Anthropology Speaker Series and AAGS Colloquium:

Upcoming Speaker Series Talk on April 25^th – Noon to 1:30 pm in Condon 204: Emergent Social Complexity in Central China: Yangshao Settlement Patterns (ca. 5000--3000 BC).

By Dr. MA Xiaolin

This talk is concerned about the question of the emergence of social complexity in the Yangshao culture (ca. 5000-3000 BC) in Central China based on analysis of settlement patterns in western Henan. A total of 31 Neolithic sites have been found along two rivers during a regional survey in 1999. Analyses of regional settlement patterns reveal the emergence of social complexity in the middle Yangshao period ( ca. 4000-3500 BC), indicated by dramatic population growth, increases in site number and occupation area, and the appearance of settlement hierarchies. The excavations at the central site of Xipo and specific analysis of the functional change of large buildings through the Yangshao period shed new light on the role of these buildings in the process of social complexity.

Dr. MA Xiaolin is a vice-director of the Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Zhengzhou, China. His research interests include the development of social complexity and the early state formation in north central China. He has also researched on animal domestication and ritual use of domesticated animals from various Neolithic to Bronze period sites. Currently he is a Henry Luce Foundation research fellow at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Upcoming AAGS talk: May 2^nd:

The Anthropology Speaker Series will host talks on the following dates (Locations will be posted as they become available):

Fall (4 to 6pm):

• Oct 19 Museum of Natural and Cultural History Oregon Land before Time series
• Nov 2 Dr. Heather McClure (Research Associate), Oregon Social Learning Center) Stress and culture change among Latino immigrants in Oregon. Location: Condon 260
  
• Nov 16 Dr. Bahram Tavakolian (Visiting Professor of Anthropology, Willamette University), "Prospects for the Revitalization of Nomadic Pastoralism in Afghanistan.": Location: Condon 260
  
  
  

Winter (12 to 2 pm)

• Jan 11 Reception for Dr. Arturo Escobar - cancelled
• Jan 18 open
• Jan 31 Dr. Arturo Escobar, Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics Keynote Address 7 pm in EMU
• Lunch discussion with Arturo Escobar
• Feb 1 Violence and Reconciliation in Latin America conference
• Feb 8 Prof. Seonbok YI, Dept. of Archaeology and Art History, Seoul National University
• Feb 15 Margaret Mead Film Festival with the Museum of Natural and Cultural History
• Feb 22, noon, 313 Condon. Gabriel Troc, Romanian ethnographer currently at the Center for European and Eurasian Studies, UCLA. "Between radical exclusion and conditional integration: A case study of Roma communities from Romania," sponsored by Anthropology, OHC, and REESC.
• Feb 29 Dr. Cara M. Wall-Scheffler, Biological, Seattle Pacific University, hominin locomotion / child carrying (co-sponsored by ICDS)

Spring (12 to 2 pm)

• April 11 Dr. Charles Hale, U Texas.
• May 23 Gender families and Immigration in Oregon, (Location: UO Law School)
• Currently not scheduled: Valdimar Hafstein, social anthropologist and folklorist from University of Iceland; specialist in cultural heritage, cultural policy, cultural copyright issues, and UNESCO.

The AAGS Colloquium will have talks on the following dates (note these alternate with Speaker Series and after Fall will be at 4 pm):

• Oct. 12 – Dr. Anne Millholen (UO Anthropology): Seed Dispersal by Ring-tailed Lemurs and the Potential for Forest Regeneration
• Oct. 26 - Reecie Levin and Kat Seikel
• Nov. 9 – Felicia Madimenos: Dental Evidence for Division of Labor in the Ipiutak and Tigara of Point Hope, Alaska

The prehistoric Ipiutak (ca.100 B.C.-A.D. 500) and Tigara (ca. A.D. 900 -1700) of Point Hope, Alaska, represent two environmentally similar, although culturally and chronologically diverse, populations. Archaeological evidence suggests the Ipiutak were not a whaling culture while the Tigara, part of the Western Thule culture, did engage in whale hunting practices. Modern ethnographic research indicates that whaling cultures rely on a distinct division of labor where men primarily engage in hunting while women tend to manufacturing of clothing and the collection of plants for consumption. This study investigates the frequency of specific dental pathologies and modifications in both cultures to provide insight on how sex-specific behavior may be reflected in the dentition.

• Nov. 30 - Aaron Blackwell
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• Jan 25 - Todd Braje
• Feb. 8 - Brendan Culleton
• Feb. 22 - Christopher Casserino
• March 7 - Deana Dartt-Newton

Spring 08 AAGS:

• April 18 - Tiffany Gandolfo
• May 2 - Kent Lightfoot.
  
  This talk is from 3:30-5 in Lillis 111.

Lecture Title:

The Archaeology of Colonialism Along the Pacific Coast: A Case Study of the Russian-American Company

Lecture Abstract:

This lecture discusses some of the theoretical and methodological issues involved in archaeological investigations of colonialism along the Pacific Coast of North America. It is critical that archaeologists undertake multi-scalar projects that are broadly comparative, multi-sited, and collaborative. Drawing upon more than a decade of archaeological investigations, the talk highlights some of the lessons learned from the study of Russian colonialism in Alaska, Hawaii, and California. In focusing on the Russian colony of Fort Ross in northern California, established by the Russian-American Company in 1812, details will be presented about how this mercantile enterprise operated, how the colony was organized, and how the colonists and local Indians interacted with each other. The findings from the Russian colony will be compared to recent archaeological investigations that consider how Native people were treated in nearby Spanish missions. Examples drawn from the work will be used to speak about comparative research, flexible research designs, low-intrusive field methods in collaborative programs, and the use of multiple lines of evidence.

• May 16 - Emily Henderson
• May 30 - Michel Waller