Robin Beck

Research interests:  Social organization of complex societies, social change, colonialism, archaeology and ethnohistory of eastern North America, Andes

Robin Beck is Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Curator of Eastern North American Archaeology in the Museum of Anthropological Archaeology. His research interests include the archaeology and ethnohistory of complex societies in eastern North America and the Andes of Bolivia and Peru, early colonial encounters in what is now the southern United States, and the broader issues related to social organization and change.

Rob received his PhD in Anthropology from Northwestern University in 2004. For his dissertation work, he excavated a Middle Formative (800–400 BC) ritual platform at the site of Alto Pukara, located in Bolivia's Lake Titicaca Basin at an altitude of 3800 m. His research at Alto Pukara used Lévi-Strauss’ concept of the social house to understand transformations in public space during the Formative Period. Since 2001, concurrent with his Andean work, Rob has co-directed the Exploring Joara Project, which focuses on the archaeology and early colonial history of Native American societies in the North Carolina Piedmont. Rob and his collegues have directed NSF-supported research along the Catawba River at the Berry site, location of the native town of Joara and the Spanish garrison Fort San Juan, built by the Juan Pardo expedition in 1567. Manned by thirty soldiers for eighteen months, this fort is the earliest European settlement in the interior of what is now the United States. Its excavation is shedding new light on the process and practice of colonialism near the very beginning of the colonial era. 

Selected Publications:

     Books:

2016 Fort San Juan and the Limits of Empire: Colonialism and Household Practice at the Berry Site. Edited by Robin A. Beck, Christopher B. Rodning, and David G. Moore. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.

2013 Chiefdoms, Collapse, and Coalescence in the Early American South. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

2007 The Durable House: House Society Models in Archaeology, edited by Robin A. Beck. Occasional Paper No. 35, Center for Archaeological Investigations, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.

Journal Articles:

2020 Encountering Novelty: Object, Assemblage, and Mixed Material Culture. Current Anthropology 61(5):622-647, with CA* commentary.

2018 A Road to Zacatecas: Fort San Juan and the Defenses of Spanish La Florida. Robin A. Beck, David G. Moore, Christopher B. Rodning, Timothy Horsley, and Sarah C. Sherwood. American Antiquity 83(4):577-597.

2017 Spaces of Entanglement: Labor and Construction Practice at Fort San Juan de Joara. Robin A. Beck, Lee Ann Newsom, Christopher B. Rodning, and David G. Moore. Historical Archaeology 51(2):167-193.

2016 The Iron in the Posthole: Witchcraft, Women’s Labor, and Spanish Folk Ritual at the Berry Site. American Anthropologist 118(3):525-540.

2016 The Politics of Provisioning: Food and Gender at Fort San Juan de Joara, 1566-1568. Robin A. Beck, Gayle J. Fritz, Heather A. Lapham, David G. Moore, and Christopher B. Rodning. American Antiquity 81(1):3-26.

2012 Political Economy and the Routinization of Religious Movements: A View from the Eastern Woodlands. Robin A. Beck and James A. Brown. In Beyond Belief: The Archaeology of Religion and Ritual, edited by Yorke M. Rowan. Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association 21(1):72-88.

2007 Eventful Archaeology: The Place of Space in Structural Transformation. Robin A. Beck, Douglas J. Bolender, James A. Brown, and Timothy K. Earle. Current Anthropology 48(6):833-860, with CA* commentary.

2003 Consolidation and Hierarchy: Chiefdom Variability in the Mississippian Southeast. American Antiquity 68(4):641-661.