Editing Bruce Trigger (section)

==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.<ref>{{cite web |title=Bruce Trigger, 1937-2006 News |url=https://www.mcgill.ca/newsroom/channels/news/bruce-trigger-1937-2006-22943 |website=McGill University |publisher=Newsroom Institutional Communications, McGill University |access-date=23 April 2020}}</ref> [[Leo Klejn]] (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."<ref name="Klejn">{{cite journal |last1=Klejn |first1=Leo |title=Bruce Trigger in World Archaeology |journal=Bulletin of the History of Archaeology |date=2008 |volume=18 |issue=2 |page=4|doi=10.5334/bha.18202 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Klejn 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]], and it is interesting to try to understand some of the principles underlying his explorations of these very different themes."<ref name="Klejn" /> The topics of his thirteen PhD students (in order [https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/concern/theses/s4655h91s R. F. Williamson] (1979); [https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/concern/theses/rf55z8876 Alexander D. Von Gernet] (1982); [https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/concern/theses/zs25xb95q Robert J. Pearce] (1984); [https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/concern/theses/2b88qd16p Peter A Timmons] (1984); [https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/concern/theses/rj430546b Brian D. Deller] (1988); Gary Warrick (1990); [https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/concern/theses/2b88qd16p William R. Fitzgerald] (1990); [https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/concern/theses/kk91fp961 Frances L. Stewart] (1997); Eldon [https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/concern/theses/xd07gv26f Yellowhorn] (2002); [https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/concern/theses/z029p520c Robert I. McDonald] (2002); [https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/concern/theses/4q77ft641 Stephen Chrisomalis] (2003); [https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/concern/theses/5m60qs40c Jerimy Cunningham] (2005) and [https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/concern/theses/9s161b43v Alicia Colson] (2006) reflect his wide ranging interests. He co-supervised two PhD candidates with [[Fumiko Ikawa-Smith]] and [[Robin D. S. Yates]] ([https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/concern/theses/j3860891h Katrinka Reinhardt] 1997) and with Colin Scott ([https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/concern/theses/g158bh727 Audra Simpson] 2003) . 

===Archaeological fieldwork===
While Trigger studied for his doctoral degree at [[Yale]] he was also the Chief Archaeologist for the 1962 Yale/Pennsylvania [[Archaeological excavation|excavations]] at Armina
West in Egyptian [[Nubia]]. These [[Archaeological excavation|excavations]] were directed by [[William Kelly Simpson]]. Bruce was also the Staff Archaeologist with the 1963-1964 Oriental Institute Sudan Expedition for the [[UNESCO]] campaign.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Phillips |first1=Jackie S. |title=Bruce Graham Trigger (1937-2006) |journal=Mitteilungen der Sudanarchäologischen Gesellschaft zu Berlin e.V. |date=2007 |volume=Heft 18 |page=219 |url=https://www.sag-online.de/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Phillips2007_BruceGrahamTrigger1937-2006_MittSAG18.pdf}}</ref> 

===Ethnohistory===
In Canada, he was arguably best known for ''The Children of Aataentsic'', his two-volume study of the [[Hurons|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]] as an honorary member.  Trigger would later reiterate some of the key arguments of the book in ''Natives and Newcomers'', a [[polemical]] work aimed at educating laypeople.  In ''Natives and Newcomers'' Trigger, writing in the tradition of [[Franz Boas]], argued that the [[Colonialism|colonial]] and Aboriginal societies of early [[Canada]] all possessed rich and complex social and cultural systems, and that there are no grounds to argue that any society of early [[Canada]] 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]] as a discipline. The first version was published by Cambridge University Press in 1989.<ref>{{cite book |title=History of Archaeological Thought |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SuoekuMtIIsC |isbn = 9780521338189|access-date=24 April 2020|last1 = Trigger|first1 = Bruce G.|year = 1989| publisher=Cambridge University Press }}</ref> 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"<ref name="Cambridge University Press Books">{{cite book |last1=Trigger |first1=Bruce G. |title=A History of Archaeological Thought |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/history-of-archaeological-thought/E278A8C631322BAC5B5E21C88E3CEBFB |website=Cambridge University Press |date=2006 |publisher=Cambridge University Press Books |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511813016 |isbn=9780521840767 |access-date=24 April 2020}}</ref> A second and expanded edition of this book was published in 2006.<ref name="Cambridge University Press Books"/> 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."<ref name="Cambridge University Press Books"/>

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]], [[Shang]] of China, [[Aztec]]s and Classic [[Maya civilization|Maya]] of Mesoamerica, [[Inca civilization|Inka]] of the [[Andes]], and [[Yoruba people|Yoruba]] of [[Africa]].  In 2004 a session at the [[Society for American Archaeology]] (SAA) conference was dedicated to the research of Bruce Trigger.

Trigger also made significant contributions to theory and debates on [[epistemological]] issues within [[archaeology]].  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]] of Native American peoples and expressed the dominant [[political]] ideas and interests of Euro-American culture.  For example, prior to 1914 [[Euro-American]] 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]] only recently, and this "fact" explained their alleged lack of cultural development.  Some early Euro-American archaeologists explained away the contrary evidence of [[Earthworks (archaeology)|earthwork]] [[mound]]s as the creations of "more enlightened" non-native peoples who had been exterminated by Native American [[barbarian|savage]]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]], who led the [[debunker|debunking]] of the [[mound builder (people)|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.