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Ken Hirth

Ken Hirth

Professor of Anthropology
115 Carpenter Building University Park, PA 16802
kgh2@psu.edu
(814) 863-9647
Ken Hirth

Curriculum Vitae

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Education

B.B.A., Marketing, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 1971
M.A., Anthropology, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 1972
Ph.D., Anthropology, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 1974

Websites

http://anth.la.psu.edu/research/research-labs/mesoamerican-and-arch

Professional Bio

Professional Bio

Research Activities and Interests:

Dr. Hirth's research focuses on the origin and development of ranked and state-level societies in the New World. He is especially interested in political economy and how forms of resource control lead to the development of structural inequalities within society. Topics of special interest include: exchange systems, craft production, settlement pattern studies, and preindustrial urbanism. Methodological interests include: lithic technology, ceramics, spatial analysis, and lithic use-wear.

Fieldwork:

Dr. Hirth's research focuses on the origin and development of ranked and state-level societies in the New World. He is especially interested in political economy and how forms of resource control lead to the development of structural inequalities within society. Topics of special interest include: exchange systems, craft production, settlement pattern studies, and preindustrial urbanism. Methodological interests include: lithic technology, ceramics, spatial analysis, and lithic use-wear.

Courses Taught:

  • ANTH 008 Aztecs, Mayas, and Incas
  • ANTH 009 Rise of Civilization in the Old World
  • ANTH 422 Meso-American Archaeology and Ethnography
  • ANTH 426W Archaeological Laboratory Analysis (Syllabus)
  • ANTH 451 Economic Anthropology
  • ANTH 456 Cultural Ecology
  • ANTH 508 Research Problems in Cultural History
  • ANTH 588 Method and Theory in Archaeology (Syllabus)

Recent Publications:

  • 2024 Urbanism and Storage at Cajamarquilla, Peru. The Mapping Project. Occasional Papers in Anthropology No. 36. Penn State University (K. Hirth, J. Silva Sifuentes, S. Hirth, and K. McGill).
  • 2023 Ritual and Economy in a Central Honduran Chiefdom, University Press of Colorado, Denver. (K. Hirth, S. Hirth, G. Hasemann, G. Lara-Pinto).
  • 2023 Once Upon a Time in Archaeology. A Research Diary from Central Honduras. Occasional Papers in Anthropology No. 34. Penn State University.
  • 2020 The Organization of Ancient Economies: A Global Perspective. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
  • 2020 Olmec Lithic Economy at San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan, University Press of Colorado, Denver. (K. Hirth and A. Cyphers).
  • 2020 Teotihuacan: The World Beyond the City, Dumbarton Oaks Library and Research Collection, Washington D.C. (K. Hirth, D. Carballo, and B. Arroyo).
  • 2016 The Aztec Economic World: Merchants and Markets in Ancient Mesoamerica, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.