լƵAPP

Department of Anthropology

Kent State Today
Owen Lovejoy, Ph.D., լƵAPP Distinguished Professor

Fifty years ago, լƵAPP Distinguished Professor Owen Lovejoy, Ph.D., was among the very first researchers to study the remains of the famous “Lucy” (Australopithecus afarensis), a 3-million-year-old fossil that had recently been discovered by paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson in Hadar, Ethiopia. He talks with Ideastream’s “The Sound of Ideas” about the experience.

National Park signage for Hopewell Culture National Historical Park

Kent State alumnus and Professor Emeritus help Hopewell earthworks in Ohio earn UNESCO World Cultural Site designation.

 

Polynesian island Anuta at dawn in 2013.

Professor Emeritus Richard Feinberg shared images from his research expeditions to the Polynesian island of Anuta.

Archaeologist Michelle Bebber, Ph.D., assistant professor in Kent State's Department of Anthropology demonstrates the use of an atlatl on the Kent Campus

A new study led by Archaeologist Michelle Bebber, assistant professor in Kent State’s Department of Anthropology, has demonstrated that the atlatl (i.e. spear thrower) functions as an “equalizer,” a finding which supports women’s potential active role as prehistoric hunters.

Metin Eren, Ph.D., associate professor and director of archeology at լƵAPP, demonstrates flintknapping.

For most, the craft known as flintknapping is a skilled hobby or art form that was thought to occasionally require bandages or stitches. However, new research suggests flintknapping is far more dangerous than previously understood.

Study examines the relationship between hazing severity and group solidarity in an anonymous U.S. fraternity.

լƵAPP’s newest anthropologist, Assistant Professor Aldo Cimino, Ph.D., has made it his life’s work to understand the causes and consequences of hazing, including the possible generation of solidarity. He and his co-author recently published an on this question in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior. 

Anna Mika of Parma, Ohio, stands in լƵAPP’s Experimental Archaeology Lab in Lowry Hall.

Sometimes it just takes a small spark to ignite a fire within you. For Anna Mika of Parma, Ohio, who started as a geology major her freshman year at լƵAPP and switched to anthropology the following year, that spark came in 2017 while taking an anthropology course called North America’s Ice Aged Hunters, taught by Metin I. Eren, Ph.D., associate professor and director of archaeology in the College of Arts and Sciences. She said that course changed her perspective on everything.