ABSTRACT
Leslie A. White had pruned away the dry, sterile undergrowth of anti-evolutionism. One by one, he had undercut the arguments put forward by Boas and his disciples and had shown that evolution was a valid and rewarding organizing principle, an extremely useful tool with which to practice anthropology. To be sure, American archaeologists were still careful to pledge their allegiance to "history," and not allow themselves to be seduced by the demimonde of evolutionism. One reason, perhaps, why archaeologists failed to embrace White's evolutionism more readily and apply it more vigorously was that they were uncertain of just how to put it to work. The characterization made by Marshall Sahlins of specific evolution was the same as that embodied in Charles Darwin's view of the history of organic life as "descent with modification". By the mid-1950s there were decided evolutionary stirrings within the discipline of archaeology.
