Gary M. Feinman

Last updated
Gary M. Feinman
Born1951
Citizenship American
Alma mater Stuyvesant High School (1969), University of Michigan (BA 1972), CUNY Graduate Center (PhD 1980)
Known for Mesoamerican archaeology, early state formation
archaeological survey and excavation in the Valley of Oaxaca, archaeological survey in Shandong, China
AwardsFellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science; Presidential Recognition Award, Society for American Archaeology
Scientific career
Fields archaeology
Institutions Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL USA
Academic advisors

Gary M. Feinman (born 1951) is an American archaeologist, and the MacArthur Curator of Mesoamerican, Central American, and East Asian Anthropology at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. He was a part of the Valley of Oaxaca Settlement Pattern Project which focused on the evolution of the Monte Albán state and shifts in settlement in the region over three millennia. [1] The members of the Valley of Oaxaca Settlement Pattern Project and their colleagues have now walked over the largest contiguous archaeological survey region in the world, more than 8000 sq km.

Contents

Overall, Feinman has conducted research in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico for over 40 years, most recently in the lands of the communities Tlacolula, Mitla, Matatlán, and Ejutla. These studies mostly focused on household excavations at three sites (Ejutla, El Palmillo, and the Mitla Fortress). Most recently, he excavated at Lambityeco in collaboration with representatives of the Mexican Institute of Anthropology and History. At Lambityeco, Feinman and colleagues have documented a large Classic-period ball court, which was not previously recorded during surface mapping of this site. The Field Museum of Natural History team also found the largest carved stone ever recovered at this site.

Since 1995 Feinman has also been conducting archaeological survey in coastal Shandong Province, China in conjunction with Shandong University. [2] The coastal Shandong settlement pattern research, spearheaded by Feinman, Linda Nicholas (Field Museum), and Professor Fang Hui (Shandong University) has had a role in introducing this regional-scale systematic field methodology to Chinese archaeology. The team has documented a large segment of the ancient Qi Great Wall, which was built during the Warring States period, and ultimately was breached by Qin armies just prior to the first unification of China. Presently, more than 3000 square kilometers have been systematically surveyed, the largest area covered by foot in East Asia.

Feinman is the author of several hundred articles, books, and book chapters. [3] He is the founding co-editor of the Journal of Archaeological Research , [4] Chief Editor of Frontiers of Human Dynamics: Institutions and Collective Action , past editor of Latin American Antiquity , [5] and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. [6] The Journal of Archaeological Research is presently the highest ranked Archaeology and Anthropology journal for Impact Factor.

Contributions to Archaeology

Feinman helped to develop full coverage survey methods, which he and colleagues applied to the Valley of Oaxaca to help understand the evolution of the Monte Alban state [7] The particular method developed by Feinman and colleagues Richard Blanton and Stephen Kowalewski influenced a generation of archaeologists and are still widely used today. [8] Feinman continues to employ and refine this method in his ongoing work in the Valley of Oaxaca and Shandong Province, China.

Feinman was an early proponent of world-systems theory, and actively applied it to the evolution of Mesoamerican and Southwestern US polities. [9] Although this work was criticized at the time, [10] it was further developed and employed by many scholars. [11] This early discussion helped establish a more systematic archaeological approach and concepts for the analysis of the macroregional scale.

Feinman also helped to develop dual processual theory, [12] which has had a broad impact in American archaeology. [13] This researched has morphed to more theoretically grounded framework focused on Collective Action, modes of governance, and variability in their fiscal foundations. In a series of collaborative publications he has used this approach to compare modes of governance across prehispanic Mesoamerica and in the premodern world more generally.

