Editing Bruce Trigger

{{short description|Canadian archaeologist (1937–2001)}}
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{{Infobox academic
| honorific_prefix   =
| name               = Bruce G. Trigger
| honorific_suffix   = {{post-nominals|country=CAN|OC|OQ|FRSC|size=100%}}
| image              = Bruce Trigger.jpg
| image_size         = 
| alt                = 
| caption            = 
| birth_name         = <!-- Use only if different from full/othernames -->
| birth_date         = {{birth date|1937|6|18}}
| birth_place        = [[Preston, Ontario|Preston]], [[Ontario]], [[Canada]]
| death_date         = {{death date and age|2006|12|1|1937|6|18}}<ref name="Necrology: A reflection on Bruce an">{{cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Pamela Jane |title=Necrology: A reflection on Bruce and Barbara Trigger based on oral-historical interviews and personal correspondence. |journal=Bulletin of the History of Archaeology |date=2007 |volume=17 |issue=1 |page=52 |doi=10.5334/bha.17116|doi-access=free }}</ref>
| death_place        = 
| death_cause        = 
| region             =
| period             = 
| occupation         = [[archaeologist]] and [[ethnohistorian]]
| title              = 
| boards             = <!-- Board or similar positions extraneous to main occupation   -->
| known_for          =
| spouse             = Barbara Welch <ref name="Necrology: A reflection on Bruce an">{{cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Pamela Jane |title=Necrology: A reflection on Bruce and Barbara Trigger based on oral-historical interviews and personal correspondence. |journal=Bulletin of the History of Archaeology |date=2007 |volume=17 |issue=1 |page=52 |doi=10.5334/bha.17116|doi-access=free }}</ref>
| children           = Isabel Trigger and Rosalyn Trigger
| signature          = 
| signature_alt      = 
| signature_size     = 
| era                = 
| discipline         = [[Archaeology]] <br /> [[Anthropology]] <br /> [[Ethnohistory]]
| sub_discipline     = <!-- Academic discipline specialist area - e.g. Sub-atomic research, 20th Century Danish specialist, Pauline research, Arcadian and Ugaritic specialist -->
| movement           = <!-- Should match the idiologial movement or denomination (for religious), "school" of thought etc. (e.g. "Anglican", "Postmodernist", "Socialist" or "Green" etc. -->
| religion           = <!-- Religion should be supported with a citation from a reliable source -->
| denomination       = <!-- Religious denomination should be supported with a citation from a reliable source -->
| education          = St. Mary’s Collegiate Institute<br />Stratford Collegiate Institute
| alma_mater         = [[University of Toronto]] {{small|(B.A., 1959)}} [[Yale University]] {{small|(Ph.D., 1964)}}
| thesis_title       = History and Settlement of Lower Nubia<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite journal |last1=Klejn |first1=Leo S. |title=Bruce Trigger in World Archaeology |journal=Bulletin of the History of Archaeology |date=2008 |volume=18 |issue=2 |page=7 |doi=10.5334/bha.18202|doi-access=free }}</ref>
| thesis_url         = 
| thesis_year        = 1964
| doctoral_advisor   = [[William Kelly Simpson]] and [[Michael D. Coe]]
| doctoral_students  = 
| notable_students   = <!--Only those with WP articles-->
| main_interests     = 
| workplaces         = [[Northwestern University]] <br /> [[McGill University]]
| notable_works      = 
| notable_ideas      = 
| awards             = <!--Notable national level awards only--> [[Innis-Gérin Medal]], [[Cornplanter Medal]], Officer of the [[National Order of Quebec]], Officer of the [[Order of Canada]]
| website            =
| footnotes          =
}}
'''Bruce Graham Trigger''' {{post-nominals|country=CAN|OC|OQ|FRSC}} (June 18, 1937 – December 1, 2006) was a [[Canadians|Canadian]] [[archaeology|archaeologist]], [[Anthropology|anthropologist]], and [[ethnohistory|ethnohistorian]]. He was appointed the James McGill Professor at McGill University in 2001.<ref name="patterson_2014">{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Patterson |first1=Thomas |title=Trigger, Bruce Graham |editor-last=Smith |editor-first=C. |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology |date=2014 |publisher=Springer Verlag |location=New York |isbn=978-1-4419-0465-2 |page=75 |doi=10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_1298}}</ref>

