Randall White
Professor of Anthropology (In Memoriam)
Ph.D. 1980, University of Toronto; B.A. 1976, University of Alberta
Email: randall.white@nyu.edu
Research Interests
- Paleoenvironment and culture change
- Human adaptations to climate change in deep time
- Prehistoric technology
- Archaeological survey and regional organization of hunter-gatherers
- Social and symbolic archaeology
- Cognitive evolution and material culture
- Prehistoric art and personal ornamentation
- Excavation methodologies and research design
- History of archaeology
Other Affiliations
Professor, NYU Department of Anthropology
Faculty, UMI 3199: CNRS-NYU Center for International Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences (CIRHUS)
Core Faculty, MA in Human Skeletal Biology
Chercheur associé, UMR 5608 TRACES, Université de Toulouse 2 – Jean Jaurès
Research
History of Archaeology: the Otto Hauser Affair
Vallon de Castel-Merle (Abri Castanet, Abri Blanchard, Abri de la Souquette), France
Selected Publications
[ Academia | ResearchGate ]Bourrillon, R., White, R., Tartar, E., Chiotti, L., Mensan, R., Clark, A., Castel, J.C., Cretin, C., Higham, T., Morala, A., Ranlett, S., Sisk, M., Devièse, T., & Comeskey, D.J. 2017 in press. A new discovery of Aurignacian art at Abri Blanchard (Dordogne): implications for understanding Aurignacian graphic expression in Western and Central Europe. Quaternary International.
White, R., Bourrillon, R., Mensan, R., Clark, A., Chiotti, L., Higham, T., Ranlett, S., Tartar, E., Morala, A., & Soulier, M.-C. 2017 in press. Newly discovered Aurignacian engraved blocks from Abri Cellier: History context and dating. Quaternary International.
Sauvet, G., Bourrillon, R., Conkey, M., Fritz, C., Gárate-Maidagan, D., Rivero Vilá, O., Tosello, G., & White, R. 2017 in press. Uranium-thorium dating method and Palaeolithic rock art. Quaternary International 432(B): 86-92.
Suavet, G., Bourrillon, R., Conkey, M., Fritz, C., Gárate-Maidagan, D., Rivero Vilá, O. Tosello, G., & White, R. 2017 in press. Further comment on Comment on Uranium-thorium dating method and Palaeolithic rock art. Quaternary Internation 432(B): 98-99.
White, R., Mensan, R., Clark, A., Tartar, E., Marquer, L., Bourrillon, R., Goldberg, P., Chiotti, L., Cretin, C., Rendu, W., Pike-Tay, A., & Ranlett, S. 2017 in press. Technologies for the Control of Heat and Light in the Vézère Valley Aurignacian. Current Anthropology special issue Fire and the Genus Homo.
Heckel, C., Müller, K., White, R., Floss, H., Conard, N.J., Normand, C., Wolf, S. & Reiche, I. 2016. F-content variation in mammoth ivory from Aurignacian contexts: preservation, alteration, and implications for ivory-procurement strategies. Quaternary International 403: 40-50.
Tartar, E. & White, R. 2013. The manufacture of Aurignacian split-based points: an experimental challenge. Journal of Archaeological Science 40(5): 2723-2745.
Mensan, R., Bourrillon, R., Cretin, C., White, R., Gardère, P., Chiotti, L., Sisk, M., Clark, A., Higham, T., & Tartar, E. 2012. Context and dating of newly discovered Aurignacian rock art from abri Castanet (Dordogne, France). Paléo 23: 171-188.
Mensan, R., Bourrillon, R., Cretin, C., White, R., Gardère, P., Chiotti, L., Sisk, M., Clark, A., Higham, T., & Tartar, E. 2012. Une nouvelle découverte d’art pariétal aurignacien à l’abri Castanet (France): contexte et datation. Paléo. 23: 171-188.
White, R., Mensan, R., Bourrillon, R., Cretin, C., Higham, T., Clark, A., Sisk, M., Tartar, E., Gardère, P., Goldberg, P., Pelegrin, J., Valladas, H., Tisnérat-Laborde, N., de Sanoit, J., Chambellan, D., & Chiotti, L. 2012. Context and dating of Aurignacian vulvar representations from Abri Castanet, France. PNAS 1089: 8450-8455.
Tejero Cacarés, J.M., Avezuela, B., White, R., Ranlett, S., Quam, R., Tattersall, I., Bernaldo de Quiró, F. 2010. Un pedazo de la Prehistoria cántabra en Nueva York: Las Colecciones de la Cueva de El Castillo (Puente Viesgo, Cantabria) en el American Museum of Natural History (Nueva York, EEUU) (A little fragment of Cantabrian Prehistory in New York: The Collections of El Castillo Cave (Puente Viesgo, Cantabria) at the American Museum of Natural History (New York, USA)) Muniß 61: 5-16.
White, R. 2010. Les parures de l’Aurignacien ancien et archaïque : perspectives technologiques et régionales des fouilles récentes, in V. Mistrot (Ed.) De Néandertal à l’homme moderne : l’Aquitaine préhistorique, vingt ans de découvertes, pp. 93-103. Bordeaux : Éditions Confluences.
