A review of the principles of cultural materialism (a synthesis of Marx's causal primacy of the infrastructure and Darwinian mechanisms of natural selection), this paper addresses certain substantive and metatheoretical problems of contemporary anthropology. A position paper, it is written from the standpoint that cultural materialism offers the most powerful and productive set of premises extant in the discipline for the explanation of cultural similarity and difference, stability and change, and for the nonidiosyncratic formulation—and potential falsification—of the broadest possible comparative and diachronic propositions. The implications of this position for disciplinary and subfield relationships in the social sciences are explored.

Archaeologists have tried to reconstruct patterns of thought, meaning, and ideas, using theories of structuralism, cognition, and ideology. Case studies involving each of the theories are described, and the strengths and weakness of their application to archaeological data are presented. Structuralism is found to yield substantial examples with well-worked treatments of archaeological data. These examples tend to ignore economic context, however. Materialism, especially neo-Marxism, contains thorough definitions of ideology that may be useful to archaeology because they preserve economic context. However, such definitions are new to the field and presently offer few well-worked examples of how to handle archaeological data.

Despite a great many references in the historic and ethnographic records to the importance of fishing by natives of the northern Great Lakes, anthropologists and archaeologists have failed to appreciate the uniqueness and significance of the inland shore fishery. A review of the archaeological evidence for the evolution of the fishery from Late Archaic to historic times indicates that the fishery can provide an organizing concept for understanding the cultural evolution of the region. Further, this record provides a means of examining the process of adaptation as it reflects a long series of technological and social adjustments to a specific set of environmental conditions over time.

Hafting has long been recognized by archaeologists as a process affecting stone tools. However, the effects of this process on the archaeological record have been virtually ignored. Hafting affects the final typological form of tools because hafted tools are usually more extensively and intensively worked than their unhafted counterparts. Ethnoarchaeological and some recent archaeological evidence indicates that functionally equivalent but typologically diverse hafted and unhafted tools may be in use at the same site. Because hafted tools are disposed of as a consequence of the “retooling” of hafts, the context of their disposal may not be equivalent to the context of their use. But, unhafted tools appear to be disposed of more often at or near the focus of use. Indifference to the hafted/unhafted distinction then may seriously distort inferences based upon intrasite spatial analysis. It is also argued that hafting is a strategy that will be differentially employed by any social group at different sites according to circumstances, thereby contributing to interassemblage variability. Finally, some methods of analysis are suggested that will allow the typological and distributional effects of hafting and retooling to be taken into account by lithic analysts.

Usulutan pottery is a major characteristic of Preclassic ceramic assemblages in southern Mesoamerica. This distinctive “resist” decorated pottery has long been considered a significant marker of southeastern influence in other areas of Mesoamerica and has been an important element in discussions of external stimuli on the development of Maya civilization. The origin, evolution, and technology of Usulutan have been debated for over 50 years. New archaeological evidence from western El Salvador now provides solutions to several aspects of this debate. The discovery of a complete, well-dated sequence of resist and Usulutan decorated ceramic types demonstrates a western Salvadoran origin and development for this pottery, tracing the tradition back to the Early Preclassic period. This sequence provides a spatial and temporal framework for future studies of Usulutan technology. The new evidence also requires a reassessment of the nature and significance of the Late Preclassic spread of Usulutan pottery in southern Mesoamerica.

Analysis of the dissected remains of certain small mammals suggests a consistently high ratio of edible meat to live weight. These figures, together with the great abundance of small mammals in natural and culturally modified settings, are combined to support the argument that they may have been important elements in prehistoric diet. Their dietary status may be consistently underestimated because of a number of biases.

The movement toward professionalism in archaeology is reflected in the SAA in many of its present activities. The time has come to redress the balance by reemphasizing that the Society is first and foremost a learned society.

The first New World Conference on Rescue Archaeology was held in Quito, Ecuador in May 1981. The conference was organized in response to the increasing destruction of the archaeological record by industrialization, urbanization, and illegal transportation and sale of artifacts. Various aspects of a system for establishing and maintaining effective rescue archaeological systems were discussed in symposia and workshops. The members of the conference endorsed a number of recommendations addressed to archaeologists, museums, individual governments, and the Organization of American States in order to reduce the damage being done to the cultural resources of the Western Hemisphere.

A short-term remedy is proposed in the hope of curtailing the proliferation of statistical and inferential error rife within the published archaeological literature. First, a study by Isbell and Schreiber, one that violates rudimentary quantitative and qualitative analytical precepts, yet nevertheless was published in American Antiquity, is discussed in depth in order to exemplify the extent to which matters have deteriorated within the discipline. Then, this analysis, in conjunction with the various compendia of statistical abuse compiled by numerous professionals within the field, is invoked as support for an argument advocating structural changes in the peer review system. Perhaps such solutions could be implemented until previously proposed long-term solutions, such as David Thomas"s call for compulsory courses and certification examinations to satisfy academic degree requirements, are finally instituted.

The Chicama-Moche Intervalley Canal never carried water as a functioning canal due to uplift slope errors made by unsophisticated Chimu engineers. There is no evidence of tectonic uplift directly affecting the Intervalley Canal, either during or after its construction, to create the numerous uphill sections along its entire length. The hydrological calculations of Ortloff et al. (1982) are based on preliminary survey data which do not conform with more detailed excavation and survey data. Thus, in this commentary the Intervalley Canal is reinterpreted as an impressive manifestation of the political and organizational power of the Chimu rulers, but not as a great hydraulic engineering feat.