The authors in The Social Construction of Communities raise the right questions as they attempt to break with the ecofunctionalist models of past decades. Southwest archaeologists will find the volume's substantive, synthetic discussions of recent research to be particularly useful.

Ruth Van Dyke, Colorado College

Varien and Potter are to be congratulated on editing a volume that provides a substantial theoretical and methocological foundation for understanding how past communities were created and maintained in the American Southwest....this book is a must-add to the literature and an important addition to our understanding of the Chacoan world.

Journal of Anthropological Research

This volume is an admirable combination of social theory and substantive results that helps to redefine how archaeologists look at past communities. Although the case studies are from the U.S. Southwest, they have broad applicability to many archaeological regions and should serve as important sources for agency-oriented approaches in archaeology.

Barbara J. Mills, University of Arizona