The article reviews reactions to the Anglo-American New Archaeology as expressed in publications by Finnish archaeologists since the early 1970s. These reactions, mainly provided by C.F. Meinan- der, are contextualised within the history of Finnish theoretical archaeology as well as contempora- neous Scandinavian, most importantly Swedish, archaeological theory. In the case of Meinander’s ideas about the epistemology of archaeology, special reference is made to the writings of Mats Malmer, whose views as the progenitor of the Scandinavian variant of new archaeology greatly affected Meinander’s philosophy of archaeology. As a programmatic set of epistemological prin- ciples, the New Archaeology was met with opposition in Finnish archaeology that has in some respect tended to be reluctant or slow in adopting or responding to new theoretical influences. In the article, the tardiness of Finnish theoretical archaeology is not seen as a shortcoming but rather as a deliberate choice that has allowed Finnish archaeologists to incorporate multiple theoretical and methodological approaches liberally, leading to a self-critical attitude toward the epistemology of archaeology.