Archaeology beyond Postmodernity

Martin has written a provocative and stimulating book that deserves a wide audience. . . .[I]t is fair to say that Martin's work offers one of the most in-depth and sustained attempts to grapple with the implications of a Latourian understanding of the social. . . .Still, Martin's book is a significant contribution, and whether one agrees with the particular route he chooses to take beyond postmodernity, anyone seeking to understand contemporary approaches in archaeological theory will find themselves embarrassed not to have read it. * Journal of Anthropological Research *
This book is a proposal for and a stout defense of an archaeology based the ideas of Bruno Latour and Actor Network Theory. Martin not only lays out the central ideas of a Latourian archaeology but he also situates the ideas in relation to other approaches in theoretical archaeology. The book also provides two sustained archaeological examples which will be of interest to both American and British audiences: the prehistoric mounds of Hopewell in North America, and the Bronze Age of lowland Britain. The end result is an important book that explains and substantiates a new approach in archaeology and provides an exciting challenge for existing perspectives in the discipline. -- Ian Hodder, Stanford University