ABSTRACT
In a series of exchanges, numbers of historical sites archaeologists have expressed their views regarding the field and its development. A wide variety of opinion has been expressed and clearly some tempers have been aroused. The exploration of the organizational relationships between differential production, the logistics of differential distribution and the differential utilization of products, and their final loss to the system as potential contributors to variability in the archaeological record is essential kinds of knowledge for the accurate interpretation of archaeological variability. The only accurate dating techniques which the archaeologist might develop for treating unknown materials are those which are dependent upon the operation of processes independent of the operation of cultural processes. Historic sites archaeologists should actively engage in nomothetic studies aimed at the specification of general propositions amenable to testing regarding the processes responsible for the formation of the archaeological record and the processes responsible for change and diversification in human lifeways.
