Kent Flannery

Kent Flannery is the James B. Griffin Distinguished University Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan. He holds affiliations with the Center for Middle Eastern & North African Studies, LACS (Latin American and Caribbean Studies), and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. His research focuses on the archaeology of early agricultural communities in the Near East, Mesopotamia, and Mesoamerica, particularly in Oaxaca, Mexico. Flannery is a renowned zooarchaeologist and has directed major projects such as the University of Michigan’s 'Prehistory and Human Ecology of the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico' (1966–1980), co-directed with Joyce Marcus. This work explored the origins of agriculture, village life, and social inequality.

Flannery earned his BA (1954), MA (1961), and PhD (1964) in anthropology from the University of Chicago. His career includes fieldwork in Iran, Guatemala, Mexico, and Peru under mentors like Robert Braidwood and Richard MacNeish. He is a Curator at the Museum of Anthropological Archaeology and has authored seminal works such as *The Early Mesoamerican Village* (1983) and *The Creation of Inequality* (2012, co-authored with Joyce Marcus).

Flannery’s awards include election to the National Academy of Sciences (1978), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1996), and the American Philosophical Society (2004). His research bridges zooarchaeology, agricultural origins, and societal complexity, with a focus on Mesoamerican and Andean civilizations.