Irving Rouse

Benjamin Irving Rouse (August 29, 1913 – February 24, 2006) was an American archaeologist on the faculty of Yale University best known for his work in the Greater and Lesser Antilles of the Caribbean, especially in Haiti.

He also conducted fieldwork in Florida and Venezuela.

He made major contributions to the development of archaeological theory, with a special emphasis on taxonomy and classification of archaeological materials and studies of human migration.

Rouse was born on August 29, 1913, in Rochester, New York, the son of Louise Gillespie (Bohachek) and Benjamin Irving Rouse.

His maternal grandfather was Czech.

As a result of family financial reversals resulting from the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression from 1929 to 1932, Rouse needed employment to continue at Yale.

As an undergraduate, he worked at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History cataloging archaeological specimens.

It was through this job that Rouse met Cornelius Osgood, who convinced Rouse to take some graduate-level anthropology courses and eventually enroll in the graduate program at Yale, where Osgood directed his doctoral dissertation.

Rouse claimed that his perception of the need for classification in what was at that time the young field of anthropology was a major factor in his decision to pursue a career in anthropology rather than the much more established field (in terms of classification of materials) of botany.

His family had been in the plant nursery industry for nearly a century, and Ben (as he was known to family and friends) was planning on continuing in the family business when he enrolled at Yale University in 1930 as a plant science major.

His father had also attended Yale as an undergraduate.

Rouse began his academic career studying forestry and obtained his bachelor's degree in plant science from Yale University's Sheffield Scientific School in 1934.

Rouse identifies his background in botany as a major factor in his lifelong interest in classification and taxonomy.

Upon receiving his Ph.D. in 1938, Rouse accepted a job as assistant curator at Yale's Peabody Museum.

His dissertation was eventually published in two parts, the first exploring method and analysis entitled Prehistory in Haiti: A Study in Method (1939), the second an application of these methods entitled Culture of the Ft. Liberté Region, Haiti (1941).

While employed at the museum, Rouse also taught courses in anthropology, beginning as an instructor in anthropology from 1939 to 1943, advancing to Assistant Professor (1943), Associate Professor (1948), Professor (1954), and finally becoming Charles J. MacCurdy Professor of Anthropology (1970), holding this position until his retirement in 1984.

The first segment of his dissertation is a definition of the methods he would use in studying the cultures of this region titled Prehistory in Haiti: A Study in Method (1939).

In the second segment of his dissertation, a work titled Culture of the Ft. Liberté Region, Haiti (1941), Rouse examines three cultures that occupied the region.

The first culture he classifies is the Couri culture.

Most of the evidence about Couri culture comes in the form of material culture, defined by Rouse as concerning "standards observable in the artefacts [sic] of the sites under study" He observes sixteen "types" of artifacts (defined here as "the set of standards to which the artifacts as a whole conform"), mostly flint, but some ground stone and shell artifacts as well.

The flint artifacts included daggers, knives, and scrapers, which were often large and crude.

These flint daggers and knives are the only evidence present that might indicate warfare.

The ground stone artifacts included stone axes and various types of hammer-grinders, beads, and other small objects.

These objects would have been made through either flaking, battering, or grinding techniques.

Some of the smaller stone balls might be evidence of some sort of game or entertainment activity.

There is evidence of a workshop for the manufacture of the axes in the area, however it appears that the flint objects were made elsewhere, indicating that there was probably some sort of trade system in place.

Both shell objects are made from conch shells, and there is evidence of a well developed art design, as the pendant is decorated with parallel and zig-zagged bands.

Not much about the non-material culture of the Couri (defined by Rouse as "concerned with customs which have been inferred by artifacts) is known. Rouse was unable to discover any definitive linguistic information about the Couri, nor was he able to find information about their clothing, shelter, or population. He suspected the Couri groups were semi-nomadic and band-like in structure due to the small, shallow nature of the sites excavated. He believes that the concept of private property may have had a role in the Couri culture, giving the stone beads and stone and shell pendants as examples. He was unable to discern anything about the religion practiced by the Couri groups, if that concept existed at all for them.

The second culture Rouse identifies is called the Meillac group.

In his excavations Rouse was able to recover 9,642 artifacts, over 9,200 of which were pottery sherds.

These sherds were classified into 30 types.

Most if the Meillac cultural material consisted of cooking pottery and "clay griddle".

One particular type of cooking pottery that was popular in the region both in the Meillac and Carrier groups (discussed below) was the "pepper pot", a vessel in which most of their prepared food was made.

Stone tools were rare, but some were recovered throughout the course of excavation.

The flint tools that were recovered were similar to those represented in the Couri group, but the ground-stone artifacts were more developed than their Couri predecessors.

Coral was utilized for the first time in the region by the Meillac groups, who used unworked coral as "rasps" and picks.

He was promoted to associate curator (1947) and research associate (1954).

He held many positions in professional organizations, including serving as editor of American Antiquity, president of the Society for American Archaeology (1952–1953), vice president of the American Ethnological Society (1957–1958), associate editor of American Anthropologist (1960–1962), and president of the American Anthropological Association (1967–1968).

He was also a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and Guggenheim Fellow.

Rouse was a major contributor to the study of Caribbean archaeology, and his contribution to this field began with his dissertation, which was broken down into two parts and dealt with the culture of the Ft. Liberté region of Haiti.