White, R. 2007. Systems of Personal Ornamentation in the Early Upper Palaeolithic: Methodological Challenges and New Observations, in P. Mellars, K. Boyle, O. Bar-Yosef, & C. Stringer, (Eds.) Rethinking the Human Revolution: New Behavioural and Biological Perspectives on the Origin and Dispersal of Modern Humans, pp. 287-302. Cambridge, UK: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.
White, R. 2007. From Puente Viesgo to Central Park West : Hugo Obermaier, Nels Nelson and the American Museum of Natural History’s collections from Cantabrian Spain, in J. Maillo, & E. Baquedano (Eds.) Miscelánea en Homenaje a Victoria Cabrera, Vol. I., pp. 58-77. Madrid: Zona Arqueológica 7.
White, R. 2007. Systèmes de parures aurignaciennes: défis méthodologiques et nouvelles observations, in H. Floss & N. Rouquerol (Eds.) Les Chemins de l’Aurignacien en Europe, pp. 251-260. Aurignac : Musée-Forum.
Bon, F., Potin, Y., Henry-Gambier, D., Causse, F., Gardère, Ph., Kervinio, P., Letourneux, C., Mensan, R., & White, R. 2007. Préhistoires parallèles: Henri Delporte, Edouard Piette et les grottes de Brassempouy, in R. Desbrosse & A. Thévenin (Eds.) Arts et Cultures de la Préhistoire: Hommages à Henri Delporte, pp. 185-196. Paris: Éditions du Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques.
Normand, C., de Beaune, S. A., Costamagno, S., Diot, M.-F., Henry-Gambier, D., Goutas, N., Laroulandie, V.. Lenoble, A. O’Farrell, M., Rendu, W., Rios Garaizar, J., Schwab, C., Tarriño Vinagre, A., Texier, J.-P., & White, R. 2007. Nouvelles données sur la séquence aurignacienne de la grotte d’Isturitz (communes d’Isturitz et de Saint-Martin- d’Arberoue ; Pyrénées Atlantiques), in J. Evin (Ed.) ” ..Aux conceptions d’aujourd’hui “, Actes du Congrès Préhistorique de France, XXVIe session, Congrès du Centenaire, 21-25 septembre 2004, Avignon, pp. 277-293. Nanterre: Société préhistorique française.
White, R. 2006. The Women of Brassempouy : a century of research and interpretation. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 13(4) : 251-304.
Henry-Gambier, D. & White, R. 2006. Modifications artificielles des vestiges humains aurignaciens de la grotte des Hyènes et de la galerie Dubalen. Quelle signification, in V. Cabrera & F. Bernaldo de Quiros (Eds.) El centenario de la cueva de El Castillo : el ocaso de los Neandertales, pp. 68-86. Madrid: Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia.
Henry-Gambier, D., Maureille, B., & White, R. 2004. Vestiges humains des niveaux de l’Aurignacien ancien du site de Brassempouy (Landes). Bulletins et Mémoires de la Société d’Anthropologie de Paris 16(1-2): 49-87.
White, R. 2003. Prehistoric Art: The Symbolic Journey of Humankind. New York: Harry Abrams.
White, R. & Roussot, A. 2003. Résumé de ma vie: une note autobiographique de Denis Peyrony. Bulletin de la Société Historique et Archéologique du Périgord 125: 34-49.
White, R. 2003. Une nouvelle statuette phallo-féminine paléolithique: la Vénus des Milandes (commune de Castelnaud-la-Chapelle, Dordogne). Paléo 14 : 177-198.
White, R. 2002. Observations technologiques sur les objets de parure, in B. Schmider (Ed.) L’Aurignacien de la grotte de Renne: Les fouilles d’André Leroi-Gourhan à Arcy-sur-Cure (Yonne). XXXIVe Supplément à Gallia Préhistoire, pp. 257-266. Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.
White, R. 2002. The historic and legal context of foreign acquisitions of Paleolithic artifacts from the Périgord: 1900-1941, in L. Straus (Ed.) The Role of American Archaeologists in the Study of the European Upper Paleolithic, pp. 71-83. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.
White, R. 2001. Personal ornaments from the grotte du Renne at Arcy-sur-Cure. Athena Review 2(4): 41-46.
White, R. 1999. Integrating Social and Operational Complexity: The Material Construction of Social Identity at Sungir, in A. Averbouh, P. Cattelain, & M. Jullien (Eds.) L’Os : Festschrift for Henriette Camps-Fabrer, pp. 120-137. Aix-en- Provence: Université de Marseille.
White, R. 1998. Structure, signification and culture: some different logics of representation and their archaeological implications. Diogenes 45: 97-113.
White, R. & Bisson, M. 1998. Imagerie féminine du Paléolithique. L’apport des nouvelles statuettes de Grimaldi. Gallia Préhistoire 40: 95-132.
White, R. 1996. L’Imagerie feminine du paléolithique: Étude des figurines de Grimaldi. Culture 16: 5-64.
White, R. 1996. Substantial Acts: From Materials to Meaning in Upper Paleolithic Representation, in D. Stratmann, M. Conkey, & O. Soffer (Eds.) Beyond Art: Upper Paleolithic Symbolism, pp. 93-123. San Francisco: California Academy of Sciences.
White, R. 1992. Beyond Art: Toward an Understanding of the Origins of Material Representation in Europe. Annual Review of Anthropology 21: 537-564.