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Rathje, William Laurens

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Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology

Basic Biographical Information

William Laurens Rathje (1945–2012) was born in South Bend, Indiana. After receiving his B.A. degree in anthropology from the University of Arizona in 1967, he attended Harvard University on a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship, where in 1971 he was awarded the Ph.D., also in anthropology. His museum-based dissertation, Lowland Classic Maya Socio-Political Organization: Degree and Form Through Time and Space, was directed by Gordon R. Willey. Even before the dissertation had been completed, Rathje in 1970 returned to the University of Arizona as a faculty member, where he remained until retirement in 2000. After retirement, he spent several years at Stanford University teaching with Michael Shanks.

Major Accomplishments

Rathje’s contributions to anthropological archaeology were significant in a wide range of research areas. His numerous papers on Mesoamerican archaeology published in 1970–1978 established Rathje as one of the preeminent...

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Further Reading

  • Rathje, W. L. 1970. Socio-political implications of Lowland Maya burials: methodology and tentative hypotheses. World Archaeology 1: 359–74.

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  • - 1971. The origin and development of Lowland Classic Maya civilization. American Antiquity 36: 275–85.

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  • - 1974. The Garbage Project: a new way of looking at the problems of archaeology. Archaeology 27(4): 236–41.

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  • - 1979. Modern material culture studies. Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory 2: 1–37. New York: Academic Press.

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  • - 1979. Trace measures, in L. Sechrest (ed.) Unobtrusive measures today: new directions for methodology of behavioral science: 75–91. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Inc.

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  • Rathje, W. L., W. W. Hughes, D. C. Wilson, M. K. Tani, G. H. Archer, R. G. Hunt & T. W. Jones. 1992. The archaeology of contemporary landfills. American Antiquity 57: 437–47.

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  • Rathje, W. L., M. Shanks & C. Witmore. (ed.) 2012. Archaeology in the making: conversations through a discipline. London: Routledge.

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  • Reid, J. J., M. B. Schiffer & W. L. Rathje. 1975. Behavioral archaeology: four strategies. American Anthropologist 77: 864–69.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA

    Michael Brian Schiffer & J. Jefferson Reid

Authors
  1. Michael Brian Schiffer
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  2. J. Jefferson Reid
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael Brian Schiffer .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Archaeology, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Claire Smith

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Schiffer, M.B., Reid, J.J. (2014). Rathje, William Laurens. In: Smith, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_1093

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_1093

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-0426-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-0465-2

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