Brief Bio- Matthew Hill

Matthew Hill (mhill@WATARTS.UWATERLOO.CA)
Thu, 21 Apr 1994 10:58:00 -0400

Born into a conventional middle class Seattle family, I got into Anthro
because it was raining outside and have been here ever since. B.A.,
Washington in the epi-boasian era, 1 year at Utah. M.A., Washington
State. At Utah I was both exposed convincingly to White and discovered
that I am no ethnographer, thus became a Cultural Anthropologist, sub
species archaeologist. At Southern Illinois, in the Taylor era, I
meso-americanized until I realized I couldn't critically keep up with
the literature and decided to be the MacNeish of West Africa, I planned
the equivalent of the Tehuacan Project for the Fouta Djallon, but for
personal and geo-political reasons, did Ph.D. research in Sierra Leone.
After a salvage survey in Cote d'Ivoire I turned north and in 70s and 80s
had three seasons in The Gambia. In between, local historic archaeology to
provide student opportunities.
Neuro-muscular problems have kept me out of the field since the mid 80s,
and a good thing too because it means that with a little luck I will
retire with everything written up. Then, I move to British Columbia,
carry on with Gambian ethnohistory and study vernacular architecture.
Waterloo was a stop-gap (thanks Mike S. for offer at Purdue but Indiana
seemed too much like Illinois) and next month I get my 25 year Seiko.
3 kids (2 off the rack, 1 custom) range 15-30. Hobbies: Food (creation-
consumption), Creative fermentation, Architecture, Internet. Red SAAB
Matthew Hill Anthropology Dept. U. Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada