What do you think?
Rate this book
Death by Theory: A Tale of Mystery and Archaeological Theory
A European Neolithic burial. A large stone Venus. Nothing unusual about it_except that it was found on an island in the Pacific Northwest. Archaeologist Hannah Green and her shovelbum nephew find themselves in a tangled web of competing interests avaricious land owners, hungry media, and a cult of goddess worshippers while investigating one of the finds of the century.
In untangling the mystery of the Washington Venus, Hannah and Sean have to confront questions of archaeological evidence, of ethics, of conflicting interpretation of data, and of the very nature of archaeological truths. Helping them are a cadre of disdainful graduate students who propose various theories processualist, marxist, feminist, postmodernist to explain the bizarre events.
Teach your students archaeological theory in a fashion they'll enjoy, while they solve the mystery in Adrian Praetzellis's delightful textbook-as-novel.
In untangling the mystery of the Washington Venus, Hannah and Sean have to confront questions of archaeological evidence, of ethics, of conflicting interpretation of data, and of the very nature of archaeological truths. Helping them are a cadre of disdainful graduate students who propose various theories processualist, marxist, feminist, postmodernist to explain the bizarre events.
Teach your students archaeological theory in a fashion they'll enjoy, while they solve the mystery in Adrian Praetzellis's delightful textbook-as-novel.
192 pages, Paperback
First published November 28, 2000
3 people are currently reading
98 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
July 31, 2023
review of
Adrian Praetzellis's Death by Theory
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - July 28, 2023
For the complete review go here: http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/CriticP...
This is subtitled "A Tale of Mystery and Archaeological Theory". The basic idea is that the author teaches about archeological theory w/in the context of a mystery novel. That appealed to me. By the end, I think the mystery suffered more than the theory but I suspect that many nuances of the theory were lost in the process too. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it & if 'didactic crime fiction' became an established genre I'd probably read more.
""Not a fan of ecofeminist archeology, Sean?" she goaded. "OK, I'm sortof starting to snooze myself. But let's be unobtrusive because the speaker's a friend of mine."
"They got up and shuffled as quietly as they could along the row of chairs to the side aisle.
""I can see its appeal, though," he continued when they were out of the meeting room. "You know—the idea that the Neolithic in south-eastern Europe was a peaceful, egalitarian. . . ."
"". . . matriarchal, godess-worshipping era. Yes, it has a certain appeal to me, too. But, well . . ." His colleague paused with a lopsided half smile.
""Yeah, I know what you're going to say, Doctor Green: there's just not much evidence that it ever happened."" - p 2
This bk features fairly frequent illustrations that are, yes, illustrative of ideas presented. The 1st of these illustrations is, indeed, labelled: ""ROLL CALL": Some of the Ideas presented in this Book" (p 4) & it has clip art of what's vaguely depictive of a toilet-paper dispenser w/ a hand pulling down 2 or 3 tissues w/ txt on them. The last of these txts reads:
"Chap. 9. The Postmodern Non-Method
PoMos don't agree on the questions
Or if there ARE any questions
These illustrations add considerably to the appeal of the bk for me.
""Stop me if you've heard this one, but science is nothing more than a way of organizing what you know about a subject so that you can understand it better. If you're going to use the scientific method, you have to put all your assumptions on the table, be explicit about the relationship between what you want to know and your method for finding it out, and be willing to be wrong. The scientific method involves starting out with an idea about why something is the way it is—a theory. Then you come up with a number of plausible explanations or hypotheses that you can apply to the facts of the case to see which fit and which don't."" - p 9
Note that there's nothing in there that claims the one has to have a particular sanctified training in order to embark upon this process. Instead, it's just common-sensical.
""Laws like the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Historic Preservation Act forced developers who needed federal money or approval to identify sites that might be affected by their project, to evaluate them—that is, to see if they were important enough to be saved or studied further—and to dig important sites that couldn't be avoided."
"Sean laughed out loud. "Yeah. I've heard NHPA called the National Archeologists Full Employment Act."
""Well, it certainly increased the demand for archaeologists. I once read that over 90 percent of archaeologists in the United States work in the C.R.M. field."
"C.R.M. industry," he corrected. "The commercial archeology firms even have their own trade association to look after their interests in Washington." - pp 18-19
"Sean rolled the first of the pebbles over in his hand. The stone was crisscrossed with veins of some white material that could have been quartz. It was harder than the encasing matrix and had not eroded as rapidly, leaving a delicate tracery of milky lines. In frustration, Claude jabbed at it with a long finger.
""There, look. Don't you see the old man with the beard? And that looks like a horse."
"Each stone, according to Sean's companion, showed scenes of mythical creatures, women with flowing hair, or armed warriors. They were, he was certain, evidence of a lost civilization." - p 21
Whether the author, Praetzellis, was familiar w/ Richard Shaver whn he wrote this I don't know. To many of us, Shaver's ideas wd be evoked. I recommend my movie that touches on Shaver's idea, Backwards Masking in Rocks available here: https://archive.org/details/backwards... .
"And so it was that the pair arrived at the imposing wrought-iron gate and graveled driveway of the New Magick Retreat Center—or the Summerfield School as the chipped and blistered sign had announced for the last sixty years." - p 33
I have no idea whether it's common knowledge or knowledge most circulated in occult subcultures that "Magick", so spelled, is intended to be differentiated from "Stage Magic" - meaning that it's meant to refer to occult forces rather than tricks.
