Yitzchak Jaffe is a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at NYU. He received his PhD in Anthropology from Harvard University (2016) and has obtained a BA (2006) and MA (2009) from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Departments of Archaeology and East Asian Studies. As an anthropological archaeologist who studies the development of complex societies in Ancient China, his research investigates interaction among different social groups and the ways in which culture contact creates and shapes social identities. His work draws Inspiration from contemporary scholarship on culture contact, colonialism and globalization and how these engender new food-ways, mortuary practices and other social practices.
His current research project includes the development of cooking practices in peripheral zones of Bronze Age China and the investigation of the social processes by which China became Chinese. Dedicated to the study of the development of Chinese civilization in its own right as well its place as in the comparative study of the evolution of human societies, he has published papers on early Chinese social identity, early state formation, ancient globalization, ritual and religion and mortuary practices.
Click here to visit Yitzchak Jaffe's Academia.edu profile.