S E C T I O N NEWS January 2000 Anthropology News

challenges for feminist anthropology to be more inclusive of the many faces and voices of femi- nism/womanism; and the relationship of femi- nist anthropology to the “public,” variously defined. How might feminist anthropology be- come more visible in public debate over issues relating to gender, class and race? How might feminist anthropologists more effectively engage our audiences?

Please feel free to contact us with questions or ideas regarding next year’s program: Mary Anglin can be reached by phone or email: 606/257-1051 or manglin@pop.uky.edu; Maritza Straughn Williams can be reached via email at mstraugh@ colby.edu . The deadline for the submission of paper and panel abstracts to the AAA is Apr 1. Session organizers wishing to have panels consid- ered for invited session status must send their proposals no later than Mar 1 to: Mary Anglin, Dept of Anthropology, U of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 405064024.

Thank You Shellie As the pen passes from Shellie Ellis’ capable hands to mine, I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to her for all her help in making this a smooth transition. I only hope that I can carry on with her grace and skill.

Please submit news item, articles, and brief field reports to Kelli Ann Costa at: Dept of Anthropolon, Crestview Hall 334, Franklin Pierce C, Rindge, NH 03461; tel 603/899-4207, fax 603/899-4324, KACostaC3worldnet.att.net. Visit the AFA website at ww.qal.berkeley edd-a faweb.

Association of Latina and Latino Anthropologists ALEJANDRO LUCO AND ARLENE TORRES, CONTRIBUTING

We write this column as the AAA meeting comes to a close. We are just beginning to reflect on the highly visible presence of our members at various panels. (As we begin to receive impressions from

EDITORS

Ana Celia Zentella (I), recipient of the 1999 ALLA Book Award for her ethnography Growing Up Bilingual (1997) with Monica Russel y Rodriguez, Chair of the ALLA Awards Committee. -

Arlene Torres, ALLA President-Elect, served as a discussant with Sidney Mintz on an invited session organized by Gina Perez “Revisiting The People of Puerto Rico.”

our colleagues about specific sessions ALL4 spon- sored, co-sponsored and helped organize, we will convey these to you in the coming month.) Among the many highlights throughout the con- ference, we noted the participation of a cohort of young scholars intellectually engaged with senior members of the discipline and of ALLA members in particular. We are especially pleased to report as well that our membership addressed themes ranging from native epistemologies, historicizing mixed race discourse, exploring various borders and redefining the Americas to revisiting and questioning anthropological discourse on Puerto Rico. We were impressed by the additional par-

Ruben G Mendoza (I), President of ALLA, with Charles Cambridge (CU-Boulder).

ticipation of ALL4 members in several other pan- els that allowed us to critically intervene in the discipline. Finally, the collaborative efforts with ABA, SANA and SLAA, reinforced our commit- ment to transforming anthropology.

1999 ALLA Awards We now take particular pride in announcing the ALLA awards. The 1999 ALL4 Book Award was given to Ana Celia Zentella. The 1999 ALLA

Student Paper award was given to Benjamin Armintor, graduate student in anthropology at UT Austin. Please see the Anthro Award Winners column in the Rites of Passage section of this edition for more details.

President‘s Message: Acknowledging Excellence

By Ruben G Mendoza, ALLA President On behalf of the membership of ALLA I would like to take this opportunity to thank the many colleagues and officers of the Executive Committee who worked so diligently to make this year’s AAA meeting a great success for the Association. From the outset I would like to express my utmost appreciation to Leo Chavez for his service as the Secretarynreasurer of ALLA since 1998. His efforts on our behalf are greatly appreciated. In his stead, our new Secretary/ Treasurer, Olga Najera-Ramirez, has stepped

(I-r) Ruben G Mendoza, President of ALLA, ALLA member Jonathan lnda (UCSB), Paule Cruz-Takash and Javier Tapia, ALLA Co-Program Chairs of 1999 AAA Meeting.

aboard to take on the duties of the Secretary/ Treasurer for the term extending from 1999 to 2001. I welcome Olga Najera-Ramirez to her new post and wish her the best in the year to come.

I would also like to acknowledge outgoing Membership Chair Carolyn Ybarra (1998-99) for her many efforts and contributions on behalf of the ALLA membership and its Executive Board. Monica Russel y Rodriguez and her committee, in turn, took on the challenge of reviewing the many fine candidates for the ALLA Book Award and Student Paper competitions for this year. We welcome Vilma Santiago-Irizarry (vs23Ciomell. edu) who has stepped forward to serve as the appointed Awards Committee Chair for the 2000 Awards Competition. She will oversee the ALLA Student Paper and Rising Professional Awards.

Paule Cruz Takash and Javier Tapia are to be thanked and congratulated for coordinating the highly successful 1999 ALLA AAA meeting pro- gram. Without their diligent and sustained efforts to constitute and identify sessions and receptions for this year’s program, I doubt that we would

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Anthropology News January 2000 S E C T I O N NEWS

have had the level of participation and success that we enjoyed at this year’s events.

