Bio

Jada Ko is a PhD candidate in Anthropology at Harvard University. Her dissertation research focuses on the changes in the exploitation of animals through time from the Neolithic to Early Bronze Age in the Huai River Valley, Anhui Province, China. In particular, she is interested in how different forms of societies, ranging from non-states to states, engaged in the politics of memory to add value or devalue different animal species for social and political purposes. She employs zooarchaeological and ethnographic approaches to examine how people remember and conceptualize animals and how this can affect animal ecology and in turn impact human societies. Her recent focus is the reconstruction of the changing relationships between humans and turtles from the Neolithic to the present by integrating archaeology, anthropology, and biology. She is currently collaborating with the Wildlife Conservation Society, Viet Nam Program, Waseda University, Fudan University, and the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum on how archaeological and ethnohistorical research can contribute to the conservation of Rafetus swinhoei, one of the most endangered turtles in the world.

 

JadaKO