In this Book

  • Prophet, Pariah, and Pioneer: Walter W. Taylor and Dissension in American Archaeology
  • Book
  • Edited by Allan Maca, William Folan, and Jonathan Reyman
  • 2010
  • Published by: University Press of Colorado
buy this book Buy This Book in Print
summary
"This is a fascinating book about a complex person...Taylor is claimed by the contributors to this new book as ancestor to both processual and postprocessual archaeologies...It thus remains possible to read him in different ways, as is well brought out by the diverse contributions to this volume, which is the first to provide a thorough and informed account that contextualizes Taylor's work and habilitates him within later and contemporary currents in archaeology...Throughout Prophet, Pariah, and Pioneer and especially at the end, the twists and turns, the refractions never stop...The editors are to be congratulated for not trying to tidy him up..."
-Ian Hodder, Current Anthropology

In his 1948 work A Study of Archaeology, recently minted Harvard Ph.D. Walter W. Taylor delivered the strongest and most substantial critique of American archaeology ever published. He created many enemies with his dissection of the research programs of America’s leading scholars, who took it as a personal affront. Taylor subsequently saw his ideas co-opted, his research pushed to the margins, and his students punished. Publicly humiliated at the 1985 Society for American Archaeology meeting, he suffered ridicule until his death in 1997.

Nearly everyone in the archaeological community read Taylor’s book at the time, and despite the negative reaction, many were influenced by it. Few young scholars dared to directly engage and build on his “conjunctive approach,” yet his suggested methods nevertheless began to be adopted and countless present-day authors highlight his impact on the 1960s formation of the “New Archaeology.” In

Prophet, Pariah, and Pioneer, peers, colleagues, and former students offer a critical consideration of Taylor’s influence and legacy. Neither a festschrift nor a mere analysis of his work, the book presents an array of voices exploring Taylor and his influence, sociologically and intellectually, as well as the culture of American archaeology in the second half of the twentieth century.

Table of Contents

restricted access Download Full Book
  1. Cover
  2. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Frontmatter
  2. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Contents
  2. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Contributors
  2. pp. xi-xii
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Figures and tables
  2. p. xiii
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Foreword
  2. pp. xv-xix
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Preface
  2. pp. xxi-xxx
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Part I: Introduction, Background, and Overview
  1. 1: Then and Now: W. W. Taylor and American Archaeology
  2. pp. 3-55
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 2: Walter Willard Taylor Jr.: A Biographical Sketch and Bibliography
  2. pp. 57-71
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 3: No Man Is an Island: The Scholarship of Walter W. Taylor
  2. pp. 73-99
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Part II: Southern Illinois University: Colleagues’ Perspectives
  1. 4: Walter Taylor: POW, Professor, and Colleague
  2. pp. 103-117
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 5: Professor Walter W. Taylor as Chairman
  2. pp. 119-122
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 6: Reflections on Walter Taylor
  2. pp. 123-126
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Part III: Southern Illinois University: Students’ Perspectives
  1. 7: Walter Taylor in the 1960s
  2. pp. 129-140
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 8: Yanaconas
  2. pp. 141-147
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 9: Walter W. Taylor: Prophet, Pariah, and Pioneer
  2. pp. 149-168
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 10: Walter Taylor: A Stimulating and Problematic Professor
  2. pp. 169-176
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 11: Professor Walter W. Taylor
  2. pp. 177-194
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Part IV: Analyses of Taylor’s Work and Influence
  1. 12: Remembering Walter Taylor
  2. pp. 197-200
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 13: Walter W. Taylor’s A Study of Arch(a)eology: Its Impact, or Lack Thereof, 1943–Present
  2. pp. 201-215
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 14: Cornelius Osgood, Preceptor
  2. pp. 217-226
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 15: Walter W. Taylor and the Study of Maya Iconography
  2. pp. 227-242
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 16: Walter Taylor’s Conjunctive Approach in Maya Archaeology
  2. pp. 243-298
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 17: Walter W. Taylor in the Southwest
  2. pp. 299-313
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 18: Walter Taylor and the Production of Anger in American Archaeology
  2. pp. 315-330
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Part V: Discussion
  1. 19: “Conjunctivitis”: Notes on Historical Ethnography, Paradigms, and Social Networks in Academia
  2. pp. 333-356
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Epilogue
  2. pp. 357-362
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. References
  2. pp. 363-406
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Index
  2. pp. 407-416
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
Back To Top

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Without cookies your experience may not be seamless.