Anthropology at Queens College of CUNY

All Anthropology Majors and Minors are Invited to the...

ANNUAL ANTHROPOLOGY PICNIC
Saturday May 30, 2009
Starting at Noon in
Cunningham Park,
Bayside, Queens

Featuring food, drinks and volleyball.
We will be meeting in the section of the park pictured below (in a picnic area just south of the baseball fields - ie, right where the letters "Cun" in "Cunningham Park" appears on the map). Driving Directions

Driving Directions

Anthropology -- from the Greek roots ανθρωπο-ς, "man" or "human" and λογος, "word," "speech," "discourse," or "reason"--refers to the study of human beings and humankind in the broadest sense. Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC) used the term ανθρωπολογος in reference to the science of the nature of man, particularly human physiology and psychology. The term Anthropologia, in its more recognizably modern form, was apparently first used in 1594 by Otto Casmann (1562 - 1607), a priest and rector in Stade, Germany, in his book "Psychologia anthropologica".

While many other disciplines, such as psychology and sociology, have people as their primary objects of study, Anthropology approaches its subject from a more holistic perspective. Anthropology treats all aspects of human existence and experience as complementary phenomena within an integrated whole, including both human biology and culture. These elements are seen as far less coherent when the linkages among them are not explicitly taken into account. Anthropology is also holistic because of its concern with the entire temporal range of human existence and experience, beginning with the appearance of our earliest human ancestors in the fossil record and onward through the emergence of modern life in industrialized and globalized societies. Contrary to a popular belief that the primary focus of Anthropology is on life in preindustrial communities, the discipline gives no special emphasis to any particular peoples, group of cultures, or geographic area. The student population of Queens College is as much of interest to anthropologists as are the Neolithic farmers of Europe, India, or China. Therefore, Anthropology is holistic in three senses: its focus of study is on all of humanity, on all aspects of humanity, and at all time periods.

In North America, Anthropology traditionally encompasses four subdisciplines:

• Cultural Anthropology

• Biological or Physical Anthropology

• Archaeology

• Anthropological Linguistics

News and Events

Spring 2009

Annual Honors and Awards Ceremony

On Monday, May 11th, 2009 the Queens College Department of Anthropology hosted the Annual Honors and Awards Ceremony to recognize our outstanding Majors and Minors.
Student Awards for Department of Anthropology 2008-2009 are:
Hortense Powdermaker Award: Karina Ortega
Paul Mahler Memorial Award: Dov Rosenbaum
Frank Spencer Award: Lauren Alvarez
Faculty Award: Steven Appel, Sylwia Bednarska, Akash Sookdeo, Rachel Weinstock
Thesis Honors in Anthropology: Steven Appel, Chiu Leong Ho, Zahava Rubel
Most Promising Student Award: Tiffany Arbelaez
Service Award: Chiu Leong Ho (Raymond)

Honors:
Majors graduating with honors -
Majors Graduating in September 2008: Cass Qin
Majors Graduating in February 2009: Michael Farhangian, Pierre Griffith, Johana Guerra, Coreen Lewis, Kamaljeet Ram, Natasha Singh, Akask Sookdeo, Rachel Weinstock
Majors Graduating in May 2009: Steven Appel, Sylwia Bednarska, Maria Brandao, Mary Diaz, Nubia Encarnacion, Danielle Farella, Ari Goldstein, Chiu Leong Ho, Karina Ortega, Dov Rosenbaum, Zahava Rubel, Sean Yuzik

Minors graduating with honors -
Minors Graduating in September 2008: Bisma Nasar, Ellen Wawryk
Minors Graduating in February 2009: Julia Dellal, Greg Harris, Renny Kunjbeharry
Minors Graduating in May 2009: Vanessa Anastasiadis, Karen Gurtman, Cha Huang, Boris Kaylakov, Russell Kulinski, Ariana Miranda, Alexander Pinhas, Adelina Pinkhasova

