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The use of some forms of data in factor analysis for purposes of numerical induction has recently been questioned (Sackett 1969). The nature of "qualitative" and "quantitative" data and the assumptions of the factor analysis model are discussed in this paper. Results of a plasmode—a worked example with relatively well understood data—confirm the robustness of factor analysis under varying degrees of violation of the model More and more examples of the usefulness of factor analysis as a general numerical method of induction are accumulating.

With a sample of stemmed projectile points, the nonredundant description of archeological characteristics is demonstrated by principal‐axes factor analysis. The obtained dimensions of the artifacts are tested for cultural significance by variance techniques. The concept of "culturability," or c2, is introduced as the total predictable variance of a measurement of an artifact from a knowledge of its location in time and space. Both the psychologically derived factor‐analytic model and c2, analagous to the concept of heritability in population genetics, are found to be useful in interpreting archeological data. The use of available programs and high‐speed digital computers allows a complete analysis with a small expenditure of time.

Disease and geography are related domains for Tojolabal‐Maya. Using multidimensional methods, we compare two domains: (1) individual cognitive "maps" from disease terms and (2) hand‐drawn maps, both with one another and with an official topographic map. Multivariate study of individual informant data demonstrates correspondence of the axes of maps. Least squares fitting of dimensional representations using a method specifically modified for ethnosemantic data allows meaningful comparisons both among and within informants, and with an aggregate from a related survey of 33 informants as well. These multivariate operations help integrate individual data, sampled simultaneously for several domains, tasks, and occasions, with aggregate data. For semantic domains, we achieved rapprochement between psychological and anthropological approaches. [disease, folk theories, ethnosemantics, cognition, multivariate, Tojolabal‐Maya]