I am anthropological archeologist who uses theoretically-based models to reconstruct ancient human behavior. I attended the University of Utah and eventually graduated with a Ph.D. in anthropology. At the University of Utah, my training was interdisciplinary and crosscut several different allied fields giving me firm foundations in human behavioral ecology and as an anthropological archaeologist. By that time my interests had shifted towards the application of models derived from human behavior ecology to the zooarchaeological record (the study of animal bones) of African hunter-gatherers. My first real academic job was at the University of North Texas, but I quickly moved on to Washington State University. With the aid of colleagues, I soon embarked on a theoretically-based ethnoarchaeological project in the northern Congo Basin among forest foragers on hunting technology and food sharing. This research fueled an on-going interest in the Central African rainforest-where most of my recent research is centered. In 2012 I came to Southern Methodist University to continue my research. I am particularly interested in: why and how do hunters make decisions about what prey pursue? How do people decide what parts of large prey to butcher and transport to their mains camps? How social motives (such as a desire for prestige) influence human decisions.
My main research interests include:
- Zooarchaeology
- Ethnoarchaeology
- Human Behavioral Ecology
- Sub-Saharan Africa (Prehistory and Ethnography)
- Central African rain forest paleoenvironment
- Forager-Farmer Interactions
- Prehistoric big-game hunting