University Relations 202 Eielson Fairbanks, Alaska 99775-7520
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Anthropologists from around the world meet in Fairbanks
Fairbanks, Alaska — When the Alaska Anthropological Association set up its first meeting in 1974, the object was to allow University of Alaska faculty from the Fairbanks and Anchorage campuses to assemble, unify and acknowledge individual work and achievements in northern anthropological research. That first year, little more than 125 local members attended. The 23rd annual meeting, scheduled for April 4 - 6 at the Westmark Hotel, will host as many as 300 participants from around the world. Guests will be able to attend as many as three concurrent sessions covering a variety of topics from northern zooarchaeologic research and Athabaskan prehistory to northern anthropology’s women pioneers and research in Alaskan tourist art.
This year’s central session, “Zooarchaeology in the North: Peoples and Animals in Alaska, the Arctic, and Northwest North America,” is in honor of R. Dale Guthrie, who retired from the University of Alaska Quaternary Center this year and has been nominated as a professor of zoology, emeritus. The Alaska Quaternary Center is interested in the historical dimension of the natural sciences, focusing on the evolution and history of the northern land and seascapes, climates and animal and plant life during the past two million years.
Following a keynote address by Paul Mellars, Cambridge University, on April 5 at 7 p.m., participants will tour the UA Museum of the North’s Archaeology and Ethnology collections, with a focus on the UA Museum of the North repatriation program. Sergei A. Arutiunov, Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences,
will speak on “The Role of Arctic Anthropology in the Optimization of Ethnic Relations and Cultural Transmissions” during the April 6 keynote address at
7 p.m. in the Westmark Hotel. A third keynote address will be given by Victor K. Golla, Humboldt State University, on “The Problem of Athabaskan Expansion South of British Columbia: Perspectives from Comparative Linguistics, Ethnography and Archaeology” during the April 7, 12:30 p.m. luncheon at the Westmark Hotel.
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CONTACT: Most meetings and sessions will take place at the Westmark Hotel. For detailed session titles and events information, contact Peter Schweitzer, UAF Department of Anthropology (907) 474-5015.
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