Izumi Shimada

Who is Izumi Shimada?

Izumi Shimada is a Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale and 2007 Outstanding Scholar with research interests in the archaeology of complex pre-Hispanic cultures in the Andes, the technology and organization of craft production, mortuary analysis, experimental archaeology, the role of ideology and organized religion in cultural developments, and ecology-culture interaction.

Born in Kyoto, Japan in 1948, Shimada moved at the age of 16 with his parents to the U.S. in 1964. He majored in anthropology at Cornell where he became interested in the ancient Andean civilization and experimental archaeology under tutelage of Prof. John V. Murra and Robert Ascher, respectively. Two seasons of archaeological fieldwork at the Moche city of Pampa Grande on the northern coast of Peru led to his doctorate in anthropology from the University of Arizona in 1976.