38 Anthropology NewsletterAlecernber 1996 I .

take up the issue of getting AAA Execu- tive Board input earlier in the process.

Finally the Executive Board approved in principle the idea that each section would eventually provide 10% of its section fund balances to fund scholar- ships for minority graduate students- both academically- and applications-ori- ented. We reasoned that this is one way that the AAA can begin to build link- ages and support AAA rather than just sectional interests. This funding would be part of a broader fundraising effort called the Fund for the Future of An- thropology and would include other fundraising operations. Nothing will happen until the scholarship program is developed.

( 3 ) I n part because of NAPA’s efforts, the AAA appointed two plan- ning groups to look at issues surround- ing nonacademic employment and potential employers, and membership issues for master’s-degree practitioners. I believe that almost all individuals on these planning groups were NAPA members. The groups worked over the summer and then met on two separate days in August in Arlington. Jack Corn- man put together a summary of the issues and recommendations, some very specific. The planning groups are now revising this document, which will be forwarded to various AAA subcommit- tees and the AAA Executive Board. One of the key things that the two planning groups were looking for was to establish a three-year commission to implement the recommendations of the planning groups. The AAA Executive Board will take up this issue on their agenda in early 1997. I am very pleased with the work of the planning groups and this outcome.

(4) NAPA board members attended a strategic planning meeting in Novem- ber. The idea behind the planning was to define the direction for NAPA over the next several years, including current and future “profiles” of NAPA. Sue Squires organited input for this planning ses- sion. She used a technique called con- cept mapping to collect and organize ideas. I know many of you responded to her survey. Thank you. At this stage in the AAA’s development, it behooves NAPA to think seriously about its next set of initiatives. In my view, NAPA has had a substantial ‘impact on the “practi- tioner-oriented” direction that the AAA is taking now. We probably want to build on that, as well as develop new directions.

(5) Ken Erickson wrote a critique on behalf of NAPA for the proposed cultur- al diversity book being organized by Patsy Evans, AAA Director of Minority Affairs. It suggests the inadequacies of the current outline, particularly in the areas of practice and ethnic categories. For more information, contact Ken at erickson@ falcon.cc.ukans.edu.

(6) We had a fabulous scientific pro- gram and an outstanding set of work- shops held at the AAA annual meeting this year.

(7) We continue to need articles for the NAPA column. Please contact Sue Squires with any suggestions for what you might submit.

(8 ) Linda Bennett has agreed to become one of NAPA’s new bulletin editors. She will work with both Ralph Bishop and Pamela Amoss over the course of the next several months during a transition period. She has asked Den- nis Wiedman to assist her, particularly

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with developing ideas for new bulletin topics.

(9) The Mentor Program is undergo- ing a restructuring. A conference call was held in August to address concerns about the day-to-day management of the program. Some important decisions were made, including the fact that LTG Associates. Inc (Niel Tashima and Cath- leen Crain’s firm) will take over the data entry and matching process. The Mentor Program is looking for new volunteers to assist with individual follow up on matches, and someone to take charge of the on-line tutorial, among other jobs. Volunteers should contact Micki Iris, Buehler Center on Aging. McGaw Med- ical Center, Northwestern U, 750 North Lake Shore Dr, Suite 601, Chicago, IL; 3 12/503-3087 or Cathleen Crain, LTG Associates, 875 East Canal, Suite I , Turlock, CA; 2091668-931 3.

( 1 0) Pam Puntenney has completed a review of the AAA Bylaws, examining the extent to which they incorporated the concept of practice and practitioners. In part because practice is represented in the bylaws (although perhaps not to the extent that everyone is satisfied) and because i t is so difficult to’change the bylaws, Pam has recommended that NAPA continue to look for opportuni-’ ties to have an effect on the AAA as a whole, particularly on the AAA leader- ship and through the various AAA com- mittees, working groups and annual pro- gram.

( 1 1 ) ANTHAP continues to be an excellent tool for communication thanks to Jim Dow. Earlier in the year we gave Jim Dow $300 toward ANTHAP sup- port. There is no question that it is wprth every penny.

( 1 2) NAPA finances are in great shape, with revenue over expenses of $17,177. Of course this does not include the big expense of printing the NAPA- SfAA Directory.

(1 3) Some of the NAPA Employer Initiatives are moving along. Cathy Hodge McCoid (consultants’ database), Kathy Fell (private-sector publication), and Andrea Hummel’s (poster display) committees have been the most active. A1 Wolfe (SfAA Liaison for these initia- tives) held a report-out session at the AAA annual meeting. More on that later.

(14) The AAA Web site (http:/l www.ameranthassn.org) is up. The material pertains mostly to AAA as a whole and is not yet specific to the sec- tions. That will come later. But it is very impressive (thanks to Rick Custer, AAA Director of Publications) and includes the AAA mission statement, job open- ings, AAA commissions and commit- tees and some ethics material. Take a look at it.

