Great Basin Anthropological Conference Records

The Great Basin Archaeological Conference began in 1954 when Jesse Jennings, from the University of Utah, and Robert Heizer, from the University of California, Berkeley, proposed convening a sub-conference for those interested in the Great Basin at the Pecos Conference meeting at the Gila Pueblo in Globe, Arizona. Funded by a Wenner-Gren grant obtained by Jennings, the conference in 1954 was successful and the organizers agreed to form a Great Basin Archaeological Conference that would meet every year at various locations, usually at an academic institution or other historical venue. In the beginning, the organization of the conferences was informal with interested researchers organizing the proceeding and making the arrangements.

In 1961 the conference name was changed to the Great Basin Anthropological Conference to reflect a broader scope of research. The conferences continued to meet annually until 1964 (except there were no meetings in 1960 and 1963 due to a lack of response from potential participants), when the meeting schedule was changed to biennial. By 1964, the conference organizers began to see the need to explore better ways to organize the conference for ensuring continuity. Warren d’Azevedo from the Anthropology Department at the University of Nevada, Reno, the Chairman of the 1964 conference, appointed an ad hoc advisory committee to study how the organization could be more effective. Out of those recommendations came the idea to have the conference biennially, institute an active membership in the organization with a $2.00 biennial registration fee, and formalize the duties of the chairman.

In the 1970s, it was decided that the program chairs from the past 10 years would serve as an informal governing board to the conference. Their duties were to choose a program chair and find a venue for the next meeting. By 1996, the size of the meetings and the Internal Revenue Service requirements led to formal incorporation of the conference. On February 3, 1997, the “Great Basin Anthropology Association, Inc., doing business as the The Great Basin Archaeological Conference” was incorporated in Idaho. By 1998, the membership was over 700.

The conferences consisted of presentations of papers on subjects relating to the Great Basin and reports of recent fieldwork. Some years the papers were printed under the auspices of various organizations, including the Nevada Desert Research Institute and the Nevada State Museum.