Bruce Graham Trigger (June 18, 1937 – December 1, 2006) was a
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
archaeologist
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
,
anthropologist
An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...
, and
ethnohistorian
Ethnohistory is the study of cultures and indigenous peoples customs by examining historical records as well as other sources of information on their lives and history. It is also the study of the history of various ethnic groups that may or may n ...
. He was appointed the James McGill Professor at McGill University in 2001.
Life
Born in
Preston, Ontario
Preston is a community in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, Ontario. Prior to 1973 it was an independent town, incorporated in 1915, but amalgamation with the town of Hespeler, Ontario, the city of Galt, Ontario ...
(now part of
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
). He obtained his undergraduate education at the
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...
obtaining a B.A. in
anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...
in 1959.
Trigger received a doctorate in
archaeology
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
from
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
in 1964.
He was taught by
George Peter Murdock
George Peter ("Pete") Murdock (May 11, 1897 – March 29, 1985), also known as G. P. Murdock, was an American anthropologist who was professor at Yale University and University of Pittsburgh. He is remembered for his empirical approach to ethn ...
and
Benjamin Irving Rouse.
He was co-supervised by co-supervised by
William Kelly Simpson
William Kelly Simpson (January 3, 1928 – March 24, 2017) was an American professor of Egyptology, Archaeology, Ancient Egyptian literature, and Afro-Asiatic languages at Yale University.The Cambridge University Catalogue. (2009)The Great Pyramid ...
and
Michael D. Coe
Michael Douglas Coe (May 14, 1929 – September 25, 2019) was an American archaeologist, anthropologist, epigrapher, and author. He is known for his research on pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, particularly the Maya, and was among the foremost Mayan ...
. He became friends with
K. C. Chang, a Chinese archaeologist, who joined the department during his final year of his PhD.
His doctoral work was funded by a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship Award. His PhD thesis entitled "History and Settlement of Lower Nubia" argued that four principle parameters determined the density of Nubia over 4,000 years: the height of floods, agricultural techniques, foreign trade and wars.
He spent the following year teaching at
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world.
Charte ...
and subsequently took a position, as Assistant Professor,
with the Department of
Anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...
at
McGill University
McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...
in
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...
, and remained there for the rest of his career.
He was married to Dr Barbara Welch, a
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
geographer
A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" a ...
trained in
Physical Geography
Physical geography (also known as physiography) is one of the three main branches of geography. Physical geography is the branch of natural science which deals with the processes and patterns in the natural environment such as the atmosphere, h ...
, who, despite being less-known than her husband, was considered an equally sophisticated thinker.
Pamela Jane Smith writes in her obituary of Bruce Trigger that "It is little known outside Canada that Bruce had a deep and profound influence on the development of archaeology in his homeland and is seen as one of the great Canadian intellectuals along with
Harold Innis
Harold Adams Innis (November 5, 1894 – November 9, 1952) was a Canadian professor of political economy at the University of Toronto and the author of seminal works on media, communication theory, and Canadian economic history. He helped deve ...
,
Northrop Frye
Herman Northrop Frye (July 14, 1912 – January 23, 1991) was a Canadian literary critic and literary theorist, considered one of the most influential of the 20th century.
Frye gained international fame with his first book, '' Fearful Symmet ...
and
Marshall McLuhan
Herbert Marshall McLuhan (July 21, 1911 – December 31, 1980) was a Canadian philosopher whose work is among the cornerstones of the study of media theory. He studied at the University of Manitoba and the University of Cambridge. He began his ...
."
Contributions
Bruce Trigger contributed to a wide range of fields and wrote on many aspects of archaeology. He published over 20 books including the book "A History of Archaeological Thought" which became required reading in the discipline.
Leo Klejn
Lev Samuilovich Kleyn (; 1 July 1927 – 7 November 2019), better known in English as Leo Klejn, was a Russian archaeologist, anthropologist and philologist.
Early life
Klejn was born in Vitebsk, Belarus, to two Jewish physicians, Polish-born S ...
(2008:4, (Lev Samuilovich Klejn, known as Leo Klejn, who was an internationally acclaimed Russian archaeologist) who corresponded with him for a considerable period of time wrote of him "Since then I always felt (and said) that if there were another archaeologist in the world whose positions were the most similar to mine, it would be Bruce Trigger."
He described (2008:4) Bruce and his contributions after his death as: "Today no other scholar is able to skillfully embrace the whole multifaceted range of activities of this modest and calm man. There must have been something unique about his spirit or personality that inspired and equipped him to deal creatively with American Indians, Ancient Egypt, world civilizations and the theory and
history of archaeology
Archaeology is the study of human activity in the past, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts (also known as eco-fa ...
, and it is interesting to try to understand some of the principles underlying his explorations of these very different themes."
Archaeological fieldwork
During his doctoral degree at
Yale
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...
he was also the Chief Archaeologist for the 1962 Yale/Pennsylvania
excavations
In archaeology, excavation is the exposure, processing and recording of archaeological remains. An excavation site or "dig" is the area being studied. These locations range from one to several areas at a time during a project and can be condu ...
at Armina
West in Egyptian
Nubia
Nubia () (Nobiin: Nobīn, ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the first cataract of the Nile (just south of Aswan in southern Egypt) and the confluence of the Blue and White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sudan), or ...
. These
excavations
In archaeology, excavation is the exposure, processing and recording of archaeological remains. An excavation site or "dig" is the area being studied. These locations range from one to several areas at a time during a project and can be condu ...
were directed by
William Kelly Simpson
William Kelly Simpson (January 3, 1928 – March 24, 2017) was an American professor of Egyptology, Archaeology, Ancient Egyptian literature, and Afro-Asiatic languages at Yale University.The Cambridge University Catalogue. (2009)The Great Pyramid ...
. Bruce was also the Staff Archaeologist with the 1963-1964 Oriental Institute Sudan Expedition for the
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
campaign.
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. ''The Children of Aataentsic'' earned Trigger numerous accolades, including adoption by the
Huron-Wendat Nation
The Huron-Wendat Nation (or Huron-Wendat First Nation) is an Iroquoian-speaking nation that was established in the 17th century. In the French language, used by most members of the First Nation, they are known as the Nation Huronne-Wendat. The Fre ...
as an honorary member. Trigger would later reiterate some of the key arguments of the book in ''Natives and Newcomers'', a
polemical
Polemic () is contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is called ''polemics'', which are seen in arguments on controversial topics ...
work aimed at educating laypeople. In ''Natives and Newcomers'' Trigger, writing in the tradition of
Franz Boas
Franz Uri Boas (July 9, 1858 – December 21, 1942) was a German-American anthropologist and a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology". His work is associated with the movements known as historical ...
, argued that the
colonial
Colonial or The Colonial may refer to:
* Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology)
Architecture
* American colonial architecture
* French Colonial
* Spanish Colonial architecture
Automobiles
* Colonial (1920 au ...
and Aboriginal societies of early
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
all possessed rich and complex social and cultural systems, and that there are no grounds to argue that any society of early
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
was superior to the others.
History of archaeology
Trigger's book ''A History of Archaeological Thought'' investigates the history of the development of theory and
archaeology
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
as a discipline. The first version was published by Cambridge University Press in 1989. This book was described as "the first ever to examine the history of archaeological thought from medieval times to the present in world-wide perspective"
A second and expanded edition of this book was published in 2006.
The second book "introduces new archaeological perspectives and concerns. At once stimulating and even-handed, it places the development of archaeological thought and theory throughout within a broad social and intellectual framework."
He published a number of articles on this topic:
* Trigger, Bruce Graham 1981 Anglo‐American Archaeology ''World Archaeology'' 13(2: Regional traditions of archaeological research 1): 138–155.
* Trigger, Bruce Graham 1983 American Archaeology as Native History: A Review Essay. ''The William and Mary Quarterly'' 40(3): 413–452.
* Trigger, Bruce Graham 1984 Archaeology at the Crossroads: What’s New? ''Annual Review of Anthropology'' 13: 275–300.
* Trigger, Bruce Graham 1984 Alternative Archaeologies: Nationalist, Colonialist, Imperialist. ''Man'' New Series, 19(2): 355–370.
* Trigger, Bruce Graham 1986 Prospects for a World Archaeology. ''World Archaeology'' 18(1) Perspectives in World Archaeology: 1–20.
* Trigger, Bruce Graham 1994 Ethnicity: An Appropriate Concept for Archaeology. ''Fennoscandia Archaeologica'' XI: 100–103.
* Trigger, Bruce Graham 1995 Expanding Middle Range Theory. ''Antiquity'' 69: 449–458.
* Trigger, Bruce Graham 1998 ‘The Loss of Innocence’ in Historical Perspective. ''Antiquity'' 72(277): 694–698.
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
Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...
,
Shang
The Shang dynasty (), also known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Chinese royal dynasty founded by Tang of Shang (Cheng Tang) that ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the Xia dynasty and f ...
of China,
Aztec
The Aztecs () were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different Indigenous peoples of Mexico, ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those g ...
s and Classic
Maya
Maya may refer to:
Civilizations
* Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America
** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples
** Maya language, the languages of the Maya peoples
* Maya (Ethiopia), a populat ...
of Mesoamerica,
Inka of the
Andes
The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...
