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236 Hodder a postprocessual context. The practitioners are less committed to one way of seeing, and they are more ready to be innovative in new directions. Kehoe, in an interesting chapter in this volume, adds the point that on the evolutionary ladder given such prominence by processual archaeologists, Plains archaeology seemed dull and simple. The contextual emphasis in postprocessual archaeology, however, makes the area and its problems interesting again. Postprocessual archaeology was never well defined, deriving as it did from a critique of processual archaeology and establishing in its place a sensitivity to diversity and contextuality. It has always been better at being simply "post-" rather than establishing a new agenda. In many areas of the discipline, the term "postprocessual" is rapidly becoming redundant as processual archaeologists accommodate their views to take account of the criticisms and as postprocessual archaeologists soften their more extreme claims. The new consensus, particularly because it often recognizes a certain multivocality within the discipline, is as yet far from being worked out. It is thus of interest to see, in the particular tradition of scholarship on the Plains, what is meant by postprocessual and in what direction the participants are channeling their reactions. One point that in particular is being developed in these chapters is that material culture is active, not passive. For example, Krause argues that mound building was actively used to transform exchange relationships and to create community solidarities and dominance. Brooks looks at vision experiences as being involved in conflict and relationships of power linked to individuals actively creating their own worlds. He shows how individuals were involved in factionalism and fission as part of the denigration of social norms. Archaeological sites in Brooks's study express the creation of difference rather than passive adaptation following cultural rules. In Benn's account of the processes of agricultural intensification, a dialectical view is taken in which the driving force for change is the control over labor and its surpluses as part of active social competition. In all these examples, the emphasis on power and action is clear. The view that material culture and individuals are actively rather than passively engaged in social life has perhaps been most easily accepted and incorporated by die-hard processualists. The writers in this volume avoid the error of assuming that the commitment to an active view can sit side by side with the central tenets of an older processual view. The very emphasis on creativity and action confronts claims for universal, adaptive, rule-bound responses to stimuli. The commitment to universal, objective generalizations as opposed to contextual interpretations is undermined. In addition, the consideration of active individuals is not meant to argue that archae- Fighting Back on the Plains 237 ologists can "see" individuals or that "big" individuals changed the course of prehistory and history. Rather, it focuses attention on the frameworks of meaning according to which individuals in particular historical contexts constructed their world. Consideration of material culture and individuals as active rather than passive takes us from an ecologically adaptive world to one in which symbolism and meaning playa central role. A clear example of this shift is found in the suggestion by Warburton and Duke that projectile points should be seen as symbolic as well as adaptive and technological. They argue for a program of contextual analysis of symbolic associations. Mirau discusses the meanings that can be given to medicine wheel sites, while Wilson considers Plains stone circles as having a range oflocally varying symbolic and social meanings. Weimer points out that social and ideological dimensions could usefully be incorporated into predictive modeling. Many archaeologists have now come to accept the importance of incorporating the study of mind, meaning, and symbolism. However, as in the case of the active individual, it is sometimes assumed that a processual and positivist approach can be extended to the new area of analysis without contradiction. In fact, the shift to the symbolic causes internal turmoil in a processual position. A hopeless dilemma is created by the dual attempt to maintain a commitment to universals and objective knowledge while at the same time accepting that material culture is contextually influenced by symbolic schemes. The very definition of "symbol" normally refers to the secondary (abstract, conceptual) and arbitrary nature of signs. Most people would accept that symbolic meanings are constructed within specific historical contexts. It is thus impossible to deal adequately with symbols by retaining an ecologically deterministic view and by maintaining a commitment to objectivism and positivism. Symbols open...

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