Born in Washington, D.C., Betty J. Meggers studied archaeology and anthro-
pology at the Universities of Pennsylvania and Michigan, and at Columbia Uni-
ersity where she took her doctorate.

She served as Instructor at the American University, Washington, in 1950-51,
and has since been engaged in research, except for a period from 1959 to 1961, when
she was Executive Secretary of the American Anthropological Association. Since
1954 she has been a Research Associate of the Smithsonian Institution.

In collaboration with her archaeologist husband, Clifford Evans, Dr Meggers has
carried out archaeological surveys and excavations in several parts of lowland
South America, including four seasons of fieldwork in Ecuador.

She is the author of numerous publications on South American archaeology and
cultural theory, her special interests being cultural ecology and cultural evolution.

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