, and
Yoruba
The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...
of
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
. In 2004 a session at the
Society for American Archaeology
The Society for American Archaeology (SAA) is a professional association for the archaeology of the Americas. It was founded in 1934 and its headquarters are in based in Washington, D.C. , it has 7,500 members. Its current president is Deborah L. ...
(SAA) conference was dedicated to the research of Bruce Trigger.
Trigger also made significant contributions to theory and debates on
epistemological issues within
archaeology
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
. The 2003 book "Artifacts and Ideas" is a collection of previously published papers that trace the history and development of these contributions.
In particular were his arguments about how the social and political contexts of research affect archaeological interpretation. One essay entitled "Archaeology and the Image of the American Indian" documents how archaeological interpretation reflected and legitimated
stereotypes
In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can be, for example ...
of Native American peoples and expressed the dominant
political
Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...
ideas and interests of Euro-American culture. For example, prior to 1914
Euro-American
European Americans (also referred to as Euro-Americans) are Americans of European ancestry. This term includes people who are descended from the first European settlers in the United States as well as people who are descended from more recent E ...
stereotypes resulted in a prehistory that saw native cultures as being primitive and inherently static. 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 natives had arrived in the
Americas
The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World.
Along with th ...
only recently, and this "fact" explained their alleged lack of cultural development. Some early Euro-American archaeologists explained away the contrary evidence of
earthwork mound
A mound is a heaped pile of earth, gravel, sand, rocks, or debris. Most commonly, mounds are earthen formations such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. A mound may be any rounded area of topographically higher el ...
s as the creations of "more enlightened" non-native peoples who had been exterminated by Native American
savage
Savage may refer to:
Places Antarctica
* Savage Glacier, Ellsworth Land
* Savage Nunatak, Marie Byrd Land
* Savage Ridge, Victoria Land
United States
* Savage, Maryland, an unincorporated community
* Savage, Minnesota, a city
* Savage, Mi ...
s. These popular beliefs, supported by the claims of early archaeologists, served to legitimate the displacement of native peoples from their homelands.
John Wesley Powell
John Wesley Powell (March 24, 1834 – September 23, 1902) was an American geologist, U.S. Army soldier, explorer of the American West, professor at Illinois Wesleyan University, and director of major scientific and cultural institutions. He ...
, who led the
debunking of the
mound builder myths, not coincidentally also recognized that great injustices had been perpetuated against Native American peoples. 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
He received a number of academic awards and numerous other honours such as a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Canada
The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; french: Société royale du Canada, SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bil ...
from 1976, he became a recipient of their
Innis-Gérin Medal The Innis-Gérin Medal is an award of the Royal Society of Canada for a distinguished and sustained contribution to the literature of the social sciences. It was established in 1966 and is given biennially. The award is named in honor of Harold Inn ...
in 1985.
In 1979 he was awarded the
Cornplanter Medal
The Cornplanter Medal was named for the Iroquois chief Cornplanter and is an award for scholastic and other contributions to the betterment of knowledge of the Iroquois people. It was initiated by University of Chicago anthropologist Frederick S ...
. In 1991, he was recipient of the Québec Government’s
Prix Léon-Gérin
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". It is named in honour of Léon Gérin.
Winners
See also
* List of social sciences ...
. The Québec Government in 2001 made him an Officer of the
National Order of Quebec
The National Order of Quebec, termed officially in French as ''l'Ordre national du Québec'', and in English abbreviation as the Order of Quebec, is an order of merit in the Canadian province of Quebec. Instituted in 1984 when Lieutenant Governo ...
while five years later, in 2005, he was made an Officer of the
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit.
To coincide with the ...
.
His most cherished honour was his adoption in 1989 into the Great Turtle Clan of the
Wendat (Huron) Confederacy, with the name Nyemea.
Trigger died of
cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...
on December 1, 2006. His archive is kept at the
McGill University Archives.
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
ol. I
OL may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Orphaned Land, an Israeli progressive metal band
* Old Lace (comics) a telepathically linked dinosaur hero
Businesses and organizations
* OLT Express Germany (IATA code: OL), a scheduled and charter airl ...
'. 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
Bruce Graham Triggerat
The Canadian Encyclopedia
''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; french: L'Encyclopédie canadienne) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with the support of Canadian Heritage.
Available fo ...
Bruce Trigger FondsMcGill University Library & Archives.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Trigger, Bruce
1937 births
2006 deaths
Canadian archaeologists
Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada
Officers of the National Order of Quebec
Officers of the Order of Canada
People from Cambridge, Ontario
McGill University faculty
Deaths from cancer in Quebec
Canadian male non-fiction writers
20th-century Canadian historians
20th-century archaeologists