Robert E. Murowchick, Lothar Von Falkenhausen, Cheng-Hwa Tsang 2003. Kwang-Chih (K.C.) Chang (1931-2001). American Anthropologist 105 (2) (Jun., 2003), pp. 481-484. Obituaries 481

his familyto his father'snative Taiwan in 1946. In 1950 he enrolledas a freshmanat National Taiwan University ("Taida"), wherehe was in the firstclass of majorsin the new Departmentof Archaeologyand Anthropology.There he studiedunder a numberof eminentarchaeologists and anthropologistswho had fledthe mainlandwith the Na- tionalistgovernment and had moved keyresearch institu- tions, including the Academia Sinica, to Taiwan. His teachersincluded Li Chi, widelyregarded as the founding fatherof Chinese archaeologyand directorof the seminal excavations at Anyang from 1928 to 1937 (who had earnedhis Ph.D. in anthropologyat Harvardin 1923 un- der E. A. Hooton,Alfred M. Tozzer,and Roland B. Dixon), and Li's keystaff members from the Anyangexcavations: Tung Tso-pin,Kao Ch'ti-hstin,and Shih Chang-ju.Given their traditionalfocus on Chinese dynasticcivilization, the curriculumat Taida focusedon the archaeologyof the NorthChina Plain as an adjunct to the transmittedhis- toricaltexts. Chang also studiedunder ethnographer Ling Shun-sheng,a formerstudent of MarcelMauss and Marcel Granetin Paris;Granet's anthropological studies of early Chinese history,through his studentLing, molded K.C.'s developinginterests more profoundlythan did the text- bound archaeologyfaculty. He graduatedfrom Taida in 1954, followedby a yearof compulsorymilitary training. As a graduate student in anthropologyat Harvard from1955 to 1960, Chang studiedunder Hallam L. Movius Jr.,Clyde Kluckhohn,Lauriston Ward, and Gordon R. After his doctoral Prehis- (K.C.) (1931-2001) Willey. completing dissertation, Kwang-chih Chang toricSettlements in China:A Studyin ArchaeologicalMethod and Theory(1960), he embarkedon a universityteaching ROBERT E. MUROWCHICK career that spanned nearly 40 years: firstat Harvard BostonUniversity (1960-61), then at Yale (1961-77, servingas department chair and in 1977 to Harvard,where LOTHAR VON FALKENHAUSEN 1970-73), returning he remaineduntil his retirementin 1996. From1984 on Universityof Californiaat Los Angeles he held theJohn E. Hudson Chairin Archaeology.At both CHENG-HWA TSANG Yale and Harvard,K.C. was a devotedundergraduate teacher NationalMuseum of Prehistory,Taitung, Taiwan and a dedicatedand belovedmentor to his manygraduate students.(For a more detailedreview of Chang's life,see To the currentgeneration of studentsand scholars,Kwang- Falkenhausen2001 and Ferrie1995; forthe range of his chih Chang is most closelyassociated with the archaeol- student'sspecialties, see essays in his Festschriftin the ogyof ancientChina. Indeed,since the 1960s he has been Journalof East Asian Archaeology [1999, 2000, 2001].) the most importantfigure in the West in bringingthe Chang startedpublishing scholarly work while still an richnessand diversityof Chinese archaeologyto the table undergraduateand continuedtirelessly well intohis retire- of worldarchaeology. In his 50 yearsin archaeology,he ment. His more than 350 publications,including some was also profoundlyinfluential in the transformationof twentybooks, reflect an astonishingrange of researchin- archaeologicaltheory in the UnitedStates, in the develop- terests.His impacton anthropologyextends from archae- ment of modernarchaeology in Taiwan, in fieldworkon ological theoryto the archaeologyand anthropologyof Taiwan prehistory,and in the fosteringof international Taiwan and to the archaeologyof China, culminatingin cooperativeresearch that is shapingthe courseof archae- his effortsto fostercollaborative Sino-foreign fieldwork ology in East Asia. His death on January3, 2001, marked there. the end ofa brilliantcareer that links the emergenceof sci- K.C.'s workin archaeologicaltheory builds on thatof entificarchaeology in China-the achievementof his his teachers,both undergraduateand graduate.His writ- teachers'generation-to the excitingnew collaborativere- ingswhile in graduateschool show stronginfluences from searchopportunities that his studentsare now engagedin. Willey,whose VirfiValley investigationsin Peru in the K.C., as he was known to his students,friends, and late 1940s had produced the firstmajor examinationof colleagues,was born in Beijingin 1931, and moved with settlementpatterns in archaeology(Willey 1953). Willey 482 AmericanAnthropologist * Vol. 105, No. 2 * June2003

