Author Archives: Jim Weil

Rethinking Magic and Witchcraft

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October 16, 2025

Zoom link: [pending]

Dr. Phil Stevens, SUNY Buffalo

Talk summary:

Magic and witchcraft are among the most-studied topics in all the social sciences and humanities. Early in his career Phil Stevens realized some neglected but critically important aspects of them, and last year his conclusions were published by Routledge. He will talk to us about the 6 characteristics of the best meaning of “magic,” and the 14 attributes of ethnological-historical witchcraft, that indicate these are universal, inherently human, perhaps rooted in the evolutionary biology of our species. His description of “magical thinking” reveals universally similar cognitive processes; these are evident in several ritual concepts and practices, including the magical act, sorcery, communication, taboo and pollution, divination, and magical protection and healing. The witch combines universal human fears and fantasies; in societies which lack witches, these manifest in other supernatural forms.

Bio:

Phil Stevens received his B.A. from Yale in English in 1963, then worked for three years with the Peace Corps in Nigeria. (During that time, he taught high school English, and worked for the federal Antiquities Department on several projects of traditional art, including the Stone Images of Esie, which he has called “Africa’s Greatest Mystery”.) He entered the graduate anthropology program at Northwestern, returned to Nigeria for dissertation research, and received his Ph.D in 1973.  During 48 years with the anthropology department at the State University of New York, Buffalo, he conducted further research in Nigeria and the Caribbean, received two awards for teaching and an honorary Nigerian chieftaincy title, and published many items in anthropology and African studies. He retired in 2019.

 

Ethnological Science and Empirical Epistemology: All or Nothing. Alternative title: Who Dealt This Mess

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September 25, 2025

Zoom link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF2XQaG25TA

Dr. Murray J. Leaf – The University of Texas, Dallas

Talk summary:

An empirical theory of social organization must be grounded in an empirical theory of ideas, i.e., an empirical epistemology. Empirical epistemology was developed during the Enlightenment, and to a large extent, it was the enlightenment. It freed all philosophy–all thought carried out only for its own sake–from any sort of supernatural or unempirical postulations or assumptions. On the other hand, Philosophical Positivism was not part of this; it was a reaction against it

In recent times, there has been a radical transformation of ethnology. As Herb Lewis says, “This practice and this mindset are not universal, but they do pervade the work of many contemporary anthropologists and have come to characterize the field at its commanding heights. Whereas until the mid-1960s American anthropology—the four-field variety—was conceived of as an “objective” (“positivistic”) science, since anthropology’s newest revolution the very notions of positivism, objectivity, and science it-self are not only questioned but are—in some quarters—considered im- possibilities at best, lies and tools of hegemonic domination at worst. (Lewis 2009:201)”

In this Thursday Chat presentation, I will try to, first, describe the enlightenment analyses that ethnologists have lost sight of, and, second, illustrate the kind of fieldwork that re-incorporates it We will consider one key quotation from David Hume and several from Immanuel Kant. Then, third, I will show how these analyses apply to, and are validated by, the cultural frame analysis of kinship terminologies.

The transformation in ethnology had had two main components. One is the shift from science to moralizing, as Lewis describes. The other is the abandonment of kinship and social organization as a central topic – one that Lewis does not call attention to. The key to the connection between them is Lewis’ equation of “objective” with “positivistic.” This is a fundamental epistemological mistake. My main purpose in this chat is to show why that is the case.

While the postmodernists seem to be commanding, few are obeying. The AAA has 40 sections. All but three represent “specializations” that their members define as scientific–not postmodernist. The Society for Applied Anthropology is also untransformed. The topics the various empirical specializations focus on are related to each other through the members’ activities in organizations. The only thing that can pull the specializations together as a coherent science is a theory of social organizations.

Our predecessors were right to focus on social organization through extended participant observation. They were right to recognize that they had to understand organizations through the ideas of those in the community. But they were wrong to accept positivist claims that at some point they had to abandon indigenous explanations and substitute their own to be more “objective.” They knew no alternative. Yet there was one…

The alternative is to pursue the indigenous ideas to their fundamentals. Find their most basic assumptions; find their organizing and generative principles. Create a systemic analysis that lets the indigenous system stand on its own for us just as it does for those whose system it is. In this Chat, I hope to open a dialogue with the audience for re-centering and empirical epistemology in anthropology.

