Easter Island archaeologists Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo offer a radically different theory of the island's history, and theorize how the statues walked.
Bio
Terry Hunt
Background
BA, University of Hawai'i (1976); MA University of Auckland (First Class Honors, 1980); Ph.D., University of Washington (1989).
I have conducted archaeological field work and related
research in Hawai'i, Samoa, Fiji, Rapa Nui (Easter Island), New Zealand,
and Papua New Guinea.
I joined the faculty at University of Hawai'i in 1988. I have
current affiliations with Bishop Museum, Center for Pacific Islands
Studies, and the Evolution, Ecology, and Conservation Biology Program at
University of Hawai'i.
Research Interests
My research is focused on the archaeological history of the
Pacific Islands. I have framed questions concerning the origins of
social and cultural diversity and the role history - constructed through
archaeology - would necessarily play in disentangling the processes
involved. This research demands multiple lines of complementary data in
such domains as human biology, linguistics, material culture, ethnology,
and archaeology. Explaining human diversification requires that we
understand aspects of emerging social complexity, subsistence, relative
investments in cultural elaboration, and other dynamic trajectories.
Indeed, the focus must be on ecological and evolutionary dimensions of
human history. Addressing such questions requires a theoretical
framework, models to construct our expectations and hypotheses, as well
as a lot of hard work to acquire the necessary data.
I have devoted some of my interests to developing
methodological and theoretical aspects of the discipline as they
articulate with empirical sufficiency, as outlined in our book Posing
Questions for a Scientific Archaeology. While mindful of the deductive
role of theory, I believe that our ability to explain the processes of
history and cultural change must rest on a solid substantive foundation.
Thus, I see our primary goal as building accurate, reliable, and valid
case histories (e.g., islands) where particular research problems are
best addressed. Such a goal has led me to rather diverse research
throughout the Pacific.
I have directed archaeological field schools in Fiji
(1999-2003) and on Rapa Nui (2001-present). In Fiji we have addressed
multiple dimensions of population history, social interaction, and
evolutionary divergence. On Rapa Nui we are critically examining many
aspects of prehistory, but especially questions concerning the evolution
of cultural elaboration.
On-Going Research
I am conducting archaeological research and direct an annual archaeological field school on Rapa Nui (Easter Island).
Our field work is designed to investigate multiple aspects of this
small and remote island's prehistory. This work involves several
graduate students, and we envision many additional research
opportunities. We will continue to offer an archaeological field school
in collaboration with the P. Sebastian Englert Anthropological Museum on
Rapa Nui. We are also working to train Native Rapanui high school
students in archaeological field methods.
Carl Lipo
I
currently serve as a Professor of Anthropology at California State
University, Long Beach (CSULB). I am part of the faculty of that forms
the basis of a (virtual) Program in Archaeology and a founding member of
IIRMES,
a multi-disciplinary institute for the study of materials, environments
and society. At CSULB, I teach classes in Introductory Archaeology,
World Prehistory, Eastern North American Prehistory, Artifact Analysis,
GIS, Statistics, Method and Theory, Foundations of Anthropology Field
Research Design, Geophysical Techniques, and the Scientific Study of
Origins.
My
research focuses on the use of evolutionary theory to generate
scientific explanations about human cultural change in the
archaeological record. I see this focus as a critical challenge for the
social sciences and that our ability to be able to due this task vital
to our future. My perspective is fairly idiosyncratic to my background
but lodged in the philosophy of science and evolutionary biology.
My
recent studies include the development of theoretical models and the
construction of methods for studying patterns of change caused by
cultural transmission and the process of natural selection in cultural
systems.
In
addition, I have interests in remote sensing to efficiently and
non-destructively study the record. This work includes the use of
magnetometry, resistivity, conductivity, thermal imagery and ground
penetrating radar. My field research has taken me from the Mississippi
river valley to Easter Island to California and coastal Guatemala.
I
work at CSULB, a state school located in the ethereal world of southern
California. We offer BA and MA degrees in Anthropology though I’ve
been working on creating some more focused and useful degrees. The
archaeology program at CSULB consists of a focused group of courses that
train students within anthropology. We have a dynamite group of MA
students doing work on a huge variety of topics -- most of which end up
as posters at the SAA meetings and/or publications.
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