Anthony Ranere

Anthony Ranere

  • College of Liberal Arts

    Professor Emeritus

    Concentrations
    • Anthropology

Biography

I received a B.A. from Harvard (1964), an M.A. from Idaho State University (1968) and a Ph.D. from the University of California at Davis (1972), all in anthropology. Most of my recent archaeological field work has been in Mexico and Central America (Panama), but I have also worked in the Middle Atlantic (Pennsylvania & New Jersey), the Canadian Prairies, the Rockies, the Great Basin, Pakistan and the Andes. My general research interests include lithic technology, paleoecology, spatial analysis and evolutionary theory. More specifically, I am interested in the peopling of the Americas (particularly tropical America), early hunter-gatherer adaptations to the humid tropics, and agricultural origins in the American tropics. A great deal of my field research has been in Panama, where I've conducted long term research in collaboration with colleagues at Temple and at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), Balboa, Panama.

Selected Publications

  • 2009 Ranere, Anthony J., Dolores R. Piperno, Irene Holst, Ruth Dickau, José Iriarte; The cultural and chronological context of early Holocene maize and squash domestication in the Central Balsas River Valley, Mexico Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (106(13):514-518. 
  • 2007 Ranere, Anthony J. & Carlos E. López; Cultural Diversity in Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene Populations in Northwest South America and Lower Central America.  International Journal of South American Archaeology 1:25-31.
  • 2007 Dickau, Ruth, Anthony J. Ranere and Richard G. Cooke; Starch Grain Evidence for the Preceramic Dispersal of Maize and Root Crops into Tropical Dry and Humid Forests of Panama. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: 104(9):3651-3656. 
  • 2007 Perry, Linda, Ruth Dickau, Sonia Zarrillo, Irene Holst, Deborah M. Pearsall, Dolores R. Piperno, Mary Jane Berman, Richard G. Cooke, Kurt Rademaker, Anthony J. Ranere, J. Scott Raymond, Daniel H. Sandweiss, Franz Scaramelli, Kay Tarble, and James A. Zeidler; Starch fossils and the domestication and dispersal of chili peppers (Capsicum spp. L.) in the Americas. Science 315(5812):986-988. 
  • 2006 Ranere, Anthony J.; The Clovis Colonization of Central America.  Paleoindian Archaeology: A Hemispheric Perspective, edited by J. Morrow and C. Gnecco. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, pp. 69-85.
  • 2003 Ranere, Anthony J. and Richard G. Cooke; Late Glacial and Early Holocene Occupation of Central American Tropical Forests. In Under the Canopy: The Archaeology of Tropical Rain Forests, Julio Mercader, editor. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 219-248 (chapter 7).
  • 2000 Piperno, Dolores, Anthony J. Ranere, Irene Holst and Patricia Hansell; Starch grains reveal early root crop horticulture in the Panamanian tropical forest. Nature 407:894-897.
  • 1997 Hansell, Patricia and Anthony J. Ranere; Modeling deforestation and population growth: a view from prehistoric Central Panama. Archaeological Applications of GIS. Proceedings of Colloquium II, UISPP XIIIth Congress, Forli, Italy, September 1996. Edited by MacLaren North & Ian Johnson. Sydney University Archaeological Methods Series Volume 5.
  • 1996 Ranere, Anthony J. and Richard G. Cooke; Stone Tools and Cultural Boundaries in Prehistoric Panamá: An Initial Assessment. Paths to Central American Prehistory, edited by F. Lange. University Press of Colorado, Niwot, Colorado. pp. 49-78. 
  • 1992 Cooke, Richard G. and Anthony J. Ranere; Prehistoric Human Adaptations to the Seasonally Dry Forests of Panama. World Archaeology 24(1):114-133.
  • 1980 Linares, Olga F. and Anthony J. Ranere, editors; Adaptive Radiations in Prehistoric Panama. Peabody Museum Monographs, No. 5, Harvard University.