Stefani Crabtree

Assistant Professor of Social-Environmental Modeling, Utah State University and External Professor, Santa Fe Institute

Archaeoecology: Using the archaeological past to understand our present and future

February 10, 2022 - 12:00 PM Eastern Time

Talk Abstract:

Archaeology provides rich data of the past 60,000 years of human-environment interaction, yet it remains under-utilized for examining present ecosystems. However, modern methods can harness the explanatory power of the past to calibrate our understanding of the present and predict how we will face challenges in the future. In this vein approaches from complex adaptive systems science including agent-based modeling and network science prove particularly promising. By simulating societies in silico agent-based models and networks have enabled researchers to not only understand previously intractable aspects of the past, but also to use these simulations to predict what can make resilient societies and what lead them toward vulnerabilities to external perturbations. My work has used agent-based modeling, social network analysis, and trophic network analysis (or food web modeling) to examine robustness and vulnerabilities of societies from the American Southwest, to northern Mongolia, to Aboriginal Australia. In this talk I explore the unique ways that socio-environmental modeling can help us understand the lifeways of societies worldwide, and also suggest that understanding how people interacted in their uniquely challenging environments can provide parallels to understanding humanity’s position in ecosystems today. Only through applying a complexity lens can we truly understand how the actions and interactions of people led to the large overarching structures we see today.

Speaker Bio:

Dr. Stefani A. Crabtree is an Assistant Professor in Socio-Environmental Modeling in the Department of Environment and Society of the Quinney College of Natural Resources at Utah State University and ASU-SFI Biosocial Complex Systems Fellow at the Santa Fe Institute. She additionally holds external affiliation at Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, the Center for Research and Interdisciplinarity, and the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage. Her research applies complex systems science modeling methodologies (such as agent-based modeling and network science) to problems in social science and ecology. Dr. Crabtree holds two Ph.D.s, one from Washington State University (Anthropology, 2016) and one from the Université de Franche-Comté (Maison des Sciences de l’Homme et l’Environnement, 2017).