A PERSONAL HOMENAJE TO PHIL WEIGAND Robert B. Pickering a and Christopher S. Beekman b a Buffalo Bill Historical Center, 720 Sheridan Avenue, Cody, Wyoming 82414, USA b Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado at Denver, P.O. Box 173364, Campus Box 103, Denver, CO 80217-3364, USA THE CARBONDALEYEARS, BY ROBERT B. PICKERING Back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Southern Illinois Univer- sity at Carbondale was “the” place to be for anyone interested in North or West Mexican studies. J. Charles Kelley, Carroll “Cal” Riley, Campbell Pennington, and Basil Hedrick constituted the cadre of scholars who specialized in the region but also served as mentors and models for what anthropological archaeology could be, even in the pre-Binfordian days. Walter Taylor also was there as an icon of theoretical archaeology. All of these scholars not only believed but also demonstrated that the subdisciplines of anthropology were intimately connected. To pursue one perspec- tive to the exclusion of the other subdisciplines was deemed arti- ficially limiting. Into this milieu came Lewis and Sally Binford during the summers of 1962 and 1963, working on the Carlyle Reservoir project in southern Illinois, which included excavations at Hatchery West, Toothsome, and Galley Pond. At about the same time, they began publishing archaeological theory and methodol- ogy that revolutionized the discipline. Only Lew and Sally can say how their time in Carbondale shaped their perspectives but, for me, I’d like to think that the Carbondale experience positively influenced their interdisciplinary work. I well remember discus- sions with Kelley regarding the new archaeology that he learned under Clyde Kluckhohn at Harvard before and during WWII, in comparison to the other “new” archaeology championed by the Binfords. Riley, Pennington, and Hedrick provided students with opportunities to integrate the archaeological perspective with the ethnographic and historical in material culture studies. The grad- uate students, including Weigand, Joe Mountjoy, and others, kept the discussion alive. Great faculty attract, inspire, and develop excellent students. Among the many who were initiated into Mesoamerican studies were Phil Weigand, Joe Mountjoy, Mike Spence, and many others who have continued their passionate and productive pursuits in Mesoamerica. As an undergraduate interested in Illinois archaeology but not yet convinced that archaeology was a viable career, I was not aware of the wealth of experience that Southern Illinois Univer- sity Carbondale (SIU) offered, but in a short time, contact with these folks changed my life. Phil and Joe were both graduate students while I was an undergraduate. Phil taught prehistory courses, which I took. He had a broad perspective and an inquir- ing mind that challenged his students to look for connections that we had not seen and to think about how the theory and practice of archaeology were connected. Perhaps most important, he person- ified the passion for archaeology as a way of knowing, not just a recovery technique. As a work-study student at the SIU Museum, I was able to interact with faculty such as Kelley (and of course, Ellen Abbott Kelley), and graduate students on a more collegial and practical level. That opportunity introduced me to Phil and Acelia Weigand’s work among the Huichol, Mike Spence’s Teoti- huacan research, and Joe Mountjoy’s ceramic studies. One of my museum tasks was mounting ceramic thin sections for Joe’s dis- sertation research. Early on, Phil was a proponent of pursuing the “big ideas” in anthropology—that is, how cultures work, and the challenge of how one approaches those subjects through the archaeological record. His fieldwork experiences while at Carbondale, whether excavating in southern Illinois, surveying sites in northern Mex- ico, or conducting ethnographic research among the Huichol, pro- vided real testing grounds for his theoretical interests. Phil, as anthropologist, was fascinated by current issues of politics and culture no less than by similar cultural machinations in millennia past. For good or ill, Carbondale was one of the universities dramat- ically affected by the antiwar riots of the late 1960s and early 1970s. As ethnographer, Phil was out on the front lines, taking photos and recording the events. Here was yet one more signifi- cant and rare display of culture in crisis that he wanted to experi- ence and understand. As significant as Phil was during the Carbondale years, he was often perceived as half of the team of “Phil and Celia.” Acelia García de Weigand was a powerful presence within Carbondale’s anthropology community, an unusual role for the wife of a grad- uate student. Assertive, outspoken, and passionate about Phil and about Mexico, the country of her birth, Celia could always enliven discussions and challenge people with ideas. In the process, she turned many events into memorable experiences. Over the years, Phil and Celia have continued to work as a very productive team, exploring a wide range of interests—whether the minutiae of ar- chaeological survey, hacienda and ejido life, or the impact of the Cristero counterrevolution. The Weigands’interests in West Mex- ico are broad and deep. THE LATERYEARS, BY CHRISTOPHER S. BEEKMAN I came to know Phil and Celia at a later stage in their careers, in the early 1990s. After carrying on a correspondence with Phil for E-mail correspondence to: bobp@bbhc.org; christopher.beekman@ cudenver.edu Ancient Mesoamerica, 17 (2006), 235–237 Copyright © 2006 Cambridge University Press. Printed in the U.S.A. DOI: 10.1017/S0956536106060159 235