Welcome . . .
The SEA is a group of anthropologists, economists, geographers, and scholars from other disciplines who are interested in the connections between economics and social life. The SEA welcomes new members from all disciplines and all four fields of anthropology.
Note from the Incoming President
Dear Members,
Thank you for the vote of confidence that I received last spring! It is an honor and a pleasure to be elected president of the Society for Economic Anthropology. Ever since Sutti Ortiz introduced me—as a newly hired Assistant Professor at Boston University— to the Society, I have been a fan. I especially like the ease with which the Society serves as a forum for intra-disciplinary dialogue between socio-cultural and archaeological anthropologists. I remember giving my first paper at the 1990 annual SEA conference (in Tucson that year) and receiving lots of friendly and critical feedback—all of which contributed to the refinement of my paper (later published in Ortiz 1993, Understanding Economic Process). This central activity of the SEA—small conferences in which graduate students, junior professionals, and senior silver-backs mix with ease—is a rich tradition within the Society and I will do everything in my power to maintain and enhance it.
On the topic of SEA Conferences, I look forward to our meeting this spring in Cincinnati, OH, to confer on the topic of “Cooperation” as a central theme of social practice. In 2009, we will convene at UCLA to discuss variable kinds of human engagement—past and present—with textiles. As president of the SEA, one of my primary responsibilities is to bring exciting and innovative conference topics to the members. If any of you are thinking about organizing a conference, please do not hesitate to send me a conference abstract at tricia@bu.edu. I would especially welcome themes that hold salience and relevance for anthropologists of all stripes—socio-cultural, biological, linguistic, and archaeological.
A special quality of the SEA is its size. For most of us who have been involved with the AAAs, this quality and intimacy is most welcome. But the age-profile of the Society is aging and it is time to recruit new members from the ranks of our graduate students and young colleagues. In this regard, I urge each one of you to forward broadly to colleagues and graduate students the Conference Call for Papers for the upcoming 2008 meeting. I have found that once a colleague has attended an SEA conference, it is not difficult to persuade them to invest in a membership. As an archaeological anthropologist with taproots in economic anthropology and the deep history of the Maya region, I am especially interested in expanding archaeological membership within the Society. See you in Cincinnati!
Patricia A. McAnany,
President, Society for Economic Anthropology
Professor, Boston University, Department of Archaeology
Kenan Eminent Professor, Department of Anthropology, Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
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News & Announcements:
SEA Book Prize: Call for Submissions
The SEA Book Prize committee is requesting nominations for any non-edited book published in 2006 or more recently (the prize is awarded in a 2-3 year cycle). Book author(s) must be SEA members for submission (click here for membership information and form). We are looking for the best book in economic anthropology during the last two years. Previous winners have been: Salaula by Karen Tranberg-Hansen (2003) and Tsukiji by Ted Bestor (2005).
The book prize includes a $500 award, given at the Spring (2009) SEA meetings in Los Angeles.
Deadline for nominations is May 15th, 2008. Please email book titles and author names to the book prize committee chair, Lisa Cliggett (lisa.cliggett-at-uky.edu). Please put "SEA book prize nomination" in the subject line of the email.
The 2009 SEA Annual Meeting "Weaving Across Time and Space: The Political Economy of Textiles" will be held at the Cotsen Institute at UCLA, California (dates TBA).
The organizers are W. Little, M. Manson, and P.A. McAnany. Local arrangements at UCLA are made by C. Stanish. Check soon for more information and the call for papers.
Listserve:
The Society for Economic Anthropology has a new listserv, SEA-L. The listserv is a place to connect, announce conferences, post important information, and ask questions. Information about the listserv can be found in the Membership section of the website.
The Society for Economic Anthropology has a new listserv, SEA-L. The SEA envisions the listserv as a place to connect, announce conferences, post important information and ask questions. The list is open to all interested individuals and we hope that if you subscribe to the listserv, you might also join us as a member of the SEA. This is a moderated list and not a high volume list. To subscribe to SEA-L, send an email to the list-serv manager, Walter Little (wlittle@albany.edu).
