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This section both introduces the chapters of my colleagues that follow and is an attempt to outline the intellectual context within which the work and thought have been accomplished. A short historical background is also provided as well as a description of the basic theoretical underpinnings of American archaeology. The Fundamental Intellectual Structures of Mesoamerican Field Archaeology The basic theoretical structure of American archaeology is derived from its association with anthropology as well as parts derived from Western scholarly and traditions in general. Briefly, anthropology (and therefore archaeology) argues that most human behavior is patterned and that the patterns are culturally determined. Furthermore, any given culture is made up of such patterned behavior, functionally integrated, and driven by a core of beliefs about the nature of the universe and humanity's place in it. These disciplinary premises have been distilled from the study of hundreds of cultures, mainly non-Western, over the past 150 years, although Herodotus (c. 425 B.C.) is often claimed as an early anthropologist. All cultural patterns, such as differentiated social status, have material correlates, as witness differential housing. For archaeologists, the important part of this premise is that the material remains of any culture therefore have some relation to the formerly operative nonmaterial behaviors. For example, ancestor veneration among the Maya drove them to create shrines and temples, large and small, which are now found in ruins across the landscape. Analytically, the anthropologist and archaeologist both may artificially break cultures down into component parts called cultural institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]