spurredK.C.'s interestin the relationshipbetween the spa- tive,indeed pivotal,role in helpingto modernizearchae- tial distributionof human activitiesand the naturalenvi- ologyand museumstudies in Taiwan. He was responsible ronment;in 1958 Chang wrote "Studyof the Neolithic forsome of the most importantprogress in the historyof Social Grouping,"which drew on a broad rangeof ethno- archaeologicalresearch in Taiwan. As earlyas 1961, he re- graphicdata fromthe Old World to develop interpreta- turnedto Taiwan to organizean archaeologicalproject on tions of Neolithicsettlement patterns, which he then ap- the prehistoryof Taiwan, conducting excavations in plied to New World archaeologicaldata. He stressedthe 1964-65 at the sites of Tapenkengin Taipei countyand importanceof understandinglocal social groupsas con- Fengpitouin Kaohsiungcounty. Based on thesematerials, textswithin which broaderregional traits could be inter- he publishedFengpitou, Tapenkeng and thePrehistory ofTai- preted.This early call forexploring the social aspectsof ar- wan (1969), the firstbook on Taiwan archaeologyin Eng- chaeologyhelped fosterthe expandingscholarly interest lish. It presentednot onlydetailed reports of two sitesbut in settlementarchaeology in thenext decade, many exam- also a syntheticsummary of Taiwan prehistorywith a dis- ples of which can be seen in K.C.'s editedvolume, Settle- cussionof its relationship to theprehistory of surrounding mentArchaeology (1968). In his own chapterin the vol- areas, especiallySoutheast Asia, and of the interrelation- ume, "Towarda Science of PrehistoricSociety," he states ship of archaeologyand ethnologyin Taiwan. The book that remainsone of the most importantworks on Taiwan ar- the conventionalmethodology of archaeology,formu- chaeology. latedas itis primarilyfor the acquisition and interpreta- In the early1970s, K.C. recognizedthe need forinten- tionof artifacts, is inadequate for the acquisition and in- sive,interdisciplinary, regional research. In his initialpro- of data of cultural terpretation suggestive and social forsuch a in he and structure.This new posals seekingsupport project Taiwan, grouping framework,however, notedthat does not supplantthe existingframeworks in studies whereit doesnot apply:it representssimply a realign- In contrastto heavyreliance surfacecollections as mentof and upon emphases vantagepoints for a specificpur- in thepast, I emphasizeexcavations. In contrastto inves- poseor set of purposes. Artifacts are regarded, under this tigatingisolated sites and themfor notas closed in using generalizing view, systems themselves,but as elements aboutwhole regions and areas,I emphasize"saturation ofgreater systems and as indicatorsof relationship; resi- research"in smallbut and dentialresidues are prehistorically ecologically considerednot simply as indications meaningfulregions. In contrastto the of mere of food architectural or study habits, patterns, trash-throwing stonesand potsherds,I emphasize in additionsubsis- customs,but as contextsof social and cultural activities; tence,settlement, and in anddecorative arts are viewed communitypatterns. Finally, bothas integralelements contrastto viewing prehistoric man in isolationfrom his ofthe intellectual and/orpractical life and as horizonand environment,I emphasize the studiesof traditionmarkers. interdisciplinary [1968:9] ancientecosystems. The time has comefor this kind of becausethe we facecall for it: the 1960s, the "New was to study problems problems By Archaeology" seeking suchas the cultivationof thedifferential reach the reconstructionof and early plants, beyond chronology typo- stressupon the various modes of subsistence, the selective logyto understandthe natureof social changein the past utilizationof the ample resources, and the covariation of and was proposingbrash new approachesto investigating toolsand village patterns. These problems have emerged processesof culturechange. Reflectingin some ways the fromexisting data and engendered some discussion and interest;they cannot be tackledwithout ofthe generalquestioning of the statusquo in U.S. societyduring knowledge ecosystemsatthe local level. [Chang 1970:6-7] this turbulentdecade, Chang's voice was among those callingfor change in theirdiscipline. In his 1967 book Re- Withsupport from the National Science Council (Taipei), thinkingArchaeology (which he dedicated to Kluckhohn, the National Science Foundation,and Yale University, "who inspiredmy inability to be impressedby established Chang directedthe project "Anthropological and Environ- authoritiesand my penchantfor asking seemingly ridicu- mentalInvestigations in theChoshui and TatuRiver Valleys lous questions" [p. xi]), he noted that "many archaeolo- ofCentral Taiwan" (1972-74), which involved more than 40 gistsare becomingmore and moreinterested in the larger specialistsin archaeology,cultural