<div>I guess this would be of interest for all of us!</div><div> </div><div>Alice<br><br></div><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Margaris, Amy V.</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:amy.margaris@oberlin.edu">amy.margaris@oberlin.edu</a>></span><br>
Date: Thu, Jul 21, 2011 at 5:30 PM<br>Subject: [ZOOARCH] SAA symposium on Raw Materials and Technological Choice<br>To: <a href="mailto:ZOOARCH@jiscmail.ac.uk">ZOOARCH@jiscmail.ac.uk</a><br><br><br>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">Dear colleagues, </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">Greetings! We warmly invite
you to participate in a proposed symposium for the April 2012 Society for American
Archaeology (SAA) meeting in Memphis, Tennessee (USA), on the topic of <b>Raw Material Perspectives on Technological
Choice and Change</b></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0pt;"><b>Session Organizers:</b> Amy Margaris (Oberlin
College) & Liye Xie (University of Arizona)</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0pt;"><b>Discussant </b>(pending session scheduling): Steve Kuhn (University of Arizona)</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">Here is the session
abstract:</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">“Raw material has long been
regarded as an essential component of human endeavors. But to truly understand
technological choices and changes in the past we need further integrative studies
that investigate the dynamic contexts in which one raw material is selected
over another based on functional, social, or ideological factors. This
symposium will provide a venue to discuss raw material selection practices in a
number of archaeological or ethnographic contexts. It promises to bring
together a diverse group of researchers while revealing trends across time and
space that will contribute to theory-building about variation and change in
technological practices.”</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">Possibilities for the temporal
and geographic scope of contributed papers are wide open, from studies of the
contrasting uses of stone and organic materials in the Upper Paleolithic to the
adoption (or rejection) of imported iron over local alternatives among
indigenous groups. The unifying theme is how raw materials were selected among
competing candidates: What factors held sway in a group’s acquisition, processing
or functional choices?</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">We hope you will consider
participating in this symposium, and will also forward the invitation to other
interested researchers.<span> </span><span> </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">September is not far off, so
please email <b>Amy Margaris
(<a href="mailto:amy.margaris@oberlin.edu" target="_blank">amy.margaris@oberlin.edu</a>)</b> as soon as possible if you are interested in
presenting a paper in this symposium.<span> </span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">More information on the
conference can be found at <a href="http://www.saa.org/AbouttheSociety/AnnualMeeting/tabid/138/Default.aspx" target="_blank"><span>http://www.saa.org/AbouttheSociety/AnnualMeeting/tabid/138/Default.aspx</span></a></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">We look forward to hearing from
you soon!</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">Amy Margaris (<a href="mailto:amy.margaris@oberlin.edu" target="_blank"><span style="color: rgb(0, 104, 207);">amy.margaris@oberlin.edu</span></a>) &</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span lang="FR">Liye Xie (</span><a href="mailto:xiexie1@email.arizona.edu" target="_blank"><span lang="FR">xiexie1@email.arizona.edu</span></a><span lang="FR">)<span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="FR"> </span></p><font color="#888888">
<br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Amy V. Margaris <br>Assistant Professor of Anthropology<br>Oberlin College<br><br><a href="http://new.oberlin.edu/arts-and-sciences/departments/anthropology/" target="_blank">http://new.oberlin.edu/arts-and-sciences/departments/anthropology/</a><br>
<br><a href="http://sites.google.com/a/oberlin.edu/margaris-amy/" target="_blank">http://sites.google.com/a/oberlin.edu/margaris-amy/</a><br>
</font></div><br>