Brent Richards Weisman. Pioneer in Space and Time: John Mann Goggin and the Development of Florida Archaeology. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2002. xxi + 176 pp. $49.95, cloth, ISBN 978-0-8130-2573-5. Reviewed by Jeffrey M. Mitchem Published on H-Florida (February, 2004) A True Pioneer of Florida Archaeology with early Spanish explorations and settlement in Anyone who was trained in Florida archaeol‐ Florida. I found myself seeking out publications ogy in the second half of the twentieth century is by none other than John Goggin, who did impor‐ familiar with the name John M. Goggin. Serious tant early studies on glass beads, Spanish pottery, students will have read many of his written and other European artifacts found not only on works, a number of which were truly ground‐ Spanish contact sites in Florida, but in the Carib‐ breaking and are still relevant today. This thor‐ bean and Latin America as well. Fellow graduate ough biography by University of South Florida ar‐ students were involved in Seminole archaeology chaeologist Brent Weisman is both an excellent and Spanish mission studies, and they were also interpretive summary of Goggin's work and a de‐ drawn to publications and artifact collections tailed study of the man himself. made by Goggin. When we did research into pre‐ viously recorded archaeological sites, the fles typ‐ I remember hearing stories and anecdotes ically included his distinctive site file cards. about Goggin when I was an undergraduate stu‐ dent at the University of Florida in the 1970s. As I While most students were exposed to the recall, Charles Fairbanks always made sure that fruits of his research, Goggin the man remained a students knew that John Goggin had begun the shadowy fgure to most of us. Weisman's book will statewide system for recording archaeological change this for present and future students of sites, had collected many of the artifacts that were Florida archaeology. The book is based on de‐ used as type specimens in our classes and re‐ tailed study of Goggin's voluminous papers (most search, and had devised the basic prehistoric cul‐ are curated at the P. K. Yonge Library of Florida tural chronology for the state that is still valid to‐ History at the University of Florida) and inter‐ day (with refinements, of course). When I re‐ views with surviving friends, relatives, and col‐ turned to UF as a graduate student in the 1980s, I leagues. It begins with a chapter on Goggin's boy‐ became more interested in the artifacts associated hood. One might be tempted to skip over this H-Net Reviews chapter, but it enlightens the reader on his per‐ activities and views of other archaeologists work‐ sonality traits and experiences that led to his near ing in the state at the time. fascination with tree snails, the Everglades, and Chapter fve begins with Goggin's hiring (as archaeology. Weisman follows with a chapter the sole anthropologist) by the Sociology Depart‐ summarizing Florida archaeology up through the ment at the University of Florida. It was here that 1930s, including a discussion of concepts of ar‐ he really began to shine as a researcher, produc‐ chaeological space and time prior to Goggin's fo‐ ing several major written works that are still valu‐ cus on these aspects. able to researchers today. Weisman successfully After he left the University of Florida because imparts the almost superhuman quantity and of failing grades in his freshman year, Goggin en‐ breadth of Goggin's research interests. It is inter‐ rolled at the University of New Mexico in 1935, esting to learn that he was not a particularly rivet‐ and chapter three of the book covers the seven ing lecturer, but that he also had a devoted cadre years he spent as a student there, earning a B.A. of students who gave up weekends and nights to and beginning graduate studies. Goggin did not work in the feld and laboratory with him. Among forsake his interest in Florida archaeology, how‐ a great many other accomplishments at the uni‐ ever. He frequently returned to make forays to versity, he developed a program in underwater various parts of south Florida to record archaeo‐ archaeology in Florida rivers and sinkholes and logical sites and to make collections of artifacts. began the statewide system for recording archae‐ The important factor is that he was also conduct‐ ological sites. Through an interesting series of ing research in New Mexico, Mexico, and the Car‐ events, Goggin was able to create a Department of ibbean during those years, and his thinking about Anthropology at the University of Florida in 1962, aspects of archaeology in general matured. Weis‐ which has thrived ever since. man highlights some of the questions he was ask‐ The sixth chapter focuses on Goggin's