Greetings from Fee Hall! We can hardly believe the end of the semester for Michigan State is this week. This past October (21-25) the MSUFAL was represented at the 15th annual Congress of the Latin American Forensic Anthropology Association or, in Spanish, la Asociación Latinoamericana de Antropología Forense (ALAF).
The ALAF is an organization of biological anthropologists, archaeologists, and socio-cultural anthropologists in Latin America, working within various forensic contexts. However, membership extends to include practitioners from other countries as well, including Spain, Portugal, and Canada. At the ALAF meeting, members present research, participate in panel discussions, and attend one of the many workshops offered. The ALAF also has a certification process that takes place over two days prior to the start of the meeting. Because the majority of the members are from Latin American counties, presentations tend to focus on forensic contexts and humanitarian action as a result of state-sponsored violence, civil wars, genocides, and gang/drug related violence that has occurred in the region as far back as the 1960s. Topics range from strategies for locating clandestine graves to reflections on the development of forensic anthropology to include socio-cultural aspects for relatives of the missing. These topics may be included in one of several panel discussions where, sometimes, members of the public (usually families of missing persons) can participate. Generally, panel discussions change yearly to focus on specific work in the country or region in which the meeting takes place. For example, this year, because the meetings were in Peru, discussion topics included the search for missing persons in Ayacucho (a region in south-central Peru embroiled in heavy conflict in the 1980s), the development of forensic anthropology in Peru, and reflections and lessons learned from 30 years of exhumations.
This year’s meeting kicked off with a champagne toast and cookies with the president and executive board of the Universidad de Altiplano, the ALAF directorate, and meeting attendees. Afterwards, university students from the College of Tourism performed traditional dances. As always, the ALAF provided a unique combination of workshops, papers, and panel discussions. This year’s workshops included trauma analysis and analysis of burned remains featuring Dr. Steve Symes, an osteology workshop by Maria del Carmen Vega and Elsa Tomasto Cagigao, the analysis of commingled remains by Edgar Bernal, and international migration by Jose Pablo Baraybar and Alicia Luisardo. I had the opportunity to put on a workshop with Dr. Nicholas Herrmann and Ivanna Robledo from Texas State University (TXST) covering transition analysis in age estimation. This topic is the subject of the joint National Institute of Justice funded grant between Drs. Hefner and Herrmann, with both institutions collaborating to investigate age estimation using dental development. This is the second year the MSUFAL and TXST research collaborative was invited to present on this topic at the ALAF. The workshop took place in a classroom overlooking the famous Lake Titicaca at approximately 12,556 feet above sea level. Needless to say, we spoke slowly to conserve energy and not run out of breath! Participants from Peru, Guatemala, and Argentina attended, and despite our unfamiliarity with the intricacies of the Spanish language, all were very pleased to learn and develop a new skill. As an added bonus, the ALAF supplied all involved with traditional, locally-made sweets and tea during the break.
Speaking of food, apart from learning new things from presentations, participating in discussions, and reconnecting with colleagues, the next best thing was the local cuisine. Peru has over 3,800 varieties of potatoes; we aimed to sample each over the course of our week-long trip. Sadly, I have to report we did not eat nearly enough fries. Despite this disappointment, we sampled the local fare including chica morada, lomo saltado, picarones, several pisco sours, and, potentially, the best chicken soup with cilantro ever made. The night prior to our departure from Puno we enjoyed a group dinner with colleagues watching futbol over a mug of huajsapata, a warm, mulled-wine from the Puno region. We are very grateful to the ALAF to have had this amazing experience and encourage our U.S. colleagues to attend next year’s meeting in San Jose, Costa Rica.
For more information on the ALAF, see: www.alafforense.org and the ALAF Facebook page.
I would like to thank Derek Congram, Luis Fondebrider, Joseph Hefner, Mercedes Salado, Genaro Escobar Nina, Pedro Perez, the ICRC, the ALAF directorate, the MSU Department of Anthropology, the MSU College of Social Sciences, and the MSU Graduate School for their support.
Authored by: Kelly Kamnikar
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