Photo: Maciej Męczynski, Drawing: Magdalena Durda

EAA2010 Facts and Figures

The 17th EAA Congress was held in Collegium Biologicum, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland from 29th August to 2nd September 2010. The congress attracted 183 delegates of all the European countries, the USA and Japan of whose Poles were the largest group (34%) (Photo 1).
Of the 183 congress attendees, 112 (61%) were women and 71 (39%) men; 83 (45%) were members of the EAA, 42 (23%) were non-members, 51 (28%) were students and 8 (4%) were accompanying persons.
There were 8 keynote lectures, 76 oral contributions presented in the parallel 8 sessions and 78 posters presented in one of the nine poster sessions. Of all the poster presentations, 8 entered the Best Poster Awards Competition.

Conference theme
The conference theme “Biological, Social, and Cultural Dimensions of Human Health”
provided a forum for discussing topics related to health. It included evolutionary aspect of human health and evidence of health indicators in fossil record, health profiles of earlier and living human populations, social factors moderating the health, and the role that sport plays in the healthy society.
With many research activities taking in various research fields, the 17th EAA meeting was an excellent forum for discussing survey results, sharing the ideas and experiences on the health priority issues and the contribution of physical anthropology in setting the knowledge about human health.
It is European Anthropological Association that gives the floor to such a great varieties of topics on human being. It is a unique feature of the EAA as compared to other scientific societies.

Plenary lectures
Eight plenary lectures were presented during the Congress between Sunday 29th August and Thursday 2nd September. Each of the lectures provided an opportunity for congress attendees to hear the latest updates from the world-renowned speakers’ research fields.
Below we remind you the keynote speakers and tittles of their talks.

Professor Robert M. Malina (University of Texas at Austin, USA), opened the series of invited talks with a very interesting lecture Our physically active past: implications for the present. This lecture was given during the Opening Ceremony of the 17th EAA Congress on Sunday, August 29th (Photo 2).

On Monday 30th August, Professor Winfried Henke (Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany) gave us a talk „Driven to innovation – the permanent challenge of hominization“ (Photo 3), and Professor Jan Kornafel (Wrocław Medical University, Poland) discussed the epidemiology of cancer in his talk Cancer – a real epidemics of the 21st century (Photo 4).

On Tuesday 31st August, the first talk Human disease ecology – environment, health and past populations was given by Professor Holger Schutkowski (University of Bradford, Great Britain) (Photo 5) followed by talk of Professor Lynnette Leidy Sievert (University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA) Symptom experience at menopause as an aspect of human variation (Photo 6).

On Wednesday 1st September, congress attendees could learn about reconstruction of health status of our ancestors from lecture From the diagnosis of skeletal lesions within past populations to health reconstruction given by Professor Anne-Marie Tillier (University of Bordeaux, France) (Photo 7). Professor Noël Cameron (Loughborough University, Great Britain) gave a talk about Factors affecting growth at adolescence in the 21st century (Photo 8).

Professor Danuta Penkala-Gawęcka (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland) gave a talk on Cultural dimensions of health and illness from the perspective of cultural anthropology on Thursday 2nd September (Photo 9).

Sessions, oral and poster contributions
There were 9 thematic sessions: (1) Application of evolution to human health (2) Health of the past human populations (3) Health determinants, measurements and trends (4) Applied anthropology and health (5) Health risk factors (6) Growth, maturation and ageing (7) Health and quality of life in adolescence (8) Sport anthropology, and (9) Miscellany.
Two parallel sessions were held every day where oral contributions were presented. On Monday and Wednesday afternoons, two poster sessions were held. Posters were presented within 9 thematic sessions.

Cultural and social events

In 2010 the musical world celebrates the 200th anniversary of Chopin’s birth (1810-1849). During the Opening Ceremony, on Sunday 29th August, we could listen to the piano recital given by young pianist, Ms Joanna Marcinkowska, from the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznań (Photo 10). Famous pieces of Chopin’s music such as Mazurkas, Scherzo, Grande polonaise were the most memorable for a long time.
The opening was followed by reception (Photo 11).

On Monday 30th August Dr Grzegorz Ganowicz, President of the Poznań City Council hosted us at the Sala Biała of the former Jesuit complex of buildings. He told us briefly about the city and its cultural policy and gave best regards to all the congress attendees.

Tuesday afternoon August 31 we spent at the open air museum, Wielkopolski Park Etnograficzny in Dziekanowice. We saw a collection of houses typical for architecture of the Wielkopolska region in the 17th and 18th centuries. We could see the manor house, farmer houses, church and pub (!). This interesting tour was followed by barbecue. We enjoyed dances and songs performed by folk ensemble, delicious Polish ham and beer (Photo 12).

On Wednesday evening 1st September we participated in Gala Dinner at Brovaria Restaurant. We enjoyed Polish cuisine, home-brew beer and socializing amongst friends. Our time had passed quickly.

Honours, Awards
Honorary Membership
Professor Brunetto Chiarelli was elected as an Honorary Member of the EAA. He is the 10th Honorary Member. The EAA celebrated his election at the Gala Dinner held on Wednesday 1st September with a toast in his honour (Photo 13) (courtesy of Doc. Pridalova)

Student Poster Prize
The students are congratulated on their presentation of their posters and the enthusiasm they have felt about their subject matter. Professor Jankauskas one of the poster judges presented the prize at the closing ceremony. The Student Poster Prize was awarded to

Mr Arkadiusz Wrębiak from Department of Anthropology, Institute of Zoology
the Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland
for the poster Cholera and typhoid fever in 19th century “Bielitzer Zion” (Photo 14).

Special Prizes
The Commission: Elena Godina (chair), Janina Tutkuvienie and Maria Kaczmarek (members) awarded the congress attendee who arrived to Poznań in most inconvenient/ecological way. The MIWAP (Most Inconvenient Way to Arrive to Poznań) Prize (a silver bicycle chain – the golden one will be awarded for return journey!) was awarded to Professor Michael Hermanussen for his bicycle ride of 800 km from Altenhof (Germany) to Poland, Poznań (Photo 15).

The Commission also awarded Mrs Nakanishi Masuyo and Professor Noël Cameron for their “rhythmic, sometimes patterned but most often very creatively improvised dancing” at the Gala Dinner in Brovaria Restaurant. The two dancers were presented with a pair of ballet shoes.
Unfortunately, the mentioned above prize-winners were absent at the closing ceremony.

Thank you!
The 17th EAA meeting would not have been possible without your essential and gracious support, Dear Colleagues and Friends! Indeed, you have mobilized us to perform in the best way possible. We appreciate the time you took to share with others your scientific ideas and practical experiences. We are grateful for your attendance in social events. Thank you very much!

We wish to extend our heartfelt thanks for the honorary patronage of the conference to:
Professor Barbara Kudrycka, Minister for Science and Higher Education in Poland,
Mr Ryszard Grobelny, Mayor of the City of Poznań, and Mr Marek Woźniak, Marshal of the Wielkopolska Voivodship.

We acknowledge Rectors of the Adam Mickiewicz University, Professor Bronisław Marciniak  and the Poznań University School of Physical Education, Professor Jerzy Smorawiński for their generous provision of funds (Photo 16 and 17); the EEA Financial Mechanism and the Norwegian Financial Mechanism for their financial support in organizing the session “Health and quality of life in adolescence” (Photo 18); the printing-office PDP www.druk.pl for the printing of Abstract Book and Programme; the Museum of the First Piasts at Lednica for its great support of our visit to the open air museum at Dziekanowice which was held on Tuesday 31st September (Photo 19).

We would like to express our cordial thanks to the invited speakers for their inspired lectures:
Professor Robert M. Malina (University of Texas at Austin, USA)
Professor Winfried Henke (Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany)
Professor Jan Kornafel (Wrocław Medical University, Poland)
Professor Holger Schutkowski (University of Bradford, Great Britain)
Professor Lynnette Leidy Sievert (University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA)
Professor Anne-Marie Tillier (University of Bordeaux, France)
Professor Noël Cameron  (Loughborough University, Great Britain)
Professor Danuta Penkala-Gawęcka (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland).
We would like to deeply thank Professor Nicholas Mascie-Taylor, President of the EAA who, during the several months in which our endeavors lasted, provided us with useful and helpful support.

We wish to express our appreciation to the members of the Scientific Committee for their support in successful preparing the scientific programme of the conference:
C.G. Nicholas Mascie-Taylor (Great Britain), Pia Bennike (Denmark), Tadeusz Bielicki (Poland), Éva Bodzsár (Hungary), Françoise Demoulin (France), Roland Hauspie (Belgium),
Barbara Hulanicka (Poland), Emma Rabino-Massa (Italy), Esther Rebato (Spain), Charles Susanne (Belgium), Napoleon Wolański (Poland).

I wish to acknowledge my colleagues from the Local Organizer Committee involved in organizing the conference:

Krystyna Cieślik, Joachim Cieślik, Ewa Ziółkowska-Łajp, Krzysztof Łastowski, Wiesław Osiński.
My special thanks are due to the ladies’ team for their excellent work in the conference secretariat: Magdalena Durda, Anna Wieczorek, Anita Szwed, Urszula Czerniak and Magdalena Skrzypczak (Photo 20 from left to right).
I am also grateful to students involved in helping us at the registration office, mounting posters, supporting speakers and many others: 
Joanna Kalota, Anna Kubicka, Sylwia Łukasik, Patrycja Mielczarek, Katarzyna Przybylska, Bożena Solska, Monika Szyszka, and Sebastian Świerzewski.

Looking forward

European Anthropological Association looks forward to welcoming you to the 18th Conference in Ankara, Turkey. Professor Erksin Gülec presented an outline of the arrangements for Ankara in the closing ceremony. Professor Maria Kaczmarek presented Professor Erksin Gülec with a baton marking the symbolic passing of the EAA congress from Poznań to Ankara (Photo 21).

 

Maria Kaczmarek