sey075

As I'm sure most readers are aware, the "Anthropocene" is a term for our current geological/environmental epoch on earth. It was coined to reflect the fact that today and in the (geologically) recent past, humans have had an enormous impact on the earth as a geological and biological entity. There is by now a big literature on the anthropocene (see the bib below for some examples), and even a journal with that title. It has been proposed that the anthropocene should be accepted as a formal name for the current geological epoch, and a study committee (the "Anthropocene Working Group") is now addressing this question for the Stratigraphy Comission of the Geological Society of London. (Wow, I wish archaeology had such a committee to sort out the varied meanings of messy period names such as Late Postclassic vs. Middle Postclassic vs. Early Aztec. I never know when to use those sequences of period names. I'd be happy to serve as the arbiter of truth, but my coll...

A new paper, in the current issue of American Antiquity , presents a list and discussion of 25 "grand challenges" for archaeology in the near future. The authors also publish a short piece, mainly the list and the methods in which it was assembled, in PNAS (both are Kintigh et al. 2014). This is a fantastic paper - please go read it right away. The challenges are meant to be issues that can be addressed by archaeologists, are important to the discipline, and also "relevant to contemporary society" (p.7). They "excluded questions highly specific to place and time." I am enormously impressed with this list. Of course, I have my concerns and reservations about some issues, as everyone will. But this list will serve as a point of discussion in the discipline for some time.  I copy the entire list below, at the end of the post. So, here are my quick comments and reservations. (these should not detract from my very strong support and admiration for this effort)....

We all like to be cited in print. I like to be cited. But recently I've come across a troubling number of citations of my work that attribute to me a position or claim that is the opposite of what I actually said. In the process they make me the poster child of the negative consequences of holding those (erroneous) positions. These are all in publications by good scholars who are not known for sloppy scholarship, so I find the errors puzzling. Here are three recent cases. 1. Just because I use the term "urban function" does not make me a functionalist in terms of social theory. Joyce, Arthur A.  (2009)  Theorizing Urbanism in Ancient Mesoamerica. Ancient Mesoamerica 20:189-196. Urban functions are activities and institutions located in cities that affect people and society in a broader hinterland. Another term for these might be impacts. If markets and merchants in a city impact the hinterland, then retail market exchange is an urban function. If ceremonies at a big ur...