Richard Joseph Pearson (born May 2, 1938) is a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 archaeologist

Archaeology

Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...

.

He grew up in Toronto and Oakville, Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

 and graduated with a Bachelor's degree at the University of Toronto

University of Toronto

The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...

 in 1960. Richard Pearson studied at the University of Hawaii, and Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

 under K.C. Chang

Kwang-chih Chang

Kwang-chih Chang , aka K.C. Chang, was a Chinese/Taiwanese archaeologist and sinologist. He was a professor of archaeology at Harvard University, a Vice-President of the Academia Sinica and a curator at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. He helped to bring modern, western methods of...

 and received his doctorate in anthropology in 1966. Over his career Pearson’s research interests have included the archaeology of Polynesia and East Asia.

Pearson started his career as a professor at the University of Hawaii

University of Hawaii

The University of Hawaii System, formally the University of Hawaii and popularly known as UH, is a public, co-educational college and university system that confers associate, bachelor, master, and doctoral degrees through three university campuses, seven community college campuses, an employment...

, excavating at the Bellows Field Archeological Area and Lapakahi Complex in Hawaii. In the 1970s he continued field work in Okinawa. He returned to Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 in 1971 and spent most of his career as a professor in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology in the University of British Columbia

University of British Columbia

The University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley...

 in Vancouver

Vancouver

Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

, Canada. Pearson has authored, edited, and/or translated a number of important books and journal articles on Japanese, Chinese, and Korean archaeology. He also developed three groundbreaking museum exhibitions of Japanese archaeology in Canada and the US.

Selected bibliography

• Migrations from Japan to Ecuador: the Japanese Evidence. American Anthropologist 70(1):85-86, 1968.
• Archaeological Investigations in Eastern Taiwan. Asian Perspectives XI:137-156, 1970.
• An Early Prehistoric Site at Bellows Beach, Waimanalo, Oahu, Hawaiian Islands (P.V. Kirch and M. Pietrusewsky, junior authors). Archaeology and Physical Anthropology in Oceania. VI:204-234, 1971.
• Pollen Counts in North China. Antiquity XLVIII(191):226-228, 1974.
• (with senior author Kim, Won-yong) Three Royal Tombs: New Discoveries in Korean Archaeology. Archaeology 30(5):302-312, 1977.
• Palaeoenvironment and Human Settlement in Japan and Korea. Science. Vol. 197:1239-1246. (Japanese version translated by T. Seki, Kodai, 76:1-16)1977.
• (editor and translator, with Kazue Pearson) Kim, Jeong-hak
  Kim Jeong-hak
  Kim Jeong-hak was a Korean archaeologist.Born in Munch'ŏn, South Hamgyŏng Province, North Korea, Kim first studied archaeology and folklore at Keijo Imperial University, the colonial predecessor of Seoul National University...
  
  , The Prehistory of Korea. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 237 pp., 1978.
• Lolang and the Rise of Korean States and Chiefdoms. Journal of the Hong Kong Archaeological Society VIII:77-90, 1979.
• Social Complexity in Chinese Coastal Neolithic Sites. Science 213:1078-1086, 1981.
• (with junior author Anne Underhill) The Chinese Neolithic: Recent Trends. American Anthropologist 89(4):807-822, 1987.
• (editor with junior editors K. Hutterer and G. Barnes) Windows on the Japanese Past. Ann Arbor, Center for Japanese Studies, 496 pp., 1986.
• (with junior authors J.W. Lee, W.Y. Koh, and A. Underhill) Social Ranking in the Kingdom of Old Silla, Korea: Analysis of Burials. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 8(1):1-50, 1989.
• Chiefly Exchange Between Kyushu and Okinawa, Japan, in the Yayoi Period. Antiquity 64(245)912-922, 1990.
• Ancient Japan. Washington and New York, A. Sackler Gallery, Agency for Cultural Affairs, Japan, George Braziller, 324 pp., 1992.
• Archaeological Perspectives on the Rise of the Okinawan State. Journal of Archaeological Research 9(3):243-285, 2001.
• (Li Min and Li Guo jr authors) Quanzhou Archaeology: A Brief Review. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 6:1:23-58, 2002.
• The Social Context of Early Pottery in the Lingnan Region of South China. Antiquity 79(306):819–828, 2005.
• Jomon Hot Spot: Increasing Sedentism in Southwest Japan in the Incipient Jomon (14, 000 – 9, 250 cal BC) and Earliest Jomon (9, 250 – 5,300 cal BC) World Archaeology 38:2: 239-258, 2006.
• Early Mediaeval Trade on Japan’s Southern Frontier: Grey Stoneware of the East China Sea. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 11:2: 122-151, 2007.
• Debating Jomon Social Complexity. Asian Perspectives 46 (2): 361-388, 2007.
• (editor) Okinawa: The Rise of an Island Kingdom: Archaeological and Cultural Perspectives. BAR Series 1898. London. Archaeopress, 2009
• Fifth-century rulers of the Kawachi Plain, Osaka, and early state formation in Japan: some recent publications. Antiquity 83:523-527,2009.