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Guy Hepp

Guy D. Hepp

Associate Professor

Contact

Associate Professor
Anthropology
Office Phone(909) 537-4318
Office LocationSB-302E

Office Hours

Sunday:
Monday:
Tuesday: 11:00-13:00
Wednesday:
Thursday:
Friday:
Saturday:

Education

Ph.D. (2015) University of Colorado, Boulder

M.A. (2007) Florida State University, Tallahassee

B.A. (2004) University of Colorado, Boulder

Courses/Teaching

  • ANTH 1400 World History to c. 1500
  • ANTH 3201 The Archaeology of the Senses
  • ANTH 3006R Mesoamerican Archaeology
  • ANTH 4021L Archaeological Laboratory Analysis
  • ANTH 3701R Cultures of Mexico and Central America
  • ANTH 6021L Advanced Archaeological Laboratory Analysis
  • ANTH 6005 Archaeological Research, Methods, and Proposal Design
  • ANTH 6004 History and Theory of Archaeology

Research and Teaching Interests

My primary research emphasis is on the early complex societies of Mesoamerica. Since 2009, I have directed the La Consentida Archaeological Project (LCAP), which focuses on studying the Early Formative period (2000–1000 BCE) village site of La Consentida in coastal Oaxaca, Mexico. La Consentida has produced evidence of early pottery, mounded earthen architecture, and a diet incorporating significant quantities of maize and wild fauna. The National Science Foundation and the Fulbright Program have generously funded this work. The project's initial results appeared in my doctoral dissertation, which was awarded the 2016 Society for American Archaeology Dissertation Award. The University Press of Colorado published a revised version of this study as a book in 2019.

In related work, I study ancient Mesoamerican ceramic figurines, musical instruments, masks, evidence of ritual specialization, and mortuary practices. Broadly, I am interested in the native peoples of the Americas and in the changes in settlement, subsistence, social organization, and cosmology that were integral to the establishment of early villages.

I love teaching anthropology courses, both in my specific area of research and more broadly. In particular, I enjoy teaching about the cosmology and social practices of non-Western societies and using current examples to show how those topics are relevant to our daily lives. I also enjoy graduate seminars in which the students and I take a deep dive into different theoretical approaches to understanding the past. Teaching about Mesoamerican society, the beliefs and practices of the world's other early complex civilizations, theoretical concepts such as the archaeology of the senses, experimental archaeology, and the use of gaming in education all inspire me as a teacher.