Dr. David Batten

Assistant Professor of Anthropology
LH 117
575.562.2750
David.Batten@enmu.edu

Education

Ph.D.—University of New Mexico, 1993
MA—University of New Mexico, 1987
BS—Colorado State University, 1971

I began my educational career with a degree in forestry from Colorado State University. After an extended period of experiencing-life-as-education, I returned to college at Montana State University in the field of archaeology, a long-time interest. I chose New Mexico for my graduate career, and worked under the tutelage of Mesoamericanist Robert Santley, exploring the influence of transportation on the development of complex societies. That was the subject of my dissertation.

My research interests since coming to Eastern have focused on the transport linkages between major sites in the late prehistoric period in New Mexico east of the Sandia Mountains. What can transport linkages and routes tell us about the economy and lives of the Puebloan people and their trading partners to the east? To what extent can trade and communication routes be identified through Geographic Information Systems technology? Can routes so identified be confirmed on the ground through archaeological survey? These are some of the questions that interest me. Corollary interests include interaction between Pueblo and Plains peoples, settlement pattern analysis, and 'non-site' approaches to landscape archaeology.

My research interests in complex societies, transport, and the archaeology of New Mexico inform my teaching at all levels, but I also draw on my abiding interest in human evolution and the human skeleton in my course offerings. I teach introductory courses in geography (ANTH/GEOG 103), New Mexico cultural development (ANTH 123), and forensic anthropology (ANTH 255). At the upper levels, I teach a Diversity and Globalization course about the origins of human diversity (ANTH 310), area courses on the prehistory of North America (ANTH 365), the Old World (ANTH 375), and Mesoamerica (ANTH 462/562), and a course exploring the range of explanations for the rise of the complex societies we commonly call civilizations (ANTH 423). At the graduate level, I teach the Mesoamerica course and other topics as the need arises.