ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the impact that the Marxist analyses had. How did archaeologists deal with their legacy after 1990? How did Marxist scholars extend these analyses, and what aspects of their work did the archaeologists find useful? How did archaeologists incorporate features of those analyses with their own ongoing commentaries on state formation? What were the consequences of juxtaposing or articulating Marxist analyses with other theoretical frameworks? The chapter examines these questions in terms of the silences, backtalk, crosstalk, and dialogues that ensued after 1990. The dialogue that appeared in the 1990s began to unpack the implications of concepts - such as tribes, chiefdoms, complexity, and power - and to focus on diversity. The participants in the dialogue developed a comparative method that was dialectical at times. To ensure that this happens, it is necessary to refine our understanding of the various theoretical frameworks we use, to spell out the significance of the explicit and implicit implications of each, and to develop a textured appreciation of how they are similar to and different from one another.
