The Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology begins its Fall programming season by welcoming Michael F. Brown, President of the School of Advanced Research in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Dr. Brown’s lecture will consider the SAR’s complex, colorful history in light of the challenges faced today by the discipline of anthropology.

The School for Advanced Research (SAR), founded in 1907 in Santa Fe, NM, is a one-of-a-kind independent research center focused on anthropology and Native American arts. It has survived and prospered far from the nation’s coastal centers of power and wealth thanks to a demonstrated ability to adapt to changing realities. Originally founded as a school for American archaeology whose activities would today invite accusations of colonialism, SAR has moved decisively toward collaborative relations with Native American communities, support for global social science research, and a commitment to communicating anthropological insights to the general public.

Michael F. Brown, a cultural anthropologist, was named president of the School for Advanced Research in 2014 after a long career on the faculty of Williams College. He received his A.B. degree from Princeton and his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. Brown is the author of six books, including Who Owns Native Culture?and Upriver: The Turbulent Life and Times of an Amazonian People, both published by Harvard University Press. His research interests include ethnomedicine, religion, the Indigenous peoples of Amazonia, and contemporary disputes over cultural property.

Reception to follow at the Manning Hall Gallery (21 Prospect St. Providence)

Supported by generous donors to Friends of the Haffenreffer Museum.

Zachary Silvia, a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Brown University’s Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology, will discuss his research in an informal talk entitled, “Recent Explorations in the Bukhara Oasis, Uzbekistan: Towards an Archaeology of Rural Lifeways in Hellenistic Central Asia”.

For a full list of Archaeology Brown Bag talks, please visit our blog: sites.brown.edu/archaeology/

Join us for the Joukowksy Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World’s Field Dirt: The Undergrad Edition, where undergraduate students will discuss their summer fieldwork in a casual forum.

This event is free and open to the public - all are welcome!

Come be part of an active archaeological excavation! Students will be digging on the grounds outside the List Art Building. Stop by (with your family or on your own) any time between 11:00 am and 3:00 pm to see what artifacts students are discovering or even try your hand at digging.

Join the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World and the AIA Narragansett Society for an archaeology-themed open house on Brown University’s Main Green. See ancient coins from Greece and Rome up close! Touch animal bones! Examine and draw Persian and Roman ceramics, prehistoric tools, precious metals, and other artifacts from thousands of years ago – coached by experts! And talk with Brown’s archaeologists about their fieldwork all over the world!

Free and open to the public! All ages welcome!

This event is part of Anthropology’s Fall 2023 Colloquia Series

Archaeological investigations at the site of Aguada Fénix, Mexico, revealed monumental constructions dating to 1050-750 BC. This was the period soon after the adoption of ceramics, during the transition from mobile lifeways to sedentism, and centuries before the development of hierarchical, centralized polities. Recent research also shows that this site had an extensive system of hydraulic features, including canals and an embankment. These constructions provide critical information on large-scale collective action and water management in the absence of marked social inequality.

Speaker: Takeshi Inomata, Professor of Anthropology, University of Arizona 

Eric Johnson, the 2022–24 Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of History of Art and Architecture and the Native American and Indigenous Studies Initiative and the Cogut Institute for the Humanities, will discuss his research in an informal talk entitled, “Epistemologies of Recognition: Contending with Colonial Stonework on Indigenous Land”.

For a full list of Archaeology Brown Bag talks, please visit our blog: sites.brown.edu/archaeology/

Come to the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology’s Open Collection Hours! Explore the Institute’s (hidden!) Collection of ancient ceramic vessels, lamps, figurines, lithics, sherds, and more. Expert docents will be on hand to answer questions.

Free and open to the public!