re‐ ing and thinking about: broad anthropological search during the 1950s and 1960s, when he ze‐ questions that required a great quantity of data to roed in on historical archaeology in the entire cir‐ answer. cum-Caribbean region, including Florida and Chapter four covers the years from 1942 Latin America. Historical archaeology in the New through 1948, the beginning of Goggin's prolific World is most simply defined as the archaeology period when many of the concepts he had been of the period from 1492 and later. It is important thinking about and implicitly testing with feld‐ to understand that historical archaeology as a work began to gel in his mind. This was a busy pe‐ separate discipline was in the embryonic stages at riod for Goggin. Not only was he heavily involved the time, so Goggin was breaking new ground in in archaeological excavations in south Florida, our understanding of various artifact classes. It is but he also earned a Ph.D. at Yale University and truly remarkable that he was able to gather the produced a dissertation that was an ambitious at‐ voluminous historical and archaeological infor‐ tempt to synthesize all that was known about mation and to put it into coherent form. His stud‐ Florida archaeology. But as in all human lives, ies of majolica, glass beads, and Spanish olive jars there was strife and disappointment. His frst are still important reference works today, al‐ marriage fell apart, and we learn of serious bouts though subsequent researchers have added to of alcoholism, which plagued him throughout his and refined our knowledge of these objects. The life, and arguably shortened it. Weisman skillfully end of this chapter is an interesting discussion of summarizes the importance of the many writings Goggin's research into Seminole archaeology and of Goggin during this period. He also discusses the 2 H-Net Reviews his peculiar, strained relationship with living history of science in Florida will profit from read‐ Seminoles. ing this book. For Florida archaeologists, it is es‐ The seventh and fnal chapter is a discussion sential reading. of Goggin's legacy to today's archaeologists and Notes anthropologists. Since Goggin's death in 1963, [1]. John M. Goggin, Indian and Spanish: Se‐ both Florida archaeology and the broader disci‐ lected Writings, compiled by Charles H. Fair‐ pline have changed immensely. Weisman cites banks, Irving Rouse, and William C. Sturtevant several examples of Goggin's contributions and (Coral Gables: University of Miami Press, 1964). their effects on the way Florida archaeology is [2]. J. Jefferson Reid, "Editor's Corner: The His‐ practiced today, but readers may not agree with tory of Archaeology and Archaeologists," Ameri‐ all of his (Weisman's) views. can Antiquity 56, no. 2: pp. 195-196. To see an example of the legacy of John Gog‐ gin, both in Florida and elsewhere, one need only look at his publications and the number of those which have been reprinted and are still in print. Charles Fairbanks, Irving Rouse, and William C. Sturtevant took responsibility for cleaning up some of Goggin's unfinished publications and see‐ ing them through to publication after his death. They also collaborated in compiling a collection of Goggin's articles, both previously published and unpublished.[1] Recent years have witnessed a burgeoning in‐ terest among archaeologists in the past of their discipline. This has resulted in examination of the theoretical changes in the feld as well as the writ‐ ing of biographies of some of the major practition‐ ers. Biographical treatments have proven to be es‐ sential for understanding the development of ar‐ chaeology. J. Jefferson Reid summed it up nicely: "Personal loss reminds us, albeit too late, that peo‐ ple do archaeology, reconstruct prehistory, present papers, squabble over interpretations, and teach other people to do the same, but, we hope, a little bit better. And these same people have biases, preconceived notions, personal expe‐ riences and agendas--dare one call it a subjective element--that must be comprehended at some lev‐ el if we are to treat the whole past fairly" (p. 195). [2] Brent Weisman's biography of John Goggin is thorough and balanced, and even skeptics will be satisfied that Goggin's contributions to archaeolo‐ gy were truly pioneering. Those interested in the 3 H-Net Reviews If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the network, at https://networks.h-net.org/h-florida Citation: Jeffrey M. Mitchem. Review of Weisman, Brent Richards. Pioneer in Space and Time: John Mann Goggin and the Development of Florida Archaeology. H-Florida, H-Net Reviews. February, 2004. URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=8902 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 4.