Eric A. Smith was born in California, and grew up in Utah and Mallorca.  After receiving his B.A. in 1972 from the University of California at Santa Barbara, he attended graduate school at Cornell University.  There, he received his M.A. in 1976, and his Ph.D. in 1980.  Since that time he has worked only at the University of Washington as a Professor of Anthropology.

 

As an anthropologist, Smith prides himself on an interdisciplinary approach, incorporating aspects of ecology, evolution, and economics into his archaeological research.  Similarly, he has a broad theoretical approach based in both biology (i.e. evolutionary ecology) and the social sciences (i.e. microeconomics, decision theory, sociocultural anthropology).

 

Smith was one of the pioneers in applying the theories of behavioral ecology to contemporary hunter-gatherer societies.  Along with Winterhalder (1981), Smith co-edited the first volume on evolutionary ecology and foraging strategies.  Since that time, Smith has produced a significant amount of research, including a second volume (again, co-edited with Winterhalder) on the same topic, a review article of the previous research and future directions of evolutionary ecology and foraging theory, and a book analyzing the foraging strategies of the Inujjuamiut, an Arctic hunter-gatherer society.

 

Thus, Smith’s past fieldwork has occurred primarily in the arctic of Canada.  His most recent research is a collaborative project with Rebecca Bliege Bird and Douglas Bird.  A main focus of this project is an analysis of the subsistence behavior of a group of present-day Torres Strait Islanders, using the theoretical approach of behavioral ecology and foraging theory modeling.

 

Smith is married and has two daughters.  Outside of academia, Smith recently (2005-2006) recorded an album, Twenty Five Years in the Pickle Factory.  Smith is also a skilled writer.  Mostly poetry, his writings also includes a humorous (and slightly off beat) exchange of fictional letters between Herbert and ‘Fatness’.