Marxist scholar revolutionized
ideas of mankind's prehistory

(This tribute to the late
Prof. V. G. Childe, archeolog-
ist, author and Marxist scholar,
is written by a Vancouver
scholar who has long followed
Prof. Childe’s work.)

xt xt xt
Professor Vere Gordon
Childe, one of the. greatest

archeologists of our time, is
dead. And it is with a sense
of personal loss that one hears
of the untimely passing of this
man who lived and worked a
_continent and an ocean away,
yet was as close a companion
as many of one’s own friends.

The sudden end of a brilli-
ant career came recently when
Prof. Childe fell to his death
from a cliff in the Blue Moun-
tains. of his native Australia,
where he had returned after
his retirement as head of the
Institute of Archeology of the
University of London.

An -outstanding scholar, his
writings literally revolution-
ized the study
archeology, yet it is as popu-
larizer of the results of arche-
ology, that he is best known.
His books, Man Makes Himself
and What Happened in History
have sold hundreds of thou-
sands of copies and for a host
of readers have added a new
dimension to the study of
man’s past.

x x xt

Born in Sydney, Australia
in 1892, Childe graduated: from
both Sydney and Oxford uni-
versities. He travelled widely,
visiting archeological sites in
Europe and the Near East and
in India.,From 1919 to 1920 he
was private secretary to the
Labor. premier of one of the
Australian states.

In 1927 he was appointed the
first Abercromby Professor of
Prehistoric Archeology at Ed-
inburgh University and direct-
ed many excavations in Scot-
land and Northern Ireland,
notably the excavation of the
Stone Age village at Skara
Brae in the Orkney Islands.

In 1946, he was appointed
professor of Prehistoric Eur-
opean Archeology at the Uni-
versity of London and direc-
tor of the university’s Insti-
tute of Archeology, remaining
there until his retirement this
year.

It was as an interpreter of
archeological data rather than
as a field excavator that Childe
made his name.

In the midst as we are of a
veritable “boom” in interest
in archeology, when books on
the subject literally pour off
the presses, when scholars and
journalists alike hasten to put
before us the results of the
latest research, it is hard to

of prehistoric ,

imagine the radical departure
represented by Childe’s first
big work, The Dawn of Euro-
pean Civilization, when it ap-
peared in 1925.

A historian of the last hun-
dred years of archeology calls
it “A new starting point for
prehistoric archeology.”

be xt xt

Before Childe, prehistoric
archeology, the study of man
before the invention of writ-
ing, was very much in the
shadow of classical archeology.
It in turn was merely an ad-
junct to the study of the cul-
tures of Greece and Rome.

But in the twenties the pub-
lic imagination had been stir-
red as never before by a series
of spectacular archeological
finds ‘of which the work of
Carter on King Tutankhamen’s
tomb and the discoveries of
Woolley in the Royal Ceme-
tery at Ur were only the most
publicized.

The prehistory of Egypt
where the most archeological
work had been done was vir-
tually ignored in the standard
works on Egypt as an exami-
nation of Breasted’s History of
Egypt show. That of Greece
was very nearly unknown, and
dismissed in Bury’s History of
Greece in a couple of short
chapters.

Effect of this was to make
the story of the development
of civilization something of a
miracle — a sudden bursting
forth with no discernible roots
—and a fruitful field for a
lot of semi-mystical specula-
tions about the “genius of the

Egyptians or the “Greek
spirit.” : :
Childe set to show that

these flowerings were the re-
sult of the accumulation of im-
provements in teéhnique by
the prehistoric cultures that
preceded them. He set forth
the evidence for two critical
areas in the development of
civilization — Europe and the
Near East — in two masterly
surveys. The Dawn of Euro-
pean Civilization (1925) and
The Most Ancient East (1928).

In these two important
books which he revised and
kept up to date—they have
each run through a four or
five editions and been almost
completely rewritten — Childe
showed that the crucial
changes which produce the
first civilizations were changes
in technique that occurred in
Neolithic times.

In these and his later writ-
ings he advanced the idea of a
Neolithic Revolution — the
change from hunting to farm-
ing that permitted the accumu-

lation of surplus, leading ‘to a
second “urban” revolution
where the craftsmen were able
to specialize,
ee at xt

Of course, these ideas are
familiar enough to any student
of Marxism, and it was Childe’s
grasp of Marxism combined
with his tremendous scholarly

‘knowledge, that directed his

writings.

Early in his career he had:

come to an acceptance of
Marxism and the fruitful re-
sults are evident in his life
work in his chosen field.