""You mean, like the New Archeology?" asked Sean through a mouthful of bread and cheese.
""You've heard of it?" She sounded surprised.
""Hey! I didn't sleep through all my eight o'clock classes."
""Just some of them, huh? OK then, Dr. Science, tell me all about it."
""Weeeell," began Sean, suddenly deciding that his shoelace needed tying. "I guess this guy Lewis Binford thought it all up in 1962."
""Oh, is that right?" asked his aunt in a tone that intimated otherwise." - p 37
""Mostly that they were dissatisfied with the direction the field had been going. What people like Taylor and the Binfords did was to get the field fired up with the idea that it was possible to create an anthropology of the past. That archeologists didn't and shouldn't be satisfied with knowing what happened in the past, they should ask . . ." She waited expectantly.
""Er . . . why it happened?" suggested Sean tentatively." - p 46
"Binford noticed that small fragments of bone accumulated in a "drop zone" around the workers, while they threw larger pieces either in front or behind them into what he called a "toss zone." Working on the assumption that people in the past had similar habits, the intrepid archeologist used this information to interpret the distribution of artifacts around 15,000-year-old fire hearths at an archeological site in Pincevent, France." - p 49
Thank goodness there's some humor in this novel (Thank you, Goodness). Even inanimate objects get a chuckle in here & there.
"She seized the stick and announced in a mixture of surprise and consternation, "You're a goddamn photographic scale." Wisely, the stick made no response, and its restraint was rewarded by being tucked under the arm of its captor, who continued to run in the same direction.
"Now, it doesn't take a New Archeologist applying the hypothetico-deductive method to predict that where there's an archeological scale, there's an archeological site not too far away. Such was Hannah's expectation, and it was confirmed after a couple of minutes of running." - p 54
"Alasdair offered vaguely. "Every indication is that it's from the Neolithic. Could be as much as five or seven thousand years old."
""Post-Bandkeramik Period, then," said his companion quietly. But Alasdair, in full lecture mode, didn't seem to hear this scholarly aside.
""The European Neolithic," he continued, "is the period when societies made an increasing use of domesticated crops and livestock, with a concomitant drop in emphasis on wild resources." - p 57
Yes, you've detected aright: there's some tension & there's some pomposity, there might even be some sexism against men perpetrated by the author as a way of staying on the good side of women bullies.
""That jerk," she growled, and Sean recoiled almost physically at the woman's vehement tone. "He has no idea what this site is about. Did you know he's only a second year grad student? The moron couldn't dig his way out of a kitty litter box. There're plenty of people on this site who've had far more field experience than him. But the Lord High Tuliver likes his fancy manners because they impress that capitalist running dog who claims to own this site. It's frikkin' feudal, the way he runs things here."" - pp 63-64
But there's also some female-male romance so the man-hating isn't 100%.
""I always come here at this time. After the archeologists have gone home," she explained gently. "This is a holy place for us. Come on, I'll show you."
""Us?"
""The Children of Odin."" - p 65
"It had briefly occurred to him to mention the alternative interpretations of the so-called goddess images: like Alice Kehoe's suggestions that some of the Upper Paleolithic carvings that archeologists and others routinely say are breasts could just as easily be male genitalia. Especially if you suspend them using the holes that are bored in one end. Or the idea that rotund figures like the famous Venus of Willendorf may have been made by women themselves recording the stages of pregnancy. Realizing that absolute honesty only gets you so far in a romantic relationship, Sean decided to keep his ideas to himself." - p 67
Given that I don't know shit from shinola about archeology [&, yes, I'm deliberately mutating some sayings here] I was bound to learn a fair amt from this bk, wch I enjoyed. E.G.: I didn't know about band societies.
"["]Band societies move around a lot. They make temporary settlements wherever they go, following the food resources, but they don't wander aimlessly. This month, they may be taking advantage of a fish run, and next they'll be harvesting seeds. From what social anthropologists tell us, their social organization is quite egalitarian. There's no individual that every member of the band looks up to as the boss. If there's a job to be done that needs skilled organization—like a fishing trip—the group chooses someone who is respected for that particular skill. But authority is quite fleeting: running the show today doesn't give you command tomorrow." - p 71
That seems sensible to me.. &, yet, I've found that in situations where I abnegated my own authority in favor of having a new person be the temporary expert that there's usually, if not always, a type of person who immediately tries to take advantage of the situation to take over the whole shebang.
Here's more useful terminology that I learned:
"The SCIENTIST classifies animals by their biological attributes: mammals have hair, birds grow feathers, and fish breathe with gills. Anthropologists call these ETIC categories, to denote distinctions that are made by the scientific observer.
"Yet, the typical observant Jew sees the same beasts quite differently. Using rules derived from the Hebrew Bible and other religious sources, he divides them into kosher and treyfe —animals that may be eaten and those that may not. Distinctions like these, which are used by people in a specific social or cultural context, are called EMIC categories." - p 81
""What this comes down to," accepting an orange segment from Claude, "is that you can't ask why people carry out a certain ritual or cultural practice and expect a single cut-and-dried answer that you can put in a bottle on the shelf and label it 'the one truth'. Ask a materialist like Alasdair and he's going to emphasize the social effects of carrying out the practice—an etic explanation. Ask a culturalist like me and I'm going to give an emic answer and tell you what the ritual means to the people themselves.["]" - p 84
Those rare people who have some idea of what my own thoughts are on similar matters (do you exist?!) might realize that this reinforces the position of my bk entitled THE SCIENCE (volume 1) ( http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/Book202... ). In other words, it's my opinion that there is no such thing as "THE SCIENCE" in the sense of one monolithic position taken by all scientists regarding any particular subject under study. There will always be differences of opinion based on a wide variety of data accepted as flawless & a wide variety of ways of interpreting that data, etc..
