REPORT OF THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY IN OCEANIA,

held at Kailua-Kona on the Big Island of Hawai'i, U.S.A.; 24-27 March 1993

Toon van Meijl

The A.S.A.O. meets every year. Its annual conferences are organised in a three-year cycle: one year in the western part of the mainland of the U.S.A, the next year in the eastern part of the U.S. mainland, and the third year in the state of Hawai'i. Interestingly, when the A.S.A.O. meets in Hawai'i more people than average tend to turn up. In 1991, for example, the Association met in British Columbia, Canada, and the number of people attending did not exceed 70. This year, when the annual meeting was organised in Hawai'i, approximately 200 people attended. The obvious interpretation that anthropologists are fond of far-away places is reinforced by a meteorological perspective on the distinct differences in number of people attending A.S.A.O. conferences. These are invariably organised in springtime, but in February or March it can still be extremely cold in places like British Columbia, as opposed to Hawai'i, which is located just south of the Tropic of Cancer.

Small conferences tend to be more interesting than those attracting massive numbers, not only because their atmosphere is more conductive to academic debates, but also because at bigger conferences many people show up simply to socialize, if not to sweet-talk, with big shots. Needless to say, it does not affect the standard of debate in a positive sense, all the more so because 'small shots' are often obliged to contribute a paper in order to become eligible for financial compensation for fares and fees. Unfortunately, this seemed to be the case at the recent A.S.A.O. conference at Kona as well, at least to some extent. I hasten to add, however, that this grave generalization might be balanced by the observation that the standard of the papers as well as the standard of the sessions and symposia varied tremendously.

The format of A.S.A.O. conferences is fabulous. Anyone with a certain idea for discussion may organise an 'informal session' to gauge the interest among other A.S.A.O. members and subsequently assess the potential of the topic for organising a more substantial 'worked session'. If more than, say, half a dozen people express an interest in exploring the topic further, a 'working session' will be organised at the conference held the following year. All participants in a working session commit themselves to writing an abstract of two pages and circulate this among the other participants of the 'working session' well in advance of the next annual meeting. When during the 'working session' it appears that most people are dealing with data and issues which from a comparative point of view are interesting and worthy of being explored in more depth, the convenors of the 'working session' may decide, usually in consultation with contributors, to organise a more formal 'symposium' on the same topic at the next conference. For the symposium, participants are required to wrote a substantial paper and distributed to the other members of the group, before the conference. Since ideally all participants will have read the paper before the meeting, papers may be discussed in great detail at symposia. After two years of contemplation and discussion at three consecutive conferences, A.S.A.P. symposia usually result in the publication of a coherent collection of essays.

The success of sessions and symposia at A.S.A.O. conferences is chiefly dependent on the cooperation of the members contributing to them. Unfortunately, conscientious cooperation to reduce as the number of participants increases, which explains why this year many people complained that not everyone had done his or her homework. Abstracts or papers had not always been circulated beforehand, as a result of which their presentation took up too much time, leaving less time for general discussion. Nevertheless, some interesting, even exciting debates did take place in several sessions and symposia, in spite of the numbers of contributors being more than desirable: one working session 'Anthropology and History of the Body', as well as one symposium 'Chiefs Today', numbered more than twenty participants. Notwithstanding the session's and symposium's size reducing opportunities for general discussion, they did offer several advantages including comprehensive overviews from a variety of ethnographic areas and theoretical perspectives. In addition, one should be circumspect about the significance of the social aspects of a conference. It is extremely important to establish or occasionally renew contacts with colleagues working in the same area or on similar issues in a different but related field. Informal interaction and exchange of research information and experience are indeed crucial to keep abreast of contemporary developments, while at the same time they may provide invaluable sources of inspiration and stimulation for scholarships.

It is beyond the scope of this brief report to provide an academic evaluation of all sessions and symposia at this year's A.S.A.O. conference. The 'informal sessions', the 'working sessions' and the 'symposia' shall simply be listed:

Informal sessions
1. Festival and Festival Behaviour
2. The Ethnography of Mass Communications in the Pacific
3. Sex and Gender Liminality in Pacific Cultures
4. The Bougainville Crisis: Wider Implications for the Pacific Islands
5. Women and Development in the Pacific
6. HIV in the Pacific

Working sessions
1. The Anthropology and History of the Body in the Pacific
2. Changes in Housing and Social Relationships in the Pacific
3. The Legitimacy of Violence in the Pacific; Historical and Cross-cultural Perspective
4. Fieldwork and Families
5. Representations of the Past in the Pacific

Symposia
1. Chiefs Today
2. Culture and Disability in the Pacific
3. Women, Age, and Influence: the Politics of Age Differences Among Women
4. Contemporary Pacific Islander Migration
5. Regional Histories in Oceania

Further information on the nature of discussions held in these sessions and symposia will appear in the next issue of the A.S.A.O. newsletter. Anyone interested in joining the A.S.A.O. and in receiving its informative, quarterly newsletter, should contact the new president of the Association:

Richard Scaglion
Anthropology Department
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
U.S.A.

Finally, it should be added that following the recent establishment for the European Society of Oceanists (E.S.O.), the present president of the E.S.O., Jürg Wasmann from Basel, Switzerland, has been elected as member of the A.S.A.O. Board. By the same token, the current president of the A.S.A.O. has been nominated for a position on the Board of the E.S.O.. In view of the globalization of academia, including Pacific Studies, it is hoped that the exchange of Board members between the A.S.A.O. and the E.S.O. will facilitate a closer cooperation between the two organisations. This seems likely if one considers the regret expressed by many A.S.A.O. members at having missed the successful First European Colloquium on Pacific Studies at Nijmegen, and the intention of many American scholar working in the Pacific to attend the Second European Colloquium on Pacific Studies in Basel in December 1994.