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Advances in Oaxaca Archaeology

attention to) in at least some times and places. Area textbooks in archaeology teach more than facts; they convey underlying visions about the past and how to study it, about the nature and reasons for social change (e.g., the rise of social inequality); they are grand historical narratives in that sense. The authors of these two textbooks are aware of that and provide syntheses that amount to more than period-by-period synopses. Malpass’s book offers ample opportunities for students to navigate various interpretive possibilities afforded by the archaeological record, and it can be a very useful educational tool in that sense (though it could have used more in the way of comparative insights). Moore’s book presents a wide array of very dissimilar cases with much potential for a proper comparative perspective that, though not developed, enables readers to contemplate a variety of trajectories in ancient South America. Still, it should not be too much to expect that textbooks be formulated with an underlying logic that reflects the more sophisticated literature geared towards professional audiences (including that written by the authors of these textbooks). Undergraduate students can be challenged to think in a problem-oriented fashion even in their first year, and can learn a lot from an approach that more radically questions what is, for the most part, their (already) commonsense “progresslike” understanding of the human condition.