My Biography
How does anthropology matter? Our ancestors, our teachers, shape our answer and career path. My PhD was shaped at The University of Michigan, where Leslie White urged seeking a science of culture, where Eric Wolf taught anthropology as the most humanistic of the sciences and most scientific of the humanities, Jeff Parsons showed the power of archaeology, and Elman Service cautioned against models for the methodology of mouthtalk. More recent colleagues and friends such as Tom Hall have opened understanding of world-systems, David Sloan Wilson has revolutionized my understanding of evolution, and Agustin Fuentes has brought it all into synthesis. And my teaching career aspired to continue their wisdom.