Proceedings of the Seventy-Eighth Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists

Proceedings of the Seventy-Eighth Meeting of theAmerican Association of Physical Anthropologists, TheSheraton Chicago Hotel, Chicago, Illinois, April 1–4, 2009

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President Fred Smith called the meeting to order at8:10 pm on April 3, 2009. The Secretary-Treasurer deter-mined that a quorum, as defined in Chapter III of theAAPA by-laws, was in attendance. The minutes of the2008 annual meeting in Columbus, Ohio were approvedas published (Am J Phys Anthropol 137:494–510).

REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT

President Fred Smith offered the following remarks:‘‘It is my pleasure to begin by reporting that the AAPAhas enjoyed another strong year, thanks to all of youwho contribute so much of your time and talents to theassociation and its programs. While we certainly useprofessional support entities, the AAPA itself is anentirely volunteer organization. What has impressed methe most during my term as your president is that every-one I have called on to serve in various capacities for, orto run for office in, the AAPA has said yes. Not one per-son refused. This is a tribute to the dedication of ourmembership and assures me that, despite the challengeswe will undoubtedly face, the future of our Association,and I believe our discipline, remains bright.This year, like everybody else, AAPA investments have

lost value. Despite this and the general economic down-turn, your Association continues to expand its invest-ment in the discipline and its future. Last year, Iannounced to you the initiation of the AAPA ProfessionalDevelopment Program to offer moderate grant supportto untenured Ph.Ds doing biological anthropologyresearch. Thanks to the able leadership of ExecutiveCommittee Member Anne Katzenberg (Chair of the Pro-fessional Development Committee), the AAPA is award-ing six grants of $5,000 each to deserving junior col-leagues this spring. We are grateful that Dr. Katzenbergwill oversee the PDP again next year. Thanks in part toour initial very successful auction last year, the brain-child of Mark Teaford, and the generosity of Bone Clonesand Dave Kronen, Simon Hillson and his Student affairsCommittee were able to offer 28 $500 travel awards tostudents attending these meetings. On behalf of theassociation, I extend sincere gratitude to the above-named individuals and everyone involved in makingthese programs a success. Dr. Hillson leaves the Execu-tive Committee this year, and we thank him for hisinsightful leadership, particularly in Student Affairs,over the last 3 years. The AAPA’s ability to pay for theseand its other programs is due to the excellent financialmanagement of our Secretary-Treasurer. Trudy Turnerhas served skillfully and diligently through 4 years ofinteresting challenges in our finances. She leaves us amuch sounder fiscal organization than she found us, andI express the AAPA’s gratitude to her for a job very welldone!

Our other Executive Committee Members have alsomade significant contributions to the AAPA this year.Brigitte Demes (Membership Committee Chair) hasworked to improve our membership system, and PatLambert (Nominations Chair) has led her committeewith her characteristic energy through the various nomi-nation and election processes. Dr. Lambert is also in herfinal year of service on the Executive Committee, and Ithank her for her many contributions. Vice PresidentLorena Madrigal, Chair of the Program Committee, hasdone an excellent job of putting together our scientificprogram for these meetings. We thank Dr. Madrigal andthe members of her committee. Fortunately, Dr. Madri-gal continues in this role for our meeting next year inAlbuquerque. Dennis O’Rourke has been of considerablevalue in his role as President-Elect. He has been anexcellent sounding board and has done his best to keepme in check. With his ascent to the presidency at theclose of tonight’s meeting, the AAPA is in very capablehands indeed.The Association’s publications are critical to our scien-

tific impact and visibility. I offer the Association’s heart-felt thanks to Chris Ruff, Editor of the American Jour-nal of Physical Anthropology, and Bob Sussman, Editorof the Yearbook of Physical Anthropology, for all of theirhard work and the attention to detail that makes oursthe high quality publications they are. The AmericanJournal of Physical Anthropology is the most frequentlycited journal in the anthropology category, which is cer-tainly something to be proud of.Much of the Association’s affairs involve the work of

other committees. These hard-working committees usu-ally toil outside the spotlight, but the accomplishmentsof the Association would fade without their dedicatedservice. So, I express the Association’s thanks to the fol-lowing committee chairs to transmit to their respectivecommittees: Joel Irish, Career Development; Sara Stin-son, Publications; Linda Wolfe, Ethics; Martin Nickels,Education; Mike Little, History; Susan Anton and Agus-tın Fuentes, Underrepresented Groups; Matt Cartmill,Meetings. Special gratitude goes to our colleagues onthe Chicago Local Arrangements Committee and itsresourceful and hard-working chair, Anne Grauer, forputting on an excellent meeting this year here in theWindy City. I also want to acknowledge the generoussupport of Loyola University and its College of Arts andSciences for this year’s meeting.Fortunately for us, several of our members have

stepped up to sponsor the AAPA annual meetings overthe next four years. We owe them all a great debt,

DOI 10.1002/ajpa.21219Published online in Wiley InterScience

(www.interscience.wiley.com).

VVC 2009 WILEY-LISS, INC.

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 140:771–787 (2009)

because this is no easy job. Future meeting site, dates (ifavailable) and Local Arrangement Chairs are:

2010: Albuquerque–April 13–17: Osbjorn Pearson2011: Minneapolis–April 12–16: Barbara O’Connell2012: Portland–TBA: John Lukacs2013: Knoxville–TBA: Andrew Kramer

We are currently seeking possible hosts for 2014 andbeyond. If you are interested, please speak to one of theofficers.The Executive Committee has discussed for some time

the issue of properly recognizing our members who passaway during the year. The challenges are many, and thisissue will only loom larger in the next several years.Organized symposia in members’ honor are certainlywelcome, but these must go through the Association’snormal review process. Also, the number of slots is lim-ited. The Executive Committee has voted to sanction thededication of regular paper or poster sessions at theannual meeting to the memory of a member who haspassed away during the previous year. This wouldrequire contacting the President with a formal requestto make a dedication. Suggestions for an appropriate ses-sion are welcome, but final decisions will be made by theExecutive Committee. Remember that the honoree musthave been a member of the Association. To get this inthe printed program for the meetings, requests must bereceived before December 1.In closing, I thank all of you again for your contribu-

tions to this fine and active Association. I hope that youwill keep up your involvement in the AAPA, perhaps evenseeking new ways to get involved. At the very least,please keep your memberships active, and encourageyour colleagues and students to do so as well. While it istrue that the AJPA and Yearbook are now easily availableonline, it is still vitally important that the ranks of ourmembership not decline. The extent of our influence as aprofessional organization, both now and in the future, isstrongly dependent on the size of our membership.Thank you for the honor of serving as your President

for the past 2 years. It has been a real highlight of myprofessional career.’’

REPORT OF THE VICE-PRESIDENT

AAPA Vice-President Lorena Madrigal presented thefollowing report: ‘‘I wish to extend my heartfelt thanksto the program committee, which this year consists ofthe following individuals: Fabian Crespo, Sharon DeW-itte, Agustın Fuentes, Frederika Kaestle, Tom McDade,Anthony Olejnicza, Jason Organ, Joseph Michael Plav-can, Herman Pontzer, Mark Spencer, Joan Stevenson,Christopher Stojanowski, Larissa Swedell, Andrea Tay-lor, and Daniel Wescott. My program assistants wereMichelle Raxter and Rhonda Coolidge. I want to thankthe committee and my assistants for all the help andsupport they provided me.The call for papers, which was sent by e-mail in May,

did not go as well as we would hope. I know that severalpeople, including the AJPA editor and the vice presidentof the Association, did not receive it. However, the Asso-ciation cannot be responsible for its members’ computersanti-viral protection. At this point, I think we just needto remind the members that the call for papers will beposted on our website sometime in May and to check theweb site if they did not receive the e-mail with it. Other-

wise, registration went well, considering the fact that wehad a good number of people affected by the hurricanethat hit the Gulf Coast. Members were affected becausethey had to evacuate or because they had to serve in theNational Guard. Registration would not have been possi-ble without the constant help of Ed Hagen, who takescare of the registration process on a purely volunteerbasis.This year we received a total of 971 submissions. This

is a marked increase of submissions from previous years.As a result of this large number of papers, we had toincrease the number of poster presentations, the numberof concurrent podium sessions, and to start the Fridayafternoon sessions at 1 pm instead of the usual 2 pm,which used to allow people a chance to attend the lunch-eon and listen to the afternoon sessions. Thus, we sched-uled five instead of the usual four podium sessions onFriday and Saturday morning and afternoon. If we hadnot done this, we would have had to increase the num-ber of poster presentations even more.Each abstract was read by three members of the pro-

gram committee. If there was a disagreement on theassessment of the reviewers, then the abstract was sentto another member. We rejected three abstracts.We received 18 symposium proposals, of which we

accepted 13, nine in podium format. One of the proposalswas the Wiley symposium, organized by Agustın Fuentesand James Calcagno. Two other symposia were cospon-sored with our allied associations, one with the AAAGand one with the Human Biology Association.Probably because of the economic crisis, we have had

a relatively large number of paper withdrawals. Whenauthors who cancelled let me know in advance, I wasable to note such changes in the program schedule,which is currently online. However, I received cancella-tions only a few days ago, and those are noted in anextra piece of paper in your registration material.I am sorry, I did not accommodate everyone’s prefer-

ence in mode of delivery. However, with the large num-ber of submissions, it was a very difficult task to jugglethe author’s preference, the talk’s subject matter, andthe number of available spots for podium or posterpresentations.’’The Vice-President’s report was accepted by the

membership.

