Michael J. O'Brien (archaeologist)

Michael John O'Brien (* 1950 in Houston , Texas ) is an American anthropologist and archaeologist . In his research he mainly deals with the use of theories of evolutionary biology in archeology (" Evolutionary Archeology "). In the late 1990s he began to deal with methods of phylogenetics , especially cladistics .

Life

Michael O'Brien attended St. Thomas High School in Houston, where he graduated in 1968. He then studied at Rice University in Houston, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in 1972 . In 1977 he received his PhD from the University of Texas at Austin and received his Ph.D.

O'Brien has now worked as a Research Associate at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln . He stayed that way until he moved to the University of Missouri in 1980, where he taught as an assistant professor at the Department of Anthropology and at the same time served as director of the American Archeology Division , a research institution belonging to the faculty. A few years later he became director of the university's Museum of Anthropology . He was also Associate Dean at the University's College of Arts and Science from 1986 to 2006 . In 1989 he was appointed professor. In 2006 he became Dean of the College of Arts and Science . He held this office until 2016.

In addition to his activities at the University of Missouri, he was Research Collaborator at the Smithsonian Institution from 1989 to 1993 . He left the University of Missouri in 2016 and became Provost of Texas A&M University – San Antonio on July 15, 2016 . As such, he is also Vice President for Academic Affairs .

O'Brien is married with five children.

Publications (selection)

• Settlement and Subsistence Patterns on the Upper Texas Gulf Coast. (1976, Lower Plains Archaeological Society, Bulletin no.5)
• with Dennis E. Lewarch (Ed.): The Cannon Reservoir Human Ecology Project: Recent Advances in the Archeology of Northeast Missouri. (1979, University of Nebraska – Lincoln, Department of Anthropology, Notebook 5)
• with Dennis E. Lewarch (Ed.): Plowzone Archeology: Contributions to Theory and Technique. (1981, Vanderbilt University Publications in Anthropology no.27)
• with Roger D. Mason, Dennis E. Lewarch, James A. Neely: A Late Formative Irrigation Community below Monte Albán: Survey and Excavation on the Xoxocotlan Piedmont, Oaxaca, Mexico. (1982, University of Texas Press, Austin)
• with Robert E. Warren, Dennis E. Lewarch (Eds.): The Cannon Reservoir Human Ecology Project: An Archaeological Study of Cultural Adaptations in the Southern Prairie Peninsula. (1982, Academic Press, New York)
• Grassland, Forest, and Historical Settlement: An Analysis of Dynamics in Northeast Missouri. (1984, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln)
• Archeology of the central Salt River valley: An overview of the prehistoric occupation. (1985, Missouri Archaeologist 46)
• Cat Monsters and Head Pots: The Archeology of Missouri's Pemiscot Bayou. (1994, University of Missouri Press, Columbia)
• with W. Raymond Wood, Katherine A. Murray, Jerome C. Rose: Holocene Human Adaptations in the Missouri Prairie-Timberlands. (1995, Arkansas Archeological Survey, Research Series No. 45)
• Paradigms of the Past: The Story of Missouri Archeology. (1996, University of Missouri Press, Columbia)
• (Ed.): Evolutionary Archeology: Theory and Application. (1996, University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City)
• Middle Woodland and Late Woodland Subsistence and Ceramic Technology in the Central Mississippi River Valley: Selected Studies from the Burkemper Site, Lincoln County, Missouri. (1996, Illinois State Museum, Reports of Investigations No. 52)
• with R. Lee Lyman , Robert C. Dunnell (Eds.): Americanist Culture History: Fundamentals of Time, Space, and Form. (1997, Plenum Press, New York)
• with R. Lee Lyman, Robert C. Dunnell: The Rise and Fall of Culture History. (1997, Plenum Press, New York)
• with W. Raymond Wood: The Prehistory of Missouri. (1998, University of Missouri Press, Columbia)
• with Robert C. Dunnell (Ed.): Changing Perspectives on the Archeology of the Central Mississippi Valley. (1998, University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa)
• with R. Lee Lyman: James A. Ford and the Growth of Americanist Archeology. (1998, University of Missouri Press, Columbia)
• with R. Lee Lyman: Seriation, Stratigraphy, and Index Fossils: The Backbone of Archaeological Dating. (1999, Kluwer Academic / Plenum Press, New York)
• with R. Lee Lyman (ed.): Measuring the Flow of Time: The Works of James A. Ford, 1935–1941. (1999, University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa)
• with R. Lee Lyman: Applying Evolutionary Archeology: A Systematic Approach. (2000, Kluwer Academic / Plenum Press, New York)
• Mississippian Community Organization: The Powers Phase in Southeastern Missouri. (2001, Kluwer Academic / Plenum, New York)
• with R. Lee Lyman (Ed.): Setting the Agenda in American Archeology: The National Research Council Archaeological Conferences of 1929, 1932, and 1935. (2001, University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa)
• with R. Lee Lyman: WC McKern and the Midwestern Taxonomic Method. (2003, University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa)
• with R. Lee Lyman (Ed.): Style, Function, Transmission: Evolutionary Archaeological Perspectives. (2003, University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City)
• with R. Lee Lyman: Cladistics and Archeology. (2003, University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City)
• with R. Lee Lyman, Michael B. Schiffer : Archeology as a Process: Processualism and Its Progeny. (2005, University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City)
• with Carl P. Lipo, Mark Collard, Stephen J. Shennan (Eds.): Mapping Our Ancestors: Phylogenetic Approaches in Anthropology and Prehistory. (2006, Aldine, New York)
• with R. Lee Lyman: Measuring Time with Artifacts: A History of Methods in American Archeology. (2006, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln)
• with Charles E. Grayson, Mary French: Traditional Archery from Six Continents: The Charles E. Grayson Collection. (2007, University of Missouri Press, Columbia)
• (Ed.): Cultural Transmission and Archeology: Issues and Case Studies. (2008, Society for American Archeology Press, Washington, DC)
• with Stephen J. Shennan (Ed.): Innovation in Cultural Systems: Contributions from Evolutionary Anthropology. (2010, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass)
• with R. Alexander Bentley, Mark Earls: I'll Have What She's Having: Mapping Social Behavior. (2011, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass)

Web links

• Home page on the University of Missouri website
• Biography on the Texas A&M University – San Antonio website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Short biography on the occasion of the presentation of the finalists for the office of Provost, website of the Texas A&M University – San Antonio
2. ^ ^{A b} College of Arts and Science Dean Michael O'Brien to leave MU , June 1, 2016, Missourian