Cindy Van Gilder is a Ph.D. candidate who is currently employed by St. Mary's College of California as an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Anthropology and Sociology Department. Her primary responsibilities include supervision of Archaeology majors and minors, supervision of the Single Subject Matter Preparation Program for Teachers of Social Sciences, and teaching a variety of archaeological and cultural anthropology classes.

She is a former employee of the State Historic Preservation Division of Hawai'i as the Director of the Hawaiian Homelands Archaeological Survey Project.

Her proposed dissertation title is “Families on the Land: Archaeology and Identity in Kahikinui, Maui.” It is anticipated that this project will be completed in 2003.

Cindy's current research involves the following projects:

1. Studying the relationships among various interest groups in Hawai'i with regards to interpretation of the archipelago's pre-contact past (most particularly both the theoretical and interpersonal conflicts between Native Hawaiians and archaeologists).
2. Household archaeology of the Kahikinui District of Maui, specifically how excavations of this type might inform our understanding of “family” at various levels of organization and local manifestations of the class- and gender-based kapu system.
3. Coastal settlement patterns in Kahikinui as reconstructed through detailed survey and excavations designed to elucidate micro-chronological patterns in this zone.

Cindy’s previous research focused on the history and development of North American archaeology, particularly classification issues and interpretations of the Hopewell phenomenon of the Midwestern United States.
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Publicaitons

In press Archaeology as cultural encounter: The legacy of Hopewell. In D.K. Charles and R. Jeske, eds., Method, Theory, and Practice in Contemporary Archaeology. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. (With D.K. Charles).

2001 Gender and household archaeology in Kahikinui, Maui. In C. Stevenson, et al., eds., Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Easter Island and the Pacific. Los Osos: Bearsville Press.

1999 Preliminary report on coastal survey of Kahikinui, Maui. Wailuku, HI:State Historic Preservation Division, Department of Land and Natural Resources, Department of Hawaiian Homelands. (With V. Nagahara and W.K. Hodgins).

1997 Household archaeology in Kipapa, Kahikinui. In P.V. Kirch, ed., Na Mea Kahiko o Kahikinui: Studies in the Archaeology of Kahikinui, Maui, Hawaiian Islands, pp. 45-60. Oceanic Archaeology Laboratory, Special Publication #1. Berkeley: Archaeological Research Facility. (With P.V. Kirch).

1996 Pre-contact and early historic cultural landscapes in Kahikinui District, Maui, Hawaiian Islands: A progress report. Hawaiian Archaeology 5: 38-52. (With P.V. Kirch).

Presentations

2000 Gender and household archaeology in Kahikinui, Maui. Paper presented at the Pacific Archaeological Congress, Hilo, Hawai’i.

1999 Engendering households in the Hawaiian past. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Chicago.

1998 Interpreting household clusters in Kahikinui, Maui. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Seattle.

1997 Household archaeology in Kahikinui, Maui. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Hawaiian Archaeology, Kaua'i.

1996 Archaeology and cultural identity in Hawai'i (version II). Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, San Francisco.

1996 The myth of Hopewell. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, St. Louis. (with D.K. Charles).

1996 Lava landscapes: Land use and socio-political complexity in a late prehistoric Hawaiian chiefdom. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, St. Louis. (with P.V. Kirch).

1995 Archaeology and cultural identity in Hawai'i (version I). Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Minneapolis.
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