Junior Honors in Anthropology-
2009 Majors: Lauren Alvarez, Tiffany Arbelaez, Roneil Boodram, Jesse Diasparra, Blake Kelminson, Alexander Lord, Melanie Korn, Jennifer Lowerwirt, Ashley Mallette, Claudia Suarez

2009 Minors: Katherine Carrasco, Anthony Carbone, Anthony Corsitto, Krzysztof Momot
Click to see pictures

Winter 2009

Larissa Swedell and Tom Plummer gave talks at the recent Darwin's Legacy: Early Human Evolution in Africa Conference sponsored by NYCEP (www.nycep.org). Larissa Swedell spoke about "Social Evolution in Hamadryas Baboons and Homo erectus" and Tom Plummer spoke about "Oldowan Hominin Behavior and Ecology in the Homo Peninsula, Kenya." Tom Plummer also served as a discussant and served on the conference organizing committee.

Karen Strassler's paper "The Face of Money: Crisis, Currency, and Remediation in Post-Suharto Indonesia" has appeared in the Cultural Anthropology 24(1), February 2009.

John Collins' essay "Historical and Cultural Patrimony in Brazil: Recent Works in Portuguese" has appeared in the Latin American Research Review, Volume 44, no. 1 (February 2009).

Timothy Pugh has six chapters in the book "The Kowoj: Identity, Migration, and Geopolitics in Late Postclassic Petén, Guatemala," edited by Prudence Rice and Don Rice, published by University Press of Colorado, Boulder:
† Residential and Domestic Contexts at Zacpetén
† The Kowoj and the Lacandon: Migrations and Identities
† Zacpetén and the Kowoj: Field Methods and Chronologies (senior author with Prudence Rice).
† Kowoj Ritual Performance and Societal Representation at Zacpetén (senior author with Prudence Rice)
† Zacpetén Structure 719: the Last Noble Residence (senior author with Prudence Rice and Leslie Cecil)
† Defensive Architecture and the Context of Warfare at Zacpetén (junior author with Prudence Rice, M., Don S. Rice, Timothy W. Pugh, and Rómulo Sánchez Polo.

On January 7th, Professor Kevin Birth gave a talk at the Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan as part of the "24 Hour Program on the Concept of Time" associated with the ANYSPACEWHATEVER exhibit. His talk is called "Illiteracies of the Imagination, Necromantic Devices, and How Clocks Make Us Stupid."

Kate Pechenkina's comments on a paper by Wilbur et al. "Diet, Tuberculosis, and the Paleopathological Record" appeared in the December 2008 issue of Current Anthropology.

Fall 2008

Queens College Graduate and Mellon Scholar Chris Parisano was awarded the Society for Urban and Transnational Anthropology (SUNTA) prize for best undergraduate paper at the November 2008 American Anthropological Association Annual Meetings in San Francisco. Chris' award-winning analysis of the ongoing transformation of Flushing is entitled "Junked Landscapes and Gypsies: Morality, Exchange, and the Production of Urban Space in Willets Point, Queens" and draws on research undertaken as part of his senior honors thesis supervised by John Collins.

Mandana Limbert published several papers this year:
†2008, with Elizabeth Ferry, Timely Assets: The Politics of Resources and their Temporalities, Santa Fe: School of American Research, Advanced Seminar Series.
† 2008 "Depleted Futures: Anticipating the End of Oil in Oman" In Timely Assets: The Politics of Resources and their Temporalities, edited by Mandana E. Limbert and Elizabeth Ferry. Santa Fe: School of American Research, Advanced Seminar Series.
† 2008 book review, "Nostalgia for the Modern: State Secularism and Everyday Politics in Turkey" by Esra Ozyurek, American Ethnologist. 35(4): xxx-xxx.
† 2008 "The Sacred Date: Gifts of God in an Omani Town" Ethnos. 73(3): 361-376.
† 2008 "In the Ruins of Bahla: Reconstructed Forts and Crumbling Walls in an Omani Town" Social Text 95. 26(2): 83-103.

Timothy Pugh and Cameron McNeil organized the session Discourses of Distance among the Maya at the Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association. Dr. McNeil presented The Watery Origins of the World: "The Place of the Cattails" in Mesoamerica and Dr. Pugh presented Spanish Things in Maya Worlds.

