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Amerind Seminar House

In the late 1980s, Amerind established the Amerind New World Studies Seminar Series to bring together scholars to discuss topical issues in New World anthropology and related subjects, and  to make the subsequent results available in a new publication series.

Scholars:  To apply for an Amerind New World Studies Series Seminar, see the guidelines below  (please click here:  Guidelines).

In December 2002, the Amerind Foundation entered into partnership with the Society for American Archaeology, the major professional organization of American archaeologists, to establish the Amerind Seminars, annual seminars at the Amerind that recognize the outstanding symposium at the SAA's annual meeting.  The program is summarized in an article written for the March 2003 Archaeological Record, the SAA's quarterly newsletter and is reproduced below in its entirety  (please click here:  Amerind Seminars ).

To apply for an Amerind Seminar, session organizers need to check the appropriate box on the Session Abstract Form (Form E) when they submit a symposium proposal to SAA.

 

Previous Seminars:

"Indigenous Archaeology at the Trowel's Edge:  Exploring Methods of Collaboration and Education," October 13-16, 2005.  Stephen W. Silliman, Chair.  More on this seminar  (Publication pending)

"War in Cultural Context:  Practice, Agency and the Archaeology of Conflict," October 16 - 20, 2004.  Axel Nielsen and William Walker, Chairs.  More on this seminar  (Publication pending)

"Hohokam Trajectories in World Perspective," January 27 - February 1, 2004.  Paul and Suzanne Fish, Chairs.  More on this seminar  (Publication pending)

"Colonialism and Culture Change at Zuni Pueblo, 1300 - Present," May 18-23, 2003.  Barbara Mills, Chair.   More on this seminar  (Publication pending)

"The Naturalization of the Past: Nation-Building and the Development of Anthropology and Natural History in the Americas,"  May 20-26, 2002.  Curtis M. Hinsley, Philip L. Kohl, and Irina Podgorny, Chairs.  More on this seminar  (No publication)

"Enduring Borderlands Traditions: Trincheras Sites in Time, Space, and Society," January 9-10, 2002.  Suzanne K. Fish, Paul R. Fish, and Elisa Villalpando, Chairs.   More on this seminar  (Publication in 2006)

"Embedded Symmetries: Natural and Cultural," April 13-17, 2000.  Dorothy K. Washburn, Chair.  More on this seminar  Amerind Publication

"The Anthropology of Technology," October 10-16, 1998.  Michael B. Schiffer, Chair.  More on this seminar  Amerind Publication

"The Archaeology of a Land Between: Regional Dynamics in the Prehistory and History of Southeastern Arizona," October 12-17, 1997.  Henry D. Wallace, Chair.  More on this seminar  (Publication pending)

"Prehistoric Salado Culture of the American Southwest,"  May 14-19, 1995.  Jeffrey S. Dean, Chair.  More on this seminar  Amerind Publication

"Great Towns and Regional Polities: Cultural Evolution in the United States Southwest and Southeast," March 5-12, 1994.  Jill E. Neitzel, Chair.  More on this seminar  Amerind Publication

"Culture and Contact: Charles C. DiPeso's Gran Chichimeca," October 3-7, 1988.  Anne I. Woosley and John C. Ravesloot, Chairs.  More on this seminar  Amerind Publication

"Changing Views on Hohokam Archaeology," February 14-19, 1988.  George J. Gumerman, Chair.  More on this seminar  Amerind Publication

New World Studies Seminar Series Application Guidelines

The Amerind Foundation accepts applications for advanced seminars on a variety of anthropological and archaeological topics.  Scholars wishing to organize a symposium should submit eight copies of a proposal by the application deadline of October 1 that addresses the following issues: 

·        The main topic(s) to be addressed in the seminar

·        The purpose that a seminar would serve and why it is important to address the topics at this time

·        How the results of the seminar would be disseminated to the scholarly community

·        The names and affiliations of scholars actively working on the topic who might participate in the seminar  

Each proposal should be typed (double-spaced) and include a 100 word abstract, a bibliography of relevant literature on the topic (not to exceed two pages, double-spaced), and the applicant’s curriculum vitae (not to exceed four pages).  The body of the proposal should not exceed six double-spaced pages.

 We encourage proposals that address issues and topics of broad anthropological interest; that attempt to synthesize large and complex projects; that seek to bring together specialists from multiple disciplines to address topics of mutual concern; or that integrate the work of applied and academic scholars.  Topics that relate in some way to the historical research interests and collections of the Amerind Foundation (e.g., Southwestern archaeology and anthropology, Native American studies, etc.) are encouraged but not required. 

Proposals are accepted throughout the year.  Those received after October 1 will be considered in the next review cycle.  Decisions will be made by November 15 for programs scheduled for the following academic year, giving organizers a year to formulate their participant list and for participants to prepare and circulate their papers.  Seminars are normally of five days duration, but may vary depending on the number of participants.  The Amerind Foundation provides room, board, and meeting space for the seminars, and will assist in the publication and dissemination of the results.

