Marcus John Hamilton
Associate Professor
Department of Anthropology
University of Texas at San Antonio
San Antonio, Texas 78249 USA
[email protected]
External Professor
Santa Fe Institute
1399 Hyde Park Rd
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 USA
[email protected]
Associate Professor
Department of Anthropology
University of Texas at San Antonio
San Antonio, Texas 78249 USA
[email protected]
External Professor
Santa Fe Institute
1399 Hyde Park Rd
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 USA
[email protected]
We live on an extraordinarily complex planet embedded within a vastly simpler universe. Here, a molten core and protective magnetosphere generate the stability necessary for a fragile biosphere to persist and evolve over billions of years. From this biophysical substrate emerged the particular complexity of the human world, not because humans are more biologically complex than other forms of life, but because we possess the unusual capacity to reflect on our circumstances, share those insights with others, construct predictive theories about what we learn, and leverage the consequences at scale. As the holistic study of the human condition, anthropology is therefore not only the study of how this extraordinary complexity evolved within the Earth system, but how humanity became capable of studying itself and the world in which it is embedded.
I study the human world as a complex, evolving system shaped by the interplay of information, energy, and computation unfolding over deep time. My research lies at the intersection of anthropology, archaeology, ecology, and complexity science, with a particular focus on small-scale societies. I am interested in how human collectives generate, organize, and apply knowledge under ecological constraints, and how environmental variability and risk structure technological systems, social organization, and cultural diversity.
My work seeks to understand generative principles underlying the organization and evolution of human systems through data-driven theory. In particular, I develop formal frameworks for understanding how societies solve complex problems through distributed and adaptive processes, and I explore what these dynamics imply for the foundations of anthropological science.
Research areas:
I study the human world as a complex, evolving system shaped by the interplay of information, energy, and computation unfolding over deep time. My research lies at the intersection of anthropology, archaeology, ecology, and complexity science, with a particular focus on small-scale societies. I am interested in how human collectives generate, organize, and apply knowledge under ecological constraints, and how environmental variability and risk structure technological systems, social organization, and cultural diversity.
My work seeks to understand generative principles underlying the organization and evolution of human systems through data-driven theory. In particular, I develop formal frameworks for understanding how societies solve complex problems through distributed and adaptive processes, and I explore what these dynamics imply for the foundations of anthropological science.
Research areas:
- The complex human world
- Ecological & evolutionary theory
- Energy, information & computation
- Small-scale societies
- Paleoindian paleoecology
- Complexity theory
- Data science
- Philosophy of science
Prospective graduate students
Prospective graduate students should email me for more information. I have plenty of opportunities for students to get involved in field work, or computational work, or both. Importantly, I am always interested in working with motivated undergraduates.
Prospective graduate students should email me for more information. I have plenty of opportunities for students to get involved in field work, or computational work, or both. Importantly, I am always interested in working with motivated undergraduates.
Teaching
- Human Population Ecology
- Stone Tools in Prehistory
- Statistical Computing in Anthropology
- Hunters and Gatherers
- Archaeology of North America
- Introduction to Anthropology
