Ceramics and Society: A Technological Approach to Archaeological Assemblages. VALENTINE ROUX, in collaboration with MARIE AGNÈS-COURTY. 2019. Springer, Cham, Switzerland. xxxi + 329 pp. $109.99 (cloth), ISBN 978-3-030-03972-1. $84.99 (e-book), ISBN 978-3-030-03973-8

Chapters 2 and 3 are rooted in the author's long-term ethnoarchaeological and archaeological studies of technical processes in the early stages of pottery production drawn primarily from her research in South Asia. In barest outline, they comprise socioeconomic contexts defined as the organization of production, distribution, and circulation; cultural histories, the filiation and absence of filiation involving innovation and diffusion; and evolutionary forces and laws underlying the order and “diversity of historical trajectories” (p. 308). In this book, Roux's attempt to integrate the concept and its principles into the study of archaeological assemblages of ceramics is a novel and welcome contribution.