The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 74, July 1970 - April, 1971 Page: 572

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

ideas. Unquestionably, this new perspective is both enlightening and
fruitful, but I wonder if, in many cases, overreaction to misuse of
certain concepts in the past has not led to "throwing the baby out with
the bath." Inductive methods are conventionally combined with de-
ductive methods in the physical sciences, and the system has proven
highly beneficial for scientific investigation. Should not the merits of
both be emphasized? Further, I wonder, along with one of the com-
mentators, whether normative culture theory should be dismissed.
Complete rejection is, in fact, contradictory to the assumptions of the
New.Archaeology, that is that culture is patterned and susceptible to
scientific investigation.
On the basis of these assumptions and methods, the authors infer
the social organization of several extinct southwestern societies. Most
of the authors make extensive use of Lewis R. Binford's concept of
analogy: analogies are to be drawn not only between parallels in form
but also between parallels in systematic relationships. Further, analogy
is not restricted to ethnographic cases in theory, although only ethno-
graphic analogies are drawn in the case studies and examples. Infer-
ences about social groupings based upon residence, tasks, sodalities,
and statuses are based upon analogy, premises, and other forms of evi-
dence. The implications for the solution to many "origin" problems
in southwestern ethnology are multitudinous. For example, Jeffrey
Dean provides archaeological support for Fred Eggan's proposition, in
Social Organization of the Western Pueblos, that the origin of the clan
system in the southwest is related to the consolidation of dispersed
lineage groups into towns and the need for integrating mechanisms.
According to Dean, small, monolineage villages were succeeded by mul-
tilineage towns with other evidence of clan organization after con-
solidation had occurred. However, David Aberle observes that no
distinction is made between nonlocalized and localized clans and that
while the data support the origin of localized clans in this manner,
monolineage communities are not necessarily incongruent with non-
localized clans. Consequently, nonlocalized clans may have antedated
localized clans and may have been quite ancient in the southwest.
All in all, I find the book to be most refreshing. I would strongly
recommend it to those having either an historical or scientific interest
in extinct societies, in the Southwest or elsewhere.

University of Nevada, Reno

572

DONALD L. HARDESTY