Kent V. Flannery

Research originally focused on the origins of agriculture and gradually broadened to include later stages of cultural evolution in the same region. Specifically, from 1973 onward, he and colleague Joyce Marcus have workedo n the growth of autonomous village society, the origins of rank societies and chiefdoms, and the eventual creation of archaic states. Today, he is engaged in a long-term comparative study of the way higher and more complex forms of sociopolitical organization evolved from earlier societies of hunters, gatherers, and agricultural villagers.