2000-2001
Major Human Migrations of the Past
Human ancestors began spreading around the Earth, ultimately out of Africa, beginning about 2 million years ago. From earliest prehistory through historic eras, the human condition has largely been one of migrating people, colonizing new locales and exploiting new resources. Whether ranging into unoccupied territory, such as the Americas, Australia, and the Pacific Islands in ancient times, or forcefully invading established groups, as Asian hordes and European armies did in recent times, the human and cultural landscape has changed as populations moved gradually or swiftly. Indeed, a primary mechanism of cultural change is the borrowing of ideas and styles that result from new contacts between ever-shifting populations.
The great majority of humankind's occupation of the Earth precedes historical record- keeping. Thus, archeologists often have no independent record of when and how migrations occurred, and must rely on artifactual and stylistic evidence for their interpretations. Increasingly, DNA studies are permitting identifications of similarity or dissimilarly between human skeletal remains. Based on modern human populations, we can imagine some of the ethnic boundaries that may have emerged between adjacent populations of different cultural backgrounds. Conversely, separate populations, once in continuous contact, may have merged many of their distinctive characteristics over time into common ways of living. Such cultural, genetic, and/or linguistic merger may be one of many dynamics that arose as a result of migration.
The movement of past peoples is a frequent topic of both academic and popular writing. When and how hunters and gatherers first reached the Americas, what navigational knowledge was required of Pacific Islanders crossing vast reaches of that ocean, and how expanding and contracting groups of Neanderthals interacted with their more modern Eurasian neighbors are but a few examples of the complexities that accompany people movements. This year's Stigler lecturers bring us primary examples of past human migrations and how they are studied. Dr. Habicht-Mauche begins the series with her discussion of population movements in the American Southwest. Next, Dr. Batey helps us see the Viking expansion out of northern Europe through her excavations. In the spring, Dr. Stanford treats the complexity of peopling the Americas, followed by Dr. Templeton who specializes in large-scale population reconstructions based on DNA samples.
We invite you to meet our speakers at the informal receptions held in their honor following their lectures.
October 4-5, 2000
Judith A. Habicht-Mauche, Ph.D.
Provost, Crown College, and Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Cruz
Colloquium presentation:
Pottery Styles, Ethnicity, and Tribalization in the Northern Rio Grande Valley
Oct. 4, Giffels Auditorium
3:30 p.m.
Evening lecture:
Turbulent Times in the American Southwest: Abandonment, Migration, and Social Transformation
in the Late Prehistoric Period
Oct. 5, Giffels Auditorium
7:30 p.m.
Judith A. Habicht-Mauche specializes in prehistoric Natives of the U.S. Southwest and has made highly significant contributions to our understanding of pottery technology, gender roles, trade, and migrations of this region. Dr. Habicht-Mauche has carried out extensive research into native ceramic manufacture, use, and exchange. Her archaeological areas include the Southwest, the Southern Plains, and Colonial America.. Dr. Habicht-Mauche received her B.A. degree from the College of William and Mary and her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University. In 1988-1990, she was an archaeologist and academic advisor at the School of American Research, and joined the faculty at UC, Santa Cruz in 1990. In 1998, she was appointed Provost of Crown College at UC, Santa Cruz. Prior to her appointment, she also served on the Crown College Executive Committee (1996-1998) and as a college Fellow (1992-present). Dr. Habicht- Mauche's research has been supported by National Science Foundation grants and a significant number of UC faculty research stipends. She has been active in archeological consulting for the Department of the Interior, the Smithsonian Institution, and other organizations. Dr. Habicht- Mauche has published articles and chapters that cover such diverse topics as pottery manufacture, ceramic styles, plantation life, and trade. Examples of her writing include The Pottery From Arroyo Hondo Pueblo, New Mexico: Tribalization and Trade in the Northern Rio Grande (School of American Research Press, Sante Fe, 1993), Pottery, Food, and Women: Technology and Trade Across the Protohistoric Plains-Pueblo Frontier (University of Texas Press, in preparation), and "Evidence for the Manufacture of Southwestern-Style Utility Ceramics on the Southern Plains" (In: Farmers, Hunters, and Colonists: Interaction Between the Southwest and the Southern Plains, K. Spielmann, ed., University of Arizona Press, 1991).
November 1-2, 2000
Colleen E. Batey, Ph.D.
Curator of Archeology, Glasgow Museums; Honorary Lecturer in Archeology, University of Glasgow
Colloquium presentation:
The Vikings in Scotland: Recent Archeological Discoveries
Nov. 1, Giffels Auditorium
3:30 p.m.
Evening lecture:
Vikings on the Move: Raiders, Traders, and Settlers
Nov. 2, Giffels Auditorium
7:30 p.m.
