Edward Schortman

Edward Schortman, professor of anthropology, joined the faculty at Kenyon in 1981.

"I began college convinced that my future lay in history (so to speak); the only problem was that the more I studied this subject the more I found myself drawn into ever earlier time periods. After four years as an undergraduate at the University of Delaware, I had successfully worked my way into prehistory and that is where I remain today. Archaeology won me over because it is so exciting to push the boundaries of knowledge beyond the traditional limits of large, literate civilizations into the realm of cultures whose members left no written records. These people are easily ignored when we think about the past and the diverse lifestyles that have characterized humanity from its inception to the present. Describing prehistoric cultures and understanding their varied histories from the materials they left behind (pottery, stone tools, buildings and the like) is a challenge that is often daunting, but always rewarding.

"Preparing for a professional career, I pursued graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania, where I specialized in the archaeology of Mexico and Central America. This area attracted me because of its vibrant living and complex prehistoric cultures and the opportunity it provides to trace the varied ways in which societies transformed themselves from small-scale nomadic bands into some of the largest civilizations and empires the prehistoric world has ever produced. I have had the good fortune to be able to participate in site surveys and excavations in central Mexico, highland, and lowland Guatemala, as well as Honduras from 1973-1977, directing research programs in Guatemala and Honduras pretty continuously from 1977 through to the present. My interests still range widely and I teach courses at Kenyon dealing with my specialization as well as introductions to archaeology and cultural anthropology, the living and past cultures of North, Central, and South America, the anthropology of politics and the history of anthropological thought. My principal research foci center on two related topics: the manner in which rulers and those they seek to rule contend for political power within hierarchical societies; and the impact of external ties on local social and political developments. I have written, largely with my colleague and wife, Patricia Urban, articles and books dealing with these issues and am currently wrestling into publishable form data collected over twenty years in Honduras.

"Perhaps the most exciting work in which I have engaged since coming to Kenyon in 1981 is the Kenyon-Honduras Program. Beginning in 1985, this course of study has involved 77 undergraduates from Kenyon and elsewhere as full-fledged participants in the archaeological research Pat Urban and I have been conducting in the Naco Valley, northwestern Honduras. Supported by seminar classes in anthropology and archaeology, students are integrated into all aspects of the research process, from defining a question for investigation, to overseeing the fieldwork needed to address that issue, culminating in the analysis of finds and writing up the results in a publishable form. The five months spent in the field are challenging and demanding but the rewards are great. During 1995 and 1996, students had the option of pursuing ethnographic investigations, complementing the traditional archaeological focus of the program. This opportunity has been enhanced in our new research setting, in the archaeologically unknown lower Cacaulapa Valley adjoining Naco on the southwest. As in the past, student participants have the chance to make substantial contributions to our knowledge of Honduran prehistory and modern social processes while learning about archaeology, a foreign culture and themselves."