Barbara L. Stark specializes in the origins and developmental trajectories of complex societies in Mesoamerica. Prehistoric economy and sociopolitical organization in tropical lowland areas have been the focus of her field projects on the Pacific coastal plain of Guatemala and the Gulf lowlands of Mexico.
The Gulf lowlands have been the focus of a long-term survey and settlement pattern investigation with departmental, university, National Science Foundation and National Geographic Society support, with permission from the Instituto Nacional de Antropologé Historia of Mexico. This project has included multiple students and archaeological professionals. The artifact and feature data are incorporated into a Geographical Information Systems format and have been used in thematic maps for statistical and interpretive analyses. The project maintains a laboratory in Jalapa, Mexico, for continuing analyses of collections.
Stark's publications have dealt with coastal adaptations, settlement patterns, tropical urbanism, ceramics, crafts and long-term economic and political change. She has served as a member of the executive boards of the American Anthropological Association and the Society for American Archaeology and as editor for archaeology for the American Anthropologist. She currently serves as an advisor for Arqueología and Arqueología Mexicana. Stark has been a guest instructor at the Escuela Nacional de Antropología and at the Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
Research Projects:
Proyecto Arqueologico La Mixtequilla
Recent Books:
2008 Ethnic Identity in Nahua Mesoamerica: The View from Archaeology, Art History, Ethnohistory, and Contemporary Ethnography, by Frances F. Berdan, John K. Chance, Alan Sandstrom, B. L. Stark, James Taggart, and Emily Umberger. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.
2010 Archaeological Approaches to Market Exchange in Ancient Societies, ed. by Christopher P. Garraty and Barbara L. Stark, University of Colorado Press, Boulder
Recent Articles and Chapters:
2007 Inter-Regional and Intra-regional Scale Compositional Variability in Pottery from South-central Veracruz , Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 18:44-58. (Barbara L. Stark, Robert J.Speakman, and Michael D. Glascock)
2007 Diachronic Change in Crafts and Centers in South-central Veracruz, Mexico. In Craft Production in Complex Societies: Multi-craft and Producer Perspectives, edited by Izumi Shimada, pp. 227-261. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.
2007 Out of Olmec. In The Political Economy of Ancient Mesoamerica: Transformations during the Formative and Classic Periods, ed. by Vernon L. Scarborough and John E. Clark, pp. 47-63. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.
2007 Estrategias Empleadas en las Provincias Imperiales: Perspectivas Prehispánicas y Coloniales en Mesoamérica. Revista Española de Antropología Americana 37:2:203-233. Special Aztec section edited by José Luís de Rojas and Michael E. Smith. (John K. Chance and Barbara L. Stark)
2007 Ancient Settlement, Urban Gardening, and Environment in the Gulf Lowlands of Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 18:385-406. (Barbara L. Stark and Alanna Ossa)
2007 Pottery Production and Distribution in the Gulf Lowlands of Mesoamerica. In Pottery Economics in Mesoamerica, ed. by Christopher A. Pool and George J. Bey, III, pp. 147-183. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
2008 Polity and Economy in the Western Lower Papaloapan Basin. In Classic Period Cultural Currents in Southern and Central Veracruz, ed. by Phillip J. Arnold, III, and Christopher A. Pool, pp. 85-119. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, D.C.
2008 Archaeology and Ethnicity in Postclassic Mesoamerica . In Ethnic Identity in Nahua Mesoamerica: The View from Archaeology, Art History, Ethnohistory, and Contemporary Ethnography, by Frances F. Berdan, John K. Chance, Alan Sandstrom, Barbara L. Stark, James Taggart, and Emily Umberger, pp. 38-63. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.
2008 Diachronic and Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Mesoamerican Ethnicity. In Ethnic Identity in Nahua Mesoamerica: The View from Archaeology, Art History, Ethnohistory, and Contemporary Ethnography, by Frances F. Berdan, John K. Chance, Alan Sandstrom, Barbara L. Stark, James Taggart, and Emily Umberger, pp. 1-37. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City. (Barbara L. Stark and John K. Chance).