""The information on this site belongs to the people," expounded Terry. "It's part of everyone's history. At least, everyone in North America. It's not right that some moron can tell us how we should be doing our job just because he happens to own the land. No one can own the past," she asserted passionately, "it's not a commodity to be bought and sold. It's just too important.["]"
[..]
""The scrolls were kept secret for decades and only a few people were allowed to see them, to study them. Well, it's the same thing here. Power and money are all that's important. The capitalists who have it get to decide what's right and wrong, to hold back scientific investigation, and to decide what the people get to hear."" - p 91
Indeed.
""So you agree with authors who've started to give their books names like An Archaeology of Early American Life, which a fewyears ago would have been The Archaeology . . . ?"
""Of course," he insisted with a wave of the hand. "The implication here is that the author does not have the final word on the subject and the data may be interpreted differently by another. Discussion and change are the bases of science, even social science." Now, to be strictly accurate, Tuliver was willing to spout these liberal ideas and even to believe them in a general sort of way. Except, of course, when it came to his own work." - p 113
Wch brings me back to THE SCIENCE again & its nonexistence as a single unshakeable truth. What's different now, in 2023, in contrast to the 2000 when this bk was copyrighted is that it's no longer 'liberal' to espouse such an open-mindedness, at least in relation to the plandemic, any objections to the 'liberal' mass media propaganda regarding that one has been subjected to severely vicious lockstep behaviors.
"ÇATALHöYüK: A SITE WITH A SITE
<http://www.catalhoyuk.org/english.htm>
"ÇATALHöYüK is a really nifty 7,000- 8,000-year-old Neolithic town site in Turkey that is being excavated by an international team. The site is made up of many contiguous buildings, which were entered through holes in the roof. While many archeologists jealously guard their data until they have time to publish, the ÇATALHöYüK Web page allows access to excavators' field notes so that everyone with an Internet connection may make use of and reinterpret the data. The Web page also contains an open discusssion forum where participants are encouraged to question, laud, and disagree with the archeologists' interpretations." - p 114
Alas, that website appears to be defunct. However, there's this: https://www.catalhoyuk.com/ .
Politics has been running thru this already but now we reach the Marxist influence:
"The idea that archeologists should think about the POLITICAL implications of their work got a lot of people thinking that the field should have SOCIAL goals, rather than being a pastime for intellectuals. And that led to some of the approaches that we call POST-PROCESSUALIST." - p 122
One of the sections that's most likely to reach a large readership w/ its evocation is one where International Geographic comes to the dig site & has the crew dress up in fake neolithic garb in order to do a dramatic reenactment of something that might not've happened in the 1st place. It seems inevitable, & intentional on the author's part, that International Geographic will be interpreted as a stand-in for National Geographic, a magazine whose photography has been admired by just about everyone & her pet frog's legless uncle.
""Well, in my humble opinion, Dr. Tuliver should never have approved this . . . this charade," said Alasdair peevishly. His sackcloth jerkin and leggings itched, and the strip of leather he had been give for a belt kept getting loose, threatening to send his pants to the ground. It was incredible that Tuliver would have agreed to them dressing up like Neolithic peasants for that photographer. And it was shocking that a magazine like International Geographic would go in for this sort of playacting." - p 128
Gosh, am I at the Epilogue already?
"Thus, we are left with the kind of morally equivocal ending that will no doubt be abhorrent to television evangelists and others with little tolerance of ambiguity of any sort.
"They are the kind of people who would appreciate neither this book nor its message.
"They are the kind of people who expect science to provide all the answers and feel let down and fearful when it doesn't." - p 151
"But to dig below the surface (so to speak), to speculate about why people did what they did—either consciously or as unknowing participants in a never-ending historical/political/ecological process—that requires a tolerance for ambiguity. It also helps to have some humility, to recognize that today's stunning insights may tomorrow be no more than orange peels on the compost pile of intellectual history." - p 152
I'm w/ you there, feller.
But, sheesh!, I'm past the Epilogue & there're still a jillion things to quote. These academics.
"Thinking of going into the lucrative field of archaeological consulting? First, read this short novel or another in the series: Burial Ground: An Alan Graham Mystery, by Malcolm Shuman (New York, Avon, 1998). The author gives a very realistic depiction of a contract archeologist (except for all the murders, that is), and it's a good read too. For another kind of fantasy, the Sandia Cave controversy is presented in journalistic style in D. Preston's article, "The Mystery of Sandia Cave," The New Yorker (12 June 1995): 66-83. In case you're wondering if archaeologists really do have ethics, read about them in Archaeological Ethics, edited by Karen Vitelli (Walnut Creek, Calif.: AltaMira Press, 1996). For an enjoyable tour of forgeries, naive misinterpretations, and pseudo-science, I recommend Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology, by Kenneth Feder (New York: Mayfield Press, 1977)." - pp 156-157
For the complete review go here: http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/CriticP...
