Department of Anthropology

Fifty years ago, Kent State University Distinguished Professor Owen Lovejoy, Ph.D., was among the very first researchers to study the remains of the famous “Lucy” (Australopithecus afarensis), a 3-million-year-old fossil that had recently been discovered by paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson in Hadar, Ethiopia.

Kent State alumnus and Professor Emeritus help Hopewell earthworks in Ohio earn UNESCO World Cultural Site designation.

Professor Emeritus Richard Feinberg shared images from his research expeditions to the Polynesian island of Anuta.

A new study led by Archaeologist Michelle Bebber, assistant professor in Kent State’s Department of Anthropology, has demonstrated that the atlatl (i.e. spear thrower) functions as an “equalizer,” a finding which supports women’s potential active role as prehistoric hunters.

For most, the craft known as flintknapping is a skilled hobby or art form that was thought to occasionally require bandages or stitches. However, new research suggests flintknapping is far more dangerous than previously understood.

Kent State University’s newest anthropologist, Assistant Professor Aldo Cimino, Ph.D., has made it his life’s work to understand the causes and consequences of hazing, including the possible generation of solidarity. He and his co-author recently published an article on this question in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior. 

Sometimes it just takes a small spark to ignite a fire within you. For Anna Mika of Parma, Ohio, who started as a geology major her freshman year at Kent State University and switched to anthropology the following year, that spark came in 2017 while taking an anthropology course called North America’s Ice Aged Hunters, taught by Metin I. Eren, Ph.D., associate professor and director of archaeology in the College of Arts and Sciences. She said that course changed her perspective on everything.