John Howland Rowe (June 10, 1918 – May 1, 2004) was an American

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 ...

and

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 ...

known for his extensive research on

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

, especially on the

Inca civilization The Incas were most notable for establishing the Inca Empire in Pre-Columbian America, which was centered in modern day South America in Peru and Chile. It was about 2,500 miles from the northern to southern tip. The civilization lasted from 14 ...

. Rowe studied

classical archaeology Classical archaeology is the archaeological investigation of the Mediterranean civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. Nineteenth-century archaeologists such as Heinrich Schliemann were drawn to study the societies they had read about i ...

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

(1935–1939) and anthropology at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

(1939–1941). After graduating he traveled to Peru where he undertook archaeological research and taught until 1943. Between 1944 and 1946 he served as sergeant in the U.S. Combat Engineers in Europe. From 1946 to 1948 he studied the Guambía people in

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

for the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

, returning briefly to Harvard in 1946 to complete his doctorate in Latin American history and anthropology in 1947. In 1948 he started teaching at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

where he remained active until 1988. A prolific writer, Rowe authored more than 300 publications in English and Spanish between 1940 and 2005. He became a lifelong friend of the Andean explorers Vince Lee and his wife Nancy. He mentored Lee, inviting him into his Institute of Andean Studies while offering continuous encouragement for both to continue with their explorations in Vilcabamba and elsewhere in Peru.

References

* Hastorf, Christine, Suzanne Calpestri and E. A. Hammel
''In Memoriam. John Howland Rowe.''
* Pfeiffer, Robert

External links

John Rowe interview
Oral History Collection — University of Florida {{DEFAULTSORT:Rowe, John Howland 1918 births 2004 deaths Incan scholars Brown University alumni Harvard University alumni University of California, Berkeley faculty 20th-century American archaeologists 20th-century American anthropologists Historians from California