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-TREASURER

The Secretary-Treasurer distributed the profit-lossstatement for 2008, which included separate summariesfor the AAPA regular bank account and the AAPA secur-ities fund, managed by Merrill Lynch. The Secretary-Treasurer’s office uses a cash-based accounting system,meaning that this report captures a snapshot of AAPAfinances at a particular point in time. The fiscal year forAAPA is the calendar year, so the report represents theAssociation’s fiscal resources as of December 31, 2008,and records transactions for the calendar year 2008.Cash reserves on any specific date are dependent onmany variables, primarily the pattern of income streamand the date bills become due.The Secretary-Treasurer stated: ‘‘The Association

receives income from three major sources: membershipdues, the annual meeting, and royalties from JohnWiley, the publisher of the journal. The balance in theregular bank account, which details ongoing income andexpenses of the Association, currently has in excess of

772 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 78TH AAPA METTINGS

American Journal of Physical Anthropology

$250,000. This amount includes those monies depositedso far for the 2009 meeting. The monies disbursed forthe second installment of the journal and for any meet-ing costs have not yet been paid out.The three major expenses of the Association are to

Allen Press, John Wiley, and the annual meetings. AllenPress maintains our mailing list and directs correspon-dence to our members, while John Wiley publishes thejournal. We are continuing to reduce mail correspon-dence to members, while at the same time enhancingour online services. This has resulted in a reduction ofour overall payments to Allen Press. The annual meetingin Columbus was well attended and the Association prof-ited by the wise management of the Local Arrangementscommittee, chaired by Clark Spencer Larsen. Wiley hasinformed us that there will be a cost increase for publi-cation of the journal and that cost will have to be passedon to our members. We have not raised dues for the past4 years, but that may be something that will happen inthe near future.This year the Association, like the rest of the world,

was hit by the downturn in the global financial markets.Our Merrill Lynch account decreased by �23.5%. As apoint of comparison, this year the Standard and Poor’sindex was down 37%, and the International Index wasdown 47%. Our advisors at Merrill Lynch have beencareful with our investments, maintaining a 60/40 ratioof stocks to CDs. All of our funds performed in the topquarter to half of all similar funds. This year, we main-tained a higher than average bank balance. As a resultof this, when the amount of money in the bank is addedto the amount in our equity accounts, our financesdeclined only 14%, much less than the market situationin general. The next Secretary-Treasurer will be respon-sible for monitoring the financial health of our organiza-tion and determining the extent to which we can supportmembers with grants and prizes.Other expenses of the Association include maintaining

services that a professional organization must have inorder to safeguard the organization, its members, and itsofficers. The MSW Group of Certified Public Accountantsin Farmington Hills, Michigan, reviews our financialrecords. They produce a yearly report that certifies thatthe association books are in order and that financialaffairs are being conducted within the framework of gen-erally accepted accounting principles. This report isavailable to any member by written request to the Secre-

tary-Treasurer. In addition, the Association maintainsan organization insurance policy.This is my last year as Secretary-Treasurer. It has

been my great honor to serve the Association in thiscapacity for the last four years. I am pleased to say thateven in hard economic times, we are in reasonably goodfinancial shape. I want to thank the Association for thisopportunity. I have learned an enormous amount. I owesincere thanks to the members of the Executive Commit-tee and the last four Local Arrangements chairs. I wouldparticularly like to thank Jennifer Danzy Cramer, myassistant, for her profound respect for details and Excelspreadsheets. I would also like to especially thank FredSmith for his continued good humor, good sense, andencouragement.’’The Secretary-Treasurer’s report was accepted by the

membership.

REPORT OF THE EDITOR: AMERICAN JOURNALOF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY

During the calendar year 2008, the AJPA published 12issues in three volumes (Volumes 135, 136, and 137),containing 1494 pages, not including the Annual MeetingIssue. Included were 121 research articles, 36 bookreviews, three notes on books received, three obituaries,four technical notes, 14 brief communications, one per-spective, and one erratum. The AAPA Constitution andBy-Laws, and Proceedings of the 2008 meetings inColumbus, Ohio, were published in the December issue.The Annual Meeting Issue (Supplement 46) was pub-lished in February and contained 229 pages and 766abstracts.The AJPA continues to decrease the time between

manuscript submission and publication. For all manu-scripts published in 2008, the median time from submis-sion to acceptance was 157 days (5.2 months), from sub-mission to online publication 224 days (7.4 months), andfrom submission to print publication 336 days (11.0months). These represent reductions of 1-2 months overthose for 2007, and continue a downward trend over thepast several years (see Fig. 2). We are now publishingmanuscripts more than twice as fast as we did in 2005,and significantly faster than at any time over the past12 years. For many manuscripts, it is now entirely feasi-ble to achieve online publication within 6 months andprint publication within nine to 10 months from the sub-mission date.A total of 378 manuscripts (not including book

reviews) were submitted to the AJPA in 2008, a signifi-cant increase of about 20% over 2007. Figure 3 shows

Fig. 1. Number of paper submissions for AAPA annualmeetings, 2000–2009. [Color figure can be viewed in the onlineissue, which is available at www.interscience.wiley.com.]

Fig. 2. Median number of days to print articles in AJPA,1996–2008.

773PROCEEDINGS OF THE 78TH AAPA METTINGS


the total AJPA submissions by year for the past 9 years,demonstrating an upward trend. For manuscripts sub-mitted during 2007, the last year for which completedata are available, the acceptance rate was 43%, almostexactly the same as in 2006 (44%).International submissions to the AJPA continue to be

strong: 58% (218/378) of our submissions were from out-side the United States, representing 42 different coun-tries. Almost a quarter (91) were from outside the NorthAmerica or Europe. The largest number of foreign sub-missions were from Germany (21), followed by theUnited Kingdom and Spain (18), and Canada (17).A breakdown by topical area of AJPA articles pub-

lished in 2008 is shown in Figure 4. The most frequentsubmission categories were osteology/paleopathology(21%), population genetics/history (17%), living primates(17%), and bioarchaeology (11%). Papers in the area ofliving primates showed the greatest proportionalincrease from last year (12%).One indication of the importance of the AJPA relative

to other journals is its impact factor within the SocialScience Citation Index (ISI Web of Knowledge JournalCitation Reports). For 2007 (the last year for which rat-ings are available), the AJPA had an impact factor of2.273, up slightly from 2006 (2.136). This ranked fourthamong 58 anthropology journals, behind EvolutionaryAnthropology (3.138), the Journal of Human Evolution(2.712), and Current Anthropology (2.312). Among 35 Ev-olutionary Biology journals within the Science CitationIndex, the AJPA ranked 21st. In terms of total numberof cites, the AJPA ranked first (6292) among anthropol-ogy journals, about twice that of the next highest journal(JHE, 3148), and 10th among Evolutionary Biologyjournals.Many people contributed in significant ways to the

success of the AJPA during this past year. I would liketo thank my new editorial assistant, Marnie Colton, forher help throughout the year in keeping things runningsmoothly in the editorial office, and the people at Cad-mus and Wiley-Blackwell for their continued assistanceand support, including Production Editor Doug Frankand Swapna Padhye at Wiley-Blackwell. Most of all, Iwould like to thank the associate editors and reviewersfor all of their very hard work throughout the year inmaintaining the high standards of the journal. JoannaLambert, Lori Wright, and Anne Stone left the editorialboard during 2008, and Lyle Konigsberg will be leavingat the end of April, 2009. We owe a great debt of grati-tude to each of them. I welcomed Francesc Calafell, ScottMcGraw, and Joan Richtsmeier to the board during theyear, and will be welcoming Megan Brickley, Koji Lum,

and Lisa Sattenspiel in May. I thank all of them foragreeing to serve.

REPORT OF THE EDITOR: YEARBOOK OFPHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Robert Sussman submitted the following report: ‘‘The2008 Yearbook of Physical Anthropology included sixarticles and a total of 126 printed pages. As in previousyears, every effort was made to include contributionsfrom various sub-areas within physical anthropology.The Yearbook publishes reviews of research in physical

anthropology. Recommendations for subject areas and/orauthors to include in future issues are always very muchappreciated. Most Yearbook articles are solicited, butunsolicited papers are also welcome. Please consult thePreface page in the 2008 Yearbook for more informationon submission requirements.We thank all of the 2008 volume authors and

reviewers for their indispensable contributions to theissue and Doug Frank at Cadmus Communications forhis valuable assistance as Production Editor.

OTHER REPORTS

National Science Foundation

Jean Turnquist, Program Director for Physical Anthro-pology at NSF, offered the following remarks: ‘‘Duringfiscal year (FY) 2008, which began in October 2007, thePhysical Anthropology Program at the National ScienceFoundation Senior Research Panel reviewed 85 pro-posals. Although there is considerable variation in thenumber of senior proposals received each year, the num-ber of senior submissions in current year (FY 2009) isthe highest in recent years. This year we have received92 senior proposals with physical anthropology as theprimary program, and we are also secondary program onan additional 21 proposals, making a total of 113 pro-posals. Eight senior proposals were funded from the Fallfunding cycles, and the Spring panel has not yet met.In addition to senior awards, the Physical Anthropol-

ogy Program in FY 2008 also received a total of 107 Doc-toral Dissertation Improvement Grant proposals. Thesewere reviewed by two dissertation panels, one in theFall and one in the Spring. A total of 32 awards weremade. The number of dissertation proposals varies some-what from year to year, but the program has held thefunding rate at around 26–27%, regardless of budgetconstraints, because funding dissertation research is aninvestment in the future of the field, and this will helpensure the future of quality research in physical anthro-

Fig. 3. Total number of submissions to AJPA, 2000–2008. Fig. 4. Breakdown of AJPA articles by category in 2008.



pology. In FY 2009, the Physical Anthropology Programwill review a total of 134 doctoral dissertation proposals.Eighteen dissertation proposals were funded from theFall funding cycle and the Spring panel has not yet met.The Human Origins Moving in New Directions (HOM-

