Research Areas
Ecological and Evolutionary Anthropology
I conduct research into human-environment interactions at all scales, from life history and demography, to population dynamics and biogeography. Much of my work focuses on hunter-gatherers and small-scale societies, but I am interested in the fundamental principles that underlie the evolutionary diversification of human ecology over time and space. Often this work involves comparative analyses among cultures and across species. I am particularly interested in how humans use energy and information to make inferences about their world and how these interactions underlie the ways humans modify their environments.
I conduct research into human-environment interactions at all scales, from life history and demography, to population dynamics and biogeography. Much of my work focuses on hunter-gatherers and small-scale societies, but I am interested in the fundamental principles that underlie the evolutionary diversification of human ecology over time and space. Often this work involves comparative analyses among cultures and across species. I am particularly interested in how humans use energy and information to make inferences about their world and how these interactions underlie the ways humans modify their environments.
Hunter-Gatherer Archaeology and Paleoecology
My archaeological research focuses on hunter-gatherer paleoecology, the colonization of the Americas, and Paleoindian North America. I am particularly interested in how humans adapted to North American landscapes in the late Pleistocene and later diversified across the continent. Colleagues and I recently wrapped up a multi-year excavation program at Bonfire Shelter, Texas and we are now working on Paleoindian period occupations across the central Rio Grande Rift Valley, New Mexico.
My archaeological research focuses on hunter-gatherer paleoecology, the colonization of the Americas, and Paleoindian North America. I am particularly interested in how humans adapted to North American landscapes in the late Pleistocene and later diversified across the continent. Colleagues and I recently wrapped up a multi-year excavation program at Bonfire Shelter, Texas and we are now working on Paleoindian period occupations across the central Rio Grande Rift Valley, New Mexico.
Complexity Theory and Data Science
Human societies are complex adaptive systems structured by nonequilibrium, nonlinear, hierarchical, modular interaction networks of correlations that evolve in time and space. I work with data sets from several disciplines, including ethnography, archaeology, ecology, economics, and environmental science. My approach to theory-building is primarily mathematical where I use theory to generate hypotheses that make predictions that can be tested statistically with data. I am particularly interested in models of inference, information theory, energetics, theories of computation, and the potential of machine learning in anthropology to explore the evolution and ecology of complex adaptive human systems.
Human societies are complex adaptive systems structured by nonequilibrium, nonlinear, hierarchical, modular interaction networks of correlations that evolve in time and space. I work with data sets from several disciplines, including ethnography, archaeology, ecology, economics, and environmental science. My approach to theory-building is primarily mathematical where I use theory to generate hypotheses that make predictions that can be tested statistically with data. I am particularly interested in models of inference, information theory, energetics, theories of computation, and the potential of machine learning in anthropology to explore the evolution and ecology of complex adaptive human systems.
Philosophy of Complex Human Systems
In the anthropological sciences we pay little attention to the larger metaphysical lenses through which we observe the world. It is essential to consider how the models of inference we use to study the world emerge from the ontological positions we hold and their epistemological commitments. Moreover, we need to take seriously the ways in which anthropologists make inferences about other humans in the past and present as they navigate their worlds and encode the lessons they learn into technologies, institutions, and behaviors; the stuff of culture. From this perspective, anthropology is largely reverse engineering the generative mechanisms that create variation in the patterns we observe in the world, encoded in data. Our goal is to build theories that lend insight into the complex human systems we study and the universe in which we are embedded.
In the anthropological sciences we pay little attention to the larger metaphysical lenses through which we observe the world. It is essential to consider how the models of inference we use to study the world emerge from the ontological positions we hold and their epistemological commitments. Moreover, we need to take seriously the ways in which anthropologists make inferences about other humans in the past and present as they navigate their worlds and encode the lessons they learn into technologies, institutions, and behaviors; the stuff of culture. From this perspective, anthropology is largely reverse engineering the generative mechanisms that create variation in the patterns we observe in the world, encoded in data. Our goal is to build theories that lend insight into the complex human systems we study and the universe in which we are embedded.
The artwork on the left created by Ettore Mazza (https://making-humanity.org/artist/ettore-mazza/). I strongly encourage you to explore his remarkable work.
