Trigger, Bruce G. 1937–2006

(Bruce Graham Trigger)

PERSONAL:

Born June 18, 1937, in Preston (now Cambridge), Ontario, Canada; died of cancer, December 1, 2006; son of John Wesley and Gertrude E. Trigger; married Barbara Marian Welch, December, 1968; children: Isabel Marian, Rosalyn Theodora. Education: University of Toronto, B.A., 1959; Yale University, Ph.D., 1964. Politics: Liberal.

CAREER:

Chief archaeologist with Pennsylvania-Yale expedition to Egypt, 1962, and Oriental Institute expedition to Sudan, 1964; Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, assistant professor of anthropology, 1963-64; McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, beginning 1964, began as assistant professor, currently professor of anthropology, chairman of department, 1970-75. Leave fellow, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, 1983. Member of council of the Institute for American History and Culture, 1980-83, and of board of directors, McCord Museum, 1980-85.

MEMBER:

American Anthropological Association (foreign fellow), Royal Anthropological Institute (fellow), Canadian Society for Archaeology Abroad, Royal Society of Canada (fellow), Sigma Xi.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Canada Council fellowships, 1968, 1977; Killam research fellowships, 1971, 1990; Queen's Silver Jubilee Medal, 1977; Cornplanter Medal, 1979, for Iroquois research; Innis-Gerin Medal, Royal Society of Canada, 1985; D.Sc. (honoris causa), University of New Brunswick, 1987; John Porter Prize, Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association, 1987.

WRITINGS:

History and Settlement in Lower Nubia, Yale University Publications in Anthropology (New Haven, CT), 1965.

The Late Nubian Settlement at Arminna West, Publications of the Pennsylvania-Yale Expedition to Egypt, Number 2, 1967.

Beyond History: The Methods of Prehistory, Holt (New York, NY), 1968.

The Huron: Farmers of the North, Holt (New York, NY), 1969.

The Meroitic Funerary Inscriptions from Arminna West, Publications of the Pennsylvania-Yale Expedition to Egypt, Number 4, 1970.

(With James F. Pendergast) Cartier's Hochelaga and the Dawson Site, McGill-Queen's University Press (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1972.

The Children of Aataentsic: A History of the Huron People to 1660, two volumes, McGill-Queen's University Press (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1976, 2nd edition, 1987.

Nubia under the Pharaohs, Thames & Hudson (New York, NY), 1976.

Time and Traditions: Essays in Archaeological Interpretation, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 1978.

(Editor) Handbook of North American Indians, Smithsonian Institution (Washington, DC), 1978.

Gordon Childe, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 1980.

(With B. Kemp, D. O'Connor, and A. Lloyd) Ancient Egypt: A Social History, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1983.

Natives and Newcomers: Canada's "Heroic Age" Reconsidered, McGill-Queen's University Press (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1985.

Archaeology as Historical Science, Department of Ancient Indian History, Culture, and Archaeology, Banares Hindu University, 1985.

(Editor and author of introduction) Native Shell Mounds of North America: Early Studies, Garland (New York, NY), 1986.

A History of Archaeological Thought, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1989, 2nd edition, 2007.

Early Civilizations: Ancient Egypt in Context, American University in Cairo Press, 1993.

(Contributor of essays) The American Discovery of Ancient Egypt, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Los Angeles, CA), 1995.

The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1996.

Sociocultural Evolution: Calculation and Contingency, Blackwell Publishers (Malden, MA), 1998.

Artifacts & Ideas: Essays in Archaeology, Transaction Publishers (New Brunswick, NJ), 2003.

Understanding Early Civilizations: A Comparative Study, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2003.

SIDELIGHTS:

Bruce G. Trigger, stated M.T. Kelly in the Toronto Globe and Mail, "may be the best-kept secret in Canadian scholarship." Although largely unknown to the public, wrote Kelly, Trigger's The Children of Aataentsic: A History of the Huron People to 1660 "was a seminal work that changed forever how many people viewed the Jesuits and Hurons." "In The Children of Aataentsic," wrote Boyce Richardson in Saturday Night, "[Trigger] wrote an undoubted masterpiece, a work of such historical imagination and literary quality that Trigger deserves to rank with Harold Innis Northrope Frye, and Marshall McLuhan—Canadian academics known abroad for their critical imaginations and honoured at home for their contributions to Canadian self-knowledge."

