TAMARA L. BRAY
Department of Anthropology
Wayne State University
Detroit, Michigan 48202
Current Position
Professor, Department of Anthropology, Wayne State University
Education
State University of New York
Binghamton, New York 1985-1991 Ph.D Anthropology
State University of New York
Binghamton, New York 1983-1985 M.A. Anthropology
Beloit College
Beloit, Wisconsin 1976-1980 B.A. Anthropology
Awards and Honors
2016 Marilyn Williamson Distinguished Faculty Fellowship Award, Humanities Center, Wayne State University
2015 Invited speaker, Dallas Museum of Art, in conjunction with Inca art exhibition
2014 Invited keynote speaker, International Conference on Food, Identity, and Social Change, University of Copenhagen, Denmark (September)
2014 Senior Prometeo scholar, Secretaría Nacional de Educación Superior, Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación, Ecuador (Jan-July)
2013-18 Appointed to Fulbright Specialist Roster
2013 Named 2013 Michigan Distinguished Professor of the Year by the Presidents’ Council of State Universities of Michigan
2013 Research at Inca-Caranqui featured in Archaeology Magazine (Jan-Feb issue)
2012 Invited Keynote Speaker, Institute of Andean Studies, 52nd Annual Meeting, Berkeley, CA. (January)
2011 Invited to present Evening Public Lecture at Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C. (December)
2010 Recipient of WSU President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching
2009 Elected to membership in the Institute of Andean Research, New York.
2009 Undergraduate Research Award Faculty Mentor
2008 Featured interview on Chicago Public Radio in Geopolitics of Archaeology series
2004-1995 Research Associate. National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.
2002 Invited member, Review Panel for Colombian Nat’l Archaeology Award,Bogotá.
Grants/Fellowships
2016-17 Fieldwork Research Award, Wenner-Gren Foundation.
2014 One-month Summer Post-Doc Fellowship, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C.
2014 Senior Prometeo Scholar in Ibarra, Ecuador (Jan-July)
2013-18 Fulbright Senior Specialist, Senior Specialist Roster, 5 year appointment
2012 Research & Exploration Grant, National Geographic Society (declined)
2009-12 Three-Year Collaborative Research Grant, National Endowment for the Humanities, Washington, D.C.
2010 One-month Post-Doc Fellowship, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C.
2009 Research and Exploration Grant, National Geographic Society, Washington.
2009 WSU Global Grant for fieldwork in Caranqui, Ecuador.
2009 Women of Wayne Research Grant, Wayne State University. (Summer)
2009 Humanities Center Summer Research Award, Wayne State University
2008-09 International Collaborative Research Award, Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research: Imperial Inca Statecraft & the Architecture of Power
2008 Dumbarton Oaks Project grant for work at site of Inca-Caranqui, Ecuador: Saving the Palace of Atahualpa. (Summer)
2008 WSU Global Grant for fieldwork in Ecuador. (Summer)
2007 Research Enhancement Grant for Design Anthropology exhibition at WSU Museum of Anthropology, Office of the VP for Research, WSU (co-PI)
2006 Sabbatical Grant, American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, PA.
2005-06 National Endowment for the Humanities Resident Fellow Award, School of
American Research, Santa Fe, NM.
2005-06 Senior Fellow Award, 2005-2006, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C. (declined)
2005 WSU Educational Development Grant: Museum Studies Colloquium.
2004-05 J. Paul Getty Paired Fellowship for Research in Conservation & Archaeology, Center for the Advanced Study of the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
2004 Research Grant for pilot archaeological study, Angamarca, Ecuador. Heinz
Foundation Grant, Pittsburgh, PA.
2004 WSU Research & Inquiry Grant for archaeological field survey, highland Ecuador.
2003 Research Grant for fieldwork at Inca site of Palmitopampa, Ecuador (co-PI w/R. Lippi. Butler Foundation, NY.
2003 Information and Technology Grant for Educational & Technology Initiative in
the Museum of Anthropology, WSU.
2003 Innovative Projects Award, Humanities Center, WSU.
2002 Visiting Scholar Award. Field Museum, Chicago.
2002 Small Research Grant, Office of Vice President for Research, Wayne State
University. For study of Inca pottery at site of Tiwanaku, Bolivia.
