We question Baumard's underlying assumption that humans have a propensity to innovate. Affordable transportation and energy underpinned the Industrial Revolution, making mass production/consumption possible. Although we cannot accept Baumard's thesis on the Industrial Revolution, it may help explain why complexity and innovation increase rapidly in the context of abundant energy.

The study of cultural complexity is entwined with ancestors myths from contemporary cosmology. Gowdy & Krall expose this mythology by arguing that complexity emerged from economic changes following cultivation. There is more, however, to the development of cultural complexity. Complexity can emerge from abundant energy or from addressing societal problems, which compels still further energy production.

Although the concept of significance has been widely discussed in cultural resource management, the origin of the idea and the epistemology underlying it have remained unexamined. This paper outlines the history of the significance concept in historic preservation and traces the current view of significance to the empiricist-positivist school of Western philosophical thought. Flaws in the arguments of this school, and in the logic of the significance concept, are raised and discussed. Potential approaches for dealing with aspects of the significance dilemma are proposed.

One shortcoming of the archaeological study of prehistoric societies is a failure to pursue the behavioral correlates of social distinctions. This paper shows, through a study of Middle Woodland mortuary populations, that analysis of degenerative joint disease is a productive approach to investigating status-linked behavior in archaeological populations.