Lauren Alvarez, an anthropology major, presented a poster on her research at the MACUB (Metropolitan Association of College and University Biologists) conference on November 1 2008 at Montclair University in NJ.

October 29, Dr. William Parry (CUNY Hunter) gave a talk entitled "HUMAN AND ANIMAL SACRIFICE IN ANCIENT MESOAMERICA" to the students ad faculty of our department.

John Collins published "Patrimony, Public Health, and National Culture: The Commodification and Redemption of Origins in Neoliberal Brazil." in the June 2008 issue of Critique of Anthropology and his article " 'But What if I Should Need to Defecate in your Neighborhood, Madame?': Empire, Redemption and the 'Tradition of the Oppressed' in a Brazilian Historical Center' appeared in the Spring 2008 issue of Cultural Anthropology. One of Professor Collins' fieldwork photographs was also chosen for the issue's cover.

On September 23rd, during a panel discussion on Discovering JOHN BOWNE: Archaeology, Architecture And Flushing's Beginnings, James Moore gave a talk recounting his experience in archaeological investigation of the Bowne House.

Tom Plummer is co-author of a paper entitled "Habitat preference of extant African bovids based on astragalus morphology: operationalizing ecomorphology for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction," forthcoming in the November issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science. Read the paper

Larissa Swedell's review of "Baboon Metaphysics: The Evolution of a Social Mind," a book by Dorothy Cheney and Richard Seyfarth, appeared in the September issue of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.

Tom Plummer is co-author of a paper entitled "Oldowan behavior and raw material transport: perspectives from the Kanjera Formation," published in the August issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science. In this paper, Dr. Plummer and his colleagues discuss the raw material selection and transport behaviors of Oldowan hominins, based on their analysis of stone artifact assemblages from the Kanjera South Formation, South Rachuonyo District, Kenya. Read the paper

Spring 2008

May 29, 2008. This year’s Commencement student speaker was Lauren Talerman, an Anthropology major and Macaulay Honors College student.

On May 19th, 2008, Daily News featured Thomas Plummer and Timothy Pugh in the article "NYC's real life Indiana Joneses." Clic to read the story.

On Monday, May 12th, 2008 the Queens College Department of Anthropology hosted the Annual Honors and Awards Ceremony to recognize our outstanding Majors and Minors. See more pics
Student Awards for Department of Anthropology 2008 are:
Hortense Powdermaker Award: Sebastian Ramirez and Lauren Talerman
Paul Mahler Memorial Award: Semyon Gurgov
Lynn Ceci Archaeology Award: Theresa Barbaro
Frank Spencer Award: Priya Mangru
Faculty Award: Semyon Gurgov, Sebastian Ramirez, Bahar Simani, Debra Sherman, Lauren Talerman
Thesis Honors in Anthropology: Theresa Barbaro, Jo Colagiacomi, Fabian Fareshtefar, Katherine Malone, Christopher Parisano, Sebastian Ramirez, and Lauren Talerman
Most Promising Student Award: Michael Farhangian and Juliana Giraldo Ramirez
Service Award: Katherine Malone

Honors:
Majors graduating with honors -
Ahn Min, Amante Ashley, Antonio Claudia, Barbaro Theresa, Cai Yanmei, Colagiacomi Jo, Colon Wiliana, Fereshtefar Fabian, Gordon Jeffrey, Gurgov Semyon,
Ma Vivian, Malone Katherine, Parisano Chris, Philippeaux Giovannah, Ramirez Sebastian, Salinas Jennifer, Simani Bahar D., Sherman Debra, and Talerman Lauren.

Minors graduating with honors -
Craft Lois, Fernandez Raquel, Kimyagorov Edward, Nasar Bisma, Singleman Corinna, and Szymanski Ewa M.

Junior Honors in Anthropology-
majors: Sylvia Bednarska, Mary D. Diaz, Danielle Farella, Michael Farhangian, Juliana Giraldo Ramirez, Ari Goldstein, John Keane, Javier G. Laspina, Dianne Lobo, Delaila Lugo, Priya Mangru, and Karina Ortega
minors: Julia Dellal and Sochima Eze

Alexander A. Bauer (Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania 2006) has joined the Department of Anthropology as an Assistant Professor starting Fall 2008.

Alexander Bauer conducts archaeological research on the Black Sea coast of Turkey, and is interested in problems related to cultural interaction and trade in both the past and present. His other research focuses on how archaeological knowledge is constructed and cultural heritage law and policy. He will be teaching Introduction to Archaeology, History of Anthropology, and the Archaeology of the Near East.

On March 24th, 2008, Dr. Cameron L. McNeil was named the recipient of the 2008 Mary W. Klinger Book Award for the publication she edited, entitled Chocolate in Mesoamerica: A Cultural History of Cacao, published by University Press of Florida. The Klinger Book Award is among the highest honors awarded by the Society for ECONOMIC BOTANY. Dr. McNeil will be honored in Durham, North Carolina June 5th at the society's annual meeting.

In April, several anthropology faculty members gave talks during the 77th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists in Columbus, Ohio (April 9 - April 12, 2008):

Larissa Swedell, J. Saunders, M. Pines, A. Schreier and B. Davis. - Alternative reproductive strategies in male hamadryas baboons: leaders, followers, and solitary males.

Jennifer Muller - The frequency and etiology of rib fractures in the skeletal remains of Washington DC's African American poor

Sara Stinson - Factors influencing relative sitting height at high altitude.

Nelson Ting - Extinction of critically endangered West African colobus monkeys will lead to a major loss in molecular diversity.

During the 73rd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology in Vancouver (March 26 - March 30, 2008), several anthropology faculty members gave talks based on their current research:

Aaron Kendall—Material Culture and Viking Age Trade: Comparison of Artifacts from Icelandic Farm Sites.

Cameron McNeil—The Fragrance of Elite Identity: Flowers in Maya Temples and Tombs at Copan, Honduras.

Ekaterina Pechenkina and Xiaolin Ma — Trajectories of Health in Early Farming Communities of East Asia.

Timothy Pugh —Elite Uses of Spanish Material Culture in Contact Period Petén, Guatemala.

Joseph Ferraro, Tom Plummer, Briana Pobiner, Jim Oliver and Laura Bishop—Late Pliocene zooarchaeology of Kanjera South, Kenya.

Kevin Birth gave a talk at Franklin and Marshall College on Feb 18th. The title of his talk is "The Meaningful Irregularity of Time." The event is sponsored by Anthropology, Music, and Africana Studies.

Kevin Birth also has a new article out in the The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute called "The Creation of Coevalness and the Danger of Homochronism."

Fall 2007
John Collins' discussion of recent approaches to Brazilian racial politics appeared in September in Comparative Studies in Society and History 49(4). His ethnographic examination of sound, play, and human agency was published in Ethnos 72(3) as The Sounds of Tradition: Arbitrariness and Agency in a Brazilian Cultural Heritage Center. Brazilian Cultural Heritage Center.

Several Antthropology faculty members delivered oral presentations to the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association held between November 28 and December 2, 2007 in Washington DC. Dr. DeBoer delivered his talk on "ethnogenesis in the long and short run," to a symposium on Long-Term Patterns of Ethnogenesis in Indigenous Amazonia organized by Jonathan Hill and Alf Hornborg. Dr. McNeil organized a symposium on Mesoamerican Relationships with Nature. Dr. Pugh gave a talk on his recent research in Guatemala to a symposium entitled "Bridging Identities: Multidisciplinary Approaches to Maya Ethnicity in Long Term Perspective" organized by Bethany Myers.

Kevin Birth's most recent book "Bacchanalian Sentiments: Musical Experiences and Political Counterpoints in Trinidad" has been released by Duke University Press.

In this book Dr. Birth draws on fieldwork he conducted in one of Trinidad’s ethnically diverse rural villages to explore the relationship between music and social and political consciousness on the island. He describes how Trinidadians use the affective power of music and the physiological experience of performance to express and work through issues related to identity, ethnicity, and politics. He looks at how the performers and audience members relate to different musical traditions.



