Robert Dunnell

Who was Robert Dunnell?

Robert Chester Dunnell was an archaeologist known for his contribution in archaeological systematics, measurement and explanation of the archaeological record, evolutionary archaeology and the archaeology of eastern North America Dunnell received his PhD from Yale University in 1967. He was a professor of anthropology at the University of Washington until his retirement in 1996 after which he was emeritus at the University of Washington as well as Mississippi State University.

Among Dunnell's contribution to archaeology was the recognition of the role the theory of biological evolution as a means of explaining cultural phenomena. In addition, he argued that "cultural evolution" which has its roots in 19th Century social scientists such as Lewis Henry Morgan and Herbert Spencer is distinct from "scientific evolution" which Darwinian in character. Cultural evolution is vitalistic and assumes a direction to the nature of change. Darwinian evolution, Dunnell argues, holds that evolution is a two-step process in which variability generation is separate from mechanisms that sort that variability.