Adrian Praetzellis's Death by Theory
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - July 28, 2023
For the complete review go here: http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/CriticP...
This is subtitled "A Tale of Mystery and Archaeological Theory". The basic idea is that the author teaches about archeological theory w/in the context of a mystery novel. That appealed to me. By the end, I think the mystery suffered more than the theory but I suspect that many nuances of the theory were lost in the process too. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it & if 'didactic crime fiction' became an established genre I'd probably read more.
""Not a fan of ecofeminist archeology, Sean?" she goaded. "OK, I'm sortof starting to snooze myself. But let's be unobtrusive because the speaker's a friend of mine."
"They got up and shuffled as quietly as they could along the row of chairs to the side aisle.
""I can see its appeal, though," he continued when they were out of the meeting room. "You know—the idea that the Neolithic in south-eastern Europe was a peaceful, egalitarian. . . ."
"". . . matriarchal, godess-worshipping era. Yes, it has a certain appeal to me, too. But, well . . ." His colleague paused with a lopsided half smile.
""Yeah, I know what you're going to say, Doctor Green: there's just not much evidence that it ever happened."" - p 2
This bk features fairly frequent illustrations that are, yes, illustrative of ideas presented. The 1st of these illustrations is, indeed, labelled: ""ROLL CALL": Some of the Ideas presented in this Book" (p 4) & it has clip art of what's vaguely depictive of a toilet-paper dispenser w/ a hand pulling down 2 or 3 tissues w/ txt on them. The last of these txts reads:
"Chap. 9. The Postmodern Non-Method
PoMos don't agree on the questions
Or if there ARE any questions
These illustrations add considerably to the appeal of the bk for me.
""Stop me if you've heard this one, but science is nothing more than a way of organizing what you know about a subject so that you can understand it better. If you're going to use the scientific method, you have to put all your assumptions on the table, be explicit about the relationship between what you want to know and your method for finding it out, and be willing to be wrong. The scientific method involves starting out with an idea about why something is the way it is—a theory. Then you come up with a number of plausible explanations or hypotheses that you can apply to the facts of the case to see which fit and which don't."" - p 9
Note that there's nothing in there that claims the one has to have a particular sanctified training in order to embark upon this process. Instead, it's just common-sensical.
""Laws like the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Historic Preservation Act forced developers who needed federal money or approval to identify sites that might be affected by their project, to evaluate them—that is, to see if they were important enough to be saved or studied further—and to dig important sites that couldn't be avoided."
"Sean laughed out loud. "Yeah. I've heard NHPA called the National Archeologists Full Employment Act."
""Well, it certainly increased the demand for archaeologists. I once read that over 90 percent of archaeologists in the United States work in the C.R.M. field."
"C.R.M. industry," he corrected. "The commercial archeology firms even have their own trade association to look after their interests in Washington." - pp 18-19
"Sean rolled the first of the pebbles over in his hand. The stone was crisscrossed with veins of some white material that could have been quartz. It was harder than the encasing matrix and had not eroded as rapidly, leaving a delicate tracery of milky lines. In frustration, Claude jabbed at it with a long finger.
""There, look. Don't you see the old man with the beard? And that looks like a horse."
"Each stone, according to Sean's companion, showed scenes of mythical creatures, women with flowing hair, or armed warriors. They were, he was certain, evidence of a lost civilization." - p 21
Whether the author, Praetzellis, was familiar w/ Richard Shaver whn he wrote this I don't know. To many of us, Shaver's ideas wd be evoked. I recommend my movie that touches on Shaver's idea, Backwards Masking in Rocks available here: https://archive.org/details/backwards... .
"And so it was that the pair arrived at the imposing wrought-iron gate and graveled driveway of the New Magick Retreat Center—or the Summerfield School as the chipped and blistered sign had announced for the last sixty years." - p 33
I have no idea whether it's common knowledge or knowledge most circulated in occult subcultures that "Magick", so spelled, is intended to be differentiated from "Stage Magic" - meaning that it's meant to refer to occult forces rather than tricks.
""You mean, like the New Archeology?" asked Sean through a mouthful of bread and cheese.
""You've heard of it?" She sounded surprised.
""Hey! I didn't sleep through all my eight o'clock classes."
""Just some of them, huh? OK then, Dr. Science, tell me all about it."
""Weeeell," began Sean, suddenly deciding that his shoelace needed tying. "I guess this guy Lewis Binford thought it all up in 1962."
""Oh, is that right?" asked his aunt in a tone that intimated otherwise." - p 37
""Mostly that they were dissatisfied with the direction the field had been going. What people like Taylor and the Binfords did was to get the field fired up with the idea that it was possible to create an anthropology of the past. That archeologists didn't and shouldn't be satisfied with knowing what happened in the past, they should ask . . ." She waited expectantly.
""Er . . . why it happened?" suggested Sean tentatively." - p 46
"Binford noticed that small fragments of bone accumulated in a "drop zone" around the workers, while they threw larger pieces either in front or behind them into what he called a "toss zone." Working on the assumption that people in the past had similar habits, the intrepid archeologist used this information to interpret the distribution of artifacts around 15,000-year-old fire hearths at an archeological site in Pincevent, France." - p 49
Thank goodness there's some humor in this novel (Thank you, Goodness). Even inanimate objects get a chuckle in here & there.
