1st March 2005, 10:00 PM
There is also the point that understanding theory really helps you understand archaeological writing, even if you don't agree with it. If you know someones implicit theoretical background, and more or less when they were writing, you can make better sense of why they made the choices that they did. Theory explains why Cunliffes' stuff at Danebury reads very differently from Hodder's at Catal Huyuk. So even if you hate theory, you need to know something about it because the texts are full of it. Or something like that anyway...