Ceramic ecology session at AAA

The annual CERAMIC ECOLOGY XXIII symposium -- From the Field and Laboratory: Current Research in Ceramic Studies -- is scheduled during the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association, on Saturday, December 5, 2009, 1:00-5:00 pm in Grand Ballroom Salon III, Downtown Philadelphia Marriott, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.  
   
The session will deal with current field and laboratory ceramic research from both the Old and New Worlds -- work that that includes the disciplines of archaeology, ethnoarchaeology, ethnography, archaeometry, and materials science. 
 
Traditionally, the symposiasts have dinner after the session; to help with a head count please email Charles Kolb about interest in the dinner.

See our President Sandra López Varela and Bulletin contributor Charles Kolb during the session:

Program Number:      3-141
Session:     CERAMIC ECOLOGY XXIII: CURRENT RESEARCH ON CERAMICS 2009
Session Sponsor:     Archaeology Division
Session Date/Time:     Sat., 1:45 PM-5:30 PM
Organizer:     CHARLES KOLB (National Endowment Humanities)

Participants:    
1:45 PM:     INTRODUCTION: CHRISTOPHER POOL (University of Kentucky) 
2:00 PM:     JAMES SHEEHY (n/a) -- Potters, People, and Land in Bihar, India: a perspective from the 1961 Census of India 
2:15 PM:     RAHUL OKA (University of Notre Dame), CHAPURUKHA KUSIMBA (Field Museum, Chicago) -- Producing and Exporting “South Asian” Islamic Monochrome Glazed Wares: Import Substitution and Market Capture in the 16th and 17th centuries CE? 
2:30 PM:     TARA TETRAULT -- Tracing Variation in Vessel Manufacture and Cultural Identity through Ceramics in Ghana, West Africa 
2:45 PM:     JOHN ARTHUR (University of South Florida) -- Pottery and Caste Groups: Historical Archaeology of the Gamo Highlands of Southern Ethiopia 
3:00 PM:     JEROLYN MORRISON (n/a) -- Must Haves for the Minoan Kitchen, a Tripod Cooking Pot and a Cooking Dish 
3:15 PM:     MICHAEL SUGERMAN, JILL BIERLY (University of Massachusetts) -- Idalion: Ceramics and Identity at an Iron Age Border Town in Cyprus 
3:30 PM:     JAMES SKIBO -- Stone Boiling, Fire-Cracked Rock, and Nut Oil: Exploring the Origins of Pottery in the Upper Great Lakes 
3:45 PM:     BREAK 
4:00 PM:     ALEKSANDRA WIERUCKA (University of Gdansk, Poland) -- The Disappearing Art: the Ceramics of Quichua along the Napo River 
4:15 PM:     AMY HIRSHMAN (West Virginia University) -- Petrographic Analysis of Paste Variability in Tarascan Fine Ware Ceramics: a Preliminary Assessment 
4:30 PM:     SANDRA LOPEZ VARELA (U Autonoma Estado de Morelos) -- Institutional Imagining of Development: new inquiry field for ethnoarchaeology 
4:45 PM:     JIM WEIL (Science Museum of Minnesota), ANAYENSY HERRERA VILLALOBOS (Asesores Arqueologicos) -- Archaeological and Ethnohistorical Inferences Based on the Manufacture of Three Ceramic Pieces by Contemporary Artisans on Costa Rica's Nicoya Peninsula 
5:00 PM:     CHARLES KOLB (National Endowment Humanities) -- From the Field and Laboratory: Current Research in Ceramic Studies 
5:15 PM:     DISCUSSANT: CHRISTOPHER POOL (University of Kentucky)

American Anthropological Assocation annual meeting

108th AAA Annual Meeting - THE END/S OF ANTHROPOLOGY
December 2-6, 2009
Philadelphia Marriott Downtown
Philadelphia, PA

 
What is the relevance of anthropology in today's world?  Where does our discipline stand in the age of hyper-science and the genome; during an era in which ethnography – as a method and form of textured representation – is being mobilized with vigor and confidence by those working in other disciplinary formations; at a moment when the questions we're asking are also being answered by others in the humanities, social sciences, and media (and often with much more popular recognition)? Does anthropology still provide a unique contribution? What are its contemporary goals, and are they different from those of previous intellectual generations?