INID) program is shared between archaeology and phys-ical anthropology, with 5 years awards providing up to atotal $2.5 million across these years. In FY 2008, thisprogram made two awards and we currently have theFY 2009 proposals under review.As in previous years, NSF has used the excellent infor-

mational system of the AAPA both through its mailinglist and its website for news and announcements.Through these mechanisms we have been able to rapidlyand effectively disseminate through the community in-formation such as the recent change in dates for submis-sion of senior research proposals. The target dates forsenior proposals are now January 20 and August 20 ev-ery year. Although they are still target dates, the flexi-bility for submission after these dates is severely limitedsince NSF is trying to keep the same review and awardschedule. Thus, anyone who thinks they may have trou-ble making the actual target date must contact the Pro-gram Officer in advance to inquire about what, if any,flexibility is possible. The fixed deadlines (i.e., proposalsmust be submitted by 5 pm on the day of the deadline)for DDIG proposals remain February 9 and August 16.The deadline for CAREER proposals is July 23, and thenext HOMINID deadline is February 22, 2010. Be sureto keep checking the website for possible changes, andPIs are strongly encouraged to actually read and followevery word in the proposal preparation guidelines.The AAPA website news and announcement section

has also provided NSF with the opportunity to post otherinformation about possibilities offered the community byNSF programs such as PIRE, etc., as well as posting theavailability of opportunities such as the position of Pro-gram Director, which I now hold. As many of you know Iwill be returning to the University of Puerto Rico in Au-gust and the process for hiring my replacement is under-way. It is anticipated that the next Program Officer willstay for a minimum of 2 years.NSF is most appreciative of this working relationship

with AAPA giving us a forum to better inform thecommunity we serve. We urge all of you to monitorthe AAPA website news section for new fundingopportunities.

I would like to remind all of you, however, that thisinteraction should not be a one-way street from NSF toAAPA members. We also need to know about any pressreleases involving NSF-supported research and otherwonderful things that have resulted from NSF funding.NSF has its own media relations staff, and it is criticalthat NSF be informed in advance of any publicity associ-ated with a grant. Positive publicity is an excellent wayfor NSF to build up visibility of the quality of the sciencewe support both in the eyes of the public and in the eyesof Congressional budgetary reviewers. Also if AAPA hasideas for future types of programs or areas of supportthat would benefit the field, talk to us, not each of youas individuals but rather, if the executive committee orone of the working subgroups on career development,broadening participation, or teaching outreach has ideason ways in which NSF might help develop an outreachprogram or support interdisciplinary research or what-ever, please let us know, and we will try to work to-gether. We are more than happy to entertain proposalsof various kinds to advance the field of physical anthro-pology. The HOMINID program is an excellent exampleof NSF working to try to fill a recognized need in the de-velopment of the field.Finally, I would like to thank the entire membership

for their assistance and support of the Physical Anthro-pology Program, particularly your strong support of theNSF peer review process, whether as a reviewer or as apanelist. Without strong support from the membership,it would be impossible for NSF to accomplish its mission.I also strongly urge each of you to participate. We need abroad range of input to make the best-informed deci-sions. I know you all are busy, but when you receive aninvitation to review, please understand we do indeedneed and want your input. Think of yourself as the PI,because you will be in the future. You would want multi-ple informative reviews to be used in making the fund-ing decision on your proposal, and you would wantreviews that include both the strengths and weaknessesof your proposal and suggestions that would be helpful ifyou need to revise and resubmit. I urge all of you to par-ticipate in this important aspect of the peer review pro-cess. Thank you.’’

Section H (Anthropology) of the AAAS

Solomon Katz, representative to Section H of theAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science,reported to the membership with the following report:‘‘This year was one of the largest years yet for AAPAparticipation at the AAAS, which was right here in Chi-cago for Darwin’s Bicentennial of his birth and sesqui-centennial of his book On the Origin of Species. It isDarwin’s year, and we were front and center with moresymposia and speakers than any other section on a percapita basis, and the vast majority was from our mem-bership. We should feel proud about how well we wererepresented!Please get the word out to everyone who could be sub-

mitting to AAAS for next year. The meeting will be inSan Diego from February 18–22, and the theme is Bridg-ing Science and Society. Symposium proposals for the2010 meeting, which will be held at the San Diego Con-vention Center, San Diego Marriott Hotel and Marina,and Manchester Grand Hyatt, are now being solicited.The deadline for submission is Tuesday, April 28, 2009.Decisions will be announced in July. Please remember

Fig. 5. Proportion of Yearbook papers in different subareas,2004–2008.



they are looking for both disciplinary and interdiscipli-nary topics and colleagues to participate in the proposedsessions. Of course, we should be nominating outstand-ing scientists in the San Diego area who can address thetheme in topical lectures and plenary sessions.On another topic that is currently in crisis mode is the

world food crisis, which is ongoing. As Chair of the TaskForce on World Food Problems, I would like to proposethat given the overwhelming magnitude of the problemand the well-established tradition of conducting scientificresearch on food and nutrition and human adaptability,the AAPA join with our existing task force on the topic.This could be in the form of a liaison person regularlyreporting back to the AAPA and helping to organize pro-gram materials on this long-term problem.’’

Biological Anthropology Section (BAS), AmericanAnthropological Association (AAA)

Trudy Turner, former Chair of the Biological Anthro-pology Section of the American Anthropological Associa-tion offered the following report: ‘‘The AAA meetingsoffer an opportunity for BAS members to participate indiscussions with other anthropologists. BAS has anactive program committee chaired by Debra Martin andseveral sessions of interest are presented every year. Forexample, this year we had an excellent session honoringKen Kennedy. We also have a prize for a student presen-tation or poster, and we offer a graduate-student mentor-ing session. In addition to BAS programming, the AAAoffers the largest placement service for jobs in anthropol-ogy at the annual meeting.This year we were fortunate to have Dean Falk pres-

ent our distinguished lecture, which was followed by areception. The BAS offers the only prize for a physicalanthropology book, the W.W. Howells Book Award. Thisyear’s winner was Carel van Schaik.The more than 500 members of BAS are kept informed

of topics and meetings of interest through a column inthe Anthropology Newsletter. In addition, membership inBAS allows access to AnthroSource. We welcome yourparticipation, and look forward to your new ideas. Yourparticipation in BAS can help maintain our presence asa vital part of the AAA. Please see some of our boardmembers if you have questions.’’

CHARLES R. DARWIN LIFETIMEACHIEVEMENT AWARD

This year’s recipient of the Charles R. Darwin Life-time Achievement Award is George Armelagos. DebraMartin presented the award for the AAPA. She stated: ‘‘Iam happy to introduce, on behalf of the AAPA, thisyear’s recipient of the Charles R. Darwin LifetimeAchievement Award: George J. Armelagos. His distin-guished and long career in anthropology is one that hascontributed significantly to theory, method, and data pri-marily in physical anthropology, although his work hasalso had impact on cultural anthropology and archaeol-ogy as well.I will summarize George’s contributions and the gen-

eral arc of his career. I would like to say at the outsetthat at age 72, he is in the end of his second 3-year termas Chairman of the Department of Anthropology atEmory, where he is the Goodrich C. White Professor ofAnthropology.

With a BA with honors in Anthropology from the Uni-versity of Michigan-Ann Arbor, George went into theMedical School at Michigan, and this moment in his his-tory foreshadows his life long commitment to under-standing human disease and human variation within anevolutionary context. He transferred a year later intothe Rackham Graduate School in Anthropology at Michi-gan, and from here he moved into the M.A./Ph.D. pro-gram at the University of Colorado, Boulder. It was herethat he began formulating his early ideas about the bio-cultural nature of disease, and the evolutionary forcesthat shaped disease and the human response to it. Forexample, in 1963 (5 years before getting his Ph.D.) hepublished (with one of his mentors, Jack Kelso) an arti-cle entitled ‘Nutritional Factors as Selective Agencies inthe Determination of ABO Blood Group Frequencies.’Darwin was clearly looking over his shoulder duringthese formative years.Recruited to the University of Massachusetts to help

start their fledgling Ph.D. program in anthropology,George went on to shape a very successful graduate pro-gram in physical anthropology that produced severalgenerations of Ph.D. students working in the area ofhuman variation and adaptation, paleopathology, andskeletal biology. Every student trained under George uti-lized a biocultural model to integrate questions abouthealth, adaptation, and variation within a cultural andenvironmental context. During his 22 years there, hewas the recipient of many awards, such as UniversityDistinguished Teacher and the Chancellor’s MedalistAward.Many of George’s Ph.D. students from his UMass

years (to name just a few, Owen Lovejoy, Jim Mielke,John Lallo, Ann Magennis, Rebecca Huss-Ashmore, Den-nis van Gerven, Rich Miendl, Michael Blakey, JeromeRose, Pam Bumsted, David Carlson, Leslie Rankin-Hill,myself) have gone on to be chairs of anthropologydepartments, and in the case of Alan Goodman, Presi-dent of American Anthropological Association. In addi-tion, he has played a role in the training of other skele-tal biologist such as Rebecca Story and Christine White.In terms of George’s intellectual history, he has made

several key contributions that had significant effects on

Fig. 6. George Armelagos, Darwin award winner, and DebraMartin, presenter. [Color figure can be viewed in the onlineissue, which is available at www.interscience.wiley.com.]



