Kathleen Marie Heath

Associate Professor of Anthropology

Ph.D. University of Utah

Phone:  812-237-3004

E-mail: kathleen.heath@indstate.edu

Office:  Holmstedt Hall  023F

Educational Excellence Teaching Award, Arts & Sciences, 2000

Course Instruction: Multiple Lifeways, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Emergence of Complex Societies, Human Ecology, Aspects of Culture (Peoples of Africa & the Middle East, Sex & Gender), The History of Anthropological Thought, The Human Discovery

Research Interests:   Evolutionary Ecology,  Life History, Kin Selection Behavior & Health, Mating & Parenting Strategies

Research Profile:  As a Bio-cultural Anthropologist, I am primarily interested in life history strategies and multi-generational interactions.  To this end, I am continually expanding my two large databases.  First, I have a historical demographic database with data ranging from 950 BCE to the present from groups around the world.  Second, I have a database representing life histories and oral histories from three-generations of contemporary peoples from different ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic lifeways.  The database exceeds 40,000 individuals.  These data are used to address (a) the role of the family in life history events, (b) mating & parenting strategies, (c) fertility, mortality, & migration patterns, (d) risk-prone vs. risk averse behaviors, (e) health & lifestyle behaviors, (f) culture variation and culture change., and (g) the role of the environment in shaping life history. As an Archaeologist, my specialty is Paleo-ethnobotany, I have a comparative seed collection of greater than 400 species representative primarily but not exclusively of the American West.  My principle archaeological research interests emphasize subsistence strategies and site formation processes and migration.

 

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

2009  Gant, L. M., K. M. Heath, G. G. Ejikeme.  Early motherhood, high mortality, and HIV/AIDS rates in Sub-Saharan Africa.  Journal of Social Work in Public Health 25(1) (in press).

2006  McCullough, J. M., K. M. Heath, and *J. D. Fields.  Culling the cousins: kingship, kinship, and competition in Mid-Millennial England.  J. History of the Family 11:59-66.

2005  Heath, K. M., and L. M. Gant.  Evolution, culture, and the processes of learning and memory.  Cognitive Technology 9(1):10-12.

2005  McCullough, J. M., and K. M. Heath.  Apocalypse buffered: The value of kin during crises. Chacmool Conference Proceedings.

2003  Heath, K. M.  The effect of kin propinquity on infant mortality. Social Biology 50: 270-280.

1999  Heath, K. M. Micro-botanical and micro-refuse analysis of flotation samples from Weston Canyon Rockshelter.  Tibiwa 27(1):60-64.

1998  Heath, K. M., and *C. Hadley.  Dichotomous male reproductive strategies in a human polygynous society: mating versus parental effort. Current Anthropology 39(3):369-374.

1990  Metcalfe, D., and K. M. Heath.  Micro-refuse and site structure: The hearths and floors of the heartbreak hotel.  American Antiquity 55(4):781-796.

1990  Simms, S. R., and K. M. Heath. Site structure of the orbit inn:  An application of ethnoarchaeology.  American Antiquity 55(4):797-812.

*  Undergraduate student participant in research.

Meeting Presentations

2008  McCullough, J. M., *K. Tumey, K. M. Heath, and J. D. Fields.  Princes and Procreation: Social Class and Fertility in Colonial New England. Chacmool Conference, Calgary, Canada.

2007  Heath, K. M., and L. M. Gant.  Life History Parameters and the Proliferation of HIV/AIDS.  American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), San Francisco, CA.

2006  Heath, K. M., *J. D. Fields, J. M. McCullough, and *M. E. Lowe.  Nobles, Bastards, and Wealth: Reproductive Inequalities in Monogamous Marriages.  Human Behavior and Evolution Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

2005  Heath, K. M., *J. D. Fields, *M. E. Lowe, and J. M. McCullough.  The People in the Puzzle: Historical Demography as a Tool of Historical Archaeology.  Chacmool Conference, Calgary, Canada.

2005  Gant, L. M., and K. M. Heath.  Low Operational Sex-ratios, Risky Sexual Behavior, and the Spread of HIV/AIDS among African American Women.  Human Behavior and Evolution Society, Austin, Texas.

2004  Heath, K. M., and L. M. Gant. Risky Sexual Behavior as an Adaptive Response to HIV/AIDS. Human Behavior and Evolution Society, Berlin, Germany. 

2003  *Schlomer, G., V. Sheets, and K. Heath.  Parental Manipulation of Romantic Partner Choice in the U. S.  Human Behavior and Evolution Society, Lincoln, NE. 

2003  Heath, K. M., D. Herrmann, and D. Raybeck.  Cross-Cultural Variation in Memory and Metamemory between American and Malaysian Populations.  Society for Cross-cultural Research, Charleston, So. Carolina. 

2002  McCullough, J. M., and K. M. Heath.  Kin in Crisis: Relative Worth in Hard Times.  Chacmool Conference, Calgary, Canada. 

2002  Heath, K. M., J. M. McCullough, and *J. D. Fields.  Daughters, Sisters, Wives, and the Making of Male Alliances. Human Behavior and Evolution Society, Rutgers, NJ.  

2001  Intigrinova, T., and K. M. Heath.  Traditions and Future: Land Care in Buryat Culture.  The Mongolian Society Fortieth Anniversary Meeting, Bloomington, IN. 

2001  McCullough, J. M., K. M. Heath, and *J. D. Fields.  Culling the Cousins: Kingship, Kinship, and Competition in Mid-Millennial England.  Human Behavior and Evolution Society, London, UK. 

2001  Heath, K. M., and V. Sheets.  The Butcher, The Baker, The Candlestick Maker but not the Pauper:  Who Gains From Hypergynous Marriages?  Human Behavior and Evolution Society, London, UK. 

2000  Heath, K. M.  It’s The Little Things that Count:  Flotation Analysis from Polar Cave Site.  Symposium #5.  27th Great Basin Anthropological Conference, Ogden, UT. 

2000  Heath, K. M., and T. Intigrinova.  Revisting Pastoralists as Conservationists:  Why Do Pastoralists Seasonally Move?  Human Behavior and Evolution Society, Amherst College, MA. 

1999  Heath, K. M. The Reproductive Payoffs of Kin Propinquity in a 19th Century American Frontier Population.  Human Behavior and Evolution Society, Salt Lake City, UT.

*  Undergraduate student participant in research.