The Beast on the Table: Conferencing with Anthropologists

The conferences that are the subject of this volume are the week-long international symposia sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, over 150 of which were held between 1952 and 2000. In their totality, they closely parallel the development of anthropology during this period, and may have played a large part in that development. In revisiting her experiences with the Wenner-Gren symposia over a 13-year period, Sybel Silverman examines the conference process as it relates to the production of knowledge and new directions in anthropology.