Archaeology and its Discontents:Why Archaeology Matters

EXPLANATION AND UNDERSTANDING What might an archaeologist expect to know and how might they expect to know it?The megaliths of western Europe From explanation to understanding Conclusion THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORD The possibility of archaeology The archaeological record The limits of uniformitarianism Style and function Process and tradition Conclusion SYSTEMS AND THE DYNAMICS OF HISTORICAL CHANGE The New Archaeology Establishing a 'New Archaeology'The new methodology The historical condition The initial definition of the cultural system Historical explanations: from maladaptation to socially driven change Conclusion A SOCIAL ARCHAEOLOGY From an archaeology of adaptive systems to a Social Archaeology Social structures Social typologies, social practices, and world systems The problem with anthropological analogies Conclusion FROM FUNCTIONALISM TO A SYMBOLIC AND STRUCTURAL ARCHAEOLOGY Did anything change?The meanings of things Following a rule The question of human exceptionalism Conclusion THE EVOLUTION OF ECOSYSTEMS What is life? Systems of biological development Why history is not a matter of Darwinian evolution but of biocultural development Post-Darwinism Conclusion THE MAKING OF POPULATIONS Living with things Consciousness Life as a construct Constructing populations Neolithic populations Conclusion THE CULTURES OF LIFE A cultural systemics Cultural histories The early Neolithic in Europe Conclusion EPILOGUE BIBLIOGRAPHY