Cunningham, Jerimy

Cunningham, Jerimy
Chair/Associate Professor

Anthropology Department

Phone
(403) 329-5102
Email
jerimy.cunningham@uleth.ca

Office Hours

Thursday: 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM

About Me

I am an archaeologist with a specialization in ethnoarchaeology.  I have conducted ethnographic research focused on craft producing communities in Mali and Mexico, and I've most recently completed an archaeological research project in the Santa Clara Valley in Chihuahua, Mexico.    

Biography

I was born and raised in central Alberta. After completing an undergraduate degree in anthropology at the University of Calgary, I worked in Cultural Resources Management before completing an MA at the University of Western Ontario and a PhD at McGill University.  I joined the University of Lethbridge in 2008.

Current Research

My current research program is focused on relations between archaeology and capitalism.  I am investigating how archeologists, who typically have subjectivities and theoretical assumptions defined by their middle-class experiences within capitalism, can develop better understands of ancient non-capitalist societies. The research emerges from a book project I am finishing called Analogy and Archaeological Interpretation: Capitalism, Pluralism, Praxis that seeks to clarify the role ethnographic engagements play in archaeological epistemology.  

My fieldwork currently is an ethnographic study of the changes that occurred over the past 30 years in the Oaxacan community of San Marcos Tlapazola.  Redware pottery (barro rojo) from Tlapazola has gone from being a locally used utilitarian form of pottery to become a globally recognized emblem of sustainable modern design encountered in North American home decorating stores and Michelin star restaurants.  I am currently conducting ethnographic work to investigate how government agencies, NGOs and craft cooperatives impacted women's production of barro rojo and turned it into a global commodity.  

Previous Research

My research has historically alternated between ethnographic and archaeological projects under the umbrella of a career-long interest in archaeological epistemology. 

I started my career doing archaeological work in Cultural Resources Management both in the private sector in Alberta and in the public sector with Parks Canada and the US Forest Service (Utah).  My graduate work at the University of Western Ontario focused on an analysis of pottery from the Early Late Woodland Van Bree site.  This project stimulated an interest in how archaeologists use ethnographic knowledge to reconstruct histories of past societies.  I explored this interest through an ethnographic project for my dissertation at McGill University that analyzed ceramic production and consumption in the Inland Niger Delta of Mali.  I returned to archaeology following my postdoc and collaborated with the late Jane Kelley at the University of Calgary on the excavation of a series of 1000 year old sites in Chihuahua Mexico associated with the Casas Grandes phenomenon.


Publications

In Press.  Humility, Time, and the Ethnoarchaeological Other.  The Future of Ethnoarchaeology Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association. Volume 35, edited by Thomas F. Tartaron and Megan C. Kassabaum.

In Press.  Canadian Archaeology in Chihuahua.  Canadian Journal of Archaeology 49.

2026.  Ethnoarchaeology as a State of Mind.  Ethnographisch-Archaeologische Zeitschrift 60 (1) https://doi.org/10.54799/RIXC6738. (with Stefano Biagetti, Burak Falay, Maciej Kurcz, Carla Lancelotti, Francesca Lugli, Alessandra Manzini, Anne Mayor, Henny Piezonka, and Debora Zurro).

2025.  Analogical Reasoning and the New Materialism: Reaction to Discourses on Modernity.  In: Discourses on Modernity, edited by Arponen, V. P. J. and Ott, Konrad and Ribeiro, Arthur.  ROOTS Series.  Leiden: Sidestone Press.

2019.  Slow Archaeology and the Politics of Ambiguity. Plenary Lecture. Theoretical Archaeology Group, Syracuse, NY.

2018. The Perils of Ethnographic Analogy. Parallel logics in ethnoarchaeology and Victorian Bible customs books. Archaeological Dialogues 25(2): 161-189. (with Kevin M. McGeough).