==Life==
Born in [[Preston, Ontario]] (now part of [[Cambridge, Ontario|Cambridge]]), Trigger obtained his undergraduate education at the [[University of Toronto]] earning a B.A. in [[anthropology]] in 1959.<ref name="patterson_2014" />
Trigger received a doctorate in [[archaeology]] from [[Yale University]] in 1964.<ref name="patterson_2014" /> He was taught by [[George Murdock|George Peter Murdock]] and [[Irving Rouse|Benjamin Irving Rouse]].<ref name="Bruce Trigger in World Archaeology">{{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=6 |doi=10.5334/bha.18202|doi-access=free }}</ref> He was co-supervised by [[William Kelly Simpson]] and [[Michael D. Coe]].<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> He became friends with [[Kwang-chih Chang|K. C. Chang]], a Chinese archaeologist, who joined the department during his final year of his PhD at [[Yale University|Yale]].<ref name="Bruce Trigger in World Archaeology"/> His doctoral work was funded by a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship Award.<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> His PhD thesis, entitled "History and Settlement of Lower Nubia," argued that four principle parameters determined the density of Nubia over 4,000 years: the height of floods, agricultural techniques, foreign trade and wars.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite journal |last1=Klejn |first1=Leo S. |title=Bruce Trigger in World Archaeology |journal=Bulletin of the History of Archaeology |date=2008 |volume=18 |issue=2 |page=7 |doi=10.5334/bha.18202|doi-access=free }}</ref> He spent the following year teaching at [[Northwestern University]]<ref name="patterson_2014" /> and subsequently took a position as assistant professor,<ref name="patterson_2014" /> with the Department of [[Anthropology]] at [[McGill University]] in [[Montreal]], and remained there for the rest of his career.<ref name="patterson_2014" /> He was married to Dr Barbara Welch,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Pamela Jane |title=Necrology: A reflection on Bruce and Barbara Trigger based on oral-historical interviews and personal correspondence. |journal=Bulletin of the History of Archaeology |date=2007 |volume=17 |issue=1 |page=53 |doi=10.5334/bha.17116|doi-access=free }}</ref> a [[British people|British]] [[geographer]] trained in [[Physical geography|Physical Geography]], who, despite being less-known than her husband, was considered an equally sophisticated thinker.<ref name="Necrology: A reflection on Bruce an">{{cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Pamela Jane |title=Necrology: A reflection on Bruce and Barbara Trigger based on oral-historical interviews and personal correspondence. |journal=Bulletin of the History of Archaeology |date=2007 |volume=17 |issue=1 |page=52 |doi=10.5334/bha.17116|doi-access=free }}</ref>

Pamela Jane Smith writes in her obituary of Bruce Trigger that "It is little known outside Canada that Bruce had a deep and profound influence on the development of archaeology in his homeland and is seen as one of the great Canadian intellectuals along with [[Harold Innis]], [[Northrop Frye]] and [[Marshall McLuhan]]."<ref name="Necrology: A reflection on Bruce an">{{cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Pamela Jane |title=Necrology: A reflection on Bruce and Barbara Trigger based on oral-historical interviews and personal correspondence. |journal=Bulletin of the History of Archaeology |date=2007 |volume=17 |issue=1 |page=52 |doi=10.5334/bha.17116|doi-access=free }}</ref>

==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.

==Honours and awards==
He received a number of academic awards and numerous other honours such as a Fellow of the [[Royal Society of Canada]] from 1976, he became a recipient of their [[Innis-Gérin Medal]] in 1985.<ref name="patterson_2014" /> In 1979 he was awarded the [[Cornplanter Medal]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Fenton |first=William N. |author-link=William N. Fenton |date=April 1980 |title=Frederick Starr, Jesse Cornplanter and the Cornplanter Medal for Iroquois Research |jstor=23169465 |journal=New York History |publisher=New York State Historical Association |volume=26 |issue=2 |pages= 186–199}}</ref> In 1991, he was recipient of the Québec Government's [[Prix Léon-Gérin]]. The Québec Government in 2001 made him an Officer of the [[National Order of Quebec]] while five years later, in 2005, he was made an Officer of the [[Order of Canada]].

