Month: August 2020

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SIEF 2021: Helsinki!

The 15th congress of the International Society for Ethnology and Folklore (SIEF) will come to Helsinki. Helsinki is known for its laid-back and safe atmosphere, its internationality and open-mindedness, and the proximity of urban culture and mesmerising nature. The congress will be hosted by Prof. Hanna Snellman, Vice-rector of University of Helsinki, Finland’s largest and oldest academic institution (est. 1640).

With the theme ‘Breaking the rules? Power, participation and transgression’, SIEF2021 invites and encourages participants to explore the dynamics, modes, arenas and implications of breaking the rules and to revisit and discuss underlying concepts. To break rules is an agent of change and reveals the (dis)ruptures in our societies, and we propose to examine what “breaking the rules” has implied and implies in social, economic, political, cultural and academic contexts.

SIEF 2021 logo
Logo of SIEF 2021

The Call for Panels, Roundtables, Workshops and Combined Formats is now open and will close on 21 September at 23:59 EEST (Finnish time). If you are interested in participating, please read the theme, then go to the Call for Panels etc page to read all about the formats, rules and instructions and find the link for proposing your contribution.

We are looking forward to your contributions and hope to welcome you to Helsinki in June 2021!

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New open access publication

In the latest issue of the journal Antiquity, Associate Professor Suzie Thomas has written a Debate piece with Professor Bonnie Pitblado (University of Oklahoma), titled “The dangers of conflating responsible and responsive artefact stewardship with illicit and illegal collecting”.

The article is Open Access, and has the following abstract:

Archaeology and private artefact collecting have complex and inextricably linked histories. Archaeologists have long drawn attention to criminal activity among collectors, but to assume that all private owners of cultural material—and any archaeologists who interact with them—have ill-intent or engage in illegal behaviour can cause as much harm to the archaeological record as the criminal actions themselves.

In addition to the article are three Response pieces, from Pieterjan Deckers (Århus University), Joe Watkins (The Archaeological and Cultural Education Consultants, and Society for American Archaeology), and Morag Kersel (DePaul University), with a final reply from Pitblado and Thomas. The Responses are not open access, but contact Suzie Thomas for more information about these.

Reference information:

Thomas, S., & Pitblado, B. (2020). The dangers of conflating responsible and responsive artefact stewardship with illicit and illegal collecting. Antiquity, 94(376), 1060-1067. doi:10.15184/aqy.2019.201

Deckers, P. (2020). Archaeology’s awkward allies. Antiquity, 94(376), 1068-1070. doi:10.15184/aqy.2020.50

Watkins, J. (2020). ‘Not with the same brush’. Antiquity, 94(376), 1071-1073. doi:10.15184/aqy.2020.45

Kersel, M. (2020). Engaging with demand and destruction. Antiquity, 94(376), 1074-1076. doi:10.15184/aqy.2020.62

Pitblado, B., & Thomas, S. (2020). Unravelling the spectra of stewards and collectors. Antiquity, 94(376), 1077-e1079. doi:10.15184/aqy.2020.99