Scott G. Ortman

Scott G. Ortman is a researcher in historical anthropology at the Department of Anthropology and Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado Boulder, Santa Fe Institute, USA.

His research focuses on the integration of theory and data from many fields to understand the long-term histories of indigenous peoples, particularly in the causes and consequences of major transitions – periods when new societies formed, old ones collapsed, or new scales of organization emerged.

As examples, Prof. Ortman has investigated Tewa Pueblo origins in the Northern Rio Grande region of New Mexico; the growth and collapse of villages in the Mesa Verde region of Colorado; the accumulation of social complexity on a global scale; and the Neolithic Revolution in the U.S. Southwest, in collaboration with Crow Canyon Archaeological Center and the CU Museum of Natural History.

Since 2003 he has been involved with the Village Ecodynamics Project, a multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional collaboration that investigates long-term human-environment interactions.