Recent studies, underpinned by a career of regional survey and residential excavation, have offered new perspectives on prehispanic Mesoamerican economies, in which most production for exchange was undertaken in domestic contexts and marketplace exchanges had a central importance. This model is markedly different than prior perspectives that presumed centralized/administered production and exchange. In addition to drawing on results from survey and excavation, Feinman, in conjunction with Linda Nicholas, Mark Golitko and colleagues from Mexico and the United States, has begun an effort to greatly increase the quantity of sourced obsidian from documented prehispanic contexts in the Valley of Oaxaca. By combining these newly sourced sets of obsidian data from Oaxaca with a larger archive of sourced obsidian from across prehispanic Mesoamerica, Feinman and colleagues have documented significant shifts in networks of exchange over time, while casting further doubt on extant models that presume the prevalence of state-controlled economies and redistribution.

Feinman is the co-curator of two permanent exhibitions at the Field Museum: the Ancient Americas, and the Cyrus Tang Hall of China. He also served as curator for a number of temporary exhibitions, including Chocolate, The Aztec World, China's First Emperor and His Terracotta Warriors, Death: Life's Greatest Mystery, and Mexican Nativity Scenes.

With T. Douglas Price, Feinman is the author of the amply illustrated world prehistory text, Images of the Past, which presently is in its 9th edition.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monte Albán</span> Pre-Columbian archaeological site in Mexico

Monte Albán is a large pre-Columbian archaeological site in the Santa Cruz Xoxocotlán Municipality in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca. The site is located on a low mountainous range rising above the plain in the central section of the Valley of Oaxaca, where the latter's northern Etla, eastern Tlacolula, and southern Zimatlán and Ocotlán branches meet. The present-day state capital Oaxaca City is located approximately 9 km (6 mi) east of Monte Albán.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mitla</span> Archeological site in the state of Oaxaca in Mexico

Mitla is the second-most important archeological site in the state of Oaxaca in Mexico, and the most important of the Zapotec culture. The site is located 44 km from the city of Oaxaca, in the upper end of the Tlacolula Valley, one of the three cold, high valleys that form the Central Valleys Region of the state. At an elevation of 4,855 ft, surrounded by the mountains of the Sierra Madre del Sur, the archeological site is within the modern municipality of San Pablo Villa de Mitla. It is 24 mi (38 km) southeast of Oaxaca city. While Monte Albán was the most important politically of the Zapotec centers, Mitla became the main religious one in a later period as the area became dominated by the Mixtec.

El Palmillo is a Mesoamerican Classic Period archaeological site located in the Valley of Oaxaca, associated with the pre-Columbian Zapotec civilization which was centered in the valley and the surrounding highlands of the present-day state of Oaxaca, Mexico. Located on a hilltop in the eastern Tlacolula arm of the valley, El Palmillo is just to the south of the pre-Columbian site of Mitla and to the east of the major Zapotec regional center, Monte Albán.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San José Mogote</span> Pre-Columbian archaeological site of the Zapotec

San José Mogote is a pre-Columbian archaeological site of the Zapotec, a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in the region of what is now the Mexican state of Oaxaca. A forerunner to the better-known Zapotec site of Monte Albán, San José Mogote was the largest and most important settlement in the Valley of Oaxaca during the Early and Middle Formative periods of Mesoamerican cultural development.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zapotec civilization</span> Indigenous civilization that flourished in the Valley of Oaxaca in Mesoamerica

The Zapotec civilization was an indigenous pre-Columbian civilization that flourished in the Valley of Oaxaca in Mesoamerica. Archaeological evidence shows that their culture originated at least 2,500 years ago. The Zapotec archaeological site at the ancient city of Monte Albán has monumental buildings, ball courts, magnificent tombs and grave goods, including finely worked gold jewelry. Monte Albán was one of the first major cities in Mesoamerica. It was the center of a Zapotec state that dominated much of the territory which today is known as the Mexican state of Oaxaca.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oaxaca Valley</span> Valley in Mexico

