Alice Beck Kehoe. 1998. The Land of Prehistory: A critical history of North American archaeology. Routledge ISBN
In her 1998 book, The Land of Prehistory: A Critical History of American Archaeology, Alice Beck Kehoe, Professor of Anthropology at Marquette University, has written a most intriguing and controversial treatise. Cranky, astonishing in places and downright damning in others, the book is so irritating that at one point I had to put it down for several weeks to recover. But in the end, the insights that Kehoe provides make the book well worth the time.
Nearly a social history of the profession in the United States, the book has four major sub rosa parts. The first, consisting of Chapters 1 through 4, convincingly argues that underlying American archaeology is an explicit expression of the concept of Manifest Destiny, the belief of 18th century European-Americans in the god-given right of the United States to expand its control over the entire North American continent. Kehoe traces the roots of Americanist archaeology to Scotland, defining its fathers as Daniel Wilson and his mentor Robert Chambers, two bourgeois scholars firmly allied to the geologic concept of uniformitarianism. To Wilson, the whole of prehistory was a prelude to that pinnacle of civilization, Europe in the mid-19th century.
Nearly a social history of the profession in the United States, the book has four major sub rosa parts. The first, consisting of Chapters 1 through 4, convincingly argues that underlying American archaeology is an explicit expression of the concept of Manifest Destiny, the belief of 18th century European-Americans in the god-given right of the United States to expand its control over the entire North American continent. Kehoe traces the roots of Americanist archaeology to Scotland, defining its fathers as Daniel Wilson and his mentor Robert Chambers, two bourgeois scholars firmly allied to the geologic concept of uniformitarianism. To Wilson, the whole of prehistory was a prelude to that pinnacle of civilization, Europe in the mid-19th century.
The second portion of this book, Chapters 5 through 8, is a nasty (and so vastly entertaining) critique of the various movements of American archaeology in the 20th century. Kehoe derides the positivism of the post-World War II era ["Citizens impelled by Manifest Destiny need not waste time on vanishing races" p. 88]; and describes the reaction to Walter Taylor's 'barrage of stones' ["Blood flowed in torrents from a host of gored oxen" p. 97]. Willey and Phillip's Method and Theory in Archaeology, Spaulding's 'new statistics,' Binford's 'New Archaeology,' processualism and post-processualism, and the impact of cultural resource management on the profession, are all subjected to the same sharp critical eye.
In Chapters 9 through 11, Kehoe presents three examples of archaeological interpretation in which she feels the traditional explanations have been created by the social situation of American archaeology. In these chapters, she argues that Cahokia was likely an outlier of the Toltec nation, that our notions of band/chiefdom/state are oversimplified, and that the concept of prehistoric transoceanic migrations has been discarded too casually. I found the Cahokia and transoceanic chapters problematic, but it was entertaining to read them anyway.
In Chapters 9 through 11, Kehoe presents three examples of archaeological interpretation in which she feels the traditional explanations have been created by the social situation of American archaeology. In these chapters, she argues that Cahokia was likely an outlier of the Toltec nation, that our notions of band/chiefdom/state are oversimplified, and that the concept of prehistoric transoceanic migrations has been discarded too casually. I found the Cahokia and transoceanic chapters problematic, but it was entertaining to read them anyway.
Finally, Kehoe's Chapter 12 provides a glimpse into what she sees as a positive trend in archaeology, fueled by the signature into law (in 1990) of the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act. She argues that archaeology is "ready to be a mature science, one that accepts the primacy of its empirical data--for these can outlast theories--and the political and human ramifications of its actions" [p. 230]. That remains to be seen, but it is a resoundingly hopeful premise.
If you are an Americanist archaeologist, you ought to read this book. Its language and background is probably not for the casual reader, but for the scholar practicing archaeology, it is an entertaining and provocative read.
If you are an Americanist archaeologist, you ought to read this book. Its language and background is probably not for the casual reader, but for the scholar practicing archaeology, it is an entertaining and provocative read.
