The study of the archaeology of farming communities in southern Africa is an inherently political activity but there has been little critical analysis of the role of social context in forming problems and in shaping answers. It is argued in this paper that the history of Iron Age research south of the Zambezi shows the prevalent influence of colonial ideologies, both in the earliest speculations about the nature of the African past and in the adaptations that have been made to contemporary archeological methodologies in their application to the subcontinent. Concepts such as ethnicity have acquired specific meanings in southern Africa that contrast with the use of similar ideas in other contexts such as Australasia. Such relativity reinforces the view that specific, detailed critiques of archaeological practice in differing social environments are necessary for an understanding of the manner in which the present shapes the past.

Mississippian period cemeteries in the American Bottom, Illinois, were divided into three categories representing two distinct social strata. Burial areas for an elite stratum occurred in large, regionally important town-and-mound centers. Locational, organizational, and artifactual criteria distinguish these burial areas from those of a non-elite social stratum. Members of the non-elite social stratum were buried either in cemeteries located within regional centers or in peripherally located cemeteries associated with outlying communities. Mortuary practices in the American Bottom changed somewhat during the several hundred year duration of the Mississippian period. These changes were particularly apparent at peripheral cemeteries. The size and distribution of these cemeteries were related to levels of regional social segmentation and settlement autonomy, which changed throughout the Mississippian period.

Despite a tendency to treat Mississippian production as involving specialization, little effort has been made to test these proposals in actual field work. A distinction between specialization at a site and specialization of producers is made in this article and applied to materials from the Great Salt Spring, a Mississippian salt production site in southern Illinois. Testing and excavations in 1981 and 1982 show that this was a true limited activity site. Nonetheless, the data on producer organization do not strongly support the conclusion of specialist production there and are consistent with simpler models of non-specialist production.

Analysis of the remains of a historic Inuit winter site, in conjunction with information supplied by one of the original inhabitants, demonstrates that despite post-occupational disturbance in the form of snow melt and associated downslope movement, the original internal site structure was maintained. Specific activity loci are identified for two snow houses, one occupied during early winter and the other during late winter. Changes in artifact and faunal element characteristics associated with the two dwellings are shown to reflect adjustments in various hunting and domestic activities from early to late winter.

An important aspect of archaeology is communicating the significance of data and research results to a fascinated, although often uninformed public. However, on the basis of book sales, newspaper coverage, television programming, and film presentations, it would seem that the public is inordinately fascinated by the more extreme, speculative, and often pseudoscientific claims made by those purporting to use archaeological data. Through questionnaires distributed to undergraduate students and to professional, teaching archaeologists, I made an attempt to comprehend the nature of the public's appetite for pseudoscientific archaeological claims. The role of education in refuting or perpetuating pseudoscience in archaeology was then assessed.

Recent excavations at Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia plantation, Monticello, have uncovered the remains of several structures and features including a storehouse and a dry well. Zooarchaeological analysis of the associated fauna indicates that differences in species composition, body part representation, and associated modifications exist between these two sites. These differences are undoubtedly related to social status and wealth and can be used to support the notion that the storehouse was probably also used as a slave dwelling.

The cultigen Amaranthus hypochondriacus has been recognized in four samples of desiccated plant remains from Holman Shelter in Madison County, Arkansas. That site, excavated in 1932, yielded the domesticated Chenopodium berlandieri ssp. nuttalliae described by Hugh Wilson (1981). Cultigen chenopod has been found in one other Madison County rockshelter. Samples containing the two species are described in detail and placed in general cultural context by combining information from excavation notes with regional archaeological data. Mesoamerican origins would exclude both cultigens from the Eastern Agricultural Complex. Current evidence favors a late prehistoric introduction into the eastern United States, but determination of spatial and temporal ranges will depend upon future recovery and analysis.

The architecture of early Valdivia (3300–2300 B.C.) communities provides information about the structure of early village life on the Ecuadorian Pacific coastal lowland. Household units from the sites of Real Alto and Loma Alta seem to exhibit domestic patterning in sleeping areas, cooking, tool working, cotton spinning, garbage disposal, and burial of the dead. The village layout provides a plan for settlement in the shape of a letter U. The Valdivia U-shaped village is briefly examined in its prehistoric context. Together, house and village patterns at Real Alto and Loma Alta reflect the beginnings of settled life in the context of an agricultural economy.

In recent years most archaeological excavation in North America has been done under contract to national, state or local governments or private agencies. There is no comprehensive bibliographic control over contract archaeology reports and most excavations remain unreported in the scholarly literature on archaeology. One hundred National Technical Information Service (NTIS) contract archaeology reports are discussed in relation to their bibliographic characteristics and criteria that are used for selecting materials for an academic library collection.

A critical aspect in the estimation of human effort embodied in mound construction or in midden deposition is the volume of the deposit. When these deposits are of irregular contour, the use of standard geometric formulae for the determination of volumes of solids is inadequate. Given a basic contour map of a given deposit, a rather precise determination of volume can be calculated by the application of the formula derived from that for the volume of a truncated cone. The use of the formula involves the determination of the volumes between contour intervals, and then adding the successive contour interval volumes. This is done by measuring the areas of adjacent contours and inserting those data into the formula. The procedure can be accomplished by hand, using grid paper or a compensating polar plenimeter, or by computer–either mainframe or micro–by the incorporation of the formula into an existing contour mapping program.

Salvage excavations in 1977–1978 of Structure E3-7 at Chalchuapa, El Salvador, revealed the structure to have been a multiple-episode Late Preclassic burial mound. The skeletal remains of 33 individuals were found in the construction fill. These remains are interpreted as evidence for human sacrifice. Osteological analysis was performed with the skeletal materials in situ. The individuals whose sex could be determined were adult males. This and other evidence suggests that the E3-7 burials might have been war captives from a “foreign” (non-Chalchuapa) population.

Saitta's (1983) comments on a model of the evolution of tribal social networks (Braun and Plog 1982) are discussed. Aspects of the model are clarified and problems with Saitta's interpretations are noted. In particular, we focus on questions concerning the relationship between stylistic variation and social networks and several issues concerning tribal social organization. We also address weaknesses in the alternative approach that Saitta describes.

Errors in Vierra and Carlson's (1981) presentation of Bartlett's test for significance of a correlation matrix are discussed and appropriate corrections offered.

In a recent paper, Marcus (1983) provides a timely synthesis of the rapidly accumulating body of data from various projects in the Maya Lowlands. One of the specific problems discussed by Marcus is that of temporal and cultural definition of the Swasey phase at the sites of Cuello and Colha, and its relationship to other early components. Our comment presents new data from Colha that were not available to Marcus. These data have significantly expanded our understanding of the earliest occupations at the site and have important implications for intersite comparisons.