I Can’t Go Back to Austin Anymore…

In the 1970s Texas legend Doug Sahm wrote a song by the above title…It appeared on The Return of Wayne Douglas album…I always thought it would be a great name for a radio program dedicated to Texas singer-songwriters…At any rate, this title comes back to the forefront of my mind as tomorrow I am heading for Austin, Texas for the Society for American Archeology meetings…I left Austin in 2003, I’ve returned only briefly tograduate in 2004….It’s been almost 5 years since I’ve been back to Austin…and I have mixed feelings.Don’t get me wrong…I LOVE the town and feel that I had the academic and cultural “time of my life” there

…the program was exciting and inspiring, the music scene was great, the food can’t be beat (I DID have problems with the weather & traffic however.

T.J. & I on south First Street in Austin, Texas in 1999.

But going back to Austin for a conference somehow feels weird…T.J. will be meeting me down there (It will be the first time I’ve seen my wife in a month as we are currently living on opposite sides of the state)… so combine that with the conference being in a town I once called “home” and it makes for an experience decidedly at odds with my usual conference behavior.

You see…I’m one of those “go to every paper, go to every happy hour” kind of conference goers…I feel cool stuff is being said in the papers and cool stuff is being said in the bars afterwards & I don’t want to miss a thing! Unfortunately, that means I often do not leave the conference hotel (…ask Davidson..he’ll confirm my story).

Well…This will not be the case at this year’s SAAs as I get to e with my wife and hang out in the town that we both loved…get to go to the old haunts, the old eateries…

Yet…I still feel those pangs of responsibilities calling me to the conference sessions….”Come hear about the engendered archeology of the nineteenth-century Midwest” it calls …or “You NEED to hear that paper on public engagement“…

I’ll let you know if I find the happy medium…wish me luck.

Of Mounds, Turkeys and Spirits….

As you know from previous posts, in late March the AAS-SAU Research Station hosted the Caddo Archaeological Conference…all went well (with a few of the normal hick-ups)…you can check out my Flickr pages here for pictures of the event if you like.

I have one interesting story to pass along from the conference, however…on Sunday a bunch of archaeologists, members of the Caddo Nation and avocational folks took a couple field trips to two legendary Caddo sites–the emergent Caddo site known as Crenshaw Mounds and the massive Battle Mound. Both are located nearby our home base over in the Red River Valley. John Miller, who was a AAS-SAU station assistant back in 1980s and who had worked some salvage at Battle Mound did us a big favor and lead the tour (Lord knows I don’t know enough about these sites to yet speak with any authority and David felt comfortable with Crenshaw, but not Battle).

Turkey in foreground, Battle Mound in background (photo by Duncan McKinnon).

At any rate…we were greeted at Battle Mound (in some accounts the place of Caddo origin) by a very tame turkey who accompanied us from the farm road out to the large, multi tiered mound and back….When I ran into the land owner he said “Did you bring a friend with you?” (pointing at the turkey)…I figured that the turkey belonged on the farm and he was pulling my leg…but he finally convinced me that he had never seen the turkey before.

As the turkey escorted us on our trek away from the mound and back to our cars…I had to wonder if it was symbolic–if not an outright supernatural–manifestation of the ancient Caddo…here to make sure that their descendants and archaeologists treat the place with some respect.

Conference Proliferation

Have you academics out there noticed that the number of conferences you “need” to attend is growing geometrically?

This year I have on my agenda:

• Arkansas Archeology Society Meetings, Sept. 22-23, Little Rock, AR.
• South Central Historical Archaeology Conference, Oct. 20-21, Memphis, TN.
• Southeastern Archaeology Conference, Nov. 8-11, Little Rock, AR.
• American Anthropology Association Meetings, Nov. 15-19, San Jose, CA.
• Society for Historical Archaeology Meetings, Jan 10-14, Williamsburg, VA.
• The Caddo Conference, Mar. 16-18, Magnolia, AR.
• Society for American Archaeology Meetings, April 25-29, Austin, TX.
• World Archaeology Conference, May 20-27, Kingston, Jamaica.

At three of these either myself or my institution (the Arkansas Archeological Survey) is the host: the AAS meeting (of course), SEAC & the Caddo Conference…I’m committed to giving papers at thee (AAS, SHA, WAC) & I’m being “leaned on” to give a paper at another (SCHAC)…and I sortta wanted to go to the SAAs because the were in my old stomping grounds of Austin, Texas (and because I haven’t gotten to go to an SAA in five years).

This schedule doesn’t even allow me to branch out into other related fields–The Akansas History Conference, museum association meetings, or conferences in African-American studies or American studies….or just about any where else I might be interested in making contacts with other professionals who may not be archaeologists or anthropologists.

Obviously, some must be cut…but which ones?