LPO Update: SCAAN Reorganizes

By Stephen Maack, President, SCAAN

The Southern California Applied Anthropology Network (SCAAN) is a local practitioner organization (LPO) that began over 10 years ago and is one of the older LPOs in the United States. Last year SCAAN experimented with having meetings in different locations in southern California: Westside Los Angeles, Long Beach, Fullerton and Laverne. The experiment demonstrated that there are people interested i n applied and practicing anthropology throughout the area but that few will drive very far to meetings.

This experiment and further discus- sions with members suggested that SCAAN memben prefer having a few, larger speaking o r conference-type events. As a result SCAAN has reorga- nized its meeting schedule. The first large meeting is being planned for Jan- uary 1997. around issues of the contri- butions of anthropology to, K- 12 educa- tion. What difference can anthropologi- cal thinking, methods and theory make to elementary and secondary school education? How can anthropologists help teachers do a better job with the growing number of students from many cultures? More details on this confer- ence can be obtained through Steve Maack.

Meanwhile, some anthropologists miss monthly get-togethers. As a result, some local anthropologists have lobbied to have SCAAN sponsor “mini- SCAAN” meetings for those people in far-flung southern Cglifornia who don’t want to travel very far to a meeting that is held on a regular basis. Since SCAAN is an LPO, it seems highly appropriate for it to reorganize around local needs and interests. Some of these meetings have taken place, while others are being planned.

Back at SCAAN headquarters, Maack IS still trying to locate a candidate for

You will read this column a couple weeks after the AAA annual meeting in San Francisco. As it is October as I write this, it is still in the future, and anticipation is growing in anthropology departments across the country. I hope that you were able to attend and that the intellectual affirmation and stimula- tion you received will last for quite a while. While it can be physically tiring and emotionally draining, one is usual- ly also hyped up as a result of attend- ing. It provides a good opportunity to renew one’s dedication to the disci- pline, as well as keep in touch with old friends and meet new people.

After more than a year of absence, an issue of the NASA Bulletin at last came off the presses in November. I must take responsibility for the failure to publish an issue in this time. Some aspects of my emotions this past year- and-a-half have made it seem like a trip through my own private hell. I can vouch that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, however, and things are moving ahead at long last. Once again, I apologize for this delay in publishing.

Which brings me to my unwritten NASA requirement that every.member should contact me at least once a year. Please note my address and new e-mail

Toronto Conference Update

In the event you’re new to this col- umn or haven’t received a flyer, SACC’s annual conference will take place in Toronto, Canada, April 17-19, 1997. at the Clarion Essex Park Hotel

president-elect, the term of which will begin next July, and “learn the ropes” this year. We are also looking for ideas and people power to organize a second SCAAN miniconference around a major topic of interest, in the spring or early summer. Anyone who has suggestions or (better yet) wishes to volunteer to run andlor organize should contact Steve Maack; 3 10/475-7962 or (W) 909/593- 35 1 1 x4286; scmaack@delphi.com. Any SCAAN member who has an e- mail address should also contact scmaack@delphi.com, so that we can explore the idea of a “virtual SCAAN.”

Anyone interested in joining SCAAN or networking with other applied or practicing anthropologists inside or out-

-side academia are encouraged to contact Membership Committee Chair Eddy Robey (8 181789-9790) or Treasurer Jacqueline Walden (5286 Fieldcrest Dr, Camarillo, CA 9301 2-4234; 805/388- 9600).

Those who wish to comment about this new SCAAN direction are encour- aged to become part of the solution rather than part of the problem: volun- teer yqur time and energy and help SCAAN be what its members want it to be. For it is an LPO that will respond to the level of local needs, interests and involvement of volunteer leaders.

at the end of this column. I do need material to put in the Bulletin; an issue comes together much easier when things are sent to me! Hard copy is fine, but you can also send a disk or material via e-mail. My home is now wired into the Infobahn, and there has been no problem receiving people’s messages there. Scnd me an idea, a concern, an article or a thought, and most of all, stay in touch.

Starting with the January 1997 issue of the Anthropology Newsletter, NASA officers will provide regular updates on Section activities in this space, to keep you up to date on current events behind the scenes. (In any case, as current as the publication schedule of the A N will permit, which is an improvement over the scheduled three or four issues of the Bulletin.)

I t is my sincere hope that 1996 wraps up smoothly for you, and I look forward to exchanging anthropological thoughts in 1997!

Don S Wesolowski, NASA Editor, 5 0 1 0 Tocora Lane , Madison, WI 5371 1-1 131; (H) 6081238-7423 (before 9 pm Central Time); ( W ) 6081231- 9542: fax 6081231-9592; dwesolow@ students.macc.edu.

