Research Design and Sampling

Abstract

This chapter reviews archaeological inference and the scientific process in archaeology, from the distinctions between deduction, induction and abduction through the relationships between theories and observations and approaches to different kinds of research questions, to the ways we can try to protect the validity of research conclusions. One of these ways is sampling, which is relevant whenever we want to generalize to a “population” on the basis of a small subset of it. The chapter reviews several sampling designs and issues surrounding the selection of an adequate sample size and the avoidance of practices that could yield biased estimates of population parameters.