John Speth
- Arthur F. Thurnau Professor Emeritus, Department of Anthropology
- Curator Emeritus, Museum of Anthropological Archaeology
Information
- Email: jdspeth@umich.edu
- Phone: 734.764.7274
- Office: 218-A West Hall, 1085 South University Ave., Ann Arbor, MI 48109
- Ph.D. 1971, University of Michigan
- Website
Research Interests
Topical/Theoretical
- Hunters and gatherers (past and present)
- Plains-Pueblo interaction
- Paleoindian
- Middle Paleolithic (Europe and Near East)
- Evolution of human diet
- Hunting
- Zooarchaeology
Geographical
- North America
- American Southwest
- Europe
- Near East
Research Projects
Research Description
John Speth studies hunter-gatherers, past and present, New World and Old World. He is interested generally in the evolution of foragers' diet, subsistence strategies, and food processing technologies and, more specifically in the ways that hunter-gatherers (and small-scale farmers) cope with seasonal and inter-annual unpredictability in their resource base. Largely through fauna, he also is exploring the nutritional and economic basis of Plains-Pueblo interaction in the American Southwest and Neanderthal hunting in the Near Eastern Levant.