the direction and trajectory of physical anthropology asa discipline. He pioneered, championed, and developedfour major areas that I will briefly review here.First of these intellectual domains is in the area of dis-

ease and human evolution. Working on human skeletalremains from Sudanese Nubia in the late 1960s, Georgebegan to piece together the pattern of morbidity andmortality that he saw in this population. As was the cus-tom in the field of paleopathology at that time, he wouldonly have been expected to publish about the more inter-esting or unusual pathologies. However, George drewinstead from the fields of epidemiology and demographyto study the patterns of illness and death within a popu-lation-level framework. This was a major breakthroughin paleopathology that he and only a handful of otherswere working on. He was able to empirically demon-strate that the patterns of disease were strongly associ-ated with age and sex, as well as dietary practices. Hefurther showed temporal changes in health that corre-sponded to political and cultural shifts in the largerregion. One classic (and still used in paleopathologyseminars) publication from Science entitled ‘Disease inAncient Nubia’ stands as a mile-marker in one of hisfirst major contributions to the field. As he developed hisbiocultural and epidemiologically based approach, it hadeffects on the development of medical anthropology andthe cultural ecology of disease.To make clear, what was so innovative and outside

the box about this research is that disease was lookedat as a process (and involved multiple levels of analysisat the individual level from histological and chemical toanatomical) that needed to be understood at a popula-tion level and across time and space (using the compar-ative method). This profoundly shifted the way ancientdisease was looked at, from descriptive isolated cases ofpathology, to understanding the underlying processes ofthe diseases at a population and regional level throughtime.The impact of his research into disease in this new man-

ner was published broadly, in journals such as Science,AJPA, and Human Evolution, as well as more popular ven-ues such as Natural History. An example of the broadappeal of his research was when a new journal entitled Eth-nicity and Disease came out in the early 1990s. George pub-lished an overview entitled ‘Human Evolution and the Evo-lution of Human Disease.’ Again, Darwin surely was stand-ing nearby, nodding in approval, whispering in his ear.A second trajectory was in the overlapping area of

diet, disease, and nutritional anthropology. At the sametime that George was pioneering the study of disease inbroad biocultural terms, he was also making in-roadsinto how diet and disease interact, how food choicesand nutrition structure population health, and the evo-lution and impact of changing diet during the NeolithicRevolution. He continued to hone his theories andmethods about population level adaptation with study-ing the intersections of food, diet and nutrition in cul-tural context. In 1980, George cowrote Consuming Pas-sions, a book that helped to create the newly emergingfield of nutritional anthropology. This book was impor-tant also for introducing a lay audience to anthropol-ogy, as this book quickly became a Literary Guildpublication that was a choice in several popular bookclubs. George was an active participant in bringingnutritional anthropology into its own. He was involvedwith the early development of the AAA Council forNutritional Anthropology.

Another major contribution to the field of both biolog-ical anthropology and archaeology was his work withMark Cohen in bringing together researchers whowould address the impact of shift to agriculture fromhunting and gathering. The resulting edited volume,Paleopathology at the Origins of Agriculture (1984, Aca-demic Press) is one that is standard reading in mostgraduate seminars. (Interesting note: the book sold outafter several years, and last week two used copies onAmazon were going for $500 and $600!) This book revo-lutionized how we have come to discuss the impact ofmajor cultural change in the archaeological record, notonly with theoretical models but also with robust em-pirical data. In 1990, George coedited another major setof papers in a volume entitled Disease in Populations inTransition: Anthropological and Epidemiological Per-spectives.A third intellectual strand of George’s history would

be in the area of race and human variation. He haswritten several of the more important papers on the in-validity of race as an explanatory variable in the pro-cess of civilization, and of race-as-a-genetic category.Using empirically derived data from the long chrono-logical prehistory of the Nubians, he demonstrated howin situ adaptive changes in cranial morphology were afunction of dietary changes and not due to an intermin-gling of various Saharan and sub-Saharan ‘races,’ aswas being promoted. He has written extensively onrace and was involved in the AAPA, CDC, and theAmerican Anthropological Associations statements onrace.The fourth and final category of publications is in the

area of bioarchaeology and skeletal biology in the age ofNAGPRA. George helped to situate the study of ancienthuman remains within not only a cultural and ecologicalcontext but within an archaeological one as well. Beforethe bioarchaeological approach to studying humanremains, it was common for the archaeologist to sendthe skeletons to the laboratory of a physical anthropolo-gist or medical doctor, where they were analyzed in acontextual vacuum. No information on the mortuarycomponent or the archaeological context was part of theanalysis. These burial descriptions often became appen-dices to the archaeological report and were seldom usedin any important way. Along with utilizing the biocul-tural model for integrating disease into the larger per-spective, bioarchaeology insists that the human biologi-cal remains (skeletons and mummies) be analyzed andintegrated into the archaeological context so that a moreaccurate and full picture of humans results. In 2003, hepublished the article ‘Bioarchaeology as Anthropology’ inan edited volume entitled Archaeology is Anthropology,published by the AAA.In all of these areas (evolution of disease, Neolithic

diet and nutrition, human variation, and bioarchaeol-ogy), there were several times in his career where hiswork was picked up by both the AP and other massmedia venues. The first was when he and his grad stu-dents discovered ancient tetracycline in the bones of theNubians. This work, published in Science, was the firstever documented case of ancient people consuming lowlevels of tetracyclines (essentially, antibiotics) from beerstored in clay pots, which were the perfect breedingground. Another was with his work on theorizing on theorigin and spread of treponematoses (nonveneral syphi-lis) in the Old and New World, a paper that received theCurrent Anthropology treatment.



In summary, George has published over a dozen booksand monographs, and has well over 250 journal articlesand has had four of his articles published more than 50times. And he is not done yet, as he currently has eightjournal articles and one edited volume in press with hisgraduate students at Emory. No moss growing on thisrolling stone.Juicy personal items, I have none, except for these:

His middle name is John, he broke his nose as an under-graduate playing football, he has a superstar computerscientist son at Oxford, he tells jokes pretty much allday long, he came dressed in a toga once to a graduatestudent Halloween party, he is writing a historical non-fiction book entitled, St. Catherine’s Island: An UntoldStory of Place and People, he loves his cats, he is a re-nowned gourmet cook, his wife of 20-plus years is aninternational expert in maternal health.George is a four-field anthropologist who has spent his

life building elegant and compelling arguments inresearch areas that are Darwinian in approach and prac-tical in application. The collective sum of all of his workhighlights an original thinker who has dedicated himselfto his craft and to his students. He is a most worthy re-cipient of the Charles Darwin Lifetime AchievementAward.’’George Armelagos offered the following remarks upon

receipt of the award: ‘‘I would like to thank the Associa-tion for this wonderful award. When some of my stu-dents heard that I ‘won’ the Darwin Award, they werepuzzled that I was still alive. To them, the DarwinAward salutes the improvement of the human genome byhonoring those who accidentally remove themselves fromit. I was happy to inform them that I am alive and well,and I was to receive the other Darwin Award. I want tothank Deb Martin for the kind words and all the per-sonal info that I thought would never see the light ofday. If you have time, I have some Deb Martin storiesthat I can tell.In 1963, I was elected as a fellow of the association

with David Greene, Ken Bennett, Walt Birkby, and Rich-ard Mazess. That year, the AAPA met in Boulder, Colo-rado, with 56 members in attendance (six of them werefrom the University of Colorado). There was resistanceto meeting in Boulder. For many years, the AAPA wouldannually circulate between Washington DC, Boston, andPhiladelphia. At the meeting in 1960, when the Associa-tion was considering the locations for the future, some-one suggested that they should consider Boulder becausethey wanted to meet in the West. Raymond Pearl thefamed human biologist shouted, ‘We met in the west lastyear. We met in Philadelphia.’ The proceedings of themeeting published in the AJPA that year indicated thatthey were not happy with the decision. Boulder wasselected to accommodate the West Coast members andthe AJPA reported that they were ‘conspicuous by theirabsence.’ The die was cast. A few years later they met inMexico City. The AAPA was a much smaller organizationthen. The treasurer’s report for the years noted thateven with the $295.28 paid for the last meeting, therewas $9339.37 left in the bank account.Jack Kelso, who was and is my friend and mentor for

over 54 years, was the host of the meeting. Jack nur-tured my career and his involvement with the Associa-tion was an example that I tried to emulate. He had amajor role in resurrecting the Yearbook of Physical An-thropology at a time before Xeroxing, when it repub-lished key articles from various journals. The Yearbook

became a valuable teaching tool. While there were only56 members in attendance, Jack knew everybody andwas busy making sure that their needs were taken careof. There were 42 papers presented at the meeting infive half-day sessions. This was a time when the pre-senters were notorious for going over paper time limits.Although papers were scheduled for 30 min, it was notat all unusual for someone to speak for an hour ormore. It was another decade before speakers wouldabide by the time limits. At the Boulder meeting, T.Dale Steward spoke on a comparison of the Mauer man-dible with modern humans as it relates to the ‘Neander-thal problem.’ There were the traditional studies ofracial typology with Lawrence Oschinsky presenting apaper on the Negro origins and the Kenya Capsian.James Gavan and Daris Swindler presented a paper onthe growth rate in some pre-adult primates. There waseven a paper on paleopathology with Chuck Merbs pre-senting a paper on the patterns of pathology in Eskimosand Aleuts.Clyde Snow in another paper dealt with human factors

in aircraft crash investigations as a problem in humanengineering. A few of these of particular interest tophysical anthropologists are, for example, the determina-tion of minimum limits for aisle widths, the relationshipof seating configurations to the location and number ofemergency exit ways, and the design of escape equip-ment such as chutes and slides.Richard Snyder presented a paper on ‘anthropological

research in extreme human deceleration’ in which hedescribed ‘a new approach, based upon two-years’nation-wide investigation of selected cases of survivedaccidental, suicidal, and homicidal free-falls, has pro-vided considerable information concerning human toler-ances to high impact forces up to terminal velocity.These data indicate that under certain conditions manmay survive deceleration forces many times higherthan previously considered possible.’ His abstract endswith: ‘Implications for manned space flight will be con-sidered.’Noteworthy were three groundbreaking papers. Alice

Brues discussed the modeling of ABO blood group poly-morphism which suggested that they were undergoingnatural selection. It was at that time, that Kelsoapproached Alice about coming to the University of Col-orado. Morris Goodman presented a paper that was thetalk of the meetings on serological analysis of the sys-tematics of recent hominoids. Goodman’s paper repre-sented a new thrust in physical anthropology thatremains a major focus of our discipline to this day. In aretrospective study, Edmund Churchill upgraded his1954 paper on the use of computer cards in physical an-thropology with a discussion of the modern computerand physical anthropology. He said that ‘the power ofthe modern computer and the simplicity of current pro-gramming techniques provide the physical anthropolo-gist with a tool of considerable potential.’ He states:‘The realization of this potential calls for a new andbroadened approach on the part of the scientist to hisdata processing and statistical analysis. The develop-ment of this approach requires some knowledge of howthe computer system functions and of the cautions thatmust be observed in the use of the computer and in theinterpretation of computer-derived statistics.’ He goeson to say that computer costs ‘were far below desk cal-culator computations, and preparation of cards for thecomputer.’