anthropology, geology, pictureof cultureand society,less and less in artifacts geomorphology,zoology, botany,and soil studies.This viewed as entitiesin themselvesand analyzed for their projectrepresented the firstattempt in Taiwan to inten- own sake" (p. vii). K.C. introducednew conceptsand ter- sivelyinvestigate changes throughtime in the cultural minologythat he thoughtwould allow artifactclassifica- ecologyof a regionwithin an interdisciplinaryframework, tions to be more "culturallymeaningful," to reflectthe an approach that has servedas a model formost subse- cognitivestructure of the societythat produced them. His quent archaeologicalprograms in Taiwan. The Choshui 1967 article,"Major Aspects of the Interrelationshipof Ar- projectwas also a trainingground for a new generationof chaeologyand Ethnology,"explored ethnographic anal- archaeologistsand anthropologistsin Taiwan;virtually all ogyand stressedits importance for archaeologists. The ap- of thatproject's key participants remain active scholars. plicabilityof analogyin archaeologywas hotlydebated in In additionto archaeology,K.C. made importantcon- the 1960s,and remainsan area of contentiontoday. tributionsto researchon the historyof Taiwan.The rapid Even afterhis move to the UnitedStates in 1955 (he economicboom in Taiwanin recentdecades brought with it acquired U.S. citizenshipin 1970), Chang played an ac- threatsto Taiwan's historicsites and historicalmaterials, Obituaries 483 which deeply concernedhim. In order to improvethe detail forwhich the previouseditions were known,and, situation,in 1986 he organizedthe "FieldResearch Project eventually,Chang and his colleaguesdecided that such an on Taiwan History"at Academia Sinica. This program undertakingwould have to be takenup by others. broughttogether scholars from four of the Academia's insti- K.C. is perhapsbest knownfor his incisiveand com- tutes(History and Philology,Ethnology, Modern History, prehensivework on the archaeologyof the Shang culture and the Sun Yat-senInstitute for Social Sciencesand Phi- (c. 1500-1050 B.C.E.) in the NorthChina Plain. His vol- losophy) to undertakecollaborative research on Taiwan ume ShangCivilization (1980) provideda comprehensive history,including the rescue of historicalmaterials, par- studyof thatculture based on his masteryof both the ar- ticularlythose in the possessionof local citizens.To en- chaeological and textual data. The importanceof this courageresearch on Taiwan history,Chang pressedfor the monumentalvolume-which remainsa key resourcefor elevationof the Taiwan HistoryField ResearchOffice to scholarsmore than 20 yearslater-was summedup by his- the statusof a formalinstitute, and aftera long and pains- torianDavid Keightleyin his 1982 reviewfor the Journal of takingprocess, this idea came to fruitionwith the estab- AsianStudies: "Professor Chang has written,if not the Bi- lishmentin 1993 of the Instituteof Taiwan History(Pre- ble forthe field,at least the New Testament"(p. 549). As paratoryOffice) at AcademiaSinica. his Shangresearch expanded, K.C. becameincreasingly in- In 1992 K.C. was invitedto serveas a consultantto terestedin the evidencefor shamanism in Neolithicand the establishmentof the National Museum of Prehistory BronzeAge China, drawinginspiration from the worksof at Taitungon the east coast near the importantNeolithic JosephCampbell, Peter Furst, and others,and in 1983 he villagesite of Peinan.The museumwas meantto promote broughttogether many lines of complementaryevidence researchand public educationon the developmentof the in Art,Myth, and Ritual:The Path to PoliticalAuthority in prehistoryof Taiwan and itsrelevance to the prehistoryof AncientChina, which also servedas a textbookfor his highly China and SoutheastAsia. Chang was responsiblefor the popularundergraduate course in Harvard'sCore Curriculum, developmentof conceptualplans forthe exhibitionsand "Politics,Mythology, and Artin BronzeAge China." researchactivities of the Museum's planned Galleryof Apartfrom his scholarlywork, Chang will have a last- Chinese Prehistoryand EarlyCivilizations. After ten years ing influencebecause of his tirelessrole in bridgingEast of preparation,the museumopened on July1, 2002. and West. Withthe openingof China to the West in the In recognitionof his contributionsto scholarshipin early1970s, K.C. activelysought to improverelations with and about Taiwan,in 1994 K.C. was appointedVice Presi- his Chinese counterpartsand to introduceWestern an- dentof the AcademiaSinica. In thisposition, he dedicated thropologicalarchaeology to a Chinese audience thirsty himselfto raisingresearch standards and to promotingthe forthis