This book had its genesis at the Seventh International Conference of
Hunting and Gathering Societies (CHAGS 7), which was hosted by the
Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sci-
ences in Moscow, Russia, from 18-22 August 1993. The co-organizers of
the conference were Dr. Victor Shnirelman of the Institute of Ethnology
and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences, and the late Dr. Linda J.
Ellanna of the Department of Anthropology, University of Alaska Fair-
banks. The conference convener was Dr. Valery Tishkov, Director of the
Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Richard Lee of the Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto,
was a co-chair of CHAGS 7.

Financial support for the conference was provided by the Division of
Polar Programs of the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Wenner-
Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. The Institute of Ethnology
and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow; the Depart-
ment of Anthropology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Alaska; and the
Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada,
provided both logistical and financial support for the conference and the
publication of the abstracts and sets of papers presented at CHAGS 7. In
addition, we would like to thank the conference staff, Irina Babich of the
Russian Academy of Sciences, and Tracie Cogdill of the University of
Alaska Fairbanks.

The organizing committee for CHAGS 7 included Pierrette Désy,
University of Quebec; Linda Ellanna and Peter Schweitzer, University of
Alaska Fairbanks; Robert Hitchcock, University of Nebraska-Lincoln;
Richard Lee, University of Toronto; Victor Shnirelman and Valery Tish-
kov, Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Moscow; Eric Alden Smith,
University of Washington; and Polly Wiessner, Max Planck Institute for
Human Ethology. Symposia co-chairs included Zoya P. Sokolova, the late
Aleksandr Pika, Sofia Maretina, Victor Shnirelman, and Sergei Arutiunov
of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sci-
ences; Tim Ingold of the University of Manchester; and Robert Hitch-
cock, Eric Alden Smith, Pierrette Désy, and Polly Wiessner.

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