World Archaeological Bulletin

WAC News

WAC EXECUTIVE

The Executive met in Athens, Greece, between 6 and 8 November 1999. The Executive was invited to meet by the organizers of a seminar entitled ‘Anthropology and Archaeology in dialogue: the issue of comparison’, which was being held over the same period. The seminar was organized jointly by the Archaeological Society of Athens and the universities of Athens, Crete, and London (University College). The seminar was sponsored by the Greek Ministry of Culture and the University of Crete. A number of the Executive, whose travel costs were met by the seminar organizers,  presented papers at the Seminar.

Seventeen members of the Executive were able to be present during the meeting and a further three members were represented by proxies (including the editor of WAB, as proxy for the Junior Representative for Southeastern Asia and the Pacific). All WAC regions were represented. Most other members had provided their apologies: most being precluded from attending by lack of funds. The Treasurer was recovering from an operation and the Executive wished her a speedy and full recovery. The meeting was administered by the CEO and Jo Dullaghan of the Secretariat.

While much of the Executive’s time was concerned with the timetabling and planning of future WAC meetings, the Executive also discussed a wide range of issues central to the interests of WAC and its members.

FUTURE MEETINGS

WAC-5  The Executive heard with regret that the Brazilian offer to host WAC-5, accepted in principle in Cape Town during WAC-4, had been withdrawn owing to the precarious state of the Brazilian economy. A number of alternative possible locations for WAC-5 were discussed and members returned to their regions to follow these up. [At the time of writing it is hoped that an announcement as to the timing and location of WAC-5 can be made in the next few weeks.]

Inter-Congress on Theory in South American Archaeology  The Executive agreed to hold this meeting between 4 and 7 October 2000 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. More information can be found at www.soc.unicen.edu.ar .

Inter-Congress on the African Diaspora  The Executive agreed to hold this meeting between 23 and 29 April 2001 on the island of Curacao in the Caribbean. Details at the end of this volume.

Inter-Congress on Indigenous Issues and Archaeology  The Executive agreed to postpone this meeting until some time in either 2001 or 2002 depending on the timing of WAC-5. Further information should be available in the WAB 12.

Tourism 2000  The Executive also agreed that WAC would help to organize a symposium on ‘Heritage and tourism’ at the Tourism 2000 conference to be held in Sheffield, UK between 2 and 7 September 2000. Details at the end of this volume.

In addition to the foregoing, the Executive agreed to work towards holding a number of other meetings that were in the early stages of planning. The Executive was extremely impressed and encouraged by the variety and quality of proposed meetings and hoped that members would also be encouraged by the proposed program.

OTHER MATTERS

The Executive approved the minutes of its meetings held during WAC-4 and heard a number of reports on matters that had been followed-up. Among issues discussed were the present state of the One World Archaeology series and this Bulletin. The Executive agreed that the editor should be co-opted as a member for at least the duration of the present Executive.

Reports were also discussed from the WAC Task Groups set up in Cape Town to monitor ‘areas of conflict and illicit trade’, where the Executive thanked the Group for the work carried out to-date and agreed to request further information from WAC members with specialized knowledge in this field, and ‘Stonehenge’, where a report had been provided by members from the Region and the Executive agreed to press the UK government to review its policy with regard to the potential developments at Stonehenge. The Executive also discussed the issue of mining in respect of the World Heritage site of Kakadu and agreed to continue to monitor the situation. The Vice-President reported on progress made towards developing a WAC policy on dams.

The Executive worked in small groups to develop WAC thinking with regard to particular issues. One of the most important of these small groups was one convened to provide guidelines on the relationship between Officers and the Executive between meetings. A discussion document was produced and will be reproduced in the next issue of WAB.

It was also agreed that, once Executive minutes had been approved by the Executive as a true record, that they should be made available to the membership unless there were particular issues of confidentiality or sensitivity. The minutes of the Executive meeting in Athens will be the first to be made available in this way as soon as they have been formally approved.

All of the work of the Executive is carried out by members in their own time, supported, where possible, by the honorary Secretariat. WAC has achieved a huge amount working in this way but it has become increasingly apparent that if WAC wishes to become a really active and influential organization on the world stage that it must find the funding to support at least a part-time Secretariat. The Executive formed a small working group to discuss WAC’s core infrastructure funding needs (as opposed to conference requirements). It provided a verbal report which stimulated much discussion. The President accepted that the identification of core funding should be part of his portfolio and proposed that he would work on this issue and report to the next meeting of the Executive.

The next meeting of the Executive is scheduled to take place in April 2001 during the Inter-Congress on the African Diaspora.

TRANSLATION OF MAJOR WAC DOCUMENTS

We always need volunteers to translate the WAC statutes, Code of Ethics and Vermillion Accord into various languages. No language will be excluded if there are willing translators. Those interested should contact Peter Stone, whose address is inside the front cover of this issue. Thanks to those who have already been in touch.

TRANSLATION FOR WAB

While on the issue of translation, there have been few offers to help with non-English abstracts for anything published in WAB. Anglophones may see English as an international language, but there are undoubtedly others who would prefer to see some concrete acknowledgement of our polyglot membership. If you are one of them, and can help, please contact the Editor. Thanks to those who have done so already.