Book Reviews
Paradigms of the Past: The Story of Missouri Archaeology, by Michael J. O'Brien, 1995. Columbia: University of Missouri Press
Author:
David L. Browman
Department of Anthropology,
Washington University - Saint Louis, US
Abstract
A volume this massive (562 pages) contains far more substance than any short review can hope to do justice. One can, however, highlight major themes and directions of the tome. I see significant contributions in three areas: (i) the history of the development of archaeological thinking using Missouri as a foil; (ii) some autobiographical exegesis of the development of the author's understanding of archaeology; and (iii) a strongly stated theoretical argument, repeated throughout the volume, that a variety of neo-functionalism espoused by Robert Dunnell, and now practiced by O'Brien and a handful of his Ph.D. students, is the only scientific archaeology extant.
How to Cite:
Browman, D.L., 1996. Paradigms of the Past: The Story of Missouri Archaeology, by Michael J. O'Brien, 1995. Columbia: University of Missouri Press. Bulletin of the History of Archaeology, 6(1), pp.21–25. DOI: http://doi.org/10.5334/bha.06106
Published on
20 May 1996.
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