The 1950s, Postwar Resumption and Reconsiderations

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Digging through the Decades: A 90-year Retrospective on American Archaeology; Biennial Gordon Willey Session in the History of Archaeology" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

World War II disrupted archaeology, with SAA members in uniform and travel restricted. Members resuming their careers in the late 1940s faced a more egalitarian America as thousands of men from uneducated families entered colleges on the G.I. Bill. Radiocarbon dating superseded stratigraphy as the standard dating method, with 1950 set as "the Present". "Science", touted as means toward safe and prosperous lives, became more prominent academically, to the detriment of humanities (the "two cultures" debates). SAA leaders responded with four formal seminars in 1955, funded by the Carnegie Corporation, where 27 invited archaeologists discussed terminologies and also how American archaeology related with anthropology. These marked a break in the older concept that archaeology reveals culture histories; they also marked, as the convener wrote, an innovation for theory conferences rather than simply "more money to dig". The 1950s were also the decade that the River Basin Surveys became prominent, employing a considerable number of archaeologists and student crews. Overall, the 1950s was a decade of adjustments during which theory became more accepted for discussion, while much more money was available to dig.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• Digging through the Decades: A 90-year Retrospective on American Archaeology; Biennial Gordon Willey Session in the History of Archaeology

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 51787