Ph.D., University of Rochester, 1983
M.A., Manchester University, 1977
M.Sc. Manchester University, 1973
B.Sc., Manchester University, 1971
Professional Interests:
My particular research interests are the anthropology of war, cultural ecology, and political evolution, though I confess to being a closet generalist. My area interests are contact-era Polynesia and Melanesia; I have conducted over two years fieldwork amongst the Yangoru Boiken of the East Sepik, Papua New Guinea and have made a brief research trip to the Mountain Arapesh. My current research projects are: The hunters and gatherers of New Guinea; The anthropology of war in Sepik and Highland New Guinea; and The emergence of political complexity in New Guinea.
Representative Publications:
2009 "Social signaling and the Organization of Small-scale Society: The Case of Contact-era New Guinea". Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 16:69-116.
2009 with Ulrike Claas, "Hot Air and the Colonialist 'Other'." Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 15:131-150
2008 "Settlement Fortification in Village and 'Tribal' Society: Evidence from Contact-era New Guinea." Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 27:507-519.
2007 "Intelligence, Coalitional Killing, and the Antecedents of War." American Anthropologist 109:485-495.
2006 with Laurie Bragge and Ulrike Claas, "On the Edge of Empire: Military Brokerage in the Sepik Tribal Zone." American Ethnologist 33:100-113.
2006 "Fish, Game, and the Foundations of Complexity in Forager Society: The Evidence from New Guinea." Cross-Cultural Research: The Journal of Comparative Social Science. 40:29-46.
2004 with Borut Telban, "The People of the Lower Arafundi: Tropical Foragers of the New Guinea Rainforest." Ethnology 43:93-115.
2003 "Margaret Mead, Reo Fortune, and Mountain Arapesh Warfare." American Anthropologist, 105:581-591.
2002 "The Hunters and Gatherers of New Guinea." Current Anthropology 43:153-162.
2000 "New Guinea Leadership as Ethnographic Analogy." Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 7(2):79-126.
2000 "Costs, Benefits, Typologies, and Power: The Evolution of Political Hierarchy." In Michael Diehl (ed.), Hierarchies in Action: Cui Bono?. Pp.113-133. Center for Archaeological Research, University of Southern Illinois, Carbondale.
1996 "War and Society in Sepik New Guinea." The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 2:645-666.
1995 "Familiar Partners? The Mountain Arapesh and the Westermarck Effect." The Journal of Anthropological Research 51:347-362.
Contact:
Telephone: (207) 581-1896
Fax: (207) 581-1823
Department of Anthropology
University of Maine
5773 S. Stevens Hall
Orono, Maine 04469-5773
