The Coalition was busy at last week’s Society for American Archaeology Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon. Thursday morning, we held a meeting for current and potential affiliates to learn more about our strategic plan. Friday afternoon we highlighted one of our projects in a session focused on initial results of the Global Dynamics of Inequality or GINI Project, followed by an informal gathering at a local bar. And CfAS affiliates gave too many presentations for us to list. Discussions of the contemporary relevance of archaeology were echoing around the halls of the Oregon Convention Center!
The GINI Project session was especially exciting, with presenters sharing often surprising long-term patterns in inequality, as measured by Gini coefficients of house areas, from societies spanning more than six millennia, six continents, and sixty degrees of latitude. It was clear from the presentations that increasing levels of inequality are not simple byproducts of agglomeration or resource potentials but depend crucially on human institutions. The GINI Project is meeting this week to keep up the momentum generated by the symposium.
Congratulations to all members for your contributions to an exciting SAA meeting!