Scott Ortman
External Professor
Scott G. Ortman is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Colorado Boulder, a research affiliate of the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, an External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute, and an Associate Editor for Anthropology and Archaeology with Science Advances. He is also a faculty affiliate of the CU Population Center and Director of the Center for Collaborative Synthesis in Archaeology within the Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado Boulder. Ortman’s current research focuses on the contemporary relevance of archaeological research and findings. He is author or co-author of numerous papers on Pueblo Indian historical anthropology, archaeological demography, and complex systems approaches in archaeology; and his books include Winds from the North: Tewa Origins and Historical Anthropology (University of Utah Press, 2012) Painted Reflections: Isomeric Design in Ancestral Pueblo Pottery (with Joseph Traugott, Museum of New Mexico Press, 2018), and Reframing the Northern Rio Grande Pueblo Economy (editor, University of Arizona Press, 2019).
Primary Institution: University of Colorado Boulder
Role/Title: Associate Professor
Topics of Interest: Anthropology/Archaeology - Economics - Evolution - Network Theory - Scaling - Social Science - Technology/Innovation
Other Affiliations and Institutions: Research Associate, Crow Canyon Archaeological Center
How SFI changes your mind: By encouraging researchers to care more about knowledge and its impact than about disciplinary conversations.
When and how you first got involved with SFI: I was an Omidyar Fellow from 2011-2014.
Favorite Book: Pigs for the Ancestors, by Roy Rappaport
Favorite Film: Interstellar