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Curator of Latin American Archaeology and
Director of the Museum of Anthropology;
Robert L. Carneiro Distinguished University Professor of Social Evolution

• Affiliation(s)

  • Museum of Anthropology
  • Department of Anthropology

• About

  Research interests:  Comparative states, chiefdoms; early villages and household archaeology; origins of complexity and hereditary inequality; writing systems; gender, craft specialization; urbanism; political economy

  Joyce Marcus works on cycles of change in chiefly societies, first- and second-generation states, as well as expansionist empires. She combines ethnohistory, ethnography, art, and hieroglyphic writing to shed light on ancient societies. She has excavated in the USA, Mexico, Guatemala, and Peru.  

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  Selected Publications:

  Archaic States (co-ed. with Gary M. Feinman)
  Mesoamerican Writing Systems
  Emblem and State in the Classic Maya Lowlands
  Excavations at Cerro Azul, Peru: The Architecture and Pottery

• Education

  • A.B., University of California-Berkeley, 1969
  • M.A., Harvard University, 1971
  • Ph.D., Harvard University, 1974

• Awards

  • 2005–2007, Chair of Anthropology, National Academy of Sciences
  • 1997, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
  • 1997, National Academy of Sciences
  • 1995, LSA Excellence in Research Award

• Selected Publications:

• Books

  • (1998) 33. Women's Ritual in Formative Oaxaca
  • (1994) 89. Caciques and Their People
  • (1990) 84. Debating Oaxaca Archaeology
  • (1987) 20. Late Intermediate Occupation at Cerro Azul, Perú