Clement Woodward Meighan (1925–1997) was an archaeologist who made notable contributions to reconstructing the prehistory of southern

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

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, and west central

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Early life and education

Meighan was born in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

and raised in that city, in

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, and in California's

San Joaquin Valley The San Joaquin Valley ( ; Spanish language in California, Spanish: ''Valle de San Joaquín'') is the southern half of California's Central Valley (California), Central Valley. Famed as a major breadbasket, the San Joaquin Valley is an importa ...

. Serving in

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, he was severely wounded. After the war, while still convalescing, he began studies at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, where he received his undergraduate and doctoral degrees in

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...

Career

Meighan was hired as an instructor in anthropology at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

in 1952 and continued at UCLA until his retirement in 1991. He founded UCLA's Archaeological Survey, chaired its anthropology department, and played key roles in several regional and national organizations. His fieldwork was widely dispersed, including stints throughout various parts of California and in

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, Baja California, western and central Mexico,

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, and

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. Meighan published scores of archaeological monographs, and reviews. Topically, his contributions to faunal analysis, rock art studies, and obsidian hydration analysis may be particularly noted. His work was seminal for the prehistoric archaeology of at least four regions: southern California's

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, Baja California, and west central Mexico. In his later years, he advocated for retention of archaeological collections on merit of their scientific value, a perspective that has been hotly contested since his passing.

References

* Dillon, Brian D. 1997
“In Memoriam: Clement Woodward Meighan, 1925-1997.”
* Dillon, Brian D., and Matthew A. Boxt (editors). 2005. ''Archaeology without Limits: Papers in Honor of Clement W. Meighan''. Labyrinthos, Lancaster, California. * Johnson, Keith L. (editor). 2005. ''Onward and Upward: Papers in Honor of Clement W. Meighan''. Stansbury Publishing, Chico, California. 1925 births 1997 deaths Archaeologists of California Archaeologists of the Baja California peninsula University of California, Los Angeles faculty Academics from San Francisco People from Topanga, California 20th-century American archaeologists 20th-century American anthropologists Historians from California {{Archaeologist-stub