Bio:

Dr. Murray J Leaf is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology and Political Economy at The University of Texas, Dallas. Dr. Leaf is a social-cultural anthropologist, holding a PhD in social anthropology from the University of Chicago and a BA in philosophy from Reed College. When asked what his “specialty” is, he responds that he is a symbolic anthropologist, an applied anthropologist, an interpretative anthropologist, an economic anthropologist, a political anthropologist, a legal anthropologist, but maybe not? He says his basic interest is in how people think and in what the fact that we think has to do with the fact that we (human beings) have multiple social organizations, never just one. His basic conviction is that to understand this, we must look at all kinds of thought: economic, symbolic, and so on, not just one, and we have to see how they are related to one another. His basic philosophical orientation, he says, is skeptical and pragmatic. Correspondingly, he says his methodological orientation is what William James called radical empiricism. Observation must be separated from imputing. Observation requires closely disciplined restraint. This is especially difficult when what we are observing is ideas and their uses, he says. We understand what other people think by letting them tell us and following it out to the last implication while working as hard as we possibly can to avoid imposing our own preconceptions.

Dr. Leaf has served as Senior Social Scientist on the Irrigation and Water Management and Training Project, in India (1987–89), Senior Socio-Economist for the Bangladesh Flood Response Study (1990–93), and as a consultant to the United Nations Centre for Regional Development, Nagoya, Japan (1991–95). He has served on the editorial board of Regional Development Dialogue, the journal of the United Nations Centre for Regional Development, and the online anthropological journal Mathematical Anthropology and Cultural Theory. He was President of the Culture and Agriculture section and the Society for Anthropological Sciences. After receiving his PhD at the University of Chicago in 1966, Dr. Leaf began his teaching at Pomona College and then spent some years teaching at UCLA before settling in at The University of Texas, Dallas in 1975, where he spent the majority of his academic career. He has published numerous books and articles including his 2021 book (with Dwight Read) entitled An Introduction to the Science of Kinship and two volumes on world religions: Anthropology of Western Religions: Ideas, Organizations, and Constituencies, and Anthropology of Eastern Religions: Ideas, Organizations, and Constituencies, all published by Lexington Books.

 

Annual AAA meeting November 19 to 23, New Orleans, Louisiana

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The theme of this year’s meeting is “Ghosts” and the Association of Senior Anthropologists is planning a full and rich array of in-person activities. Looking forward to seeing many of you there…

If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact Program Chair (and ASA President Elect) Rick Feinberg

Check the AAA website for further details about the meeting

SCHOLARLY SESSIONS, SOCIAL ACTIVITIES & SPECIAL EVENTS

Oral Presentation Session: Moving Beyond Ghosting and Gaslighting: Anthropological Histories That Matter
Chair: Rick Feinberg
Date: Thursday, 11/20
Time: 8:30 AM – 10:00 AM
Location: Sheraton, Edgewood AB (4th Floor)