Indeed, with later books Trigger confirmed his reputation as leading scholar of the history of archaeology. His A History of Archaeological Thought attracted much positive attention and became a standard text in college courses. Trigger covers the subject's early history and methodology and discusses the conflicts between elitist and populist views of the field. He explains the influence of Enlightenment and Romantic thinkers, and the development of regional and national archaeologies. On this point, Science contributor Jacob W. Gruber observed: "Trigger quite properly and usefully emphasizes the role of romantically inspired nationalisms in supporting the use of the archeological enterprise for national and ethnically chauvinistic purposes. This is an interesting and important movement that has led to fraud, distortion, and exaggeration of the archeological record. But, as before, Trigger short-changes an American archeology and nascent anthropology whose concern with the remnants of the native past was inspired in part by the new nation's search for a past, purer than and distinct from that from which it had separated itself."

Trigger brings the study up to date with a discussion of late twentieth-century developments, including the influence of evolutionary theory and the embrace of more sophisticated methodology in archaeology. Noting that the book provides an ample framework upon which to build discussion and even counterarguments, Gruber concluded by calling A History of Archaeological Thought a "comprehensive and thoughtful" overview. When the second edition of the book was published in 2007, Antiquity critic Nathan Schlanger commented that "few books have had such a profound impact on the development of contemporary archaeology as … A History of Archaeological Thought."

In Early Civilizations: Ancient Egypt in Context, Trigger presents a comparative cross-cultural study between Old and Middle Kingdom Egypt, the Inca, the Shang and Western Chou dynasties of China, pre-Old Babylonian Mesopotamia, Aztec, Classic Maya, and Yoruba civilizations. In doing so, Trigger demonstrates how ancient Egypt resembled these other early civilizations, and how it differed from them. As James F. Romano pointed out in The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Trigger's evidence shows that there was "far less fundamental diversity among the seven early civilizations than one would expect. All seven share a basic form of class hierarchy and an association in their religious beliefs. His most important conclusion is that this similarity reflects the same tributary mode of production underlying all seven economic systems."

Trigger's Sociocultural Evolution: Calculation and Contingency, according to American Antiquity critic Geoffrey A. Clark, is a "splendidly readable … intellectual history of sociocultural evolutionary thought in the West from its origins in classical antiquity up until the present." The core of the book deals with the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when industrialization, British imperialism, utilitarianism, and laissez-faire economic policies shaped views of human society. In considering the modern world, Trigger argues for greater social planning to balance the extreme income disparities and other negative consequences that result from the influence of transnational capitalism. Observing that Sociocultural Evolution is about much more than just archaeology, Clark commented that it is "the kind of book every thinking person should read."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Anthropologist, June, 1983, review of Gordon Childe, p. 465; June, 1987, Dean R. Snow, review of Natives and Newcomers: Canada's "Heroic Age" Reconsidered, p. 480; June, 1991, Timothy Murray, review of A History of Archaeological Thought, p. 503.

American Antiquity, January, 1991, John P. McCarthey, review of A History of Archaeological Thought, p. 161; October, 1998, review of The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas, p. 709; July 1, 1999, Geoffrey A. Clark, review of Sociocultural Evolution: Calculation and Contingency, p. 547.

American Book Review, annual, 1999, review of The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas, p. 157.

American Historical review, December, 1986, John A. Dickinson, review of Natives and Newcomers, p. 1294.

American Indian Culture and Research Journal, summer, 1998, Troy Johnson, review of The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas, p. 236.

American Journal of Archaeology, January, 1992, David B. Small, review of A History of Archaeological Thought, p. 163; January, 1997, Colin Renfrew, review of Early Civilizations: Ancient Egypt in Context, p. 164.

American Scientist, January-February, 1991, Robert C. Dunnell, review of A History of Archaeological Thought, p. 87.

Americas: A Quarterly Review of Inter-American Cultural History, October, 1997, John H. Hann, review of The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas, p. 282.

Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, January, 1982, Gregory L. Possehl, review of Gordon Childe, p. 179.

Antiquity, July, 1987, Bryony Coles, review of Natives and Newcomers, p. 324; December, 1990, Alain Schnapps, review of A History of Archaeological Thought, p. 958; June 1, 2000, N. James, review of Sociocultural Evolution, p. 429; September 1, 2007, Nathan Schlanger, review of A History of Archaeological Thought, p. 799.

BC Studies, summer, 1998, review of The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas, p. 124.

Beaver, April-May, 1987, J.M. Busted, review of Natives and Newcomers, p. 61.

Books in Canada, April, 1986, review of Natives and Newcomers, p. 29.

Book Watch, November, 1993, review of Early Civilizations, p. 7; April, 1996, review of Early Civilizations, p. 7.

British Book News, November, 1980, review of Gordon Childe, p. 698; October, 1981, review of Gordon Childe, p. 634.

British Journal for the History of Science, March, 1991, Peter J. Bowler, review of A History of Archaeological Thought, p. 120.