2002 Research Grant. National Geographic Society. For travel to Salta, Argentina to
study pottery from capacocha mountaintop sacrifice sites.
2001-02 Fulbright Lecturing/Research Award for Ecuador.
2001 Alisa Mellon Bruce Visiting Senior Fellow, Center for Advanced Study of the
Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
2001 Research award for neutron activation analysis of Inca pottery, Missouri
University Research Reactor Center.
2001 Small Research Grant, Office of Vice President for Research, Wayne State
University. For study of pottery from Inca burials on Mt. Llullaillaco, Argentina
2000 Small Research Grant, Office of Vice President for Research, WSU. Photo-
documentation of Inca pottery in Museum of Archaeology, Cuzco.
2000 Research & Inquiry Grant, Wayne State University.
1999 Educational Development Grant, Wayne State University.
1999-98 National Science Foundation (SBR-9810477) for field research in northern Ecuador.
1999-98 Dumbarton Oaks, Senior Fellow. Washington, D.C.
1998 International Collaborative Research Grant, Wenner-Gren Foundation; joint
archaeological/ethnohistorical research in Ecuador.
1997 Collections Study Grant. American Museum of Natural History, New York.
1997 Women/Minority Summer Research Award. Wayne State University.
1996 Visiting Scholar Award. Summer research. Field Museum, Chicago.
1996 University Research Grant, Wayne State University.
1996 Faculty Grant for Integrating Information Resources and Technology into
Undergrad Curriculum, Wayne State University.
1991 Grant-in-Aid, Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research.
Professional Experience: Teaching
2010-pres Professor, Department of Anthropology, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI.
2010-2001 Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, Wayne State University.
2001-1995 Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, Wayne State University.
1995 Study Leader. Legacy of the Incas (in Peru); Smithsonian Associates. (Dec)
1995 Lecturer and Co-coordinator. Smithsonian Associate's Campus on the Mall.
(Ancient Andean and Mesoamerican Civilizations: Parallels, Contrasts, a
Connections, co-taught with J. Urcid).
1994 Adjunct Assistant Professor. George Washington University, Washington, D.C. (Archaeology of South America). Fall.
Professional Experience: Museums, Consulting
1995-2016 Director, Gordon L. Grosscup Museum of Anthropology, Wayne State University.
2015 Archaeological Expert, Smithsonian Journeys, Smithsonian Institution (Oct)
2015 Consultant on Inca ceramics, National Museum of American Indian. (Jan)
2015 Consultant on Ecuadorian Pottery Collection, University of Cincinnati (Mar)
2014 Archaeological Expert, Smithsonian Journeys, Smithsonian Institution (Nov)
2010 Curator for Exhibit: Anthropology and Its Contents. Museum of Anthropology.
2008 Co-curator for exhibition: “Constructing Identities: An Exhibition About Things and How They Make us Who We Are. Museum of Anthropology and Industrial Arts, Wayne State.
2007 Co-Curator for exhibit: "Boa Morte: The African Face of a Catholic Festival in Northeast
Brazil." Museum of Anthropology, Wayne State University.
2004 Curator for exhibit: "Detroit's Ethnic Heritage." Museum of Anthropology, WSU.
2003 Curator for exhibit: "Arab American Cultural Traditions: A Diverse Heritage."
Museum of Anthropology, Wayne State University.
2001 Curator for exhibit: "The Archaeology of Everyday Life in Early Detroit." Museum of
Anthropology, Wayne State University.
1999 Co-curator for exhibit "The Art of Religion in West Africa and the Carribean," Museum
of Anthropology, Wayne State University.
1998 Co-curator for exhibit: "Facing HIV/AIDS: Reality and Response," Museum of
Anthropology, Wayne State University.
1995-91 Archaeologist. Office of Repatriation, National Museum of Natural History,
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
1992 Special Consultant. Ecuadorian Installation, Division of New World Prehistory,
The Denver Art Museum.
Professional Experience: Archaeological Fieldwork
2017-2016 PI for Proyecto Intinqala, Copacabana, Bolivia.
2014-2007 PI for Proyecto Inca-Caranqui, Imbabura Province, Ecuador.
2006-2004 Archaeology of Mitmaqkuna, Cotopaxi Province, Ecuador.
2003-2002 co-PI for Palmitopampa Archaeological Project, Pichincha Province, Ecuador.
