Upcoming August-September Conferences & Workshops

A list of late summer programs supported by WGF!

17th World Congress of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences

“Evolving Humanity, Emerging Worlds”

August 5-10, 2013

Manchester, United Kingdom

Our aim is a world congress that will be an intellectually memorable milestone in thie history of the IUAES and at the same time permit truly global participation by the world community of anthropologists. We aim to reflect on the state-of-the-art work across all the sub-fields and interdisciplinary interfaces of anthropology, and to foster expression of different regional and paradigmatic perspectives to promote constitutive debate and dialogue across the boundaries of sub-field specialization and nationality. We will encourage anthropologists applying their skills outside the academy to contribute, including workshops addressed to dialogue between practitioners and academics. By being both inclusive and integrative, the congress aims to contribute to the development of the IUAES, its specialist commissions, and world anthropology generally, and also to provide the basis for a range of landmark publications.

 

3rd International Congress of Amazonian Archaeology

September 8-14, 2013

Quito, Ecuador

The International Congress of Amazonian Archaeology or EIAA (Encuentro Internacional de Arqueología Amazoníca) is the only academic meeting on the ancient past of the largest tropical rainforest in the world. It brings together most of –if not all– the archaeologists working on this theme, but also other scientists of different fields (anthropologists, ecologists, historians, geographers, botanists, archaeobotanists, pedologists, etc.) concerned by Amazonia. Over the years, EIAA meetings have become the major venue for specialists of Amazonian precolonial past, where the current topics are discussed and the most recent data and results of current research are presented for this vast region. The 85 invited scholars are recognized authorities in the field. More than 300 participants are expected to attend this international Congress. The event will be organized in single sessions opened to the public during 6 days. There will be a keynote speech every morning followed by 3 symposia and another keynote speech at the end of the day. Parallel to the sessions, there will be scientific posters and two archaelogical exhibitions featuring research results from Ecuador’s Upper Amazon. Three books on the archaeology of the Ecuadorian Amazon will be presented during the Congress. Some of the papers will be published in a peer-review volume at the end of the Congress.

 

Paleobiology, Taxonomy, And Paleoecology Of Early Australopithecus: A Collaborative Approach To Synthesizing The Evidence (workshop)

September 20-21, 2013

Cleveland, Ohio, USA

The paleobiology, paleoecology, taxonomy and phylogenetic relationships of species known for the hominin genus Australopithecus have been subjects of great interest and research since the naming of the genus in 1925.  However, different paleoanthropologists have reached at different, sometimes contradicting, conclusions based on fossil specimens readily available for them to study. One of the major hurdles in the study of human origins and evolution is the fact that paleoanthropologists working on original fossil materials of early human ancestors rely entirely on the fossils that they recover from their own study area. This is a major problem in attempts to answer questions regarding early Australopithecus paleobiology, phylogeny, adaptation, habitat use and preferences. Inter- and Intra-regional comparisons are almost impossible. This is largely because paleoanthropologists don’t usually have access in a timely fashion to unpublished fossil materials collected by other researchers from other sites of similar age. As a result, they cannot effectively and comprehensively address the broader research questions mentioned above. It is arguable that most of the disagreements in interpretations of the fossil record are no doubt artefacts of the lack of common approach and collaboration toward tackling research questions. Thus, collaboration among paleoanthropologists would substantially improve knowledge of human origins and evolution and also help to standardize the methodology used in the discovery and interpretation of the fossil record. The main objective of the proposed symposium/workshop is to bring together many paleoanthropologists working at different African sites and create a consortium by which each participating project makes its fossil material available for the other project members on a timely manner and address the various outstanding research questions collectively. This symposium will definitely set new standards of collaboration in paleoanthropology.