David Rindos (1947 – 9 December 1996) was an American archaeologist. He graduated with a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

from

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

and subsequently held a number of short-term positions in the US. His book on the origins of agriculture, published in 1984, was hailed as a major innovative contribution to the field. In 1989, he was recruited to the

University of Western Australia University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Crawley, Western Australia, Crawley, a suburb in the City of Perth local government area. UW ...

, where he worked until his dismissal and involvement in the Rindos affair. He died of a massive heart attack in 1996, aged 49.

Life

Rindos was born in Brooklyn and graduated in sociology from Cornell University in 1969. Following this, he worked in organizations including

Volunteers in Service to America AmeriCorps VISTA is a national service program designed to alleviate poverty. President of the United States, President John F. Kennedy originated the idea for VISTA, which was founded as Volunteers in Service to America in 1965, and incorporated ...

and

New York Public Interest Research Group The New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) is a New York statewide student-directed, non-partisan, not for profit political organization. It has existed since 1973. Its current executive director is Megan Ahearn and its founding directo ...

. In 1976, he worked in the area of palaeobiology in Cyprus, and in 1977 worked in the Sula Valley

Archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

Project in Honduras, after which he returned to Cornell and earned a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

Botany Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

in 1980 and PhD in

Anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...

and

Evolutionary Biology Evolutionary biology is the subfield of biology that studies the evolutionary processes such as natural selection, common descent, and speciation that produced the diversity of life on Earth. In the 1930s, the discipline of evolutionary biolo ...

in 1981. Rindos taught at

and in the state universities of

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

and

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

, the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

and at the University of Western Australia, where he was involved in a controversy over management of the archaeology department and subsequently denied tenure (the Rindos affair). While at Cornell, Rindos had a relationship with Susan Straight, daughter of editor and publishe
Michael Straight
The relationship produced two children, Willow Rindos and Noah Rindos.

Michael Straight Michael Whitney Straight (September 1, 1916 – January 4, 2004) was an American publishing, magazine publisher, novelist, patron of the arts, a member of the prominent Whitney family, and a confessed spy for the KGB. Early life Straight was bor ...

is identified in his obituary in the
Vineyard Gazette
' as the grandfather of Willow and Noah. Rindos' best known work is "The Origins of Agriculture" (1984), in which he explained the emergence of

agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

as selective coevolution of

plants Plants are the eukaryotes that form the kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with cyanobacteria to produce sugars f ...

and groups of people who have benefited mutually.David Rindos, The Origins of Agriculture: An Evolutionary Perspective (New York: Academic Press, 1984). Rindos also had articles on the

history of agriculture Agriculture began independently in different parts of the globe, and included a diverse range of Taxon, taxa. At least eleven separate regions of the Old World, Old and New World were involved as independent centers of origin. The developmen ...

published in the journal ''

Current Anthropology ''Current Anthropology'' is a peer-reviewed anthropology academic journal published by the University of Chicago Press for the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. Founded in 1959 by the anthropologist Sol Tax1907-1995. ''Curren ...

'', in the ''

Encyclopædia Britannica The is a general knowledge, general-knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It has been published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. since 1768, although the company has changed ownership seven times. The 2010 version of the 15th edition, ...

'' and in the "Illustrated History of Humankind".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rindos, David 1947 births 1996 deaths Cornell University alumni Academic staff of the University of Western Australia 20th-century American archaeologists 20th-century American anthropologists

Life

See also

References