Boas and his followers envisioned anthropology as a holistic discipline, drawing from the natural and social sciences as well as from the humanities. Their objective was to forge a comprehensive understanding of humanity in the hope that such an understanding would help solve a host of deadly problems that had grown out of racism, colonialism, exploitation, xenophobia, and warfare. Anthropology has faced enormous challenges, both from within and outside of the discipline. Many 20th century anthropologists perceived themselves as leaders in the battle against racism and imperialism. By the end of the century, however, “post-modernist” critics often dismissed “science” as an ethnocentric construct, while “scientific anthropologists” condemned their humanistically-inclined colleagues as subjective and devoid of methodological rigor. In the 21st century, these divides have widened, sometimes mapping across generational and cultural lines. One critique, coming from oppressed and disenfranchised groups as well as their activist-inspired allies, accuses our intellectual ancestors of complicity with the very evils against which they believed themselves to have been fighting. Colleagues responding to these critiques often express alarm at what they view as radical presentism. The critics, they contend, are blind to the historical trajectory of a field that centered upon social justice but whose objective was differently realized in different global and temporal contexts. External challenges are still more extreme, as politicians accuse social scientists of being “radical” or “woke” for their commitment to diversity and equity. Several US states have outlawed “DEI,” and President Trump has ordered the dismantling of all such federal initiatives. In addition,
social sciences face opposition owing to their purported irrelevance in preparing students for employment opportunities. One consequence of these attacks has been to scale back–and sometimes eliminate–anthropology programs throughout the US.
This raises the question of what our discipline will look like, or if it will exist at all, in coming decades. Our session will present a critical examination of anthropology’s history, both long-term and recent. It will, furthermore, draw lessons from that history in an attempt to visualize the discipline’s future contours. The papers in this session will not create ghosts of intellectual and activist ancestors, whose work was situated in very different times, nor will they gaslight current anthropologists who—despite the valuable work of generations past—argue for a present rethinking as we strive to open future doors.

Postmodern Influences in the History of Anthropology
Robert Ulin
Rochester Institute of Technology
There have been many shifts in American anthropology from the early four-field approach to culture and personality, iterations of materialism, interpretive anthropology, and finally postmodernism and its scientific rebukes. Nor should we overlook historical approaches that employ multiple methods and theories and challenge pedestrian ideas about culture areas and globalization. I will discuss postmodernism of the late 1970s through early 1990s that encompassed Geertz’s interpretive anthropology, “writing culture,” and renditions of French philosophy that questioned modernity’s grand narratives. Important reactions to the postmodern claimed that it was indifferent to power, too focused on self-contemplation and ultimately ahistorical. I argue that the postmodern turn addressed some of anthropology’s ghosts that on occasion failed to acknowledge its colonial legacy and what can be termed the “naturalization” of fieldwork, driven by an occidental narrative of “otherness.” Deconstructing the narrative of “otherness” and vulgar “scientistic” renditions of the field make postmodernism important to anthropology’s historical deconstruction and selfcritique. I argue that anthropology’s turn to postmodernity is relevant to anthropological futures because of its potential to subvert and challenge hegemonic master narratives inclusive of utopian of science and technology, that have long been historically intertwined with anthropological research across borders, imagined or otherwise.

Can We Put American Anthropology Together Again?
Fadwa El Guindi
University of California, Los Angeles
It was American Anthropology that established the view of humankind as a unity combining biology, culture, language, society, cognition, and prehistory. It could afford to do it. It is American Anthropologists who have been dismantling this quality for several decades. Breaking up humankind’s unity makes American anthropology obsolete and dispensable. I will argue that putting the unified view of humankind back together through anthropology is the path to follow. In order to accomplish this, we must first distinguish anthropology as a field of study from the work of an individual or a group of anthropologists. We must also rethink what the role of The American Anthropological Association is toward accomplishing this goal. Despite fragmentation in the world today, whether from difference in wealth, power, equality, ideology, or access to technology, the principle of humankind’s unity is critical knowledge to continue building if anthropology’s holistic (and cross-cultural) view of humankind continues to be, as it should be, unique and valuable.

Gaslighting Anthropology vs. Historical Scholarship
Herbert Lewis
University of Wisconsin, Madison
“Gaslighting,” implies a purposeful attempt to make a person doubt their sanity, to get them to question their fundamental beliefs. By 2025 generations of American anthropologists have been led to doubt the foundations of their discipline as a result of decades of poorly documented critiques. When Franz Boas and his students fought against prevailing notions of cultural evolutionism and were in turn criticized severely by the neo-evolutionists, as bitter as their disputes may have been they were over matters of evidence, theoretical competence–questions of the adequacy of their “science.” On the contrary, the attacks on prevailing academic anthropology from the 1960s were based on presumed ethical and political failures. First there was the claim that anthropologists had been in league with colonialists, that they exoticized and “othered” “The Other,” and dealt dishonestly with these “others.” Then came the notion of “Orientalism” according to which the only reason any “Westerner” wrote about peoples of “the East/Orient” was to dominate, control, and exploit, those “racially” different “Others.” Now we are told that the generations of fighters against racial determinism were actually racist because they were “normalizing White society.” When we look into the actual history of the field, we find that none of these claims can stand researchbased scrutiny. This paper calls for an end to “gaslighting anthropology” for the benefit of the future of the discipline.

