Dr. Edward A. Jolie, a Registered Professional Archaeologist, is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pennsylvania, USA. He primarily teaches archaeology courses including, but not limited to, introduction to Archaeology, Archaeological Field Methods, Perishable Artifact Studies, Archaeology of Western North America, as well as his university’s summer archaeological field training program. However, his background and research interests allow him to teach courses such as Plants and People, Native Americans in Contemporary Society, and Anthropological Ethics that serve the sociocultural anthropology concentration. Dr. Jolie is also the director of the Perishable Artifact Laboratory, literally one of a handful of labs globally that specializes in the documentation and analysis of perishable material culture, such as textiles, baskets, nets, and footwear. His lab receives perishable artifacts for analysis from not just the United States but all over the world and currently includes assemblages from Mexico and Peru that remain under investigation.
His scholarly interests include the archaeology of the Americas (with particular reference to the western U.S.), sociocultural diversity in the past and present, perishable material culture globally, Native American-Anthropologist relationships, and ethics in anthropology. Because he is of mixed Oglala Lakota (Sioux) and Hodulgee Muscogee ancestry, and an enrolled citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma, he strives to cultivate collaborative relationships and research partnerships with Native Americans and other descendant communities. Most recently, these efforts are visible in collaboration with the Seneca Nation of Indians in research and preservation initiatives at Custaloga Town, a significant Seneca-Delaware village site occupied during the French and Indian War of the 18th century. An emerging project involves experimental processing of locally available plants suitable for weaving to facilitate rejuvenation of, and innovation in, weaving traditions among regional Native American Nations.
Dr. Jolie routinely delivers public talks on his research and annually presents research at both local and national anthropology and archaeology conferences, including co-authored papers with his undergraduate senior thesis project advisees. In recent years, he has authored or co-authored paper presentations at the meetings of the Society for American Archaeology, Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology, Great Basin Anthropological Conference, Ohio Tribal Nations Conference, and the Middle Atlantic Archaeology Association. He has authored or co-authored multiple technical reports and book chapters, in addition to peer-reviewed journal articles in publications such as Advances in Archaeological Practice, American Antiquity, Journal of Archaeological Science, Journal of Social Archaeology, North American Archaeologist, and Current Anthropology. Select recent publications include “Perishable Technologies” in The Oxford Handbook of Southwestern Archaeology (2017, with L. D. Webster), “The Rise of Broad-Spectrum Foraging on the Colorado Plateau during the Early Holocene” in The Archaic Southwest (2018, P. Geib), and “Analysis of Perishables” in Archaeological Laboratory Methods: An Introduction, 7th ed. (2019).
