What is the KAS?

Volume 1 (May 1950) of the Kroeber Anthropological Society Papers included the following Establishments and Aims of the Kroeber Anthropological Society:

In the fall of 1949, a group of anthropology students at the University of California (Berkeley) gathered to discuss the possibility of forming a society of anthropologists which could publish occasional papers. The idea was enthusiastically supported by a number of students and the organization was officially constituted on December l, 1949.

At an early meeting of the society, it was decided by a vote of the members that their group should be called the Kroeber Anthropological Society, in honor of Professor A.L. Kroeber and in recognition of his long and outstanding career in anthropology. Professor Kroeber kindly allowed the use of his name for this purpose.

The Kroeber Society was organized in Berkeley, where there are enough anthropology students to support the activities of the group. The society is in no way a closed group, however, and interested individuals are welcome to join. The editorial board will be glad to consider papers submitted by non-members as well as members.

The officers chosen to guide the Kroeber Society for the 1949-1950 term include the following:
    Chairman: Clement W. Meighan
    Vice-chairman/treasurer: Alan R. Beals
    Secretary: Catharine McClellan
    Program Director: Francis A. Riddell
    Publications Director: Richard Bachenheimer

An editorial board composed of graduate students was also established, including the following members: Stephen C. Cappannari, Harold C. Conklin Leo A. Estel, John F. Goins, Dorothy L. Rainier, and Adan E. Treganza. It was decided that subscription to the society's publications would be by membership in the group, and the annual dues were set at $3.00. Persons interested in joining the Kroeber Society may apply to the treasurer, care of the Department of Anthropology, University of California Berkeley.

The activities of the Kroeber Society at the present time include the holding of meetings to hear papers on anthropological topics, and the publishing of the present series. The publication is not envisaged as a competitor to any of the present anthropological Journals, but rather as a supplement, since much of the material to be published here will be the work of students and might not otherwise be published. Each year sees the production of many student papers, seminar reports, and individual research projects which are filed away and not accessible to ether students. Many of these papers are of considerable scholarly merit and deserve publication. It is hoped that the present economical format will enable the Kroeber Society to make such work more generally available.

Having expressed our professional indebtedness to Professor Kroeber by using his name as the name of the society, we would like to make our first publication a small tribute to Professor Robert H. Lowie, whose pioneer work in anthropology is well known to all students of culture. The members of the Kroeber Society join in expressing their appreciation for Professor Lowie's many years of stimulating guidance and teaching.

                                                                                    Clement W. Meighan
                                                                                    Berkeley, 1950

Over the last fifty years, the Kroeber Anthropological Society Papers has evolved into a semi-annual volume with an international readership of approximately 2000.  We publish articles in the general field of anthropology (and all its subdisciplines) which are of theoretical, descriptive, or practical interest, and, though we welcome all submissions, we remain particularly committed to publishing the work of students and junior scholars.  The archives contains tables of contents, with author and article titles, from past volumes.

The KAS began hosting annual meetings in May, 1957.  These meetings have taken many forms over the years--while some have included papers representing the spectrum of anthropological interests, others have focused closely on specific topics; several meetings have been held to honor the scholarship of retiring anthropologists, and one has taken the form of an Ethnographic Film Festival.  The most recent KAS conference, "Translocalities: Borders, Boundaries, and the Making of Sites," was held April 4-5, 2003.  See the conference schedule for a full list of the invited speakers and panelists.

Both the journal and the conference are designed and edited by graduate students in the Department of Anthropology at UC Berkeley, with support from faculty and other campus organizations.  All graduate students in UCB Anthropology and the Joint Medical Anthropology Program are eligible to be members of the KAS.