society. It then goes on to assume that the norms are expressed in material remains of a society. A simple example of this is the norm that

human remains Human remains may refer to: A corpse or skeleton * A deceased human body ** A cadaver ** A skeleton Music * Human Remains (band) Human Remains was an American grindcore band, formed in 1989 in New Jersey. The band featured the vocalist Paul ...

should be buried in a

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many death, dead people are burial, buried or otherwise entombed. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek ...

outside the settlement. This norm is expressed in the material record, and can be discovered by archaeologists who excavate a field of

burials Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and object ...

outside a settlement of the same period. As a consequence of the assumption that cultural norms were expressed in material remains, the normative model equates an archaeological culture with a human culture. By no means all traits are required to be similar for a site to be considered part of a certain larger culture. A site can lack a typical form of architecture, yet present numerous other characteristic traits (such as a particular style of pottery) that identify it as a society that was part of a larger cultural sphere.

Criticism

The normative model is often criticized as being mainly descriptive. It does not explain why a certain cultural norm exists, but rather describes that it exists. The normative model fitted well with an archaeology which was largely concerned with simply collecting data. Criticism focussed mainly on the model's lacking abilities to explain rather than describe, to generalize rather than particularize and to understand change in societies.

References

{{reflist, refs= Johnson, M. (1999). ''Archaeological Theory: An Introduction'', Blackwell Publishing, {{ISBN, 978-1-4051-0015-1 Archaeological theory