Call for Nominations Deadline The spring 2000 ballot and the ALLA slate of offi- cers must be finalized by the deadline of Jan 30, 2000. In anticipation of this deadline, the ALLA Fxecutive Board hereby calls on nominees for the position of ALIA President-Elect (2000-02) to submit the appropriate information to Lorie Van Olst at Ivanolst@aaanet.org or make phone inquiries at 703/528-1902, ext 3024. Please con- tact the AAA regarding the appropriate format for the “Biographical Sketch.”

We would like to invite readers to send comments or any general information regarding ALL4 and the larger anthropology community to contributing edi- tors, Alejandn, Lug0 (a-higo@uiuc.edu) and Arlene Torres (a-torres@iiiic.edu), U of Illinois, Deparbnent of Anthropology, 109 Davenport Hall, MC-148, 607 South Mathcws Ave, Urbana, IL 61801.

Biological Anthropology Section 1) ANDREW MERRIWETHER, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR The AAA meeting in Chicago was its usual hectic melange of diverse sessions. Biological anthro- pology had a small but vibrant presence at the meeting, with several exciting sessions. The ses- sion on biological anthropology for non-biologi-

cal anthropologists was very well put together, although I am pretty sure 90%) of the audience were biological anthropologists. Nonetheless, I found it in- formative. I enjoyed the ses- sion on warfare, and always enjoy hearing the latest in the Yanomami debate (al- though it was pretty one- C Loring Brace pres-

ents at theChicago meeting. Chagnon not in attendance W m Franklin McMdhon to answer Ken Goode, Brian

Ferguson and Marvin Har- ris’s comments). That session might have also benefited from Richard Wrangham‘s presence, since his theories about violent males were brought up by more than one speaker. Loring Brace wrapped up the whole session very elo- quently.

sided this time with Nap

2000 Howells Prize In BAS news, I am pleased to announce the win- ner of the 2000 Howells Prize. Please see the Anthro Award Winners column in the Rites of Passage section of this edition for information on Ian Tattersall’s award.

Nominations Announcements We need nominations for two BAS executive committee positions: Member at Large, and Chair Elect. Send your nominations to Karen Strier (kbstrier@facstaff.wisc.edu) at Dept of

BAS Officers 1999: (Back row, I-r) Debra Martin, Mary Kay Sandford, Linda Wolfe. (Front row, I-r) Sarah Stinson, Rebecca Storey, James Calcagno, Karen Strier.

Anthropology, U of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706 (608/262-0302). There will also be a num- ber of openings for various committees in the AAA hierarchy that are open to, or reserved for, biological anthropologists, and it is critical that we fill as many of them with bio-anthros as pos- sible.

Our membership was 399 at the time of the business meeting, up 8% from previously years. We need to generate a bigger presence at the San Francisco meeting next year. To do so, we need you to submit papers, and organize sessions. If you have ideas for organized sessions, contact our new program chair, James Calcagno (jcalcag@ 1uc.edu) at Loyola U of Chicago, Dept Sociology and Anthropology, 6525 N Sheridan Rd, Chicago, IL 606265311 (773/508-3472). I would note that all of our sessions were accepted this year and last year, so the lack of a presence.at the meeting is not the AAA’s fault, but our own lack of submis- sions.

Student Poster Prize Due to some miscommunication, there was again no student poster prize. To remedy this, we hope to recruit from the AAPA meetings next year, using a deadline extension from the AAA pro- gram chair to do a student bio-anthro poster ses- sion. We also voted to award a free membership to the BAS (and encourage the winner to attend the AAA meeting to present it) to a poster at the AAPAs. Contact Rebecca Storey (rstorey@uh.edu) at Dept Anthropology, U of Houston, Houston, TX 77204-5882 (713/743-3786) for more infor- mation.

Lastly, we welcomed our new Chair elect, Sara Stinson (sara-stinson@qc.edu) of Dept of Anthro- pology, Queens C, Flushing, NY, 11367 (718/997- 2893) and our new Secretary-Treasurer, Karen Strier (see info above), in addition to Rebecca

Storey (member at large, see info above) and James Calacagno (Program Chair, see info above).

More news and pics from the meeting next month!

Central States Ant h ropolog ica I Society MARKO ~IVKOVIC, CONIRIBU~NG EDIT~R

Happy New Year to CSAS members! Whether it is a Happy New Millennium is, how- ever, subject to dispute. Calendrical obsessions are grist for our mills-they are perfect examples of how arbitrary symbolic systems appear to those submerged in them as inherent in nature. As Stephen Jay Gould muses in Questioning the Millennium: A Rationalists Guide to a Precisely Arbitrary Countdown, we might have ended in some easily imagined alternative history in which the Mayan calendar is dominant and where the Christian way of counting years is an antiquarian curiosity. Perhaps we will have papers, or even a panel on this topic at our “Millennial” conference in Bioomington.

It was nice seeing you in Chicago. There wasn’t much time after the meeting to gather impres- sions and report on CSAS activities, but I hope that we will have more of that in the next col- u r n . Terry Straus, however, was quick and here is her first report.

CSAS at Chicago Meeting

By Terry Straus

From the Reception

CSAS held a rocking reception Fri night, attended by many potential CSAS members, drawn by the

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