Paul Brown

            Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, Dr. Paul Brown teaches Anthropology at Minnesota State University - Mankato. Among his numerous accomplishments in the field of Anthropology, Dr. Brown considers the molding of students into professional Anthropology graduates extremely rewarding . To Dr. Brown, producing top graduates who can compete with others in the field of Anthropological research is equally as rewarding as the numerous research projects to which he has contributed.

            In 1966 Dr. Brown was an undergraduate student at California State University . While there he was extremely active in the Vietnam anti-war movement. He sought answers to questions like: "Is war an inevitable part of human nature?" It wasn't until his sophomore year that he realized the answers to those questions could be found in the field of Anthropology.

            In 1970 Dr. Brown received his B.A. at California State University and then traveled east to pursue his M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Studying in what he describes as a "hippy environment," it is there that Dr. Brown pursued, "cutting edge ideas of sociobiology and evolutionary ecology, which use Darwinian fitness outcomes to measure the success of contemporary human adaptations."

            After receiving his Ph.D. at Boulder, Dr. Brown received his first full-time job at the University of Colorado in Denver. There he worked as a visiting assistant professor on a one year non-tenure track. The following year (1979-1980) he went to Michigan State University as a post-doctoral fellowship in the field of medical anthropology. He enjoyed his teaching experience in Colorado but it was at Michigan State University that he became fully interested in the relationship between health and disease and fitness outcomes. At the time, Michigan State University was the nationwide leader in medical anthropology research.

            In the fall of 1980 Dr. Brown came to Minnesota State University, Mankato where he's been teaching and continuing his research ever since. Dr. Brown has been involved in numerous local forensic cases in the southern Minnesota area and has also worked on analysis of the skeletal remains of native Americans at the Science Museum of Minnesota. During the 1987-88 sabbatical year, Dr. Brown worked with Dr. George Armelagos, who is considered by many to be the world's most renowned skeletal biologist. Here at Minnesota State University, Mankato, Dr. Brown is the Faculty Advisor of the MSU Anthropology Club which is sponsored by the faculty to get teachers and students together to discuss and explain and take a hands-on approach to the theories and teachings of classroom anthropology.

            Dr. Brown's specialty in the field of anthropology is evolutionary ecology, medical anthropology and human ecology. Evolutionary ecology addresses the long term behavior of a species. Medical anthropology allows Dr. Brown to work on a wide array of projects from forensics (identifying skeletal remains) to paleopathology which looks into medical diseases of prehistoric populations. Dr. Brown would like to establish and organize a curriculum to train students in forensic anthropology for careers in police work as an addition to other anthropological studies.

            Among the many cultures Dr. Brown has studied hands-on, he remembers one project in the Andes mountain range of Peru. There Dr. Brown spent two years from 1975-1977 studying the Spanish Aymara, a native American group. His research was focused on how the inhabitants balanced their environment and how social and economic changes influenced their environment. It was also there that Dr. Brown experienced culture shock and upon his return experienced re-entry culture shock. He describes this as evident in his transformation from a hippy look to a more formal attire the people of Peru used.

            He remembers one particular re-entry culture shock incident upon his return in which his wife took him shopping for some toothpaste. He remembers seeing several hundred variations of toothpaste and how difficult something as simple as toothpaste was to obtain in Peru. He also recalls leaving the store without purchasing any toothpaste because of the disorientation.

            In his personal life Dr. Brown is married to Dr. Winifred Mitchell, who is also a member of the MSU anthropology faculty. He has two children, Mitch and Micaela.

References:

1. Direct citation from personal interview with Dr. Brown on October 11th, 1999.

2. EMuseum. Department of Anthropology, Minnesota State University, Mankato Dr. Brown's office

Written by: Brent Pearson