Donald Ward Lathrap (1927.04.04 - 1990.05) was an Americanist archaeologist.

Lathrap took a bachelor's degree in anthropology from the University of California at Berkelely, studying under Alfred L. Kroeber and Carl Sauer. His Ph.D. (1962) was also in anthropology, but from Harvard University, where he studied under Gordon Willey. His massive dissertation remains unpublished. In 1959, he to a position at the Department of Anthropology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he significantly influenced the department's archaeological direction. In addition to working in South American archaeology, which focused on the Amazon and Ecuador, Lathrap did research in California and Mid-West archaeology. His orientation was significantly influenced by Sauer's geographical considerations. Much of his early career was marked by his heated disagreements with Betty Meggers over the respective roles of diffusion and local development. Lathrap proposed that Amazonia was an important center of origin of agriculture, whereas Meggers looked to Japan as a source of South American innovation.. Alfred Louis Kroeber Alfred Louis Kroeber (June 11, 1876–October 5, 1960) was one of the most influential figures in American anthropology in the first half of the twentieth century. ... Carl Ortwin Sauer (December 24, 1889-July 18, 1975) was an American geographer. ... Harvard University (incorporated as The President and Fellows of Harvard College) is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ... Gordon Willey (b. ... The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, also known as UIUC and the U of I (the officially preferred abbreviation), is the flagship campus in the University of Illinois system. ...

Bibliography

1. By Lathrap

• Lathrap, Donald W. 1970 The Upper Amazon. Ancient Peoples and Places, v. 70.
• Lathrap, Donald W. 1973 "The Antiquity and Importance of Long-Distance Trade Relationships in the Moist Tropics of Pre-Columbian South America," World Archaeology, 5(2): 170-186.
• Lathrap, Donald W. 1975 Ancient Ecuador-culture, clay and creativity, 3000-300 B.C. = El Ecuador antiguo-cultura, cerámica y creatividad, 3000-300 A.C. : [catalogue of an exhibit organized by Field Museum of Natural History, April 18-August 5, 1975].
• Lathrap, D.W. 1977 "Our Father the Cayman, Our Mother the Gourd: Spinden Revisited, or a Unitary Model for the Emergence of Agriculture in the New World," pp. 713-752 in Origins of Agriculture, edited by C. A. Reed.

2. About Lathrap Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago The Field Museum of Natural History, in Chicago, Illinois, USA, sits on Lake Shore Drive next to Lake Michigan, part of a scenic complex known as Museum Campus Chicago. ...

• Evans, Clifford and Betty J. Meggers 1964 "Guiana Archaeology: A Return to the Original Interpretations," American Antiquity, 30 (1): 83-84.
• Weber, Ronald L. 1996 "Donald Ward Lathrap: 1927-1990," American Antiquity 61 (2): 285.