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Call for Papers, 104th Annual Meeting
American Anthropological Association

Bringing the Past into the Present

Marriott Wardman Park Hotel
Washington DC, Nov 30-Dec 4, 2005

Alisse Waterston, 2005 Program Chair
John Jay College of Criminal Justice

The theme of the 2005 Annual Meeting suggests direction, a leading towards, a moving into a particular condition. The process of bringing must be fashioned by us, and we are bound to a specific course—from the past to the present. What aspects of history best assist us in envisioning and engaging the challenges of the present with an eye towards the future? Assessing the current state of the world, and of anthropology—including the role of the association—requires some explicit links from events, processes, practices, cultures, social structures, ideologies and institutions of the past to current ones. This year’s theme challenges anthropologists to explore and identify pressures, forces and conditions that shape human lives, and to trace human history and society as legacies, continuities, interconnections and transformations.

The Past: Clues, Truths and Silences
The new global world order has brought change to all sectors traditionally studied by anthropologists, including language, family and kinship, economics, power and politics, religion, education, and information transmission. Yet the past has always shaped the present, and if we look carefully enough, we can find vestiges of the past in everything around us. To ask what is new and not new in our 21st century way of life requires a comparative and critical analysis, approaches that are foundational to anthropology. Also, the long term view of change and stability available through archaeological, biological and linguistic research is essential to understanding processes, especially slow processes. What clues do short and long-term histories of war, exploration, colonialism, trade, slavery, empire and innovation offer for our understanding of the causes and consequences of change and upheaval?

A look at the past also provides opportunity to reassess the work of our disciplinary ancestors. In ways that are both intellectually critical and constructive, it is useful to reflect on the canon of anthropology for what still resonates as true or useful or insightful, and what is absent or missed.

The Present: Contemporary Issues and the State of the World
The world remains marked in the 21st century by war, genocide, hunger, glaring inequities, ecological vulnerability and deep social division. Processes of globalization, in part fueled by neoliberal economics and the politics of domination, have brought displacements and uprootings, violence and new discordances. These same processes have also brought the diverse peoples of the world into new interdependencies, new modes of communication, new networks of exchange, offering new possibilities for peace, understanding and social justice.

Theories, methods and practices in anthropology reflect contemporary developments and concerns. Though divisions within the field remain, shared topical interests and better communication networks have narrowed separations among the subfields. Some topics and themes that cut across the discipline include: human resilience, diversity and complexity; environmental and social change; the meaning of place; identity formation and representation; belief systems; access, social control and containment; transgression and resistance. In part due to advances in technology, the field is undergoing a renaissance in method and interpretation, incorporating novel genetic and physiological analyses, new fossil imaging techniques, and complex advances in developmental, behavioral, evolutionary and political-economic theory.

The Future: Charting a Resilient Course
The future requires that we cut through the daunting world challenges that confront us and focus on that which may respond to our hopes for correction. However confined by categories of topic or geographic area, we are each examining a slice of the larger story of humankind. What makes for resiliency in the context of uncertainty? Can we correct erased and invisible histories—those of our own discipline and of other peoples? How do we follow intellectual pursuits in ways that are socially responsible and meaningful? In bringing the past to the present, we have an opportunity to work towards correction: to override misconceptions, offer a fuller view of human history and society, and create an anthropology that is truly engaged.

Special thanks to Barbara Rylko-Bauer whose 2002 AAA panel titled “Bringing the Past into the Present” inspired this year’s theme, and to the 2005 Program Committee for helping shape this call for papers.

CONTACT:
Communications concerning the theme of the program should be addressed to Executive Program Chair Alisse Waterston at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Department of Anthropology, 899 Tenth Avenue, Room 433, New York, NY 10019; awaterston@aol.com. Refer all other annual meeting questions to the AAA Meetings Department at 703/528-1902 ext 3009 or ext 3025; lhorn@aaanet.org or kminter@aaanet.org.

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