Richard Brian Ferguson (born 1951) is an American

anthropologist An anthropologist is a scientist engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropologists study aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms, values ...

. He is an authority on warfare.

Life

Richard Brian Ferguson was born in

New York, New York New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on New York Harbor, one of the world's largest natural harb ...

on July 19, 1951. He spent his childhood in

upstate New York Upstate New York is a geographic region of New York (state), New York that lies north and northwest of the New York metropolitan area, New York City metropolitan area of downstate New York. Upstate includes the middle and upper Hudson Valley, ...

. Ferguson attended

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

, graduating with a bachelor's degree in anthropology in 1974. During this time he was involved in activism opposing the Vietnam war. He earned his doctorate in anthropology from Columbia University in 1988, with dissertation field work in Puerto Rico.

Career

Ferguson is now a tenured professor of Anthropology at

Rutgers University Newark Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...

. His expertise lies in cultural anthropology, the anthropology of war,

ethnic conflict An ethnic conflict is a conflict between two or more ethnic groups. While the source of the conflict may be political, social, economic or religious, the individuals in conflict must expressly fight for their ethnic group's position within so ...

, state-tribe interaction, policing, and

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

. He is part of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology as well as Global Urban Studies/Urban Systems. He has also served on the board of governors of the

New York Academy of Sciences The New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS), originally founded as the Lyceum of Natural History in January 1817, is a nonprofit professional society based in New York City, with more than 20,000 members from 100 countries. It is the fourth-oldes ...

. Ferguson has published many papers critical of biological perspectives in anthropology, especially explanations of war.

Publications

* ''The Anthropology of War'' (with Leslie Farragher) (1988) * ''Explaining War'' (1990) * ''When Worlds Collide'' (1992) * ''Infrastructural Determinism'' (1995) * ''Yanomami Warfare: A Political History'' (1995) * ''A Paradigm for the Study of War and Society'' (1999) * ''Violent Conflict and Control of the State'' (2003) * ''Archaeology, Cultural Anthropology, and the Origins and Intensification of War'' (2006) * ''War Before History'' (2008) * ''Ten Points on War'' (2008) * Chimpanzees, War, and History: Are Men Born to Kill? (2023)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferguson, R. Brian 1951 births Living people 21st-century American anthropologists Columbia College (New York) alumni Rutgers University faculty