What happened at the AAA meeting in San Francisco?

The American Anthropological Association’s annual meeting is over - here a quick round-up of the conference coverage on the web.

Anthropology and the military was a hot topic this year as well as Inside Higher Ed informs in three articles:

According to the article Anthropological Engagement, for Good and for Bad?, the debates were “generally civil but at times pointed". During a “consistently unorthodox question and answer session cut the moderator, Rob Borofsky of Hawaii Pacific University follow-up questions and at one point barked at an audience member “That’s, it! Down!” as if addressing a dog. Many questioners grew unsettled with the panelists’ answers.

The Network of Concerned Anthropologists submitted a letter to AAA’s president, Setha Low, accompanied by 1,056 signatures of anthropologists who signed a “Pledge of Non-participation in Counterinsurgency.”Ethics and Militarization Dominate Anthropology Meeting, see Ethics and Militarization Dominate Anthropology Meeting (Inside Higher Ed 21.11.08)

Montgomery McFate cancelled her presentation. She was invited to give a keynote lecture at a conference of the Southwestern Anthropological Association, see Raised Eyebrows over Keynote Choice (Inside Higher Ed, 20.11.08)

Other topics:

On an inter-generational panel on mothering, anthropology and fieldwork the question “How do we mix our passion for anthropology, which is rooted in fieldwork, and our passion for parenting, which is often rooted in schedules and routines and a sense of normalcy?” was discussed, see Fieldwork with Three Children (Inside Higher Ed, 25.11.08)

“Religion in Evolutionary Perspective” was the topic of the session by Barbara King. See Dispatch From the AAA Annual Meeting (Science and Religion Today, 24.11.08)

“The Encultured Brain session went very well yesterday", we read on the blog Neuroanthropology. They have previously presented their topic in several posts, among others Daniel Lende, Ethnography and Addiction (which includes links to several papers) - update Greg Downey put his paper ‘Balancing Between Cultures: A Comparative Neuroanthropology of Equilibrium in Sports and Dance.’ online

Dave Gottwald writes about a multi-disciplinary panel about architecture and anthropology. The panel’s purpose was to expand on the dialogue between architecture and anthropology, and included case studies on place branding, contemporary lifestyle and retail stores, shopping malls and theme parks, and casinos around the world.

The Damito has written an interesting round up of six different panels and even another one

Iceland Review reports about an Icelandic student at the Lawrence University in Wisconsin, Sveinn Sigurdsson. Together with his research partner Ashlan Falletta-Cowden,he received an award for their project on Icelandic food habits from the AAA.

The AAA Public Affairs Blog has collected links to press coverage.

Finally, there is a brief wrap up at Savage Minds and readers are asked to leave comments on the highlights/low points of the AAA-meeting