Assistant Research Fellow
Ph. D., Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh
Taiwanese Archaeology, South American Archaeology, Subsistence in Small-scale Societies
Peiyu Chen is an anthropological archaeologist trained in both Taiwanese and Andean archaeology. She received her Ph.D. (2019) from Pittsburgh University, and her long-term research interest is to reveal ancient lifestyles in small-scale societies as well as the dynamic processes of the emergence of complex societies. By investigating the daily life of early people, Peiyu Chen’s dissertation “Big Transitions in a Small Fishing Village: Late Preceramic Life in Huaca Negra, Virú Valley, Peru” depicts a unique developmental trajectory of a fishing community that was driven by shifting coping strategies and calls for the reconsideration of the emergence of complex society in the coastal Andes from a bottom-up perspective. Inspired by her work on the Andes, she is eager to explore subsistence systems in prehistoric Taiwan, as well as aiming to study the correlation between these systems and sociopolitical organization in early communities. Her broader ambition is then to accumulate case studies at both ends of the Pacific Ocean (Taiwan and Peru), thereby building a comparative perspective which would further contribute to debates and discourses on archaeological topics of interest on a global stage.
Education:
Ph.D., Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh, 2019
M.A., Department of Anthropology, National Taiwan University, 2007
B.A., Department of Anthropology, National Taiwan University, 2003
Current Position:
Assistant Research Fellow, Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica (2022.1.1- )
Previous Position:
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica (2020.1-2021.12)