	All Anthropology Majors and Minors are Invited to the... ANNUAL ANTHROPOLOGY PICNIC Saturday May 30, 2009 Starting at Noon in Cunningham Park, Bayside, Queens Featuring food, drinks and volleyball. We will be meeting in the section of the park pictured below (in a picnic area just south of the baseball fields - ie, right where the letters "Cun" in "Cunningham Park" appears on the map). Driving Directions Driving Directions Anthropology -- from the Greek roots ανθρωπο-ς, "man" or "human" and λογος, "word," "speech," "discourse," or "reason"--refers to the study of human beings and humankind in the broadest sense. Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC) used the term ανθρωπολογος in reference to the science of the nature of man, particularly human physiology and psychology. The term Anthropologia, in its more recognizably modern form, was apparently first used in 1594 by Otto Casmann (1562 - 1607), a priest and rector in Stade, Germany, in his book "Psychologia anthropologica". While many other disciplines, such as psychology and sociology, have people as their primary objects of study, Anthropology approaches its subject from a more holistic perspective. Anthropology treats all aspects of human existence and experience as complementary phenomena within an integrated whole, including both human biology and culture. These elements are seen as far less coherent when the linkages among them are not explicitly taken into account. Anthropology is also holistic because of its concern with the entire temporal range of human existence and experience, beginning with the appearance of our earliest human ancestors in the fossil record and onward through the emergence of modern life in industrialized and globalized societies. Contrary to a popular belief that the primary focus of Anthropology is on life in preindustrial communities, the discipline gives no special emphasis to any particular peoples, group of cultures, or geographic area. The student population of Queens College is as much of interest to anthropologists as are the Neolithic farmers of Europe, India, or China. Therefore, Anthropology is holistic in three senses: its focus of study is on all of humanity, on all aspects of humanity, and at all time periods. In North America, Anthropology traditionally encompasses four subdisciplines: • Cultural Anthropology • Biological or Physical Anthropology • Archaeology • Anthropological Linguistics	News and Events Spring 2009 Annual Honors and Awards Ceremony On Monday, May 11th, 2009 the Queens College Department of Anthropology hosted the Annual Honors and Awards Ceremony to recognize our outstanding Majors and Minors. Student Awards for Department of Anthropology 2008-2009 are: Hortense Powdermaker Award: Karina Ortega Paul Mahler Memorial Award: Dov Rosenbaum Frank Spencer Award: Lauren Alvarez Faculty Award: Steven Appel, Sylwia Bednarska, Akash Sookdeo, Rachel Weinstock Thesis Honors in Anthropology: Steven Appel, Chiu Leong Ho, Zahava Rubel Most Promising Student Award: Tiffany Arbelaez Service Award: Chiu Leong Ho (Raymond) Honors: Majors graduating with honors - Majors Graduating in September 2008: Cass Qin Majors Graduating in February 2009: Michael Farhangian, Pierre Griffith, Johana Guerra, Coreen Lewis, Kamaljeet Ram, Natasha Singh, Akask Sookdeo, Rachel Weinstock Majors Graduating in May 2009: Steven Appel, Sylwia Bednarska, Maria Brandao, Mary Diaz, Nubia Encarnacion, Danielle Farella, Ari Goldstein, Chiu Leong Ho, Karina Ortega, Dov Rosenbaum, Zahava Rubel, Sean Yuzik Minors graduating with honors - Minors Graduating in September 2008: Bisma Nasar, Ellen Wawryk Minors Graduating in February 2009: Julia Dellal, Greg Harris, Renny Kunjbeharry Minors Graduating in May 2009: Vanessa Anastasiadis, Karen Gurtman, Cha Huang, Boris Kaylakov, Russell Kulinski, Ariana Miranda, Alexander Pinhas, Adelina Pinkhasova Junior Honors in Anthropology- 2009 Majors: Lauren Alvarez, Tiffany Arbelaez, Roneil Boodram, Jesse Diasparra, Blake Kelminson, Alexander Lord, Melanie Korn, Jennifer Lowerwirt, Ashley Mallette, Claudia Suarez 2009 