Complex Society
program description
One of the most important and intriguing questions in anthropology is how and under what conditions societies became more complex over time (or in some cases suffered severe decline or even collapse). These questions interest many faculty members in our department, and faculty members explore them from a range of different perspectives, including population, economic systems, sociopolitical structure, technology, and natural environment.
Research emphasis
Geographical: New World complex societies including eastern North America, highland Mesoamerican, the Maya, the Caribbean, and the Amazon
Cultural: Settled to mobile hunters-gatherers, village agriculturalists, simple and complex chiefdoms, complex states, empires, and ancient civilizations.
Topical: The department examines the cultural processes that condition the organization and transformation of human societies. Our approach is strongly cultural ecological in focus. Topics of research include the evolution of subsistence systems, the emergence of chiefdoms, the origins of craft production, political economy and ancient trade, the role of warfare in cultural evolution, ancient urbanism, the evolution of political systems, and globalization processes.
Training: Emphasis is placed on acquiring a broad comparative approach to the scale, complexity, and integration of human societies. Specific training includes the study of ancient landscapes using geospatial information systems (GIS) and settlement patterns, archaeobotany, lithic technology, ceramic analysis, osteology, and chemical source analysis in fully equipped labs. Training is provided for specific problem-oriented research. Students also have access to state-of-the-art computer facilities, including GIS.
Current Research: Ongoing and recent faculty research projects include the structure of prehistoric craft production and trade, the Basin of Mexico GIS Survey (Hirth), archaeological survey at Piedras Negras and the defensive earthwork of the Tikal (Webster), the Penn State urbanism project (Sanders), the political economy of two Taino Caribbean chiefdoms and an Amazonian chiefdom plus long-term human-environment dynamics in the Amazon (Newsom), as well as the organization, size, and development of chiefdoms in North America (Milner, Snow).
Department anthropologists
Stephen Beckerman, Associate Professor, warfare, South America
Paul Durrenberger, Professor, economic systems, political economy, globalization, chiefdoms
Brian Hesse, Professor Jewish Studies, faunal analysis, Near East bch11@psu.edu
Kenneth G. Hirth, Ph.D., Professor of Anthropology (kgh2@psu.edu): Ancient Economy, Rise of Complex Society, Central Mexico, Honduras
George R. Milner, Ph.D., Professor of Anthropology (ost@psu.edu): paleodemography, warfare, North American Mississippian chiefdoms
Lee Newsom, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Anthropology (lan12@psu.edu): paleoethnobotany, Caribbean and Amazonian chiefdoms
William Sanders, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus: cultural ecology, Mesoamerica
Dean R. Snow, Ph.D., Professor of Anthropology (drs17@psu.edu): paleodemography, migration, Northeastern North American tribal confederacies
Susan T. Evans, Ph.D., Adjunct Professor of Anthropology (ste@psu.edu) Aztecs
David L. Webster, Ph.D., Professor of Anthropology (dxw16@psu.edu): warfare, political evolution, urbanism, Mayan chiefdoms and states
James Wood, Professor, demography, settlement demography, and agricultural systems
Departmental facilities and field school
Students regularly participate in laboratory and field-based research on individual projects and in shared facilities such as the department's Geographic Information System (GIS) facility.
Bioarchaeology: For analyses of human skeletal remains and archaeological materials from the American Midwest and Southeast.
GIS Facility: For computer-based spatial analyses of cultural and ecological data.
Mesoamerica: For analyses of lithic technology, use wear, petrographics, and spatial analysis (GIS)
Copan archaeology: For analysis of a huge spatial data base acquired since 1980.
North America: For analyses of archaeological materials from the American Northeast.
Paleoethnobotany: For analyses of plant remains in various preservation states and forms, with emphasis on the Neotropics and southeastern North America
Matson Museum: For training in collections management and exhibit design
Other University Facilities and Programs
Breazeale Nuclear Reactor
Center for Quantitative Imaging
Forensic Science Program
Institutes of the Environment
Materials Research Institute
Courses
Anth 420 Near Eastern Archaeology
Anth 423 Evolution of American Indian culture
Anth 424 Andean Archaeology
Anth 545 Seminar in Archaeology: Political Economy
Anth 545 Seminar in Archaeology: Warfare
Anth x97 Caribbean archaeology
Graduate application and undergraduate registration information
links
Population Research Institute
Anthropology/Demography Dual-Degree Program
