FYI. Stefanie Rixecker ECOFEM Coordinator
------- Forwarded message follows ------- FIRST CIRCULAR: CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT WAC Inter-Congress 15-18 January 2003, National Museum of Australia, Canberra, Australia 23 DEGREES SOUTH: The Archaeology and Environmental History of Southern Deserts Some of the great deserts of the world lie in the Southern Hemisphere, astride the Tropic of Capricorn at 23oS:- the Atacama and Monte deserts in South America; the Australian deserts; and the Namib and Kalahari deserts in southern Africa. The aim of this conference is to review and compare the archaeology and environmental history of these regions, identifying common themes in human responses to the limitations and variability of these environments, as well contrasts in the environmental histories and Quaternary records of southern deserts. The conference will explore what happens when human social systems interact with desert environments and how settlement, when combined with climate change, has shaped these distinctive and often precarious environments. The ultimate aim is to better understand the settlement history of these regions and the environmental differences between southern deserts. This is an opportunity to bring together desert archaeologists from the three continents, together with researchers working on the environmental history, palaeoenvironments and geomorphology of these fascinating regions. Conference Themes We particularly encourage review papers, regional studies and interdisciplinary papers. The conference will include a variety of temporal and geographic perspectives on human interactions with desert environments, ranging from Quaternary time-scales through to historical changes in these environments, from studies of late Pleistcene settlement through to the archaeology of the colonial period. Conference themes include: 1. Colonising and recolonising arid lands 2. Environmental and Quaternary histories of southern deserts 3. The interaction of people and desert environments: disentangling human impacts and responses. 4. The settlement histories of these deserts. 5. The contrasting rock art, graphic systems and cosmology of desert societies. 6. Interactions between foragers, herders and farmers, living on the edge. 7. Trade and exchange systems in southern deserts. 8. Interactions with polities outside the desert. Academic sponsors The academic sponsors of the conference are: the National Museum of Australia; the World Archaeological Congress; the Centre for Archaeological Research, Australian National University; and the IGCP413 program (Understanding Future Dryland Changes From Past Dynamics), Sheffield Centre for International Drylands Research, University of Sheffield UK. Contact Dr. Mike Smith, Convener. E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Phone: 61-2-62085335 Fax 61-2-62085014 Mailing address: National Museum of Australia, GPO Box 1901 Canberra ACT 2601, AUSTRALIA Venue and Dates: The conference will be held from 15-18 January 2003, at the new National Museum of Australia complex in Canberra, overlooking Lake Burley Griffin and adjacent to the Australian National University. Further details Further details will be available shortly on the National Museum's website (www.nma.gov.au). A formal call for papers will be issued in February 2002 but offers of papers or ideas for sessions are welcome before then and can be sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------- End of forwarded message ------- ************************************ Dr. Stefanie S. Rixecker, Senior Lecturer Environmental Management & Design Division Lincoln University, Canterbury PO Box 84 Aotearoa New Zealand E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fax: 64-03-325-3841 Mob: 021 150 2862 ************************************
