UC Davis experts: Anthropology

The UC Davis faculty has a broad expertise regarding anthropology.

Early humans

• Evolution of early humans
• Population genetics, colonization of the New World
• Hunter-gatherers and culture transmissions

The Americas

• Preserving native languages
• Mayan religions and spirituality
• Indigenous peoples, economic/political development
• Natives and natural resources
• Dance in the Americas
• Crop genetic resource conservation
• Mexican immigrant communities
• South Asian youth culture in the U.S.

The Middle East

• Arab women

South Asia (India, Pakistan, etc.)

• Religious movements

Asia

• Agricultural change in China
• Housing reform in China

Australia

• Aboriginal myth, time and language

EARLY HUMANS

Evolution of early humans

An evolutionary anthropologist, Henry McHenry studies fossil hominids between 5.5 million and 1 million years old. He has written more than 100 scientific publications on these ancient bones including analyses of evolutionary relationships, body size and shape, relative tooth size and diet, and brain-size increase. He is particularly known for his contributions to understanding the evolution of anatomy associated with bipedal locomotion using various analyses of fossil fragments and the same bones in modern apes and humans; for being the principal expert on estimation of the size of fossil human ancestors; and for his work on physical differences between males and females in these ancestors. McHenry is also a forensic anthropologist, called upon for his expertise by law enforcement when human skeletons of unknown origins are discovered. Contact: Henry McHenry, Anthropology, 530-752-1588, hmmchenry@ucdavis.edu.

Population genetics, colonization of the New World

David G. Smith, a genetic anthropologist and director of the Molecular Anthropology Laboratory at UC Davis, specializes in genetic demography and epidemiology, population genetics, genetics of nonhuman primates and genetic evidence for the colonization of the New World. Smith is an expert on the use of DNA to trace population origins and is frequently asked to determine whether or not specific prehistoric human remains are of Native American ancestry or to which modern tribal group a given set of Native American remains are ancestral. His research traces migrations of Native American tribes to and within the New World by comparing the DNA of modern peoples with that of prehistoric populations. Smith's second research interest is the use of DNA to reconstruct evolutionary relationships among different primate species, genetically manage captive animal colonies and identify genes that predispose non-human primates to specific diseases that are also common in humans. Contact: David G. Smith, Anthropology, (530) 752-6343, dgsmith@ucdavis.edu.

Hunter-gatherers and culture transmission

Anthropologist Robert Bettinger studies prehistorical hunter-gatherers in China and the New World as well as human ecology of the North American Great Basin. He has helped develop a quantitative model to understand the global spread of Homo sapiens. His field work has concentrated on high-altitude adaptations in the White Mountains in eastern California and the late Pleistocene/early Holocene hunter-gatherer settlement and subsistence systems in northern China. The Chinese research, funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Geographic Society, seeks to understand when and why food production originally developed in one of the world's most important agricultural centers. Bettinger can also discuss culture transfer, using the archaeological record. He is author of "Hunter-Gatherers: Archaeological and Evolutionary Theory." Contact: Robert Bettinger, Anthropology, (530) 752-0551, rlbettinger@ucdavis.edu.

THE AMERICAS

Preserving native languages

Professor Martha Macri is a linguistic anthropologist specializing in Native American languages and Mesoamerican scripts. She uses complex databases and student initiative to protect native languages throughout the Americas. Based in the Native American and anthropology departments, Macri also teaches about and coordinates university outreach for retaining native languages. She can talk about how graduate students in the UC Davis Native American studies graduate program are working with various tribes in California to helping Native Americans recover their native languages. Macri also directs the Maya Hieroglyphic Database Project, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Science Foundation. The project is putting the all of the known Maya texts into a graphics database to increase public access. Contact: Martha Macri, Native American Studies, (530) 752-3626 or mjmacri@ucdavis.edu.

