Profile

Biography

I obtained my degree at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) in 1996. In 2004 I obtained my PhD, also in the UAB, after having done the PhD research on the Institució Milà i Fontanals-Spanish Council for Scientific Research with a grant from the Catalan Government (Generalitat de Catalunya).

My PhD research project dealt with ethnoarchaeology and new approaches to the study of lithics in hunter-gather-fisher societies. Its aim was to develope a new method to analyze lithics from a form-function perspective in order to apply it to the archaeological assemblages of “Túnel VII”: a site from the Yámana society (Beagle channel, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina). Lithics is, for me, a fantastic object of study to discover economical life of past people.

My experience in hunter-gatherers research has been developed in Catalonia, Nicaragua and Argentina. And now, as ICREA Researcher, I’m developing different research projects about social aggregation and social cooperation in Yamana society (Beagle channel, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina).

My ICREA webpage: http://icrea.cat/Web/ScientificStaff/Ivan-Briz-i-Godino-449

Publications

Selected publications

Books.

Barceló, J.A., Briz, I. & Vila A. (1999), New Techniques for Old Times. Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology. Proceedings of the 26th. Conference, Barcelona, March 1998., British Archaelogical Reports. 757, Archeopress, Oxford.

Briz, I., Clemente, I., Terradas, X., Toselli, A., Vila, A. & Zurro, D. eds. (2006), Etnoarqueología de la Prehistoria: más allá de la analogía, Treballs d’Etnoarqueologia, 6, CSIC, Madrid.

Full publications list

Álvarez, M., Briz, I., Balbo, A. & Madella, M. (2011). Shell middens as
archives of past environments, human dispersal and specialized resource
management. Quaternary International. 239 (1-2): 1-7
 
Briz, I. & Vietri, L. (2011). L’analogia in etnoarcheologia: la chiusura del
cerchio. Logica, “contrastazione”, archeologia. Cuaderni di Thule. Rivista
d'Americanistica, X:169-178
 
Balbo, A., Madella, M., Briz, I. and Álvarez, M. (2011). Shell midden
research: an interdisciplinary agenda for the Quaternary and Social
Sciences. Quaternary International, 239(1-2): 147-152.
 
Briz, I., Álvarez, M., Balbo, A., Zurro, D., Madella, M., Villagrán, X.,
French, C. (2011). Towards high-resolution shell midden archaeology:
experimental and ethno-archaeology in Tierra del Fuego (Argentina).
Quaternary International, 239 (1-2): 125-134.
 
Briz, I. (2010). Dinámicas producción-consumo en conjuntos líticos: el
análisis de los conjunto líticos de la sociedad Yámana. Magallania, 38(2):
159-181.
 
Álvarez, M., Pal, N., Salvatelli, L., Briz, I., Zangrando, A., Bazerque, A.,De Ángelis, H. y Fiore, D. (2010). Tallando desde lo alto: un sitio de explotación de materiales líticos de los grupos de cazadores-recolectores dela Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego. Magallania, 38(1): 297-302.
 
M. Madella, P. Ajithprasad, C. Lancelotti, B. Rondelli, A. Balbo, C. French,D. Rodríguez, J.J. García-Granero, V. Yannitto, S.V. Rajesh, C.S. Gadekar &I. Briz (2010). Social and environmental transitions in arid zones: theNorth Gujarat Archaeological Project — NoGAP.  Antiquity , 084(325).http://antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/madella325/
 

Briz, I., Álvarez, M., Zurro, D. & Caro, J. (2009), Meet for lunch: a new ethnoarchaoelogical project, Antiquity, 083(322): http://www.antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/briz322/

Álvarez, M., Zurro, D., Briz, I., Madella, M., Osterrieth, M. & Borrelli N. (2009), Análisis de los procesos productivos en las sociedades Cazadoras-recolectoras-pescadoras de la Costa Norte del Canal Beagle (Argentina): el sitio Lanashuaia, in: Salemme, M., Santiago, F., Álvarez, M., Piana, E., Vázquez, M. & Mansur, M. (eds.), Arqueología de Patagonia: Una mirada desde el último confín, 2, Editorial Utopías, Ushuaia, Pp.: 903-918.

