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Though anthropology’s earliest applications ofGIS were in the early 1980s in archaeological work,the more interdisciplinary research settings beganturning to GIS soon thereafter. For example, at OakRidge National Laboratory a team of geographers,biologists and anthropologists is working toresolve conflicting land use goals at a military facil-ity where several endangered species require habi-tat protection. Anthropologists at the University ofMemphis are using GIS to map the distribution ofsocial capital for mobilizing community develop-ment efforts. In the UK, anthropologists and nutri-tionists have teamed up to find “food deserts,”those urban areas whose residents do not haveready access to affordable fresh foods. In WestAfrica, GIS has been employed by anthropologiststo characterize land tenure systems that createopportunities and barriers to the creation of con-servation easements in “debt for nature” swaps.

In two social service applications in Chicago,NAPA President Micki Iris is evaluating residentialpatterns of the Jewish community by age in orderto do some strategic program planning. Anotherproject with the goal of capacity building for socialservice organizations used GIS (www.mcic.org) toplot distribution of grocery stores by population inChicago communities, location and distributionof childcare sites by income levels and communi-ty area, and one on housing burden by incomelevels and community area.

At last year’s AAA meeting, NAPA sponsored aworkshop on GIS offered by Steve Maack(www.reapchange.com) in which he discusses theapplications of GIS in the anthropological litera-ture and ongoing research. In the workshop hereports from a 2002 AAA workshop presented bySusan Stonich, “The Future of Spatial Approachesin Anthropology” (www.csiss.org/events/confer-ences/2002/stonich_aaa.pdf). Stonich surveys thestate of the art in each anthropological subdisci-pline and includes URLs for ongoing projects.

Any news, issues or photos of interest to NAPA mem-bers can be sent to Inga E Treitler at ingat@knology.net.AN is also seeking papers for a regular column “SeeingHumans, Society and Culture in Globalization.”Readers are invited to contribute short commentaries of1,000–1,200 words or research reports of 600–800words that address issues and questions as listed atwww.aaanet.org/press/an/ancfp.htm.

National Association ofStudent AnthropologistsMELINDA BERNARDO, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

On Evolution and ID

By Chris Robinson (Bronx CC, CUNY)

A recent lawsuit against the University ofCalifornia charges that a website, designed tohelp educators teach evolution, is promoting areligion. If evolution is a religion, I do not believein it. One might argue that adhering to scientificmethodology is a belief system in that scientistshave faith that parsimony will lead us to the best

explanation of the natural world. However, evo-lution itself is merely an explanation for hownearly every biologist thinks that organisms cameto be as they are today.

Evolution is an extremely well-supported theoryabout the world but it is, like every other aspect ofscience, just a theory. The fact that it is like allother scientific theories, including some we calllaws, is something that is conveniently overlookedby many critics in this country. To say that evolu-tion is “just a theory” is not a criticism, it’s a fact.

Many high school teachers in the US do not dis-cuss evolution in their classrooms due to pressurefrom either conservative members of their com-munities or from their administrations. This is notjust a theoretical concern about what childrenlearn in schools and whether it is secular or reli-gious. Evolution is such an integral part of biologythat our lack of knowledge could lead to difficultysolving critical problems in related scientific fields.For example, many human diseases are best under-stood in the context of the co-evolution of humansand bacteria or viruses. If evolution were thought tobe a creation of the minds of elitist scientists, thenwe would have no reason to prepare for the avianflu. Why should we worry about new strains of avirus if species are immutable essences that werecreated by an intelligent designer?

Until a recent court decision, it was mandatedin Dover School District, Pennsylvania, that atheory called intelligent design (ID) be men-tioned as an alternative to evolution. ID statesthat life on earth is so complex that it cannot beexplained by evolution alone. Proponents arguethat complex structures like the cell or the eyecould not have come about by evolving fromsimpler structures.

ID is a compelling argument for many, particu-larly for those not well-versed in the sciences, sincelife seems very complex at first glance. However, sci-entific theories, by definition, must be testable andone must be able to refute them using those tests. IDcannot be refuted through scientific methodologyand ascribes the origins of some of the natural worldto supernatural causes. Thus, it must be classified asa belief system and not as science.

