III EIAA in Quito

 

[image credit http://www.eiaa.com.ec/images/banners/home_eiaa.jpg]

The IIIEncuentro Internacionál de Arqueología Amazonica, or the Third International Meetings for Amazonian Archaeology, were recently held at FLACSO, in Quito, Ecuador. The lion’s share of the credit for organizing such a well-run and teriffic conference goes to Stephen Rostain, who had the participants lodged in a fine hotel, the Hotel Quito, shuttled by bus all over the city, including to FLACSO, where the talks were held, and to museums all around the city, where we attended all kinds of exhibit premieres and otherwise announced our presence in the city. I hadn’t been in Ecuador in perhaps 13 years, and to my eyes Quito has changed quite a bit. Of course, much of that is conditioned by staying in a fancy tourist hotel, and spending dollars (US currency is valid in Ecuador). I had the chance to catch up with several old friends, and make several new ones, which really is the point of an academic conference. I am looking forward to the next EIAA, which will be held in Iquitos, Perú.

Save the Field Museum

Image from the petition at Change.org

The Field Museum in Chicago is one of the world's premiere institutions for scientific research, and is particularly important in South American archaeology. Recently, the leadership of the Field Museum announced deep cuts to their research budget. Such cuts would profoundly and permanently compromise scientific research both at the Museum, and at other institutions around the world that use the collections, and train students there. Michael Smith has an excellent post about the importance of this issue. Please see the coverage of the situation here, here and here, and sign this petition (which I did) to save the Field Museum collections and research.