(Conference room rate $78 Canadian s ingle/double) . This yea r ’ s major theme is “Teaching Strategies for the 21st Century.” As with all SACC con- ferences, this will include papers, pan- els, roundtables and sessions for colle-

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Anthropology NewsletterfDecember 1996 39

gial exchange of syllabi, course materi- als and teaching strategies in each of the 4 f ie lds (appl ied concepts are encouraged for each of the fields). It will also include field trips to some of Toronto’s unique ethnic neighbor- hoods, museums and the First Nation’s Indian Reserve.

Featured luncheon speaker Richard Lee has recently returned from the Kalahari and will present new material in his talk entitled “Indigenous People and the New World Order: The Ju/’hoansi Then and Now.” Other fea- tured speakers will include David Givens, AAA’s Director of Academic Affairs, Patricia Evans, AAA’s Direc- tor of Minority Affairs, Mima Katjes, Director of Anthropology of the Royal Ontario Museum, Trudi Nicks, Curator of New World Archaeology of the ROM, Tom Hill and Alice Bomberry, both of the Woodland Cultural Centre, and David KO, of Toronto’s Chinese community.

Air-travel discounts have been nego- tiated for SACC conference partici- pants. Call Association Travel Con- cepts toll free at 800/458-9383 o r e-mail your travel requests to assntrav- eI@aol.com along with requested dates and times of travel. Some great details are available for Toronto. SACC Secre- tary/Treasurer Chuck Ellenbaum has already booked round-trip Chicago-

.Toronto fare with American Airlines for $182!

Registration for this Eonference is $170 ($190 after December 15). Sub- missions of papers, course concepts, syllabi and panels may be sent to presi- dent-elect Mark Lewine as late as the end of December.

For registration materials and addi- t ional information, contact Mark Lewine, SACC, Cuyahoga Community College, 2900 Community Collegc Ave, Cleveland, OH 441 15; 216/ 987-45 13; fax 21 6/987-4404; mark. lewine@ tri-c.cc.oh.us.

SACC Will Publish Job Openings Gratis

Teaching Anthropology: SACC Notes, SACC’s biannual newsletter/ journal , will begin publishing a n - nouncements for position openings in community colleges free of charge. The positions must‘ be in or related to anthropology, or administrative posi- tions for which anthropologists would be qualified. W e will a lso publish notices of availability for SACC mem- bers at no charge. Send communica- tions to Lloyd Miller, DMACC, 2006 S

Issues in Consciousness Studies

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce a new section of this col- umn and the rationale for it. In the last two months you have read summaries of the SAC board retreat and its pro- gram for the further development of the organization and its relations to the AAA. Among these goals was “to advance the study of consciousness in its social and cultural context and to encourage communicat ion of the

Ankeny Blvd, Ankey, LA 50021; 5 1 9 964-6435; fax 5 19965-7301; Ijmil@ aol .corn.

Worth Mentioning

According to the article “Spinning Gold” by Robert Bryce in Mother Jones magazine (September/October 1996, transmitted via Internet by Charles Scheiner), the New Orleans- based mining company Freeport- McMoRan is allegedly responsible for wide-ranging abuses of both the envi- ronment and human rights in Indone- sia. Freeport, operator of the world’s largest gold mine, located in Irian Jaya, Indonesia since 1973, has been charged with polluting a local river and lake, making the water undrinkable and con- verting the river valley into a desert wasteland. It has also been accused of benignly tolerating the torture and killing of native people by the military on its property. (The company has leased mining options for the next 50 years!)

Freeport reputedly spends millions of dollars to advertise a favorable pub- lic image and pays millions more to buy support from journalists, polid- cians and even some US academic institutions. (Henry Kissinger sits on the company’s board and Freeport pays his firm a yearly retainer of $200,000; it gives millions in charitable donations to universities such as Tulane and Louisiana State.)

“Last October, the Overseas Private Investment Corp (OPIC), a federal agency that supports American compa- nies doing business overseas, canceled Freeport’s $100 million political-risk insurance policy, citing environmental problems at the mine. . . . On April 29, Tom Beanal filed a $6 billion class- action lawsuit against Freeport on behalf of the Amungme people, charg- ing that the mining company has engaged in ‘cultural genocide,’ among other claims. ‘From all the mining, what do we get?’ asks Beanal. ‘They ask us to leave our land. They’ve taken away our tradition and our culture. We’ve become alienated in our own land.’ ” I n April, OPIC reinstated Freeport’s insurance until the end of the year.

On the Lighter Side

This is from Mary Ellen Kelly, trans- mitted via the Internet by Paul Antone: “Natives who beat drums to drive off evil spirits are objects of scorn to smart Americans who blow horns to break up traffic jams.”

results of such study.” Yet, “[wlhile this reflects our overall mission as a society, each individual member [often] has his or her own vision of the anthropology of consciousness and of the society and what its role should be in es t a b 1 is h i ng that v is ion” (October 1996 A N , p 33). It is therefore appro- priate to try to clarify, for our readers, what kinds of research concerns and questions of interest are representative of the current state of consciousness

studies. This would also provide us a forum to discuss the assumptions that we share as well as the points on which we differ.

