Variation matters: Expanding the scope of experimental archaeology

This paper aims to expand the scope of experimental archaeology to emphasize multi-level variation and interactions across the levels of perception, actions, and outcomes. Such an approach, loosely formulated as the Perception-Process-Product (“Triple P”) framework, offers a more grounded and richer explanation of the past archaeological record. It consists of three principles: 1) acknowledging the inherent trade-off between control and generalizability in the experimental research design; 2) encouraging collaborative projects that involve geographically diverse and non-traditional research participants such as hobbyists and novices; 3) adopting a workflow that normalizes the collection and curation of ethological and ethnographic data in experimental projects. Serving as a heuristic device, this alternative mode of knowledge production is highly flexible in nature, where each single component is detachable as dictated by individual research questions.