Brian McCray
Doctoral Student, Department of Anthropology
A Prehistoric Sister Cities Project
Brian is working on a collaborative interpretation project that will engage students in Tennessee and Peru in creating a bilingual presentation about the archeological sites Aaittafama’ in Davidson county and Wimba in Rodriguez de Mendoza, Peru. The perspectives of schoolchildren in both the USA and Peru will emphasize the universality of certain experiences of childhood, as well as increase the appreciation for the different ways of life that existed in the past. This public archaeology project can help current inhabitants of both regions appreciate the heritage of their region by reaffirming the connections that heritage is still creating.
Brian is an archaeologist interested in interregional interaction and ethnogenesis on the eastern slopes of the Andes. Brian graduated with a BA in Anthropology from the University of Virginia in 2009, and spent a year working in the archaeology department at Monticello re-examining archaeological evidence of industry on Thomas Jefferson’s plantation. He joined the program at Vanderbilt in 2010 with interest in the archaeology of both the Amazon basin and the Andean highlands. This led to a focus on interregional interaction, trade, movement, and ethnogenesis in northeastern Peru. Previously, Brian has worked on British colonial plantations in Nevis, Jamaica, and Virginia; Late Intermediate Period pukaras in Peru; and a Late Horizon Inka site in northern Ecuador.