Shirley Gorenstein papers
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: The collection was donated to the National Anthropological Archives in 2022 by  Gabriel Gorenstein.
bioghist: label: Biographical Note
content: Shirley Gorenstein (1928-2020) was a pioneering Mesoamerican archaeologist who carried out major projects in the Mexican states of Puebla, Guanajuato, and Michoacán.

Gorenstein received her PhD from Columbia University in 1963 based on library studies on the development of Andean and Mesoamerican states from the perspective of their political and military organization.  She stayed on as faculty in the Department of Anthropology at Columbia, and led her first archaeological field project in 1965 in Mexico with a study of the Aztec fortress at Tepexi el Viejo in Puebla. In 1971, she focused studies on the Tarascan side of the Aztec-Tarascan military frontier, seeking historically documented fortified sites along the northern frontier of the Aztec empire. In 1972, her focus was the site of Acámbaro in Guanajuato. She then teamed up with Helen Pollard on a major project in the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin in Michoacán.

After a decade teaching at Columbia, Gorenstein left to found the public archaeology program at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and was later founding chair of RPI's Department of Science and Technology Studies. She wrote and edited numerous books and articles, many of which have become classics in Mesoamerican archaeology.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 15 Linear Feet
unitdate: label: Date
content: circa 1960-1980
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: National Anthropological Archives
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NAA.2023-12
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: The collection is currently unprocessed. Contact the repository for more information.

A field journal belonging to William Duncan Strong concerning south Peru was transferred to the William Duncan Strong papers. Gorenstein was a student of Strong.
bibliography: label: Bibliography
content: 1965.  -- Introduction to Archaeology -- . New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1965. 

1971. "Archaeology, History, and Anthropology in the Mixteca-Puebla Region of Mexico"  -- American Antiquity --  Volume 36, No. 3, (1971): 335-343.

1973.  -- Tepexi El Viejo: A Postclassic Fortified Site in the Mixteca-Puebla Region of Mexico Transactions -- . Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society Press, 1973. 

1974.  -- Not Forever on Earth: Prehistory of Mexico -- . New York: Scribner, 1974.

1983.  -- The Tarascan Civilization: A Late Prehispanic Cultural System -- . Nashville, Tennessee: Vanderbilt University, 1983.

1985.  -- Acambaro: Frontier Settlement on the Tarascan-Aztec Border -- . Nashville, Tennessee: Vanderbilt University, 1985.
scopecontent: label: Content Description
content: The papers include field notes, photographs, and other material relating to Gorenstein's work in Tepexi el Viejo (1965), Acámbaro (1972), and in the Pátzcuaro Basin (late 1970s), all in Mexico.

Also includes notebook of W. Duncan Strong.