Migration and diffusion are universal phenomena that fell out of favor in American archaeology during the processulist turn. David Anthony’s 1990 defense spurred renewed interest in migration as a structured behavior worthy of serious analysis; yet we continue to dismiss diffusion as a nonexplanatory cultural force that is both difficult to identify in the material record and overemphasizes the roles that internal invention and external stimuli play in the process of culture change. The interaction sphere concept offers us an established theoretical means of rehabilitating diffusion and integrating the other microsocial theories, frameworks, and perspectives that have since proliferated. This article outlines seven key tenets: four drawn from the formative Eastern Woodlands literature, two illustrated in an indigenous North American map making tradition, and a final tenet observed in the application of the concept to the complex issue of Plaquemine cultural emergence in the Lower Mississippi Valley. Without acknowledging the vital role that intellectual and material exchange plays in the process of continuity, innovation, and change, we continue to ignore the many ways in which interaction shaped history. I advocate for a return to the concept of interaction spheres for the same reasons originally promoted by Joseph Caldwell: it contributes a new understanding of the archaeology, it facilitates comparisons between different networks of extra-regional exchange, and it correlates well with various other theoretical models.

中文翻译：

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对交互领域的重新评估


迁移和扩散是普遍现象，在美国考古学中，在过程主义转向期间失宠了。大卫·安东尼 （David Anthony） 1990 年的辩护激发了人们对移民的新兴趣，认为移民是一种值得认真分析的结构性行为;然而，我们继续将传播视为一种无法解释的文化力量，它既难以在物质记录中识别，又过分强调内部发明和外部刺激在文化变革过程中的作用。互动领域概念为我们提供了一种既定的理论手段，可以恢复扩散并整合此后激增的其他微观社会理论、框架和观点。本文概述了七项关键原则：四项来自形成性的东部林地文献，两项以北美土著地图制作传统为插图，以及将该概念应用于密西西比河下游河谷 Plaquemine 文化崛起的复杂问题时观察到的最后一个原则。如果不承认知识和物质交流在连续性、创新和变化过程中发挥的重要作用，我们继续忽视互动塑造历史的多种方式。我主张回归互动领域的概念，原因与约瑟夫·考德威尔最初倡导的原因相同：它有助于对考古学的新理解，它促进了不同区域外交换网络之间的比较，并且它与各种其他理论模型密切相关。