Conversations with Lew Binford

the long version

In these 1982 interviews Lew Binford, father of the New Archaeology, explains how in the early 1960s he pioneered the change from traditional culture history - archaeologists educated guesses about past peoples' lives - to a more rigorous detection of social and cultural systems in the archaeological record. At the urging of the author-interviewer, Paula Sabloff, Binford delves into his personal history to describe the people and circumstances that led him to develop and propound his revolutionary ideas. Binford's intellectual legacy is placed in context in a postscript by leading archaeologist Jeremy A. Sabloff. An appendix summarizes Binford's field research, and two bibliographies list his writings and related readings.