Totem: The University of Western Ontario Journal of Anthropology

From the Editors

TOTEM, as the University of Western Ontario’s Journal of Anthropology, tries to reflect both the interests of the students and the encompassing nature of the subject matter. Anthropology as a discipline is broad in scope, and when selecting papers this year we tried to represent this range.

This year TOTEM is pleased to present six outstanding papers. Our two bioarchaeology papers cover the diverse topics of Andean warrior sacrifice and the Homo habilis species debate. From our sociocultural contributors we have essays discussing the role of memory in the aftermath of genocide, an examination of shifting ethnography in the globalized world, and an exploration of online gaming communities. This year we also have an editorial piece on the issues surrounding primate conservation. We feel these papers truly reflect the diversity of student research at the University of Western Ontario.

TOTEM not only provides undergraduate and graduate students with the opportunity to see their work published in a peer-reviewed medium, but also to become a part of the editing process. We had a team of 20 assistant editors from both the graduate and undergraduate program with eclectic backgrounds. Thank you to all of the assistant editors; you did a wonderful job and we would not have finished in time without your help.

We would also like to thank all of those who submitted work and to those contributors whose work was chosen. All of the submissions were excellent, which made the final-decision making process challenging. Congratulations to all of those contributors whose work made it into this year’s volume.

Last, but certainly not least, we would like to give our thanks to Caroline Whippey for designing TOTEM’s new website, and to Dr. Douglass St. Christian for securing the web space. We would also like to thank the Anthropology Society for their support, as well as Dr. Andrew Nelson for printing all of the TOTEM posters and brochures. We would like to extend a special thanks to David Kanatawakhon for once again providing an exceptional, original piece of artwork for the cover.

We hope that you find the following papers as interesting and informative as we do.

Alicia Donis and Zoe Morris
Department of Anthropology
The University of Western Ontario
London, Ontario
March 2010