Betty Meggers

Betty Jane Meggers (December 5, 1921 – July 2, 2012) was an American archaeologist best known for her work in South America. She was considered influential at the Smithsonian Institution, where she was long associated in research. She and her husband, Clifford Evans, also an archeologist, in the 1960s proposed a diffusionist theory to explain similarities between the pottery of the Valdivia culture in Ecuador, dated to 2700 BC, and that of the Early and Middle Jomon on the island of Kyushu, Japan. Generally archeologists now think that the pottery rose independently in the Valdivia and preceding cultures.

Meggers also wrote about environmental determinism as a shaper of human cultures. She was among those who believed that early cultures did not develop in the Amazon basin, believing it was inhospitable to human settlement. She thought settlements were established by migrants from highland areas. In the early 21st century, new archeological finds have begun to overturn such conclusions.

Dr. Betty Meggers's first worked in anthropology at the age of 16, volunteering at the Smithsonian Institution and helping to reconstruct pots excavated from Pueblo Bonito, an Anasazi village in New Mexico. After a long career, she died on July 2, 2012.

Education and marriage

Betty Jane Meggers was born in Washington, D.C., to Dr. William Frederick Meggers and Edith R. Meggers. Her father was an internationally recognized spectroscopist as well as an archaeology enthusiast. He often took the family to visit Native American sites.

Betty Meggers graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor's degree in 1943 and a year later earned a master's degree from the University of Michigan. At the University of Michigan, Meggers was introduced to ancient ceramics from Marajó Island of Brazil. Meggers published her first scientific article on the Marajoara culture in 1945. After obtaining her master's degree, Meggers attended Columbia University to complete her Ph.D. Meggers' dissertation; it was entitled The Archaeological Sequence on Marajo Island, Brazil with Special Reference to the Marajoara Culture.

While at Columbia, Meggers met her future husband Clifford Evans, another archaeology graduate student. On September 13, 1946, the two were married.

Research

Meggers began her research on the island of Marajo in the Amazon Basin. Most of her research has been concentrated on South America, in Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, Chile, Brazil, Guyana, in the area of the Amazon, and along the Andes. She has also conducted research in the Lesser Antilles and Micronesia.

She was highly influenced by ideas of environmental determinism shaping human culture.

Contributions to the field

Meggers' contributions included her controversial assertion of a pre-historic relationship between the peoples of North-Western South America and of Japan. Meggers suggested that there was a trans-Pacific cultural connection between East Asia and South America about 2700 BC, based on similarities of pottery fragments found in Japan and Ecuador. She contended that Japanese Middle Jomon pottery was similar to ceramics from the Valdivia site in Ecuador — both dating between 2000 and 3000 B.C. When she was first working in this area, Ceramic phase A of Valdivia was believed to be the oldest pottery produced in South America. Her theory was challenged by other archaeologists due to the distances between Japan and Ecuador, and the former's sailing technology at the time. Excavations in the early 1970s by other researchers found pottery at Valdivia and related sites pre-dating Phase A.

Meggers has also said that plants, pathogens, and parasites of Japanese origin are found among Andean populations.

Meggers developed a system with her husband, Clifford Evans, by which pottery fragments could be analyzed. In addition, Meggers was among the first to examine environmental influences on ancient societies and to frame culture as an adaptation by humans to the environment.

Professional affiliations

Meggers was affiliated with the following:

• 1950-1951: Instructor for the American University in Washington, D.C.
• Since 1954: Research Associate for the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
• 1959-1961: Executive Secretary of the American Anthropological Association

At the time of her death in 2012, she was:

• Principal Investigator of the Programa Nacional de Pesquisas Arqueologicas na Bacia Amazonica (PRONAPABA)
• Director of the Latin American Archaeology Program at the National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian Institution)

Awards

Meggers was widely acknowledged for her contributions to the field of archaeology and South American studies. Some of her awards include:

• 1956: Washington Academy of Sciences Award for Scientific Achievement
• 1966: Decoration of Merit from the Government of Ecuador
• 1966: 37th International Congress of Americanists Gold Medal
• 1985: Society for American Archaeology, 50th Anniversary Award
• 1997: Medalla de "La Periquera" from the Museo Provincial de Holgun, Cuba
• 1997: Doctor Honoris Causa from the Universidad Nacional de la Plata, Argentina
• 1998: Meggers & Evans awarded for "their contribution to our National Identity" by the Embassy of Ecuador, Washington, D.C.

Publications

Meggers wrote nearly two hundred articles, book reviews, translations, and books. She published in many leading scientific journals, such as American Anthropologist, Science, and Scientific American. In addition, she published in less specialized magazines, such as Archaeology, American Antiquity, Americas, and National Geographic.

References

• Hirst, Kris. "Betty Jane Meggers: American Archaeologist and South Americanist". Retrieved 2009-08-09.
• Popson, Colleen (May–June 2003). "First Lady of Amazonia". Archaeology. Vol. 56, no. 3. Archaeological Institute of America. Retrieved 2009-08-09..