The Central Valleys of Oaxaca, also simply known as the Oaxaca Valley, is a geographic region located within the modern-day state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico. In an administrative context, it has been defined as comprising the districts of Etla, Centro, Zaachila, Zimatlán, Ocotlán, Tlacolula and Ejutla. The valley, which is located within the Sierra Madre Mountains, is shaped like a distorted and almost upside-down “Y,” with each of its arms bearing specific names: the northwestern Etla arm, the central southern Valle Grande, and the Tlacolula arm to the east. The Oaxaca Valley was home to the Zapotec civilization, one of the earliest complex societies in Mesoamerica, and the later Mixtec culture. A number of important and well-known archaeological sites are found in the Oaxaca Valley, including Monte Albán, Mitla, San José Mogote and Yagul. Today, the capital of the state, the city of Oaxaca, is located in the central portion of the valley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zapotec script</span> Mesoamerican writing system

The Zapotec script is the writing system of the Zapotec culture and represents one of the earliest writing systems in Mesoamerica. Rising in the late Pre-Classic era after the decline of the Olmec civilization, the Zapotecs of present-day Oaxaca built an empire around Monte Albán. One characteristic of Monte Albán is the large number of carved stone monuments one encounters throughout the plaza. There and at other sites, archaeologists have found extended text in a glyphic script.

Joyce Marcus is a Latin American archaeologist and professor in the Department of Anthropology, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She also holds the position of Curator of Latin American Archaeology, University of Michigan Museum of Anthropological Archaeology. Marcus has published extensively in the field of Latin American archaeological research. Her focus has been primarily on the Zapotec, Maya, and coastal Andean civilizations of Central and South America. Much of her fieldwork has been concentrated in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. She is known for her "Dynamic model", four-tiered hierarchy, and her use of interdisciplinary study.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guiengola</span>

Guiengola is a Zapotec archeological site located 14 km (8.7 mi) north of Tehuantepec, and 243 km (151 mi) southeast of Oaxaca city on Federal Highway 190. The visible ruins are located between a hill and a river, each carries the name of Guiengola. The name means "large stone" in the local variant of the Zapotec language. There are two main tombs that have been excavated, and both seem to be family interment sites. Both have front chambers that are for religious idols, while the rear chambers are for the burial of important people. The site also has fortified walls, houses, ballgame fields, other tombs and a very large "palace" with remains of artificial ponds and terraces. In the center of the site are 2 plazas, one lower than the other, and 2 pyramids, one to the east and one to the west.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yagul</span> UNESCO World Heritage Site

Yagul is an archaeological site and former city-state associated with the Zapotec civilization of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, located in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. The site was declared one of the country's four Natural Monuments on 13 October 1998. The site is also known locally as Pueblo Viejo and was occupied at the time of the Spanish Conquest. After the Conquest the population was relocated to the nearby modern town of Tlacolula where their descendants still live.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lambityeco</span>

Lambityeco is a small archaeological site about three kilometers west of the city of Tlacolula de Matamoros in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. It is located just off Highway 190 about 25 km (16 mi) east from the city of Oaxaca en route to Mitla. The site has been securely dated to the Late Classical Period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dainzú</span> Zapotec archaeological site in Oaxaca, Mexico

Dainzú is a Zapotec archaeological site located in the eastern side of the Valles Centrales de Oaxaca, about 20 km south-east of the city of Oaxaca, Oaxaca State, Mexico. It is an ancient village near to and contemporary with Monte Albán and Mitla, with an earlier development. Dainzú was first occupied 700-600 BC but the main phase of occupation dates from about 200 BC to 350 AD. The site was excavated in 1965 by Mexican archaeologist Ignacio Bernal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Blanton</span>

Richard E. Blanton is an American anthropologist, archaeologist, and academic. He is most renowned for his archaeological field and theoretical research into the development of civilizations in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, particularly those from the central Mexican plateau and Valley of Oaxaca regions. Blanton taught at Rice University and Hunter College of the City University of New York before joining the faculty at Purdue University in 1976. He is currently Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Purdue's College of Liberal Arts.

Robert Norman Zeitlin is an American professor emeritus of anthropology at Brandeis University. He has a B.A. in psychology from Cornell University, a B.S. in aeronautical engineering from Boston University, an M.A. in anthropology from City University of New York, and a M.Phil. and Ph.D. in anthropology from Yale University.

