North American Archaeologist

2019, Vol. 40(1) 49–53

Book Review ! The Author(s) 2019
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DOI: 10.1177/0197693118825419
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Grant S McCall (2018) Strategies for Quantitative Research: Archaeology by Numbers, Routledge
Press: New York, NY, 224 pp. ISBN 9781138632523, $39.99 (paperback)

Reviewed by: Heather Rockwell, Dartmouth College, NH

For many students of archaeology, part of the

appeal of the social sciences may be to avoid
math. Those of us who employ quantitative
approaches within our research are often used to
seeing eyes glaze when we explain our research to
students and colleagues. Despite these reserva-
tions, quantitative techniques have become an
essential part of archaeological research. Even
those who do not employ quantitative approaches
have an increasing need for math competency in
order to assess the work of fellow scholars.
Strategies for Quantitative Research not only
acknowledges these facts, but it also embraces
and makes light of them. McCall seeks to fill a
void within the statistical literature. Instead of
spending time showing how to solve statistical formulas, McCall wants to
focus on how to apply these tests and the questions they can help us answer.
In his introduction, he points out that in the modern era, none of us need break
out pen and paper to calculate statistics. Yet, the majority of quantitative text-
books for archaeologists assume exactly that (Drennan, 2010; Kachigan, 1986;
Thomas, 1986). For most of us, working statistics involves logging into our
computers and hitting a few quick buttons. Calculations which for previous
scholars were tedious and laborious (or involved the use of the dreaded “cards”
in early computing) can be completed in seconds. This book has no calculations
to solve or sample problems to work through, as it says in the title, this
book provides strategies to approach quantitative research confidently and
competently.
This book consists of 10 chapters plus a brief preface and totals 224 pages. It
is designed to be read cover-to-cover, straight through, as there are frequent
50 North American Archaeologist 40(1)

callbacks to previous examples, techniques, and terms. Picking out a chapter

from the middle to investigate a particular concept is only recommended for
those with some statistics background. From the perspective of a professor, this
book has a major advantage over others, it is short. Chapters are rarely over 30
pages, which I appreciated, as getting undergraduates to read chapters much
longer than this, is a challenge. However, with this brevity comes a tradeoff, it
covers A LOT, very quickly.
The author begins with a short preface that explains why this book was
needed, much of which I discussed in the previous paragraphs. McCall argues
that the hard part of archaeological statistics is not the math but choosing the
right test; modern technology has made the calculations easy. However, an
unfortunate side effect of the fast-computing approach to statistics has been a
compounding of the black-box or cookbook approach to statistics, as students
(and professionals as well) can run a huge array of tests without asking if we
should. McCall’s book seeks to address this issue.
Chapter 1 is an Introduction which expands on the themes of the preface. In
addition, it gives what those who have taught statistics before may recognize as,
the “don’t panic we are going to ease into the math slowly” lecture. He begins by
reinforcing the fact that this book is not about doing math, that’s what com-
puters are for, this book is about “finding patterns by making comparisons,”
using statistics to help (p. 5). He reassures the reader that humans are innately
good at identifying patterns, statistics just help us to make sure they are signif-
icant. The chapter gradually pivots to define basic terms of the trade: popula-
tion, sample, distribution, variance, null hypothesis, and so on and does so in
plain terms that are clear and concise. The chapter concludes with the core
theme, how do we choose what we want to test? The remainder of the book
is dedicated to providing enough knowledge to make us confident in our choices.
Chapter 2 is where the book really dives in to its instruction, what McCall
calls “knowing your data” (p. 15). This chapter covers standard ways of describ-
ing data form (nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio, and count data) and probability
distributions. There is a particularly amusing aside to explain the Poisson dis-
tribution as it relates to mule kick deaths in the Prussian Army (pp. 31–32). This
chapter goes further, than many introductory statistics books, by emphasizing
that the way we collect and organize our data determines the kinds of questions
we can answer with it. There are two handy charts in this chapter which students
will be sure to appreciate. The first lists common archaeological data types by
their levels of measurement (Table 2.1, pp. 21–22), while the second is flow chart
to help identify the kinds of statistics you can use with your data type (Figure
2.11, p. 39).
Building off what was learned in Chapter 2, Chapters 3 and 4 cover data
transformations, standardizations, and descriptive statistics. In Chapter 3, the
coverage of transformation and standardizations receives more coverage than
one often sees in archaeological textbooks and drives home the limitations
Book Review 51

