Richard G. Cooke
Staff Scientist
e-mail: cooker@si.edu
Link: Download PDFs of recent articles
Link: Cerro Juan Díaz Research
Address: Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Box 0843-03092
Balboa, Ancon, Republic of Panama
or
Unit 0948
APO AA 34002-094
Telephone: +507 212-8747 / 8137
FAX: +507 212-8154
Publications
Publications by Richard G. Cooke in STRI Bibliography
Research Interests
Current Research
Research interests: archaeology of New World tropics; long-term history of native American peoples of Panama and neighboring areas; archaeozoology (especially fishing in the eastern tropical Pacific); archaeology and education in Latin America.
Has conducted field research in Panama since 1969, concentrating on the ‘Gran Coclé’ culture area. His laboratory houses a large vertebrate skeleton collection, which specializes in marine fish from the eastern tropical Pacific. Since 1992 has been directing a long-term field project at Cerro Juan Díaz near Parita Bay on the central Pacific coast. This research, which employs several Costa Rican, Colombian and Panamanian specialists, attempts to reconstruct the social organization, economy and commercial relations of this important native American settlement occupied between about 200 BC and AD 1600.
Collaborates with Dolores Piperno (STRI), Lynette Norr (U Florida, Gainesville) and Anthony Ranere (Temple U) on a cross-disciplinary study of human adaptations to Panamanian forests and coastal habitats.
Education and Degrees
BA, University of Bristol, England, 1968;
Ph.D., Institute of Archaeology, London University, England, 1972
Selected Bibliography
Cooke, Richard G., and Ranere, Anthony J. 1999. "Precolumbian fishing on the Pacific coast of Panama." In Michael Bkale (Ed.), Pacific Latin America in prehistory : the evolution of archaic and formative cultures: 103-121. Pullman, Wash.: WSU Press.
Sánchez H., Luis Alberto, and Cooke, Richard G. 1999. "¿Quién presta y quién imita?: orfebrería e iconografía en "Gran Coclé", Panamá." Boletín Museo del Oro 42(Enero-Junio): 87-111.
Human settlement of Central America and Northern South America, 14,000 -8,000 BP. Quaternary International 49/50:177-190, 1998.
Monagrillo, Panama's first pottery (3800-1200 cal bc): summary of research (1948-1993), with new interpretations of chronology, subsistence and cultural geography. In J. Barnett, J. Hoopes, editores, The Emergence of Pottery: Technology and Innovation in Ancient Societies, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C., pp. 169-184, 1995.
Native Americans and the Panamanian landscape: harmony and discord between data sets appropriate for environmental history. In E.J. Reitz, L.A, Newsom, S.J. Scudder, eds., Case Studies in Environmental Archaeology, Plenum Press, pp. 103-126, 1996 (with D.R. Piperno and L. Norr)
Precolumbian fishing on the Pacific coast of Panama. In M. Blake, ed., Pacific Latin America in Prehistory: the Evolution of Archaic and Formative Cultures. Washington State University Press, Pullman, pp. 103-122 (with A.J. Ranere)
Prehistoric nearshore and littoral fishing in the eastern tropical Pacific: an ichthyological evaluation. World Archaeology 6: 1-49, 1992.
The Felidae in Pre-Columbian Panama: a thematic approach to their imagery and symbolism. In N.J. Saunders, ed., Icons of Power: Felid Symbolism in the Americas, Routledge, London, pp. 77–121, 1998
The origin of wealth and hierarchy in the Central Region of Panama (12,000-2,000BP), with observations on its relevance to the history and phylogeny of Chibchan-speaking polities in Panama and elsewhere. In F. Lange, editor, Wealth and Hierarchy in the Intermediate Area, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington DC, pp.. 243-316, 1992 (with A.J. Ranere)