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Clark Erickson's Homepage

Associate Professor of Anthropology
Department of Anthropology
University of Pennsylvania
Associate Curator of the American Section
University of Pennsylvania Museum
of Archaeology and Anthropology

Clark and Antuka

Clark and Antuka (the tapir) at the Beni Biological Station

EDUCATION
B.A. Anthropology, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, 1976.
M.A. Anthropology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, 1980.
Ph.D. Anthropology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, 1988.

CURRENT POSITIONS
Associate Professor: Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania
Associate Curator: American Section, University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania

MAJOR RESEARCH INTERESTS
I am currently directing a multi-year, multidisciplinary investigation of traditional agricultural systems of agricultural production, precolumbian landuse, anthropogenic landscapes, human environmental impact, and the technological and engineering knowledge of prehispanic farmers in the Amazonian region of Bolivia (Llanos de Moxos or Llanos de Moxos, Department of the Beni, Bolivia). The fieldwork involves archaeological survey, mapping, and excavation of agricultural earthworks (raised fields, causeways, canals, and settlement mounds), digital analysis of remote sensing, and establishment of a Geographic Information System. The research also includes agricultural experimentation based on the now-abandoned technology defined from archaeological research. Between 1990 and 1994, we developed an "applied archaeology" program whereby indigenous communities participated in the raised field experiments. Since 1995, we have focused our investigations on a vast complex of precolumbian earthworks in the Baures, the region along the border between Bolivia and Brazil. The research is funded by the National Science Foundation, H. John Heinz Charitable Trust, the Research Foundation, American Philosophical Society, and the Interamerican Foundation. During the 1980s, I investigated prehispanic raised field agriculture in the Lake Titicaca Basin of Peru.

Prehispanic Raised Fields

Prehispanic raised fields in the region of Santa Ana de Yacuma,
Department of the Beni, Bolivia

SOME PUBLICATIONS

Click here to read articles or download pdf files of Erickson publications from 1980-present

2001 Pre-Columbian Fish Farming in the Amazon. Expedition. 43(1):7-8. [view or download]

2000 An Artificial Landscape-scale Fishery in the Bolivian Amazon. Nature 408:190-193 [view or download]

2000 Lomas de ocupacion en los Llanos de Moxos. IN Arqueologia de Tierras Bajas. Edited by Alicia Duran Coirolo and Roberto Bracco Boksar, Comision Nacional de Arqueologia, Ministerio de Educacion y Cultura, Montevideo, Uruguay, pp. 207-226. [view or download]

2000 The Lake Titicaca Basin: A Precolumbian Built Landscape. IN Imperfect Balance: Landscape Transformations in the PreColumbian Americas. edited by David Lentz, Columbia University Press, New York, pp. 311-356. [view or download]

1999 Neo-environmental determinism and agrarian "collapse" in Andean prehistory. Antiquity 73:634-642. [view or download]

1998 Applied Archaeology and Rural Development: Archaeology's Potential Contribution to the Future. IN Crossing Currents: Continuity and Change in Latin America. edited by M. Whiteford and S. Whiteford, Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle, NJ, pp. 34-45. [view or download]

1996 Investigación arqueológica del sistema agrícola de los camellones en la cuenca del lago Titicaca del Perú. A Spanish translation of my doctoral dissertation An Archaeological Investigation of Raised Field Agriculture in the Lake Titicaca Basin of Peru. Centro de Información para el Desarrollo y Programa Interinstitucional de Waru Waru (PIWA), La Paz, Bolivia. summary or resumen.

1995 Archaeological Perspectives on Ancient Landscapes of the Llanos de Mojos in the Bolivian Amazon. In Archaeology in the American Tropics: Current Analytical Methods and Applications, edited by Peter Stahl, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 66-95. [view or download]

1994 Methodological Considerations in the Study of Ancient Andean Field Systems. In The Archaeology of Garden and Field , edited by Kathryn Gleason and Naomi Miller, The University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, pp. 111-15.

