The Editor’s Thanks and Farewell

Abstract

After 27 years as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Anthropological Research (and 47 as a professor of anthropology at the University of NewMexico), I am stepping down. This is my last issue (number 108) of JAR; my colleague, Professor Suzanne Oakdale (deputy editor for the past year) is now editor-in-chief. The Spring 2023 issue will be her first, and I hope she will receive the support and help that I have been privileged to receive from all those involved and interested in the Journal for so long. Dr. Oakdale is a sociocultural anthropologist who has done research in Brazilian Amazonia and, like me, was educated and trained at the University of Chicago. She will be the first female editor of this venerable publication. It is about time. The late Phil Bock handed JAR over to me after the Journal had reached its half-century milestone; three years ago, it achieved 75 years of continuous quarterly publication (for its first 28 years as the Southwestern Journal of Anthropology—a title that had always obscured its truly international contents and readership). Never did I imagine that I would be doing this job for more than a quarter-century—40% of the Journal ’s long history as one of the oldest anthropology serial publications in the United States. I first became aware of SWJA/JAR in graduate school, notably because of an article by UNM’s Jim Judge on the Folsom/ Midland question. Little did I know that I would spend my entire professional career at UNM—more than half of it as editor of the institution’s flagship international journal. The responsibility has been to maintain and improve on JAR’s long tradition of publishing substantive articles on widely interesting, topically diverse original research that are thoroughly contextualized, clearly argued, empirically substantiated, and relevant to broad readerships in various anthropological subdisciplines. It is independent of any professional associations and the possible academic politics thereof. Although by tradition the Editorial Board is made up of distinguished present and past UNM faculty members, JAR’s editorship is also independent of the UNMDepartment of Anthropology and university administration. TheUniversity of Chicago Press’s JournalsDivision is also uninvolved in editorial decisions. It has been a lot of work—in fact, pretty much daily and relentlessly, including evenings, weekends, a few half-year “sabbaticals,” academic “vacations”—even after long days excavating in El Mirón Cave between 1996 and 2013 at 65 km frommy summer base in Santander, Spain. A serious, active journal “knows” no breaks, and once everything