Paul "Jim" Roscoe

Professor Paul "Jim" Roscoe is a leading anthropologist at the University of Maine, holding concurrent appointments as Cooperating Professor in the Climate Change Institute and the School of Policy & International Affairs. His work bridges the anthropology of war, cultural ecology, and political evolution, with extensive fieldwork in contact-era Polynesia and Melanesia, particularly among the Yangoru Boiken and Mountain Arapesh of Papua New Guinea.

Educational background:

• Ph.D., University of Rochester, 1983
• M.A., Manchester University, 1977
• M.Sc., Manchester University, 1973
• B.Sc., Manchester University, 1971

His research spans sociopolitical complexity, sustainable consumption, and the human dimensions of climate change. Recent publications analyze trade-offs in resource allocation, warfare dynamics, and the intersection of status competition with environmental sustainability. Roscoe integrates cross-cultural case studies—from New Guinea’s forager communities to medieval England—to develop comparative models of social evolution and conflict management.

His work on climate change explores how anthropological insights can refine predictive models and policy frameworks. Roscoe also contributes to methodological debates in religious studies, archaeology, and the use of ethnographic analogy for understanding prehistoric social systems.