Choice Review

In this very original work in archaeology, McGuire (Binghamton Univ.) provides a clear introduction to the dialectical materialist method of analysis and demonstrates how such a framework clarifies the relationships between knowledge, politics, and action within two of his own field projects in northwest Mexico and Colorado. The author disputes the excessive mentalism and relativism found in post-processual archaeology, but he also eschews an overly objectivist and positivist archaeology that ignores the analytical relevance of class, gender, race, and ethnicity. Instead, he insists that archaeology is inherently political and that archaeologists should be aware of their own class origins--typically as those who "study the ancestors of ... people their ancestors subjugated." McGuire examines the effects of political domination upon the production and consumption of archaeological knowledge, and he analyzes the effects of hypercompetitive "fast capitalism" on the academic and economic condition of archaeology, including for-profit work in cultural resource management. The author demands that archaeology be aware of its real-world consequences and become able to challenge the status quo through embracing an emancipatory praxis. His conviction is that such an archaeology is not only a moral and political necessity in the contemporary world, but also a more valid and satisfying basis for intellectual understanding of the past. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. B. Tavakolian emeritus, Denison University