Journal of Archaeological Research, Vol. 13, No. 3, September 2005 ( C  2005) DOI: 10.1007/s10814-005-3106-3 New World States and Empires: Economic and Social Organization Michael E. Smith 1,3 and Katharina J. Schreiber 2 We take a critical perspective in discussing recent publications on the archaeologi- cal study of the ancient state-level societies of Latin America. For some topics, such as intensive agriculture and exchange, data are far ahead of theory, whereas for others (e.g., gender and ethnicity), theory has outstripped data. Craft production, a topic that has achieved a good balance of data and theory, is one of the success sto- ries of recent Latin American archaeology. After a discussion of sources of data, we review these and other topics (e.g., consumption patterns, household studies, so- cial organization) in terms of both data and theory. In a second review article, we cover the topics of politics, religion, urbanism, and the processes of change. KEY WORDS: archaeology; complex societies; states; New World. INTRODUCTION The past decade has seen a real explosion in archaeological and documentary research on the state-level societies of the pre-Columbian New World. As in much of contemporary archaeology, there is a tension between the relative prominence and elaboration of data and theory in this area. On the one hand, fieldwork and analysis are proceeding at a rapid clip, often leaving theoretical and conceptual understanding lagging far behind. On the other hand, much current archaeological theorizing is highly speculative in nature, with little connection to the realities of the archaeological record. In the long run, most current interpretations will fall by the wayside, leaving the data as the enduring contributions of archaeological 1 Department of Anthropology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-2402. 2 Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California 93106-3210. 3 To whom correspondence should be addressed at Department of Anthropology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-2402; e-mail: mesmith@albany.edu. 189 1059-0161/05/0900-0189/0 C  2005 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc.