Call for Authors: We invite abstracts for contributions to an interdisciplinary compilation of essays to be submitted to a refereed academic press:

Totems and Transcriptions: Algonquian Social Structure and Picture-Writing in Historical Perspective

Throughout contact history, written discourse on the roles and functions of Algonquain totems has been characterized by confusion and disagreements that have been compounded by diversity and transformation in the practices and explanations of Algonquian peoples themselves. In the past, scholars have debated the relationships between totems and early contact period tribal designations, totems and guardian spirits, and totems and hunting territories, as well as the extent to which pictorial symbols functioned as a form of "literacy."

Today, a new set of questions has sparked renewed interest in Algonquian totems. In particular, the early identities of totemic groups and the role of totems in traditional land use patterns are relevant to land claims and resource management issues. As well, questions concerning totemic emblems as pictorial symbols and historic evidence contribute to wide ranging discourses on visual culture and historiographic method.

This collection of essays revisits past scholarship and presents current discourse on Algonquian totems and totemic emblems in view of indigenous perspectives and present ethnohistoric approaches. This multifaceted scrutiny of the evolution of both Algonquian totems and interpretations of them will provide unprecedented clarity by introducing and analyzing new evidence, as well as by tracing the development of misunderstandings. It will link widely dispersed discourses on Algonquian totems to each other and, moreover, to vital issues facing Algonquian peoples today.

Suggested topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• historic case studies of totemic affiliations in Algonquian communities
• case studies of pictographic data as it pertains to totemic emblems
• applications of the totemic system to current First Nations concerns
• reinterpretations of past studies of Algonquian totemism (including interpretations of unpublished ethnographic field notes)
• totems and totemism in Algonquian oral traditions

Please send paper titles, abstracts of 250 words, and your contact information to one or both of the addresses listed below no later than Sept. 22nd, 2003. Final drafts of papers will be due in Sept. 2004.