"She seized the stick and announced in a mixture of surprise and consternation, "You're a goddamn photographic scale." Wisely, the stick made no response, and its restraint was rewarded by being tucked under the arm of its captor, who continued to run in the same direction.
"Now, it doesn't take a New Archeologist applying the hypothetico-deductive method to predict that where there's an archeological scale, there's an archeological site not too far away. Such was Hannah's expectation, and it was confirmed after a couple of minutes of running." - p 54
"Alasdair offered vaguely. "Every indication is that it's from the Neolithic. Could be as much as five or seven thousand years old."
""Post-Bandkeramik Period, then," said his companion quietly. But Alasdair, in full lecture mode, didn't seem to hear this scholarly aside.
""The European Neolithic," he continued, "is the period when societies made an increasing use of domesticated crops and livestock, with a concomitant drop in emphasis on wild resources." - p 57
Yes, you've detected aright: there's some tension & there's some pomposity, there might even be some sexism against men perpetrated by the author as a way of staying on the good side of women bullies.
""That jerk," she growled, and Sean recoiled almost physically at the woman's vehement tone. "He has no idea what this site is about. Did you know he's only a second year grad student? The moron couldn't dig his way out of a kitty litter box. There're plenty of people on this site who've had far more field experience than him. But the Lord High Tuliver likes his fancy manners because they impress that capitalist running dog who claims to own this site. It's frikkin' feudal, the way he runs things here."" - pp 63-64
But there's also some female-male romance so the man-hating isn't 100%.
""I always come here at this time. After the archeologists have gone home," she explained gently. "This is a holy place for us. Come on, I'll show you."
""Us?"
""The Children of Odin."" - p 65
"It had briefly occurred to him to mention the alternative interpretations of the so-called goddess images: like Alice Kehoe's suggestions that some of the Upper Paleolithic carvings that archeologists and others routinely say are breasts could just as easily be male genitalia. Especially if you suspend them using the holes that are bored in one end. Or the idea that rotund figures like the famous Venus of Willendorf may have been made by women themselves recording the stages of pregnancy. Realizing that absolute honesty only gets you so far in a romantic relationship, Sean decided to keep his ideas to himself." - p 67
Given that I don't know shit from shinola about archeology [&, yes, I'm deliberately mutating some sayings here] I was bound to learn a fair amt from this bk, wch I enjoyed. E.G.: I didn't know about band societies.
"["]Band societies move around a lot. They make temporary settlements wherever they go, following the food resources, but they don't wander aimlessly. This month, they may be taking advantage of a fish run, and next they'll be harvesting seeds. From what social anthropologists tell us, their social organization is quite egalitarian. There's no individual that every member of the band looks up to as the boss. If there's a job to be done that needs skilled organization—like a fishing trip—the group chooses someone who is respected for that particular skill. But authority is quite fleeting: running the show today doesn't give you command tomorrow." - p 71
That seems sensible to me.. &, yet, I've found that in situations where I abnegated my own authority in favor of having a new person be the temporary expert that there's usually, if not always, a type of person who immediately tries to take advantage of the situation to take over the whole shebang.
Here's more useful terminology that I learned:
"The SCIENTIST classifies animals by their biological attributes: mammals have hair, birds grow feathers, and fish breathe with gills. Anthropologists call these ETIC categories, to denote distinctions that are made by the scientific observer.
"Yet, the typical observant Jew sees the same beasts quite differently. Using rules derived from the Hebrew Bible and other religious sources, he divides them into kosher and treyfe —animals that may be eaten and those that may not. Distinctions like these, which are used by people in a specific social or cultural context, are called EMIC categories." - p 81
""What this comes down to," accepting an orange segment from Claude, "is that you can't ask why people carry out a certain ritual or cultural practice and expect a single cut-and-dried answer that you can put in a bottle on the shelf and label it 'the one truth'. Ask a materialist like Alasdair and he's going to emphasize the social effects of carrying out the practice—an etic explanation. Ask a culturalist like me and I'm going to give an emic answer and tell you what the ritual means to the people themselves.["]" - p 84
Those rare people who have some idea of what my own thoughts are on similar matters (do you exist?!) might realize that this reinforces the position of my bk entitled THE SCIENCE (volume 1) ( http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/Book202... ). In other words, it's my opinion that there is no such thing as "THE SCIENCE" in the sense of one monolithic position taken by all scientists regarding any particular subject under study. There will always be differences of opinion based on a wide variety of data accepted as flawless & a wide variety of ways of interpreting that data, etc..
""The information on this site belongs to the people," expounded Terry. "It's part of everyone's history. At least, everyone in North America. It's not right that some moron can tell us how we should be doing our job just because he happens to own the land. No one can own the past," she asserted passionately, "it's not a commodity to be bought and sold. It's just too important.["]"
[..]
""The scrolls were kept secret for decades and only a few people were allowed to see them, to study them. Well, it's the same thing here. Power and money are all that's important. The capitalists who have it get to decide what's right and wrong, to hold back scientific investigation, and to decide what the people get to hear."" - p 91
Indeed.
""So you agree with authors who've started to give their books names like An Archaeology of Early American Life, which a fewyears ago would have been The Archaeology . . . ?"