2008 Parallel Archaeological and Visibility Survey in the Western Lower Papaloapan Basin, Veracruz, Mexico. Journal of Field Archaeology 33:2:177-196. (Barbara L. Stark and Christopher P. Garraty)
2008 Patrones Espaciales Cerámicas en la Cuenca Baja Oeste del Río Papaloapan, Veracruz, México. Dossier Dedicado a Alfonso Medellín Zenil. Contrapunto vol. 3:7:35-51. Gobierno del Estado de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, Xalapa, Veracruz.
2010 Detecting Marketplace Exchange in Archaeology: A Methodological Review. In Archaeological Approaches to Market Exchange in Ancient Societies, ed. by Christopher P. Garraty and Barbara L. Stark, pp. 33-58. University of Colorado Press. (Barbara L. Stark and Christopher P. Garraty)
2010 Origins and Development of Mesoamerican Marketing: Evidence from South-central Veracruz, Mexico. In Archaeological Approaches to Market Exchange in Ancient Societies, ed. by Christopher P. Garraty and Barbara L. Stark, pp. 99-126. University of Colorado Press. (Barbara L. Stark and Alanna Ossa)
2010 Cerro de las Mesas. In La morada de nuestros ancestros: Alternativas para la conservación, coordinated by Sergio Vásquez Zárate, Henri Noel Bernard Medina, and Sara Ladrón de Guevara, pp. 139-146. Consejo Veracruzano de Investigación Científica y Desarrollo Tecnológico, Mexico City.
2010 Nopiloa. In La morada de nuestros ancestros: Alternativas para la conservación, coordinated by Sergio Vásquez Zárate, Henri Noel Bernard Medina, and Sara Ladrón de Guevara, pp. 147-152. Consejo Veracruzano de Investigación Científica y Desarrollo Tecnológico, Mexico City.
2011 Ethnic and Class Clustering through the Ages: A Transdisciplinary Approach to Urban Neighborhood Social Patterns. Urban Studies 48(11):2399-2415. (Abigail M. York, Michael E. Smith, Benjamin W. Stanley, Barbara L. Stark, Juliana Novic, Sharon L. Harlan, George L. Cowgill, and Christopher G. Boone)
2012 The Strategies of Provincials in Empires. In The Comparative Archaeology of Complex Societies, ed. by Michael E. Smith, pp. 192-237. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. (Barbara L. Stark and John K. Chance).
2012 Change, Scale, and Goals in the Study of Power and Identity in Mesoamerica. In Power & Identity in Archaeological Theory and Practice: Case Studies from Ancient Mesoamerica , edited by Eleanor Harrison-Buck, pp 120-123. The University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.
2012 Urban Open Spaces in Historical Perspective: A Transdisciplinary Typology and Analysis. Urban Geography 33(8):1089-1117. (Benjamin W. Stanley, Barbara L. Stark, Katrina L. Johnston, and Michael E. Smith)
2014 Urban Gardens and Parks in Pre-modern States and Empires. Cambridge Journal of Archaeology 24:1:87-115.
2014 Ancient Open Space, Gardens, and Parks: A Comparative Discussion for Mesoamerican Urbanism. In Making Ancient Cities: Space and Place in Early Urban Societies, edited by Andrew T. Creekmore III and Kevin D. Fisher, pp. 370-406. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England.
