  Methods of measuring differentiation in archaeological assemblages have long
been based on attribute-level analyses of assemblages. This paper considers a
method of comparing assemblages as probability distributions via the Hellinger
distance, as calculated through a Dirichlet-categorical model of inference
using Monte Carlo methods of approximation. This method has application within
practice-theory traditions of archaeology, an approach which seeks to measure
and associate different factors that comprise the habitus of society. It is
implemented here focusing on the question of regional food consumption habits
in Republican Italy in the last two centuries BCE, toward informing a
perspective on mass social change.