exposure following the long periodof isolationof internationalizationof the humanitiesand social sciences the previousdecade. He was a memberof the American at the Academia.Even as his Parkinson'sdisease steadily PaleoanthropologicalDelegation that visited China in worsened,he continuedto develop strategiesto enhance 1975, whichlaid the groundworkfor what would become the humanities,to make Taiwan an internationalcenter an importantseries of internationalexchanges during the forChinese studies, and to ensurelong-term financial sup- 1980s, includingthe InternationalConference on Shang portfor Taiwan's educational system. Civilizationat the East-WestCenter in Honolulu in 1982 Since the early 1960s, Chang had been the window and the Conferenceon AncientChina and Social Science throughwhich most Western scholars and studentslearned Generalizationsat AirlieHouse, Virginia,in 1986. These about the seeminglyendless archaeological discoveries be- conferencesprovided some of the firstopportunities since ing made in China. Beginningby makingtranslations and beforeWorld War II fordirect scholarly discourse between abstractsof Chinese archaeologicalreports for the Pea- archaeologistsin the West-and those on Taiwan-and body Museum libraryduring his graduateyears, he then their counterpartsfrom the Chinese mainland. Chang produced The Archaeologyof Ancient China (1963), which traveledfrequently to China duringthis time: In 1984 he providedfor the firsttime a detailedsummary of the cur- gave six highlyinfluential lectures at PekingUniversity, rent archaeologicalevidence from pre-ImperialChina, followedby lectureseries at Shandong University,Jilin presentedwithin a frameworkof modernanthropological University,and Xiamen University.The approaches he approaches to social evolution. In part because of the presented-both his own and those of other Western steadyavalanche of new data fromChina, and in partbe- scholars-founda receptiveaudience, as did his frequent cause of his own changinginterpretations of the data, the brief essays in Chinese archaeologicaljournals, which book underwentsubstantial revisions in its 1968 and 1977 touchedon specificissues in Westernand Chinesearchae- editionsand was thoroughlyreworked in its fourthedi- ology.During the last fewyears, many of his earlierpubli- tion in 1986. At the time of his death, K.C. and his col- cations have been translatedinto Chinese and receivea leagues were at workon a fifthedition that was to incor- greatdeal of attentionin China. poratethe importantnew findsthat had been made since K.C.'s dream of undertakingfield research in China the mid-1980s. The sheer abundance of the new data was long frustratedboth by legal hurdlesin China's anti- made it virtuallyimpossible to produce a fifthedition quitieslegislation and by influentialarchaeologists in China with the same thoroughnessand meticulousattention to who refusedto open Chinese archaeologyto foreigners. 484 AmericanAnthropologist * Vol. 105, No. 2 * June2003

The dream became a when the relevant Willey,Gordon R. finally reality 1953 PrehistoricSettlement Patterns in the Peru. were in the 1990s to allow ViruiValley, regulations changed early SmithsonianInstitution Bureau of American Ethnology Bul- Sino-foreigncollaborative projects for the firsttime since letin155. Washingon,DC: U.S. GovernmentPrinting Office. the 1930s. His interdisciplinaryproject "Investigations into EarlyShang Civilization"was among the firstto be ap- proved.Working with colleagues from the Instituteof Ar- chaeologyof the Chinese Academyof Social Sciencesin Beijing,this ongoingsurvey and excavationprogram has yieldedvaluable new data on the Holocene landscape,on the middle-and late-Neolithiccultures that occupied this area, and on the sequence of earlyhistoric cities near the present-daycity of Shangqiu-the area believedto be the siteof GreatCity Shang, the preeminentritual and politi- cal centerof predynastic Shang and the keyritual center of the Shangculture throughout its dynastic rule. The Shang- qiu projectand otherSino-foreign projects currently un- derwayin China stand as eloquent testimonyto the pro- gressthat has been made both in Chinesearchaeology and in internationalscholarly cooperation. K.C. Chang leaves a legacyas an insightful,thorough, and extraordinarilyproductive scholar; as a caringteacher and mentor;and as an academic diplomatwho brought togetherdiverse views and opened new windows-and new opportunities-fora broad range of audiences.This legacyis a sourceof inspirationto his colleaguesand stu- dents,and it will continue to help shape archaeological and anthropologicalscholarship in theWest and in Asia.