His short popular works
Man Makes’ Himself, first
published in 1936, and curent-
ly available in the Mentor
pocket books, and What Hap-
pened in History, first put out
by Penguin books in 1942 and
since reprinted several times,
threw a new light on history
for most of his readers.

No longer did the story of
civilization start in the con-
ventional way,-either in Bibli-
cal times or with the Egyp-
tian Old Kingdom, but in the
outpouring of human genius
that characterized the Neoli-
thie age.

Child’s Marxist views
brought him many critics in
academic circles, notably Henri
Frankfort, specialist in the art
and architecture of the Near
East, and Sir Mortimer Wheel-
er, his predecessor as. Director
of the Institute of Archeology.
But none could criticize his
accuracy in persenting
facts or ignore his thought-
provoking interpretations of
the evidence.

Besides his own voluminous
writings in the field, Childe
was a contributor and partici-
pant in many collective works
of scholarship over the last 20
years. Of special interest are
the sections he wrote in the
massive History of Tech-
nology, now in the course of
publication by the Oxford Uni-
versity Press. Another is his
section on prehistory in The
European Inheritance, a three-

volume work intended for
European secondary school
students. - Bg

He was also a member of
the editorial board of a cooper-
ative venture in publication of
works of Marxist scholars on
the history of civilization.

Available from the People’s
Co-operative Bookstore, 337
West Pender Street, are What
Happened In History (Pelican
Books), Man Makes Himself
(Mentor Books) and New
Light-on the Most Ancient East
(Evergreen Press), all ‘in in-
expensive paperback editions.

the

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VAGRANCY. ANd CONSPIRING TO OvERTHROW THE
Estasusnen Government

DRESSES POORLY SaiD To BE A CARPENTER BY TRADE
NOURISHED, HAS VISIONARY IDEAS , ASSOCIATES with COMMON
WORKING PEOPLE THE UNEMPLOYED AND BUMS

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BELEIVED TOBE A JEW ALIAS * ‘Prince or Peace Sonor |5
Man’-‘LiGh? OF THe Wortn’ &c &c I
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Rep BEARD, MARKS ON HANDS AND FEET THE RESULT OF

'NJURIES INFLICTED SY AN ANGRY MOB LED BY REsrectast
CITIZENS AND LEGAL AUTHORITIES

Mowat's story of dog)
" fine juvenile reading

WHEN young Farley Mowat

moved to Saskatchewan
with his parents the family ac-
quired a dog. The dog was a
mutt (Farley’s mother paid
four cents for it) and that is
what they christened it —
Mutt.

The delightful hook, The
Dog Who Wouldn’t Be, is the
story of Mutt, who grew up
to be a character. Mutt was a
dog with a sense of humor. He
also had a nose for. getting
himself into trouble.

Mr. Mowat had had his

-heart set on a bird dog? Mutt

preferred chasing cows to re-
trieving birds. After weeks of
training he finally retrieved a
bird—a fowl.

Mutt failed Mr. Mowat as a
bird dog, but he did his utmost
to satisfy his interest in wild

* life. He caught and brought

home alive all kinds of small
animals, birds and reptiles. Of
these young Farley liked the
owls best and he kept two of
them for pets.

Mutt also liked to chase
skunks, although he always
came off second best in his
encounters with them. This
however, never deterred him
from chasing them.

When he wasn’t ‘chasing
skunks he was pursuing cats.
Once the chase led him head-
long into a team of huskies
and the account of how he
clowned his way out of that

REWARD

INFQRMATION LEADING FO

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Criminar ANARCHY - Fe

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PROFESSIONAL AGITATOR. ©

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trap is one of the most hum
ous in the book.

Mutt learned to do m
fantastic things, to walk alo
walls and fences and even #0
climb ladders. From all his a”
ventures Mutt returned t
umphant or shamefaced.
downfall was that of maby
dogs. He was hit by a speed
ing car, ending his story bY
leaving Farley Mowat wi"
memories from which he
written a very readable sto! ;

The Dog Who Wouldn’t #
is obtainable at the Peopl@%9

Bookstore, 337 West Pend

Street, Vancouver, pt

$3.95. fe,
SEAN. GRIFFEY).

List events *
for big yea

More than 500 events in By
during 1956. centennial c® =
brations are listed ina pang tig
iet issued this week by ™ Mby
centennial committee for fg
tribution throughout. ;
world.

B.C. Centennial Chairma?

J. Wallace said the guid
which will be distribute ie
the. committee and the prow 4"
cial government travel bure
is aimed at attracting tow”
“and keeping British Col
bians at home.” ,

December 20, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIEUNE 2 Aa 3