I was impressed with two papers on the new physicalanthropology. Edward I. Fry, Joyce Wike and PrestonHolder in a paper entitled, ‘The newer physical anthro-pology and the skeleton in the closet,’ discussed StanleyGarn’s article on ‘The newer physical anthropology’ (AmAnthropol 64:917–918, 1962) that they said ‘succinctlypresents some interesting ideas on the subject matter ofphysical anthropology.’ They go on, ‘At the same time, itraises vital questions about the nature of the relationbetween physical anthropology and the other anthropo-logical sub-disciplines.’ They did not deny the validityand usefulness of many of Garn’s ideas, but it wasargued that there is more to physical anthropology thanexperimental embryology and direct reading anthropom-eters that were part of Garn’s vision. They suggest thatif physical anthropologists are to remain within the fieldof anthropology, they will have to strengthen, notweaken, their ties with ethnologists and archeologists.Similarly Gabe Lasker presented a paper on ‘Physicalanthropology: Some areas of concern.’ Lasker wrote that‘Physical anthropology is the method of study of the biol-ogy of man which takes into account the widest possiblearray of influences, including those stemming fromman’s distinctive learned behavior, his culture.’ He sug-gested that the traditional ‘problems of physical anthro-pology of the living encompass: the form of bones andteeth; determination of age, sex and race from bones andteeth; human growth; body composition; and body build.’To these, Lasker suggests that one can add an indefinitenumber of integrative subjects: ‘These are sometimesreferred to as the ‘new’ or ‘newer’ physical anthropology,but the newness is merely a reflection of an interest inexperimental empirical studies at the expense of a studyof the history of ideas. So many different skills andunderstandings are called for that specialization withinphysical anthropology is unavoidable. In any case, avery broad base in cultural anthropology and biologicalsciences will be necessary for the furthering of thedynamic aspects of the subject.’ The last sentence is alesson that I carried since that time.The AAPA has been an encompassing organization.

The Association has accommodated the PaleopathologyAssociation and the Human Biology Council as part ofour annual meetings. Early in my career, a group met atan annual meeting in the 1960s to discuss the possibilityof forming an association. Ronald Singer, who was at themeeting, berated us for thinking about diluting the asso-ciation. We disbanded without bringing the idea upagain. Since that time, the Association has invited thePaleopathology Association, Human Biology Association,the American Association of Anthropological Genetics,the American Dermatoglyphics Association, the DentalAnthropology Association, and Primate Biology andBehavior interest groups. These have become a part ofour meetings to benefit us all.The annual meeting of the Association has been a part

of my intellectual life. I want to thank my colleagues atthe universities of Colorado, Utah, Massachusetts, Flor-ida, and Emory (seems that I could not hold a job). Ihave an especial affection for my coauthors. There aremany. I have 162 different coauthors. Alan Goodmanand I have coauthored 27 articles, and I have published21 times with Debra Martin. Dennis Van Gerven and Ihave published 20 articles in five different decades.When I told Dennis about this, he said that he was goingto get us matching chenille bathrobes for our time in theold folk’s home. It’s an image that brings a smile to me.

I have had an opportunity to work with a number ofinternational scholars such as Luis Vargas from Mexicoand with a special friend from Italy. Alfredo Coppa hasbeen a wonderful friend and a valued colleague who ishere for these meetings.I have had the benefit of having an unusual group of

graduate students who I would like to thank. OwenLovejoy, Dennis Van Gerven, David Carlson, Anne Gra-uer, Ann Magennis, Alan Goodman, Debra Martin, PamBumsted, Rebecca Huss-Ashmore, Tad Schurr, BethTurner, Michael Blakey, Brenda Baker, Ken Jacobs,Leslie Rankin Hill, John Lallo, Jerry Rose, GeorgeClark, Timmy Hill, Diana Smay, and Kristin Harperhave as a group stimulated my intellectual growth. I amproud of the role that I have played in the intellectuallife of students such as Christine White and RebeccaStorey who spent time in my lab. I have learned somuch from them.In the 41 years in which I have presented 64 papers

at the meetings, I am primed to speak for 12 min0 timeline. My time for these comments is up. I again want tothank the Association for this wonderful honor. I amespecially pleased that I received it on the anniversaryyear for the publication of the On the Origin ofSpecies.’’

DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD

This year’s recipient of the Distinguished ServiceAward is Curtis Weinker. In making the presentationon behalf of the AAPA, Joel Irish offered the followingremarks: ‘‘It is always hard to select a recipient for theGabriel W. Lasker Award for Outstanding Service tothe Association. There are just too many deservingmembers. However, it is not difficult to see that thisyear’s recipient, Dr. Curtis Weinker, is deserving ofsuch recognition.His outstanding service is, of course, related to his

longstanding concern for students in the field. With spe-cific regard to the AAPA, of which he has been a memberfor 40 years, Curtis acted upon this concern through hisservice with the Career Development Committee (CDC).Curtis became a member of the CDC in 1988 and was

appointed as its Chair the following year—a position heheld until 2003. Early in his tenure, the committeebegan offering yearly events devoted to career planning.I am sure that many of you attended these sessions, ei-ther as presenters or, like me, attendees. As you allknow, getting the job of your dreams in this field is noteasy. So information provided at these sessions was likegold to the recently graduated, such as: ‘Have a 5-YearPlan ready for your interview’ (and we’d ask, ‘a what?’),‘organize your CV,’ or ‘rewrite your application letter foreach specific job.’This all seems obvious now, but honestly, how many of

you who have sat on hiring committees received letterssaying something like, ‘I am applying for your positionin paleoanthropology,’ when you actually advertised for abioarchaeologist?In any event, during Curtis’ time as CDC Chair, he

also helped young professionals by organizing two ple-nary sessions and four workshops related to career plan-ning. He also helped to make a brochure on physical an-thropology that the AAPA distributed to anthropologydepartments and is now available in the jobs section ofthe AAPA website.



Of course, learning how to interview is one thing; youalso need to find jobs to apply for. That is why one ofCurtis’ other longstanding projects, called PAJOBS, wasso important. From 1994 until last year, he was theowner/manager of this online list-serve of vacancies inphysical anthropology. Back in the ‘old days‘ we (includingme) had to rely on the monthly AAA Newsletter to findopenings or hear about them through the grapevine. HisPAJOBS service was cutting-edge, in that we had the jobnotice delivered to our computers weekly and sometimesdaily. Over the years, PAJOBS typically had at least 250subscribers annually from around the world.Of course, Curtis’ concern for students goes far beyond

the AAPA. For example, he worked with Alan Ryan, ofour CDC Board, to produce the latter’s 2001 edited vol-ume, A Guide to Careers in Physical Anthropology. Inthat book, Curtis wrote a chapter entitled ‘TeachingPhysical Anthropology in a University: The TraditionalCareer.’In 2004, thanks to his generosity, the anthropology

department at Washington State University (hisundergrad alma mater) established four annualWeinker Awards of $250 each. Every June at theirgraduation ceremonies, awards are given for the bestundergraduate papers in: archaeology, biocultural an-thropology, sociocultural anthropology, and senior hon-ors thesis.Moreover, since 1972 at the University of South Flor-

ida, where he was a professor in the anthropologydepartment and held a joint appointment with the Col-lege of Medicine, he served as the: (1) Associate Dean forAcademic Programs, (2) Coordinator of UndergraduateStudent Affairs, (3) Associate (Interim) Dean for Gradu-ate Affairs, (4) Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, and(5) Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies. Just afew of his many honors there included Outstanding Fac-ulty Member, the USF President’s Distinguished ServiceAward, and the USF President’s Distinguished Affirma-tive Action Award. He is currently emeritus professor atSouth Florida.By the time he retired in 2003, he had published more

than 70 articles and a book. Other interesting nonservicetidbits include his work as an expert witness and regularattendance at anthropology congresses in Cuba since1992.Before closing, I want to personally thank Curtis for

inviting me to be on the CDC Board back in 1999. Atthat time I wanted to get more involved with the AAPA,and he was the only standing-committee Chair torespond to my questions, let alone ask me to join.With that said, ‘it is an honor and a privilege to pres-

ent the AAPA Lasker Award for Outstanding Service toCurtis Weinker (through his longtime colleague, LorenaMadrigal).’Curtis Weinker responded to these remarks. He

stated: ‘‘First, apologies for my absence. I regret that Icannot be here in person. My gratitude to Dr. Madrigalfor acting on my behalf and for the kind introduction byDr. Irish.I am deeply and sincerely honored by this recognition

and convey my thanks to the Association, its member-ship, and the Executive Committee.The lifeblood of any organization, academic, scientific,

or otherwise, is investing in its young members, whowill in time become the role models and leaders of futuregenerations of professionals. That is what the Career De-velopment Committee has been about since its inception.

