R. J. Sinensky
My research explores how and why diverse foodways and property management arrangements developed in early farming societies, and how communal food cultivation, storage, processing, and consumption practices contributed to the maintenance of such institutions. Archaeology provides one of the few opportunities to study the long-term sustainability, resiliency, and equitability of different resource management arrangements in precapitalist societies and can provide a greater historical context for modern strategies. My research also explores stability and change in food cultivation practices, preparation techniques, and consumption practices prior to and immediately following the appearance of sedentary villages in the US Southwest and Mesoamerica.
Fields of Study
Archaeology, Paleoethnobotany, Archaeobotany
Research
Publications
Sinensky, R. J.
In Press Ground Stone Technology and Routine Food Processing at Paso de la Amada, 1700-1300 BCE. In Excavations at Paso de la Amada, Mexico: Subsistence, Social Organization, and Inequality in an Initial Formative Community, edited by Richard G. Lesure. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press, Los Angeles.
Lesure, Richard G., R. J. Sinensky, Tomas A. Wake, and Kristin Hoffmeister
In Press Subsistence Change at Paso de la Amada and the Development of Agrarian Societies in the Soconusco. In Excavations at Paso de la Amada, Mexico: Subsistence, Social Organization, and Inequality in an Initial Formative Community, edited by Richard G. Lesure. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press, Los Angeles.
Sinensky, R. J., and Gregson Schachner
2019 Early Pueblo Period Population Aggregation and Dispersal in the Petrified Forest Region, East-Central Arizona. Kiva 85(1):49-80.
2018 Diversity-Disturbance Relationships in the Late Archaic Southwest: Implications for Farmer-Forager Foodways. American Antiquity 83(2):281-301.
Grants and Awards
PaleoWest Foundation Graduate Scholarship, 2018
Society for American Archaeology Fred Plog Memorial Fellowship, 2018
Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society Research Grant, 2018
Wenner Gren Foundation Dissertation Fieldwork Grant, 2017
UCLA Graduate Research Fellowship, 2016
PaleoWest Foundation Graduate Scholarship, 2018
Society for American Archaeology Fred Plog Memorial Fellowship, 2018
Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society Research Grant, 2018
Wenner Gren Foundation Dissertation Fieldwork Grant, 2017
UCLA Graduate Research Fellowship, 2016
Advisors
Gregson Schachner
Monica Smith
Richard Lesure
Amber VanDerwarker
Degrees
Doctoral candidate, University of California Los Angeles (2017)
M.A. Anthropology, Northern Arizona University (2013)
B.A. Anthropology, The University of Arizona (2007)