Renew or Join MAC for 2025

☛ William (“Bill”) L. Mangold Obituary

☛ Michigan State University is announcing its summer program Field Methods in Digital Heritage, summer 2024 (More info and Apply) 

☛ Michigan Tech is announcing its summer field school (program webpage) and (application form). Any inquiries can be sent to Dan Trepal at djtrepal@mtu.edu

☛ Death of Indiana's second State Archaeologist

☛ Read James (Jim) Skibo's obituary 

☛ Two new rules on NAGPRA from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (https://cam.illinois.edu/policies/rp-14/ and https://nagpra.illinois.edu/procedures/)

☛ New Videos on Archaeology of Personhood and Soul Concepts of Pre- and Post-contact Indians of the Eastern Woodlands (direct link to videos, full notice with symposium details)

☛ Online guide to “Talking About Race,” designed by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (webpage)

☛ Check out the book series Midwest Archaeological Perspectives

Death of Indiana’s second State Archaeologist 

It is with great sadness that the Indiana Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology (DHPA) shares the news that Dr. James R. “Rick” Jones III, Indiana’s second State Archaeologist, passed away yesterday. Dr. Jones retired from the DNR’s DHPA at the end of August 2014. He had been with Indiana’s State Historic Preservation Office, since 1987 and was appointed State Archaeologist in 1991, making him Indiana’s longest serving State Archaeologist to date.

On his last day of work before retirement, he was awarded the Sagamore of the Wabash by then Governor Mike Pence. The DNR director and State Historic Preservation Officer at the time stated that the award honored “his many decades of dedicated service to the archaeological resources of our state, the discipline of Midwest archaeology, and the people of Indiana.”

Dr. Jones will certainly be missed by his DHPA colleagues, current and former, as well as many others in the archaeology and historic preservation communities. The DHPA Archaeology Team members specifically will remember him for his over 25 years of mentorship, guidance, friendship, and sharing of Indiana archaeology knowledge.

He was a true friend to many, and an influential teacher to quite a few professionals practicing in our field today.

Indiana has lost an important archaeologist.

Amy L. Johnson
State Archaeologist, Archaeology Outreach Coordinator, and Team Leader for Archaeology
Indiana Department of Natural Resources
Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology

New Videos on Archaeology of Personhood and Soul Concepts of Pre- and Post-contact Indians of the Eastern Woodlands

Dear Colleagues:

I hope this finds you in good health and spirits. It is a pleasure to announce the online posting of a set of videos that present research on the topics of personhood and soul-like essences as conceived by pre- and post-contact Indians of the Eastern Woodlands and as used ritually and strategically by them in their lives.

The videos include nine researchers’ and two discussants’ presentations written for a symposium for the 85th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Austin, Texas, April 23, 2019.  When the meetings were canceled, we constructed the videos as an alternative means of sharing our ideas with the profession.

The contents of the symposium videos and contact information for the participants are summarized in the linked PDF.

The videos have applicability to subjects beyond Eastern Woodland Indians archaeology and ethnography.  They will be of interest to those who study the archaeology and ethnography of New World indigenous peoples, the archaeology of religion, mortuary archaeology, bioarchaeology, identity, folklore, performance, comparative religion, and the “ontological turn” movement in archaeology.

The videos can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLq8AGDwGZC7qHiXWlE3mTXpt52D9fxDLP

Feel free to show all or any of the videos for teaching purposes in your college and/or professional classes.

Please pass on this announcement to colleagues of yours who might have an interest in it for their research or teaching.  Thank you. 

Wishing you the best,
     Chris Carr

Christopher Carr
Professor Emeritus of Anthropology
School of Human Evolution and Social Change
Arizona State University
Tempe, AZ 85281-2402

Mailing address:
5428 Valinda Drive
Chapel Hill, NC 27514

Email: christopher.carr@asu.edu