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 Christopher Carr
Ph.D., Professor Emeritus
 Anthropologist, Archaeologist, Scholar

Major Research Programs

Christopher Carr is an anthropological archaeologist. His interests and research have spanned many of the broad opportunities that anthropology affords (see menu above). They range from the hard sciences and mathematics through the social sciences, art, and philosophy-religion. His career has built systematically along this trajectory, which he foresaw at a young age and knowingly pursued as his academic career unfolded. The major periods of his studies have focused on:
  • Geophysical remote sensing methods: development for earthen archaeological sites, grounded in soil chemistry and physics (1969-1982); 
  • Statistics and other quantitative methods, especially intrasite spatial analysis and the creating of methods for it (1975-1989); 
  • The logic and philosophy of quantitative analysis within scientific inquiry (1979-1985);
  • Ceramic materials analysis, physical and compositional; development of x-radiography and backscatter electron microscopy methods for it (1983-1999);
  • Material style theory and analysis for sociocultural reconstruction (1982-1995);
  • Stylistic-structural analyses of Ohio Hopewell textiles, copper earspools, for sociocultural reconstruction (1982-1995);
  • Materials analysis of Ohio Hopewellian patinated and painted copper artworks and ornaments (1995-2002); 
  • Digital photography and image processing of copper artworks for their reconstruction; development of methods (1996-2005); 
  • Mortuary analysis supplemented by osteology for social and ritual life reconstruction, especially of Ohio Hopewell peoples (1982-present);
  • Iconographic analysis for social and ritual life reconstruction, especially of Ohio Hopewell peoples (1994-present); 
  • Ohio Hopewell material procurement and exchange (1982-2005)
  • Scioto Hopewell lifeways in total, from environment and substance, and settlement and community organization, through social and ritual organization, world view, and the history of changes in these over time (1992-present); 
  • Postcolonial Woodland Indian religious thought and practices, especially concepts about death, journeys to afterlives, afterlives themselves, and souls (2006-present);
  • Ohio Hopewell and other precolonial Woodland Indian notions of personhood and ritual dramas of death (2008-present); 
  • Relationships of death experiences to cultural content, and natural environmental settings across societies worldwide, with focus on the origins of religious concepts about the other world and of related cultural practices (1986-present).
For most of these topics, Carr has produced overviews and historical and critical reviews in the forms of authored or edited books, journal articles, and national symposia. He and his colleagues have also published comprehensive databases on global variations and patterns of mortuary practices and their causes; on Ohio Hopewell artifactual and skeletal mortuary remains; on postcolonial Woodland and Plains Indians’ ideas about journeys to afterlives and soul-like essences of the body; and on these Indians’ myths about the cultural-symbolic meanings and the actions of natural and nonordinary animals and their interrelations with humans as part of a cosmos. All of these syntheses—literary and databases—are provided to other researchers to aid their studies. 

Books

2021   Being Scioto Hopewell: Ritual Drama and Personhood in Cross-Cultural Perspective. Springer Nature, New York. 2 volumes, 1560 pp.
2011   The Scioto Hopewell and Their Neighbors: Bioarchaeological Documentation and Cultural Understanding. (2nd au., with D. Troy Case). Revised softbound edition. Springer Publishers, New York. 776 pp.

​2008   The Scioto Hopewell and Their Neighbors: Bioarchaeological Documentation and Cultural Understanding. (2nd au., with D. Troy Case). Hardbound edition. Springer Publishers, New York. 776 pp.
2006   Gathering Hopewell: Society, Ritual, and Ritual Interaction, edited by C. Carr and D.T. Case. Revised, softbound edition. Springer Publishing, New York. 807 pp.

​2005   Gathering Hopewell: Society, Ritual, and Ritual  Interaction, edited by C. Carr and D.T. Case. Hardbound edition. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishing, New York. 807 pp
1995   Style, Society, and Person, edited by C. Carr and J. Neitzel. Plenum, New York. 477 pp.
1989   For Concordance in Archaeological Analysis: Bridging Data Structure, Quantitative Technique, and Theory, edited by C. Carr. Softbound edition. Waveland Press, Prospect Heights, IL. 648 pp.

