News

World Anthropology Day at UCSB

Join us for family-friendly activities! http://www.anth.ucsb.edu/giving/friends

World Anthropology Day at UCSB

Join us for family-friendly activities! http://www.anth.ucsb.edu/giving/friends

Multiethnic Ethnogenesis of Village Life by Robert Cook, OSU

Multiethnic Ethnogenesis of Village Life during the Fort Ancient Period (AD 1050-1650) in the Middle Ohio Valley

Dr. Robert Cook, Ohio State University

This presentation focuses on the evolutionary and social processes of village formation by way of a Fort Ancient case study in the Middle Ohio Valley.  A variety of data sets (e.g., AMS and OSL dates, geophysical surveys, petrographic, chemical, and biodistance analyses) are employed to explore a long-standing narrative that has Fort Ancient societies developing greater complexity over time with corresponding increases in site size and maize dependency.  Moreover, contacts with Mississippians have long been thought to occur mainly after the dissolution of neighboring Mississippian societies (ca. A.D. 1400).  A recent, long-term study has resulted in a very different scenario, one where large villages originate at about A.D. 1050, the time of Cahokia's "big bang."  The ethnogenesis of Fort Ancient involved the incorporation of earlier monuments with key Mississippian status symbols and people themselves.  The product was a hybrid society that creatively transformed select elements of Mississippian society in novel ways.  Over time, the founding villages segmented and aspiring leaders split off to integrate other local populations into villages.  At about A.D. 1400, amidst widespread environmental and social change, populations fused into a coalescent society, with maize dependency actually decreasing through time.  Villagers were then pushed and pulled from the region, with various elements arguable present in several Central Algonquian and Siouan tribes.

Graduate Preview Weekend

Graduate Preview Weekend

Anthropology Faculty, Grad Students & Staff:
Please welcome prospective Anthropology grad students!

Join special events including:
Friday, 4:00-5:00pm Department Grand Slam Competition, HSSB 2001A
Friday, 5-6pm  Reception for all Anthropology Grad Students and Faculty, HSSB 2024
Saturday, 5-9pm Potluck Dinner at the UCSB Mosher Alumni Hall for all Anthropology Grad Students, Faculty and Staff

Grad Slam Competition

Graduate Preview Weekend: Grad Slam Competition

Students are competing in the department level event that feeds into the UCSB campus Grad Slam and then the UC-level Grad Slam.

Students are giving 3 minute research talks, and are being judged by 3 faculty members on a variety of criteria.

1st place gets $100
2nd/3rd place gets $50 each

Jessika Akmenkalns awarded National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant

UC Santa Barbara doctoral candidate Jessika Akmenkalns, supervised by Dr. Stuart Tyson Smith, will conduct research on how cross-cultural interactions and colonialism transformed cultural identities in hinterland communities in ancient Nubia (northern Sudan) between 2500 and 1000 BC.  Archaeology provides a unique window through which researchers and the general public alike can come to understand how colonialism and long-term struggles for political and economic power affect the daily lives of individuals and groups, both locally and on a broad regional scale.

Elizabeth Weigler awarded Dissertation Fieldwork Grant

Elizabeth Weigler, Graduate Student in the Department of Anthropology, was awarded a Dissertation Fieldwork Grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation in 2015.  The Wenner-Gren Foundation has three major goals: to support significant and innovation anthropological research into humanity's biological and cultural origins, development, and variation; to foster the international community of research scholars in anthropology; and to provide leadership at the forefronts of the discipline.

Graduate Student Association (GSA) Excellence in Teaching Award 2015 Presented to Shelley LaMon

Award Recipient: Shelley LaMon Award Date: June 02, 2015