Oystein S LaBianca
Øystein Sakala LaBianca (Ph.D. Brandeis University 1987) is Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Associate Director of the Institute of Archaeology at Andrews University. The following is an overview of the evolution of my research in anthropology.
Beginnings in Zooarchaeology
My first fieldwork experience was in the summer of 1971 as a member of Andrews University‘s dig at Tall Hesban in Jordan. As a recent college graduate with a declared interest in a career in anthropology, I was assigned by Siegfried Horn, the director, to assist Robert M. Little, the project’s physical anthropologist, to clean and label the animal bones. I ran with this opportunity, and with the help of some good reference materials I had brought along, I learned the basics of faunal analysis. My first publication (LaBianca 1973) was a report on the animal bones from the 1971 season at Hesban — a report which greatly benefited from a week spent in the zooarchaeological laboratory of Johannes Lepiksaar of the Museum of Natural History in Gothenberg, Sweden. My zooarchaeological apprentiships subsequently included work as a special student, supervised by Richard Meadow and Barbara Lawrence, at Harvard University‘s Department of Anthropology and Museum of Comparative Anatomy, respectively; and collaboration on the final report on the faunal remains from Hesban with Joachim Boessneck and Angela von den Driesch of the University of Munich (LaBianca and von den Driesch 1995).
Food Systems Research
It was as a doctoral student in sociocultural anthropology and archaeology at Brandeis University, supervised by Judith Zeitlin and Robert Hunt, that I received the mentorship that enabled me to adapt the food systems concept as a framework for analyzing long-term changes in the zooarchaeological record of Hesban. This concept, along with the related notions of cycles of intensification and abatement and episodes of sedentarization and nomadization, enabled me to posit systematic temporal interrelationships between various lines of archaeological evidence from Hesban and vicinity, including changes in regional settlement patterns, architectural remains, pottery, objects, carbonized seeds and animal bones. This work culminated with my doctoral dissertation, which was revised and published as the first volume in a National Endowment for the Humanities sponsored Hesban final reports series (LaBianca 1990). I have also published a number of articles describing various ways in which I have used the food systems framework as a means to interpret archaeological remains (cf. LaBianca 1991).
Ethnoarchaeology, Ethnohistory and Indigenous Knowledge
Having succeeded, in the course of my doctoral research, in documenting the existence of multi-millennial cycles of intensification and abatement in the food systems of Hesban and Central Transjordan, much of my research since then has centered on discovering the mechanisms that account for these cycles. There are two distinct phases to this research, the first begun during the late eighties and early nineties, the second since then. The first phase focused on discovering the internal cultural mechanisms that enabled individual households and whole communities to shift back and forth between sedentary and nomadic ways. This research, which was sponsored by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, involved extensive use of ethnoarchaeological and ethnohistorical data, culminated with identification of seven such mechanisms — local level water management, mixed agro-pastoralism, fluid homeland territories, residential flexibility, hospitality, honor and tribalism. I have discussed these local-level survival strategies in several recent articles, referring to them as “indigenous hardiness structures” (LaBianca 2000).
Environmental Archaeology
The second phase has centered on discovering the nature of external influences that have played a role in producing these cycles. To this end I have pursued two major lines of research, the first dealing with the role of climate change, the second with the role of ancient world systems and civilizations. Our initial studies of ancient pollen, plant and animal remains from Hesban and vicinity did not produce compelling evidence of macroclimatic change during the past five millennia as a factor in explaining local food system cycles (LaBianca and Lacelle 1986). Subsequent research sponsored by the National Geographic Society has, however, suggested a possible link between episodes of food system intensification and abatement and cycles of environmental degeneration and regeneration (LaBianca and Christopherson 1998).
Civilization Research and Global History
Efforts to correlate ups and downs in Hesban‘s fortunes to ancient world system cycles are still underway (LaBianca and Scham 2005). What this endeavor has brought to light already is the important role that competing civilizations and imperial projects have played in shapi
Beginnings in Zooarchaeology
My first fieldwork experience was in the summer of 1971 as a member of Andrews University‘s dig at Tall Hesban in Jordan. As a recent college graduate with a declared interest in a career in anthropology, I was assigned by Siegfried Horn, the director, to assist Robert M. Little, the project’s physical anthropologist, to clean and label the animal bones. I ran with this opportunity, and with the help of some good reference materials I had brought along, I learned the basics of faunal analysis. My first publication (LaBianca 1973) was a report on the animal bones from the 1971 season at Hesban — a report which greatly benefited from a week spent in the zooarchaeological laboratory of Johannes Lepiksaar of the Museum of Natural History in Gothenberg, Sweden. My zooarchaeological apprentiships subsequently included work as a special student, supervised by Richard Meadow and Barbara Lawrence, at Harvard University‘s Department of Anthropology and Museum of Comparative Anatomy, respectively; and collaboration on the final report on the faunal remains from Hesban with Joachim Boessneck and Angela von den Driesch of the University of Munich (LaBianca and von den Driesch 1995).