Is the Future of Anthropology Haunted by the Ghosts of “Othering” and “Scientism”?
Jim Weil
Science Museum of Minnesota
Anthropology has a long history of self-and-other research interactions, based on protocols developed through both scientific and humanistic traditions. Accounts of this legacy may emphasize some approaches and accomplishments, while ignoring others and celebrating or condemning selected aspects. With the vast accumulation of findings and the wide variety of explanations and interpretations of what it means to be human, no unifying paradigm or even tentative consensus has been possible. Seeking clarification, if not resolution, this presentation reflects on personal encounters between researchers and members of groups being studied. Exacerbated threats from the outside make it ever more urgent to address misinformation and disinformation generated within anthropology. What are the implications of “othering” as an epithet extended to mutually enhancing relationships in the field? What are the implications of “scientism” as an epithet that dismisses critical and liberating practices of science? Ethnographers arriving as outsiders have often been encouraged to collect and analyze data which serve a research community’s own purposes? Examples are offered, indicating that systematic observational findings and intersubjective experiential “truths” can be mutually reinforcing. What would it mean if anthropologists who so wish had opportunities for fieldwork in at least one setting in which they already belonged and at least one remote and previously unfamiliar setting?

Roundtable/Town Hall: It’s Never Too Late (or Too Early) to Write Memoirs: The Association of Senior Anthropologists’ Autoethnohistory Project
Chair: Jim Weil
Date: Thursday, 11/20
Time: 10:15 AM – 11:45 AM Location: Sheraton, Edgewood AB (4th Floor) Anthropologists and anthropologies of the ever-receding past may fade into a ghostly mythology not clearly understood by professional colleagues later and misunderstood by the public at large. Senior anthropologists―having witnessed accomplishments and shortcomings of various approaches to research, teaching, and practical applications―represent the living history of the discipline. Assessing the orientations and practices they have encountered, they ask what has been learned to guide us in moving forward. But anthropologists at any stage of their careers can speak to their pre-professional and more recent histories. Many will recognize their childhood perspective as a proto-anthropologist. The purpose of the panel is to review ideas that have been circulating about memoir writing as a way to consolidate contributions of the Association of Senior Anthropologists. Speakers will distinguish rubrics such as autoethnography, the ethnographic self, anthropological autobiography, and social memory; and explore innovations in writing forms, techniques, and strategies that foster imagination and storytelling. All attendees are encouraged to share examples and raise questions. Autoethnohistory is proposed as a name for efforts by anthropologists to emphasize social contexts and settings in memoirs, while also taking their subjectivity into account as a source of insight. They may have to clarify insider/outsider distinctions. Sources such as photographs, textual documents, and interviews with living elders may reinforce memories and serve as supports to recreate scenarios from their youth, graduate studies, first fieldwork, late career gigs, and a range of other ethnographic moments. The discussion is intended especially for colleagues daunted by the prospect of autobiographical writing, who might begin by compiling fragments of a memoir.

Workshop: Beyond Retirement: Strategies for Successful Transitions to Works after Work
Chair: Tim Wallace
Date: Thursday, 11/20
Time: 11:45 AM – 1:45 PM Location: Sheraton (Room TBA)

Museum Tour: Backstreet Cultural Museum
Organizer: Jeffrey Ehrenreich)
Date: Thursday, 11/20
Time: 2 PM – 4:00 PM
Location: 1531 St. Philip Street
The Backstreet Cultural Museum <https://www.backstreetmuseum.org/> is located offsite. It’s about a mile and a half from the Sheraton, so it should take around a half hour to walk there from the conference hotels. Anyone who prefers not to walk can get there via taxi or Uber.
The museum focuses on the processional traditions of New Orleans and the cultural history of the city’s African-American community. It features traditional costumes, photos, and other memorabilia. ASA member Jeffrey Ehrenreich, retired from the University of New Orleans, is a past president of the museum’s board. Jeffrey is also organizer of a special event on Friday afternoon, “Spirits, Stories, and Solidarity: Collaborative Ethnographic Encounters with the Mandingo Warriors & the Neighborhood Story Project.” This event will complement that session. At a cost of $20 apiece, the museum is offering a guided tour. Participants are asked to register in advance via the AAA website.