2001-1991 Project Director. Proyecto Pimampiro: Andean-Amazonian Linkages in Prehistoric
Ecuador. Imbabura Province, Ecuador.
1991-1990 Lab Director/Report Coordinator. Iroquois Gas Pipeline project, upstate New York.
Garrow and Associates, Atlanta, Georgia.
1990 Principal Investigator. Cultural Resource Inventories of four timber sale areas. Umatilla
National Forest, Pendleton, Oregon.
1989 Principal Investigator. BCC Cultural Resource Inventory. Umatilla National Forest,
Pendleton, Oregon. Contract No. 53-04R3-89-67.
1988 Archaeologist. Exhumation of 19th c. burials at Oneida State Correctional Facility.
State Museum of New York, Albany, NY.
1987-86 Project Director: `Proyecto Guaylla-Quinche.' Regional Survey. Quito, Ecuador.
Publications: Books and Monographs
in prep At the End of Empire: The Inca, the Caranqui, and the Northern Frontier.
in prep Refracting Empire: The Inca Past and Present
in prep Material Practice and Imperial Design: Pottery of the Imperial Inca State.
2015 The Archaeology of Wak’as: Explorations of the Sacred in the Pre-Columbian Andes. University Press of Colorado, Boulder. (edited volume)
2014 The Future of the Past: Archaeologists, Native Americans and Repatriation. 2nd ed. Routledge, New York. (edited volume)
2008 Visual Languages of the Inca. British Archaeological Reports, International Series 1848, Oxford. (co-edited with Paola Gonzalez).
2003 The Archaeology and Politics of Food and Feasting in Early States and Empires. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York. (edited volume)
2003 Los Efectos del Imperio Incaico el la Frontera Septentrional: Una Investigación Arqueológica. Abya-Yala Press, Quito.
2001 The Future of the Past: Archaeologists, Native Americans and Repatriation. Garland Publishing Inc., New York. (edited volume)
1998 Intercambio y Comercio entre Costa, Andes, y Selva: Arqueologia y Etnohistoria de Suramerica," University of the Andes Press, Bogotá. (edited with Felipe Cardenas)
1994 Reckoning with the Dead: The Larsen Bay Repatriation and the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C. (edited with Thomas Killion)
1991 Inca Imperialism on the Northern Frontier. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, State University of New York at Binghamton. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.
Publications: Journal Articles, Book Chapters
n.d. Partnering with pots: The work of materials in the imperial Inca project. Cambridge Archaeology Journal (accepted for publication pending revisions).
i.p. The Social Life of Food. In Food, Identity and Social Change, Cynthia Chou and Susanne Kerner. Bloomsbury Press, Avebury.
2017 The Inca Centers of Caranqui and Tomebamba in the Northern Chinchaysuyu. In Oxford Handbook of the Inca, Sonia Alconini and Alan Covey, eds. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
2017 Asociandose con Ollas: El Trabajo de Materiales en el Proyecto Inca Imperial. In Homenaje a Teresa Gisbert, Verónica Cereceda y Waldemar Espinoza: Arqueología y Etnohistoria en los Andes y las Tierras Bajas, Maria de los Angeles Muñoz and Isabelle Combes (eds.), pp. INIAM Museo UMSS, Cochabamba.
2017 Archaeology, Temporal Complexity, and the Politics of Time. In Constructions of Time and History in the Pre-Columbian Andes, E. Swenson and A. Roddick (eds.). University Press of Colorado, Boulder.
2016 Potting clays and ceramic provenance in northern highland Ecuador. In Vessels Explored: Applying Archaeometry to South American Ceramics and their Production, Emily Stovel and Gustavo de la Fuente (eds.), pp. 47-63. British Archaeological Reports International, Oxford. (3rd author)
2016 Las Tolas Perdidas de Caranqui en Contexto Histórico y Regional. Antropología: Cuadernos de Investigación 16:131-152 (with José Echeverría).
2015 Andean wak’as and alternative configurations of persons, power and things. In The Archaeology of Wak’as: Explorations of the Sacred in the Pre-Columbian Andes, T.L. Bray (ed.), pp. 3-19. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.
