Scott Palumbo, Ph.D.
Ph.D. Anthropology (2009). University of Pittsburgh.
M.A. Anthropology (2004). University of Florida.
B.A. Anthropology (2001). University of Connecticut.
My course offerings for the fall 2009 semester include Introduction to Social Science in Wounded Knee and Rapid City, and World Geography in Rapid City and Pine Ridge. I hope to offer students introductory courses in Archaeology, Statistics and Research Design, and a seminar in Orientalism in the near future.
I regard the study and critique of social power to be the most universally relevant endeavor that anthropology has to offer. From an archaeological perspective, I am particularly interested in understanding the contexts in which varieties of social inequalities developed, changed, and endured (or didn't) between different societies the past. To try and make sense of this variability, I have chosen to explore the development and operation of emergent political economies in the past across multiple spatial and temporal scales.
My research in Western Panama analyzed how items were produced, manufactured, and exchanged within and between early villages and smaller hamlets and farmsteads during a sequence spanning 200 B.C. and A.D. 1400. The project involved extensively sampling and comparing domestic refuse assemblages from sectors within prehistoric settlements. The results of this research suggested that the foundations of incipient social inequalities and regional political organization were highly variable. These generally involved ceremonial displays and exchanges within the largest and most internally complex village in the valley, but more 'economic' foci in smaller sites. Nevertheless, forms of social and occupational differentiation remained relatively subtle and changed gradually throughout the sequence. This research was supported by the National Science Foundation and the University of Pittsburgh.
My future research plans are to return to Panama to begin regional survey work and test excavations in the mountains and on the Pacific coastal plains to examine what may have been two very different archaeological sequence. I am also developing archaeological interests in response to local needs. I will be actively seeking students who may be interested in developing their own research programs either here or abroad.
Ph.D. Anthropology (2009). University of Pittsburgh.
M.A. Anthropology (2004). University of Florida.
B.A. Anthropology (2001). University of Connecticut.
My course offerings for the fall 2009 semester include Introduction to Social Science in Wounded Knee and Rapid City, and World Geography in Rapid City and Pine Ridge. I hope to offer students introductory courses in Archaeology, Statistics and Research Design, and a seminar in Orientalism in the near future.
I regard the study and critique of social power to be the most universally relevant endeavor that anthropology has to offer. From an archaeological perspective, I am particularly interested in understanding the contexts in which varieties of social inequalities developed, changed, and endured (or didn't) between different societies the past. To try and make sense of this variability, I have chosen to explore the development and operation of emergent political economies in the past across multiple spatial and temporal scales.
My research in Western Panama analyzed how items were produced, manufactured, and exchanged within and between early villages and smaller hamlets and farmsteads during a sequence spanning 200 B.C. and A.D. 1400. The project involved extensively sampling and comparing domestic refuse assemblages from sectors within prehistoric settlements. The results of this research suggested that the foundations of incipient social inequalities and regional political organization were highly variable. These generally involved ceremonial displays and exchanges within the largest and most internally complex village in the valley, but more 'economic' foci in smaller sites. Nevertheless, forms of social and occupational differentiation remained relatively subtle and changed gradually throughout the sequence. This research was supported by the National Science Foundation and the University of Pittsburgh.
My future research plans are to return to Panama to begin regional survey work and test excavations in the mountains and on the Pacific coastal plains to examine what may have been two very different archaeological sequence. I am also developing archaeological interests in response to local needs. I will be actively seeking students who may be interested in developing their own research programs either here or abroad.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009, 07:51 PM
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