This article surveys tendencies in Bronze Age social research in the Baltic countries. It marks a new departure in archaeological

scholarship in the region, and examines the influence of wider European theories on local Bronze Age research. The most

important issue to be discussed is the uncritical application of theoretical models on east Baltic archaeology, without reference

to the region’s specific culture. Thus, the Bronze Age social structure is reconstructed according to a priori formulated

precepts. The article discusses the possible negative implications of such a transference of foreign theories, which leads to

the prejudgement of results in regional archaeological studies. Special criticism is levelled at the application of the pyramid

social model, which offers a false interpretation of Prehistoric social structures on the basis of recent research. We offer new

alternatives in the sphere of societal studies, which pay most attention to processes whereby people dominate as individual

agents, rather than to the classification of archaeological material according to the nature or implied value of such material.