""Of course," he insisted with a wave of the hand. "The implication here is that the author does not have the final word on the subject and the data may be interpreted differently by another. Discussion and change are the bases of science, even social science." Now, to be strictly accurate, Tuliver was willing to spout these liberal ideas and even to believe them in a general sort of way. Except, of course, when it came to his own work." - p 113
Wch brings me back to THE SCIENCE again & its nonexistence as a single unshakeable truth. What's different now, in 2023, in contrast to the 2000 when this bk was copyrighted is that it's no longer 'liberal' to espouse such an open-mindedness, at least in relation to the plandemic, any objections to the 'liberal' mass media propaganda regarding that one has been subjected to severely vicious lockstep behaviors.
"ÇATALHöYüK: A SITE WITH A SITE
<http://www.catalhoyuk.org/english.htm>
"ÇATALHöYüK is a really nifty 7,000- 8,000-year-old Neolithic town site in Turkey that is being excavated by an international team. The site is made up of many contiguous buildings, which were entered through holes in the roof. While many archeologists jealously guard their data until they have time to publish, the ÇATALHöYüK Web page allows access to excavators' field notes so that everyone with an Internet connection may make use of and reinterpret the data. The Web page also contains an open discusssion forum where participants are encouraged to question, laud, and disagree with the archeologists' interpretations." - p 114
Alas, that website appears to be defunct. However, there's this: https://www.catalhoyuk.com/ .
Politics has been running thru this already but now we reach the Marxist influence:
"The idea that archeologists should think about the POLITICAL implications of their work got a lot of people thinking that the field should have SOCIAL goals, rather than being a pastime for intellectuals. And that led to some of the approaches that we call POST-PROCESSUALIST." - p 122
One of the sections that's most likely to reach a large readership w/ its evocation is one where International Geographic comes to the dig site & has the crew dress up in fake neolithic garb in order to do a dramatic reenactment of something that might not've happened in the 1st place. It seems inevitable, & intentional on the author's part, that International Geographic will be interpreted as a stand-in for National Geographic, a magazine whose photography has been admired by just about everyone & her pet frog's legless uncle.
""Well, in my humble opinion, Dr. Tuliver should never have approved this . . . this charade," said Alasdair peevishly. His sackcloth jerkin and leggings itched, and the strip of leather he had been give for a belt kept getting loose, threatening to send his pants to the ground. It was incredible that Tuliver would have agreed to them dressing up like Neolithic peasants for that photographer. And it was shocking that a magazine like International Geographic would go in for this sort of playacting." - p 128
Gosh, am I at the Epilogue already?
"Thus, we are left with the kind of morally equivocal ending that will no doubt be abhorrent to television evangelists and others with little tolerance of ambiguity of any sort.
"They are the kind of people who would appreciate neither this book nor its message.
"They are the kind of people who expect science to provide all the answers and feel let down and fearful when it doesn't." - p 151
"But to dig below the surface (so to speak), to speculate about why people did what they did—either consciously or as unknowing participants in a never-ending historical/political/ecological process—that requires a tolerance for ambiguity. It also helps to have some humility, to recognize that today's stunning insights may tomorrow be no more than orange peels on the compost pile of intellectual history." - p 152
I'm w/ you there, feller.
But, sheesh!, I'm past the Epilogue & there're still a jillion things to quote. These academics.
"Thinking of going into the lucrative field of archaeological consulting? First, read this short novel or another in the series: Burial Ground: An Alan Graham Mystery, by Malcolm Shuman (New York, Avon, 1998). The author gives a very realistic depiction of a contract archeologist (except for all the murders, that is), and it's a good read too. For another kind of fantasy, the Sandia Cave controversy is presented in journalistic style in D. Preston's article, "The Mystery of Sandia Cave," The New Yorker (12 June 1995): 66-83. In case you're wondering if archaeologists really do have ethics, read about them in Archaeological Ethics, edited by Karen Vitelli (Walnut Creek, Calif.: AltaMira Press, 1996). For an enjoyable tour of forgeries, naive misinterpretations, and pseudo-science, I recommend Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology, by Kenneth Feder (New York: Mayfield Press, 1977)." - pp 156-157
For the complete review go here: http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/CriticP...
February 5, 2020
Adrian Praetzellis’ Death by Theory uses prose fiction in an attempt to expose the reader to various anthropological and archaeological theory concepts while maintaining a mystery novel effect. The book’s author, an archaeologist with a Ph.D. in anthropology, also incorporates his own illustrations and diagrams to assist the reader in understanding some of these key concepts. The intended audience could be anyone with an interest in reading a mystery story, but the book is more likely to be digested by individuals with an interest or desire to learn core concepts of archaeological theory. The novel is arranged so that the reader is introduced to at least one, and sometimes more than one theory concept per chapter, and the book builds on these theories as the story progresses.
Many of these lessons, in theory, are introduced to the reader through conversations between the characters who themselves are mostly archaeologists or students of archaeology and anthropology. By revealing what can be thought of as dry and difficult concepts in this way, the author attempts to lessen the blow and make the concepts more engaging and easier to follow. In fact, many of these interactions between characters read similar to a university lecture that gets peppered with queries and ideas from the students. One example of this type of narrative involves Dr. Hannah Green discussing New Archaeology with her nephew, Sean and another student named Sandra (pp 37-51).
