Recent Advances in the Archaeology of the Northern Andes (original) (raw)

1998, Latin American Antiquity

OMPOSING a foreword for a volume honoring Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff is both an honor and an occasion for reflection and sadness. After a first gettogether nearly thirty-five years ago in his office at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogota, of whose Department of Anthropology he had then just become chair, we met only sporadically. Regrettably this was so especially after 1971, when I moved from Los Angeles to the State University of New York at Albany. Thereafter I missed him almost every time he visited UCLA, where he had become closely associated with the Latin American Center and its longtime director, Johannes Wilbert. But every get-together-including the last one a few months before his untimely death-was over lunch with Wilbert, his good friend and mine (and, incidentally, my mentor in graduate school and since) at the UCLA Faculty Center. Perhaps his death of a heart attack was not untimely but, if death can ever be that, fortunate, for it spared him a more protracted and painful death from cancer of the bladder. Like many other colleagues in the field of shamanic studies, I owe him more than I can ever express. He was an inspiring scholar and colleague; the depth and breadth of his knowledge and insights never failed to amaze. To me personally the viii enormous. Gerardo became a research member of the new Instituto Colombiano de Antropologfa (1953-1960). In 1963, he and Alicia created the first Department of Anthropology in Colombia at the Universidad de Los Andes where he became chairman (1963-1969). In 197 4, Gerardo became Adjunct Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California at Los Angeles, where occasionally he gave lectures and taught classes. The enormous contribution that Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff made to science has been recognized internationally on several occasions. In 1976 he was made a Foreign Associate Member of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States; in 1983, a Member of the Academia Real Espanola de Ciencias; and in 1989, a Fellow of the Linnean Society. He was also awarded, in 1975, the Thomas H. Huxley medal by the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. As well, in 1983 he became a Founding Member of the Third World Academy of Sciences. Preface The archaeology and anthropology of Colombia and Latin American have lost a brilliant scholar. Gerardo, however, has left behind a rich legacy of academic achievement and inspiration, as this book demonstrates. The imprint of his scholarly influence can be seen not only in his own students and followers in Colombia but also in the students of Donald Lathrap, five of whom are contributors to this volume. Reichel and Lathrap were friends and colleagues, and admired each other's research. Reichel at times sent students to study with Lathrap at the University of Illinois and in turn helped facilitate the field research ofLathrap's students. Lathrap, the Great Caiman, as his students affectionately referred to him, died in 1990. Now Reichel, the Great Jaguar of the neotropics, has followed his friend, the Great Caiman, but their discoveries, ideas, and teachings live on.