Brendan Weaver

B.A. Anthropology, Western Michigan University, 2005

Contact
Moore 1037
Email Website

Research interests: historical archaeology/anthropology, comparative colonialism, ethnohistory, multi-field anthropology, African Diasporas, pre-Columbian peoples, political economy, and particularly: Latin American and Caribbean Studies with respect to issues of power, labor, and identity

Regional focus: Latin America and the Caribbean

A closer look: I am interested in the historical anthropology of early colonialism and the contact period in the Americas. I have previously worked for three field seasons in Barbados studying both British colonialism and the archaeology of the pre-Columbian peoples of the southeastern Caribbean. In the macro sense I am interested in how European, African, and indigenous peoples first engage in the processes of transculturation, leading to new power relations and political economies, which continue to have a bearing on contemporary ideas of identity. The particular topic I have chosen for my thesis is the archaeology and ethnohistory of a contact period site in Southern Andean Bolivia known as Ferro Ingenio. I have spent two field seasons collecting data from the site, located near the silver mining centers of Porco and Potosí.