Michael Olien

Emeritus
molien@uga.edu

I have had an ongoing interest in Mexico and Central America for many years, specializing in urbanization, ethnicity and historical anthropology. I have conducted field research on people of African descent in the lowlands of Costa Rica, on cognized environment in the San Carlos region of Costa Rica and on the ecological adaptations of the United Fruit Company in Costa Rica.

During the past twenty years, most of my research had focused on ethnohistorical research on the Mosquito Coast of Nicaragua and Honduras as it relates to the Miskito people, the creoles and the nineteenth-century English settlers, as well as the historiography of the region. New research initiatives include southern oral history and ethnomedicine, in particular the development of heterodox systems of medicine in Georgia.

My teaching interests include native peoples of Mexico and Central America, ethnomedicine, multicultural health care, economic development and health, and ethnohistory and oral history.

Recent publications:

• Olien, Michael. 1998. General Governor, and Admiral: Three Miskito Lines of Succession. Ethnohistory 45(2):277-318.
• Olien, Michael. 1985. E. G. Squier and the Miskito: Anthropological Scholarship and Political Propaganda. Ethnohistory 32(2):111-133.
• Olien, Michael and Philip A. Dennis. 1984. Kinship Among the Miskito. American Ethnologist 11(4):718-737.
• Olien, Michael. 1983. The Miskito Kings and the Line of Succession. Journal of Anthropological Research 39:198-241.
• Olien, Michael. 1980. "Black and Part-Black Populations in Colonial Costa Rica: Ethno- historical Resources and Problems", Ethnohistory 27(1):13-29.
• Olien, Michael. 1973. Latin Americans: Contemporary Peoples and Their Cultural Traditions. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc.