Introduction: Archaeology at the Intersection
Archaeology is the study of the human past through investigation of material traces (artifacts, features) and their relationships in space and time. Given unique access to information on change through time in the products of human activities, archaeologists are charged with explaining human technological, economic, social and cultural evolution from the deep past (Lower Paleolithic) to recent centuries. A focus on material remains of human societies provides our best means of exploring this past and testing hypotheses designed to explain it. This is no easy task as the archaeological record comes to us poorly preserved and fragmentary.
Seeking to explain the past has taken archaeologists into the theoretical and methodological literature of a diverse array of disciplines from biology to sociology, ecology to political science, chemistry and physics to history and economics. Along the way, we have developed unique approaches to archaeological subject matter, including description and classification of archaeological materials (e.g., ceramics, stone, metal, wood, and fabric); characterization of past settlement patterns (linked to geography); interpretation of archaeological stratigraphy and site formation processes (geoarchaeology). We have generated our own methods for measuring time (seriation) and worked closely with physicists and chemists in developing and employing dating methods (radiocarbon, obsidean hydration, thermoluminescence, and others). We have joined forces with paleontologists, zoologists, and botanists to study archaeological fauna and flora. Many of us have worked closely with geomorphologists and paleoenvironmentalists to better understand the landscapes and past climates impacting (and impacted by) prehistoric peoples. And some have worked hand in hand with ethnologists or as ethnologists in generating models for inferring the relationship between human behavioral patterning and archaeological patterns (experimental archaeology, ethnoarchaeology, ethnographic analogy).
This interdisciplinarity is a vital component of a science of human cultural change. As humans are and always have been part of the ecosystems in which they live, it is impossible to understand the human past (and present) outside of environmental contexts (social and physical). This means we must explore the extent to which humans are similar and different from other animals; we must develop an understanding of the extent to which human symbolic systems of thought and communication have modified conditions of survival and reproduction (i.e. what is unique about "cultural evolution"); we must explore the relationship between environmental constraints and social developments; we must seek to understand the relationship between human decision making and evolutionary dynamics, and between intentionality and social structure, action and constraint. These are issues central to both social and biological sciences, but to make them testable in an archaeological context poses additional challenges related to scale, spatial and temporal resolution of data, and inferrences about the relationships between motivation and action, individual and collective acts and material residues, and residues and taphonomic processes. As time and space are the two most critical dimensions of archaeological analysis, we must control both with the most accurate and precise measures at our disposal. These and other commitments can only be pursued with a wide range of theoretical approaches and methods. Ultimately progress in the explanation of human social and cultural evolution can come only through empirical evaluation of hypotheses, and all constructive archaeology should be pursued so as to allow the rejection of unwarranted hypotheses and the refinement of methods that will facilitate this process. Archaeology is a vibrant discipline, privilaged in its obligation to share in so many different domains of knowledge and pursuits of understanding.
Research Interests
My research has involved many of the aspects of archaeological practice discussed above. I have tended towards an environmental/ecological perspective, sought parterships with geologists, geomophologists, paleobotanists, palynologists, zooarchaeologists, geographers, and radiocarbon chronologists. I have conducted surveys and excavations, settlement studies, zooarchaeological and lithic analyses. And I have considered the causes of the evolution of increasingly complex societies and social inequality. I have recently also begun exploring theoretical issues surrounding the evolution of technology. see Publications
My interests revolve around the study of technological, economic, social and political evolution of maritime hunter-gatherers using archaeological data and methods. These interests have led me to investigate variables affecting island colonization, maritime foraging strategies, changes in subsistence economy, changes in mobility and sedentism, technological development and intensification, "origins" of institutionalized social inequality and stratification, intensification of warfare, and the development of indigenous slavery in the North Pacific. I approach this broad research focus from an anthropological perspective utilizing principles of human biogeography and evolutionary ecology. A strong component of this research involves the generation and/or expansion of evolutionary and ecological theory to help explain these different facets of human evolution.
Research Projects
Kodiak Cultural Evolution (PI) In the past several years, I have pursued my interests in human evolution through research in the Kodiak Archipelago of southern Alaska. The organizing principle of this research is the goal of understanding the evolution of "complex hunter-gatherers" in this region of the North Pacific. My research in this area has included an intensive archaeological survey and test excavation program in Southeast Kodiak, which provided an unprecedented data-set of 152 archaeological sites ranging from 7500 to 50 years BP. These sites are the basis for a high resolution spatial analysis of settlement and land use change through Kodiak’s prehistoric and historic periods. This research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the Old Harbor Native Corporation, and the University of Michigan. Several articles and a book have been published based on this research (see Publications).
A second phase of the Kodiak research nearing completion is a sizable block-excavation of one of the oldest sites found in the survey. This site, the Tanginak Spring Site (KOD 481), with evidence of multiple re-occupations over several hundred years and a dense lithic assemblage, promises to help resolve several questions about the origins, economy, technology, social organization, and mobility of these early Kodiak inhabitants. The excavation provides an opportunity to educate undergraduate and graduate students in field methods and has been generously supported by the University of Washington and the Old Harbor Native Corporation.
Kuril Paleobiology and Biogeography Project (PI) An international research project in the Russian Kuril Archipelago was initiated July and August of 2000 with the assistance of a geoarchaeological collaborator (Carole Mandryk-Harvard), Russian and Japanese scholars, and several graduate and undergraduate students. We are seeking funds to expand this research to a major interdisciplanary project focused on the dynamics of human-environmental interaction in an island system. The ultimate goal of this research is an integrated understanding of the archaeological, paleoecological, and geomorphologic history of the Kurils, and more generally better understanding of the interelated processes of climatic, ecological and social systems. This new project expands the geographic range of my research beyond southern Alaska, but it is consistent at a broader scale with my North Pacific regional focus and my interest in the biogeography and evolution of maritime hunter-gatherers.
My interest in human-environmental dynamics and systemic change in the North Pacific is expanding towards a broader focus on the Beringian Basin. I am interested in looking at the ways that archaeology and paleoecoloigcal data sets from a range of locations in the Bering Sea region can be used to look at the impacts of climate change and human intervention on ecosystems as well as the reciprocal effects of these changes on human adaptation (resilience and vulnerability). This interest has led me to participate in a project for the National Science Foundation to develop a draft social science plan for Bering Sea research. One important aspect of this effort is the inclusion of Bering Sea residents in the formation of a scientific agenda and the the drafting of the science plan.
In addition to the aforementioned fieldwork, I am actively pursuing several related theoretical issues. Currently I am most excited about developing theory to explain rates of technological change in human prehistory. This research seeks to clarify ambiguity in the technological literature relating to technological evolution and the role of human adaptation in material culture change. I am particularly interested in the impact of social inequality on rates of technological change.