Elizabeth Arkush

Elizabeth Arkush, is an anthropology professor and archaeologist at the University of Pittsburgh. She has been conducting research in the Peruvian Andes since 1999. She examines war and violence and their connections to political authority, community and ideology.

Her comparative approach to understanding warfare explores how relationships of hostility and alliance shape individual, community, and regional identities, structure settlement patterns, generate social hierarchies, and inform ritual and the performance of authority. A secondary theme lies in the intersection of paleoclimate, the progressive modification of lands for agricultural and pastoral production, and Andean sociopolitical histories. Methodologically her research relies on spatial technologies such as drone mapping, GIS analysis, and remote sensing.