Susan Kent Research Articles

Susan Kent (ed.): Domestic Architecture and the Use of Space - An Interdisciplinary Cross-Cultural Study

Susan Kent (ed.): Domestic Architecture and the Use of Space - An Interdisciplinary Cross-Cultural Study
 Anmeldes af Bror Westman

An Irish maternity service fit for purpose

As part of our series on the UK and Ireland's midwifery policy, Susan Kent, Deputy Chief Nursing Officer, Ireland, discusses the strengths and challenges of maternity care in the country.

Betwixt and Between: Ethnoarchaeology, Women, Susan Kent

The gilded Marshalltown traditionally went to the guy dressed in faded khakis, eyes squinting in a weather-beaten face, pipe in hand, trowel in the belt (Flannery 1982:267). He dug square holes to ...

Fearless Archaeologist: Susan Kent’s Vision for Ethnoarchaeology

Susan Kent was a remarkable archaeologist who died in 2003 at the age of 50. That she died in her hotel room in Milwaukee while attending the Society for American Archaeology (SAA) meetings rather adds to her mystique leading Kehoe (2006) to refer to her as an ‘anomalous archaeologist.’ In the decade since her death, the American Anthropological Association published a special volume on Sue Kent and her work in their Archaeological Papers series (Ashmore et al. 2006), containing numerous tributes to her and retrospectives on her life and work. It is hard to imagine that anything else needs to be said, but Susan Kent was truly a classic whose work dominates ethnoarchaeology, and she is most deserving of being placed permanently in the pantheon of ethnoarchaeological forebears in the Ethnoarchaeology Classics series. I had the pleasure of knowing Sue, although I did not know her well. Obviously, I knew her work and had heard her give papers at conferences, but I first started speaking with her when she invited me to present a paper in her session on gender at the Society of Africanist Archaeologists meetings in 1996. I was unable to attend the conference but I did contribute a chapter to what would become her edited volume Gender in African Prehistory (Kent 1998a). Sue ran the editorship of the book like a military campaign, demanding that all contributors meet strict deadlines and threatening them with expulsion if they did not comply. At this point Sue had a lot of excellent edited volumes under her belt. She seems to always have had the power to draw big names to her volumes, a power that encouraged everyone to comply with her orders, especially junior scholars like me who were anxious to be associated with the luminaries. In those days, email was just beginning and much of Sue’s cajoling and threatening had to be done by regular mail and by phone. Sue had very little financial support at Old Dominion University, and she had to pay for all her long distance phone calls and all her mail out of her own pocket, making her dedication to producing edited volumes all the more impressive. When I discovered this, I called her back whenever she phoned me so that we could talk at length on my institution’s dime. Sue was full of ideas, a lively conversationalist and very funny. She was a terrifically generous colleague, very interested in networking people, and I have her to thank for several introductions and opportunities that have come my way. The shadow over her life however, was her state of chronic ill health. In the mid 1990s

Reviews

. Edited by David Levinson and Melvin Ember . Edited by Mark P. Leone and Parker . De Pierre Centlivres, Micheline Centilvres‐Demont, Nadja Malllard and Laurence Ossipow . By Robert L. Canfield . Edited by Shaun Hargreaves Heap and An‐ Ross . Edited by Kay Milton . Edited by Jeffrey H. Goldstein . By Douglas H. Johnson . Edited by E. Valentine Daniel and John Chr. Knudsen Edited by Susan Kent . Edited by Jonathan D. Hill

Deeds and Words in the Suffrage Military Hospital in Endell Street

Deeds <i>and</i> Words in the Suffrage Military Hospital in Endell Street

Anomalous Archaeologist

Susan Kent was an anomaly as an archaeologist. A short, plump woman, often dressed in pink, she was the antithesis of Flannery's Real Archaeologist, the guy dressed in faded khakis, eyes squinting in a weather‐beaten face, pipe in the left hand and Marshalltown in the right. (“A guy named Sue”?) Yet Kent was an indefatigable fieldworker in inhospitable lands. In a career in which substantial significant, often‐cited publications are the key to advancement, Kent was author or editor of a series of major contributions to the discipline, yet she remained in a provincial service‐oriented university, one of two women making up the anthropology program. A great range of archaeologists acknowledge a deep debt to Kent's guidance and kindness—nurturing, in a word—yet she was sharp in analysis and vigorous in debate on theory. Philosophers of science, beginning with Kuhn, credit anomalies with extraordinary power to clarify the normal science of a field. This is so with Susan Kent: examining her contributions and career brings out the real models and practices of American archaeology in the late 20th century.

Susan Kent and the Relevance of Anthropological Archaeology

One of Susan Kent's greatest legacies was her commitment to make archaeologists and their field relevant to the modern world. This chapter briefly examines the importance of a discipline that is concerned as much with the present and the future as it is with the past and examines the role Susan Kent's work played in advancing such a vision.

