On Chiefdoms and Other Archaeological Delusions

The editors of this forum believe that some books are important enough, and likely to be influential enough, to deserve extended discussion, more than can be achieved in the typical 750- to 1,000-word book reviews that characterize most journals. In our opinion Chiefdoms and Other Archaeological Delusions by Timothy R. Pauketat is one such book that deserves greater critical attention, because of the impact it is likely to have or has had since its publication.¹ Although published in mid-2007 and not yet widely reviewed, it has already achieved an appreciable buzz through word of mouth, and as such is shaping the practice of archaeology in the American South and beyond. It is seeing use in classes and seminars on Southeastern archaeology, archaeological theory, and the development of complex societies and state formation. From comments about the volume overheard at meetings, discussed over beers, and read in scattered Facebook postings, it would appear to be something of an underground hit with archaeology graduate students, at least at some schools.

For these reasons we have invited a number of leading archaeologists studying the Southern United States and beyond to comment on the book, to be followed in turn by an essay by Dr. Pauketat, offering his thoughts on the commentary, and archaeology and archaeological theory in general. Our instructions to the participants were open ended. They could discuss whatever they wanted about the book, subject only to an approximately 3,000-word limit on their text. This introductory essay provides a brief synopsis of the volume, presenting its major themes and characters.

Delusions begins with a brief introduction stating the author’s purposes, which are multiple. Foremost among these goals is the presentation of new approaches to and theories of archaeological inquiry. In the author’s words:

Today we might say that the reality of the past—the reality of history—is not so far removed from the evidence of that history—the potsherds, charred plant foods, bones—that archaeologists routinely recover. That is, the reality of the past was what people did and how people experienced social life. As it turns out, such a doing and experiencing of life almost always has a material and spatial dimension. . . . Archaeologists have direct access to this dimensionality through artifacts, spaces, and places. In fact, it is precisely this dimensionality of people’s cultural practices and social experiences that newer theories in archaeology aim to understand. From the point of view of these theories (of practice, agency, memory, or landscape), archaeologists track the continuous culture making of people through the histories, trajectories, or genealogies of things, spaces, and bodies. Thus in some theoretical circles, archaeologists now claim explanatory priority with respect to the cultural processes that reside not in the mind alone but at the interface of the human body and external world.

(Delusions, 2, emphasis in original)

A second goal of the author is to

reexamine Midwestern and southern chiefdoms in both comparative and historical terms. Why? [Because] I am dissatisfied with recent attempts to remedy the conceptual problems associated with the study of what are imperfectly called ancient complex societies or civilizations.

(Delusions, 4)

For Pauketat the need for new ways of thinking and doing archaeology is driven, in part, by a clear sense of urgency. Given the rate at which the archaeological record is being destroyed, both by development as well as by ill-conceived or self-serving archaeology itself, there is not much time left to explore some of the major questions of interest to the professional and general public alike (Delusions, 4).

To convey his points more humorously and anecdotally, Pauketat creates four “composite caricatures of contemporary archaeologists I’ve known over the years: the Southern Pragmatist, Dr. Science, the Uncertain Graduate Student (UGS)” [and] “a fourth, a shady character who’s sold his archaeological soul to corporate interests [Darth Evader]” (Delusions, 4, 5, 34). The approach, of course, comes directly from Kent Flannery’s classic edited volume The Early Mesoamerican Village and from his paper “The Golden Marshalltown: A Parable for the Archeology of the...