Kent Flannery

{{short description|North American archaeologist|bot=PearBOT 5}}

{{Use American English|date=November 2017}}{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2017}}

{{Infobox academic

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| name = Kent V. Flannery

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| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1934}}

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| nationality = American

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| occupation = Archaeologist

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| known_for = Broad Spectrum Revolution

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| spouse = Joyce Marcus

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| parents = Vaughn Flannery

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| alma_mater = University of Chicago

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| doctoral_advisor = Robert John Braidwood

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| discipline = Archaeologist and anthropologist

| sub_discipline = {{hlist|Pre-Columbian era|Mesoamerica|origins of agriculture|sedentism|cultural evolution|zooarchaeology}}

| workplaces = University of Michigan

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| notable_students = Susan H. Lees, Robert Drennan, Charles S. Spencer

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Kent Vaughn Flannery (born 1934){{Citation |last=Sharer |first=Robert J. |title=Flannery, Kent Vaughn |date=2014 |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology |pages=2800–2803 |editor-last=Smith |editor-first=Claire |url=https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_308 |access-date=2025-01-11 |place=New York, NY |publisher=Springer |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_308 |isbn=978-1-4419-0465-2|url-access=subscription }} is an American archaeologist who has conducted and published extensive research on the pre-Columbian cultures and civilizations of Mesoamerica, and in particular those of central and southern Mexico. He has also worked in Iran and Peru.

Flannery grew up in Maryland on a farm near the Susquehanna River,{{Cite journal |last=Flannery |first=Kent V. |date=October 2006 |title=On the Resilience of Anthropological Archaeology |journal=Annual Review of Anthropology |language=en |volume=35 |pages=1–13 |doi=10.1146/annurev.anthro.35.081705.123304 |doi-access=free |issn=0084-6570}} and attended the Gilman School in Baltimore.{{Cite web |title=Class Notes: Alumni |website=Gilman School |url=https://www.gilman.edu/alumni/class-notes?tag_id=408 |access-date=2025-01-11 |language=en-US}} His father was artist Vaughn Flannery. He entered the University of Chicago after his sophomore year of high school, and gained his B.A. degree in zoology in 1954. He began studying for an M.A. in zoology, but shifted to Anthropology following fieldwork in Mexico; he then excavated in Iran with Robert Braidwood in 1960. His 1961 M.A. differentiated wild and domestic pigs in Near Eastern Neolithic sites. His 1964 Ph.D. examined the Tehuacán formative.

Flannery is known for proposing the Broad Spectrum Revolution in 1961.{{Cite journal |last=Stiner |first=Mary C. |date=2001-06-19 |title=Thirty years on the "Broad Spectrum Revolution" and paleolithic demography |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |volume=98 |issue=13 |pages=6993–6996 |doi=10.1073/pnas.121176198 |doi-access=free |pmc=34611 |pmid=11390968|bibcode=2001PNAS...98.6993S }} In the 1960s and 70s, Flannery was a leading proponent of Processual Archaeology and the use of Systems Theory in archaeology. He has published influential work on origins of agriculture and village life in the Near east, pastoralists in the Andes, and cultural evolution, and many critiques of modern trends in archaeological method, theory, and practice. From 1966 to 1980 he directed project "Prehistory and Human Ecology of the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico," dealing with the origins of agriculture, village life, and social inequality in Mexico.{{Cite web |title=Kent Flannery |website=U-M LSA Anthropology |url=https://lsa.umich.edu/anthro/people/faculty/archaeological-faculty/kflanner.html}}

At the University of Michigan, Flannery is the James B. Griffin Professor in the Department of Anthropology and the Curator of Human Ecology and Archaeobiology at the Museum of Anthropological Archaeology. He has chaired thirteen doctoral dissertation committees. His students include Robert Drennan, Susan H. Lees, and Charles S. Spencer.{{Cite web |title=Alumni by Curator |website=U-M LSA Museum of Anthropological Archaeology |url=https://lsa.umich.edu/ummaa/people/alumni/alumni---friends.html |access-date=2025-01-11 |language=en}}

Flannery was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1978,{{Cite web |title=Kent V. Flannery |url=https://www.nasonline.org/directory-entry/kent-v-flannery-wqovsa/ |access-date=2025-01-11 |website=National Academy of Sciences |language=en-US}}{{Cite news |date=1978-04-30 |title=60 SCIENTISTS NAMED TO NATIONAL ACADEMY |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/04/30/archives/60-scientists-named-to-national-academy-selection-is-high-honor.html |access-date=2025-01-11 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1996,{{Cite web |date=2024-10-03 |title=Kent V. Flannery |website=American Academy of Arts and Sciences |url=https://www.amacad.org/person/kent-v-flannery |access-date=2025-01-11 |language=en}} and the American Philosophical Society in 2005.{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Kent+V.+Flannery&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-05-25|website=search.amphilsoc.org}} He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Pennsylvania in 1987, and in 1992 his scholarship was recognized by the American Anthropological Association with the Alfred Vincent Kidder Award for Eminence in the Field of American Archaeology.{{Cite web |title=Awards – AAA Archaeology Division |url=https://ad.americananthro.org/awards/#Alfred_Vincent_Kidder |access-date=2025-01-11 |language=en-US}}

In 1973 Flannery married fellow archaeologist and frequent collaborator Joyce Marcus.