1993 The Social Organization of Prehispanic Raised Field Agriculture in the Lake Titicaca Basin. In Economic Aspects of Water Management in the Prehispanic New World, Research in Economic Anthropology, Supplement No. 7, edited by Vernon Scarborough and Barry Isaac, JAI Press, pp. 369-426.

1992 Prehistoric Landscape Management in the Andean Highlands: Raised Field Agriculture and its Environmental Impact. Population and Environment (Special issue "Social Science Perspectives on Environmental Management," edited by Timothy Kohler), 13(4):285-300.

1988 Raised Field Agriculture in the Lake Titicaca Basin: Putting Ancient Andean Agriculture Back to Work. Expedition, 30(3):8-16, special volume edited by Karen Mohr Chavez on Andean Archaeology, The University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. [view or download]

1989 (with Kay L. Candler) Raised Fields and Sustainable Agriculture in the Lake Titicaca Basin. In Fragile Lands of Latin America: Strategies for Sustainable Development, edited by John Browder, pp. 230-248, Westview Press, Boulder.

1987 The Dating of Raised Field Agriculture in the Lake Titicaca Basin of Peru. In Pre-Hispanic Agricultural Fields in the Andean Region, edited by William M. Denevan, Kent Mathewson and Gregory Knapp, pp. 373-383, British Archaeological Reports, International Series, No. 359, Oxford.

1986 Agricultura en camellones en la cuenca del Lago Titicaca: Aspectos técnicos y su futura. In Andenes y camellones en el Perú Andino: Historia presente y futuro. Edited by Carlos de la Torre and Manuel Burga, pp. 331-350, Consejo Nacional de Ciéncia y Tecnología, Lima.

1986 Waru waru: Una tecnología agrícola del altiplano prehistórico. In Andenes y camellones en el Peru Andino: Historia, presente y futuro. Edited by Carlos de la Torre and Manuel Burga, pp. 59-84, Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología, Moscazul, Lima.

1986 (with Ignacio Garaycochea and Dan Brinkmeier) Como construir waru waru. Consejo Nacional de Ciéncia y Tecnología, Lima.

1986 (with Kay Candler and Dan Brinkmeier) Antukuq waru warun. (Manual on raised fields in Quechua), Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología, Lima.

1986 (with Ignacio Garaycochea and Luis Masias) Volver a construir waru waru. Centro de Servicio de Pedagogía para la Capacitación, Ministerio de Agricultura (7 class video training program for raised field agriculture in Quechua).

1985 Applications of Prehistoric Andean Technology: Experiments in Raised field agriculture, Huatta, Lake Titicaca, Peru, 1981-1983. In Prehistoric Intensive Agriculture in the Tropics, edited by Ian Farrington, pp. 209-232, British Archaeological Reports, International Series, No. 232, Oxford.

1984 Waru waru: una tecnología agrícola del Altiplano prehistórico. Boletín del Instituto de Estudios Aymaras. 18(serie 2):4-37, Chucuito.

1983 Los waru waru. Minka no. 11, Junio, Huancayo.

1983-4 (with Frank Salomon). Tulipe, un recinto sagrado en la montana ecuatoriana. Antropología Ecuatoriana. No. 2- 3:57-78. Quito, Ecuador.

1982 Los waru waru de Huatta, Puno. Gaceta Arqueológica Andina. Instituto Andino de Estudios Arqueológicos, 4:4-5. Lima.

1980 Sistemas agrícolas prehispánicos en los Llanos de Mojos. America Indígena. 40(4):731-755. Mexico. [view or download]

Experimental Raised Field

Experimental raised field construction in the Community of Bermeo
Department of the Beni, Bolivia

COURSES AND SYLLABI

HOW TO CONTACT ME
Department of Anthropology
University Museum
University of Pennsylvania
33rd and Spruce Streets
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6398
Tel: (215) 898-2282
Fax: (215) 898-7254
E-mail: cerickso@sas.upenn.edu

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