​1985   For Concordance in Archaeological Analysis: Bridging Data Structure, Quantitative Technique, and Theory, edited by C. Carr. Hardbound edition. Westport Publishers, Kansas City, MO. 622 pp.
1982   Handbook on Soil Resistivity Surveying: Interpretation of Data from Earthen Archaeological Sites. Center for American Archaeology, Evanston, IL. 678 pp.

Most Important Culture-Theoretical, Cross-Cultural Survey, and Archaeological Theoretical Articles and Chapters of Broad Professional Interest

1985   The Analysis of Decision Making: Alternative Applications to Archaeology.  (2nd au. with W. Frederick Limp).  In For Concordance in Archaeological Analysis, edited by Christopher Carr, pp. 128-172.  Westport Publishers, Kansas City, Missouri.  44 pp.  

1995   Building a Unified, Middle-Range Theory of Artifact Design: Historical Perspectives and Tactics.  In Style, Society, and Person, edited by C. Carr and J. Neitzel, pp. 151-170.  Plenum, New York. 20 pp.  

1995   A Unified Middle-Range Theory of Artifact Design.  In Style, Society, and Person, edited by C. Carr and J. Neitzel, pp. 171-258.  Plenum, New York.  88 pp.  

1995   Integrating Approaches to Material Style in Philosophy and Theory.  (1st au. with J. Neitzel).  In Style, Society, and Person, edited by C. Carr and J. Neitzel, pp. 3-20.  Plenum, New York.  18 pp.  

1995   Future Directions for Material Style Studies.  (1st au. with J. Neitzel).  In Style, Society, and Person, edited by C. Carr and J. Neitzel, pp. 437-459.  Plenum, New York.  23 pp.  

1995   Determinants of Mortuary Practices: Social Organization, Ideation, and Physical Constraints.  Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 2(2):105-200.  95 pp.

2005   The Question of Ranking in Havana Hopewellian Societies: A Retrospective in Light of Multi-Cemetery Ceremonial Organization.  In Gathering Hopewell: Society, Ritual, and Ritual Interaction, ed. by C. Carr and D. T. Case, pp. 238-257.  Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishing, New York.  20 pp. 

2005   The Nature of Leadership in Ohio Hopewellian Societies: Role Segregation and the Transformation from Shamanism.  (1st au. with D. T. Case).  In Gathering Hopewell: Society, Ritual, and Ritual Interaction, ed. by C. Carr and D. T. Case, pp. 177-237.  Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishing, New York.  61 pp. 

2005   Rethinking Interregional Hopewellian Interaction.  In Gathering Hopewell: Society, Ritual, and Ritual Interaction, ed. by C. Carr and D. T. Case, pp. 575-623.  Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishing, New York.  49 pp. 

2008   Documenting the Lives of Ohio Hopewell People: A Philosophical and Empirical Foundation.  (1st au. with D. T. Case).  In The Scioto Hopewell and Their Neighbors: Bioarchaeological Documentation and Cultural Understanding, by D. T. Case and C. Carr, pp. 3-34.  Springer Publishers, New York.  32 pp. 

2018   Getting to the Soul of Personhood: A Survey of Historic Woodland and Plains Indian Ontologies and a Critique of the Notion of an Interregional Hopewellian “Religion.”  (1st au. with Heather Smyth and Brianna Rafidi).  In Relational Engagements of the Indigenous Americas: Alterity, Ontology, and Shifting Paradigms, ed. by M. R. Baltus and S. E. Baires, pp. 109-152.  Lexington Books, Lanham, MD.  44 pp.

2019   Soul Concepts of Scioto Hopewell Communities: The Ontological Foundation of Their Tripartite Ceremonial Alliance.  (1st au. with Heather Smyth).  In Encountering Hopewell in the Twenty-first Century, Ohio and Beyond, ed. by B. G. Redmond, B. J. Ruby, and J. Burks, pp. 154-194.  University of Akron Press, Akron, OH.  41 pp.

2021   Understanding Past Peoples by Listening.  In Being Scioto Hopewell: Ritual Drama and Personhood in Cross-Cultural Perspective, by C. Carr, pp. 23-101.  Springer Nature, New York.  78 pp.

