All anthropologists, Rodning, Canuto, Murakami, and Nesbitt engaged in a weeklong collaborative retreat at A Studio in the Woods to explore and exchange ideas about the archaeology of monuments within cultural landscapes in the ancient Americas.

Dr. Murakami received his PhD from Arizona State University in 2010. His research focuses on the materiality of power relations among different social segments as expressed in human and material resources in Central Mexico. His research is specifically concerned with developing a set of concepts and methodologies to discern the complex social landscapes of power based on practice-based and multidisciplinary approaches, including the application of archaeometric methods. He has conducted construction experiments, materials analysis of lime plaster and cut stone blocks, and an analysis of lapidary objects (especially greenstone) at Teotihuacan. He is currently directing an archaeological project at the Formative site of Tlalancaleca, Puebla, Mexico, which is investigating sociopolitical dynamics in a pre-state society and broader regional processes leading to state formation at Teotihuacan.