Music as a Centerpiece of Culture and Society
Organizer: Rick Feinberg
Date: Thursday, 11/20
Time: 7:30 PM – 9:00 PM
Location: Marriott, Lafayette (41st Floor)
Earlier this year, ASA sponsored a presentation by Tony Seeger titled “Changing People’s Lives through Music.” That led to an enthusiastic and extended conversation about music and how it helped mold many ASA members into the anthropologists that they eventually became. As a follow-up, we decided to hold an early-evening event to continue the conversation, combined with in-person musical performances. AAA members Harriet Ottenheimer, Murray Leaf, Sharon Graff, Jeff Martin, and Rick Feinberg have agreed to bring instruments and share some of the songs that inspired them to pursue their chosen career paths. Participants may then go out for drinks and informal conversation or find local music venues for their entertainment. Anyone else wishing to help provide entertainment should contact Rick <katoakitematangi@gmail.com> and take part in the planning process. This event is open to all regardless of AAA membership status or conference registration.

ASA Annual Luncheon and Meeting
Organizer: Jay Schensul
Date: Friday, 11/21
Time: 12:00 Noon – 2:00 PM
Location: Red Fish Grill (115 Bourbon Street)
The Red Fish Grill is a block from the conference hotels and offers “Casual New Orleans Seafood.” It is operated by the Brennan family a longtime standby of the New Orleans culinary landscape. ASA will have a private room, so background noise will be minimized and conversation facilitated. The menu is preselected and is not vegetarian. However, vegetarian/vegan or other dietary concerns can be addressed with advance notice. The lunch will
include an “informal” meeting, during which we will review the past year’s events and discuss programming for the future. There is no charge for ASA members, but you must register in advance through the AAA meeting website. Members may bring guests by paying the cost of the guest’s lunch ($40).

Spirits, Stories, and Solidarity: Collaborative Ethnographic Encounters with the Mandingo Warriors & the Neighborhood Story Project 
Organizer: Jeffrey Ehrenreich
Date: Friday, 11/21
Time: 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Location: Poydras (5th Floor)
In an open-forum conversation, anthropologists Jeffrey Ehrenreich, Rachel Breunlin, and Helen Regis, along with Big Chief Victor Harris and members of the Mandingo Warriors (a Black Masking Tribe in the “Mardi Gras Indian” tradition) will discuss their ongoing collaborative projects of the past 25 years. The Mandingo Warriors are one of 90-plus groups of Black Indians found throughout Afro-American neighborhoods in New Orleans. Big Chief Victor is an innovative leader, artist, and inspirational figure. His distinctive suits and masks—created with African motifs and designs—have brought the Black masking Indian tradition back to its roots in African origins. The discussion will focus on the long-term collaborative relationships and ongoing ethnographic/photographic/story-telling projects involving the anthropologists and Mandingo Warriors.

Election Results

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Election results: congratulations to Rick Feinberg, President Elect; to Margo Smith, for another term as Treasurer, to Marion Berghahn, Representative at Large; and to Stephanie Mojica, Student Representative

The intersection of migration, health and inequality in the US empire: The case of Chuukese migrant women in Guåhan.

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Thursday, May 15, 2025

Zoom link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3daja2fM-4

Sara A. Smith – State University of New York, Old Westbury

Talk Summary:

In this talk, Dr. Sarah Smith situates public health and health care in the context of U.S. imperialism, benign neglect, gender inequality, and transnational migration, particularly in the US Affiliated Pacific Islands. After discussing how her training and research in both applied anthropology and public health led her to current research projects, Dr. Smith illustrates key issues and facets of her research with the situation of the women from Chuuk, Federated States of Micronesia who migrate to Guåhan (Guam), a US territory, and suffer from disproportionately poor reproductive health outcomes. Though their access to the US is uniquely easy, through a Compact of Free Association agreement, it keeps them in a perpetual liminal state as nonimmigrants, who never fully belong as part of the US. Chuukese families move to Guåhan in search of a better life: sometimes for jobs, to put their children in school, or to access safe health care. Yet, the imperial system of benign neglect creates underlying conditions that greatly and disproportionately impact Chuukese migrants’ ability to succeed, including inequities in education, health, and job skills. In this talk, she illuminates how imperial citizenship, migration, xenophobia, gender inequities, and poverty intersect, cohere and compound to shape the poor reproductive health outcomes of Chuukese women in Guåhan. To better understand why Chuukese women suffer these health inequities, she elucidates how Chuukese women’s reproduction is conceptualized by women, their families, and home and host communities, and how these meanings are mediated by US imperialism and transnational migration between Chuuk and Guam. Her work in Guam brought her to a better understanding of the intersection of the control and movement of bodies (structural violence), representations of bodies in society (symbolic violence), and individual experiences and agency in these transnational spaces.

Bio:

Sarah A. Smith is chair and associate professor of public health and director of the health equity research institute at the State University of New York (SUNY) Old Westbury. She earned a PhD in applied anthropology and a master of public health from the University of South Florida. She has published research on migration, identity, and exclusion; sexual violence and human trafficking; stratified reproduction; women’s organizations; and clinical environments. Smith is a feminist medical anthropologist; her work connects health and health care in contexts of imperialism, neglect, gender inequality, and migration, particularly in the US Affiliated Pacific Islands. Rutgers University Press recently published her book, Forgotten Bodies: Imperialism, Chuukese Migration and Stratified Reproduction in Guam (2023).

NAGPRA at 35: Results, (Ir)reconciliation, and Relevance Beyond the Law

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Zoom link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEkhUHTccnY&t=5s&ab_channel=TimWallace

April 17, 2025

Kathleen (Kathy) Fine-Dare, Ft. Lewis College – Durango, CO

Talk Summary: 

The US Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) became law nearly 35 years ago, and yet many institutions have not returned First Nations’ Ancestral human remains and belongings to descendant communities. Sociocultural anthropologist and NAGPRA practitioner/scholar Kathy Fine-Dare will make this complex law accessible by weaving together accomplishments she has seen and worked with over nearly four decades and at least three sets of federal regulations; the role of communities of practice in disseminating information throughout what once were silos of underappreciated and silenced work; influences the law has had throughout the US beyond federally recognized Native nations as well as across the globe; and challenges that remain in seeking restorative justice with an ethos of irreconciliation. She is interested in discussing ways that the passage of NAGPRA parallels some of the late 20th and early 21st century critiques of anthropology and the opening of the discipline throughout its subfields to cautiously optimistic while simultaneously critical views of anthropology.

Bio:

Kathleen (Kathy) Fine-Dare is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and Gender/Women’s Studies at Fort Lewis College (FLC) in Durango, Colorado. Her degrees are from DePauw University (BA) and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (MA, PhD). At FLC she twice served as anthropology department chair, as coordinator of the gender/women’s studies program, and as a faculty affiliate of the program in Native American and Indigenous Studies. In 2005 she taught in the Anthropology and Culture MA program of the Salesian Polytechnic University in Quito, Ecuador, with a Fulbright grant. Until 2021 she was FLC’s NAGPRA compliance officer and co-PI of FLC’s second national NAGPRA grant, as she was its first. She has published several articles, book chapters, and books, including Dinámicas de la indigeneidad en contextos urbanos (Quito: USFQ Press and Abya-Yala 2025); Urban Mountain Beings: History, Indigeneity, and Geographies of Time in Quito, Ecuador (Lexington 2020); The Andean World (Routledge 2019, co-edited/authored with L.J. Seligmann); Border Crossings: Transnational Americanist Anthropology (Nebraska 2009, co-edited/authored with S.L. Rubenstein); and Grave Injustice: The American Indian Repatriation Movement and NAGPRA (Nebraska 2002, under revision). Kathy is currently secretary of the Association of Senior Anthropologists (AAA) and serves on the speakers committee of the national NAGPRA Community of Practice. She is a board member of the Colorado Fulbright Association and President of the governing board of the Mesa Verde Museum Association. Kathy lives in Durango with her husband, FLC Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Dr. Byron Dare.

Changing people’s Lives Through Music: Applied Anthropology and Public Outreach

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Zoom link:

March 13, 2025

Dr. Anthony (Tony) Seeger

Talk Summary:

Music can change people’s lives. In fact, it can change them several times. Music played around the house during childhood may give way to the discovery of something quite different in grade school and college after exposure during a concert, listening to a recording, or a class assignment. Most people I have talked with remember vividly at least one experience with music. Some of them became devoted fans, others learned to perform on musical instruments, some became professional musicians and some became anthropologists or ethnomusicologists who study music.

Only a few anthropologists have focused their research on music and dance.  From our publications it would appear that most of us are deaf to melody, unmoved by dance, unaware of aromas, and very dependent on using language for our research. But I know most anthropologists have been deeply moved by their own musical experiences. Many play musical instruments and are good dancers. In the late 1960s and early 1970s my dissertation advisors, Victor Turner and Terence Turner, were notable for their musical and dance contributions to parties as the evenings grew late—Vic with his enthusiastic dancing and Terry with his seemingly endless supply of raunchy rugby songs.

How does an anthropologist change people’s lives through music? I will discuss how I used my training as an anthropologist to run an audiovisual archive, The Indiana University Archives of Traditional Music, and a record company, Folkways Records after it was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution. I will outline how my training in anthropology shaped my approach to running both of them, and what I tried to do to help people change their lives, and their thinking. Both of these endeavors  could be called “applied anthropology (or ethnomusicology)” because they were public facing and policy related. But they influenced my thinking as well—many of my articles and book chapters have been “forged in the crucible of action” where the doing shaped my subsequent thinking.

Presenter Bio:

I was born into a musical family whose lives were profoundly affected by the right wing “red scare” in the late 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s. My musicologist grandfather had his passport cancelled and had to retire from his job at the Pan American Union. My uncle Pete was investigated by HUAC and convicted of contempt of Congress (a feeling now shared by many). Several other members of my family were investigated as well and their lives changed. Singing with my parents since I could talk and playing the banjo at age 12, I was deeply aware that music had power to frighten authorities, and that being a musician could be dangerous.  It was also personally satisfying—in 8th grade I had a 4th-grade fan club whose members squealed when I performed at school assemblies. I suspect my musical abilities influenced the jobs I have been offered during my career. As an undergraduate at Harvard, I opted to study Social Relations to learn what it was about music that made it so powerful and so dangerous. I also studied folklore under Albert Lord. But for graduate school I thought the questions anthropologists asked were more interesting than those of folklorists. I received my PhD from the University of Chicago in 1974. My most popular book is Why Suyá Sing: A Musical Anthropology of an Amazonian People (Cambridge 1987 with audio cassette; U. Illinois Press 2024 revised and expanded, with CD, with translations into Chinese and Portuguese.

I taught at Pomona College (1974-5) and in the Graduate Program in Social Anthropology at the Museu Nacional in Rio de Janeiro (1975-82). In 1982 I accepted a position in the Anthropology Department Indiana University and was asked by the Dean of the Arts and Sciences to serve as Director of the Archives of Traditional Music. This began my career as an audiovisual archivist.  In 1988 I was invited to become the first curator and director of the Folkways Records Collection at what is now called the Smithsonian Institution Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. In 2000, thinking it was time for new leadership, I accepted a position as Professor of Ethnomusicology at UCLA. My plans for research at UCLA were sidelined by accepting the position of Secretary General of the International Council for Traditional Music, an NGO affiliated with UNESCO, during the development of a new “instrument” for Intangible Cultural Heritage. I made many more trips to Paris than to the field in Brazil.

