L. Antonio Curet

Biography

      L. Antonio Curet was born on October 20, 1960 in Hato Rey, Puerto Rico. In 1978 he conducted his studies at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras where he obtained his bachelor (1978; magna cum laude) and masters (1985) in science with a concentration in Chemistry. In 1985 he moved to Arizona and completed his doctoral degree in Anthropology with an emphasis in Archaeology (1992). He worked as an assistant professor at Gettysburg College in 1993 and in1996 at the University of Colorado at Denver.

      In 2000, Curet accepted a position on Circum-Caribbean archaeology at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, where currently hold the title of Associate Curator of Circum-Caribbean Archaeology. Curet’s broad experience in New World archaeology includes research conducted in the Caribbean, Mexico, and Arizona. His main research interests include social and cultural processes and demographic issues in prehispanic societies. Curet has published in national and international journals and recently published a book on paleodemography and the Caribbean and co-edited a volume on Cuban archaeology. At the present time he is conducting a long-term research project at the Ceremonial Center of Tibes, Ponce, Puerto Rico, where he is studying changes in household economies and organizations related to the development of social inequality.

Abstract

Rouse’s Contribution to Archaeology: The Case of Migrations

      During his archaeological research career that lasted almost seven decades, Irving Rouse made many important contributions to the discipline of archaeology. His publications and ideas went through, and survived many stages of the history of anthropology and archaeology including historical particularism, cultural ecology, cultural historicism, the New Archaeology, and post-processualism. Unfortunately, many modern archaeologists normally ignore many of Rouse’s contributions to the discipline, while others use them without recognizing (or knowing at all) were they originated. In short, Rouse’s role in the shaping of modern archaeological methods and theory are not recognized. This presentation discusses one of the consistent topics present throughout Rouse’s work and that had an impact in the discipline at large, migrations in ancient history.