Matthew Liebmann
· Professor of ArchaeologyVerifiedHarvard University · Anthropology
Active 2002–2024
About
Matthew Liebmann is a Peabody Professor of American Archaeology and Ethnology in the Department of Anthropology at Harvard University. His research interests include the archaeology of the Southwest U.S., historical archaeology and historical anthropology, collaborative archaeology, the archaeology of colonialism, archaeological theory, and postcolonialism. He has conducted collaborative research with the Pueblo of Jemez since 2001 and has served as Tribal Archaeologist and NAGPRA Program Director at the Jemez Department of Natural Resources. Liebmann is the author of 'Revolt: An Archaeological History of Pueblo Resistance and Revitalization in 17th Century New Mexico' (2012) and co-editor of 'Archaeology and the Postcolonial Critique' (2008) and 'Enduring Conquests: Rethinking the Archaeology of Resistance to Spanish Colonialism in the Americas' (2011). His work emphasizes engaging archaeological research with descendant communities and exploring themes of resistance, colonialism, and cultural revitalization in the American Southwest.
Research topics
- Archaeology
- Geography
- Ethnology
- Political Science
- History
- Ecology
- Environmental science
- Environmental ethics
- Medicine
- Paleontology
- Environmental planning
- Law
- Physical geography
- Geology
- Meteorology
- Materials science
- Development economics
- Biology
Selected publications
Colonial Latin American Review · 2024-07-02
article1st authorCorrespondingHauntology, Hagiology, and Archaeology on the Battlefields of Seventeenth-Century New Mexico
University Press of Florida eBooks · 2023-01-10
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingGhosts, apparitions, and people-as-phantasms have been said to haunt battlefields for as long as armed conflict has occurred. While archaeologists have assiduously and systematically avoided the investigation of these phenomena, the study of “the spectral” has gained increasing attention from anthropologists in recent years, who have championed its study under the banner of “hauntology.” Rather than dismissing miraculous and fantastic war stories outright, this chapter asks how tales of combat miracles might be used to illuminate the archaeological record. Through a case study focusing on the 1694 battle between Jemez (Pueblo) and Spanish warriors, this chapter conducts a hauntology of the site of Guadalupe Mesa in northern New Mexico.
Colonial Latin American Review · 2023-10-02
article1st authorCorrespondingProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2021 · 133 citations
- Geography
- Archaeology
- History
The intersection of expanding human development and wildland landscapes-the "wildland-urban interface" or WUI-is one of the most vexing contexts for fire management because it involves complex interacting systems of people and nature. Here, we document the dynamism and stability of an ancient WUI that was apparently sustainable for more than 500 y. We combine ethnography, archaeology, paleoecology, and ecological modeling to infer intensive wood and fire use by Native American ancestors of Jemez Pueblo and the consequences on fire size, fire-climate relationships, and fire intensity. Initial settlement of northern New Mexico by Jemez farmers increased fire activity within an already dynamic landscape that experienced frequent fires. Wood harvesting for domestic fuel and architectural uses and abundant, small, patchy fires created a landscape that burned often but only rarely burned extensively. Depopulation of the forested landscape due to Spanish colonial impacts resulted in a rebound of fuels accompanied by the return of widely spreading, frequent surface fires. The sequence of more than 500 y of perennial small fires and wood collecting followed by frequent "free-range" wildland surface fires made the landscape resistant to extreme fire behavior, even when climate was conducive and surface fires were large. The ancient Jemez WUI offers an alternative model for fire management in modern WUI in the western United States, and possibly other settings where local management of woody fuels through use (domestic wood collecting) coupled with small prescribed fires may make these communities both self-reliant and more resilient to wildfire hazards.
Colonialism and Indigenous Population Decline in the Americas
2021-05-28
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingNative American populations decreased substantially between 1492 and 1900. But the causes, timing, and magnitude of this decline remain the source of enduring debates. This chapter outlines the contours of these debates, summarizing the history of major arguments, landmark scholarship, and recent advances in the field. During the latter twentieth century, anthropologists and historians engaged in a decades-long dispute over the absolute population of the pre-Columbian Americas dominated by documentary and ethnohistorical evidence that cleaved the field into two opposed camps. In the twenty-first century, archaeology has offered new evidence to address, if not resolve, some of these enduring questions. With the answers supplied by archaeology come new debates, with two new emerging camps: one favoring biological, geographical, and evolutionary explanations for Indigenous population decline, and the other pointing to historical contingency, settler colonial policies, and human agency. A case study of depopulation among the Pueblos of the American Southwest illustrates how these debates are playing out today.
Finding Archaeological Relevance during a Pandemic and What Comes After
American Antiquity · 2020 · 26 citations
- Political Science
- Environmental ethics
- History
This article emerged as the human species collectively have been experiencing the worst global pandemic in a century. With a long view of the ecological, economic, social, and political factors that promote the emergence and spread of infectious disease, archaeologists are well positioned to examine the antecedents of the present crisis. In this article, we bring together a variety of perspectives on the issues surrounding the emergence, spread, and effects of disease in both the Americas and Afro-Eurasian contexts. Recognizing that human populations most severely impacted by COVID-19 are typically descendants of marginalized groups, we investigate pre- and postcontact disease vectors among Indigenous and Black communities in North America, outlining the systemic impacts of diseases and the conditions that exacerbate their spread. We look at how material culture both reflects and changes as a result of social transformations brought about by disease, the insights that paleopathology provides about the ancient human condition, and the impacts of ancient globalization on the spread of disease worldwide. By understanding the differential effects of past epidemics on diverse communities and contributing to more equitable sociopolitical agendas, archaeology can play a key role in helping to pursue a more just future.
Repatriation Acts: NAGPRA Repatriation in Tribal Practice
2020-01-01
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingFire · 2020 · 33 citations
- Archaeology
- Physical geography
- Geography
Here, we show that the last century of fire suppression in the western U.S. has resulted in fire intensities that are unique over more than 900 years of record in ponderosa pine forests (Pinus ponderosa). Specifically, we use the heat-sensitive luminescence signal of archaeological ceramics and tree-ring fire histories to show that a recent fire during mild weather conditions was more intense than anything experienced in centuries of frequent wildfires. We support this with a particularly robust set of optically stimulated luminescence measurements on pottery from an archaeological site in northern New Mexico. The heating effects of an October 2012 CE prescribed fire reset the luminescence signal in all 12 surface samples of archaeological ceramics, whereas none of the 10 samples exposed to at least 14 previous fires (1696–1893 CE) revealed any evidence of past thermal impact. This was true regardless of the fire behavior contexts of the 2012 CE samples (crown, surface, and smoldering fires). It suggests that the fuel characteristics from fire suppression at this site have no analog during the 550 years since the depopulation of this site or the 350 years of preceding occupation of the forested landscape of this region.
AAQ volume 85 issue 4 Cover and Front matter
American Antiquity · 2020-10-01 · 1 citations
articleOpen accessAn abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.
Journal of Anthropological Research · 2019-08-05
article1st authorCorresponding
Frequent coauthors
- 4 shared
Lynn H. Gamble
- 4 shared
Christopher I. Roos
- 4 shared
Rachel A. Loehman
- 4 shared
Robert W. Preucel
Providence College
- 4 shared
Thomas W. Swetnam
- 3 shared
Anna Marie Prentiss
- 3 shared
Torben C. Rick
National Museum of Natural History
- 3 shared
Christopher B. Rodning
Education
- 2005
Ph.D., Anthropology
Harvard University
- 2002
M.A., Anthropology
Harvard University
- 1999
B.A., Anthropology
Harvard University
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