Santa Inés Yatzeche is a town and municipality in Oaxaca in south-western Mexico.

Mixteca Alta Formative Project (2003–present) is an archaeological project directed by Andrew Balkansky that focuses on the Mixtec of Oaxaca, Mexico. The project, which is funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Geographic Society, and the H. John Heinz III Fund, seeks to understand Mixtec origins and their transition to urbanism. Excavations are currently taking place at the ancient site of Tayata.

Pusilhá is an archaeological site in Belize. The location of this Late Classic Maya urban complex, along the east and west flow of trade, made the city a major transfer point for economic activities in the whole region. In addition, the city gave archaeologists a historical view of a secondary Maya site. Large and extended excavation efforts have changed the overall picture of Maya social and political relationships between larger and smaller cities and challenged the prevailing view of conquest and absorption of smaller cities into the larger cities in the region. The research conducted at Pusilhá began in 1927 and continues to this day.

Tierras Largas is a formative-period archaeological site located in the Etla arm in the Valley of Oaxaca in Mexico. It is considered to be one of the first villages where sedentism originated in the Oaxaca area. The name is Spanish for “Long Lands”.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter N. Peregrine</span> American anthropologist

Peter N. Peregrine is an American anthropologist, registered professional archaeologist, and academic. He is well known for his promotion of the use of science in anthropology, and for his popular textbook Anthropology. Peregrine did dissertation research on the evolution of the Mississippian culture of North America, and conducted fieldwork on Bronze Age cities in Syria. He is currently Professor of Anthropology and Museum Studies at Lawrence University and Research Associate of the Human Relations Area Files at Yale University. From 2012 to 2018 he was an External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute.

Elsa Marion Redmond is an American archaeologist at the American Museum of Natural History. She specializes in Latin American archaeology. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

References

  1. Blanton, Richard; Feinman, Gary M.; Kowalewski, Stephen A.; Nicholas, Linda M. (2022). Ancient Oaxaca, 2nd Edition. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-0521577878.
  2. "Gary Feinman". Academia.edu. Retrieved 2012-04-01.
  3. SSCI average of 18 citations per year (http://apps.webofknowledge.com/CitationReport.do?product=WOS&search_mode=CitationReport&SID=3B3aD5bGcA4jhp77faL&page=1&cr_pqid=11&viewType=summary)
  4. "Journal of Archaeological Research". Springer. Retrieved 2012-04-01.
  5. "SAA Bulletin 15(1)" . Retrieved 2012-04-01.
  6. Edward W. Lempinen, ed. (28 October 2005). "AAAS News & Notes". American Association for the Advancement of Science. Archived from the original on 18 March 2013. Retrieved 2012-04-01.
  7. Kowaleski, Stephen, ed. (1982). Monte Alban's Hinterland, Part II. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Museum. ISBN   978-0915703180.
  8. Fish, Suzanne (2009). The Archaeology of Regions: The Case for Full Coverage Survey. New York: Percheron Press. ISBN   978-0979773105.
  9. Blanton, Richard; Feinman, Gary M. (1984). "The Mesoamerican World-System". American Anthropologist . 86 (3): 673–682. doi:10.1525/aa.1984.86.3.02a00100.
  10. Kohl, Philip L. (1987). "The Use and Abuse of World-Systems Theory". Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory (11): 1–35.
  11. Peregrine, Peter N.; Feinman, Gary, eds. (1996). Pre-Columbian World-Systems. Madison: Prehistory Press. ISBN   978-1881094166.
  12. Blanton, Richard, ed. (1996). "A Dual-Processual Theory for the Evolution of Mesoamerican Civilization". Current Anthropology . 37 (1): 1–14. doi:10.1086/204471. S2CID   51751402.
  13. Mills, Barbara J., ed. (2000). Alternative Leadership Strategies in the Prehispanic Southwest. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. ISBN   978-0816520282.