Paradigm Found brings together papers by renowned researchers from across Europe, Asia and America to discuss a selection of pressing issues in current archaeological theory and method. The book also reviews the effects and potential of various theoretical stances in the context of prehistoric archaeology.

The 23 papers provide a discussion of the issues currently re-appearing in the focal point of theoretical debates in archaeology such as the role of the discipline in the present-day society, problems of interpretation in archaeology, approaches to the study of social evolution, as well as current insights into issues in classification and construction of typologies. Taking a fresh, and often provocative, look at the challenges contemporary archaeology is facing, the contributors evaluate the effects of past developments and discuss the impact they are likely to have on future directions in archaeology as an internationally connected discipline. In its final part the volume reflects on current thinking on prehistory, using case-studies from a number of European regions and the Mediterranean, from the Neolithic to the Roman Period.

The volume represents a tribute to the lifetime achievements of Professor Evžen Neustupný, a distinguished Czech archaeologist who contributed to the advancement of prehistoric studies in Europe and to archaeological theory and method in particular.

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Contributors
• 1. Evžen Neustupný – Paradigm Found
• PART I CONTEMPORARY DISCOURSES IN ARCHAEOLOGICAL THEORY
  • 2. Scientia, Society, and Polydactyl Knowledge: Archaeology as a creative science
  • 3. Beyond Theoretical Archaeology: A manifesto for reconstructing interpretation in archaeology
  • 4. The Environment of Social Evolution
  • 5. Conceptual Crossroads: Community and society in prehistory
  • 6. Archaeologies of Space: An inquiry into modes of existence of Xscapes
  • 7. ‘Paradigm lost’ – on the State of Typology within Archaeological Theory
  • 8. The Demons of Comparison: Archaeological classification vs classificatory terminology
• PART II PAST AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS
  • 9. The ‘Annales’ School, ‘la nouvelle histoire’ and Polish Archaeology
  • 10. Binford in the Balkans: Introduction of theoretical archaeology in Slovenia and countries of former Yugoslavia
  • 11. Mainstream and Minority Archaeologies. The case of the beginnings of Polish bioarchaeology
  • 12. How We Have Come to Do Archaeology the Way(s) We Do: A meta-critique of current archaeological discursive formation
  • 13. Which Archaeology does the Modern World Need?
  • 14. Paradigm Lost: The rise, fall and eventual recovery of paradigms in archaeology
  • 15. Archaeology and Politics in the Twenty-first Century: Still Faustian but not much of a bargain
• PART III THINKING PREHISTORY
  • 16. Prehistoric Mind in Context: An essay on possible roots of ancient Egyptian civilisation
  • 17. Eight Million Neolithic Europeans: Social demography and social archaeology on the scope of change – from the Near East to Scandinavia
  • 18. Threads of Neolithic Household Cloth Production at Bronocice
  • 19. Neolithic versus Bronze Age Social Formations: A political economy approach
  • 20. The Idea of the Eneolithic
  • 21. Lost and Found Paradigms: Creation of the Beaker world
  • 22. Categories of Settlement Discard