Please address applications and questions to:  Executive Director, Amerind Foundation Inc., P.O. Box 400, Dragoon, Arizona 85609; E-mail:  jware@amerind.org

AMERIND SEMINARS

From the March 2003 Archaeological Record, Society for American Archaeology newsletter:

The Amerind Foundation and the Society for American

Archaeology Initiates Annual Amerind Seminars

 

John A. Ware

Executive Director

Amerind Foundation, Inc.

The Amerind Foundation and the Society for American Archaeology are pleased to announce a new program entitled the Amerind Seminars.  The Amerind Seminars will provide the opportunity for an outstanding symposium at the annual Society for American Archaeology meeting to reconvene six months later at the Amerind Foundation in Dragoon, Arizona, for an intensive five day seminar, the proceedings of which will be published in a new SAA-Amerind sponsored series through the University of Arizona Press.

             The Amerind Seminars address an important need within the SAA.  How many of us have joined a symposium and presented a paper at the annual meetings and were frustrated by the lack of opportunity for the entire panel to get together to exchange ideas, debate issues of mutual concern, and explore new avenues of interest and research?  Except for casual discussions at the meetings and occasional follow up correspondence among panel members, there are few opportunities for such exchanges.  Time constraints for sessions at the SAAs simply do not allow the kind of sustained interaction that occurs in a seminar over several days, and very few SAA symposia papers are assembled and edited for publication after the meetings.  Beginning in 2004, the Amerind Seminars will provide just such an opportunity for a select SAA symposium.  Here is how it will work.

             When symposium organizers apply for a slot on the annual meeting agenda they will have the opportunity to check a box indicating their desire to be considered for an Amerind Seminar.  All participating proposals will be forwarded to the Amerind Foundation where a review panel will evaluate symposia abstracts and participant lists and select five to ten finalists on the basis of the quality of individual and collective papers, timeliness of seminar topic, and potential contribution to the field of anthropological archaeology, irrespective of time period and geographic area of study.  At the annual meeting members of the panel will attend all of the finalist symposia and at the end of the meeting select the outstanding symposium, which will receive an invitation to meet at the Amerind the following October.  At the Amerind, seminar participants will meet for five days, present updated versions of their SAA papers, and engage in discussion and debate on a wide range of subjects relating to the symposium topic.  Final drafts of papers and discussion narratives will be assembled in an edited volume that will be published by the University of Arizona Press in a new series dedicated to the Amerind Seminars.  The Amerind Foundation will underwrite participant travel, food, and lodging costs, and will subvent the cost of publishing the final proceedings volume.

             The Amerind Foundation is an ideal venue for seminars in anthropology and archaeology.  Founded by William Shirley Fulton in 1937, the Amerind Foundation is a private, nonprofit (501(c)3) anthropology museum and research institute located 60 miles southeast of Tucson, Arizona, in the Little Dragoon Mountains.  Amerind’s 1600 acre campus, located in the spectacular rock formations of Texas Canyon, is home to a museum, fine art gallery, curatorial facility, a 25,000 volume research library, facilities for visiting scholars, and a seminar house for advanced seminars in anthropology, archaeology, and Native American Studies that can accommodate up to fifteen scholars. 

            In its early years the Amerind was an active archaeological research center and its first professional director, Charlie Di Peso, conducted important surveys and excavations in southern Arizona and northern Mexico, culminating in the four-year Joint Casas Grandes Project in northern Chihuahua (Di Peso 1974).  In recent years the Amerind has reexamined its mission and shifted emphasis from field research to synthesis.  Since 1989 the Amerind has hosted nearly a dozen seminars on topics ranging from Hohokam prehistory (Gumerman 1991) to the analysis of prehistoric technology (Schiffer 2001) to analyzing the role that archaeology and anthropology have played in the development of nation states in the Western Hemisphere (Hinsley, Kohl, and Podgorny, in preparation).  The Amerind Seminars will add a new and important dimension to Amerind’s professional seminar program, and Amerind’s partnership with the SAA will creatively combine the resources of a nonprofit archaeological organization and museum with the major archaeological professional organization in North America.

            For more information on the Amerind Seminars or the Amerind’s ongoing New World Studies Seminar Series, visit the Amerind website (www.amerind.org), send us an e-mail (amerind@amerind.org), or call us at 520-586-3666.  To apply for an Amerind Seminar, session organizers need to check the appropriate box on the Session Abstract Form (Form E) when they submit a symposium proposal to SAA.

References Cited:

 

Di Peso, C. C.

1974        Casas Grandes:  A Fallen Trading Center of the Gran Chichimeca, Vol. 1-3.  Amerind Foundation Publications 9.  Dragoon, Arizona.

 

Gumerman, G.  J. (editor)

1991        Exploring the Hohokam:  Prehistoric Desert Peoples of the American Southwest.  Amerind Foundation New World Studies Seminar Series, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.

 

Hinsley, C., P. Kohl, and I. Podgorny (editors)

In Preparation   The Naturalization of the Past: Nation-Building and the Development of   Anthropology and Natural History in the Americas.  Amerind Foundation New World Studies Seminar Series, University of Arizona Press, Tucson.

 

Schiffer, M. B. (editor)

2001    Anthropological Perspectives on Technology.  Amerind Foundation New World Studies Seminar Series, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.

 

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Copyright © 2006 The Amerind Foundation, Inc.
January 29, 2008