Linda S. Cordell

Linda Sue Cordell (born October 11, 1943 in New York City , New York , † March 29, 2013 in Santa Fe , New Mexico ) was an American archaeologist and anthropologist . She primarily researched the pueblo culture in the southwestern United States and worked at the University of New Mexico and the University of Colorado Boulder .

Career

Linda Sue Cordell was born Linda Sue Seinfeld in New York City in 1943 . In her later career choice, she was significantly influenced by her mother, Evelyn Seinfeld Kessler. She received her Ph.D. from Columbia University with a thesis on Mesoamerican relationships in the southwest and southeast of the United States (Mesoamerican Contacts in the American Southwest and Southeast) was thus also active as an anthropologist and. She did her doctorate under Margaret Mead , who met her daughter as a young girl.

Linda Cordell completed her undergraduate degree (undergraduate) at the George Washington University , where she graduated in 1965 with honors ( Bachelor of Arts ). Meanwhile, she worked as an assistant in the Department of Anthropology of the National Museum of Natural History and took part in an excavation in New Mexico led by Florence Hawley Ellis in 1964 ; an experience which, according to her own statement, aroused her interest in the southwestern United States. After graduation, she briefly returned to New Mexico to be involved in excavations as an assistant in the summer before she began a master's degree at the University of Oregon , which she successfully completed in 1967. She then moved to the University of California, Santa Barbara , where she received her doctorate in 1972 with a thesis on changes in settlement patterns in Mesa Verde National Park (Settlement Pattern Changes at Wetherill Mesa, Colorado) .

In 1971 she was appointed assistant professor by the University of New Mexico , where she subsequently worked in research and teaching until 1987 and from 1982 as head of the department of anthropology. In 1987 she took over this position at the California Academy of Sciences and stayed there for six years, only interrupted in 1990 by a visiting professorship at Stanford University . In 1993 she moved to the University of Colorado Boulder , where she was Professor of Anthropology and Director of the University's Natural History Museum. After 13 years in Colorado, she retired in 2006 and moved to Santa Fe, where she worked in teaching and research at the Santa Fe Institute and the School for Advanced Research until her death .

Linda S. Cordell died on March 29, 2013 in her Santa Fe home while she was working on a scientific paper.

Research priorities

Linda Cordell's research focused primarily on the pre-Columbian history of the southwestern United States. She mainly dealt with the anthropology of the Pueblo Indians , their social organization, their migration and demography as well as their culture (especially ceramics ). As part of her dissertation on settlement patterns, she was one of the first to incorporate computer simulations into archeology and anthropology. In the field of archaeobotany , Cordell dealt with the distribution and use of the maize plant . In addition, she wrote various specialist books on the archeology of the Southwest and the Pueblo Indians in general. Ultimately, she was also active in the history of science , particularly highlighting the role of women in archeology.

Honors

Linda Cordell was accepted into the honorary society Phi Beta Kappa while studying at George Washington University . In 2001 she received the AV Kidder Award for Eminence in American Archeology from the American Anthropological Association, named after Alfred Kidder , and the Byron S. Cummings Award from the Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society in 2004 . In 2005 Cordell was accepted into the National Academy of Sciences and in 2008 the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . She also received the Society for American Archeology's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009 .

After her death, two prizes were awarded in her name: firstly, the Linda S. Cordell Prize for outstanding specialist books in the field of archeology from the School for Advanced Research and, secondly, the Linda S. Cordell Memorial Research Award from the Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archeology from Andover , which enables the recipient to conduct in-depth research on the basis of the museum inventory in a kind of grant. Cordell previously worked as a scientific consultant for the museum.

Personal

From 1965 to 1970 she was married to John Camblin Cordell, whose family name she kept; She had no children.

literature

• Judith A. Habicht-Mauche: Obituary: Linda S. Cordell (1943–2013) . In: American Anthropologist , Issue 116, No. 1, pp. 244-247, doi : 10.1111 / aman.12086 .

Web links

• Biographical Memoirs: Linda S. Cordell (obituary of the National Academy of Sciences, English, pdf format, 339 kB)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Linda S. Cordell Prize, School for Advanced Research. armacad.info, December 22, 2015, accessed February 13, 2016 . 
2. ^ Linda S. Cordell Memorial Research Award. (No longer available online.) Andover.edu, archived from the original on February 12, 2016 ; accessed on February 13, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.