2021   Religion, Sacred, and Other Quandaries: Writing in Culture-Relevant Categories.  (1st au with W. R. Weeks, Jr.).  In Being Scioto Hopewell: Ritual Drama and Personhood in Cross-Cultural Perspective, by C. Carr, pp. 103-131.  Springer Nature, New York.  29 pp. 

2021   The Notion of the “Ritual Drama” in Cross-Cultural and Historical Perspective.  In Being Scioto Hopewell: Ritual Drama and Personhood in Cross-Cultural Perspective, by C. Carr, pp. 135-160.  Springer Nature, New York.  26 pp. 

2021   Notions of Personhood and Being across Cultures: Models in the Social Sciences.  In Being Scioto Hopewell: Ritual Drama and Personhood in Cross-Cultural Perspective, by C. Carr, pp. 859-939.  Springer Nature, New York.  81 pp.

2021   Scioto Hopewell Relational Personhood and Social Cooperation: Unmasking the Projection of western Competition onto Ritual Flamboyance and Paths to Social Complexity.  In Being Scioto Hopewell: Ritual Drama and Personhood in Cross-Cultural Perspective, by C. Carr, pp. 1113-1219.  Springer Nature, New York.  107 pp. 

2021   The Human Being as Multiple Soul-Like Essences in the Ontologies of Postcontact Eastern Woodland and Plains Indians: Inventory, Frequencies, and Geographic Distributions of Concepts in Oral Narratives.  (2nd au. with B. J. Rafidi and M. F. Kupsch).  In Being Scioto Hopewell: Ritual Drama and Personhood in Cross-Cultural Perspective, by C. Carr, pp. 943-1069.  Springer Nature, New York.  127 pp.

2021   The Human Being as Multiple Soul-Like Essences in the Ontologies of Postcontact Eastern Woodland and Plains Indians: Interwoven Concepts, Their Regional Distinctions, and Meta-Themes across Oral Narratives.  (2nd au. with B. M. Rafidi and M. F. Kupsch).  In Being Scioto Hopewell: Ritual Drama and Personhood in Cross-Cultural Perspective, by C. Carr, pp. 1071-1109.  Springer Nature, New York.  39 pp.

2021   Nested Personhood, Masking, and the Question of Personnages in Scioto Hopewell, Adena, and Glacial Kame Societies.  In Being Scioto Hopewell: Ritual Drama and Personhood in Cross-Cultural Perspective, by C. Carr, pp. 1409-1512.  Springer Nature, New York.  104 pp.

2021   Journeys to Afterlives in the Cosmologies of Postcontact Eastern Woodland and Plains Indians: Inventory, Frequencies, and Geographic Distribution of Elements in Oral Narratives.  (2nd au with C. R. Caseldine and S. R. Feinberg).  In Being Scioto Hopewell: Ritual Drama and Personhood in Cross-Cultural Perspective, by C. Carr, pp. 196-266.  Springer Nature, New York.  71 pp.

2021   Journeys to Afterlives in the Cosmologies of Postcontact Eastern Woodland and Plains Indians: Interwoven Elements, Their Regional Distinctions, and Meta-Narratives.  (2nd au. with C. R. Caseldine).  In Being Scioto Hopewell: Ritual Drama and Personhood in Cross-Cultural Perspective, by C. Carr, pp. 267-331.  Springer Nature, New York.  64 pp.
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See also:
1984   The Nature of Organization of Intrasite Archaeological Records and Spatial Analytic Approaches to Their Investigation.  In Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory, edited by Michael B. Schiffer, pp. 103-222.  Academic Press, New York.  120 pp.

1985   Getting Into Data: Philosophy and Tactics for the Analysis of Complex Data Structures.  In For Concordance in Archaeological Analysis, edited by Christopher Carr, pp. 18-44.  Westport Publishers, Kansas City, Missouri.  27 pp.  

1991   Left in the Dust: Contextual Information in Model-Focused Archaeology.  In The Interpretation of Spatial Patterns within Stone Age Archaeological Sites, edited by T.D. Price and E.M. Kroll, pp. 221-256.  Plenum Publishing, New York.  36 pp.   

1993   Death and Near-Death: A Comparison of Tibetan and Euro-American Experiences.  Journal of Transpersonal Psychology 25(1):59-110.  51 pp.   
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