Newsletter - Winter 2002

A Letter from SEA President Richard Wilk

I've just returned from the AAA meetings where we had a very productive board meeting and a well-attended business meeting. I was really encouraged and gratified by the enthusiasm shown by the membership at both venues, and by an excellent set of papers put together by Paul Durrenberger and Judith Marti for the SEA sponsored session. The SEA publications series is flourishing in Deborah Winslow's editorial hands, and is poised to expand in new directions. All of these activities and the exciting program for the upcoming meetings in Toronto give me high hopes for the continuing vitality of our organization.

I did have a few moments of discouragement. I ran into several people who have been very active in SEA over the years, but have now stopped attending meetings. I spoke with one person who had dropped out of the SEA because of a feeling that the organization was a closed "in crowd" who dominated all the meetings and kept others on the margins. But my biggest concern was that I saw and heard many papers at the meeting that were clearly economic anthropology, but were not identified that way. I kept running into people who were doing economic anthropology, but who had never thought of themselves as economic anthropologists, and had either not heard of the SEA or had never thought about joining. On one hand its wonderful to economic anthropology flourishing as a topic, and to find so many people doing economic anthropology in creative ways and unexpected places. But on the other hand, why don't these people recognize what they are doing, and join our association? I see a similarity to the way my students act when I talk to them about feminism - so many of them think and act as feminists, but they don't want to call themselves feminists!

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could get some of these people to join the SEA? How can we re-legitimize and de-marginalize the label "economic anthropologist" so more people will admit that this is what they are doing? I hope that at the next SEA meeting we can have some open discussion of this issue, and some collective brainstorming on ways we can expand our membership and include more people in our intellectual conversation. If you have ideas that you would like to contribute at any time, please send them to me by email (wilkr@indiana.edu). We know that what we do is at the center of anthropology in this new century. We know how important and vital collaboration between different subfields of anthropology can be. We know that a focused and refereed conference that allows time for discussion is a vital intellectual experience. The question is, how can we let other people know?

One thing we can all do is to try to recruit a colleague. Surely you know another person who is already doing economic anthropology, but just hasn't come to recognize their own true identity yet. Help them! Explain that there is already a label for the kind of creative, interdisciplinary work they do. Offer to put them in touch with a receptive and supportive group that will accept and encourage them. Everyone needs an intellectual community! If all of us can recruit just one colleague, the future of the SEA will be assured. And of course, continue to remind your students of that SEA membership is a bargain and that the organization can be important for their careers!

To close, I am not going to thank the generous and diligent members of the SEA Board, nor am I going to express my appreciation to the officers who do the work that keeps the society afloat and moving. This is only because I have already praised their efforts in person and during the business meeting at the AAAs. I am sure they will just get bored if I keep thanking them. But I would like to thank all the members who participate in the SEA, even if it's just sending in your dues and reading our annual volumes. The fact is that we are all torn between so many obligations and demands on our time and money, it's hard to give anything to small academic organizations like the SEA any more. Groups like the SEA are an endangered species that is only kept alive by the efforts and contributions of the membership. Many thanks!