Worlds Apart:
J. Daniel Rogers, Chairman
of the Department of Anthropology and Curator of Archaeology at the Smithsonian’s
National Museum of Natural History will present an evening lecture at the
Museum of the Great Plains November 16, at 7 p.m. (Reception begins at 6:30.)
Long before the coming of
Europeans, Oklahoma and the rest of the southern Great Plains were home to a
diversity of native societies. For most
people the native history of the southern Plains is a poorly known story, but
it is a history with lasting consequences.
European explorers, traders, and missionaries began trekking through the
region in the 1500s. Their arrival
marked a time in history that would forever change the world in which we
live. Focusing on the 16th, 17th, and
18th centuries, this presentation tells the story of how native Oklahomans were
part of an emerging network of trade and travel that connected the world.
J.
Daniel Rogers is Chairman of the
Department of Anthropology and Curator of Archaeology at the Smithsonian’s
National Museum of Natural History. He
received B.A. and M.A. degrees in Anthropology from the University of Oklahoma
and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.
Between 1979 and 1982 he directed excavations at the well-known Spiro
Mounds site in Oklahoma. He has also
conducted research in the Southwestern U.S., the Caribbean, Mexico, Peru, and
since 2002 is engaged in a project to study the early empires of Mongolia and
Central Asia. Since receiving his
doctorate in 1987 he has held a fellowship at the School of American Research
and taught at the University of California, Los Angeles. In January of 1989 he joined the Department
of Anthropology at the Smithsonian.
Dr. Rogers has worked in archaeology for more than twenty-five
years. His research interests focus on
the native history of Mexico, the Great Plains, and Southeastern U.S. and the
role of colonialism and culture contact in the spread of empires around the
world. He is the author or co-editor of
numerous articles and books, including Objects of Change, (1990), Ethnohistory
and Archaeology (1993), Mississippian Communities and Households (1995), and The Archaeology of Global Change (2004).
The Greater Southwest Chapter of the Oklahoma Anthropological Society will host a welcoming reception for J. Daniel Rogers beginning at 6:30 p.m. in the lobby of the Museum of the Great Plains. This event is free and open to the public. For more information call the Museum at (580) 581-3460.
Museum of the Great Plains
601 NW
Ferris Avenue Lawton, OK 73507
(580) 581-3460