In this first part, I seek to provide a general background context to this book in terms of some historical insights into the development of archaeological theory and method over the 20^th Century. I do so in terms of a set of three term papers that were written in the context of a seminar in archaeological theory and method. I focus upon the life and works of Vere Gordon Childe, preeminent British prehistorian, the main themes and concepts of the Americanist school of culture history, and the key readings and theoretical-methodological development of Lewis Binford's processual approach to archaeological systems theory. By this means, three general perspectives and alternative frames of reference to doing archaeological work are provided. I leave out recent trends in post-structuralist archaeology because I find no clear or consistent methodological or theoretical focus in these readings relative to archaeological systems theory beyond the critique of archaeological texts and perspectives and a some what superficial treatment and application of the constructivist paradigm. In this last regard, it should be emphasized that deconstruction is not the same thing as construction.