JOHN MANN GOGGIN, 1916-1963 the DEATH of John M. Goggin on May 4, 1963, Cut Short a Highly Productive Career in American Archaeo

JOHN MANN GOGGIN, 1916-1963 IRVING ROUSE HE DEATH of John M. Goggin on May 4, ment had acquired one of the largest staffs in T 1963, cut short a highly productive career in the Southeast, had granted a number of M.A.'s American archaeology. Into the 47 years of his in anthropology, and was sending a succession life Goggin crowded more activity, both profes of students to other universities for doctoral sional and personal, than most of us experience work. in a full lifetime, and achieved more than most. Goggin was also instrumental in forming the He was born in Chicago, on May 27, 1916, Florida Anthropological Society and served as but grew up in Miami, Florida, where his father, Editor of its journal from 1949 to 1951. He was a dentist, had set up practice. His father intro Assistant Editor of American Antiquity from duced him to the Everglades, and he roamed 1950 to 1954. In 1951, the Junta Nacional de them as a boy, acquiring an interest in natural Arqueologia y Etnologia in Cuba made him its history and anthropology that was to shape his first foreign member. He was also active in the adult life. While still a high school student in Florida Academy of Sciences and the Florida Miami, he had already located a number of ar Historical Society, and rarely missed a meet chaeological sites and was making significant ing of either the Society for American Archae collections. He began college at the University ology or the Southeastern Archaeological Con of Florida but, since it had little to offer in the ference. subjects that interested him, moved on to the He never lost the love of the field that he had University of New Mexico where he received a acquired in his youth and was most successful B.A. in anthropology in 1938. He continued at in imparting it to his students. It was his good New Mexico for several years, doing part-time fortune to be able to return to the scene of his graduate work, and in 1941-42 served as curator boyhood studies and to build upon them. of the Coronado State Monument. With the Throughout his life he continued to accumu outbreak of war, from which he was kept by late information on the archaeology of the physical disability, he returned to Florida and Glades area, putting it into a huge manuscript, worked as an engineer in the construction of air as yet unpublished, which may be unequalled ports. in its coverage of a single archaeological area, After the war an offer of an assistantship in reflecting as it does not only Goggin's field the Yale Peabody Museum made it possible for studies but also his thorough knowledge of the him to do graduate work in anthropology. He ecology, ethnohistory, and ethnology of the area. received an M.A. from Yale in 1946 and a Ph.D. He has published a somewhat less detailed in 1948. Then he returned to the University of monograph on the archaeology of the Lower St. Florida as Associate Professor of Anthropology Johns area (1952d), which contains a part of the and remained there the rest of his life. He was results of a state-wide archaeological survey he promoted to full Professor and made Acting organized in connection with his student-train Head of a new Department of Anthropology in ing program. For the state as a whole, this sur 1961, and became Research Professor of Anthro vey includes over 3000 sites, in more than 50 of pology in 1963, when the ravages of cancer made which he did some digging. it impossible for him to continue his teaching Surveying was more attractive to him than and administrative duties. excavation and he rarely dug intensively. In Development of anthropology at the Univer deed, he has published only a single mono sity of Florida must be rated as one of Goggin's graphic site report, on the excavations he and major achievements. He was the first person in Frank H. Sommer III undertook on Upper our profession to teach there, as a member of Matecumbe Key, Florida, while both were grad the Sociology Department, and through his en uate students at Yale (1949c). He was basically ergy, enthusiasm, and ability to attract students a collector, not only of sites and specimens — gradually built up support, first for a joint De including shells and other natural objects as well partment of Sociology and Anthropology and as artifacts — but also of books, coins, stamps, finally for a separate Department of Anthro and art objects. In his studies he paid more at pology. By the time of his death, this depart tention to museum materials than do most ar- 369 370 AMERICAN ANTIQUITY [ VOL. 29, No. 3,1964 JOHN M. GOGGIN chaeologists, and he built up an excellent series still the basic chronological formulation for the of type collections for the use of his students at state (1947c). He elaborated upon this in his the University of Florida. doctoral dissertation, covering the spare frame As a collector he was unusually sensitive to work of areas and periods with solid wood in the the problems of sampling. In his first archaeo form of "cultural patterns" and offering an eco logical paper, written while still an undergradu logical interpretation of these patterns, in ac ate student at the University of New Mexico cordance with another of his boyhood interests. (1939c), he established a chronology by com It was characteristic of him to include the his paring the potsherds he had collected from the toric as well as prehistoric patterns and to ap opposite ends of a Glades midden. Subsequent proach the historic patterns from the standpoint ly, at the Goodland Point midden, he marked of ethnohistory and ethnology as well as ar off 16 distinct parts of the surface, collected chaeology. separately from each of them, seriated the col The section of the dissertation dealing with lections to establish a sequence of five periods, the Lower St. Johns area was subsequently ex and used the sequence to work out a theory of panded and published as a monograph, to which midden building for South Florida. He referred reference has already been made (1952d). The to this as a method of "controlled sample col discussion of the prehistoric patterns — renamed lecting" (1950a: 65). "traditions" at the writer's suggestion — was While still a graduate student at Yale, he published as an article in the symposium The published in this journal a paper on the archaeo Florida Indian and his Neighbors (1949b). It logical areas and periods in Florida, which is drew the following comments from Gordon R. ROUSE ] JOHN MANN GOGGIN 371 Willey and Philip Phillips, in Method and and these served as the basis for a number of Theory in American Archaeology (Chicago, articles, for example, on style areas among the 1958: 36-7): "The first significant use of the Southeastern Indians (1952g). His course on tradition concept in eastern North American the American Indian was one of his favorites, studies, so far as the authors are aware, was and he had hoped to write a textbook for it. by John Goggin ... It seems to us that ... he But it was Latin America which most at has discovered the outstanding merit of the tra tracted him and which eventually came to com dition as a methodological tool, namely, its flexi pete with Florida for his attention. While a bility. Goggin also, rather more than others who student at New Mexico, he came under the in have used the concept, emphasizes the impor fluence of Donald D. Brand, then Chairman of tance of environmental factors in the shaping the Department of Anthropology at that uni and conserving of traditions." versity, and through him came to participate in A new field technique, underwater archae three summer field trips to Mexico in 1936,1939, ology, was under development at the time Gog and 1941. Between these, in 1937, he spent a gin joined the faculty of the University of Flor summer on Andros Island in the Bahamas. His ida, and he was quick to see that this technique first two articles in American Antiquity were a would be especially useful in Florida, with its result; they reported on site surveys of Andros many lakes, streams, and springs. Enlisting the Island and of the Rio Tepalcatepec Basin, Mi- support of the Wenner-Gren Foundation and choacan, Mexico (1939b, 1943). of his university administration, he was able to A person with his interest in historic archae acquire a complete set of diving equipment, in ology could hardly have avoided moving into cluding aqualungs and a barge with a suction Latin America, since Florida was a part of it dredge, and located a series of underwater sites during so much of the colonial period. He be which ranged in age from late Pleistocene to gan to study the Spanish pottery he found in the Seminole occupation of Florida. His re the Indian mission sites of Florida, especially covery of Seminole remains was of greatest the form known as majolica, and was able to value since it filled a gap in the dry-land ar classify majolica potsherds into types, follow chaeology. He prided himself on his ability to ing the standard procedure for dealing with out-dive his students, as well as the colleagues Southwestern and Southeastern Indian pottery. who came to visit him, and was pleased to re He proceeded to date the types through their ceive in 1959 a "Pat on the Back" from Sports occurrence at sites mentioned in the historic Illustrated for his underwater activity.

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