Sean M. Rafferty

Office: Arts & Sciences Building, Room 120
Ph: (518) 442-4713
E-mail: rafferty@albany.edu

Class Files

Ph.D., Binghamton University, 2001

Interests: Archaeology and Ethnohistory of Eastern Woodlands, Archaeometry, Early Woodland and Adena Period Archaeology, Prehistoric Use of Medicinal and Psychoactive Plants, Public Outreach in Archaeology, Shamanism and Religion in Small-Scale Societies, Ethnobotany, Ritual Practices
Areas: Eastern North America

Director, Archaeology Field School, Schoharie, New York

Editor, Northeast Anthropology

Curriculum Vitae

Research Statement

My research involves the archaeology of Eastern North America.  Within this region, I am interested in the interplay between ritual practices and cultural variability, especially within the area of mortuary practices and smoking rituals.  I have research interests in the field of archaeometry, with a specialty in residue analysis using chromotographic approaches.  These research interests coincide with my ongoing research into the origins of tobacco smoking in the Eastern Woodlands of North America.  I have identified nicotine residue in smoking pipes dating to the Early Woodland Period, which predates botanical evidence for the use of tobacco by several centuries.  I have also conducted research projects in historical archaeology, investigating the roles of consumer culture and household production in nineteenth-century rural farming communities in Upstate New York.

Select Publications Since 2000

Mongraphs/Edited Volumes:
2004: Sean Rafferty and Rob Mann (eds.), Smoking and Culture: Recent Developments in the Archaeology of Tobacco Pipes in Eastern North America. University of Tennessee Press. (Submitted for peer review by two anonymous reviewers prior to publication).

In prep.: Prehistoric Intoxicants of the Americas. Edited volume based on the proceedings of a symposium at the 73rd annual meetings of the Society for American Archaeology. Solicited by the editor-in-chief of the University Press of Florida. Expected submission: Summer 2008

In prep.: Smoking Pipes of Eastern North America: A Social History. Monograph manuscript for submission to
University of Tennessee Press. Requested by University of Tennessee Press's editorial staff;
prospectus accepted; Expected submission: Spring 2009

Articles/Book Chapters
Under rev.: Sean M. Rafferty. Local Variation in Ohio Valley Adena. American Antiquity. Manuscript length: 79 pages. Submitted January 2008 for second review.

2007: Sean M. Rafferty, Candis Wood, and Christina Rieth. A Trace Element Analysis of New York State Cherts. North American Archaeologist 28(2):167-186.

2007: Christina Rieth, Sean Rafferty, and Derek Zaputo. A Trace Element Analysis of Ceramics from the Pethick Site, Schoharie County, New York. North American Archaeologist 28(1):59-80.

2007: Sean M. Rafferty. The Archaeology of Alkaloids. In Theory and Practice of Archaeological Residue Analysis, edited by Hans Barnard and J. W. Eerkens. British Archaeological Reports International Series 1650:179-188.

2007: Sean M. Rafferty. Smoking Pipes and Early Woodland Mortuary Ritual. In Transitions: Archaic and Early Woodland Research in the Ohio Country. Edited by Martha P. Otto and Brian G. Redmond, pp. 11.1-11.19. Ohio University Press.

2006: Sean M. Rafferty. Evidence of Early Tobacco in Northeastern North America? Journal of Archaeological Science 33(4):453-458. Featured in Science 11(5764), April 2006)

2005: Sean M. Rafferty. Tobacco and Hallucinogens. In Tobacco: Scribner's Turning Points in History, edited by Jordan Goodman, Marcia Norton and Mark Parascandola, pp. 66-71. Charles Scribner's Sons.

2005: Sean M. Rafferty. Tobacco and Archaeology. In Tobacco: Scribner's Turning Points in History, edited by Jordan Goodman, Marcia Norton and Mark Parascandola, pp. 259-260. Charles Scribner's Sons.

2005: Sean M. Rafferty. The Many Messages of Death: Mortuary Practices in the Ohio Valley and Northeast. In Woodland Taxonomy and Systematics in the Middle Ohio Valley, edited by Darlene Applegate and Robert Mainfort, pp. 150-167. University of Alabama Press.

2004: Sean M. Rafferty and Rob Mann. Smoking and Culture. In Smoking and Culture: Recent Developments in the Archaeology of Tobacco Pipes in Eastern North America, edited by Sean M. Rafferty and Rob Mann, pp. xi-xx. University of Tennessee Press.

2004: Sean M. Rafferty. They Pass Their Lives in Smoke, and at Death, Fall into the Fire: Smoking Pipes and Mortuary Ritual during the Early Woodland Period. In Smoking and Culture: Recent Developments in the Archaeology of Tobacco Pipes in Eastern North America, edited by Sean M. Rafferty and Rob Mann, pp. 1-42. University of Tennessee Press.

2002: Sean M. Rafferty. Identification of Nicotine by Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectroscopy Analysis of Smoking Pipe Residue. Journal of Archaeological Science 29:897-907.

2000: Sean M. Rafferty. A Farmhouse View: the Porter Site. In Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Domestic Site Archaeology in New York State, edited by John P. Hart and Charles Fisher, pp. 125-149. New York State Museum Bulletin 495.

In prep.: Sean M. Rafferty. The Archaeology of Ritual Practices. Article under preparation to Archaeological Method and Theory. Expected submission, Spring 2008.

In prep.: Sean M. Rafferty, Christina Rieth, Jaime Moore Donta, Steven Moragne, Kristy Primeau and Candis Wood. Prehistoric Occupations at the Pethick Site, Schoharie County, New York. Article under preparation for Archaeology of Eastern North America. Expected submission, Spring 2008.

In prep.: Sean M. Rafferty and Mark Platt. Identification of Opium Alkaloids in a 19th Century Smoking Pipe from Deadwood, South Dakota. Article under preparation for Journal of Archaeological Science. Expected submission, Summer 2008.