Indigenous peoples, economic/political development

Native American studies professor Stefano Varese is an anthropologist with an extended research background in Mexico. His research interests focus on indigenous peoples, economic and political development, indigenous transnational migration to the U.S. and California, and critical theory of cultural pluralism in Mexico and Latin America. He lived and worked in Mexico and the state of Oaxaca during 14 years as a researcher for the National Institute of Anthropology and History and as director of the Regional Unit of Popular Cultures, a branch of the Ministry of Education. Varese has been consultant for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the Comisión Mexicana de Apoyo a los Refugiados in Southeastern Mexico during the Guatemalan civil war and the crisis of Maya political refugees. In the late 1990s, under the sponsorship of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, he co-authored with UC Berkeley's professor Alain de Janvry a study on the impact of 1992 agricultural reforms on peasants and indigenous peoples of Mexico. Varese directs the Indigenous Research Center of the Americas. Contact: Stefano Varese, (fluent in Spanish) Native American Studies, (530) 752-0357 and (530) 752-3237, svarese@ucdavis.edu.

Natives and natural resources

Suzana Sawyer, assistant professor of anthropology at UC Davis, examines struggles over resources in the Ecuadorian Amazon, focusing on conflicts over land and petroleum development among indigenous peoples, the state, and multinational oil companies. She explores how lowland peoples have challenged neoliberal economic policies to privatize their lands and increase petroleum production within territory claimed by the indigenous people. In a country such as Ecuador, struggles over resources represent occasions for redefining the terms of citizenship, nation and sovereignty in a globalizing world. Sawyer is writing a book titled, "Crude Chronicles: Indigenous Politics, Multinational Oil, and Neoliberalism in Ecuador." Contact: Suzana Sawyer (fluent in Spanish), Anthropology, (530) 752-2557, smsawyer@ucdavis.edu.

Mayan religions and spirituality

Victor Montejo, associate professor of Native American studies, is an anthropologist who studies indigenous religions and spirituality. He has focused on the sacred myths of creation of the Mayas and the current ecological and spiritual beliefs among Jakaltek Mayas in Guatemala. His article, "The Road to Heaven: Jakaltek Maya Beliefs, Religion and the Ecology," deals with indigenous myths, moral values and respectful attitudes toward nature, humans and the supernatural world. Montejo is the author of the 1999 illustrated version for young readers of the "Popol Vuh, the Sacred Book of the Mayas" and "Q'anil: Man of Lightning," University of Arizona Press. Contact: Victor Montejo, Native American Studies, (fluent in Spanish) (530) 754-6128, vmontejo@ucdavis.edu.

Crop genetic resource conservation

Anthropologist Steve Brush works with farmers in adapting agriculture and designing programs to get them involved in conserving crop genetic resources. His research concerns agricultural ecology and the conservation of crop genetic resources. Brush has done field work on these topics in Peru (1970-1986), Turkey (1990-1994), and Mexico (since 1995). A professor in the UC Davis Department of Human and Community Development, Brush was previously a senior scientist at the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute in Rome, 1994-1995, where he designed a global program for on-farm conservation of crop genetic resources. He has been a consultant to the World Bank, the Office of Technology Assessment, the United Nations Development Programme, the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations and UNESCO. Contact: Steve Brush (fluent in Spanish), Human and Community Development, (530) 752-4368, sbbrush@ucdavis.edu.

Dance in the Americas

Zoila Mendoza, associate professor in Native American studies, is a sociocultural anthropologist who studies performance and dance in the Americas and Africa. She has looked at festivals, carnivals and dance troupes, looking at how race, ethnicity and politics play out in dance. "Dance is a whole world, looking at conflicts that emerge based on gender, nationalism, regionalism and transationalism as they define a local identity," she says. She can talk about the cultural significance of folk dances and their choreography, costumes, dance rituals and the music used in dance. Contact: Zoila Mendoza (fluent in Spanish), Native American studies, (530) 754-9283, zsmendoza@ucdavis.edu.

