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

He grew up in Kitchener, Ontario and graduated with a Bachelor's degree at the University of Toronto in 1960. Along with Bruce Trigger, Richard Pearson studied at Yale University under K.C. Chang and received his doctorate in archaeology from Yale in 1966. Over his career Pearson’s research interests have included the archaeology of East Asia (Taiwan, Hawaii, China, Korea, Japan, and Okinawa) and Canada (Prince Edward Island, Ontario, and British Columbia). Pearson is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (II).

Pearson started his career as a professor at the University of Hawaii, but eventually returned to Canada in 1971 and spent the majority of his career as a professor in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology in the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Pearson has authored, edited, and/or translated a number of important books and journal articles on Japanese and Korean archaeology. He has authored journal articles on the Chinese Neolithic, particularly social differentiation in Dawenko burials. Pearson has trained several generations of specialists in East Asian archaeology including Kim Jung-bae, who went on to become the President of Korea University, Lee Jung-wook of Seogang University, Anne Underhill of the Field Museum and the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Naoko Matsumoto of Okayama University.

Selected bibliography

• D’ong S’on and Its Origins. Bulletin of the Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica 13:27-52, 1962.
• 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.
• Radiocarbon Dates from China. Antiquity XLVII(186):141-143, 1973.
• Pollen Counts in North China. Antiquity XLVIII(191):226-228, 1974.
• The Social Aims of Chinese Archaeology, Antiquity LI(201):8-10, 1977.
• (with senior author Kim, Won-yong) Three Royal Tombs: New Discoveries in Korean Archaeology. Archaeology 30(5):302-312, 1977.
• (with Kazue Pearson) Some Problems in the Study of Jomon Subsistence. Antiquity LII:21-27, 1978.
• (editor and translator, with Kazue Pearson) Kim, Jeong-hak, 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
• The Nature of Japanese Archaeology. Asian Perspectives 31(2):115-127, 1992.
• 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.

1937 births | Living people | Asian archaeology | Canadian archaeologists | Korean archaeology | Japanese archaeology | Kitchenerites | University of British Columbia faculty | Canadian expatriate academics in the United States