Food Systems Research
It was as a doctoral student in sociocultural anthropology and archaeology at Brandeis University, supervised by Judith Zeitlin and Robert Hunt, that I received the mentorship that enabled me to adapt the food systems concept as a framework for analyzing long-term changes in the zooarchaeological record of Hesban. This concept, along with the related notions of cycles of intensification and abatement and episodes of sedentarization and nomadization, enabled me to posit systematic temporal interrelationships between various lines of archaeological evidence from Hesban and vicinity, including changes in regional settlement patterns, architectural remains, pottery, objects, carbonized seeds and animal bones. This work culminated with my doctoral dissertation, which was revised and published as the first volume in a National Endowment for the Humanities sponsored Hesban final reports series (LaBianca 1990). I have also published a number of articles describing various ways in which I have used the food systems framework as a means to interpret archaeological remains (cf. LaBianca 1991).
Ethnoarchaeology, Ethnohistory and Indigenous Knowledge
Having succeeded, in the course of my doctoral research, in documenting the existence of multi-millennial cycles of intensification and abatement in the food systems of Hesban and Central Transjordan, much of my research since then has centered on discovering the mechanisms that account for these cycles. There are two distinct phases to this research, the first begun during the late eighties and early nineties, the second since then. The first phase focused on discovering the internal cultural mechanisms that enabled individual households and whole communities to shift back and forth between sedentary and nomadic ways. This research, which was sponsored by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, involved extensive use of ethnoarchaeological and ethnohistorical data, culminated with identification of seven such mechanisms — local level water management, mixed agro-pastoralism, fluid homeland territories, residential flexibility, hospitality, honor and tribalism. I have discussed these local-level survival strategies in several recent articles, referring to them as “indigenous hardiness structures” (LaBianca 2000).
Environmental Archaeology
The second phase has centered on discovering the nature of external influences that have played a role in producing these cycles. To this end I have pursued two major lines of research, the first dealing with the role of climate change, the second with the role of ancient world systems and civilizations. Our initial studies of ancient pollen, plant and animal remains from Hesban and vicinity did not produce compelling evidence of macroclimatic change during the past five millennia as a factor in explaining local food system cycles (LaBianca and Lacelle 1986). Subsequent research sponsored by the National Geographic Society has, however, suggested a possible link between episodes of food system intensification and abatement and cycles of environmental degeneration and regeneration (LaBianca and Christopherson 1998).
Civilization Research and Global History
Efforts to correlate ups and downs in Hesban‘s fortunes to ancient world system cycles are still underway (LaBianca and Scham 2005). What this endeavor has brought to light already is the important role that competing civilizations and imperial projects have played in shapi
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Papers by Oystein S LaBianca
What has made this region a virtual cauldron of global moments is its strategic location astride a vital intercontinental land bridge connecting the continents of Africa, Asia, and Europe. This location has made it a crossroads of cultures and civilizations, a corridor of communication and commerce, and a highway of military movement and intrigue since the dawn of settled life.
The Global Moments in the Levant research programme seeks to delineate what the salient theoretical and methodological implications are of the fundamental methodological assumption that the insights derived from historical and archaeological study of the past are relevant for understanding the present situation in the region and that, in turn, the findings of ethnographic studies carried out in the present have relevance not only for today, but also for understanding the past.
Reports are provided by a spectrum of specialists and deal with Arabic, Greek, Latin and Ammonite inscriptions; ceramic figurines; scarabs; glass fragments; domestic stone objects and iron samples; textile tools; cosmetic objects and jewelry; and coins, all findings from the Tell Hesban excavations."
Everything was shot by one person during a 3 week dig. Some shots are from the surrounding regions, such as Madaba, Jerash, and Wadi Musa. Typography is "Fontin" by Jos Buivenga of exljbris Font Foundry.