This does not imply that scientists consider allnon-scientific hypotheses as having no merit orthat we automatically reject all other means ofunderstanding the world. In science any theory isconsidered possible until it is refuted, althoughsome are more likely than others because empir-ical evidence supports them. Scientific theorieschange through time because researchers are con-stantly testing and attempting to refute them. Abelief system, by its nature, is not meant to betested but is believed and is based on faith.

Scientists need to be open to the possibilitythat there are aspects of life that cannot beexplained using today’s technology. However,just because we cannot explain them, does notmean they are unexplainable nor does it implythat there must necessarily be a supernaturalforce involved. One could argue that proponentsof ID are giving up in the face of difficult, but notunsolvable, problems. They might be said to bearguing, “we cannot understand certain biologi-

cal phenomena using today’s technolo-gy, so they must have been created byan intelligent designer. Let’s stop tryingto figure them out.”

If we allow ID to be taught along with evolutionin biology classes, why not all belief systems, likea belief in aliens, the Greek gods, or Buddhism?We’d end up spending an entire semester of biol-ogy looking at different explanations for how andwhy we got here. ID belongs in a comparative reli-gions or philosophy course, not in biology.

Something to say? Please send your comments, ques-tions, suggestions and contributions to MelindaBernardo at Melinda.bernardo@gmail.com.

Society forAnthropology inCommunity CollegesLLOYD MILLER, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

California Community CollegeAnthropology Teachers Conference

By William Fairbanks (Cuesta C)

California community anthropology teachersmet in San Luis Obispo, January 13–14, for itsfourth annual conference. The objective of thesemeetings is to facilitate interaction and network-ing among those attending. One who attendedreported that her college administrators stillexpress surprise occasionally at the support shereceived from others of us when they attemptedto eliminate the anthropology program at herschool three years ago. To facilitate interaction webegan, as usual, with a reception at 4 pm onFriday. Adjunct, tenured faculty, young faculty,others nearing the end of their teaching careersand some emeritus faculty attended. All seemedto leave their egos at the door.

Relaxed interaction continued during a tri-tipbarbecue, a tradition of the central coast ofCalifornia. Tables were arranged in a square soeveryone could see everyone else. After the bar-becue people introduced themselves, identified

Scott Lucas, (Lake Tahoe Community C); AmeetaTiwana (De Anza C); and (seated) Noble Eisenlauer,(Pierce C) at the fourth annual California CommunityCollege Anthropology Teachers Conference. Photocourtesy of Rosaline Rancour

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where they taught and described the issues theywanted to address. The meeting broke up some-what after 10 pm, but small group discussionscontinued until nearly midnight.

Program Director Noble Eisenlauer (Pierce C),convened the Saturday session after the confer-ence breakfast. Intersegmental Major PreparationArticulated Curriculum (IMPAC) helped us bybearing the cost of the conference room. A pro-gram of the statewide Academic Senate, IMPACwas created to encourage communication andtransferability of classes between the communitycollege, the California State University and theUniversity of California systems. IMPAC’s repre-sentative Scott Lucas (Tahoe C), led a discussion oncurrent articulation issues.

We discussed conferences with which thosepresent were involved: SACC, the CaliforniaMission Studies Association and the Southwest-ern Anthropological Association. We also dis-cussed distance learning, and Diane Levine ofPierce College provided a lesson on semantics.

A discussion of plagiarism and cheating mor-phed into the issue of assigning term papers. Oneadjunct faculty member said two colleges toldhim that he could not assign term papers becausetoo many students (if this is the correct term)withdrew or failed. James Todd (UC Santa Cruz)said his job is to work with students who transferin from community colleges and are not pre-pared for the number of 12–13 page papers (asmany as four per class) they will have to writeeach semester. Then the discussion moved togenerational differences in learning styles. Thetopic of biological anthropology and the attemptto introduce intelligent design in science classes“evolved” into talk of the need to teach scientificliteracy in all anthropology classes. This in turnled to a discussion of alternate ways to teach andtest.

The conference officially ended with Phil Steinof Pierce College saying, “I will make a motion Ihave made at the last three conferences.” Rob

Edwards of Cabrillo College seconded.Immediately hands were raised and it was under-stood that next year’s meeting would be held inSan Luis Obispo on the Friday and Saturday ofMartin Luther King’s birthday weekend. JamesTodd agreed to be program coordinator.

After the conference officially ended, manyparticipants adjourned to the Park Restaurant onOsos Street. Noble Eisenlauer; Ann Alpago, mysecretary who was instrumental in making theconference a success; Rosaline Rancour, a CuestaCollege photographer who recorded the confer-ence; my wife and I arrived at the Park too lateand had to dine at nearby Cafe Roma. The con-versations that occurred at the reception, duringbreakfast, lunch and after the conference wererelaxed, honest and informative, and contributedsignificantly to the success of the conference.

Anthropology for the President?NY Times columnist Maureen Dowd opened herFebruary 1 op-ed piece with the statement, “TheWhite House should hire an anthropologist.” Shegoes on to argue that the “Bushies’” failures tounderstand other cultural perspectives have costus millions of dollars in flawed intelligence anderroneous policy decisions. Perhaps we shouldrequire that presidents and their administrationstake anthropology 101 (maybe Congress too?).

Send communications and submissions to LloydMiller at lloyd.miller@mchsi.com.

Society for theAnthropology ofConsciousnessCONSTANTINE HRISKOS, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

The following information may be of interest toour members at large and is a much abbreviatedversion of the actual report prepared by President

John Baker regarding the activities and accom-plishments of the past year.

SAC 2005 Annual Report HighlightedThe SAC brochure has been redesigned in a man-ner that makes it easy to change informationabout upcoming conferences and other news. In2006, we printed 6,000 brochures, intending todo a mass mailing to several AAA sections to bothnotify members of our 2005 DistinguishedLecturer (A F C Wallace) as well as our upcomingspring meetings.

Communication with MembersTo keep our members current on section activi-ties, the SAC president sent out a printed letter toall members in November 2005 providing infor-mation about SAC, its meetings, publication andwebsite, and other information. In addition, peri-odic emails containing information and an-nouncements are sent to our members.

SAC ElectionsIn the spring 2005 elections, Lourdes Giordani,Diane Hardgrave, Antonia Mills and MarkShekoyan were elected to the executive commit-tee, all for two year terms.

AAA Annual MeetingThe AAA meeting in Washington DC featured thefollowing panels invited by or sponsored by SAC:“Collective Remembering and Forgetting: Contem-plating Memory and Amnesia and the Spectrality ofthe Past”; “Asceticism and Its Malcontents—ACross-Cultural Comparison of Asceticism in Theoryand Practice”; “Psychedelic Research: From HighDesert to Megalopolis”; “Cults, Rituals and ChildAbuse: A Multidisciplinary Approach”; “SpiritualTransformation, Healing and Altruism”; and“Consciousness at the Periphery.”

Distinguished Lecture and AwardsThe SAC 2005 Distinguished Lecture on “TheConsciousness of Time” was presented byAnthony F C Wallace on Friday, December 2. Inspite of mass mailings announcing the lecture aswell as onsite posters, only about 70 peopleattended the lecture. Wallace, a former AAA pres-ident, was scheduled at the same time as the dis-tinguished speakers of two other sections. For thisreason, the AAA may wish to consider spacingout the distinguished lectures of its sections overall of the days of the annual meeting.

Because of the publication history of Anthro-pology of Consciousness during the last two years,the award for best paper for both 2004 and 2005will be announced at the 2006 meeting.

Spring MeetingSAC held its annual spring meeting in Amherst,MA, from April 13–17, 2005, with the theme:“Expressions of Consciousness.” Approximately50 people attended the conference, which wasour first on the East Coast. The conference con-tinued our tradition of papers during the day andexperiential events in the evening.

William Fairbanks, Cuesta College, Conference Host; Noble Eisenlauer. Photo courtesy of Rosaline Rancour