Processual Archaeology and the Radical Critique [and Comments and Reply]

Abstract
Archaeology is becoming a broader, more catholic discipline. The positivist foundation of new archaeology is being questioned, and alternative radical approaches are being championed. In an attempt to assess the validity of these new directions, this paper reviews the historical association of spatial archaeology with hyman geography and examines the radical critique in each discipline. It concludes that radical archaeology does not offer a viable methodology for explaining past cultural patterning and calls instead for a behavioral archaeology, modeled in some respects upon behavioral geography, which takes careful account of individual behavior and is committed to general theory in the explanation of cultural evolution.