Department of Anthropology

Education:

Ph.D. 2014 University of Wisconsin-Madison
M.S. 2005 University of Wisconsin-Madison
B.A. 2002 New York University

Areas of Research/Interest:

The evolution of modern humans and the processes by which hominins became human; the evolutionary arc of human warfare, Neandertal behavior; quantitative genetics; computer modeling; semiotics; paleoanthropological theory

Teaching:

Our Primate Heritage; Gender, Race, and Class; Human Evolution; Anthropological Data Science

Selected Publications

Kissel, Marc, and Agustín Fuentes. "Semiosis in the Pleistocene." Cambridge Archaeological Journal 27, no. 3 (2017): 397-412.

Kim, Nam C., and Marc Kissel. Emergent warfare in our evolutionary past. Routledge, 2018.

Kissel, Marc, and Agustín Fuentes. "From Hominid to Human." In Philosophy, Theology and the Sciences, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 1-28. Mohr Siebeck GmbH & Co. KG, 2018.

Kissel, Marc, and Nam C. Kim. "The emergence of human warfare: Current perspectives." American Journal of Physical Anthropology 168 (2019): 141-163.

Kissel, Marc. "Becoming wise: What can anthropologists say about the evolution of human wisdom?." In Theology and Evolutionary Anthropology, pp. 69-85. Routledge, 2020.

Kissel, Marc, and AgustÍn Fuentes. "The ripples of modernity: How we can extend paleoanthropology with the extended evolutionary synthesis." Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews 30, no. 1 (2021): 84-98.

Hinde, Katie, Carlos Eduardo G. Amorim, Alyson F. Brokaw, Nicole Burt, Mary C. Casillas, Albert Chen, Tara Chestnut et al. "March mammal madness and the power of narrative in science outreach." Elife 10 (2021): e65066.

Terrell, John, Mark Golitko, Helen Dawson, and Marc Kissel. Modeling the past: archaeology, history, and dynamic networks. Berghahn Books, 2023.

Berger, Lee R., Tebogo Vincent Makhubela, Keneiloe Molopyane, Ashley Krüger, Patrick Randolph-Quinney, Marina Elliott, Becca Peixotto et al. "Evidence for deliberate burial of the dead by Homo naledi." Elife 12 (2025): RP89106.

Fuentes, Agustin, Marc Kissel, Penny Spikins, Keneiloe Molopyane, John Hawks, and Lee R. Berger. "Meaning-making behavior in a small-brained hominin, Homo naledi, from the late Pleistocene: contexts and evolutionary implications." Elife 12 (2025): RP89125.

Fuentes, Agustín, Jennifer C. French, John Hawks, Marc Kissel, and Penny Spikins. "Social and emotional cognition in Pleistocene hominin evolution: The role of biocultural processes." Journal of archaeological science 185 (2026): 106441.

French, Jennifer C., Somaye Khaksar, Agustín Fuentes, and Marc Kissel. "The origins and development of mobile containers: Biocultural perspectives on Pleistocene containment." Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 82 (2026): 101769.