Gary M. Feinman – Chair and Curator of Mesoamerican Archaeology and Ethnology. Dr. Feinman received his B.A., in Anthropology from the University of Michigan, 1972 and his Ph.D., in Anthropology from City University of New York-Graduate Center in 1980. His interests include the study of complex human societies – how and why they arose, the different ways they were organized and changed over time, and how the economies of these ancient social formations were organized. Gary Feinman has conducted archaeological field research in Oaxaca, Mexico, for over 20 years. Feinman has led regional settlement pattern surveys in the Valley of Oaxaca and several smaller, neighboring valleys and has directed the excavation of Classic period (A.D. 200-800) houses at two sites. He currently is studying pre-hispanic houses at El Palmillo, a large hilltop terrace site in the Eastern Valley of Oaxaca. An examination of ancient craft manufacture is a key theme of this research. Since 1995, he also has been part of a collaborative team of North American and Chinese scholars studying the Late Neolithic through Han period in Shandong, China. Dr. Feinman is the author of numerous books including: Ancient Mesoamerica: A Comparison of Change in Three Regions (Richard Blanton, Stephan Kowalewski, Gary Feinman, and Laura Finsten), Foundations of Social Inequality (edited by T. Douglas Price and Gary Feinman), Ancient Oaxaca (Richard Blanon, Gary Feinman, Stephan Kowalewski, and Linda Nicholas), Pottery and People: A Dynamic Interaction (edited by James M. Skibo and Gary M. Feinman) and Settlement Pattern Studies in the Americas: Fifty Years Since Viru (edited by Brian R. Billman and Gary M. Feinman). He also has three books currently in press: Images of the Past, Third Edition (T. Douglas Price and Gary M. Feinman), Cultural Evolution: Contemporary Viewpoints (Gary M. Feinman and Linda Manzanilla), and Archaeology at the Millennium (edited by Gary M. Feinman and T. Douglas Price). Feinman is also the co-editor of the Journal of Archaeological Research (Kluwer). Other Anthropology Department Research: Africa | Asia | Archaeological Science | Caribbean |Cultural Understanding | Mesoamerica | North America | South America | Oceania