Praetzellis does a fair job in his attempt to teach these theory concepts in a more approachable manner. The book is peppered with analogies that attempt to assist in this different approach. Some, like comparing the acceptance of the theory of evolution to accepting there is an engine in the rental van without checking under the hood (p 25) give a very good way to explain that concept. Others, such as comparing archaeology to Major League Baseball (p 37) seem to fall flat. The book also has an over descriptive effort. In an attempt to write as a novelist, Praetzellis overuses descriptions of objects, people, and actions, and it can tend to be distractive. Another distraction is the use of illustrations that are placed throughout the novel. The reader, in the middle of reading a long passage of a particularly important theory concept is suddenly distracted by an illustration which tends to break the train of thought and is detrimental to the continuing comprehension of what is being read. This makes the book to read less like a mystery novel, but more like a series of lectures broken up with far fetched, over descriptive narrative.
All things considered, Praetzellis does quite well in his presentation of the core archaeological theory concepts he wished the reader to learn. As an archaeologist himself, he also makes a good effort in his characters behaving the way various types of professional archaeologists would act, particularly in the late 1990s/early 2000s when the book was written and published. Other things date the book, such as the description of sex versus gender (p 105) where the character bd immediately and stereotypically asks about San Francisco, or when a thin woman is said to “be built like a poster girl for frikkin’ anorexia” (p 129). In the past twenty years, much has changed on the acceptability of discussing these concepts in that manner. It was also distracting when the Dr. Green character would force the reader to go lookup Jewish or Yiddish terms in order to comprehend her intent.
The best parts of this novel are when the author is teaching the reader the various theory concepts. He does it in a very understandable and logical way and makes comprehension of these concepts far easier than having a student read Marx, Durkheim, Boaz, or Wolf. Even though the mystery part of the novel doesn’t really seem to get going until two-this of the way through the book, the outcome of the plot was entertaining and for some, it will be a surprise as to “whodunit.” Some of the book’s flaws, as previously mentioned, lie in the story itself. Some of it is dated, not funny when it tries to be, and overly descriptive. Death by Theory is a good tool to engage and educate on the dozen or so theories contained within. As a reader, one must be prepared to potentially glaze over some of the plot in order to get to the more didactic, and more critical content.
Many of these lessons, in theory, are introduced to the reader through conversations between the characters who themselves are mostly archaeologists or students of archaeology and anthropology. By revealing what can be thought of as dry and difficult concepts in this way, the author attempts to lessen the blow and make the concepts more engaging and easier to follow. In fact, many of these interactions between characters read similar to a university lecture that gets peppered with queries and ideas from the students. One example of this type of narrative involves Dr. Hannah Green discussing New Archaeology with her nephew, Sean and another student named Sandra (pp 37-51).
Praetzellis does a fair job in his attempt to teach these theory concepts in a more approachable manner. The book is peppered with analogies that attempt to assist in this different approach. Some, like comparing the acceptance of the theory of evolution to accepting there is an engine in the rental van without checking under the hood (p 25) give a very good way to explain that concept. Others, such as comparing archaeology to Major League Baseball (p 37) seem to fall flat. The book also has an over descriptive effort. In an attempt to write as a novelist, Praetzellis overuses descriptions of objects, people, and actions, and it can tend to be distractive. Another distraction is the use of illustrations that are placed throughout the novel. The reader, in the middle of reading a long passage of a particularly important theory concept is suddenly distracted by an illustration which tends to break the train of thought and is detrimental to the continuing comprehension of what is being read. This makes the book to read less like a mystery novel, but more like a series of lectures broken up with far fetched, over descriptive narrative.
All things considered, Praetzellis does quite well in his presentation of the core archaeological theory concepts he wished the reader to learn. As an archaeologist himself, he also makes a good effort in his characters behaving the way various types of professional archaeologists would act, particularly in the late 1990s/early 2000s when the book was written and published. Other things date the book, such as the description of sex versus gender (p 105) where the character bd immediately and stereotypically asks about San Francisco, or when a thin woman is said to “be built like a poster girl for frikkin’ anorexia” (p 129). In the past twenty years, much has changed on the acceptability of discussing these concepts in that manner. It was also distracting when the Dr. Green character would force the reader to go lookup Jewish or Yiddish terms in order to comprehend her intent.
The best parts of this novel are when the author is teaching the reader the various theory concepts. He does it in a very understandable and logical way and makes comprehension of these concepts far easier than having a student read Marx, Durkheim, Boaz, or Wolf. Even though the mystery part of the novel doesn’t really seem to get going until two-this of the way through the book, the outcome of the plot was entertaining and for some, it will be a surprise as to “whodunit.” Some of the book’s flaws, as previously mentioned, lie in the story itself. Some of it is dated, not funny when it tries to be, and overly descriptive. Death by Theory is a good tool to engage and educate on the dozen or so theories contained within. As a reader, one must be prepared to potentially glaze over some of the plot in order to get to the more didactic, and more critical content.
January 7, 2017
A part of archaeology's experimental introductory/undergraduate learning material that has developed over the past couple decades, this book helps introduce or supplement a basic understanding of archaeological theory.
The book's narrative is not particularly interesting on it's own but enough to make you interested in continuing reading and often feels as though there isn't a clear central plot and the characters that were supposed to be were likable enough. However, the book's narrative is not the purpose of this books writing, which is so to provide an easier introduction to archaeological theory. In this it succeeds by being a much lighter read than equivalent introductions. This results in a decreased density of material that it covers as well. I would recommend this as more supplemental to someone's education on archaeology theory or archaeology in general alongside a more traditional text so as to reinforce what is learned.