Canadian Geographic, April-May, 1986, J. Garth Taylor, review of Natives and Newcomers, p. 78.

Canadian Historical Review, June, 1986, Francis Jennings, review of Natives and Newcomers, p. 249; September, 1998, J.R. Miller, review of The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas, p. 609; March, 2001, review of The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas, p. 130.

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, November, 1980, review of Gordon Childe, p. 443; March, 1986, review of Natives and Newcomers, p. 1134; May, 1997, review of The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas, p. 1564.

Christian Century, December 17, 1986, review of Natives and Newcomers, p. 1153.

Current Anthropology, August-October, 1990, Curtis N. Runnels, review of A History of Archaeological Thought, p. 469.

Encounter, December, 1981, review of Gordon Childe, p. 54.

English Historical Review, April, 1990, review of Natives and Newcomers, p. 465.

Globe and Mail (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), December 14, 1985, M.T. Kelly, review of The Children of the Aataentsic: A History of the Huron People to 1660.

Guardian Weekly, August 17, 1980, review of Gordon Childe, p. 22.

Hispanic American Historical Reviews, May, 2001, Matthew Rest, review of The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas, p. 351.

Historian, March 22, 2006, Andrew Serrate, review of Understanding Early Civilizations: A Comparative Study, p. 203.

History Today, August, 1990, Christopher Chippendale, review of A History of Archaeological Thought, p. 55.

International History Review, June, 2004, Adam McC. Roberts, review of Understanding Early Civilizations, p. 348.

International Journal of African Historical Studies, spring, 1997, Michael H. Zach, review of Early Civilizations, p. 479.

International Journal of Canadian Studies, spring, 1992, review of Natives and Newcomers, pp. 157-174.

Journal of American History, September, 1997, Colin G. Calloway, review of The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas, p. 620.

Journal of American Studies, April, 1999, William A. Speck, review of The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas, p. 167.

Journal of Field Archaeology, winter, 1999, Michael J. O'Brien, review of Sociocultural Evolution, p. 478; fall-winter, 2001, Christopher S. Peebles, review of Artifacts & Ideas: Essays in Archaeology, p. 466.

Journal of Interdisciplinary History, spring, 1991, Brian Fagan, review of A History of Archaeological Thought, p. 655; January 1, 1996, James F. Romano, review of Early Civilizations, p. 475.

Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, June 1, 1999, Virginia P. Miller, review of The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas, p. 303; September 1, 2006, Steven Mithen, review of Understanding Early Civilizations, p. 683.

Latin American Antiquity, June, 2000, review of Sociocultural Evolution, p. 120.

Library Journal, May 1, 1997, Mary B. Davis, review of The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas, p. 94.

MAN, June, 1991, Thomas C. Patterson, review of A History of Archaeological Thought, p. 353.

Nature, June 28, 1990, Colin Renfrew, review of A History of Archaeological Thought, p. 777.

Ontario History, spring, 1998, review of The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas, p. 80.

Philosophy of the Social Sciences, December, 2004, Mario Bunge, review of Understanding Early Civilizations, p. 588.

Queen's Quarterly, summer, 1986, review of Natives and Newcomers, p. 404; summer, 1987, review of Natives and Newcomers, p. 453.

Quill and Quire, October, 1985, review of Natives and Newcomers, p. 45.

Reference & Research Book News, August, 1995, review of Early Civilizations, p. 5; May, 2003, review of Artifacts & Ideas, p. 27.

Religious Studies Review, January, 1995, review of Early Civilizations, p. 43; January, 1999, review of The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas, p. 116.

Reviews in Anthropology, annual, 1998, review of Early Civilizations, p. 177.

Saturday Night, July, 1986, Boyce Richardson, review of The Children of the Aataentsic; review of Natives and Newcomers, p. 49.

School Library Journal, December, 1980, Kenneth F. Kister, review of Handbook of North American Indians, p. 20.

Science, March 1, 1991, Jacob W. Gruber, review of A History of Archaeological Thought, p. 1116.

Science Books and Films, March, 1981, review of Gordon Childe, p. 193.

Social Anthropology, October, 1999, Anthony P. Grant, review of The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas, p. 341.

Sociology: Reviews of New Books, March, 1981, review of Gordon Childe, p. 56.

Times Literary Supplement, November 28, 1980, review of Gordon Childe, p. 1362.

University of Toronto Quarterly, winter, 1998, Vine Deloria, Jr., review of The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas, p. 346.

Western Historical Quarterly, spring, 1999, Gary Clayton Anderson, review of The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas, p. 79.

William and Mary Quarterly, July, 1986, review of Natives and Newcomers, p. 480.