Environmental Impacts of North American Colonization with Elic Weitzel

That Anthro Podcast

Welcome to the podcast, Elic Weitzel, a PhD candidate in the Anthropology department at University of Connecticut, who is using an archaeological approach to studying the environmental impacts of colonization on Native American groups and animal populations.

Elic has wanted to be an archaeologist since the 6th grade, and was always fascinated by ecology, the environment and history. He grew up in Pennsylvania surrounded by natural beauty, and would hike part of the Appellation trail that was just right by his house. A turning point for his academic trajectory was reading The Hadza by Frank Marlowe (https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520253421/the-hadza) which utilizes a behavioral ecological approach in examining this hunter-gatherer society. Elic was so fascinated and impressed by this approach that he adopted behavioral ecology as the theoretical framework of his dissertation.

We also discuss how selecting a field school early on in his journey ended up setting his trajectory for where he would conduct his dissertation research. We also chat about the importance of cold emails, and opportunities to volunteer on field projects once you’ve had some experience under your belt. He details the questions he’s asking in his dissertation about the ecological consequences of European colonization particularly in Southern New England. He explains how all sorts of environmental shifts occur as a direct result of colonization, and that prior to colonization Native Americans were managing the environment through controlled burning and other management strategies. Something in his research that surprised him was finding such accurate and detailed accounts from 17th century European colonial documents that described the environment of New England.

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Brought to you in collaboration with the American Anthropological Association check out their podcast library here https://www.americananthro.org/StayInformed/Content.aspx?ItemNumber=1629

Twitter: @ElicWeitzel

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