Hello everyone,
 
I am pleased to see so many people are tired of the unproductive
dichotomizing in archaeology.   I hope that it has run its course.
The interesting question seems to me now to be of another variety-
now that we have so many rich and diverse theoretical perspectives, should
we be concerned with creating a new synthesis that will tie these ideas
together?  I for one do not think that a synthesis is required, but we do
need to consider how the various intellectual systems relate to one
another- hegemony, ecohistory, ethnogenesis, etc.  We should work to
understand how people in society act within all of these simultaneous
configurations of cultural reality.
 
Anyway, I have been rather excited by the commentary in the new reader by
Preucel and Hodder:
 
Preucel, Robert W. and Ian Hodder
1996    Contemporary Archaeology in Theory: a reader.  Blackwell
        Publishers Ltd, Cambridge, MA.
 
My best to all,
Tim Scarlett