Debating Archaeology: v. 4 (Studies in Archaeology) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0121000451 ISBN 13: 9780121000455

Publisher: Elsevier Science Publishing Co Inc, 1989

Synopsis

In this book, Biford collects and comments on the twenty-eight substantive papers he has published in the 1980's, just as he collected and commented on his papers of the 1970's in Working at Archaeology (Academic Press, 1983) and his papers of the 1960's in An Archaeological Perspective (Academic Press, 1972). This ongoing collection of self-edited papers, together with the extensive and very candid interstitial commentaries, provides an invaluable record of the development of "The New Archaeology" and a challenging view into the mind of the man who is certainly the most creative archaeological theorist of our time.

Key Features
* As the leading theoretician and principal spokesman of the "New Archaeology" for the past thirty years, all archaeologists find Binford's Debating Archaeology an important addition to the literature
* This book includes:
* Extensive discussions of empiricism and the assumptions of "post Processual" archaeology
* Discussions of science as a learning process in conflict with empiricism
* Examination of the current scholarly conflict over the nature of early hominids
* Examination of the current scholarly conflicts in archaeological theory
* A reexamination of several old, established sites, which does not support their traditional interpretations

About this title

Review

"He makes us think, and no scholar can ask for higher praise than that."
--PLAINS ANTHROPOLOGIST

"This book consists of twenty-nine papers published over a period of years concerning the research interests of an individual who has made--and will no doubt continue to make--important contributions to the archaeological literature and to archaeological theory....This is...an important book and a significant addition to the Binford canon. It should be read, critically but in no sense negatively; but most of all it deserves to be read by all serious students of archaeology."
--ARCHAEOLOGICAL REVIEW

"This third collection of articles by arguably the most important archaeologist and prehistorian of the last three decades follows Binford's An Archaeological Perspective and Working at Archaeology .... Like all of Binford's work, this collection deserves close reading."
--CHOICE

"To his many admirers he is the greatest archaeological thinker of his generation and a true prophet.... These chapters are full of robust common sense and, as an exercise in debunking theoretical pretention, are a delight to read.... In future histories of archaeology, Binford... certainly deserves a place as a teacher and polemicist, a person who has forced us all to think."
--NATURE

"This book is a 'must-read' for students of both archaeology and anthropology in that it questions the 'taken for granteds' so often indoctrinated into their theoretical frame of reference."
--NEXUS

Edition details

• Publisher: Elsevier Science Publishing Co Inc
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0121000451
• ISBN 13: 9780121000455
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 534
• Editor: Binford Lewis R.