James Deetz

James Deetz ( born February 8, 1930; † 25 November 2000) was a major representative of the historical archeology in the United States.

Deetz his doctorate in 1960 from Harvard University. After that, he was a professor of anthropology at the University of California at Santa Barbara, Brown University and the University of Virginia. His main focus was in Virginia and New England, but he also led projects in South Africa. Especially he was engaged since 1961 in the Plymouth Plantation in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

He was interested in the culture change, where he drew on the concept of culture by Walter Taylor, of culture as a theoretical construct is not directly observable saw, but which on the basis of his statements, such as ritual, social structure and material culture is palpable. For Deetz it was a leading question, such as cultural change is reflected in archaeological sources which aspects of the story open up archaeological sources and what aspects were not reflected in the written tradition.

Publications (selection )

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

Obituary

  • Antiquity June 2001 ( M. Beaudry )

Web Site

  • The Plymouth Colony Archive Project
  • Americans
  • Anthropologist ( 20th century)
  • University teachers ( University of California, Santa Barbara )
  • Born in 1930
  • Died in 2000
  • Man
November 25 Santa Barbara, California
427128
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