2018.  Ethnoarchaeology. In: Encyclopedia of Archaeological Sciences, edited by Sandra L. López Varela. DOI: 10.1002/9781119188230.saseas0232

2017.  Modes of Production and Archaeology. University Press of Florida. (co-edited with Robert M. Rosenswig).

2017. Introducing Modes of Production in Archaeology. In: Modes of Production and Archaeology, edited by Robert M. Rosenswig and Jerimy J. Cunningham, pp. 1-28. University Press of Florida, Gainsville. (with Robert M. Rosenswig)

2017. The Ritual Mode of Production in the Casas Grandes Social Field. In: Modes of Production and Archaeology, edited by Robert M. Rosenswig and Jerimy J. Cunningham, pp. 174-206. University Press of Florida, Gainsville.

2016.  Craft production and capitalism: Intangible interfaces. The Intangible Elements of Culture in Ethnoarchaeological Research, edited by Stefano Biagetti and Francesca Lugli, pp. 185-190. Springer, Switzerland.

2016.  Ethnoarchaeology as Slow Science. World Archaeology 48(5): 628-641. (with Scott MacEachern.)

2013.  The Independence of Ethnoarchaeology. In: Human Expeditions: Inspired by Bruce G. Trigger, edited by Steven Chrisomalis and Andre Costopoulos, pp. 51-72. University of Toronto Press, Toronto.

2012.  The View from the Edge: The Proyecto Arqueológico Chihuahua (PAC) 1990 to 2010: An Overview. Canadian Journal of Archaeology 36: 82-107. (with Jane H. Kelley, A. C. MacWilliams, Joe D. Stewart, Richard E. Garvin, J. M. Maillol, Danny Zborover and Karen R. Adams).

2009. Ethnoarchaeology beyond Correlates, Ethnoarchaeology: Journal of Archaeological, Ethnographic, and Experimental Studies 1(2): 115-136.

2009.  Pots and Political Economy: Enamel-wealth, Gender & Patriarchy in Mali. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 15(2): 276-294.

2006. The Many Influences of Bruce Trigger. In: The Archaeology of Bruce Trigger: Theoretical Empiricism, edited by R. Williamson and M. Bisson, pp. 3-15. McGill-Queens University Press, Montreal. (with R. Williamson and J. Kelly)

2003. Rethinking Style in Archaeology. In: Essential Tensions in Archaeological Method and Theory, edited by T. L. VanPool and C. S. VanPool, pp. 23-40. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.

2003.  Transcending the "Obnoxious Spectator": A Case for Processual Pluralism in Ethnoarchaeology. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 22: 389-410.
2001.  Ceramic Variation and Ethnic Holism: A Case Study from the “Younge – Early Ontario Iroquoian Border” in Southwestern Ontario. Canadian Journal of Archaeology 25(1 & 2): 1-27.




Degrees

Ph.D. in Anthropology, McGill University, 2005.

Dissertation: Household Vessel Exchange and Consumption in the Inland Niger Delta: An Ethnoarchaeological Study.

 

M.A. in Anthropology, University of Western Ontario, 1999.

 

B.A., (1st Class Honors), University of Calgary, 1995.


Research Interests

I am an anthropological archaeologist interested in domestic production and exchange. I have conducted archaeological research in the Canadian Great Plains, southern Ontario, the American Southwest and Northern Mexico.  I have conducted ethnographic research in Mali in West Africa and in Oaxaca, Mexico. My last project was an archaeological research program focused on how households negotiated their integration into the 13th-15th C. Casas Grandes Regional System in what is now Chihuahua, Mexico.  Currently I am studying craft production systems in the community of San Marcos Tlapazola in Oaxaca, Mexico.

In The Media

Research Areas

Ethnoarchaeology, Craft Production, Economic Anthropology, Household Archaeology, Ceramic Analysis, African Ethnology, Archaeology of the Southwest, Archaeology of Northern Mexico, Oaxaca.

Previous Research Areas

Alberta Archaeology, Ontario Archaeology, Lithic Analysis.

Languages

English, Spanish, French.

Links