The First Twenty Years

After twenty years as founder and editor of the Annual Review of Anthropology (ARA) I have been requested by the Editorial Committee to ponder the developments in the several subfields of anthropology over this period of time, as reflected in the topics selected for review in this enterprise. Where I feel some competence to do so, I shall offer a critique of where we have come from and where we might be going. Before entering into the fray, I will provide some history of the ARA and a brief account of my background, both of which affect the structure and the content of these volumes. I am pleased to report that the new editor is William Durham, a distinguished biological anthropologist whose research interests lie in the interface between biological and cultural evolution.