Welcome Christine Hastorf!

Christine Hastorf has joined the Department of Anthropology and the ARF this spring semester as an Associate Professor. She received her PhD from UCLA in 1983 where she began her research in Andean archaeology and paleoethnobotany. Between then and 1994 she taught in the Anthropology Department at the University of Minnesota where she organized an archaeobotany laboratory and conducted archaeological fieldwork throughout the Andes in Peru, Argentina and Bolivia. With her move to UCB she will also form an archaeobotanical laboratory in Kroeber Hall which will house thousands of charred archaeobotanical specimens from South America as well as modern plant type collections. This laboratory work focuses on the identification of ecofacts from excavations as well as basic research on methodological and interpretive issues including processing experiments, to learn about past activities with the plants and their deposition, modern sample analysis, and cooperative research with natural scientists on DNA identifications, plant morphology, and microscopic techniques such as phytolith analysis. In addition she will participate in teaching the core archaeology classes as well as classes on subjects such as Andean Ethnography and Archaeology, Paleoethnobotany, Environmental Archaeology, Political Complexity and Foodways. She is actively involved in field work and has directed a series of excavations in the Andes. Her current work is on the social value of food and its active and interactive role in political and social change.