The importance of tool-class use lives in the formation of archaeological assemblages is established both in theory and empirically, and accurate inference from the material record requires that use lives be measured or estimated with confidence. Unfortunately, no method of measuring use lives directly from archaeological remains has been developed. However, this important quantity may be related to elementary properties of tool classes such as size and weight, properties which are themselves directly measurable. Ethnographic data on ceramic vessels, in which use life is related to such properties, is described and analyzed. Using!Kung San and Ingalik data, a similar analysis is performed for a variety of nonceramic tools and objects, although few of the stone-tool classes common to archaeological assemblages are included. There, use life is related most strongly to manufacturing cost and curation rate, an archaeological measure of which is proposed. Neither is an elementary property, but they can be estimated accurately for many tool classes. These results are noteworthy but not definitive, and they underscore the continued value of museum ethnographic collections and ethnoarchaeological research.

Iconographic, epigraphic, and linguistic data provide new evidence that the tamale constituted the primary maize food of Classic Maya diet. Archaeological and ethnohistoric data pertaining to the tamale and tortilla are reviewed and discussed in terms of the widespread representation of the tamale in Classic Maya epigraphy and art. Iconographic forms of the tamale are isolated and compared with hieroglyphic signs. Glyphs T:14, 39, 86, 130, 135, 506, 507, 754, 577, 584, and 739 are identified as representations of the tamale. Affix T130 contains either of two tamale types, both possessing the phonetic value wa or wah in the ancient script. This syllable provides readings for the Postclassic water group, the action of standing, and an unusual emblem glyph possibly referring to a supernatural region. In addition, the two tamale forms of T130 provide partial readings for the Classic terms for the numbers six, eight, and the name glyph of God N. It is suggested that the tamale constituted an important offering in Classic ritual, and is a principal subject of 819-day cycle texts.

Patterns in household consumption reflect changing strategies of control, finance, and legitimation used by the Inka empire after their conquest of the northern Wanka of Central Peru. Changes in consumption reflect differential access to goods. In pre-Inka Wanka II, the evidence of social stratification was relatively marked; in Wanka III—under Inka domination—this difference continued but narrowed significantly. The symbolic referents of prestige wares that distinguished elites from commoners changed from local styles to those conforming to Inka stylistic canons. We also recognize changing participation in activities associated with economic control and legitimation. In Wanka II, elite households yielded evidence of greater involvement in storage and feasting. In Wanka III, the overall quantities of items associated with these activities fell and the difference between elites and commoners was diminished as the state co-opted local elite prerogatives of status and power.

Recent archaeological efforts to model processes of intersocietal interaction have been hampered by a dearth of conceptual tools suitable to these analyses. In particular, there is a need for a theoretical structure that shifts concern from our traditional focus on spatially distinct cultures and their relations to the physical environment. Without such a shift, questions of intersocietal contact cannot be addressed successfully. This article suggests that the concept of social identity has a role to play in this reorientation. The use of social identity focuses attention directly on intersocietal interactions by encouraging us to ask such questions as who is interacting with whom, under what conditions, and what are the effects of the contact on local social change? This paper defines social identity, provides examples suggesting its utility in archaeological research, and considers the specific questions raised by the application of social identity to archaeological materials.

The carrying-capacity model applied to the Basin of Mexico by Sanders et al. is tested by Contact period hieroglyphic data on population and landholding from the rural tlaxilacalli (ward) of Santa María Asunción. Two calculations are made of the theoretically maximum tlaxilacalli population, one using the Sanders et al. parameters, and the second based on Asunción data. The analysis confirms the accuracy of Sanders et al.'s maize yields and average per-capita maize-consumption rate (if a variable of seed set aside is included), but suggests revision downward of household size. Although for the wrong reasons, the Sanders model correctly predicts the range of population for Asuncion. The balance between simulated household maize consumption and production shows that carrying capacity under viable, long-term strategies had been exceeded for poor and average agricultural years in the Contact period. At the tlaxilacalli level, grain deficits of greater than — 50 percent are projected for poor years, a — 28 percent deficit to + 11 percent surplus in average years, and surpluses of 10 to 74 percent in good years. In average years, to meet the maize requirements of the recorded population, continuous cultivation rather than 1:1 fallowing must have occurred on marginal land. Rural overpopulation apparent in Asunción may have been typical of many piedmont communities. The impetus for Late Horizon expansion of agricultural settlement might have come as much from rural overpopulation as from state-directed settlement to provide subsistence for Tenochtitlan.

The aim of this review is to introduce readers of American Antiquity to some recent literature in Old World archaeology on the subject of cross-cultural interaction and its role in culture change. The coverage is not representative of Old World archaeology as a whole, but rather focuses on European research, with which this reviewer is most familiar, and primarily introduces literature published in English. It is hoped that readers of this journal may find material in this review that can be of direct use to them in their research on questions of culture change in New World contexts.