Brian R. Ferguson

Background

Richard Brian Ferguson was born in New York, New York on July 19, 1951. He spent his childhood in upstate New York. He was a son of Frank C. who was a pharmacologist and Joan Ferguson, nurse and homemaker.

Education

Ferguson attended Columbia University, graduating with a bachelor's degree in anthropology in 1974. During this time he was involved in activism opposing the Vietnam war. He earned his doctorate in anthropology from Columbia University in 1988, with dissertation field work in Puerto Rico.

Career

Ferguson started his career as a lecturer at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey in 1977, then he was on the same position at Hunter College of the City University of New York, at John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York. Then he became an instructor at Rutgers University, Newark Campus, Newark, New Jersey. From 1985 he has held the position of assistant professor there till 1991. Also during the years 1980-1996 he was a consultant to U.S. Forest Service, Realis Pictures, and Roche Pharmaceuticals.

Ferguson is now a tenured professor of Anthropology at Rutgers University Newark. His expertise lies in cultural anthropology, the anthropology of war, ethnic conflict, state-tribe interaction, policing, and Puerto Rico. He is part of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology as well as Global Urban Studies/Urban Systems. He has also served on the board of governors of the New York Academy of Sciences.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Yanomami Warfare: A Political History (A School for Advanced Research Resident Scholar Book)

    (Generations of college students know the Yanomami as the ...)

    1995
  • Warfare, Culture, and Environment (Studies in Anthropology) 1984

Views

Brian Ferguson was a generalist, he develops ideas which are applicable across widely varying situations. From the first, his work centered on investigation of historical interaction of expanding states and indigenous peoples in war and peace; and theoretical syntheses of causes, conditions, and consequences of war. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, he developed three new research areas: global archaeological evidence on the origins of war; challenging neo-Darwinist claims that humans have inborn human propensities to violence; and combining anthropological and international relations theory for a holistic approach to so-called “ethnic war” and large-scale political violence. All along, he published on issues of broad relevance, such as how anthropologists can promote peace, or an anthropological approach to the war in Iraq, or controversies about anthropological engagement with U.S. security agencies. His current book project develops a new approach to human nature, war, and peace through examination of wild chimpanzee and bonobo behavior.

Membership

Brian Ferguson was a member of board directors during the years 1993-1996, then he was elected a president and has held the position till 1998.

• American Anthropological Association , United States

• American Anthropological Association , United States

• Puerto Rican Studies Association , Puerto Rico

• Columbia University Seminar on Ecological Systems and Cultural Evolution , United States

Connections

Ferguson was married Leslie Farragher and they had children: Elise, Katherine.

Father:

Frank C. Ferguson

Mother:

Joan Ferguson

child:

Elise

child:

Katherine

Wife:

Leslie Farragher