As others have noted, there isn't much reason for someone to read this book unless you have an interest in learning about archaeology.
The book's narrative is not particularly interesting on it's own but enough to make you interested in continuing reading and often feels as though there isn't a clear central plot and the characters that were supposed to be were likable enough. However, the book's narrative is not the purpose of this books writing, which is so to provide an easier introduction to archaeological theory. In this it succeeds by being a much lighter read than equivalent introductions. This results in a decreased density of material that it covers as well. I would recommend this as more supplemental to someone's education on archaeology theory or archaeology in general alongside a more traditional text so as to reinforce what is learned.
As others have noted, there isn't much reason for someone to read this book unless you have an interest in learning about archaeology.
October 14, 2019
I read this for my archaeology class and I’d just like to say... I’m not a fan of it. It’s fine for what it is, but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who is not reading it for class.
November 3, 2020
This is a fun and easy read textbook on archaeological theory
December 9, 2014
Reread this in Jan 2013 (review from 2007) I must preface this review with the statement that Dr. Pratzellis is one of my instructors, although not for theory. (I have him for methods and he refuses to use his own texts as he considers it hubris to assign one's own writing for a course) He is an excellent instructor.
I picked up this book as an adjunct to the assigned main theory books, Anthropology as Cultural Critique: An Experimental Moment in the Human Sciences and Anthropological Theory: An Introductory History, and found it a lighthearted (at times) and enjoyable read that, as others have already mentioned, lets your mind absorb the theories while letting you read a rather far-fetched mystery tale. I found it helped clarify some slipperier points of certain theories and gave me some insight into the possible practical applications of theory in practice. The drawings alone are worth seeing!
While this is not "great literature" and Adrian at the outset makes absolutely no pretense that it is, it is worth reading. It is also a prequel to the methods novel Dug to Death: A Tale of Archaeological Method and Mayhem (another amusing read)
I picked up this book as an adjunct to the assigned main theory books, Anthropology as Cultural Critique: An Experimental Moment in the Human Sciences and Anthropological Theory: An Introductory History, and found it a lighthearted (at times) and enjoyable read that, as others have already mentioned, lets your mind absorb the theories while letting you read a rather far-fetched mystery tale. I found it helped clarify some slipperier points of certain theories and gave me some insight into the possible practical applications of theory in practice. The drawings alone are worth seeing!
While this is not "great literature" and Adrian at the outset makes absolutely no pretense that it is, it is worth reading. It is also a prequel to the methods novel Dug to Death: A Tale of Archaeological Method and Mayhem (another amusing read)
March 11, 2010
Well, the mystery isn't too gripping, but the archaeological theory is presented in an interesting way. If I were teaching an undergrad archaeology course I might assign this book as a relatively painless way for students to understand some of the history and development of modern theoretical approaches in archaeology.
The illustrations (also done by the author) are particularly good. I really wish the mystery & story were better, so this book had more mainstream appeal, because Praetzellis really does a great job of explaining the rest. As it is, you probably won't enjoy this unless you have a real interest in modern anthropological archaeology.
The illustrations (also done by the author) are particularly good. I really wish the mystery & story were better, so this book had more mainstream appeal, because Praetzellis really does a great job of explaining the rest. As it is, you probably won't enjoy this unless you have a real interest in modern anthropological archaeology.
December 27, 2010
A small archaeological instruction handbook masquerading as a very slightly entertaining (at times) fictional journey ("journey" may be romanticizing a bit) through the modern world of being an archaeologist by way of digging an unbelievable site in Washington. There are many loose ends, characters left unaccounted for, pointless expounding, and more.
I was looking for an interesting take on interpreting history that may serve a writer like myself. I found maybe three interesting details and page after page of information that could have made up a 10-12 page booklet.
I was looking for an interesting take on interpreting history that may serve a writer like myself. I found maybe three interesting details and page after page of information that could have made up a 10-12 page booklet.
March 31, 2012
With a cliche plot line the book is of only minor value as a novel, but the presentation of the anthropological theories was done in a way that makes them easier to understand tend many traditional textbooks. Although some people that I know who read this book with me found it difficult to separate the theories from the mystery, I found it very easy to do. Overall the way the theory is presented makes this book a must read for any undergraduate in anthropology who needs to grasp the basic idea of the theories.
October 27, 2013
This book serves as a brief introduction to some of the major theoretical frameworks used by archaeologists. It presents a variety of concepts in an accessible manner and surrounds them with a loose plot to move the reader along. This book is not intended for consumption by a general audience, but is a unique and effective way to introduce yourself to anthropological theory without being subjected to the often hard-to-approach textbooks, or better yet, for use as a supplement to them.
March 22, 2008
Quick and easy read. Good intro to archaeological/anthro theory.
February 13, 2012
This is not a great work of fiction, nor is it intended to be. This is, however, the most accessible textbook about archaeological theory EVER. I highly recommend this as a companion to Kehoe's book.
March 27, 2014
The book was good, the language decent, but the content requires appreciation for archaeology. If archaeology interests you, then I recommend this book.
April 24, 2017
The content and "textbook" part of this was fine and grand but the writing style and language had me cringing most of the way through it. Particularly anything involving The Vision. It felt very much like reading something an angsty middle schooler with a know-it-all attitude would write. Very helpful in understanding concepts, but painful to read.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews