Overview

Atlantis, ancient astronauts, and pyramid power. Archaeologists are perennially bombarded with questions about the “mysteries” of the past. They are also constantly addressing more realistic controversies: origins of the First Americans, the ownership of antiquities, and national claims to historical territories. Alice Beck Kehoe offers to introductory students a method of evaluating and assessing these claims about the past in this reader-friendly, concise text. She shows how to use the methods of science to challenge the legitimacy of pseudoscientific proclamations and develop reasonable interpretations on controversial issues. Not one to shy away from controversy herself, Kehoe takes some stands—on transpacific migration, shamanism, the Kensington Runestone—which will challenge instructor and students alike, and foster class discussion.

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9781598740615

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Kehoe asserts that archaeology is a science remarkably suited to illustrating how societal biases and conventional dogmas affect interpretation, and even discovery, of empirical facts. She then exposes how acceptance of scientific explanations about archaeological phenomena is earned within the discipline. She is interested in how unorthodox explanations for complex scientific phenomena are treated; where innovative explanations are likely to arise within the archaeological profession; and how the social construction of archaeological science directs, to some degree, its core paradigms. Throughout her narrative, Kehoe introduces memorable innovators of methods, theories, and explanations. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries. - S. R. Martin, CHOICE

Kehoe asserts that archaeology is a science remarkably suited to illustrating how societal biases and conventional dogmas affect interpretation, and even discovery, of empirical facts. She then exposes how acceptance of scientific explanations about archaeological phenomena is earned within the discipline. She is interested in how unorthodox explanations for complex scientific phenomena are treated; where innovative explanations are likely to arise within the archaeological profession; and how the social construction of archaeological science directs, to some degree, its core paradigms. Throughout her narrative, Kehoe introduces memorable innovators of methods, theories, and explanations. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries. S. R. Martin, CHOICE

Author Information

Alice Beck Kehoe is in the department of anthropology at University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. She is one of the pioneers of feminist research in the field and one of the best-known scholars on issues related to Native Americans, two controversial topics within archaeology. Kehoe is author of numerous articles and over a dozen books on these two subjects and on various other controversial topics within the field of archaeology, including the Kensington Runestone and shamanism. She has also authored two introductory textbooks for anthropologists and archaeologists.

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