Bruce Graham Trigger (June 18, 1937–December 1, 2006) was a Canadian archaeologist, anthropologist, and ethnohistorian. Events 618 - Coronation of the Chinese governor Li Yuan as Emperor Gaozu of Tang, the new Emperor of China, initiating three centuries Year 1937 ( MCMXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Events 800 - Charlemagne judges the accusations against Pope Leo III in the Vatican Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page Archaeology, archeology, or archæology (from Greek grc ἀρχαιολογία archaiologia – grc ἀρχαῖος archaīos Anthropology (/ˌænθɹəˈpɒlədʒi/ from Greek grc ἄνθρωπος anthrōpos, "human" -λογία -logia) is the study of Ethnohistory is the study of ethnographic cultures and indigenous customs by examining historical records.
Born in Preston, Ontario, he received a doctorate in archaeology from Yale University in 1964. Preston is a community in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. Prior to its amalgamation with Galt and Hespeler to form the new city in 1973 it was an independent Year 1964 ( MCMLXIV) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the 1964 Gregorian calendar. His research interests at that time included the history of archaeological research and the comparative study of early cultures. He spent the following year teaching at Northwestern University and then took a position with the Department of Anthropology at McGill University in Montreal, and remained there for the rest of his career. Montreal, or Montréal in French ( pronounced in French, in English) is the largest city in the Canadian province of Quebec
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Contributions
Ethnohistory
He was arguably best known for The Children of Aataentsic, his two-volume study of the Huron peoples, a work which remains the definitive study on the history and ethnography of that people. "Huron" redirects here For other uses see Huron (disambiguation. The Children of Aataentsic earned Trigger numerous accolades, including adoption by the Huron-Wendat Nation as an honorary member. The Huron-Wendat Nation is a Huron-Wendat First Nation whose community and reserve is at Wendake Quebec, a municipality now enclosed Trigger would later reiterate some of the key arguments of the book in Natives and Newcomers, a polemical work aimed at educated laypeople. Polemics (pəˈlɛmɪks/ /poʊ- is the practice of disputing or controverting religious, philosophical, or political matters In Natives and Newcomers Trigger, writing in the tradition of Franz Boaz, argued that the colonial and Aboriginal societies of early Canada all possessed rich and complex social and cultural systems, and that there are no grounds to argue that any society of early Canada as superior to the others. Franz Boas ( July 9, 1858 &ndash December 21, 1942) was a German - American anthropologist and a pioneer of modern
History of Archaeology
Trigger's book A History of Archaeological Thought investigates the development of theory and archaeology as a discipline. A second and expanded edition was published in 2006.
Archaeological Theory
In Understanding Early Civilizations: A Comparative Study Trigger uses an integrated theoretical approach to look at the meaning of similarities and differences in the formation of complex societies in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, Shang of China, Aztecs and Classic Maya of Mesoamerica, Inka of the Andes, and Yoruba of Africa. Ancient Egypt was an Ancient Civilization in eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now Mesopotamia (from the Greek meaning "land between the rivers" is an area geographically located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers largely corresponding The shang (Tibetan gchang) is a flat ritual upturned Handbell employed by Bönpo and Asian Shamans The sizes of the shang Aztec is a term used to refer to certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who achieved political The Maya civilization is a Mesoamerican Civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the Pre-Columbian Americas For the rock keyboardist see Inka (musician., ( Korean: Inga) is a term used in Zen Buddhism to denote a high-level The Yoruba (Yo•row•ba ( Yorùbá in Yoruba Orthography) are one of the largest ethno-linguistic or Ethnic groups in West Africa In 2003 a session at the Society for American Archaeology (SAA) conference was dedicated to the research of Bruce Trigger. The Society for American Archaeology (SAA is the largest organization of professional archaeologists of the Americas in the world
Trigger also made significant contributions to theory and debates on epistemological issues within archaeology. Epistemology (from Greek επιστήμη - episteme, "knowledge" + λόγος, " Logos " or theory of knowledge The 2003 book "Artifacts and Ideas" is a collection of previously published papers that trace the history and development of these contributions.
