Collects twenty-eight papers published by Binford in the 1980's and includes his comments on them. This collection of self-edited papers, together with candid interstitial commentaries, provides a record of the development of 'The New Archaeology' and a view into the mind of a creative archaeological theorist.

In this book, Binford collects and comments on the twenty-eight substantive papers he has published in the 1980's, just as he collected and commented on his papers of the 1970's in "Working at Archaeology" (Academic Press, 1983) and his papers of the 1960's in "An Archaeological Perspective" (Academic Press, 1972). This ongoing collection of self-edited papers, together with the extensive and very candid interstitial commentaries, provides an invaluable record of the development of 'The New Archaeology' and a challenging view into the mind of the man who is certainly the most creative archaeological theorist of our time.The key feature of the book is that, as the leading theoretician and principal spokesman of the 'New Archaeology' for the past thirty years, all archaeologists find Binford's "Debating Archaeology" an important addition to the literature. This book includes: extensive discussions of empiricism and the assumptions of 'post processual' archaeology; discussions of science as a learning process in conflict with empiricism; examination of the current scholarly conflict over the nature of early hominids; examination of the current scholarly conflicts in archaeological theory; and, a reexamination of several old, established sites, which does not support their traditional interpretations.