In this concluding chapter, I will review some general theoretical challenges facing archaeology and consider how archaeologists might respond more effectively to these problems in the future. I also will discuss briefly the special roles that archaeology can play within the social sciences and in modern society.

The Challenge of Relativism

Because archaeology deals with complex phenomena and is not an experimental discipline, it is particularly vulnerable to what is accepted as true being whatever seems to be most reasonable to archaeologists, both individually and collectively. Archaeologists may establish sound correlations, weed out logical inconsistencies, and demonstrate that accepted interpretations do not accord with new data. Yet this historical survey reveals that, even if archaeology has grown considerably more resistant to subjectivity as its database and techniques for studying these data have expanded, interpretations are still subtly influenced by social, personal, and disciplinary perceptions of reality that often preclude an awareness of the full range of alternative explanations that require testing. In many cases, neither sufficient data nor strong enough correlations among the variables being examined are available to counteract these biases.