A Tribute to Susan Kent's Ethnoarchaeological Studies on Mobility: Ethnoarchaeological and Archaeological Studies of Pastoral Nomads in Greece and Kazakhstan

Susan Kent began her career by examining the spatial layout of Navajo pastoral encampments. Later Kent undertook field research in southern Africa in order to examine the cross‐cultural variability of mobility strategies among contemporary foragers, farmers, and herders. I have also documented patterns of seasonal and periodic mobility among contemporary Greek village and transhumant pastoralists. These ethnographic insights on pastoral mobility have been applied to the study of prehistoric settlement patterns of Iron Age groups in Kazakhstan. This chapter highlights the differences and commonalities of mobility strategies used by both foraging and pastoral groups. From these disparate cases I emphasize how Kent and I examined the social uses of mobility among nomadic peoples.

Susan Kent's Vision of a Genuinely Integrated Anthropology

Susan Kent advocated an integrated, integrative, and integrating anthropology at a time when some practitioners championed fragmentation. Her anthropology was a critical, engaged one that recognized the importance of class structures constituted in economic terms and their articulation and interplay with socially and culturally constituted gender, ethnic, and racial hierarchies. This chapter explores how she conceptualized this integrated, critically engaged anthropology—theoretically, methodologically, and practically. It also explores how the traditional subfields were integrated into and constitutive of the larger whole.

Commonalities and Diversities in Contemporary Hunter‐Gatherers: From Settlement Archaeology to Development Ethnography

This chapter presents an overview of 40 years of research on hunter‐gatherers and attempts to situate Susan Kent's oeuvre within this larger body of work. Some of the main contours of the economic, social, and political life and core ideologies of foraging peoples are outlined. Then the key debates around questions of the historical autonomy of hunter‐gatherers are explored along with Kent's position on these issues. All hunter‐gatherer groups have undergone a series of changes under the impact of states and markets and the processes of incorporation into the global system. While none have escaped the devastating effects of these impacts, strong evidence exists for the persistence of core values and institutions. Susan Kent's research, with her unique positioning in archaeology and development studies, influenced these debates in important ways.

Dating, Paleoenvironments, and Archaeology: A Progress Report on the Sunnyside 1 Site, Clarens, South Africa

Susan Kent had been working on a project excavating an open‐air archaeological site in the eastern Free State, South Africa, at the time of her death. She had commissioned geological studies, which had indicated that the archaeological horizon was in situ, and had involved colleagues in taking dating, pollen, and phytolith samples. We decided to continue with the analysis of the samples after her death and to complete the analysis of the artifacts from the site. This multifaceted approach to understanding the context of the archaeological horizon was the background against which Susan intended to investigate the spatial distribution of the lithic material as a means of identifying activity areas at the site. This chapter reports some of the results of the continuing analysis. The archaeological horizon has been dated to around 30 ka by optically stimulated luminescence. This date supports the final Middle Stone Age or Transitional Middle Stone Age/Later Stone Age designation suggested by a preliminary analysis of part of the lithic sample. Paleoenvironmental information from the site indicates that conditions were favorable for human settlement in the eastern Free State area during this period. Although the site may not necessarily be suitable to answer all the questions Susan initially asked of it, it will certainly make a contribution to our understanding of human settlement of the area during this little‐researched time period of the central interior.

Integrative Anthropology: A Focus on Iron‐Deficiency Anemia

Susan Kent was an archaeologist with a mission; at a time when increasing specialization was “in vogue,” she was a generalist who had a holistic, synthetic view of anthropology. As can be seen by the breadth and scope of this volume she had many and varied interests including an interest in my own field of biological anthropology. We connected because we discovered that at around the same time we both independently developed similar ideas on a paleopathology of the skull known as porotic hyperostosis. The prevailing view of the time was that porotic hyperostosis was due to iron‐deficiency anemia primarily caused by an iron‐poor diet. We both questioned this—we felt that, for a number of reasons, it did not make sense that an iron‐poor diet would be the main factor in the development of iron‐deficiency anemia in ancient peoples. We strongly believed in examining issues from multidisciplinary, biocultural, and temporal perspectives, so both independently and together we explored iron and iron‐deficiency anemia within prehistoric, historic, modern, medical, anthropological, biological, political, and cultural contexts. This chapter is a summary of our collaborative work and my own work on iron‐deficiency anemia over a period of 20 years.

Susan Kent: A Life and a Legacy

Susan Kent: A Life and a Legacy

Analogic Reasoning, Ethnoarchaeology, and the Impact of Canines on the Archaeological Record

Archaeologists have become aware that the ways they have used ethnographic analogy provide only limited ability to make inferences about the past. This apparent tyranny of the ethnographic record has caused a crisis for many archaeologists, as well as ethnoarchaeologists. Susan Kent remained a strong defender of analogic reason and encouraged ethnoarchaeologists to use analogy to create a better inferential structure for interpreting archaeological residues. We explore the philosophical basis of analogy in scientific reasoning and demonstrate how recent studies of canine activity on site structure can be used for inferring the presence of canines at prehistoric sites and the roles they played in prehistoric societies.

