Archeology

[Karl Marx's Camel]

According to the Marxist paradigm of archaeology that was prevalent in the People's Republic of China during the time of the excavation of the site, Banpo was considered to be a matriarchal society; however, new research contradicts this claim, and the Marxist paradigm is gradually being phased out in modern Chinese archaeological research[1].

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banpo

Flawed paradigm?

[Whitten]

Flawd research.

[Janus]

Flawed paradigm?
Scientists originally believed that it was a matriarchal society because of the high value of objects found in the womens&#39; graves. It was probably explained in terms of Marxist ideology but I&#39;m not sure if they actually used a Marxist/dialectic method to come to this conclusion. Besides, much of Chinese society back then was matrilineal and I have yet to see any evidence that actually refutes all of this asides from a Wikipedia article. <_<

[The Author]

I agree with Whitten and Janus. I do not see how the archaeological excavations conducted at Banpo is an example of the "flawed paradigm of Marxist archaeology and historiography." Archaeologists always speculate about the conditions of life based on whatever remains they dig up and have to work with, and there&#39;s always the chance of mistakes being made in interpretations. It was interesting to see how this became a platform for a political assault by anti-communism against communist theories on historiography.