Peter N. Peregrine
| Peter Neal Peregrine | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | November 29, 1963 |
| Residence | United States |
| Citizenship | American |
| Fields | Anthropology, archaeology |
| Institutions | Lawrence University, Wisconsin USA; Santa Fe Institute |
| Alma mater | Purdue University (PhD 1990) |
| Academic advisors | Richard Blanton |
| Known for | North American archaeology quantitative analysis of cultural evolution cross-cultural research scientific anthropology |
| Notable awards | Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science |
Peter N. Peregrine (born November 29, 1963) is an American anthropologist, registered professional archaeologist, and academic. He is well known for his staunch defense of science in anthropology, and for his popular textbook Anthropology (with Carol R. Ember and Melvin Ember). Peregrine did dissertation research on the evolution of the Mississippian culture of North America, and then did fieldwork on Bronze Age cities in Syria. He is currently Professor of Anthropology at Lawrence University and External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute.
Peregrine developed a comprehensive data set and methodology for conducting diachronic cross-cultural research. This work has produced the Atlas of Cultural Evolution and the Encyclopedia of Prehistory (with Melvin Ember), and also forms the basis for the Human Relations Area Files eHRAF Archaeology. Peregrine has published extensively on the Mississippian culture and on archaeological method and theory.
Peregrine serves on the editorial boards of American Anthropologist, Cross-Cultural Research, and is past-president of the Society for Anthropological Sciences. In 2011 he was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Peregrine argued that Mississippian cultures should be seen as participants in a large system that integrated much of eastern North America in a single political economy. He initially employed world-systems theory to do this, arguing that large centers were cores of political and economic authority which were supported by peripheral regions though the exchange of objects used in rituals of social reproduction such as initiation and marriage. The Mississippian cores themselves competitively manufactured and traded these objects, linking them into what Peregrine called a prestige-goods system. Polities vied for power over exchange, and rose and fell as their ability to control prestige-goods strengthened or waned. The response to Peregrine’s view was mixed, with some calling it “exaggerationalist” and others adopting it into their own work.
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