Revisiting the Sexual Division of Labor: Thoughts on Ethnoarchaeology and Gender

In gauging the impact of Susan Kent's scholarship, we examine how a controlled ethnoarchaeological comparison of gender and subsistence in circumpolar societies may be used to reassess a bedrock concept of anthropology: the sexual division of labor. Much discourse on this topic is marred by an exclusionary tone. That is, the sexual division of labor is presented as a list of things women cannot do, should not do, or are prohibited from doing by men. Rather than accentuating the negative and proscriptive, comparative ethnoarchaeology suggests that positive contributions of labor specialization by both women and men merit reexamination.

Remembrance: Susan Kent

Susan Kent, 50, ethnoarchaeologist, died on April 12, 2003. Her unexpected death occurred while she was in Milwaukee, attending the Society for American Archaeology annual meeting. Sue, as everyone called her, was born in Oakland, California, but spent her high school years in Colorado. She attended the University of Southern Colorado, receiving her BS in anthropology in 1973. Her graduate work was at Washington State University (MA in 1975, PhD in 1980). Although most of her later research focused on Africa, she continued to use her early work on activity areas and the uses of space among the Navajo as comparative material. Kent was appointed as visiting faculty at the University of New Mexico, Iowa State University, and the University of Kentucky, before settling down at Old Dominion University (ODU) in Norfolk, Virginia. There she eventually became an Eminent Professor. Author or editor of eight books and multiple articles and chapters, she continually worked to bring the four fields of anthropology together to bear on central areas of interest to archaeology. Many of her publications demonstrate these concerns, and indeed she was very proud to have published something in each of the anthropological subdisciplines. Among her books are Analyzing Activity Areas: An Ethnoarchaeological Study of the Use of Space (1984), Farmers as Hunters—The Implications of Sedentism (1989), Domestic Architecture and the Use of Space (1990), Cultural Diversity Among Twentieth Century Foragers (1998), and Ethnicity, Hunter-Gatherers and the “Other”: Association or Assimilation. Her African research centered on observations of the Kutse and Ju’hoansi, and she made the most of her observational time. She had a frightening story about a lion near camp on one occasion, and many tales of adventures with transportation into the heart of the Kalahari. Her devotion to African archaeology was legendary, even spending her own resources when grants were not forthcoming. Before her death she was working on an important endangered site on private property. Although she had no graduate program at ODU, she mentored students at other universities and was always willing to extend a helping hand. Her many

Gender in African Prehistory

Gender in African Prehistory. Susan Kent. ed. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 1998. 352 pp.

Gender in African Prehistory. Susan Kent

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsGender in African Prehistory. Susan Kent Marcia-Anne DobresMarcia-Anne Dobres Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Journal of Anthropological Research Volume 55, Number 1Spring, 1999 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/jar.55.1.3630999 Views: 3Total views on this site Citations: 1Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1999 The University of New MexicoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Joanna Casey Fearless Archaeologist: Susan Kent’s Vision for Ethnoarchaeology, Ethnoarchaeology 5, no.22 (Nov 2013): 119–139.https://doi.org/10.1179/1944289013Z.00000000011

Cultural Diversity Among Twentieth-Century Foragers: An African Perspective.

List of illustrations List of contributors 1. Cultural diversity among African foragers: causes and implications Susan Kent Part I. Southern African Foragers: 2. Neither are your ways my ways George Silberbauer 3. Diversity and flexibility: the case of the Bushmen of Southern Africa Mathias Guenther 4. Nharo and Hai//om settlement patterns in comparative perspective Alan Barnard and Thomas Widlok 5. Kua: farmer/foragers of the eastern Kalahari, Botswana Helga Vierich and Robert Hitchcock 6. Hunting variability at a recently sedentary Kalahari village Susan Kent Part II. Eastern African Foragers: 7. The global process and local ecology: how should we explain differences between the Hadza and the !Kung? Nicholas Blurton Jones, Kristen Hawkes and James O'Connell 8. Fission, fusion, and foragers in East Africa: micro- and macroprocesses of diversity and integration among Okiek groups Roderic Blackburn Part III. Central African Foragers: 9. Cultural diversity among African pygmies Barry Hewlett 10. A comparative approach to hunting rituals among Baka Pygmies (southeastern Cameroon) Daou V. Joiris 11. Cultural diversity in the use of plants by the Mbuti hunter-gatherers in northeastern Zaire: an ethnobotanical approach Mitsuo Ichikawa and Hideaki Terashima Part IV. Commentary: 12. Hunter-gatherer research and cultural diversity Nurit Bird-David References Index.