Los Altos Summer Instensive: Anthropologicon:
Celebrating the Careers of Jonathan Z Smith and Greg Stafford
July 5th, 2019 to July 8th, 2019 in Harrison Mills, British Columbia
Less than a year apart, two extraordinary thinkers on the interactions between religion and society passed away. Jonathan Z Smith, of the University of Chicago School of Social Thought on December 30th, 2017 and Greg Stafford of Chaosium Publishing on October 11th, 2018.
Jonathan Z Smith Greg Stafford
It does not appear that these two men ever met. But their lives’ missions curiously converged. Both contributed profound and novel thinking to our society’s understanding of religion—especially pre-modern religion. Both also worked to make this thought accessible.
Smith is best known for his accessible lecturing and writing styles and, for this reason, his short, pithy essay collections Imagining Religion and Relating Religion are classics in their discipline assigned for university courses from the introductory to the doctoral level. Smith’s thought stood out as audacious and synthetic and crossed many siloed academic boundaries as he engaged points of comparison and connection between the ancient and modern from the Phoenician cult of Baal to the Jonestown tragedy.
Stafford is best known for his extended thought experiment in the form of the fantasy world, Glorantha and the way he used it in his novels and role-playing games, Hero Wars and Runequest to explore the ways in which pre-modern societies understood their interactions with gods, spirits and fantastic creatures. While many RPGs have contained rich systems of magic and dramatic cosmologies. Stafford’s work stands alone after forty years as the only one to grapple seriously with the social and cultural components of this, bringing not just gods to life but religion itself.
At Anthropologicon, we will bring these worlds together in a variety of ways, including informal seminars on Stafford’s anthropological and sociological theories, a tabletop game based on some of Smith’s key insights and time around the campfire with good food, strong drink and sharp minds in a picturesque location in British Columbia.
Scratch Factory’s Corey Reid will lead and coordinate gaming; SFU’s Stuart Parker will lead and coordinate seminars; LAI’s (formerly Quattro’s) Dan Jenneson will be organizing the culinary contributions and LAI’s Alannah New-Small and Jeremy Stewart will be handling site acquisitions and travel logistics. This is the second Reid-Parker event partnership; the first, 2009’s Giant Space Telescope Con at Algonquin Radio Observatory is a fondly-remembered event.
Registration is limited to twelve participants in total. And is available at the following price tiers:
- For Students and Un/Under-Employed: $360 for the four days. This includes classes, meals and accommodations in a shared resort/hotel room. Those paying this rate may also apply for a travel grant to assist in covering transportation costs. The availability of these spaces is contingent upon full-freight registrants; the maximum available is six.
- For Employed Activists, Academics and Gamers: $750 for the four days. This includes classes, meals and accommodations in a shared room.
- For Employed Activists, Academics and Gamers: $1050 for the four days. This includes classes, meals and accommodations in a private room.
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Our weekend includes the following materials, which will be mailed to registrants in June:
- A rulebook, setting materials and character sheets for the Suffan gaming system, created by Stuart Parker in tribute to the work of Greg Stafford
- Reprints of second and third edition Runequest rulebooks and character sheets
- Imagining Religion by Jonathan Z Smith
- Relating Religion by Jonathan Z Smith
- Reprints of local legends recorded by Franz Boas in the 1880s and 90s, featuring local landscape phenomenology
Unlike many gaming, academic and activist events, this event also functions as a holiday retreat, featuring:
- A shared or individual room in a restored Edwardian-era farmhouse in the Hamlet of Harrison Mills in British Columbia’s Fraser Valley, just a short walk to the confluence of the Harrison and Fraser Rivers
- The cooking of Dan Jenesson, the founding sous-chef of Quattro on Fourth, formerly Vancouver’s premier Italian eatery, based around the themes covered over the weekend
Registration also includes:
- morning tea and coffee
- two hot, professionally-prepared meals per day, with thematically-focused meals featuring Mediterranean-style cuisine based on fresh, local ingredients, including organic, free-range meats and vegetarian options
- a daily lunch soup and salad bar
- red and white wine with each dinner
- shared or private room for the nights of July 5th, 6th and 7th
- two concurrent sessions in the morning and afternoon featuring a combination of tabletop RPGs, religious studies discussion and landscape phenomenology field trips run by author and designer Corey Reid and Institute president Stuart Parker
- after-dinner gaming for committed gamers
- transportation assistance for those arriving from outside Greater Vancouver, with pickups from Pacific Central Station, YVR Airport and Abbotsford Airport
We are pleased to report that Anthropologicon went off without a hitch on the July 5th to 8th weekend in Harrison Mills. Here are some photos of the highlights:
Here are some outdoor shots of the superb venue:
And, not to be forgotten, the signature Dan Jenneson/Los Altos Institute cuisine:
