About the Conference

The Society for the Anthropological Sciences (SASci) has expanded to Europe and West, Central and South Asia and is planning its first Euro-Asian Conference at Vilnius University, Lithuania on June 16-18th 2022. Going under the title “Old Discipline, New Trajectories: Theories, Methods and Practices in Anthropology”, the conference seeks to provide a “home” for socio-cultural and linguistic anthropologists as well as archeologists and bio-evolutionary anthropologists who identify themselves and seek to connect with scientifically minded anthropologists. It does not neglect the humanistic aspect of anthropology and embraces it as part of the unity implicit in the study of human lifeways and the cultural stuff that gives meaning, direction and collective identities to us. The conference might be seen as an important foundational step to establishing closer collaboration and integration among different disciplinary and methodological strands within the discipline of anthropology.

The conference will broadly focus on theory, methods and practices in anthropology and will address the following questions:

-  Can we still say that anthropology is the most scientific of humanities and most humanistic of social sciences?
-  What does a scientific approach to the study of culture imply theoretically and methodologically?
-  Should ethnography still hold a central place in anthropology?
-  How can the results of the study of human evolution, cultural evolution and language evolution contribute insights into the current human condition?
-  What are the consequences the current rapid technological change is having on culture?
-  What can anthropology contribute to the important questions of today’s world such as pandemics, growing economic inequality, fascism, second demographic transition, climate change, etc.?

About the Society

SASci was founded to support a pro-science approach to the study of culture within the American Anthropological Association and to establish a bridge between the American Anthropological Association and others outside of it who shared this position.

The stated objective of SASci is to advance the scientific study of human societies through scholarly meetings, publications, and related activities. SASci also advances the dissemination of anthropological knowledge within the scientific community, to other educators, and to the broader general public. SASci encourages active student participation and facilitates student incorporation into the professional research community.

Organizing Committee

Giovanni Bennardo (Northern Illinois University, USA)
Gitika De (University of Delhi, India)
Victor de Munck (Vilnius University, Lithuania)
Kristina Garalytė (Vilnius University, Lithuania)
Douglas Hume (Northern Kentucky University, USA)
Eswarappa Kasi (Indira Gandhi National Tribal University, India)
Stephen Lyon (The Aga Khan University, UK)
Kateryna Maltseva (National University of "Kyiv-Mohyla Academy", Ukraine)

Advisory Committee

Renatas Berniūnas (Vilnius University, Lithuania)
Donatas Brandišauskas (Vilnius University, Lithuania)
Vytis Čiubrinskas (Vilnius University, Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania)
Kristina Jonutytė (Vilnius University, Lithuania)
Rasa Pranskevičiūtė-Amoson (Vilnius University, Lithuania)
Kristina Šliavaitė (Vilnius University, Lithuania)
Deimantas Valančiūnas (Vilnius University, Lithuania)

This project has received funding from the Research Council of Lithuania (LMTLT), agreement No. S-MOR-22-5 and Vilnius University