Then the Semi-Beasts Got Linnaeused and Blumenbached; Then I Slouched into SAA

Summary

This is an abstract from the "2025 Fryxell Award Symposium: Papers in Honor of David J. Meltzer Part II" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The bestowing of the SAA 2025 Fryxell Award on David Meltzer honors an intellectually panoramic legacy of scholarship. Dr Meltzer is a key advocate for adhering to both rigorous analytical standards and cordial critical dialogue – his work has enlightened my own intellectual journeys since the early 1990s. In 2009 I circulated a critique of his treatment of race in his ambitious First Peoples in a New World, and this launched years of dialogue between us on the status of racial identity systems. For archaeology to contemplate an expanded dialogue on race, it would be necessary to strategically adopt new protocols and to make room for new kinds of challenging discourse. In short, the profession would need intellectually panoramic leadership of the kind we honor in the career of David Meltzer.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• 2025 Fryxell Award Symposium: Papers in Honor of David J. Meltzer Part II   •
• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 51342