Mexican immigrant communities

James Grieshop, specialist and lecturer in human and community development, is an anthropologist with extensive applied research and educational experience with Mexican immigrant communities in California. In the past 10 years he has completed a number of collaborative projects with the Mixtec immigrant community in the Central Valley of California and in Mixtec areas of Mexico. A primary focus of his work has been on the incorporation of Mixtec into local communities and schools as well as their ongoing cross-border connections to home communities in Oaxaca. He has used print and film media to document and communicate the stories of Mixtec immigrant families in California. Contact: James Grieshop, Human and Community Development, (fluent in Spanish) (530) 752-3008, jigrieshop@ucdavis.edu.

South Asian youth culture in the U.S.

Sunaina Maira, associate professor of Asian American studies, looks at South Asian youth culture in the United States. She can talk about musical, political, romantic and social trends among teenagers from Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi backgrounds. A cultural anthropologist, Maira is writing a book about how high-school-aged Muslim immigrants from South Asia view citizenship and national identity since the events of Sept. 11, 2001. Maira wrote "Desis in the House: Indian American Youth Culture in New York City" (2002) and co-edited "Contours of the Heart: South Asians Map North America" (1996). Contact: Sunaina Maira, Asian American Studies, (530) 752-6727, smaira@ucdavis.edu.

THE MIDDLE EAST

Arab women

UC Davis anthropologist Suad Joseph is an expert in gender, family, politics, and culture and identity in the Middle East. Joseph is following a cohort of children in a Lebanese village, observing over time how they learn their notions of rights, responsibilities, nationality and citizenship; how these ideas come to be thought of as male or female; and how the notions are transferred from the family into political and public arenas. She is the general editor of The Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures and founded and coordinates the Arab Families Working Group, a consortium of scholars, planners and policy-makers who carry out research on Lebanon, Palestine and Egypt. She is also founder and first president of the Association of Middle East Women's Studies, the main U.S.-based organization for scholars who conduct research about women in the Middle East. Contact: Suad Joseph, Anthropology, (530) 752-1593, sjoseph@ucdavis.edu.

SOUTH ASIA (INDIA, PAKISTAN, ETC.)

Religious movements

UC Davis anthropologist Smriti Srinivas can talk about contemporary religious movements -- Hindu, Islamic and Buddhist -- emerging out of Asia. Srinivas is currently writing a book about a transnational religious movement led by the Indian guru Sathya Sai Baba. Her research interests also include the study of cities and urban cultures, performance, the body and society, and the cultural construction of collective memory. She is the author of "The Mouths of People, the Voice of God: Buddhists and Muslims in a Frontier Community of Ladakh" (1998) and "Landscapes of Urban Memory: The Sacred and the Civic in India's High-Tech City" (2001). Contact: Smriti Srinivas, Anthropology, (530) 752-9223, ssrinivas@ucdavis.edu.

ASIA

Housing reform in China

Li Zhang, assistant professor of anthropology, researches the social and spatial consequences of China's urban housing reform as it changes from property of the state to privately held parcels. Her research has focused on Kunming, China, capital of the Yunnan Province. Her research on China and other countries in East Asia also looks at migration and urban anthropology; space, power, and Identity; tourism and consumerism; gender and modernity. Contact: Li Zhang, Anthropology, lizhang@ucdavis.edu.

AUSTRALIA

Aboriginal myth, time and language

Aram A. Yengoyan, professor of anthropology, writes and teaches on the importance of myth among Aboriginal Australian cultures. Basically, myth as expressed through epics and legends is the link from the most ancient past to the present. In his work he shows how different language structures (either through tense or aspect) connect myth as a critical and active force in everyday realities among the Pitjantjatjara in Australia. He has published extensively on the theoretical and ethnographic implications. Contact: Aram A. Yengoyan, Teaching Resources Center, (530) 752-6050 or Anthropology, (530) 752-2849, aayengoyan@ucdavis.edu.

Media contacts:

• Claudia Morain at the UC Davis News Service, (530) 752-9841, cmmorain@ucdavis.edu

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