Controversies in Archaeology

Kehoe asserts that "...archaeology is a science remarkably suited to illustrating how societal biases and conventional dogmas affect interpretation, and even discovery, of empirical facts."... She then exposes how acceptance of scientific explanations about archaeological phenomena is earned within the discipline. She is interested in how unorthodox explanations for complex scientific phenomena are treated; where innovative explanations are likely to arise within the archaeological profession; and how the social construction of archaeological science directs, to some degree, its core paradigms. Throughout her narrative, Kehoe introduces memorable innovators of methods, theories, and explanations. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries. -- S. R. Martin, CHOICE "Controversies, as Alice Kehoe contends, is not so much about "controversy" as about how researchers arrive at conclusions, specifically in the discipline of archaeology. It is a treatise on the place of scientific methodology in interpreting the material remains of past societies, couched in a series of case studies that range across tens of thousands of years and multiple continents--an ambitious undertaking for a scholar who often positions herself on the edges of the discipline but always self-identifies herself as squarely in the scientific mainstream. Controversies is intended for the general reader or undergraduate--and I would highly recommend it for those readers--but it is actually much more than that. After 40 years in archaeology, I found it an entertaining and worthwhile read." --Thomas E. Emerson, Illinois Archaeology