Catherine M. Cameron
Catherine M. Cameron is an ACTIVE scholar and professor at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Her research focuses on the American Southwest, especially in the Chacoan and post-Chacoan area. Cameron’s work has covered topics from prehistoric population movement, the evolution of complex societies as understood through the study of regional social and political systems, methodology of social boundaries in the past and prehistoric architecture. More current research includes pre-state societies’ captives and how they influence cultural transmission.
Background
Cameron was born in Santa Rosa, California, and was raised in the San Francisco Bay area (Palo Alto, Oakland, and Concord). Cameron developed a strong interest in archaeology at an early age. In an interview conducted by F. Joan Mathien and Joyce M. Raab for the Chaco Canyon Field School Project, Cameron stated that “[she] had always been interested in history as a kid. [Her] dad was very interested in history.” This early interest made anthropology very appealing when she was choosing her career path. In 1979, she married Stephen H. Lekson, a fellow southwestern archaeologist. Dr. Lekson also works in the Anthropology department in the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History. Throughout her career Dr. Cameron has written dozens of published works, and she has presented more than 50 papers at professional meetings.
Education
Cameron received her Bachelors degree in Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley in 1970. She went on to attain her Masters in Anthropology from the University of New Mexico in 1973. Cameron returned for her Ph.D. in Anthropology at the University of Arizona in 1991.
Employment History
After receiving her Masters degree, Cameron worked several jobs as an archaeologist and lithic analyst on the San Juan Valley Archaeological Project (1974-1975), at the National Park Service’s Chaco Center (1975-1982), on the Black Mesa Archaeological Project (1982-1985), and at the Coronado National Forest (1987-1990). While working on her Ph.D., Cameron worked in the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona (1988-1990). Upon completion of her Ph.D. in 1991, Cameron began working for the School of American Research in Santa Fe as an archaeological consultant (1991-1992). From 1992 – 1995, Cameron worked for the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation which is a Federal agency that promotes the preservation of historic and archaeological properties. In 1996, Cameron became an Assistant Professor for the Department of Anthropology and Associate Curator in the Anthropology Section at the University Museum, University of Colorado, Boulder. In 2001 she was promoted to Associate Professor and remains in that position to date (May, 2009). Dr. Cameron expects a promotion to Full Professor by this summer (2009).
Selected Awards and Elected/Appointed Positions
Dr. Cameron received Colorado University’s Outstanding Graduate Advising Award for 2001-2. She was the Program Chair, for the Society for American Archaeology’s 2002 Annual Meeting. Cameron has been appointed to many other positions not listed here.
Research Emphasis
Cameron has emphasized the evolution of complex societies, paleodemography, and resource procurement and lithic studies. She has studied these subjects through the sites at Chaco Canyon National Park in New Mexico, an early center for the Four Corners region of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado which dates to about AD 850 to AD 1250. The Bluff Great House in Utah which was a part of the Chacoan Regional System was another major research area for Cameron. At Bluff Great House Cameron co-directed the site with Dr. Stephen H. Lekson. The site was of particular interest because of its seeming reconstruction during the Post-Chacoan Era, beginning around AD 1150, when many sites were being abandoned in the area. The Comb Wash community, Utah is an important area located about 25km northwest of Bluff Great House and contains a site that is believed to be another place which was occupied during and after Chaco-era. Cameron has focused on the analysis of architecture and its uses, worldwide studies on migration and captive women, and lithic analysis. Cameron emphasizes work with volunteers, presenting her research to the public, and consulting with Native American groups.
Books and Monographs
- Cameron, Catherine M.
2009 Chaco and After in the Northern San Juan: Excavations at the Bluff Great House. University of Arizona Press.
- Catherine M. Cameron, editor.
2008 Invisible Citizens: Captives and their Consequences. University of Utah Press.
- Cameron, Catherine M.
1999 Hopi Dwellings: Architecture at Orayvi. University of Arizona Press.
- Cameron, Catherine M. and Steve A. Tomka, editors.
1993 The Abandonment of Settlements and Regions: Ethnoarchaeological and Archaeological Approaches. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
- Winifred Creamer with contributions by Catherine M. Cameron and John Beal
1993 The Architecture of Arroyo Hondo Pueblo, New Mexico. School of American Research Press, Santa Fe. Note: Cameron wrote portions of and extensively revised the manuscript
Selected Journal Articles
- Cameron is responsible for writing more than a dozen peer-review articles, some of which are listed below.
- Cameron, Catherine M. and Andrew Duff.
2008 History and Process in Village Formation: Context and Contrasts from the Northern Southwest. American Antiquity 73(1).
- Cameron, Catherine M. and Phil Geib.
2007 Earthen Architecture at a Chacoan Great House. Journal of Field Archaeology 32:1-14.
- Cameron, Catherine M.
2005 Exploring Archaeological Cultures in the Northern Southwest: What were Chaco and Mesa Verde? Kiva 70(3):227-254.
- Cameron, Catherine M.
2002 Sacred Earthen Architecture in the Northern Southwest: The Bluff Great House Berm. American Antiquity 67(4).
- Cameron, Catherine M.
2001 Pink Chert, Projectile Points, and the Chacoan Regional System. American Antiquity Volume 66(1):79-102.
- Cameron, Catherine M. and H. Wolcott Toll
2001 Deciphering the Organization of Production in Chaco Canyon. American Antiquity Volume 66(1):5-13.
Selected Book Chapters
Dr. Cameron has contributed more than 15 book chapters.
- Cameron, Catherine M., editor.
2008 Captives in Prehistory: Agents of Social Change. In Invisible Citizens: Captives and their Consequences. University of Utah Press.
- Cameron, Catherine M.
2008 Comparing Great House Architecture: Perspectives from the Bluff Great House. In Salmon Ruins: Chacoan Outlier and Thirteenth-Century Pueblo in the Middle San Juan Region, edited by Paul Reed, pp. 251-272. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake.
- Cameron, Catherine M.
2003 A Consideration of Abandonment from Beyond Middle America In The Archaeology of Settlement Abandonment in Middle America, edited by Takeshi Inomata and Ronald Webb, pp 203-210. University of Utah Press.
- Jalbert, Joseph Peter and Catherine M. Cameron.
2000 Chacoan and Local Influences in Three Great House Communities in the Northern San Juan Region. In Great House Communities across the Chacoan Landscape, edited by John Kantner and Nancy Mahoney, pp. 79-90. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
External Links
- Faculty Biography, University of Colorado, Boulder.
http://www.colorado.edu/Anthropology/people/bios/cameron.html
- Chaco Digital Initiative
- Chaco Canyon National Park
- Coronado National Forest
http://www.fs.fed.us/r3/coronado/
- Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research
- Society for American Archaeology.
- University of Colorado Museum.