2015 At the End of Empire: Imperial Advances on the Northern Frontier. In The Inca Empire: A Multidisciplinary Approach to a Holistic Vision, Izumi Shimada (ed.), pp. 324-344. University of Texas Press, Austin.
2015 Al Final del Imperio: El Sitio Arqueológico de Inca-Caranqui en la Sierra Norte del Ecuador. Antropología: Cuadernos de Investigación 13:127-150. (with José Echeverría).
2015 Inca pottery, Inca cuisine, and Feasting. In Encyclopedia of the Incas, Gary Urton and Adriana von Hagen (eds.), pp. 70-73, 102-104, 138-140. Altamira Press, CA.
2015 Commensality. In The Archaeology of Food, Mary Beaudry and Karen Metheny (eds.) pp. 109-110. Altamira Press, CA.
2014 The late imperial site of Inca-Caranqui: At the end of Empire. Ñawpa Pacha 35(2):176-199. (with José Echeverría).
2014 Analytical applications of fine-scale terrestrial lidar at the imperial Inca site of Caranqui, northern highland Ecuador. World Archaeology 46(1):1-18. (with B.E.Romero).
2013 Water, Ritual and Power in the Inca Empire. Latin American Antiquity 27(2):1-22.
2012 From Rational to Relational: Re-configuring Value. In The Construction of Value in the Ancient World,” G. Urton and J. Papadoupoulus, pp. 344-357. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLA Press.
2012 Ritual Commensality between Human and Non-Human Persons Investigating Native Ontologies in the Late Pre-Columbian Andean World. eTopoi. Journal of Ancient Studies (Berlin), on-line journal. http://journal.topoi.org/index.php/etopoi/issue/view/3
2011 Encuentros imperiales: Contingencia histórica, agencia local, e hibridad. In La Cerámica Arqueológica en la Materialización de la Sociedad: Transformaciones, Metáforas, y Reproducción Social, Gustavo de la Fuente and María Cecilia Páez (eds.), pp. 61-77. BAR International Series, Oxford.
2011 El papel de la coca en la interacción macro-regional en el área intermedia y más alla. In Nuevas Investigaciones Arqueológicas en el Area Intermedia, Victor González and Cristobal Gnecco (eds.), pp. 368-400. Instituto Colombiano de Antropología e Historia, Bogotá.
2009 An Archaeological Perspective on the Andean Concept of Camaquen: Thinking Through the Objects of Late Precolumbian Ofrendas and Huacas. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 19(3): 359-368.
2009 Animating Archaeology: Of Subjects, Objects and Alternative Ontologies. [co- authored with Bejamin Alberti] Special Section, Cambridge Archaeological Journal 19(3): 337-343.
2008 The Role of Chicha in Inca State Expansion: A Distributional Study of Inca Aríbalos. In Drink, Power, and Society in the Andes, J. Jennings and B. Bowser (eds), pp.108- 132.University of Florida Press, Gainesville.
2008 Introduction. In Visual Languages of the Inca, P. Gonzalez and T. Bray (eds.), pp. 1-11. British Archaeological Reports, International Series 1848, Oxford.
2008 Dimensiones simbólicas del poder dentro del imperio Inca. In Visual Languages of the
Inca, P. Gonzalez and T.L. Bray (eds.), pp. 13-19. British Archaeological Reports, International Series 1848, Oxford.
2008 Exploring Inca State Religion Through the Use of Conceptual Metaphors: A Cross-
media Analysis of Inca Iconography. In Religion in the Material World, Lars Fogelin
(ed.), pp.118-138. Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale.
2008 Chiefdoms of the Ecuadorian highlands. In Handbook of South American Archaeology,
H. Silverman and B. Isbell (eds.), pp. 527-543. Kluwer Academic Publishers,NewYork.
2008 Repatriation and Archaeology's Second Loss of Innocence: On Knowledge, Power, and
the Past. In Opening Archaeology: Repatriation’s Impact on Contemporary Research
and Practice, T. Killion (ed.), pp.79-90. School of American Research Press, Santa Fe.
2008 Agency in Archaeology. In Encyclopedia of Archaeology, D. Pearsall (ed.), pp.106-110.
Academic Press, New York.
2007 Cotocollao. In Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture, p.1011. Charles
Scribner's Sons, New York.
2007 Historical and Contemporary Significance of the Inca Site of San Agustin de Callo: