Book Review of Archaeology as a Process: Processualism and Its Progeny by Michael J. O'Brien, R. Lee Lyman, and Michael Brian Schiffer

Authors

Dawn Bringelson, Midwest Archeological Center, National Park Service

Date of this Version

Fall 2006

Comments

Published in GREAT PLAINS RESEARCH 16:2 (Fall 2006). Copyright © 2006 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

Abstract

The field of archaeology incorporates a confusing assortment of ideas and approaches to the record. With studies ranging widely in ideology and goals, from strict descriptive materialism to sociological interpretation, language used to communicate key concepts (not to mention which concepts are key) also varies widely, resulting in low levels of mutual interest and intelligibility across the discipline. Archaeologists commonly ignore the majority of available literature as a result, further widening intellectual chasms.