2016 Conceptual Aproaches to Service Provision in Cities throughout History. Urban Studies 53(8) 1574–1590. (Michael E. Smith, Benjamin W. Stanley, April Kamp-Whittaker, Timothy Dennehy, and Barbara L. Stark) DOI: 10.1177/0042098015577915
2016 Urban Service Access in Premodern Cities: An Exploratory Comparison of Spatial Equity. Journal of Urban History 42(1): 121-124. (Benjamin W. Stanley, Timothy J. Dennehy, Michael E. Smith, Barbara L. Stark, Abigail M. York, George L. Cowgill, Juliana Novic, and Jerald Ek) DOI: 10.1177/0096144214566969
2016 Economic Growth in Mesoamerica: Obsidian Consumption in the Coastal Lowlands. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 41:263-282. (B. L. Stark, Matthew A. Boxt, Janine Gasco, Rebecca B. González Lauck, Jessica D. Hedgepeth Balkin, Arthur A. Joyce, Stacie M. King, Charles L. F. Knight, Robert Kruger, Marc N. Levine, Richard G. Lesure, Rebecca Mendelsohn, Marx Navarro-Castillo, Hector Neff, Michael Ohnersorgen, Christopher A. Pool, L. Mark Raab, Robert M. Rosenswig, Marcie Venter, Barbara Voorhies , David T. Williams, and Andrew Workinger)
2016 Comparative Methods for Premodern Cities: Coding for Governance and Class Mobility. Cross-cultural Research 50(5) 415–451. (Michael E. Smith, Barbara L. Stark, Wen-Ching Chuang, Timothy Dennehy, Sharon L. Harlan, April Kamp-Whittaker, Benjamin W. Stanley, and Abigail York) DOI:10.1177/1069397116665824
2016 Central Precinct Replications. In Alternative Pathways to Complexity: A Collection of Essays on Architecture, Economics, Power, and Cross-Cultural Analysis, edited by Lane F. Fargher and Verenice Y. Heredia Espinoza, pp. 105-130. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.
2017 Aztec Imperialism and Gulf Ceramic Emulation: Comparison with Teotihuacan. In Objects and Economy in the Aztec Empire, edited by Deborah L. Nichols, Frances F. Berdan, and Michael E. Smith, pp. 248-277. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
2017 Figuring Out the Early Formative Period. In The San Lorenzo Olmec and Their Neighbors:Material Manifestations, edited by Jeffrey P. Blomster and David Cheetham, pp. 288-311. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
2017 El Colapso en la Tierras Bajas del Golfo. Arqueología de la Costa del Golfo. Dinámicas de la Interacción Política, Económica e Ideológica, edited by Lourdes Budar, Marcie L. Venter, and Sara Ladrón de Guevara, pp. 141-158. Universidad Veracruzana, Xalapa. (B. L. Stark y Krista L. Eschbach)
2017 Watching the Game: Viewership of Architectural Mesoamerican Ball Courts. Latin American Antiquity 28(3):409-430. (B.L.Stark and Wesley D. Stoner)
Spring 2019 | |
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Course Number | Course Title |
ASB 493 | Honors Thesis |
ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ASB 580 | Practicum |
ASB 592 | Research |
ASB 790 | Reading and Conference |
ASB 799 | Dissertation |
Fall 2018 | |
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Course Number | Course Title |
ASB 584 | Internship |
Spring 2018 | |
---|---|
Course Number | Course Title |
ASB 493 | Honors Thesis |
ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ASB 580 | Practicum |
ASB 592 | Research |
ASB 790 | Reading and Conference |
ASB 799 | Dissertation |
Fall 2017 | |
---|---|
Course Number | Course Title |
ASB 584 | Internship |
Spring 2017 | |
---|---|
Course Number | Course Title |
ASB 493 | Honors Thesis |
ASB 499 | Individualized Instruction |
ASB 580 | Practicum |
ASB 590 | Reading and Conference |
ASB 592 | Research |
ASB 790 | Reading and Conference |
ASB 792 | Research |
ASB 799 | Dissertation |
Fall 2016 | |
---|---|
Course Number | Course Title |
ASB 584 | Internship |
ASM 590 | Reading and Conference |
ASM 592 | Research |
ASM 790 | Reading and Conference |
ASM 792 | Research |
ASM 799 | Dissertation |
Summer 2016 | |
---|---|
Course Number | Course Title |
ASB 799 | Dissertation |