Spring 2008
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.Dr. Daniel F. Austin, Chair of the Awards Committee, said “Even for those of us who are addicted to chocolate, this book opens welcome new vistas. While many of us have worked in forests with wild Theobroma, and in areas of cultivation, most of us have a limited exposure to the cultural history of the plants. By bringing together distinct fields into one single resource, Dr. McNeil has done everyone a great service. The story of chocolate is as savory as the product!” The Mary W. Klinger Book Award was established in 1996 and is annually awarded by the Society for an outstanding book publication. The Society for Economic Botany is the largest international scientific organization fostering and encouraging research and education on the past, present, and future uses of plants by people. 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): 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: 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 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. McNei 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.
Dr. Kevin Birth's book
"Bacchanalian Sentiments: Musical Experiences and Political Counterpoints in Trinidad" is
forthcoming in January 2008 from 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. Turning explicitly to politics, Birth recounts how Trinidadians used music as a means of making sense of the attempted coup d’état in 1990 and the 1995 parliamentary election, which resulted in a tie between the two major political parties. Bacchanalian Sentiments is an innovative ethnographic analysis of the significance of music,
and particular musical forms, in the everyday lives of rural Trinidadians.
Dr. Kate Pechenkina has two chapters in the recently
releasededited volume Ancient Health:
Skeletal Indicators of Agricultural and Economic Intensification, edited by
Mark Nathan Cohen and Gillian M. M. Crane-Kramer. University Press of Florida. The two chapters are entitled
"Skeletal biology of the Central Peruvian Coast: consequences of changing population
density and progressive dependence on maize agriculture" PDF
and "Diet and health in the Neolithic of the Wei and Yellow River Basins, Northern China."
PDF Consequences of Contact:
Language Ideologies and Sociocultural Transformations in Pacific Societies,
a volume edited by Miki Makihara and Bambi B. Schieffelin has been released by Oxford University Press. Drawing on ethnographic and linguistic analyses, this edited volume examines situations of intertwined linguistic and cultural change unfolding in specific Pacific locations in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Its overarching concern is with the multiple ways that processes of historical change have shaped and been shaped by linguistic ideologiesreflexive sensibilities about languages and language useheld by Pacific peoples and other agents of change. The essays demonstrate that language and linguistic practices are linked to changing consciousness of self and community through notions of agency, morality, affect, authority, and authenticity. Summer 2007
Mandana Limbert received ACLS (American Council of Learned Societies) fellowship for this year (2007-2008) for her project Oman, Zanzibar, and the Politics of Becoming Arab. Larissa Swedell's 2006-2007 Fulbright Scholarship at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, was renewed through the end of 2007. She will continue to teach at UCT and conduct research on South African chacma baboons until her return to New York in January 2008. Dr. Kevin Birth's paper, entitled "The Creation of Coevalness and the Danger of Homochronism," has been accepted for publication by the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. Several new faculty members have joined the Department of Anthropology starting Fall 2007: Her doctoral dissertation focuses on the molecular systematics of Leontopithecus (a group of New World primates) and population genetics of L. chrysopygus. On Monday, May 8th, 2006 the Queens College Department of Anthropology hosted the Annual Honors and Awards Ceremony to recognize our outstanding graduating Majors and Minors. Student Awards for Department of Anthropology 2007 are: Hortense Powdermaker Award: Bracha Feit Paul Mahler Memorial Award: Simon Wong and Patricia Sherin Lynn Ceci Archaeology Award: Yocasta Peña-Brent Faculty Award: Bracha Feit and Raina Kulinski Thesis Honors: Yocasta Peña-Brent, Bracha Feit, José Vila Most Promising Student Award: Karina Ortega Service Award: Yocasta Peña-Brent Honors: Majors graduating with honors - Bracha Feit, Meredith Ilchert, Simarpreet Kaur, Raina Kulinski, Tanya Moradi, Yocasta Peña-Brent, Patricia Sherin, Nicole Vega, Simon Wong, Jessie Yang, Martyna Zmijewska Minors graduating with honors - Sophie Antonopoulos, Linda Benzakarya, Kanwal Chaudhary, Melissa Chen, Joey Cohen, Lisa Ebe, Christie Lech, Olivia Olbrei, Markos Papadatos April, 2007 A paper by Dr. Kevin Birth, entitled "Time and the Biological Consequences of Globalization" has been published in the April issue of Current Anthropology. In this paper Professor Birth discusses temporal conflicts between locations on the globe, desynchronization of biological cycles, and lack of correspondence between those cycles and social life. The full text of this paper is available in CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY Volume 48, Number 2:215-236. PDF March, 2007
"Salient representations of the American Past" in the recently releasededited volume A Pre-Columbian World, edited by Jeffrey Quilter and Mary Miller. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D. C. Cameron McNeil, a recent CUNY graduate, currently conducts research at Copan, Honduras. She will be offering Ecology and Culture (ANTH 302). Aaron Kendall, Ph. D. Candidate at the CUNY Graduate Center, will be offering Introduction to Archaeology (ANTH 103). His research interests include North Atlantic Archaeology, the Viking Age, and Medieval economies and trade.
Cameron McNeil, who will teach Ecology and Culture in Spring 2007,
recently published an edited volume called Chocolate in Mesoamerica: A Cultural History of Cacao.
This volume brings together scholars in the fields of archaeology, history, art history, linguistics, epigraphy, botany, chemistry, and
cultural anthropology to explore the domestication, preparation, representation, and significance of cacao in ancient and modern communities of the Americas,
with a concentration on its use in Mesoamerica. From the botanical structure and chemical makeup of Theobroma cacao and methods of identifying it in the archaeological record, to the importance of cacao during the Classic period in Mesoamerica, to the impact of European arrival on the production and use of cacao, to contemporary uses in the Americas, this volume provides a richly informed account of the history and cultural significance of chocolate. Dr. Timothy Pugh also has a chapter called Cacao, Gender, and the Northern Lacandon God House in this volume. |
![]() Francisco and Grace cook dinner at Nachisar National Park ![]() |
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Awards
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Faculty Award |
Sarah Anderson John Gucciardo |
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Lynn Ceci Award in Archaeology |
Ulle Tammemagi |
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Paul Mahler Award in Biological Anthropology |
Ann Burns |
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Hortense Powdermaker Award in Cultural Anthropology |
Chihiro Ogura |
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Frank Spencer Award |
Anna Serrano Poonam Melwani |
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Most Promising Student |
Kristin Kunz |
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Service Award |
Patricia Sherin |
Thesis Honors
Ann Burns
Krystal Roopchand
Departmental Honors
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Graduating Majors |
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Anderson, Sarah |
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Aranbayev, Yefim |
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Borges, Ana |
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Burns, Ann |
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Feeley, Francis |
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Gerasimovski, Zoran |
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Gucciardo, John |
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James, John |
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Lee, Bohwa |
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Ko, Karen |
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Maruca, Frangelica |
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Ogura, Chihiro |
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Pagano, Anthony |
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Prowell, Zenya |
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Roopchand, Krystal |
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Shuayb, Fiazuddin |
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Singh, Parvitri |
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Tammemagi, Ulle |
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Toure, Sonia
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Graduating Minors |
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Ali, Farnaz |
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Arce, Raul |
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Bhakri, Ritu |
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Jayadeva, Rajeev |
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Levison, Meira |
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Lim, Ching-Im |
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Murphy, Jennifer |
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Pasapula, Rashmi |
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Woolsey, James |