Anthropology

at Northern Kentucky University

Michael Striker

headshot

Part-time Instructor

Curriculum Vitae

Northern Kentucky University
Department of Sociology/Anthropology/Philosophy
216 Landrum Academic Center
Highland Heights, KY 41099

Phone: (859) 572-6112
FAX: (859) 572-6086

Email: primary address

 

 

Academic Degrees

A.B.D. University of Kentucky
M.A. University of Idaho
B.A. Michigan State University

Courses

ANT 100 Cultural Anthropology
ANT 594 Native Americans

Research Interests

Archaeology; ethnohistory; comparative religion; mythology; ritual.

Current Research

fieldwork

I am interested in how people use mythology, ritual, and other aspects of religious life to bring meaning to their world. My current research focuses on the Woodland Period in the Ohio Valley. During this time, people were becoming increasingly involved with relatively new technologies, such as horticulture and ceramics, while the sizes of the territories that they had available to them decreased. Concurrently, local groups became involved in increasingly elaborate ritual and mortuary practices, including the construction of circular enclosure and large burial mounds. My research involves documenting local and regional variation in ritual practices in the hopes of understanding how local groups constituted themselves and differentiated themselves from their neighbors.

Accolades

2005-6 
Kentucky Opportunity Fellowship
2005-6 
Daniel R. Reedy Quality Achievement Award

Selected Publications

2007
Toward a Descriptive and Functional Classification of Historical Artifacts for Use in Cultural Resource Management Settings. Ohio Valley Historic Archaeology.
2007
Some Aspects of Adena Cosmology. Currents of Change 5(2).