A challenge to Chris Matthews,
 
Chris - I fully agree with the sentiments expressed in your recent message,
although I would set a somewhat different, but related and complementary agenda
for my own work.  Since we (assuming anybody else is interested) have the
benefit of your attention - being a participant in the 'Modern State' session
(which was one of the best I saw this year - and I don't often say that),
perhaps I could impose on you to throw out some substantive ideas for the rest
of us to chew on.
 
Chris _et al._ The Archaeology of the Modern State impressed me because it was o
ne of
the very rare gatherings of archaeologists which actually dealt with social
theory, method and their relations to empirical data with examples that
actually included empirical data!  The norm for theory does not, in
my rather jaded opinion, require any reference to real (social) world
phenomena, and data (in part constructed by implicit theory) is often presented
without any theoretical context.  These are a few of my reactions to the
exciting efforts of the participants in this symposium.
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
 
Matt Tomaso
Department of Anthropology
University of Texas at Austin
 
INTERNET:
        [log in to unmask]
        [log in to unmask]
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--