SGA/SSA: Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Anthropologie
Our 2022 Annual Meeting of the Swiss Society for Anthropologie (SGA/SSA) took place on 11th and 12th November at the Natural History Museum in Basel. The meeting had the highest number of contributions reached so far in the history of the assembly. Our invited keynote lecturer, Prof. Jane Buikstra from Arizona State University, lectured on “One health”, she is a world-renowned bioarcheologist specialized in paleopathology.
The workshop dedicated to Dr. Thomas Böni showed the highlights of the Galler collection in the Natural History Museum. Given his retirement, the society expressed its gratitude. He has organized over 45 workshops on paleopathology for and within the scope of society.
The abstracts of the 2022 Annual Meeting of the Swiss Society for Anthropologie (SGA/SSA) were printed:
CLAUDINE ABEGG, TONY FRACASSO, VINCENT VARLET, NEGAHNAZ MOGHADDAM Why taphonomy matters: Documenting bone taphonomy for forensic purposes in Romandie. Bulletin de la Société Suisse d'Anthropologie 2019: vol 25, nr 1.
AMELIE ALTERAUGE Natural and artificial mummification in post-medieval Germany. Bulletin de la Société Suisse d'Anthropologie 2019: vol 25, nr 1.
SANDRA BRAUN , LARA INDRA, SANDRA LÖSCH, MARCO MILELLA Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence: Perimortem skeletal sharp force trauma on postmortem CT. Bulletin de la Société Suisse d'Anthropologie 2019: vol 25, nr 1.
JANE BUIKSTRA Implications for ONE Paleopathology. Bulletin de la Société Suisse d'Anthropologie 2019: vol 25, nr 1.
JANE BUIKSTRA Structural & Physical Violence at the Birth of Democracy: A Bioarchaeological Perspective. Bulletin de la Société Suisse d'Anthropologie 2019: vol 25, nr 1.
CEDRIC CORDEY, NICOLE M. WEBB, MARTIN F. HÄUSLER Does the Energetics of Gestation and Growth (EGG) refute the obstetrical dilemma hypothesis? Bulletin de la Société Suisse d'Anthropologie 2019: vol 25, nr 1.
FATBARDHA HOXHA, CLAUDINE ABEGG, LORENZO CAMPANA, SAMI SCHRANZ, CORALINE EGGER, SILKE GRABHERR, MARIE BESSE, NEGAHNAZ MOGHADDAM The Digital Era: Virtual Anthropology or: The reliability of sex estimation methods in a virtual environment (CT and 3D) using Probabilistic Sex Diagnosis (DSP) and Ischio-Pubic Index (IPI). Bulletin de la Société Suisse d'Anthropologie 2019: vol 25, nr 1.
LARA INDRA, SANDRA LÖSCH The effects of vertebrate animals on exposed cadavers: Findings from an experiment. Bulletin de la Société Suisse d'Anthropologie 2019: vol 25, nr 1.
MARCEL KELLER, MERIAM GUELLIL, PHILIP SLAVIN, LEHTI SAAG, KADRI IRDT, HELJA NIINEME, ANU SOLNIK, MARTIN MALVE, HEIKI VALK, AIVAR KRIISKA, MAIT METSPALU, KRISTIINA TAMBETS, CHRISTIANA L. SCHEIB Ancient Yersinia pestis genomes of the second plague pandemic in the Baltic region. Bulletin de la Société Suisse d'Anthropologie 2019: vol 25, nr 1.
MARCO MILELLA, ARSENIO GRANADOS-TORRES, SANDRA LÖSCH, ALBERT ZINK, IRENE DORI, ANTONIO DELGADO-HUERTAS, ZITA LAFFRANCHI "Celts" up and down the Alps. A multi-isotopic exploration of mobility among the pre-Roman population of Verona (NE Italy, 3rd-1st c. BCE). Bulletin de la Société Suisse d'Anthropologie 2019: vol 25, nr 1.
INNA POTIEKHINA Anthropological Study of the Ancient Populations in Ukraine: main directions and approaches. Bulletin de la Société Suisse d'Anthropologie 2019: vol 25, nr 1.
LUKAS RICHNER Die mittelalterlichen und frühneuzeitlichen Bestattungen bei der Kapelle St. Gilles (Cornol, JU). Bulletin de la Société Suisse d'Anthropologie 2019: vol 25, nr 1.
LAURA RINDLISBACHER, ELIAS FLATSCHER, SANDRA L. PICHLER Can you let me rest my bones in peace? Health as an indicator of status in the Early Modern skeletal collection from the former Barfüsserkloster (Basel). Bulletin de la Société Suisse d'Anthropologie 2019: vol 25, nr 1.
VIERA TRANCIK PETITPIERRE, SANDRA L. PICHLER IAG IAM. From storage to collection. Bulletin de la Société Suisse d'Anthropologie 2019: vol 25, nr 1.