Briz, I., Álvarez, M., Spikins, P. & Needham, A. (2009), 'Durable residues': Addressing the use of microwear, a case study from March Hill, Internet Archaeology, 26. http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue26/godino_index.html

Zurro, D., Madella, M., Briz. I. & Vila, A. (2009), Variability of the phytolith record in Fisher-hunther-gatherer sites: an example from the Yámana society (Beagle Channel, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina), Quaternary International, 193(1-2): 184-191.

Briz, I. (2006), Lithic Analysis in Spanish Archaeology, Lithic Technology, 31(2): 89-99.

Álvarez, M. & Briz, I. (2006), Organización tecnológica en el proceso de poblamiento del extremo Sur de Sudamérica, HABITUS. GOIANIA. Revista do Instituto Goiano de Pré-História e Antropologia, 4(2):771-795

Briz, I., Clemente, I., Pijoan, J., Terradas, X. & Vila, A. (2005). Stone tools in etnoarchaeological contexts: theoretical-methodological inferences, Lithic Toolkits in Ethnoarchaeological Contexts. Actts of the XIVth UISPP Congress. Liège, Belgium, 2001. International Series, British Archaeological Reports, 1370, Archeopress, Oxford.

Pijoan, J., Barceló, J. A., Briz, I. & Vila, A. (2004), Image quantification in Use-wear analysis, Making the connection to the Past CAA’99. Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology. Proceedings of the 27th Conference, Dublin, April, 1999, Leiden University, Leiden, Pp: 67-74.

Ruiz del Olmo, G. & Briz, I. (1998), Re-pensando la Re-producción, Boletín de Antropología Americana, 33: 79-90.

Research

Overview

Ethnoarchaeology is an interesting (and exciting!) frame to obtain new archaeological methods and techniques in order to study human relations and their social organization with a specific interest for social change dynamics in hunter-gatherer societies.

The study of hunter-gather societies gives full of topics where these questions can be explored; coastal resources management and the technological changes and innovations in relation to a new landscape, social aggregation, cooperation, the origins of sedentarism, the origins of social inequality…. Shell-middens offer a fantastic high resolution context to answer these questions through the implementation of an interdisciplinary approach (using different techniques and methods). The approach to lithic technology is done from an economical perspective and on the basis of its form-function dynamics, considering as well other fields of research associated to lithics such as contexts, plant or animal residues on tools or in production contexts and exploring the possibilities to translate our methods to another type of tools, etc.

One of the application fields of our questions is Yámana history: which were the social and technological changes developed this hunter-gatherer-fisher society to face with the colonization undertaken by the industrial society? Given the industrial pressure over the resources of Tierra del Fuego (the basic element of Yamana people survival), which were the technological answers? Was the development of new social interactions an outcome of this process? Or perhaps an increase of communal cooperation did occur? Our project of the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, and the National Council of Scientific and Technical Research of Argentina is focused on the analysis of social aggregation and the possibility of cooperation and solidarity dynamics’ development by Yamana society.

Current projects

Our team obtained an INGENIO-CONSOLIDER Project (High Quality ResearchProgram) from Spanish Government. The project “Social and environmentaltransitions: Simulating the past to understand human behaviour (SimulPast)“ is a five-year interdiscplinary research project started in January 2011and funded by the Spanish Ministry for Science and Innovation. The projectinvolves 11 Research Groups from 7 different Institutions with more than60 researchers from several fields (archaeology, anthropology, computerscience, environmental studies, physics, mathematics and sociology). Thetotal amount of the project is 2,750,000€. The leader institution is theIMF-CSIC in Barcelona. You can visit our webpage: http://www.simulpast.es/

Teaching

Undergraduate

First year

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Second year

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Third year

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External activities

Memberships

• Catalan Archaeology Association
• Prehistoric Society
• Lithics Studies Society.
• Catalan Computer Applications in Archaeology Association.
• Polar Archaeological Net (founder)
• Society for American Archaeology

Editorial duties

Editorial Boar of Treballs d’Etnoarqueologia series (CSIC-Spain)