In particular was his arguments about how the social and political contexts of research effect archaeological interpretation. One essay entitled "Archaeology and the Image of the American Indian" documents how archaeological interpretation reflected and legitimated stereotypes of Native American peoples and expressed the dominant political ideas and interests of Euro-American culture. A stereotype (from Greek: stereo + týpos = "solid impression" is a generalized perception of first impressions behaviors presumed by a group Politics Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions For example, prior to 1914 Euro-American stereotypes resulted in a prehistory that saw Indian cultures as being primitive and inherently static. A European American (Euro-American is a person who resides in the United States and is either from Europe or is the descendant of European immigrants It was commonly believed that Native Americans had not undergone any significant developmental changes and that they were incapable of change. It was believed that Indians had arrived in the Americas only recently, and this "fact" explained their alleged lack of cultural development. The Americas are the lands of the Western hemisphere or New World, consisting of the Continents of North America and South America Some early Euro-American archaeologists explained away the contrary evidence of earthwork mounds as the creations of "more enlightened" non-Indian peoples who had been exterminated by Indian savages. These popular beliefs, supported by the claims of early archaeologists, served to legitimate the displacement of Indian peoples from their homelands. John Wesley Powell, who led the debunking of the mound builder myths, not coincidentally also recognized that great injustices had been perpetuated against Indian peoples. John Wesley Powell ( March 24, 1834 - September 23, 1902) was a U A debunker is an individual who discredits and exposes claims as being false exaggerated unscientific or pretentious Mound Builder is a general term referring to the American Indians who constructed various styles of earthen Mounds for burial residential and ceremonial purposes Although Trigger recognized that Euro-American political interests tended to influence and distort interpretations of the archaeological record, he also argued that the accumulation of evidence served to correct these distortions.
Honours and Awards
In 2001, Trigger was made an Officer of the National Order of Quebec. Year 2001 ( MMI) was a Common year starting on Monday according to the Gregorian calendar. In 2005, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The Order of Canada is the highest civilian honour within the Canadian system of honours, with membership awarded to those who exemplify the order's Latin A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, he won their Innis-Gérin Medal in 1985. The Royal Society of Canada ( Société royale du Canada) now known as the RSC Academies of Arts Humanities and Sciences of Canada ( SRC Académies des Arts Year 1985 ( MCMLXXXV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link displays 1985 Gregorian calendar) In 1991, he won the Quebec government's Prix Léon-Gérin. Year 1991 ( MCMXCI) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar. The Prix Léon-Gérin is an award by the Government of Quebec that is part of the Prix du Québec, which "goes to researchers in one of the social sciences"
Trigger died on December 1, 2006, of cancer.
Selected Bibliography
- History and Settlement in Lower Nubia. New Haven: Yale University Publications in Anthropology, 1965.
- The Late Nubian Settlement at Arminna West. New Haven: Publications of the Pennsylvania-Yale Expedition to Egypt, 1965.
- Beyond History: The Methods of Prehistory. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1968.
- The Huron: Farmers of the North. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1969, revised edition, 1990.
- The Impact of Europeans on Huronia. Toronto: The Copp Clark Publishing Company, 1969.
- The Meroitic Funerary Inscriptions from Arminna West. New Haven: Publications of the Pennsylvania-Yale Expedition to Egypt, 1970.
- (with J. F. Pendergast) Cartier's Hochelaga and the Dawson Site. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1972.
- The Children of Aataentsic: A History of the Huron People to 1660. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1976.
- Nubia Under the Pharaohs. London: Thames and Hudson, 1976.
- Time and Traditions: Essays in Archaeological Interpretation. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1978 (U. S. edition New York: Columbia University Press).
- Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 15. Northeast, Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1978.
- Time and Traditions: Essays in Archaeological Interpretation. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1978.
- Gordon Childe: Revolutions in Archaeology. London: Thames and Hudson, 1980.
- (with B. J. Kemp, D. O'Connor, and A. B. Lloyd) Ancient Egypt: A Social History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
- Natives and Newcomers: Canada's "Heroic Age" Revisited. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1985.
- A History of Archaeological Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
- Early Civilizations: Ancient Egypt in Context. New York: Columbia, 1993.
- The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas [vol. I]. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
- Sociocultural Evolution: Calculation and Contingency. Oxford: Blackwell, 1998.
- Artifacts and Ideas: Essays in Archaeology. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2003.
- Understanding Early Civilizations: A Comparative Study. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
- A History of Archaeological Thought. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
References
- Trigger, Bruce G.
- 2003 Artifacts and Ideas, Essays in Archaeology. Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, NJ.
- Trigger, Bruce G.
- 2003 (1980) Archaeology and the Image of the American Indian. In Artifacts and Ideas. Originally published in American Antiquity 45:662-676.
- Williamson, Ronald F. and Michael S. Bisson (eds)
- 2006 The Archaeology of Bruce Trigger: Theoretical Empiricism. McGill-Queens's University Press, Montréal.
External links
The Canadian Encyclopedia is a source of information on Canada.Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic