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James Deetz (February 8, 1930 – November 25, 2000) was an American
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 ...
, often known as one of the fathers of
historical archaeology Historical archaeology is a form of archaeology dealing with places, things, and issues from the past or present when written records and oral traditions can inform and contextualize cultural material. These records can both complement and conflict ...
. His work focused on culture change and the cultural aspects inherent in the historic and archaeological record, and was concerned primarily with the Massachusetts and Virginia colonies. James Deetz was interested in obtaining valuable information that could be used to better understand the lives of early North American colonists, natives, and African Americans. He investigated a variety of
material culture Material culture is the aspect of social reality grounded in the objects and architecture that surround people. It includes the usage, consumption, creation, and trade of objects as well as the behaviors, norms, and rituals that the objects creat ...
related to these groups to better comprehend their social behavior. In 1997 Deetz received the J. C. Harrington Award, presented by the
Society for Historical Archaeology The Society for Historical Archaeology (SHA) is a professional organization of scholars concerned with the archaeology of the modern world (15th century-present). Founded in 1967, the SHA promotes scholarly research and the dissemination of knowledg ...
for his life-time contributions to archaeology centered on scholarship.


Biography

Deetz was born in
Cumberland, Maryland Cumberland is a U.S. city in and the county seat of Allegany County, Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its s ...
, coal country, and was the first in his family to finish high school, much less follow with three Harvard degrees on a full scholarship. He felt a particular affinity for author
John Updike John Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009) was an American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic. One of only four writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once (the others being Booth ...
and regretted that their times at Harvard did not overlap. Deetz received his BA, MA, and PhD degrees from
Harvard 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 ...
. Following college, Deetz enlisted in the United States Air Force. He served for four years before he was honorably discharged in 1955. In 1957, he began working on the River Basin Survey site in Missouri. This work inspired him to get his PhD dissertation in "An Archaeological Approach to Kinship Change in Eighteenth Century Arikara Culture." Deetz then became an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of California. He also taught at
University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduate ...
,
Harvard 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 ...
,
Brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing or painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors orange and black. In the RGB color model used ...
,
William and Mary William and Mary often refers to: * The joint reign of William III of England (II of Scotland) and Mary II of England (and Scotland) * William and Mary style, a furniture design common from 1700 to 1725 named for the couple William and Mary may ...
, the
University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...
, 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 ...
, and the
University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...
. While teaching at the University of California, Deetz teamed up with J. O. Brew and Harry Hornblower to excavate sites related to North American colonial archaeology. He would later meet
Henry Glassie Henry Glassie (born 24 March 1941) College Professor Emeritus at Indiana University Bloomington, has done fieldwork on five continents and written books on the full range of folkloristic interest, from drama, song, and story to craft, art, and archi ...
who was his inspiration to write ''In Small Things Forgotten: The Archaeology of Early American Life'', which was published in 1977. By the time he was an established scholar, he was active in evaluating grant applications for the National Endowment for the Sciences and was particularly fond of having approved the construction of a 19th-century settlement village proposed to be burned to the ground so that the patterns of nail distribution could be studied to allow more accurate reconstruction of archaeological sites. Deetz was appointed assistant director at
Plimoth Plantation Plimoth Patuxet is a complex of living history museums in Plymouth, Massachusetts, founded in 1947. Formerly Plimoth Plantation, it replicates the original settlement of the Plymouth Colony established in the 17th century by the English coloni ...
in 1959, and implemented changes to the way the heritage site was run. He removed everything which would not have been in the settlement in 1637, such as interpretative signs, and introduced first-person interpretation by costumed staff: "part of a simulation of life in which all senses are involved, feeling, thinking, and acting in an environment as close to reality as research could make it". Deetz and his wife, Jody Deetz, brought up their nine children whilst he was working at the site. Deetz worked at Plimoth Plantation until 1978, when he took up a position at
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 ...
.


Contributions

Deetz emphasized the importance of analyzing the physical artifacts themselves, rather than just interpreting them from archaeological reports. Deetz wrote more than 60 articles and books, influencing the style of how authors in the field of archaeology write. One of Deetz's most famous works, ''In Small Things Forgotten'', he used a simple yet sophisticated writing style which incorporated detailed examples of his research, including the methods and theories of his works. This book is still used in introductory archaeology classrooms today because of its ability to be understood at a basic level. Deetz was one of the first archaeologists to foresee the influence that technology could have on the evolution of archaeology. While working on a site in Massachusetts in 1959, Deetz was able to tie in technology into the archaeological profession. He wrote a program that was used in an IBM mainframe computer, which was able to sort rim sherds based on specific characteristics of each individual piece. The program successfully differentiated and sorted the different sherds. The success of his program illustrated how archaeology can be more accurate by eliminating the human bias from rim sherd sorting. Programming today is now a much more efficient and accurate process than from the past, meaning archaeologists now routinely use its power in their work. Jim Deetz was able to influence the use of technology in the field of archaeology, making the profession much more accurate.


Published works

*''The Times of Their Lives: Life, Love, and Death in Plymouth Colony''. (With Patricia Scott Deetz). New York: W.H. Freeman. 2000. *''In Small Things Forgotten: An Archaeology of Early American Life''. (Expanded and revised edition). New York: Anchor, Doubleday. 1996. *''Flowerdew Hundred: The Archaeology of a Virginia Plantation, 1619- 1864''. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia. 1993. *''The Transformation of British Culture in the Eastern Cape, 1820-1860'' (with Margot Winer). Social Dynamics vol. 16 no.1 pp. 55–75. 1990. *''American Historical Archaeology: Methods and Results''. Science vol. 239, January 22: 362–7. 1988. *''History and Archaeological Theory: Walter Taylor Revisited''. American Antiquity 53(1):13-22. 1988. *''In Small Things Forgotten: The Archaeology of Early American Life''. New York: Doubleday. 1977. * ''Invitation to Archaeology''. Garden City, NY: Natural History Press. 1967


See also

*
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 ...
*
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 ...
*
Colonial America The colonial history of the United States covers the history of European colonization of North America from the early 17th century until the incorporation of the Thirteen Colonies into the United States after the Revolutionary War. In the ...
*
Historical archaeology Historical archaeology is a form of archaeology dealing with places, things, and issues from the past or present when written records and oral traditions can inform and contextualize cultural material. These records can both complement and conflict ...
*
Parting Ways (Plymouth, Massachusetts) Parting Ways was an African-American settlement of freedmen adjacent to present-day Route 80 in Plymouth, Massachusetts, near the Plymouth/ Kingston town line. Other names for Parting Ways include the Parting Ways Archeological District and the ...


References


Further reading

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External links


James Deetz, University of Virginia Anthropology DepartmentThe Plymouth Colony Archive Project
* *
Flowerdew Hundred Plantation Flowerdew Hundred Plantation dates to 1618/19 with the patent by Sir George Yeardley, the Governor and Captain General of Virginia, of on the south side of the James River. Yeardley probably named the plantation after his wife's wealthy father, ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Deetz, James 1930 births 2000 deaths Harvard University alumni University of California, Santa Barbara faculty Harvard University faculty College of William & Mary faculty Brown University faculty University of Virginia faculty University of Cape Town academics 20th-century American anthropologists People from Cumberland, Maryland