Medals, Awards, and Memorial Lecture Series in Anthropology

Abstract

American Anthropological Association Purpose: For eminence in the field of American archeology with emphasis on the American Southwest and Middle America so long as these fields are important in archeological research. Current Data: A medal given every three years to a scholar selected by an especially ap? pointed committee of the American Anthro? pological Association. The medal is presented at the annual meeting of the Association, and notices published in the American Anthropol? ogist and in American Antiquity. No address or papers are associated. A statement on the award appeared in American Antiquity, Vol. 16, No. 3, p. 267, January, 1951. History: Established 1 November 1950, in commemoration of the retirement on that date of A. V. Kidder as Chairman of die Division of Historical Research, Carnegie Institution of Washington. The donors were a large num? ber of Dr. Kidder's friends headed by a Com? mittee consisting of Robert Wauchope, Chairman; J. O. Brew; Gordon F. Ekholm; Emil W. Haury; Jesse L. Nusbaum; and H. E. D. Pollock. Contributions paid for the casting of 100 medals and the establishment of $100, in the capital funds of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard Univer? sity, where the medals are deposited, to pro? duce an income for inscribing the recipients' names on the medals. The original Award Committee requested the Executive Board of The American Anthropological Association to superintend the selection of the recipient by appointing a committee for that purpose. There is no specific commitment for perpetuating this relationship between the Associa? tion and the award. The medal, designed and sculpted by Miss Tatiana Proskouriakoff, is of bronze, three inches in diameter. The obverse bears a carving taken from a carved slate mirror-back excavated by Dr. Kidder at Kaminal Juyu in Guatemala; the reverse is a conjectural detail of a Southwestern cliff