Minors: Katherine Carrasco, Anthony Carbone, Anthony Corsitto, Krzysztof Momot Click to see pictures Winter 2009 Larissa Swedell and Tom Plummer gave talks at the recent Darwin's Legacy: Early Human Evolution in Africa Conference sponsored by NYCEP (www.nycep.org). Larissa Swedell spoke about "Social Evolution in Hamadryas Baboons and Homo erectus" and Tom Plummer spoke about "Oldowan Hominin Behavior and Ecology in the Homo Peninsula, Kenya." Tom Plummer also served as a discussant and served on the conference organizing committee. Karen Strassler's paper "The Face of Money: Crisis, Currency, and Remediation in Post-Suharto Indonesia" has appeared in the Cultural Anthropology 24(1), February 2009. John Collins' essay "Historical and Cultural Patrimony in Brazil: Recent Works in Portuguese" has appeared in the Latin American Research Review, Volume 44, no. 1 (February 2009). Timothy Pugh has six chapters in the book "The Kowoj: Identity, Migration, and Geopolitics in Late Postclassic Petén, Guatemala," edited by Prudence Rice and Don Rice, published by University Press of Colorado, Boulder: † Residential and Domestic Contexts at Zacpetén † The Kowoj and the Lacandon: Migrations and Identities † Zacpetén and the Kowoj: Field Methods and Chronologies (senior author with Prudence Rice). † Kowoj Ritual Performance and Societal Representation at Zacpetén (senior author with Prudence Rice) † Zacpetén Structure 719: the Last Noble Residence (senior author with Prudence Rice and Leslie Cecil) † Defensive Architecture and the Context of Warfare at Zacpetén (junior author with Prudence Rice, M., Don S. Rice, Timothy W. Pugh, and Rómulo Sánchez Polo. On January 7th, Professor Kevin Birth gave a talk at the Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan as part of the "24 Hour Program on the Concept of Time" associated with the ANYSPACEWHATEVER exhibit. His talk is called "Illiteracies of the Imagination, Necromantic Devices, and How Clocks Make Us Stupid." Kate Pechenkina's comments on a paper by Wilbur et al. "Diet, Tuberculosis, and the Paleopathological Record" appeared in the December 2008 issue of Current Anthropology. Fall 2008 Queens College Graduate and Mellon Scholar Chris Parisano was awarded the Society for Urban and Transnational Anthropology (SUNTA) prize for best undergraduate paper at the November 2008 American Anthropological Association Annual Meetings in San Francisco. Chris' award-winning analysis of the ongoing transformation of Flushing is entitled "Junked Landscapes and Gypsies: Morality, Exchange, and the Production of Urban Space in Willets Point, Queens" and draws on research undertaken as part of his senior honors thesis supervised by John Collins. Mandana Limbert published several papers this year: †2008, with Elizabeth Ferry, Timely Assets: The Politics of Resources and their Temporalities, Santa Fe: School of American Research, Advanced Seminar Series. † 2008 "Depleted Futures: Anticipating the End of Oil in Oman" In Timely Assets: The Politics of Resources and their Temporalities, edited by Mandana E. Limbert and Elizabeth Ferry. Santa Fe: School of American Research, Advanced Seminar Series. † 2008 book review, "Nostalgia for the Modern: State Secularism and Everyday Politics in Turkey" by Esra Ozyurek, American Ethnologist. 35(4): xxx-xxx. † 2008 "The Sacred Date: Gifts of God in an Omani Town" Ethnos. 73(3): 361-376. † 2008 "In the Ruins of Bahla: Reconstructed Forts and Crumbling Walls in an Omani Town" Social Text 95. 