Sessions include:

NEW ANALYTICAL APPROACHES IN ARCHAEOLOGY
Session Sponsor:     Archaeology Division
Session Date/Time:     Sat., 10:15 AM-12:00 PM
Chair(s):     LAURA JUNKER (University of Illinois Chicago)

LAURA JUNKER (University of Illinois Chicago), EKATERINA KHRAMTSOVA (U of Illinois at Chicago) -- Ceramic Evidence for Variation in Feasting Patterns in Lowland and Upland Societies of the 15th-16th Centuries Philippines 

LINDSEY CLARK (Washington State University), ANDREW DUFF (Washington State University), ANDREW DUFF (Washington State University) -- Examining Social Interaction within a Chacoan Community Through Ceramic Stylistic Variation 

JAMES VANDERVEEN (Indiana University South Bend), DARRYL RICKETTS -- Embodying the Ancestors: The Symbolism of Cranial Deformation in Pre-Columbian Caribbean Societies 

SHANA WOLFF (Laramie County Community College) -- The Antimicrobial Effectiveness of Plants Traditionally Used by Plains Indians as Topical Antiseptic

AAAS session - Casting New Light on Ancient Secrets

This session was held yesterday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science:

"In many cases, our knowledge of the past has had to wait for technological advances to provide the tools required to learn more about the origins of life and ancient history. Today, the fascinating secrets of our ancient world are being uncovered with the assistance of state-of-the-art, nondestructive, X-ray techniques. This symposium presents an insight into the capabilities of the many light source research facilities located around the world in relation to archaeology, palaeontology, and anthropology. Samples that are being studied are wide-ranging and include fossil primates and hominins, Peruvian mummy teeth dating from the early 1500s, T. rex dinosaur remains, fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls, priceless irreplaceable works of art, and 10th century parchment never seen before in modern times. In the case of parchment, the experiments cannot only help with the conservation of the documents, but can also reveal text that has, until now, been hidden from modern society. Anthropologists are interested in what ancient people ate, and archaeologists are on the hunt for the oldest collagen on the planet. International researchers will share their latest discoveries and explain their research aspirations for the future." (Picture: the Archimedes Palimpsest)

Symposium Organizer--Silvana Damerell, Diamond Light Source, Didcot, United Kingdom

Symposium Co-Organizer--Isabelle Boscaro-Clarke, Diamond Light Source, Didcot, United Kingdom

Moderator--Murray Gibson, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL

1. New Light on Ancient Secrets: An Overview--Ernest Fontes, Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source, Ithaca, NY
2. Archimedes Palimpsest: Reading the Unreadable--Uwe Bergmann, Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, Stanford, CA
3. 21st Century Science Helps Tell Story of Early Chinese Dynasties--Francesca Casadio, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
4. Imaging Fossils To Reveal the History of Life on Our Planet--Paul Tafforeau, European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Grenoble, France
5. Gentle Giant To Answer the Unanswerable--Jen Hiller, Diamond Light Source, Didcot, United Kingdom
6. Advancing Detectors To Peek at the Past--Pete Siddons, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY

AAAS Meeting, Chicago, Feb. 12-16: We are what we have eaten?

"Piecing together relationships between the diets of hominids several million years ago to that of early and modern humans is allowing scientists to see how diet relates to the evolution of cognitive abilities, social structures, locomotion and even disease, said University of Colorado at Boulder anthropology Professor Matt Sponheimer. Sponheimer organized a session titled 'The Evolution of Human Diets'" (Eureka Alerts).

I have never been to a AAAS meeting, even though they always sound so interesting. But after all those geophysics, geology, archaeometry, and archaeology meetings, well, there's not enough time or money. Anyway, at the meeting coming up this week, here are some archaeometrically oriented sessions:

• The Evolution of Human Diets (podcast)
  
• Visualizing Earth: Teaching Geoscience Using New Technologies
• Beyond the Beagle: Evolutionary Approaches to the Study of Social Behavior
• The Origin of the Human Species
• The Future of U.S. Accelerator Science
• Genetics Meets Anthropology: How DNA Unravels the Roots of Human Society
• Climate and Disease: Quantitative Insights and Interdisciplinary Challenges
• Origins of Complex Societies in Primates and Humans
• Internationalization of Science: Looking Ahead
• Svante Pääbo, A Neanderthal Perspective on Human Origins (plenary lecture)
• Casting New Light on Ancient Secrets

And tons of stuff on global change!

From the AAAS web site.