(Department of Anthropology, University at Buffalo letterhead)

								May 3, 1996
The Clerk
Standing Committee on Government Agencies
Legislative Council
Parliament House
PERTH WA 6000

Hon Barry House MLC
Chairman

Parliament House Perth WA 6000
Tel: (09)222 7222
Facsimile (09)321 2914

REGARDING THE DENIAL OF TENURE OF DR. DAVID RINDOS:

Dear Sir:

Let me introduce myself. I am a Professor of Anthropology specializing in archaeology and demography at the State University of New York at Buffalo. I am also a senior research scientist at the National Center for Geographic Information Analysis as well as adjunct Professor of Geography. I am on the editorial board of Antiquity and the Cambridge Archaeological Journal. I have previously taught at Stanford, have twice been a visiting professor at Cambridge University, once at the University of Helsinki, and have been invited to be a member of the English Institute of Advanced Studies at the University of Bristol..

I have followed the career of Dr. David Rindos for many years. I was aware of his archaeological and ecological work at Cornell and the University of Illinois during the 1980's. I was impressed by his book The Origins of Agriculture. I thought it was a tour de force. I was very pleased when he was asked to join the staff of Western Australia because not only was he a good researcher but I had been told by students that he was a good teacher. Even more important to me was the possibility of the combination of a brilliant scholar and a unique "island continent" environment creating an ideal place for important theoretical developments in the field of evolution.

I was very surprised when he was denied tenure because I had reviewed his ongoing research at various times and knew he was continuing to produce research on evolutionary topics at a high level. His work was and is important on an international level. The issues that he has raised in "Undirected variation and the Darwinian explanation of cultural change" and in his "Review of Coevolution" are being debated in numerous journals. Whether you agree with his intellectual position or not, he is attacking fundamental and key issues which are recognized around the world as being important. He is clearly an international, not a provincial scholar. Indeed, my own work on demographic modeling has been impacted by his study of human colonization of Australia ("Modeling the initial human colonization of Australia").

The fact that he has been able to continue to produce important studies under the duress of what appears on the surface to be an incomprehensible situation is a remarkable comment on his intellectual integrity and capabilities.

Clearly many scholars on the international scene are very pleased that the parliamentary committee is investigating and is concerned with maintaining "the integrity, professionalism, and international standing of State Universities ... thereby reinforcing the public confidence". Many of us have followed this case with interest in as much as the intellectual issues seemed so disparate from the political actions.

Sincerely, 
(signed)
Ezra Zubrow

Professor, Anthropology