"oral history . . . is a most imperfect one if the person telling the story being recorded was not the witness to the event. Every generation which passes the story on changes it." Sounds like "History" ;)=20 Without the ad hominem sidebars, however, this area already has been = hashed-out fairly coherently. Back to Historical Archaeology 101: = Schuyler addressed this issue in his ". . .: Basic Definitions and = Relationships" paper reprinted in his ". . . Guide to Substantive and = Theoretical Contributions." Braun, an Israeli archaeologist (if I'm correct), and his colleagues may = use the term "historical archaeology" in different contexts than we = Americans do. It's awful darn provincial of us to exclude other = definitions and uses of a term codified by American archaeologists. = Perhaps -- taking a cue from Andy Rooney on "60 Minutes" last week -- we = should ask all of the HISTARCH listserv subscribers to define = "historical archaeology." Those folks who give a definition that does = not limit the use of the term (and maybe even the discipline's methods) = to the study of post-medieval European colonial expansion through = archaeology should be asked to leave the list and go to a more = "appropriate" list. (for all the literalists out there: I'm joking, of = course) DSR