John W Hoopes
Between July 1 and December 31, 2017, I was a Visiting Professor and Greenleaf Distinguished Chair of Latin American Studies at Tulane University in New Orleans, with an appointment through the Roger Thayer Stone Center of Latin American Studies and the Middle American Research Institute.
You can learn more about my program at the University of Kansas at http://anthropology.ku.edu
My principal training is in archaeology and my interests include Pre-Columbian cultures of Mesoamerica, the Isthmo-Colombian Area, the Pan-Caribbean Area, northern South America, and the Central Andes.
I have been focusing on native cultures of Costa Rica for most of my career. I am developing an archaeological field project at Nuevo Corinto, an ancient village in the Caribbean lowlands of Costa Rica, in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Costa Rica.
My current research interests include interpretations of Pre-Columbian art and iconography, "shamanism," and popular perceptions of archaeology as manifest in pseudoarchaeology, pseudoscience, and mythology in contemporary culture.
Phone: 785-864-2638
Address: Department of Anthropology
The University of Kansas
1415 Jayhawk Blvd., Room 622
Lawrence, KS 66045
You can learn more about my program at the University of Kansas at http://anthropology.ku.edu
My principal training is in archaeology and my interests include Pre-Columbian cultures of Mesoamerica, the Isthmo-Colombian Area, the Pan-Caribbean Area, northern South America, and the Central Andes.
I have been focusing on native cultures of Costa Rica for most of my career. I am developing an archaeological field project at Nuevo Corinto, an ancient village in the Caribbean lowlands of Costa Rica, in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Costa Rica.
My current research interests include interpretations of Pre-Columbian art and iconography, "shamanism," and popular perceptions of archaeology as manifest in pseudoarchaeology, pseudoscience, and mythology in contemporary culture.
Phone: 785-864-2638
Address: Department of Anthropology
The University of Kansas
1415 Jayhawk Blvd., Room 622
Lawrence, KS 66045
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Books by John W Hoopes
Journal Articles by John W Hoopes
This article provides a historical review of key
ideas and authors who contributed to the emergence
of mythology about 2012.
This article provides a historical review of key
ideas and authors who contributed to the emergence
of mythology about 2012.
discussed the region between the southern frontiers of Mesoamerica and the northern frontiers of the Central Andes-often referred to as the "Intermediate Area" -that remains unfamiliar to many specialists. A growing body of multidisciplinary
scholarship from the fields of historical linguistics, human genetics, archaeology, ethnohistory, and sociocultural anthropology offers a new perspective on the cultures that connected southern Mesoamerica with the northern Andes and the Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean. Hoopes' talk provided an introduction to how scholars are addressing this new paradigm and discussed its implications for Pre-Columbian studies. It also described the region's principal iconographic motifs as they are represented in ceramics, stone sculpture, jade carving, and metallurgy and explained what they reveal about ancient belief systems of the predominantly Chibchan-speaking peoples and their neighbors in Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia. Dr. Hoopes received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from Harvard University. He is currently Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Kansas. He is also a courtesy curator at the Museum of Anthropology at the university. His research interests include the archaeology of Central and South America, Chibchan culture, internet archaeology, cultural evolution, prehistoric trade and exchange, origins of agriculture and sedentism, and prehistoric ceramics.
Archaeological research in the vicinity of Arenal Volcano has revealed evidence for ceramics. dwellings. and possible maize agriculture dating as early as 2000 BC. The associated ceramics fit stylistically within general Early Formative distinct from patterns. However. they are sufficiently distinct from complexes to the north and south to suggest that significant processes of regionalization were occurring early in the prehistory of Lower Central America.
Until recently. very little was known about the nature of village life in Costa Rica during the Formative Period (ca. 2000 BC AD 600). Ceramics dating to 2000 BC or earlier had been identified in Panama. Colombia. and Ecuador to the south and Guatemala. Belize. and Mexico to the north. However, little comparative material was known from Costa Rica. The new data from the Arenal region have made it necessary to re-evaluate of existing models for the appearance of the Formative stage in Lower Central America.