I thank Todd Olsen, who recruited me to the CareerDevelopment Committee many, many years ago, andWilliam Stini, who some time after that appointed mechair upon Todd’s resignation of that post.I am also deeply grateful to the members of the Career

Development Committee with which I had the pleasureof serving over those many years. There were too manyto name individually and memory might lead me to over-sight of one or more, so thanks to all of you. You knowwho you are. Also, gratitude to the many colleagues whoserved as resource people, panelists, during the commit-tee’s event at our annual meeting over the years. Kudosto the many program chairs who were so cooperativeregarding scheduling those events.It was to be sure a lot of work over many years. How-

ever, it was more than worth it because of the manyunselfish colleagues with whom I worked, and hopefullybecause of the career guidance that we were able to pro-vide to our younger members.Again, thanks so much.’’

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Nominations and Elections Committee

Patricia Lambert, Nominations and Elections Com-mittee Chair, presented the following report on behalfof committee members Joanna Lambert, Thom McDade,and Karen Rosenberg. Three positions were up for elec-tion in 2009: Secretary-Treasurer and two open posi-tions on the Executive Committee. Three nominationswere received for Secretary Treasurer and seven werereceived for the Executive Committee positions.After email deliberations among the members of theNominations Committee and in consultation with thefull AAPA Executive Committee, two candidates wereidentified for the Secretary-Treasurer position and fourcandidates were identified for the two Executive Com-mittee positions. All invited candidates accepted thenomination.With the assistance of Shelley Black and her replace-

ment, Christi Classi, Association Manager for AllenPress, voting was conducted online. Results of the elec-tion were tabulated electronically by Allen Press andcertified by the Nominations Committee Chair and byFred Smith, President of the AAPA. Election resultswere as follows: Secretary-Treasurer, Lyle Konigsberg;Executive Committee Members, Susan Anton andAgustın Fuentes.

Student Affairs Committee

Committee Chair, Simon Hillson, presented the follow-ing report: ‘‘There were 12 members of the committeethis year: Kate Clancy, Saron DeWitte, Agustın Fuentes,Lorena Havill, Leslea Hlusko, Jason Kamilar, AnthonyOlejniczak, Herman Pontzer, Gary Schwartz, MarkSpencer, Diane Warren, and Danny Wescott. I would liketo extend my thanks as chair of the committee for alltheir hard work and support.’’There were 24 entries for the AAPA student prizes.

The procedure for this year was new. Entrants submit-ted short summaries instead of a full paper and the com-mittee found this a better guide in assessing the presen-tations at the meetings. The 2009 awards were asfollows:



Fig. 7. Hooten prize winner—David Green. [Color figure canbe viewed in the online issue, which is available at www.inter-science.wiley.com.]

Fig. 8. Trotter award winner—Olga Panagiotopoulou. [Colorfigure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available atwww.interscience.wiley.com.]

Fig. 9. Sherwood L. Washburn prize winner—Amy Lu.[Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is avail-able at www.interscience.wiley.com.]

Fig. 10. Juan Comas prize winner—Lynn Copes. [Color fig-ure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available atwww.interscience.wiley.com.]

Fig. 11. Hrdlicka prize winner—Adam Foster. [Color figurecan be viewed in the online issue, which is available at www.interscience.wiley.com.]

Fig. 12. Pollitzer travel award winners: Front Row: Lesley Gre-goricka, Eleanna Prevedorou, Lynn Copes, Heather Driscoll. Secondrow: Britney Kyle, Leslie Williams, Tracie McKinney, Heather Gar-vin, Sarah Lacy, Cassandra Koontz, Mary Kelaita, Nanda Grow,Rachel Menegaz. Third row: Mark Beary, Ryan Campbell, JamesCray Jr., Anna Vick, David Pappano, Stephanie Child, Sara Lynch,Jessica Brinkworth. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue,which is available at www.interscience.wiley.com.]

Hooton PrizeDavid J. Green, Hominid Paleobiology Doctoral Pro-

gram, and Center for the Advanced Study of HominidPaleobiology, Department of Anthropology, The GeorgeWashington UniversityTitle: Factors contributing to hominoid shoulder mor-

phology: muscle size, ontogeny, and behavior.Trotter PrizeOlga Panagiotopoulou, Functional Morphology and

Evolution Unit, Hull York Medical School, University ofYork, UKTitle: Testing the adaptive significance of the catar-

rhine symphysis using Finite Element Analysis (FEA).Washburn PrizeAmy Lu, Department of Anthropology, Stony Brook

UniversityTitle: Natural birth control: seasonal increases in fecal

progestins affect reproductive function in wild femalePhayre’s leaf monkeys (Trachypithecus phayrei).Comas PrizeLynn Copes, School of Human Evolution and Social

Change, Institute of Human Origins, Arizona StateUniversityTitle: How and Why Do Humans Grow Thin Skulls? A

Test of the Systemic Robusticity Hypothesis.Hrdlicka PrizeAdam D. Foster, Department of Anthropology, Univer-

sity of ArizonaTitle: Muscle force production during bent-knee, bent-

hip walking in humans.

There were 46 entries for the Pollitzer Travel Awards,and this year it was possible to give 28 of these awards,thanks to the generosity of members at the AAPA auc-tions and a grant from Bone Clones. The 28 winners for2009 were:

Tracie McKinney, Ohio State UniversityLynn Copes, Arizona State UniversityMary Kelaita, University of MichiganDavid Pappano, University of MichiganEllen Quillen, Pennsylvania State UniversityAnna Vick, University of FloridaNanda Grow, Texas A&M UniversityKatie Miller, Arizona State UniversityMark Beary, University of MissouriRyan Campbell, Southern Illinois UniversityTerrence Ritzman, Arizona State UniversityStephanie Child, University of Missouri-ColumbiaCassandra (Beth) Koontz, Vanderbilt UniversityEleanna Prevedorou, Arizona State UniversityJessica Brinkworth, City University of New YorkJames Cray, University of PittsburghHeather Garvin, Johns Hopkins School of MedicineLesley Gregoricka, Ohio State UniversityDenise Liberton, Pennsylvania State UniversityRachel Menegaz, University of MissouriLeslie Williams, Ohio State UniversityHeather Hassel, Stony Brook UniversitySarah Lacy, Washington University in St. LouisKathryn Driscoll, University of TennesseeEmily Hammerl, University at BuffaloBritney Kyle, Ohio State UniversitySara Lynch, University at BuffaloElizabeth Rowe, Temple University

Membership Committee

Membership numbers. The AAPA membership hasincreased in 2008 by 152 to a total of 1,679 members.For 2009, 1,404 members are registered so far. That isabout the same number as for the first 3 months of2008. Two hundred eighty-eight new members joined thesociety since last year’s meeting, up from 222 last year(see list below). The majority of new members arestudents.

New member review. Of the new membership applica-tions I accepted (preliminary) all but four. I verified for(almost) all student applicants their student status bycontacting their advisers. I verified for (almost) all otherapplicants their academic credentials by tracking themdown on the internet.

New members and meetings registration. New mem-bers can register at membership rate for the meetings assoon as they have submitted an application. They are eli-gible for member registration when they apply for mem-bership for the year they register or for the followingyear, when the meetings are held.

Student membership. Student membership has beenexpanded beyond 6 years. Extensions for additionalyears are subject to annual reapplication.

Web application. The online application page is up andrunning, with a few glitches here and there. Please letme know in case you encounter(ed) any problems.

Professional Development Grants

Anne Katzenberg, Chair of the Professional Develop-ment Grants Committee, presented the following report.‘‘This was the first year for the AAPA Professional Devel-opment Grants. The intention is to provide funding topeople early in their careers, between the Ph.D. and ten-ure. The awards (up to six) are $5,000 and may be forpilot studies that will help secure larger grants, or smallstudies that might lead to larger studies, or to combinewith other funds.The guidelines are available on the AAPA web site.

This year we had 35 applications, including a wide rangeof topics within physical anthropology. I invited FredSmith, Karen Strier, Tad Schurr, and Larry Schell toserve on the review, and I also served as a reviewer. Wewere all impressed with the high quality of the proposalsand were sorry that we could not make more than sixawards.We will be providing some feedback to the applicants

and many of them have requested this.Awards for this year go to:

1. Michelle Bezanson, Santa Clara College—Bringingthe Lab into the Field: Kinematics During Quadrupe-dal Walking in Cebus capucinus.

2. Michelle Buzon, Purdue University—A Bioarchaeolog-ical Investigation of Identity Development duringNapatan State Formation.

3. Melissa Emery Thompson, University of New Mex-ico—Energetics of Lactation in Chimpanzees

4. Francis Kirera, National Museums of Kenya—Recov-ery of New Hominin Remains from a New 1.5 MaSite, Ileret, Northern Kenya

5. Kathryn Muldoon, Dartmouth University—PrimateExtinction and Community Dynamics at a New



Student

Adams DaraAdlam LauraAnderson JenniferAnderson DanielApplebaum BethanyArdrey LindseyAstorino ClaudiaAtkinson BrittanyAtwood MelyndaAubin MaryBang LisaBarger NicoleBaritell KatharineBartnicki LisaBaustian KathrynBaxter AmyBeary MarkBergey ChristinaBerkowitz AriannaBernofsky KarenBethard JonathanBird CatherineBlackwell AaronBlumenfeld JodiBradbury CynthiaBrasor MelanieBulolia KatharinaButler AlyssaCarlson KeelyCarnegie SarahCarter YasminCasado AnaCerezo-roman JessicaChan Wing NamChapman EllenClarke TaraCline CatheyCollins JillianCorewyn LisaCrittenden AlyssaCrockford-Peters BethDavis HeidiDawson KaylaDe Gregory J.Decker SummerDenny BridgetDevlin MorganDiguiseppe DianeEastham LauraEl Gabbani YasmineEppley TimothyEriksen AmandineFalys CeriFleischman JulieForrest CrystalFuller JamesGarrett EvaGautney JoannaGebo DeanneGiannakopoulou NiaGibson LauraGlowacka HalszkaGolden TwanaGoliath JesseGosselin-ildari AshleyGranite GuinevereGriffin Mary BethGrossman RicciGuthrie ErinHammond AshleyHansen HeatherHapiot Laurence

Harle MichaelynHarrington JenniferHarris MikkelHassel-Finnegan HeatherHawley NicolaHeld PetraHelms AnthonyHerrick ChristenHolcomb LaurenHolobinko AnastasiaHorton CarolineHosch RalphHuber HillaryHunter RandeeJames DustinJanes KarmynJenny LindseyJohnson KentKarsten JordanKembel AdrianneKing SarahKlales AlexandraKnapp ErinKondor KatherineKoontz CassandraKouneski ElenaKrueger KristinKulhavy KathrynKurin DanielleKusaka SoirhiroKuzminsky SusanLacy SarahLeslie ErinLeslie DavidLewis CariLopez LauraLopinto AndrewLuedtke JenniferMachicek MichelleMaiolino StephanieMarsh HannahMartinez FelipeMartinez DayanMcAuliffe Dore KerryMcbrien DeborahMenzies SondraMeyers KathrynMichilsens FanaMiller KevinMochizuki TenleyMontague MichaelMontgomery RobertMoore WilliamMoran MeganMorse SaritaMosley CarmenNelson MickiNoldner LaraNoyes MeganOcobock CaraOdien JenniferOrtega RosaceliPampush JamesPanagiotopoulou OlgaPappano DavidParks ConnieParsons TrishPassalacqua NicholasPaul KathleenPayne CharlottePestle WilliamPitirri Mary KathleenPlomp Kimberly

Pope KimberlyPowers LisaPoyas AnnicaPrevedorou Eleni AnnaPrimeau CharlotteProut MichaelPurcell JosephRaguet-Schofield MelissaRao NikhilReid MichaelReiner WhitneyReyes LauraRitzman TerrenceRoberts Su-jenRode AlysonRoss SashaRussell DanaRussell ClaudiaRuzicka DeniseSaine MckaylaSanborn PaulSannen LeniSavakova DenitsaSchein LeahSchniter EricSchrader SarahSchroer KatherineSchwarz SusanneScott NicoleScott JillSeye ChristinaSharrock KatherineShidner AshleyShrum MeganSiebert AngelinaSimons ErinSligar BrookeSmith BonnieSneck MichelleSnyder JessicaSoler AngelaSt Clair ElizabethStanden SusanStark RobertStecher MarcusSteckler JeanmarieSteeves PauletteStinespring AshleySvensson MagdalenaSwales DianaTegtmeyer CarynToole AngelaVan Belle SarieVan Regenmorter ErinVan Regenmorter JohnVannucci RobertVelasco MatthewVeldhuis DjukeVentura JacklynVollner JenniferWaldock KathleenWales NathanWebb NicoleWebb MichelleWehri ElizabethWeis PamelaWestphal DariceWhalley RobertWilson KatherineWuthrich CraigYano WataruZellmer LauraZichello JuilaZuckerman Molly

Stud Dev CountryMourthe ItaloPalma Malaga Martha

Regular MemberAlves Cardoso FranciscaAntoine DanielBeehner JacintaBeisner BrianneBentley Condit VickiBillmann FranckBlack ShannonBookstein FredBorkowska MonikaBurke RachelBurleigh LyneeChancellor RebeccaChrysostomou PopiClement AnnaCobb SamuelDe La Rosa CarlaEnderli AnnaFagan MichaelFashing PeterFuller BenjaminHarper KristinHicks KathrynHigham JamesKanz FabianLe Minor Jean-marieLevisky JohnMarlow EmilyMayes ArionMcfarlin ShannonMckenzie HughMeehan CourtneyMuller MartinMundorff AmyMyers MarcellaNuger RachelNunn CharlesO’Hara SeanOlejniczak AnthonyRamsthaler FrankRodgers JoRothman JessicaSakitani MitsuruSheridan KevinSmith SusanSpradley KateStallmann RobertSteudel Numbers KarenStojanowski ChrisStump DavidSu DeniseSuarez ScottTessandori AnthonyThimke ElisabethTrask WillaValenta KimVan Berge Landry HeleneWalker JessicaWeisensee KatherineWooding StephenYoulatos Dionisios

LifeNorton Christopher

Regular Dev CountryHemingway JasonLee ChristineLi HuiOkazaki Kenji

SpecialBerman Robert

New Members

Subfossil Site: Christmas River, Southcentral Mada-gascar.

6. Denise Su, Pennsylvania State University—Paleonto-logical and Geological Explorations in the ZhaotongBasin, Yunnan Province, China.

Applicants came from several different countriesincluding Italy, UK, Canada, US, and Colombia.We will be offering these grants again and information

will be available on the AAPA web site. There will be afew minor changes, mainly clarifying some criteria,based on questions that I received during this firstround.I want to thank the review committee. They were all

very enthusiastic about serving on the committee. FredSmith deserves recognition for this initiative, and a largenumber of people who submitted letters of referencefor the applications, and the applicants themselvesexpressed their gratitude to the AAPA for this importantinitiative.’’

Career Development Committee

Committee Chair Joel Irish offered the followingreport: ‘‘Several members of the Career DevelopmentCommittee (CDC) met at 11:40 am Saturday, April 4, toconduct committee business, prepare for the afternoon’sCDC-organized session, and discuss ideas for futuresessions. One idea that found initial favor for next yearconcerns the preparation for teaching—particularly atthe undergraduate level. This topic was previously sug-gested to us by Dr. John Relethford. We also welcomedtwo new board members: Dr. Scott Burnett of EckerdCollege and Dr. Loren Lease of Youngstown StateUniversity.The ensuing ‘brown bag’ session in Parlor C, entitled

Your First Publication, ran from noon until 2 pm.Because publications are such an important aspect ofobtaining employment in the field, the session’s focuswas to provide the student and beginning professionalattendees with useful information for publishing journalarticles and books. The panel consisted of three individu-als: Dr. Chris Ruff (AJPA Editor), Dr. Terry Harrison(former JHE Editor), and Dr. Martin Griffiths (BiologicalAnthropology Editor, Cambridge University Press). Eachprovided a 10-min introduction to their respective publi-cations and various pointers and other advice for first-time authors.Following editor presentations, the floor was opened

for questions; the audience was comprised of 20 individu-als—a slight increase from last year’s session. As such,it appears that the change of meeting time this year,from our usual Wednesday night to Saturday noon wasworthwhile and should be continued. The only concern isthe overlap in time with the Underrepresented Groupsmeeting that also runs from noon until 2 pm, whichcould affect attendance at both sessions.’’

Local Arrangements Committee

The Chair of the Local Arrangements Committee,Anne Grauer, reported that the Annual Meeting heldin Chicago appears to be the largest in the history ofthe AAPA, with �1,650 participants. Grauer thankedall the members of the Local Arrangements Committee,James Calcagno, Lesa Davis, Holly Dunsworth, M.

Geoffrey Hayes, William Leonard, Callum Ross, ErinWaxenbaum, and Sloan Williams. Special appreciationwas given to Lesa Davis for the development of themeeting logo and for coordinating the registrationdesk, to Erin Waxenbaum for coordinating the studentvolunteers, to Clark Larsen and Tracy Betsinger forfielding countless questions with ceaseless patience,and to Lorena Madrigal for making the coordination ofthe scientific program with local arrangements bothsimple and enjoyable. Special thanks were alsoextended to the many student volunteers (most ofwhom were undergraduates) from universities acrossthe Chicago area for their enthusiasm and dedication.Lastly, the superb help and expertise from Allison Wat-son, Ed Carfagnini, Lisa Wingerter (Sheraton Hotel),Daniel Gerdes (PSAV), Joleen Barberet and Arie White(GES), and especially Mandy Gregan from Experientwere instrumental in making these meetings success-ful.

Education Committee

Martin Nickols, Education Committee Chair, pre-sented the following report: ‘‘The AAPA Education Com-mittee presented its sixth Saturday Teachers Workshopfor local high school teachers Saturday morning in Par-lor C. Twelve teachers and four graduate studentsattended.Seven Education Committee members made presenta-

tions at the workshop: Andrew Petto, Michael AlanPark, Lindsay Eaves-Johnson, Barbara O’Connell,Deborah Cunningham and Martin Nickels. Danny West-cott and Michael Muehlenbein will be assisting the pre-senters. My deepest thanks go out to these colleagues forspending considerable time before the annual meetingpreparing materials for the teachers and presentingtheir subject matter in such a ‘teacher friendly’ fashion,i.e., virtually immediately usable by the teachers in theirown classrooms.As in years past, David Kronen of Bone Clones Inc.

lent us several fossil and ape specimens from his exhibitdisplay at the meeting for our use in the workshop. Wethank him for his continued generosity and support ofour efforts. McGraw-Hill provided copies of one of itstextbooks for the teachers. The Association again pro-vided complimentary drinks and snacks for the teachers.Our committee collectively thanks the Executive Com-mittee for both its financial assistance and support ofour efforts in this outreach program. Special thanks toour President, Fred Smith, for his especially enthusiasticsupport of our work.We plan to offer a similar workshop at next year’s an-

nual meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico. If you haveany teacher contacts in the Albuquerque area, pleasepass them on to me so I can send them the announce-ment for the workshop.Finally, if you have any suggestions for any additional

activities or projects that you would like to see the Edu-cation Committee pursue, please contact me.’’

