Manifest

I am an archaeological anthropologist who is interested in the development of socio-political complexity. At present my primary research projects focus on the Late Archaic-Early Formative cultures of highland and coastal Peru. This cultural transition occurred during the mid-late Holocene boundary. My research tries to understand this dynamic period of change.

I enjoy working on lots of other things too. Among these are remote sensing broadly defined and GIS. I like to collaborate with others who have an interesting question.

My life is not just research...well then again, maybe it is. When in the US, I presently live car-free. It is a low cost, practical form of political action. I won't elaborate on the reasons I feel this way (i.e. rant), but suffice to say it is a big deal for me.

The Apus have blessed me with an opportunity to live in Peru from August of 2009 until August of 2010. During this time, I will use a car. This is a big decision for me, but one I feel good about. I hope to create some useful archaeology.

Science is a very wonderful thing and I work to have it guide my professional life (its part of why I'm an extremophile bicyclist too). Yet some things I see and feel are hard for me to express with science, and for these I take solace in art. My artistic expression is largely by photography and most of this is broadly archaeological. I have produced scientific photographs of ancient dwellings, but I also find non-narrative imagery of supermodernity an intensely powerful way to communicate about material culture. Journals provide a venue for the former type of image. This space provides a place to share pictures of the latter flavor. In the US, I often concentrate on photographing trash. When in Peru, I will dedicate myself to photographing archaeological looting. As part of this project, I have been working on geocoding my photographs. Flickr provides a nice map, but the window below from loc.alize.us displays nicely in a webpage. Right now, it is displaying my photographs in State College, PA. In the near future, these will be pictures from Peru.

Anyway, this website is an experiment in using the internet for self expression and sharing. Be warned that I don't use the blog that much, but the photos and links are pretty active. Click around--enjoy.

Archaeological looting on the central coast of Peru


Currency data courtesy coinmill.com