26(2): 83-103. Timothy Pugh and Cameron McNeil organized the session Discourses of Distance among the Maya at the Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association. Dr. McNeil presented The Watery Origins of the World: "The Place of the Cattails" in Mesoamerica and Dr. Pugh presented Spanish Things in Maya Worlds. Lauren Alvarez, an anthropology major, presented a poster on her research at the MACUB (Metropolitan Association of College and University Biologists) conference on November 1 2008 at Montclair University in NJ. October 29, Dr. William Parry (CUNY Hunter) gave a talk entitled "HUMAN AND ANIMAL SACRIFICE IN ANCIENT MESOAMERICA" to the students ad faculty of our department. John Collins published "Patrimony, Public Health, and National Culture: The Commodification and Redemption of Origins in Neoliberal Brazil." in the June 2008 issue of Critique of Anthropology and his article " 'But What if I Should Need to Defecate in your Neighborhood, Madame?': Empire, Redemption and the 'Tradition of the Oppressed' in a Brazilian Historical Center' appeared in the Spring 2008 issue of Cultural Anthropology. One of Professor Collins' fieldwork photographs was also chosen for the issue's cover. On September 23rd, during a panel discussion on Discovering JOHN BOWNE: Archaeology, Architecture And Flushing's Beginnings, James Moore gave a talk recounting his experience in archaeological investigation of the Bowne House. Tom Plummer is co-author of a paper entitled "Habitat preference of extant African bovids based on astragalus morphology: operationalizing ecomorphology for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction," forthcoming in the November issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science. Read the paper Larissa Swedell's review of "Baboon Metaphysics: The Evolution of a Social Mind," a book by Dorothy Cheney and Richard Seyfarth, appeared in the September issue of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology. Tom Plummer is co-author of a paper entitled "Oldowan behavior and raw material transport: perspectives from the Kanjera Formation," published in the August issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science. In this paper, Dr. Plummer and his colleagues discuss the raw material selection and transport behaviors of Oldowan hominins, based on their analysis of stone artifact assemblages from the Kanjera South Formation, South Rachuonyo District, Kenya. Read the paper Spring 2008 May 29, 2008. This year’s Commencement student speaker was Lauren Talerman, an Anthropology major and Macaulay Honors College student. On May 19th, 2008, Daily News featured Thomas Plummer and Timothy Pugh in the article "NYC's real life Indiana Joneses." Clic to read the story. On Monday, May 12th, 2008 the Queens College Department of Anthropology hosted the Annual Honors and Awards Ceremony to recognize our outstanding Majors and Minors. See more pics Student Awards for Department of Anthropology 2008 are: Hortense Powdermaker Award: Sebastian Ramirez and Lauren Talerman Paul Mahler Memorial Award: Semyon Gurgov Lynn Ceci Archaeology Award: Theresa Barbaro Frank Spencer Award: Priya Mangru Faculty Award: Semyon Gurgov, Sebastian Ramirez, Bahar Simani, Debra Sherman, Lauren Talerman Thesis Honors in Anthropology: Theresa Barbaro, Jo Colagiacomi, Fabian Fareshtefar, Katherine Malone, Christopher Parisano, Sebastian Ramirez, and Lauren Talerman Most Promising Student Award: Michael Farhangian and Juliana Giraldo Ramirez Service Award: Katherine Malone Honors: Majors graduating with honors - Ahn Min, Amante Ashley, Antonio Claudia, Barbaro Theresa, Cai Yanmei, Colagiacomi Jo, Colon Wiliana, Fereshtefar Fabian, Gordon Jeffrey, Gurgov Semyon, Ma Vivian, Malone Katherine, Parisano Chris, Philippeaux Giovannah, Ramirez Sebastian, Salinas Jennifer, Simani Bahar D., Sherman Debra, and Talerman Lauren. Minors graduating with honors - Craft Lois, Fernandez Raquel, Kimyagorov Edward, Nasar Bisma, Singleman Corinna, and Szymanski Ewa M. Junior Honors in Anthropology- majors: Sylvia Bednarska, Mary D. Diaz, Danielle Farella, Michael Farhangian, Juliana Giraldo Ramirez, Ari Goldstein, John Keane, Javier G. Laspina, Dianne Lobo, Delaila Lugo, Priya Mangru, and Karina Ortega minors: Julia Dellal and Sochima Eze Alexander A. Bauer (Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania 2006) has joined the Department of Anthropology as an Assistant Professor starting Fall 2008. Alexander Bauer conducts archaeological research on the Black Sea coast of Turkey, and is interested in problems related to cultural interaction and trade in both the past and present. His other research focuses on how