[Aztlan] Pre-Columbian Society/DC Symposium, September 15, 2007

[rdlyon at verizon.net]

The Pre-Columbian Society of Washington, DC is currently accepting registrations for its 2007 symposium, "The Center of the Americas: Contemporary Studies of an Ancient World,” which will be held in Washington on September 15, 2007.  The all-day symposium will focus on the ancient cultures in what is today the geographic area from Honduras to Colombia.  Recent research has revealed remarkable cultural complexity and population stability in this region across a 10,000 year period.  The symposium will examine how these cultures evolved, the nature of their society, and the reasons for their stability.  It will explore connections with Amazonia, Mesoamerica and the Caribbean, and will seek to generate new insights about the meaning of “civilization” in the Pre-Columbian Americas.

John Hoopes of the University of Kansas will be symposium moderator.  Also giving   presentations will be Karen Bruhns,  San Francisco State University; Richard Cooke, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute/Panama; Jeffrey Frost, University of Wisconsin at Madison; Augusto Oyuela-Caycedo, University of Florida, and Rebecca Stone, Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University.

To request a symposium brochure or to contact the symposium coordinator, please see the Pre-Columbian Society website, wwww.pcswdc.org.