Colleen E. Batey is one of the foremost authorities on the Viking world. She has extensively excavated, studied, and published on Viking sites and materials in Scotland and the surrounding United Kingdom. Dr. Batey received a B.A. honors degree and her Ph.D. in archeology from Durham University. She focuses on Norse and Medieval periods, and held several positions prior to joining Glasgow University. These include a Lectureship in Archeology at Leeds University and a Lectureship in Medieval Archeology at University College London. Among her awards is a scholarship to study Viking and Medieval collections in Stockholm. Dr. Batey has participated in excavations since 1972, and has directed several archaeological surveys since 1979. She has lectured about Viking society at many conferences and meetings in both Europe and North America. She served as Editor of Discovery and Excavation in Scotland (1991-1996), and is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Recently, Dr. Batey has served as a curatorial adviser to the Smithsonian Institution's newly opened exhibition, "Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga." Previously, she had curated major Viking exhibitions in the UK. Dr. Batey has published extensively on Viking peoples; she is the author, co-author, or editor of eight books and monographs. She has also published 50 scholarly chapters and articles, plus many popular articles about the Vikings. Examples of her books and monographs include Freswick Links, Caithness: A Re-Appraisal of the Late Norse Site in its Context (British Archaeological Reports, British Series 179, 1987), Viking-Age Scotland: An Archeological Survey (with J. Graham-Campbell; Edinburgh University Press, 1998), and Women in the Viking Age (in preparation, British Museum Press).
Feb. 7-8, 2001
Dennis J. Stanford, Ph.D.
Curator of Archeology, Department of Anthropology, Smithsonian Institution
Colloquium presentation:
Recent Paleo-Indian Discoveries in the Western Brooks Range of Alaska
Feb. 7, Giffels Auditorium
3:30 p.m.
Evening lecture:
The North Atlantic Paleomaritime Tradition: A Hypothetical Link Between Ice Age Europe
and the Americas
Feb. 8, Giffels Auditorium
7:30 p.m.
Dennis J. Stanford is internationally known for his 3.5 decades of Paleo-Indian research in the Americas. He directs the Smithsonian Institution's Paleo-Indian/Paleoecology Program. Stanford has carried out multidisciplinary research in studying the earliest human occupants of the Americas, especially in Colorado, New Mexico and Northwest Alaska . He began his archeological excavations in Alaska in 1966 and has carried out fieldwork in nine other countries, from Russia to China to South America, and in ten of the United States. Dr. Stanford received his B.A. degree from the University of Wyoming and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of New Mexico. He joined the Smithsonian Institution staff in 1972, and served as the Chairman of the Department of Anthropology between 1992-2000. He also serves as a Research Associate of the Denver Museum of Natural History (1989-present), and formerly served on the Advisory Board of the Institute for Quaternary Studies, University of Maine (1984-1991). Dr. Stanford also serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of American Archeology (1996-present). Dr. Stanford's research has been sponsored by such organizations as the National Geographic Society, the National Museum of Natural History, and the Wenner-Gren Foundation. He has authored or co-authored over 100 articles and chapters and five books, including Ice Age Hunters of the Rockies (edited with Jane Day, University Press of Colorado, 1992), The Agate Basin Site: A Record of the Paleo-Indian Occupation of the Northwestern High Plains (edited with George Frison, Academic Press, 1982), and The Walakpa Site, Alaska: Its Place in the Birnirk and Thule Cultures (Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology 20, 1976).
March 7-8, 2001
Alan R. Templeton, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Colloquium presentation:
Applications of Evolutionary Biology to the Human Genome Project
March 6, Giffels Auditorium
3:30 p.m.
Evening lecture:
Out-of-Africa or In-and-Out-of-Africa: What Genes Tell Us About Recent Human Evolution
March 7, Giffels Auditorium
7:30 p.m.
Alan R. Templeton is the leading authority on the genetic study of modern human origins. His professional interests span population and ecological genetics, conservation biology, and quantitative genetics of human populations. He has received extensive National Science Foundation and National Institute of Health funding for his genetic and ecological research, including research on DNA and candidate genes influencing common diseases. Dr. Templeton received his A.B. from Washington University and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Michigan. After holding several research and teaching positions, he joined the Washington University faculty in 1977. He served for many years as the Head of the Evolutionary and Population Biology Program there. Dr. Templeton has held the offices of Vice-President and President of the Society for the Study of Evolution. Further, he has served as Editor of Theoretical Population Biology (1981-1990) and Associate Editor of five other professional journals. He is a founding member of the Society for Conservation Biology, he has lectured extensively around the world, and he is the recipient of many professional awards, such as the Burroughs Wellcome Innovation Award in Functional Genomics (2000). Dr. Templeton is the co-author of over 150 journal articles and chapters. Among his recent publications are "Uses of Evolutionary Theory in the Human Genome Project" (Annual Review of Ecological Systematics 30, 1999), "Species and Speciation: Geography, Population Structure, Ecology, and Gene Trees" (In: Endless Forms: Species and Speciation, D.J. Howard and S.H. Berlocher, eds., 1998), and "Testing the Out of Africa Replacement Hypothesis with Mitochondrial DNA Data" (In: Conceptual Issues in Modern Human Origins Research, G.A. Clark and C.M. Willermet, eds., 1997).