Event Type : Lecture Series

Medical Anthropology takes a holistic and global look at human health. Drawing on theories, methods, and evidence from anthropology and other fields, medical anthropology explores how societies around the world deal with the universal experience of sickness. Often working with physicians, epidemiologists, psychologists, alternative/folk healers, and more, medical anthropologists start with the individual body but venture beyond to learn how social, cultural, political, economic, historical, and ecological factors affect everyday experiences of health in societies around the world.

Dr. Max J. Stein is an Assistant Professor of Medical Anthropology in the Justice Studies Department at Florida Gulf Coast University, where he teaches courses in anthropology and research design. Dr. Stein’s research focuses on broad topics such as human mobility and migration, global mental health, and traditional and alternative medicine. He has worked for nearly 15 years in field sites across the country and lived in the Andes mountains of Peru for two years researching patterns of human mobility.

Raised in Fort Myers, Dr. Stein earned his BA in Anthropology at FGCU in 2009. He left home a year later for Tuscaloosa, AL to complete his MA (2012) and PhD (2018) in Medical Anthropology at The University of Alabama, only to return to SWFL in 2019 to teach the next generation of FGCU students. He also owns AnthroMacs Consulting, LLC, and offers research and consultation services including data collection and analysis, surveying and focus groups, trend identification, and data visualization.

What is the continuing legacy of the Calusa? Learn more about this the connections of the Calusa people to the broader area during the Ancestral period, and the legacy of the Calusa ancestors within the Seminole Tribe today.

Dave Scheidecker is the Historian for the Seminole Tribe of Florida’s Tribal Historic Preservation Office. He graduated from Florida Atlantic University with a BA in History, and from Texas Tech with a Master’s in Anthropology. He has worked on historic and prehistoric archaeological sites in Texas, Ecuador, and Zimbabwe before returning to Florida. Dave has been with the THPO since 2015.

Austin Bell explores nine periods in the life of the six-inch-high wooden carving, beginning with how it was sculpted with shell and sharktooth tools and what it may have represented to the ancient Calusa-perhaps a human-panther god. Preserved in the muck for centuries on Marco Island and discovered in pristine condition due to its oxygen-free environment, the Cat has since traveled more than 12,000 miles and has been viewed by millions of people. It is one of the Smithsonian Institution’s most irreplaceable items. In this fascinating account, Bell traces the clues to the Cat’s mysterious origins that have emerged in its later lives. After the lecture there will be a book signing.

Austin J. Bell is the Curator of Collections for the Marco Island Historical Society and a Consulting Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. He is the author of three books, including The Nine Lives of Florida’s Famous Key Marco Cat, published through the University Press of Florida. Austin currently serves on several non-profit Boards of Directors, including the Florida Anthropological Society and the Collier County Historic Archaeological Preservation Board. He holds a B.A. in Anthropology and M.A. in Museum Studies  from the University of Florida and is an alumnus of the Smithsonian Institution’s Summer Institute in Museum Anthropology. A two-time winner of the Florida Association of Museums’ prestigious “Museum Excellence” Award, Austin was also named the 2017 “Artist of the Year” by the Marco Island Foundation for the Arts, the 2018 Marco Island “Citizen of the Year” by the Naples Daily News, and one of Gulfshore Life magazine’s “40 Under 40.” A Florida native, Austin resides in Marco Island with his wife Erin and daughter Chloe.