Raven Garvey
- Associate Curator of High Latitude and Western North American Archaeology, Museum of Anthropological Archaeology
- Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology
Information
- Email: garveyr@umich.edu
- Phone: 734.764.7571
- Office: 3010 School of Education Building, 610 E. University Avenue, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1259
- Ph.D. 2012, University of California, Davis
- CV
Research Interests
Topical/Theoretical
- Human ecology
- Hunter-gatherers
- Stone technologies and their evolution
- Adaptations to marginal environments and climate change
Geographical
- Patagonia
Research Projects
- Prehistoric Human Ecology in Northern Patagonia
- Geochemical and Hydration Analyses of Northern Patagonian Obsidians: Tracking the use of known obsidian sources through time and across space—using a combination of X-ray fluorescence and the region's first obsidian hydration rate—permits interpretations of prehistoric land and resource use, and adaptive decision-making in response to changes in resource availability.
- Cultural Transmission and Artifact Variability: This collections-based project is designed to evaluate recently developed archaeological models of cultural transmission, or the transfer of information between people, typically studied for its effects on cultural evolution. More specifically, this project aims to identify within-group learning norms and to understand the importance of advertising group membership under particular circumstances.
Research Description
I study the influences of ecological, demographic, and social factors on prehistoric hunter-gatherers’ behaviors and broader cultural change through time. My current field projects in Patagonia use simple economic models incorporating these factors to generate predictions of hunter-gatherer settlement and resource use at different times in the past. My current lab-based projects are designed to test and develop models of cultural transmission and technological evolution, and to refine Patagonian chronologies using obsidian hydration.