S E C T I O N M E W S November 2003 Anthropology News

Society for the Anthr6pology of Norh America Mt KRILL SINC,ER, (~ONTRIBUrING EDITOR

Greetings from the Column Editor This represents the second column of my second year as SANA’s AN contributing editor. In addi- tion to reporting on numerous SANA activities, accomplishments, and plans, this column over the past year carried a series of personal accounts by SANA members about their career experiences and professional milestones doing the Anthro- pology of North America.

This year, I look forward to receiving contrib- uted essays by !iANA members on topics like: Theorizing the Anthropology of North America. Is North American Anthropology Now Equal (to other areas of anthropological study)? What Impacts Have North American Anthropology had on North America (on anthropology gener- ally)? Assessing the Unique Challenges of Doing Anthropology at Home. What I Learned about North American Culture from my Study of

(fill in the blank). Do Mexicans Con- sider Themselves Norte Americanistas? Class Differences between Canada, the US and Mexico Is Poverty the Same Here? I am checking my email as you read this for items sent for the col- umn. Will your submission be there?

Already 2004-;!005 is shaping up to be a busy and productive period in the anthropology of North America These developments come against a dangerous backdrop of continued war, hostility toward, and attacks on, the civil liberties of foreign-born residents, and threats of the con- servative politicalization of research funding. This column represents a venue for anthropolog- ical reflection on these issues.

SANA President‘s Report

By Karen Brotfkin SANA has responded in a variety of ways to the sharp rightward shift in US politics over the last years. In the spring, SANA added its voice to the many opposed to the Bush administration’s war on Iraq. Shortly after war began, the Board passed the following resolution:

The Society for the Anthropology of North America opposes the Bush administration’s waging pre-emg tive war against Iraq. We believe that warfare will be devastating for both the people of Iraq and the United States. Iraqi civilians will bear the brunt of the attacks, and working class people, especially people of color are already paying the price economically in loss of jobs and public services as well as bearing most of the military casualties. But all Americans are already experiencing a loss of civil liberties. More than most, this is a war for the rich fought by the poor and visited on the poor across the globe. SANA is proud to join the voices of peace and justice around the globe.

Our spring meeting was held jointly with the Canadian Anthropological Society (CASCA), in

Halifax Nova Scotia at Dalhousie University. The theme of the conference was was “On Edge: Anthropology in Troubling Times.” SANA Pro- gram Chair Molly Doane and committee mem- bers Vin Lyon-Collo and Dana-Ain Davis, along with CASCA Chair Lindsay DuBois and commit- tee members Pauline Gardiner Barber and Hillary Cunningham, put together a powerful program of sessions and keynotes that addressed the cur- rent state of neoliberal politics as well as forces of resistance to it. SANA-invited speaker Laura Nader gave a forceful and very well-received key- note in which she suggested a number of paths for scholarly engagement by anthropologists.

Several conference participants from SANA and CASCA met to discuss the ways that current events and leaders in Washington threaten to un- dermine many of our hard won political rights. In response, they drew up the “Halifax Declar- ation” to address concerns about social justice, academic freedom and the democratic values that are under siege. SANA also will sponsor a meeting for progressive anthropologists, Satur- day, Nov 23 from 6:15-7:30 (room to be an- nounced) at the AAA Annual Meeting in Chicago entitled “Progressive and Radical Anthropologists Unite!!!” Look for it in the AAA program: This ses- sion reflects a SANA tradition, part of creating a more international perspective on North Ameri- can anthropology.

Also at the spring meeting in Halifax, SANA and CASCA finalized plans to create an historic tri-national meeting of both associations with the Facultad de Ciencias Antropologicas of the Uni- versidad Autonoma de Yucatan in Merida. We will hold a joint meeting of anthropologists from all three North American countries in Merida in the spring of 2005. Dean Francisco Fernandez of the Facultad de Ciencias Antropologicas has is- sued a formal invitation to CASCA and SANA, and anthropologists there, Gabriela Vargas-Cetina and Igor Ayora-Diaz, have agreed to be the organ- izers and program chairs for that meeting. So start thinking about sessions and papers!

Finally, SANA’s spring meeting for 2004 will be held in Chapel Hill, North Carolina Apr 30-May 2. Don Nonini and incoming SANA President Lee Baker are the hosts. Stay tuned for more informa- tion in this column.

Submissions for this column can be sent to Mm‘ll Singm, Hispanic Health Council, 175 Main St, Hart- ford, CT 06106; tel 860/527-0856; fax 860/724- 0436; anthro8566@aol.com (mail preferred, with SANA column in the title).

Society for the Anthropology of Religion SIMON COLEMAN, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Reflections on Providence By Omri Elisha (”U) A specter is haunting the SAR-it is the promise of serious interdisciplinary conversations, engag-

ing themes, and social theory that widen the parameters of anthropological study of reli- gion and religious practice. While the discussions that took place at our spring meeting in April in Providence (held joint-

In her presidential address at this year’s SAR spring meeting, Janice Boddy provided an allegorical nar- rative about British colonial conquest in Sudan in the late 19th century, a narrative with remarkable parallels to Contemporary geo-politics.

ly with AES) remained firmly rooted in the induc- tive analytical tradition for which anthropology is known, the topics and inquiries presented at each session covered a range of intellectual and methodological fields. These included religious history, sociology, media studies, linguistics, and cognitive psychology, among others. Every panel shed new light on central and emerging ques- tions about cultural expressions and social for- mations that bind religious systems to lived human experience.

The program committee-Chair Susan Sered (Harvard), Joel Robbins (UCSD), J i l l Dubisch (Northern Arizona), and SAR President Janice Boddy (Toronto)--organized a rich schedule of thematic panels. A plenary session entitled “Spiri- tual Truths and Material Consequences” kicked things off with papers addressing modern dilem- mas of religiosity, ideology, and politics in con- nection to issues such as Christian evangelism, Muslim piety, apocalyptic expressive culture and globalization.

Janice Boddy’s presidential address came in the form of an evocative allegorical narrative about British colonial conquest in Sudan in the late 19th century, a narrative with remarkable paral- lels to contemporary geo-politics, “lamentably relevant” to the enduring imperialist rhetoric of Western/Christian supremacy in the Muslim world. Related themes received further elabora- tion and insight on the last day of the meeting at an S A R roundtable on “The New ‘Fundamental- isms.’” A panel of distinguished scholars contem- plated from diffeient vantage points the social as well as theoretical implications of the emergence of fundamentalist movements at the center of global public consciousness.

Other thought-provoking sessions included: “Proselytic Media,” which dealt with aspects of the materiality and social impact of new and old media as camers of religious signification; a two- part session on the political, social, and psycho- logical components of religion and medicine; another two-part session on spirit possession and modernity in Africa; and a well-conceived panel on issues of language and textuality in relation to missionization and orthodoxy in local religious communities. An invited session convened by Susan Sered brought our discussions back “home” by examining case studies of religious practice in “New” New England, a region known only too well for its abundance of historical and diasporic religious traditions.

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