James Deetz’s earliest works were addressed specific sites or archaeological topics. Among these were Archaeological Investigations at La Purisima Mission (1963), A Brief History of the Discovery of Neanderthal Man (1958), and The Dynamics of Stylisitic Change in Arikara Ceramics (1965). In The Dynamics of Stylisitic Change in Arikara Ceramics, Deetz carefully presents his study of 2,500 rim sherds found on the Medicine Crow cite in South Dakota to establish artifacts relation to culture. He stresses the idea that artifacts are the physical remains of, and key insights into, the cultures of past peoples. Namely, Deetz attempts to determine if the change in social organization seen at the time was related to changes seen in ceramic design present in the archaeological record. He incorporates a variety of scientific techniques to investigate three possibilities throughout the work. Either there is no relation between change in social organization and change in ceramic design, the changes were indirectly related in that some third event caused both changes, or that the changes are directly related to each other. He concludes in quite convincing fashion that it is “most logical and efficient” in light of the evidence that the changes in social organization were reflected in the changes of ceramic design (Deetz, 1965:96).
In 1967 Deetz wrote Invitation to Archaeology, his first introduction to the subject of archaeology. In it he covers all of the basic ideas and methods of archaeology including dating methods, seriation, and assemblages. Deetz attempts to show the reader why a person would want to become an archaeologist, and how an archaeologist thinks. In 1977 James Deetz published his most well known work entitled In Small Things Forgotten: The Archaeology of Early American Life. This book gained wide recognition and is now required in many archaeology courses throughout the country. In it, Deetz presented many of the ideas he had written about in earlier books in a concise, readable form. The book centers around the importance of material culture which he defines as, “that sector of our physical environment that we modify through culturally determined behavior,” that, “includes everything from the common pin to interplanetary space vehicle” (Deetz, 1977:24). Deetz’s writing about historical archaeology urges researchers to place less importance on the writing of the time, and more on the artifacts left behind. He states that the common thread of writing of early Americans tends to make us form a false understanding of their culture, in which they are simple, quaint people. Deetz stresses the point that material culture can show us evidence of culture that is omitted or twisted in literature and that writing is almost always biased, while “material culture may be the most objective source of information we have concerning America's past” (Deetz, 1975:160). This book forces the reader to think of every action taken throughout the day to be a culturally driven process which could end up as an artifact. Deetz sums up his work in In Small Things Forgotten quite simply by saying, “don't read what we have written; look at what we have done” (Deetz, 1975:161).
James Deetz's most resent work is Flowerdew Hundred: The Archaeology of a Virginia
Plantation,
1619 - 1864, for which he won the 1994
S.A.S. Mooney Book Award. This book focusses on the historical
archaeological record of the Flowerdew
Hundred Plantation in Virginia.
Brief Biography:
James Deetz received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1960. Since that time he has held the positions of Professor of Anthropology at the University of California at Santa Barbara, Brown University, and the University of Virginia. He is married and has nine children. I don't know their names. He has also been the Archaeological Adviser to Plymouth Plantation in Plymouth, Massachusetts, starting in 1961.