Abstract
During the early 1960s, largely as a result of the "baby boom" of the 1940s, large numbers of students of college age surfaced. They demanded a wider scope for higher education in Canada. The period saw not only the expansion of facilities in already established universities, but also the creation of many new institutions, among them the University of Calgary.<br /><br />During the early 1960s, the number of full-time professionals practicing and teaching anthropological archaeology in Canada could be counted on the fingers of two hands. The centre of gravity was the National Museum of Canada in Ottawa; of the three to four research archaeologists there, Dr. James V. Wright and Dr. George MacDonald offered occasional instruction at nearby universities. As for other universities, Dr. J. Norman Emerson held a full-time position at the University of Toronto, as did Dr. William J. Mayer-Oakes at the University of British Columbia. Mayer-Oakes was then able to devote part of his valuable time to archaeology while Dr. Richard G. Forbis of the Glenbow Foundation served as sessional lecturer at the University of Alberta, Calgary Branch.
Highlights
Probably not one of the an:haeology faculty would go so far as to subscribe to the notion that "archaeology is anthropology or it is nothing," an aphorism widely accepted by North American arcbaeologists 25 or SO years ago
Until 1974 the Faculty of Graduate Studies insisted that the department limit is scope to New World archaeology, but when this stricture was laid to rest, African studies rose into prominence
The subtle shifts that can be detected in the archaeology program can be seen as moves away from the natural sciences. environ mental studies and descriptive reconstructions of the past to great concern with contemporary archaeological problems; contem porary in the sense of keeping uJrto-date in relation to modem trends in world archaeology. and in the sense of addresing modem social issues from the archaeological perspective
Summary
Traditional histories ofarchaeology have been described by a recent commentator as resembling travel journals, providing n.an account of the slowjourney out of the darkness of subjectivity and speculation towards objectivity, rationality, and science" (MumlY 1989:56). It is tbrougb the pUblication of obituaries tbat many archaeologists add to their knowledge of bistory their own discipline and where historians of archaeological science find some of their Diost important clues to the intellectual history of Americanist arcbaeology. "SCOUy" MacNeisb, Cbief Archaeologist of the National Museum of Canada, embar ed on a lecture tour to bring western Candians up-to-date on recent activities in CaIgary and Edmonton, the core being members of the vigorous, newly formed archaeological Society of Alberta.
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