Archaeologists from around the world reflect the change in the field from privileging either the mental or the material to a concern with interactions between human beings and material culture. They consider such aspects as collapsing the mind-matter dichotomy in material culture studies, the cognitive basis of material engagement, a Palaeolithic view of sedentism, architecture and Theaters of Memory in the Neolithic of Southwest Asia, the materiality of European megalithic monuments, the birth of Mesoamerican metaphysics, and materiality and sacred power in ancient Iraq. The 23 papers were presented to a March 2003 conference in Cambridge, presumably England. They are not indexed. Distributed in the US by the David Brown Book Company. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)