Richard Pearson (b. 1938) is an archaeologist of East Asia specializing in Okinawa.
Originally from Kitchener, Ontario, he earned his Bachelor's degree at the University of Toronto, and his PhD from Yale University in 1966. He taught at the University of Hawaii for a brief time before returning to Canada and taught at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver for the vast majority of his career. His work runs the gamut from Canadian archaeology to that of China, Hawaii, Okinawa, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam.
Pearson is currently Professor Emeritus of the University of British Columbia, and a Senior Research Advisor at the Sainsbury Institute in England.
Selected Publications
Articles
- "Chiefly Exchange Between Kyushu and Okinawa, Japan, in the Yayoi Period." Antiquity 64(245)912-922, 1990.
- "The Nature of Japanese Archaeology." Asian Perspectives 31(2):115-127, 1992.
- "Archaeological Perspectives on the Rise of the Okinawan State." Journal of Archaeological Research 9(3):243-285, 2001.
- "Fortified castles on Okinawa Island during the Gusuku Period, AD 1200–1600." Antiquity 74 (284):404-412, 2000.
Books
- Ancient Japan. Washington and New York, A. Sackler Gallery, Agency for Cultural Affairs, Japan, George Braziller, 324 pp., 1992.
- Archaeology of the Ryukyu Islands. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1986.
- Bulletin of the International Jōmon Culture Conference, Vol. 1. Tokyo, Intl Jōmon Culture Congress, 2004. (Editor)
- Windows on the Japanese Past. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1986. (Editor with Gina Barnes and Karl Hutterer)