China Research Seminar public talk

Announcing a Chinese Studies public talk:

“Understanding Hongshan Society: Two Decades of Archaeological Research in Northeast China”

by Christian E. Peterson, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Anthropology, UH Mānoa

Thursday, March 14, 2019, 12:00 pm, Moore Hall Rm. 109, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa

Hongshan period (4500-3000 BCE) societies of northeastern China’s Western Liao River Valley are well known for their ritual architecture and burials accompanied by jade artifacts carved in supernatural themes. Over the past two decades, systematic regional-scale settlement surveys and intensive surface collection of ancient household garbage have provided new information about the social, economic, and ritual organization of the Neolithic communities that made and used Hongshan ritual monuments and paraphernalia. In this presentation, Professor Peterson will summarize and compare the results of these surveys, surface collections, and other research, and discuss its relevance to understanding the emergence, organization, and development of Hongshan period society.

Professor Peterson has helped design, direct or implement most of the Hongshan settlement survey and surface archaeology of the past twenty years. He specializes in Chinese prehistory, the comparative study of early complex societies, regional settlement patterns and demography, household archaeology, and in quantitative and spatial analysis. Some of his most recent publications include: “A Place of Pilgrimage? Niuheliang and its Role in Hongshan Society,” 2017; “Hongshan Households and Communities in Neolithic Northeastern China,” 2017; and “Comparative Analysis of Neolithic Household Artifact Assemblage Data from Northern China,” 2016.

The university community and public are cordially invited to attend!

Ticket Information
Free admission

Event Sponsor
Center for Chinese Studies, Mānoa Campus

More Information
(808) 956-8891, china@hawaii.edu

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