Lecturer
Ethology and Archaeology
Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh, 1974
Email: jdgunn@uncg.edu
Curriculum Vitae
My background includes teaching at major universities, administration, pure research, and applied anthropology/archaeology. My field experience encompasses cultures in the southeastern United States, Mesoamerica, Southern Europe and Cyprus. Special areas of emphasis include global climate change as it affects local cultures, ecologies, and landscapes. I am especially interested in complex systems modeling of cultural change processes. I have undertaken the study of modern global climate in order to support anthropological investigations of local environments and to apply knowledge of current and past climates to the future of global environmental policy, especially as it relates to sustainability issues.
Current Projects
I am currently involved in two projects. One is an IHOPE-Maya (Integrated History of Peoples of the Earth, Maya regional study) to evaluate the rise and fall of the interior Maya culture for information that might help modern global culture(s) avoid some of the energy constraints and decision making mistakes that plagued civilizations of the past. IHOPE is an international consortium of scientists studying the Maya and several other past civilizations with similar goals. The other project involves a similar focus but is directed toward raising awareness of the problems of global change in the UNCG community and especially among student organizations.
“IHOPE-Maya: Using past to Inform the Future” on ResearchGate
Human-planetary interactions in Biophysical Economics: https://rdcu.be/bGlki
Cultural transformation of Maya information networks : http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol22/iss1/art20/
Maya Lithics: The Stones of Calakmul, Información 17 2020 PDF available on ResearchGate