Historical archaeologists often become so involved in their potsherd patterns they seldom have time or energy left to address the broader processes responsi- ble for the material culture patterns they recognize. Some ofus haveurged our colleagues to use the historical record as a springboard from which to launch hypotheses with which to better understand the behavioral and cultural pro- cesses responsible for the archaeological record. Toooften, this urging has re- sulted in reports designed like a sandwich, having a slice of "historical back- ground," followed by a totally different...

This volume is based on the Field Museum of Natural History Spring System- atics Symposium held in Chicago on May 11, 1991. The financial support of Ray and Jean Auel and of the Field Museum is gratefully acknowledged. When we teach or write, we present only those elements that support our arguments. We avoid all weak points of our debate and all the uncer- tainties of our models. Thus, we offer hypotheses as facts. Multiauthored books like ours, which simultaneously advocate and question diverse views, avoid the pitfalls and lessen the impact of indoctrination. In this volume we analyze the...

Students of human behavior have always been interested in the relationship between human populations and their environment. Decades of research not only have illuminated the backdrop against which culture is viewed, but have identi- fied many of the conditions that influence or promote technological develop- ment, social transformation, and economic reorganization. It has become in- creaSingly evident, however, that if we are to explore more forcefully the linkages between culture and environment, a processual orientation is required. This is found in human ecology-the study of the...

Investigations of archaeological intrasite spatial patterns have generally taken one of two directions: studies that introduced and explored methods for the analysis of archaeological spatial patterns or those that described and analyzed the for- mation of spatial patterns in actuaiistic-ethnographic, experimental, or natu- ral-contexts. The archaeological studies were largely quantitative in nature, concerned with the recognition and definition of patterns; the actualistic efforts were often oriented more toward interpretation, dealing with how patterns formed and what they meant. Our...

Regional approaches to the study of prehistoric exchange have generated much new knowledge about intergroup and regional interaction. The American South- west and Mesoamerica: Systems of Prehistoric Exchange is the first of two volumes that seek to provide current information regarding regional exchange on a conti- nental basis. From a theoretical perspective, these volumes provide important data for the comparative analysis of regional systems relative to sociopolitical organization from simple hunter-gatherers to those of complex sociopolitical entities like the state. Although individual...

The artificial shaping of the skull vault of infants expresses fundamental aspects of crafted beauty, of identity, status and gender in a way no other body practice does. Combining different sources of information, this volume contributes new interpretations on Mesoamerican head shaping traditions. Here, the head with its outer insignia was commonly used as a metaphor for designating the "self" and personhood and, as part of the body, served as a model for the indigenous universe. Analogously, the outer "looks" of the head and its anatomical constituents epitomized deeply embedded worldviews...

New England archaeology has not always been everyone's cup of tea; only late in the Golden of nineteenth-century archaeology, as archaeology's focus turned westward, did a few pioneers look northward as well, causing a brief flurry of investigation and excavation. Between 1892 and 1894, Charles C. Willoughby did some exemplary excavations at three small burial sites in Bucksport, Orland, and Ellsworth, Maine, and made some models of that activity for exhibition at the Chicago World's Fair. These activities were encouraged by E Putnam, director of the Harvard Peabody Museum and head of...

Regional approaches to past human adaptations have generated much new knowledge and understanding. Researchers working on problems of adaptations in the Holocene, from those of simple hunter-gatherers to those of complex sociopolitical entities like the state, have found this approach suitable for comprehension of both ecological and social aspects of human behavior. This research focus has, however, until recently left virtually un- touched a major spatial and temporaI segment of prehistory-the Old World during the Pleistocene. Extant literature on this period, by and large, presents either...

The last 20 years have witnessed a proliferation of new approaches in archaeolog- ical data recovery, analysis, and theory building that incorporate both new forms of information and new methods for investigating them. The growing importance of survey has meant an expansion of the spatial realm of traditional archaeological data recovery and analysis from its traditional focus on specific locations on the landscape-archaeological sites-to the incorporation of data both on-site and off-site from across extensive regions. Evolving survey methods have led to experiments with nonsite and...