associated with each data type. This chapter provides helpful techniques for how
we can answer the questions we want while respecting the limits of our data. In
Chapter 4, coverage of descriptive statistics is brief, but covers the essentials,
and uses terminology that will allow students to easily transition to creating
graphs in a statistical software packages.
Chapter 5 is intense. McCall calls this chapter hypothesis testing using uni-
variate data. In the span of 30 pages (including a works cited and an enjoyable
aside about William S Gosset), it covers what many archaeological stats courses
cover in nearly a semester (pp. 70–100). Within this chapter is all the instruction
this book provides for chi-square, Fisher’s exact, Phi, Cramer’s V, t-tests, anal-
ysis of variance, Mann–Whitney U, Kolmogorov–Smirnov, Kruskall–Wallis,
eta-squared statistic, and the difference between one- and two-tailed statistical
tests. Although the introduction thoroughly warns that this book will not spend
time on how to calculate statistics, I was still shocked by how fast McCall moves
through this information. In particular, the coverage of the limitations associ-
ated with these basic tests seemed thin.
In contrast to Chapter 5, Chapter 6 is the longest chapter in the book and
covers only two core topics: linear regression and correlation or bivariate anal-
ysis. This chapter slowly and carefully moves through these techniques provid-
ing in-depth information as to the kinds of questions we can explore with these
methods. It provides many visualizations of data distributions and does an
excellent job of addressing solutions for common problems in the use of
these techniques.
Chapters 7 and 8 cover multivariate analysis including data reduction, pat-
tern recognition (Chapter 7), and hypothesis testing (Chapter 8). McCall notes
that univariate and bivariate statistical analyses are problematic, as rarely are
human activities explained well using only one or two variables. These chapters
are where the book moves beyond your introductory level archaeological sta-
tistics course and into material not often covered in a standard course (or cov-
ered only at the very end). McCall assures us that multivariate analysis is not
necessarily more complex or more difficult to complete and can be a powerful
method of understanding complex datasets. Chapter 7 covers factor analysis
and principle component analysis (and their variants) in excellent detail, with
strong examples and clear diagrams. Chapter 8 covers multiple regression and
partial correlation. McCall jokes many archaeologists may never have a need of
these techniques, which is likely why this chapter is less than 20 pages. Although
brief, this chapter is well written and full of clear, helpful examples that illustrate
when we should consider applying these techniques or at the very least why it’s
important to understand what they do.
Chapter 9 is the final, of what I would call, the core-content chapters. It
covers cluster analysis and discriminate function analysis. However, many
archaeological students are not inclined to dive into the previously discussed
multivariate analyses cluster and discriminate function analysis seem to have
52 North American Archaeologist 40(1)

particular allure. The ability to test our classificatory schemes, create new ones,
or identify how we should group the things we want grouped is an ongoing area
of concern. McCall does a solid job of explaining what each of these techniques
is doing and why they are different. His clear language approach and the exam-
ples in this chapter do a very nice job of demystifying this topic. I appreciated
his emphasis on applying too much meaning to classificatory schemes.
Techniques, like discriminate function analysis, are only as powerful as the
researchers who use them. McCall reminds readers that multivariate analyses
must be paired with a “robust body of referential knowledge” in order to have
value (p. 208).
Chapter 10 is a 10-page conclusion. This is very much a statistics book with a
point of view and nowhere is that more obvious then in this conclusion. Most
statistical textbooks do not have conclusion chapters, something the author
acknowledges. McCall takes an almost philosophical tone as he reflects upon
the growth of statistical methods in the social sciences, our fits and starts, and
shames. He states that while anthropologists rarely agree on what our data
mean, the ability to have some concrete way of describing what we see is still
important (p. 212). He notes that growths in technology and open source com-
puting have helped democratize statistics. Thirty years ago, the ability to do a
complex model was reserved for the elite few who had access to the expensive
hardware and software that could complete the task. Today open source soft-
ware is becoming more powerful, and more anthropologists will be able to
experiment with these methods. He closes with this idea, statistics are not per-
fect, and they cannot help us answer all of your questions, but they can provide
a powerful tool for our research.
There are a few areas in which I think this volume could be improved.
Chapter 5 is simply too short. Although the brevity of this volume is mostly a
positive trait, some key concepts and limitations of the tests in this chapter
receive less attention then they deserve. However, by no means, the most excit-
ing or cutting-edge techniques are still widely used in the current publications
and are often a go-to for students.
The box in Chapter 10 discussing the author’s suspicion around Bayesian
statistics is well taken, but I think overstated. Bayesian models are currently a
hot trend in quantitative archaeology circles (Alberti, 2015; Burley and
Edinborough, 2014; Feranec and Kozlowski, 2016; Otárola-Castillo and
Torquato, 2018; Rieth and Athens, 2017), and the author is correct that any
new tool will have those who use it poorly. However, rather than blame our
tools, I think that we should acknowledge that any statistical technique, in the
wrong hands, can be abused (Huff, 1993). Any new application of a technique
should be utilized with caution but I think Bayesian models can offer us an
alternative to null hypothesis testing that is worth pursuing (Otárola-Castillo
and Torquato, 2018).
Book Review 53

My overall impression of this book is positive. It provides a refreshing

approach to an often-boring subject and does it with clear concise language.
It uses terminology that will make opening a statistical programming package
less intimidating even for the most rudimentary of students. This acknowledge-
ment of the language divide between archaeologists and statistics programs will
lead to fewer students running out the door when they open the software.
This book’s largest strength is in its general mirth for the subject. McCall
provides numerous, easy to understand examples addressing archaeologists love
of beer, mule kick deaths in the Prussian army, and calculating the volume of
coffee cups based off rim size. Although he has many archaeological examples as
well, these injected points of silliness help to keep the book moving. Statistics
books will never be enjoyable to read for any but the most diehard math nerds,
but McCall has certainly done his best to make this one just a little more fun.

References
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supported by a Bayesian radiocarbon model. Radiocarbon 56(1): 295–303.
Drennan RD (2010) Statistics for Archaeologists. New York, NY: Springer.
Feranec RS and Kozlowski AL (2016) Implications of a Bayesian radiocarbon calibra-
tion of colonization ages for mammalian megafauna in glaciated New York State after
the Last Glacial Maximum. Quaternary Research 85(2): 262–270.
Huff D (1993) How to Lie with Statistics. New York, NY: WW Norton & Company.
Kachigan SK (1986) Statistical Analysis: An Interdisciplinary Introduction to Univariate &
Multivariate Methods. New York, NY: Radius Press.
Otárola-Castillo E and Torquato MG (2018) Bayesian statistics in archaeology. Annual
Review of Anthropology 47: 435–453.
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Archipelago. The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology: 1–12.
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