REFERENCES CITED Chang,Kwang-chih 1958 Studyof the Neolithic Social Grouping: Examples from GertrudeDole, 1949 theNew World.American Anthropologist 60:298-334. 1960 PrehistoricSettlements in China: A Studyin Archae- Gertrude Evelyn Dole (1915-2001) ologicalMethod and Theory.Cambridge, MA: Department ofAnthropology, Harvard University. 1963 The Archaeologyof Ancient China. New Haven,CT: MONICA BARNES Yale UniversityPress (2nd edition,1968; 3rdedition, 1977; 4thedition, 1986). AndeanPast 1967 MajorAspects of the Interrelationshipof Archaeology and Ethnology.Current Anthropology 8:227-243. Gertrude (Trudie)Dole was born at home in Proc- 1967 RethinkingArchaeology. New York:Random House. Evelyn 1969 Fengpitou,Tapenkeng and the Prehistoryof Taiwan. torsville,Vermont, a daughterof modest hill farmers. Yale UniversityPublications in Anthropology,no. 73. New Thus she inheriteda lifestylethat became extinctduring Haven,CT: Departmentof Anthropology, Yale University. the courseof the 20th In an oral takenon 1970 PrehistoricResearch in Taiwan:Preparatory Phase. Re- century. history searchproposal submitted to theNational Science Founda- behalfof the Societyof Woman Geographers,Dole depicts tion.Department of Anthropology, Yale University. an idyllicbut strictchildhood in what she called "the 1980 ShangCivilization. New Haven, CT: Yale UniversityPress. loveliest on earth" All her life 1983 Art,Myth, and Ritual:The Pathto PoliticalAuthority in spot (Shepherd1993-94). AncientChina. Cambridge,MA: HarvardUniversity Press. Trudie cultivated and cherished the thrift and inde- Chang,Kwang-chih, ed. pendence she learnedas a girl,repairing furniture veneer 1968 SettlementArchaeology. Palo Alto:National Press Books. with brownelectrician's and cuts with aloe Falkenhausen,Lothar tape healing 2001 Kwang-ChihChang, 15 April1931-3 January 2001. Ar- grown on her New York City windowsill. tibusAsiae 61(1):120-138. Dole exhibited a varietyof talents. Her creativityfound and RobertE. eds. Falkenhausen,Lothar, Murowchick, in most of in her 1999-2001 Journalof East Asian Archaeology vols. 1; vol. 2, expression dress,cooking, and, all, writing, nos. 1-2;vol. 3, nos. 1-2. David J.Cohen, managinged. her films, and her photographs. Her intellectual promise Leiden,the Netherlands: Brill Academic Publishers. became apparent when she graduated in 1932 as valedic- Ferrie,Helke torian of School and in 1937 she ob- 1995 A Conversationwith K.C.. CurrentAnthropology Peterborough High 36:307-325. tained her A.B. in French and Biology from Middlebury Keightley,David N. College. Although she developed many interests,anthropol- 1982 China is of ReviewArticle. Shang Coming Age-A Jour- was Dole's metier.Her life'swork fourma- nal ofAsian Studies 41(3):549-557. AnnArbor, MI: Associa- ogy encompasses tionfor Asian Studies. jor topics:Kuikuru ethnography, Amahuaca ethnography,