Structuring a public dialogue of the issues could also lead us to consider organizing an entire SAC conference around just such a project, ie, a sympo- sium that brings us together to debate a common set of themes and issues and forces us to come to terms with alterna- tive readings, interpretations and opin- ions. All too often these days, most of us anthropologists proceed about our business within those circles (networks) of others who share our interests and those who wish to share them. And everyone is concerned with being at the “cutting edge,” because resources are shrinking, notoriety is fleeting, jobs are hard to come by and there are just too damn many of us? A shrinking econo- my makes for a ffeld that changes its theoretical and research orientations almost as quickly as sports-shoe manu- facturers vary their styles and labor sup- ply. Against such centripetal forces that have a tendency to set us at odds with each other and make it impossible to share any common ground, I propose a safe, neutral s p a c e u n e where we do not respond to the moment but actually try to listen to what others are thinking and saying. It goes without saying that such attempts are fraught with difficul- ties, wimess the dialogue on science in anthropology in last year’s A N that invited 16 scholars representing various interests and approaches to air their views on this subject. A valiant and noble cause. Yet how comprehensible was that dialogue to most of you? Did the participants reakly share enough common ground to come to terms with one another’s positions? Did not some of the participants use their status in the profession to get away with arguments that others could have just as easily dis- missed or engaged in a more responsi- ble manner? Personally, there were moments when I thought the dialogue was being scripted by the Same of No Exit. Perhaps “hell is other anthropolo- gists”?

Realizing that there is such a plurali- ty of opinion as to what consciousness studies should entail as well, perhaps I ’

should shudder at the thought of trying to, yet once more, air our differences and introduce others to just what does constitute current research and areas of interest in the anthropology of con- sciousness. Nonetheless the anthropolo- gist in me can’t help himself, and so beginning next month I invite any and all members in our organization to

Often our work as anthropologists enters plants, neighborhoods, identities and communities-those areas waged work offers workers to restructure and reorganize-in ways that depart from simple study. In southwestern Minneso- ta, in October, I took part in “To Call It Home: A Conference on New Immi- grants.” I am still unclear about how much influence a handful of us will have on the growing presence of the meatpacking industry there, whose

share some of their thoughts on the nature of consciousness studies, current research and issues. (See note below for information on submissions to this col- umn.)

Anthropology of Consciousness: Current Research

I t was recently agreed upon by a number of board members that it would be useful to give our membership and other readers of A N a preview of arti- cles appearing in Anthropology of Con- sciousness. Forthcoming in the Decem- ber 1996 issue: E Richard Sorenson explores the history of the emergence of various forms of consciousness, what he refers to as subliminal, liminal and the supraliminal forms, which he sees as qualitatively different from contem- porary notions of consciousness and discusses this in light of his fieldwork among the Fore in “Sensuality and Con- sciousness: Part IV.” Hoyt Edge dis- cusses the construction of trance behav- iors using two examples of trance pos- session in Balinese temple ceremonies; he argues that trance behaviors are con- textualized to a particular temple rather than representative of a more general- ized set of behaviors or experiences throughout a given society or embody- ing a unique manifestation of the reve- latory experience of an individual per- son in “Possession in Two Balinese Ceremonies.” And Maxine Sheets- Johnstone critically examines ways in which cognitivist tenets function as hibal lore in the current paleoanthropo- logical controversy over the relation- ship between Neanderthals and modem humans; she argues that a denial of mental evolutionary continuities pro- tects our own “modern” preeminence and perpetuates cherished tribal lore about ourselves and suggests that we move beyond a dualistic thinking that severs consciousness from its natural corporeal moorings in “Tribal Lore in Present-day Paleoanthropology: A Case Study.”

Submissions to This Column

All r eade r s of t h i s co lumn are encouraged to submi t their ideas a n d o p i n i o n s o n i s s u e s tha t fall within the purview of SAC or other areas of interest and/or controversy in anthropology. Please send mate- rials to Constantine Hriskos, Dept of An th ropo logy , Co lby College, Waterville, ME 04901 ; 207/872-3562; fax 207/872-3555 (addressed to me); c-hrisko@colby.edu.

slaughterhouses and confinement hog operations have underwritten the growth of Mexican, Hmong, Lao and Somali households and neighborhoods in the region, whose disassembly lines contin- ue crippling workers-native, immi- grant, refugee-and whose municipal tax holidays and self-reported single- percent profit margins prevent them from hiking wages or contributing to the language-training programs needed in the public schools. Nor am I clear about