The 2022 Annual Meeting of the Swiss Society for Anthropologie (SGA/SSA) took place at the Natural History Museum in Basel and was organized by Dr. Sandra Pichler from the Integrative Prehistory and Archaeological Science at the University of Basel, PD Dr. Sandra Lösch from the Department of Anthropology at University of Bern, and Dr. Gerard Hotz from the aforementioned Natural History Museum. Starting with the scientific program on Friday 11 November, 13 talks and 1 poster presentation were held by experienced and young researchers from Switzerland and abroad. This was the highest number of contributions reached so far in the history of the assembly. The talks showed a great thematic variety ranging from virtual anthropology over taphonomy studies to specific site analyses, thus reflecting the diversity and multidisciplinarity within the society. The keynote lecture in the evening on “One health” was given by Prof. Jane Buikstra from Arizona State University who is a world-renowned bioarcheologist specialized in paleopathology. She pledged for introducing a comprehensive concept of health within paleopathology by integrating animal and human health in the research. She argued, however, that even though many diseases were transmitted from animals to humans in the past and vice versa, the manifestation in bones must not be the same in both species. The evening concluded with a joint dinner.
Saturday 12 November started with the general assembly lead by Sandra Lösch in the morning. Two members, Amelie Alterauge (board member) and Negahnaz Moghaddam (assessor member), gave their farewell and freed the positions of the chief-editor of the Bulletin and the webmaster. Claudine Abegg from the University Center of Legal Medicine, Lausanne
– Geneva, was elected as new chief-editor of the Bulletin while the webmaster would be assigned by the board among the other candidates. The position was taken over by Lara Indra by now.After the general assembly, Prof. Jane Buikstra gave a second keynote lecture on her current project on the Phaleron cemetery in Greece. Her talk focused on structural and physical violence among this ancient population by comparing demography and health parameters between the “normal” cemetery population and the mass graves. After lunch, this year’s workshop started by Dr. Gerhard Hotz and Dr. Thomas Böni giving an introduction to the Galler collection which is partly housed in the Natural History Museum. In the partical part, they showed the participants several specimens affected by diseases, such as osteogenesis imperfecta, myositis ossificans progressiva or cretinism (congenital iodine deficiency syndrome). Given the retirement of Thomas Böni, the society expressed its gratitude to him who has organized over 45 workshops on paleopathology for and within the scope of society. His medical perspective has always been much appreciated and offered important insights into past and current diseases.
All in all, after two years of conferences affected by the COVID situation, the assembly was very successful with two days of scientific program and about 40 participants. The next SGA assembly is scheduled for October or November 2023 in Zurich with the topic of ancient DNA.
No special activities within the framework of the SGA, except for individual mentions of the society in individual cooperations and research projects.
The society has awarded six grants to young researchers from the universities of Bern, Geneva and Zurich during the year 2022. One of the grants was awarded to Megan Malherbe, doctoral student at the University of Zurich, to participate to an archaeological fieldwork at Lake Turkana in Kenya from July 8 to August 4, 2022. The grant of 1500 CHF covered part of her travel expenses.
Grants were awarded to two doctoral students, Lara Indra and Sandra Braun, from the University of Bern who took part in the International Symposium of the EMFA (European Meeting on Forensic Archaeology) held in Dresden, Germany on August 25-26, 2022. Lara Indra presented a paper entitled "Porcine Taphonomy in a Central European Forest: Implications for Forensic Casework". Sandra Braun presented a paper entitled "Perimortem skeletal sharp force trauma on postmortem CTs". The scholarships awarded to Sandra Braun and Sandra Braun amounted to CHF 407.35 and CHF 218.95 respectively and covered the accommodation costs during the conference.
A grant has been awarded to Cédric Corday, a final-year student at the University of Zurich, who participated in the annual meeting of the ESHE (Europäische Gesellschaft für das Studium der menschlichen Evolution) held in Tübingen, Germany, from 21 to 25 September 2022. Cédric Corday presented the results of his master thesis entitled "Does the Energetics of Gestation and Growth (EGG) refute the obstetrical dilemma hypothesis?”. The awarded grant of 450 CHF covered part of his expenses.
Finally, scholarships were awarded to two students in the final year of their master's degree, Fatbardha Hoxha and Cédric Corday, to participate to the annual meeting of the society which was held in Basel on November 11 and 12, 2022. Fatbardha Hoxha, a student at the University of Geneva, presented a paper entitled "The digital era: Virtual anthropology". Cédric Corday, student at the University of Zurich, presented the results of his master's thesis entitled "Does the Energetics of Gestation and Growth (EGG) refute the obstetrical dilemma hypothesis? The scholarships awarded, amounting to 207.60 CHF for the first and 113.00 CHF for the second, covered part of their expenses during the conference.
No activities.
No activities.
Guidelines on ethics are currently being planned by the SGA board and will be worked on in the near future.
No special activities within the framework of the SGA, except for individual mentions of the society in individual contributions.