archaeological knowledge is constructed and cultural heritage law and policy. He will be teaching Introduction to Archaeology, History of Anthropology, and the Archaeology of the Near East. On March 24th, 2008, Dr. Cameron L. McNeil was named the recipient of the 2008 Mary W. Klinger Book Award for the publication she edited, entitled Chocolate in Mesoamerica: A Cultural History of Cacao, published by University Press of Florida. The Klinger Book Award is among the highest honors awarded by the Society for ECONOMIC BOTANY. Dr. McNeil will be honored in Durham, North Carolina June 5th at the society's annual meeting. In April, several anthropology faculty members gave talks during the 77th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists in Columbus, Ohio (April 9 - April 12, 2008): Larissa Swedell, J. Saunders, M. Pines, A. Schreier and B. Davis. - Alternative reproductive strategies in male hamadryas baboons: leaders, followers, and solitary males. Jennifer Muller - The frequency and etiology of rib fractures in the skeletal remains of Washington DC's African American poor Sara Stinson - Factors influencing relative sitting height at high altitude. Nelson Ting - Extinction of critically endangered West African colobus monkeys will lead to a major loss in molecular diversity. During the 73rd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology in Vancouver (March 26 - March 30, 2008), several anthropology faculty members gave talks based on their current research: Aaron Kendall—Material Culture and Viking Age Trade: Comparison of Artifacts from Icelandic Farm Sites. Cameron McNeil—The Fragrance of Elite Identity: Flowers in Maya Temples and Tombs at Copan, Honduras. Ekaterina Pechenkina and Xiaolin Ma — Trajectories of Health in Early Farming Communities of East Asia. Timothy Pugh —Elite Uses of Spanish Material Culture in Contact Period Petén, Guatemala. Joseph Ferraro, Tom Plummer, Briana Pobiner, Jim Oliver and Laura Bishop—Late Pliocene zooarchaeology of Kanjera South, Kenya. Kevin Birth gave a talk at Franklin and Marshall College on Feb 18th. The title of his talk is "The Meaningful Irregularity of Time." The event is sponsored by Anthropology, Music, and Africana Studies. Kevin Birth also has a new article out in the The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute called "The Creation of Coevalness and the Danger of Homochronism." Fall 2007 John Collins' discussion of recent approaches to Brazilian racial politics appeared in September in Comparative Studies in Society and History 49(4). His ethnographic examination of sound, play, and human agency was published in Ethnos 72(3) as The Sounds of Tradition: Arbitrariness and Agency in a Brazilian Cultural Heritage Center. Brazilian Cultural Heritage Center. Several Antthropology faculty members delivered oral presentations to the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association held between November 28 and December 2, 2007 in Washington DC. Dr. DeBoer delivered his talk on "ethnogenesis in the long and short run," to a symposium on Long-Term Patterns of Ethnogenesis in Indigenous Amazonia organized by Jonathan Hill and Alf Hornborg. Dr. McNeil organized a symposium on Mesoamerican Relationships with Nature. Dr. Pugh gave a talk on his recent research in Guatemala to a symposium entitled "Bridging Identities: Multidisciplinary Approaches to Maya Ethnicity in Long Term Perspective" organized by Bethany Myers. Kevin Birth's most recent book "Bacchanalian Sentiments: Musical Experiences and Political Counterpoints in Trinidad" has been released by Duke University Press. In this book Dr. Birth draws on fieldwork he conducted in one of Trinidad’s ethnically diverse rural villages to explore the relationship between music and social and political consciousness on the island. He describes how Trinidadians use the affective power of music and the physiological experience of performance to express and work through issues related to identity, ethnicity, and politics. He looks at how the performers and audience members relate to different musical traditions.