2009 Auction

Mark Teaford offered the following report on the 2009Auction: ‘‘Many thanks to everyone who participated inthis year’s AAPA Auction! Special thanks go to BillJungers and Leslie Aiello for their indispensable help



with the live auction, and Anne Grauer and her studentsfor their help with the silent auction. Anne Grauer, FredSmith, Bill Jungers, Andrea Taylor, Valerie DeLeon, andJoan Richtsmeier were invaluable sounding boards, andsources of ideas, for auction items. And of course, with-out the membership’s participation as donors and bid-ders, this whole enterprise would grind to screechinghalt!In all we had 32 items in the live auction, which

raised nearly $4,000, and over 80 items in the silent auc-tion, which raised over $1,800. Thus, in total, we raisedover $5,800 for student travel to meetings!As food for thought, for future auctions, note that 42

people or organizations provided all the items in thisyear’s auction. We had nearly 2,000 people attendingthese meetings. As more and more members becomeaware of the fact that this event is fun and raises moneyfor a valuable cause, we should get even more items,from a greater range of the membership, for future auc-tions. So, as you prepare for next year’s meetings in Al-buquerque, don’t forget the auction!’’

Ad Hoc Committee—Status of UnderrepresentedGroups in Physical Anthropology

Goals for 2008–2009. At the 2008 AAPA meeting thecommittee identified three main goals for the 2008–2009year:

1. construction of a mission statement and definition ofthe group,

2. maintenance of a listserv, development of mentoringlists,

3. follow up of the assessment survey of US depart-ments.Advances in each of these three areas are detailed

below, as are future directions.

Mission statement. A formal mission statement hasnot yet been adopted, although a short draft statementwill be presented to the group at the Saturday meeting.Although the original charge to the committee was toassess the status within US departments of faculty andgraduate students from traditionally underrepresentedgroups of various ethnicities, there has also been sig-nificant interest expressed in including a focus on otherunderrepresented groups such as scholars with disabil-ities, gay-lesbian-transgender scholars, and women.Thus, this year’s meeting agenda has as a primaryfocus a discussion of the best way to pursue these var-ied interests, whether with one umbrella organizationwith many subgroups or as several groups. This deci-sion necessarily precedes the acceptance of a missionstatement.

Web page and forum.

Listserv and webpage. The committee continues tomaintain a listserv (administered by Phoebe Stubble-field) that can be joined by any AAPA member. The listis used to circulate committee announcements andqueries and to post job and scholarship opportunities.To enroll send an email to [email protected] email has no subject, and in the body one writes:SUB [email protected] Full

Name. If you use an automatic signature, please makesure to delete it before sending commands. Once sub-scribed, the list will send the new subscriber some ba-sic instructions.Updates on committee activities can also be found on

the main AAPA site.

Web forum and mentoring. Although we discussed devel-oping a separate web forum and mentoring network,except for developing a preliminary list of about 15 sen-ior members who would be willing to serve as mentors,the lack of group definition has led to little otheradvance. This will be discussed on Saturday.

Survey and assessment. In 2007–2008, we developed ashort survey that was electronically delivered to seniorphysical anthropologists at US programs. Initially, 175surveys were sent out early in 2008. Fourteen surveyswere returned by the time of the 2008 AAPA meetings.Following extensive recontacting of original survey recip-ients, a total of 30 replies have now been received. Thesereplies provide a more robust sample for comparisonsand form the basis of the statements that follow.Summary pie-charts are provided on the next page. Thesample includes a total of 101 undergraduates, 132 grad-uate students, and 51 regular faculties in physicalanthropology.One of the most striking findings is that undergradu-

ate majors with a focus on physical anthropology areremarkably diverse: 73% are women; 25% identify withone of the underrepresented groups (nearly 10% ofundergrad majors identify as African-American; 10.4%as Asian American, and 4.9% as Hispanic). Additionally,African American and Asian American undergraduatesare nearly twice as frequent as they are in the totalundergraduate anthropology population.In contrast, graduate student populations are signifi-

cantly less diverse. At both the M.A. and Ph.D. levels,women continue to represent the greatest percentage ofstudents in physical anthropology (71 and 77%, respec-tively). However, US students from underrepresentedgroups make up only 8 and 11%, respectively, of M.A.and Ph.D. graduate student pools. Differences betweenundergraduate and graduate student diversity are statis-tically significant.Of regular faculty in physical anthropology: 44% are

female, and 10% of faculty identify as from one of thefour underrepresented groups. Adjunct faculty includessomewhat more women (54%) and fewer underrepre-sented scholars (7%). Differences in sex ratios betweenfaculty and graduate populations are statistically signifi-cant.The numbers for underrepresented scholars have

changed somewhat from the original 14 surveys reportedlast year. The percentage of undergraduates from under-represented groups has decreased (from 42% to 25%),but the male/female proportions have remained aboutthe same.Based on these numbers, increasing diversity in physi-

cal anthropology would appear to depend on increasingthe number of underrepresented students in graduateprograms, that is, encouraging promising undergradu-ates to pursue graduate school. Alternatively, women arewell represented in graduate programs and less stronglyrepresented in the professoriate.



2009 AAPA activities.

Info table. As at last year’s meetings, the committee issponsoring an information table in the book room withinformation on committee activities and on scholarshipand job opportunities. At least two committee membersare scheduled to staff the table during each of the coffeebreaks throughout the meetings. The table will bestaffed on an ad hoc basis at other times.Information at the table will include this year’s

agenda, minutes from last year’s Saturday meeting,informational cards on reaching the listserv, as well asprogram information for scholarships, graduate pro-grams and job opportunities.

Sat. meeting. The committee will again meet during theAAPAs on Saturday, April 4, from noon to 2 pm (in ParlorG). The agenda is attached, as are the minutes from 2008.The group will discuss the expanded results and anal-

ysis of the survey and consider activities toward studentinvolvement. Mark Teaford has been asked to presentcurrent and potential options for funding student partici-pation in the AAPA meetings. The group will alsoaddress the possibility of forming subgroups with vary-ing agendas, and goals for 2009–2010.

OLD BUSINESS

There was no old business.

NEW BUSINESS

Resolutions

The following resolutions were offered by John Rele-thford, Past-President of the AAPA. ‘‘Welcome to Chi-cago. According to my records, this is the actually the

fourth time we have met in Chicago, although the lastwas back in 1956. Looking back at the proceedings forthat meeting, we can see some changes since that time.The 1956 meeting, presided over by President MildredTrotter, hosted a then-record attendance of 162, and thepublished program listed 37 abstracts. I also found read-ing the 1956 business report interesting. How many ofus know that there had been a suggestion to change thename of the journal to Human Evolution and Variation?Fast forward to today, where our journal name has not

changed, but the number of abstracts is closing in on1,000. The breadth of our scientific sessions continues toamaze, surely a healthy reflection of a vibrant and grow-ing field. All areas of specialization are represented andthere are an increasing number of sessions looking atthe connections between different areas both within andoutside the discipline of physical anthropology. The num-ber and breadth of the papers and posters presentedhere explains in part why I spend so much time wander-ing around the hallways. Like a kid in a candy store, itis hard to know where to start.The success of our meeting owes much to many people.

We thank the members of the Local Arrangements Com-mittee, chaired by Anne Grauer, for handling our largestmeeting ever in a smooth and efficient manner. We alsowish to thank the gracious staff at the Sheraton for tak-ing care of us these past few days.The heart of our annual meeting is the scientific pro-

gram. Our meetings have grown at an amazing rate inrecent years, and the difficult task of putting together ourprogram continues to be challenging to say the least. Istill remember the many headaches spent when I did thisjob, and it is with that sense of ‘nostalgia’ that I extendour thanks to our amazing Vice-President, Lorena Madri-gal, for coping and surviving with style and grace.

Results of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists: Ad-Hoc Committee on the Status ofUnderrepresented Groups and Survey of the Field



We offer our warmest thanks to Fred Smith for serv-ing as our very capable President for the past two yearsand wish him well in his service as Past President forthe next year. We welcome incoming President DennisO’Rourke, who has served us well as our last Vice-Presi-dent and as a former Executive Committee member. Wealso note the outstanding service of our outgoing Secre-tary-Treasurer, Trudy Turner, who came closer than anyother person in the world, to explain budgets and finan-ces to me when I was President. We welcome our newSecretary-Treasurer, Lyle Konigsberg.We thank outgoing Executive Committee members

Simon Hillson and Patricia Lambert for their service. Iworked with both when I was President, and know per-sonally of the tremendous service and commitment theyhave for our organization. We welcome new ExecutiveCommittee members Susan Anton and Agustın Fuentesand promise them lots of work as well. Thanks also toMark Teaford for once again running our entertainingand successful auction.We thank John van Whye for his wonderful luncheon

talk, helping us to celebrate Charles Darwin’s 200thbirthday. We offer our heartfelt congratulations toGeorge Armelagos, this year’s recipient of the DarwinAward, and Curtis Wienker, this year’s recipient of theLasker Award. Their achievements have earned themthese prestigious awards.We note with sorrow the deaths of Mahmoud El-Naj-

jar, Charles Lockwood, Shelley Saunders, and PhillipWalker. We will miss our good friends and offer our con-dolences to their families.I note that we have been moving westward over the

past 3 years. We started in 2007 in Philadelphia, thenmoved on to Columbus last year, and then here to Chi-cago. I also note that our latitude increased only slightlyduring this same time. According to my calculations, ifwe had continued on these trends, we would be meetingnext in Ames, Iowa, next year. This illustrates the prob-lem of predicting future trends from only three datapoints, as our destination for next year is actually Albu-querque, New Mexico, where we last visited in 1986. Seeyou there next year!’’

The Passing of the Gavel

Outgoing President Fred Smith passed the gavel toincoming President Dennis O’Rourke. Dennis O’Rourkethanked Fred Smith for his service to the organizationand presented him with a gift from the Association.

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was moved to adjournment andadjourned at 10.00 pm.

Respectfully submitted,Trudy R. Turner

Secretary-Treasurer

Fig. 13. Fred Smith, outgoing President, passes the gavel toDennis O’Rourke, incoming President. [Color figure can beviewed in the online issue, which is available at www.interscience.wiley.com.]



Proceedings of the Seventy-Eighth Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists

Documents

Transcript of Proceedings of the Seventy-Eighth Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists