On The Reasons For Social Evolution In Mesoamerica: Intentions In The Models

Abstract

As proponents of the "new archeology' have repeatedly emphasized (e.g. Watson, Redman, LeBlanc 1971), the description of a series of events does not constitute an explanation of those events. in order to explain events, they must be placed against a theoretical model in terms of which the diverse elements of archeological fact can be seen as some kind of integrated whole. While such a recipe for explanation seems simple enough, problems arise in determining: 1) what model to use, and 2) the precise nature of correspondence between the raw data and the model.