Oystein S. LaBianca

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Oystein Sakala LaBianca (born in 1949 in Kristiansand, Norway) is a National Geographic Explorer and director of the Hisban Cultural Heritage Project at Tall Hisban[1] (biblical Heshbon) in Jordan.[2] He is notable for having introduced new interpretive tools (analytical lenses) for studying long-term processes of cultural production and change in the Eastern Mediterranean and for pioneering community archaeology in the region.[3][4][5]

Education[edit]

LaBianca was raised in Norway and immigrated to the United States as a teenager. He attended Andrews University for his undergraduate degrees in behavioral sciences and religion, which he received in 1971. He continued his education completing an M.A. in Anthropology at Loma Linda University in 1975, and a Ph.D. in Anthropology at Brandeis University in 1987.[2]

Career[edit]

LaBianca served as an anthropologist and faunal analyst on the original Heshbon Expedition and was a founding member of the Madaba Plains Project.[6] He has served as a trustee and vice president of the American Society of Overseas Research[7] and as a trustee of the American Center for Research in Amman.[8] Since 1980, he has been a professor at the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences and the Institute of Archaeology at Andrews University.[9]

Food systems research[edit]

LaBianca is known for his application of the food systems research perspective at Tall Hisban, Jordan.[10] The food systems model opened a more inclusive and integrative approach to interpreting discoveries from all historical periods at Tall Hisban.[11] The approach explores how the various activities carried out by a group of people in their quest for food, water and security are systemically interrelated as they unfold over time.[12] Study of animal bone fragments and other artifacts from Tall Hisban allowed documentation of long-term cycles of intensification and abatement in the local food system, which in turn were accompanied by cyclic episodes of sedentarization and nomadization. The intensification-abatement framework has since been adopted by researchers studying long-term historical changes elsewhere in Jordan,[13] in the Late Antique Southern Levant,[14] the Mediterranean,[15] and Europe.[16]

Great and Little Traditions[edit]

The Great and Little Traditions framework was originally proposed by University of Chicago anthropologist Robert Redfield to study the two-way interactions of expanding imperial civilizations (Great Traditions) with the ways and traditions of the local communities (Little Traditions) they sought to “civilize.”[17] The framework has been widely used by LaBianca to the study of long-term interactions between imperial civilizations of the Ancient Near East with local communities of Jordan.[18] It has since been adopted by other researchers in the region.[19]

Endemic polycentrism[edit]

LaBianca has argued that the late arrival of bureaucracy, monumentality and writing in the Southern Levant (when compared with Egypt and Mesopotamia) is attributable to the centrifugal force exerted by persistent tribalism that bends social order in the region in the direction of multiple centers of power (endemic polycentrism).[20] When monarchical social orders arise in the region, they tend therefore to be highly influenced by sentiments and practices rooted in tribalism.[21] This is the rationale behind the tribal kingdom hypothesis as the basis for understanding the nature of secondary states that arose during the Iron Age in the Southern Levant such as the Ammonites, Israelites, Moabites and Edomites.[22]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Walker, Bethany J.; LaBianca, Øystein S. (7 November 2020). "Hisban Cultural Heritage Project (2018–2019)". ACOR Jordan. Retrieved 2022-08-02.
  2. ^ a b "Oystein S. LaBianca Ph.D. - National Geographic Society". explorer-directory.nationalgeographic.org. Retrieved 2022-08-02.
  3. ^ Dever, William G. (1993-05-01). "Syro-Palestinian Archaeology "Comes of Age": The Inaugural Volume of the Hesban Series: A Review Article: Hesban 1. Sedentarization and Nomadization: Food System Cycles at Hesban and Vicinity in Transjordan by Øystein S. LaBianca". Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research. 290–291: 127–130. doi:10.2307/1357324. ISSN 0003-097X. JSTOR 1357324. S2CID 222451573.
  4. ^ "Norwegian scholar draws parallel between archaeological sites and botanical gardens". Jordan Times. 2018-01-07. Retrieved 2022-08-02.
  5. ^ "Community archaeology challenges 'colonial' approaches to research — expert". Jordan Times. 2017-07-29. Retrieved 2022-08-02.
  6. ^ Geraty, Lawrence; Herr, Larry; LaBianca, Oystein; Younker, Randall (1989-01-01). "Madaba Plains Project 1: The 1984 Season at Tell el-Umeiri and Vicinity and Subsequent Studies". All Books.
  7. ^ "Officers & Trustees from 2020". American Society of Overseas Research (ASOR). Retrieved 2022-08-02.
  8. ^ "2021 ACOR Board Members".
  9. ^ "SSBS Faculty & Staff :: Andrews University". www.andrews.edu. Retrieved 2022-08-02.
  10. ^ LaBianca, Oystein Sakala; Driesch, Angela Von Den (1995). Faunal Remains: Taphonomical and Zooarchaeological Studies of the Animal Remains From Tell Hesban and Vicinity. Andrews University Press. ISBN 978-0-943872-29-2.
  11. ^ Sobal, Jeffery; Kettel Khan, Laura; Bisogni, Carole (October 1998). "A conceptual model of the food and nutrition system". Social Science & Medicine. 47 (7): 853–863. doi:10.1016/s0277-9536(98)00104-x. ISSN 0277-9536. PMID 9722106.
  12. ^ Mattingly, Gerald (1994-01-01). "Sedentarization and Nomadization: Food System Cycles at Hesban and Vicinity in Transjordan [review] / by Øystein Sakala LaBianca; assistant editors, Lorita E. Hubbard, Leona G. Running". Andrews University Seminary Studies (AUSS). 32 (3). ISSN 0003-2980.
  13. ^ Christopherson, Gary L. (2000). "In pursuit of the longue duree: Usinga geographic information system to model archaeological settlement patternsin the region of Tell el-'Umeiri, Jordan". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  14. ^ Avni, Gideon (2014). The Byzantine-Islamic Transition in Palestine: An Archaeological Approach. OUP Oxford. ISBN 978-0-19-968433-5.
  15. ^ Horden, Peregrine; Purcell, Nicholas (2000-04-07). The Corrupting Sea: A Study of Mediterranean History. Wiley. ISBN 978-0-631-21890-6.
  16. ^ Wickham, Chris (2006-11-30). Framing the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean, 400-800. OUP Oxford. ISBN 978-0-19-162263-2.
  17. ^ Redfield, Robert (1955). "The Social Organization of Tradition". The Far Eastern Quarterly. 15 (1): 13–21. doi:10.2307/2942099. ISSN 0363-6917. JSTOR 2942099. S2CID 147123250.
  18. ^ LaBianca, Oystein (2007-01-01). "Great and Little Traditions: A Framework for Studying Cultural Interaction through the Ages in Jordan". Faculty Publications. 9: 275–289.
  19. ^ Nucciotti, Michele; Pruno, Elisa. "Great and Little Traditions in medieval Petra and Shawbak: contextualizing local building industry and pottery production in 12th-13th centuries". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  20. ^ LaBianca, Oystein S. "The Poly-Centric Nature of Social Order in the Middle East: Preliminary Reflections from Anthropological Archaeology". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  21. ^ LaBianca, Oystein S. "Salient Features of Iron Age Tribal Kingdoms". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  22. ^ LaBianca, Oystein S. "The Kingdoms of Ammon, Moab, and Edom: The Archaeology of Society in Late Bronze/Iron Age Transjordan (Ca. 1400-500 BCE)". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
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