His most cherished honour was his adoption in 1989 into the Great Turtle Clan of the [[Wyandot people|Wendat]] (Huron) Confederacy, with the name Nyemea.<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=220}}</ref>

Trigger died of [[cancer]] on December 1, 2006. His archive is kept at the [[McGill University Archives]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://archivalcollections.library.mcgill.ca/index.php/bruce-trigger-fonds|title=Bruce Trigger Fonds|website=McGill Library Archival Catalogue|language=en|access-date=2018-02-01}}</ref>

==Selected bibliography==
* ''History and Settlement in Lower Nubia''. New Haven: Yale University Publications in Anthropology, 1965.
* ''The Late Nubian Settlement at Arminna West''. New Haven: Publications of the Pennsylvania-Yale Expedition to Egypt, 1965.
* ''Beyond History: The Methods of Prehistory''. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1968.
* ''The Huron: Farmers of the North''. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1969, revised edition, 1990.
* ''The Impact of Europeans on Huronia''. Toronto: The Copp Clark Publishing Company, 1969.
* ''The Meroitic Funerary Inscriptions from Arminna West''. New Haven: Publications of the Pennsylvania-Yale Expedition to Egypt, 1970.
* (with [[Jane Pendergast|J.F. Pendergast]]) ''Cartier's Hochelaga and the Dawson Site''. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1972.
* ''The Children of Aataentsic: A History of the Huron People to 1660''. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1976.
* ''Nubia Under the Pharaohs''. London: Thames and Hudson, 1976.
* ''Time and Traditions: Essays in Archaeological Interpretation''. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1978 (U.S. edition New York: Columbia University Press).
* ''Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 15''. Northeast, Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1978.
* ''Time and Traditions: Essays in Archaeological Interpretation''. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1978.
* ''Gordon Childe: Revolutions in Archaeology''. London: Thames and Hudson, 1980.
* (with B.J. Kemp, D. O'Connor, and A.B. Lloyd) ''Ancient Egypt: A Social History''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
* ''Natives and Newcomers: Canada's "Heroic Age" Revisited''. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1985.
* ''A History of Archaeological Thought''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
* ''Early Civilizations: Ancient Egypt in Context''. New York: Columbia, 1993.
* ''The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas [vol. I]''. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
* ''Sociocultural Evolution: Calculation and Contingency''. Oxford: Blackwell, 1998.
* ''Artifacts and Ideas: Essays in Archaeology''. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2003.
* ''Understanding Early Civilizations: A Comparative Study''. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
* ''A History of Archaeological Thought''. ''2nd ed. ''Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.

==References==
{{reflist}}
*Trigger, Bruce G.
:2003  ''Artifacts and Ideas, Essays in Archaeology''. Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, NJ.
*Trigger, Bruce G.
:2003 (1980) Archaeology and the Image of the American Indian. In ''Artifacts and Ideas''. Originally published in ''American Antiquity'' 45:662-676.
*Williamson, Ronald F. and Michael S. Bisson (eds)
:2006 ''The Archaeology of Bruce Trigger: Theoretical Empiricism''. McGill-Queens's University Press, Montréal.

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070313135341/http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0008126 Bruce Graham Trigger] at [[The Canadian Encyclopedia]]
* [http://archivalcollections.library.mcgill.ca/index.php/bruce-trigger-fonds Bruce Trigger Fonds] McGill University Library & Archives.

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Trigger, Bruce}}
[[Category:1937 births]]
[[Category:2006 deaths]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada]]
[[Category:Officers of the National Order of Quebec]]
[[Category:Officers of the Order of Canada]]
[[Category:People from Cambridge, Ontario]]
[[Category:Academic staff of McGill University]]
[[Category:Deaths from cancer in Quebec]]
[[Category:Canadian male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Canadian historians]]
[[Category:20th-century Canadian archaeologists]]
[[Category:Writers from the Regional Municipality of Waterloo]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Prix Léon-Gérin]]