Institute of Archaeology

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Robert L. Brown

PROFESSOR

Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, 1981

Phone: (310) 825-3577
Fax: 310-206-4723
E-mail: rlbrown@humnet.ucla.edu

Mailing Address:

Cotsen Institute of Archaeology
308 Charles E Young Dr. North
A210 Fowler Building/Box 951510
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1510

Class Websites

UCLA Appointments

Department of Art History

Research Interests

India and Southeast Asia

Research Summary

Professor Brown's areas of research include both India and Southeast Asia, and he particularly studies the Indian influences on and relationships with early Southeast Asian art, culture, and religion. He has lived for several years in both India and Thailand and has traveled throughout South and Southeast Asia.

Selected Publications

Two recent publications include edited books: Art from Thailand (Marg 1999) and Roots of Tantra (SUNY 2001).

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Featured Publication

The Construction of Value

Scholars from Aristotle to Marx and beyond have been fascinated by the question of what constitutes value. The Construction of Value in the Ancient World makes a significant contribution to this ongoing inquiry, bringing together in one comprehensive volume the perspectives of leading anthropologists, archaeologists, historians, linguists, philologists, and sociologists on how value was created, defined, and expressed in a number of ancient societies around the world. Based on the basic premise that value is a social construct defined by the cultural context in which it is situated, the volume explores four overarching but closely interrelated themes: place value, body value, object value, and number value. The questions raised and addressed are of central importance to archaeologists studying ancient civilizations: How can we understand the value that might have been accorded to materials, objects, people, places, and patterns of action by those who produced or used the things that compose the human material record? Taken as a whole, the contributions to this volume demonstrate how the concept of value lies at the intersection of individual and collective tastes, desires, sentiments, and attitudes that inform the ways people select, or give priority to, one thing over another.

Available now!

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