As I approach 80, I find I have written three books on the Suyá, now calling themselves Kĩsêdjê, an Indigenous people living in Mato Grosso, Brazil, co-edited three others on audiovisual issues, and published over 140 articles and book chapters on anthropological, ethnomusicological, archival, intellectual property, and Indigenous rights issues. (List of publications: https://www.academia.edu/72475584/List_of_Publications_by_Anthony_Seeger)            I am the executive producer of over 250 CDs and  producer of radio shows, a 30-video cassette set, and an instructional DVD. My voice and banjo skills are fading, but I continue to perform with my wife, Judy.

Folklore…that “bastard child that anthropology begat upon English”: Insights into Theorizing Field Studies

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Zoom Link:

February 20, 2025

Sabra J. Webber

In the early 1890s Fletcher Basset, representing the Chicago Folklore Society, was planning an international folklore conference as an adjunct to the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. But the Chicago Folklore Society, unlike most folklore societies of the time, favored a literary, rather than an anthropological approach to folklore. Thus, William Wells Newell and Franz Boas each representing anthropology and the American Folklore Society intervened stating that the scientific credibility of folklore studies would be threatened by this association with literature. Yet at possibly contrastive moments over the history of anthropological or folkloristic fields scholars considered it laudatory to interweave theoretical or methodological practices from various disciplines. This disposition was practical in light of the necessary awkwardness of disciplinary labels. Not long after the end of the Chicago World’s Fair, we find Boas’ obituary for his friend and colleague Newell praising him for his “literary inclinations,” by means of which he “came to be a power in the field of anthropology …enabling him to see that the gulf between the mental life of primitive man and civilized man…that many students had constructed, had no existence in reality.” Boas continued, “to understand him aright, we must also not forget the broad humanitarian basis of his scientific interests.”  After briefly elaborating on my abstract above and my particular scholarly foci, I will take the greater part of the chat to draw from my own and others’ methods and theories for gaining insight after returning from field experiences/studies. These may build on or appropriate the work of scholars or artists from various specialties. After I throw out some examples, I would be pleased if my colleagues would share examples from their own work

In Memoriam

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Devva Kasnitz

Members of the Association of Senior Anthropologists will miss Devva Kasnitz, who passed on January 26th with an aggressive form of liver cancer. She joined us several years ago in our efforts to make the annual AAA meetings more accessible to seniors. She offered her expertise, developed over a long career in disabilities research and as an advocate in addressing logistics and getting things done. Beyond the focus on accommodating the decline in abilities confronting most seniors as they age, Devva helped us understand that accessibility is a lifetime concern for many of our colleagues and must be addressed proactively at an institutional level. She became a member of the ASA board, helping to coordinate our record keeping and setting up and managing the section’s listserv. Along with the appreciation of Devva’s organizational skills, we also were inspired by her good cheer and courage, especially in overcoming the obstacles imposed by cerebral palsy.

Devva was an undergraduate major in cultural geography at Clark University and earned her doctorate in medical anthropology at the University of Michigan. Among the many roles she filled as an expert in disabilities studies and services, she served as a mentor in the US, Australia, and Guatemala, and was an adjunct professor in the School of Professional Studies at the City University of New York. Devva was a founder and executive director of the Society for Disability Studies and owner of Devvaco Consulting in Eureka, California. An NIH-funded researcher, she connected the worlds of policy, teaching, administration, and entrepreneurship.

1 in 10 jobs on the planet, 1.5 billion international travelers, 100+ peer-reviewed journals, and 60 years of longitudinal research: Dr. Valene Smith’s prescient and pervasive influence on the anthropology of tourism”

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Thursday, January 23, 2025 – 3:00 pm Eastern Standard Time

Zoom Link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQS7E888vO8&ab_channel=TimWallace

Dr. Carter A. Hunt (Penn State) and Dr. Tim Wallace (North Carolina State)

Talk Summary:

Carter Hunt and Tim Wallace discuss the importance of tourism  and heritage as a topic of research by anthropologists in the context of the history of Valene Smith’s role in bringing this vital field to the attention of socio-cultural anthropologists.