Neil L. Whitehead
Professor
Department of Anthropology

5321 Social Science
608-262-7395

Ph.D. Oxford 1984

Research Interests:

Lowland South America, Guianas and Caribbean, historical anthropology, ethnohistory, historical archaeology, ecology, political evolution, postmodernism, warfare.

Books:

  • 2004 Violence. SAR Press.
  • 2004 In Darkness and Secrecy. The Anthropology of Assault Sorcery and Witchcraft in Amazonia. (ed. with Robin Wright) Duke University Press.
  • 2004 Nineteenth Century Travels, Explorations and Empires: Writings from the Era of Imperial Consolidation, 1835-1910; South America, (ed.) Chatto & Pickering.
  • 2003 Histories and Historicities in Amazonia, (ed.). University of Nebraska Press.
  • 2002 Dark Shamans. Kanaimˆ and the Poetics of Violent Death. Duke University Press.
  • 2001 Beyond the Visible and the Material, (ed. with Laura Rival). Oxford University Press.
  • 1998  The Discoverie of the Large, Rich and Bewtiful Empire of Guiana by Sir Walter Ralegh. (Edited, annotated and transcribed). Exploring Travel Series Vol. 1, Manchester: Manchester University Press and, American Exploration & Travel Series Vol. 71, Norman: Oklahoma University Press.
  • 1995  Wolves from the Sea. Readings in the Archaeology and Anthropology of the Island Carib. (ed. N. L. Whitehead). Leiden: KITLV Press.
  • 1992  War in the Tribal Zone.  Expanding States and Indigenous Warfare. (ed. with R.B. Ferguson) School of American Research Press:  Santa Fe.
  • 1988  Lords of the Tiger-Spirit.  A history of the Caribs in colonial Venezuela and Guyana, 1498-1820. Dordrecht-Providence: Foris Publications.

 

Research Papers:

  • 1999 "Tales of the Patamuna." Walter Roth Museum, Georgetown. 
  • 1999 "The Crisis and Transformations of Invaded Societies (1492-1580) - The Caribbean." In: F. Salomon & S. Schwartz (eds), The Cambridge History of Native American Peoples, vol. II, Chapter 10. Cambridge University Press.
  • 1999 "Lowland Peoples Confront Colonial Regimes in Norther South America, 1550-1900." In F. S. Salomon & S. Schwartz (eds.), The Cambridge History of Native American Peoples, vol. II, Chapter 14. Cambridge University Press.
  • 1999 "Native Society and the European Occupation of the Caribbean Islands and Coastal Tierra Firme, 1492-1650." In: C. Damas and P. Emmer (eds.)  A General Hisotry of the Caribbean, Vol. II, chap. 7. UNESCO Publications.
  • 1998 "Historical Ecology & Ecological History: Diachronic Modeling versus Historical Explanation. In Advances in Historical Ecology," pp.30-41. (ed.) W. Balie. Columbia University Press. 
  • 1998 "Indigenous Cartography in Lowland South America and the Caribbean." In The History of Cartography, II (3), pp.301-326. D. Woodward and G. M. Lewis (eds.) University of Chicago Press. 
  • 1998 "Colonial Chieftains of the Lower Orinoco and Guayana Coast." In: E. Redmond (ed.) Chiefdoms and Chieftaincy in the Americas, pp.150-163. University Press of Florida.
  • 1998 "Foreward" In E. Redmond (ed.) Chiefdoms and Chieftaincy in the Americas. University Press of Florida.
  • 1998 "Yanomamology, Missiology, and Anthropology," (Review Essay). American Anthropologist 100 (2):517-20.
  • 1997 "Monstrosity & Marvel: Symbolic Convergence and Mimetic Elaboration in Trans-Cultural Representation," Studies in Travel Writing 1:72-96.
  • 1996 "Searching for Paradise? Recent Research in Amazonian Archaeology." Journal of Archaeological Research 4(3): 241-264.
  • 1996 "An Oral History of the Patamuna, Yawong Valley, Guyana." Georgetown: Walter Roth Museum. 
  • 1996 "The Mazaruni Dragon. Golden Metals and Elite Exchanges in the Caribbean, Orinoco, and the Amazon." In, C. H. Langebaek & F. C-Arroyo (eds.) Chieftains, Power & Trade: Regional Interaction in the Intermediate Area of the Americas, pp. 107-132.
  • 1996 "Ethnogenesis and Ethnocide in the settlement of Surinam."  In: J. Hill (ed.), Ethnogenesis in the Americas, pp. 20-35. University of Iowa Press.
  • 1995 "The Historical Anthropology of Text. The Interpretation of Ralegh's Discoverie." Current Anthropology 36:53-74.
  • 1995 "Ethnic Plurality and Cultural Continuity in the Native Caribbean. Remarks and Uncertainties as to Data and Theory."   In: N. L. Whitehead (ed.) Wolves from the Sea. Readings in the Archaeology and Anthropology of the Island Carib. Leiden: KITLV Press.
  • 1995 "The Island Carib as Anthropological Icon." In: N. L. Whitehead (ed.) Wolves from the Sea. Readings in the Archaeology and Anthropology of the Island Carib. Leiden: KITLV Press.
  • 1995 "An Interview with Jan Vansina." Ethnohistory 42(2):303-316. 
  • 1994 "The Ancient Amerindian Polities of the lower Orinoco, Amazon and Guayana coast. A preliminary analysis of their passage from antiquity to extinction." In: A. C. Roosevelt (ed.) Amazonian Indians. From Prehistory to the Present. University of Arizona Press. 

 

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