1 Editors’ Notes Sam Beck, Cornell University David A. Kideckel, Central Connecticut State University As we go to press the Germanies are moments away from unification, the Soviet Union is about to embark on a five hundred day experiment of free market expansion and everywhere in the region (with Hungary possibly an exception) tendentious signs of political stagnation and conflict-both latent and manifest-are rending the fabric of the East and Central European states. Suddenly, too, the conflict on the Arabian peninsula has shifted the world's attention away from the East European transformation, just when those states could have best benefitted by an infusion of energy, assistance, and patience to complement their own people's struggles to fashion new societies on the still warm remains of the post-War system. The romance of the West with the region's revolutions lasted about eight months; not bad considering the prevalence of the "fifty second sound bite," in our contemporary political culture. Welcome to the nineties! New to this issue are two "reports from the field" which we hope to make a regular feature of subsequent numbers. Thus, as both AEER editors (Beck and Kideckel) have recently returned from Romania they, hopefully along with others recently there, will contribute a groupthink piece about that society in a future issue. We hope, too, that Jan Kubik will continue his meditations on his Polish fieldwork. We strongly encourage any of you who have recently been to East Europe to contribute your thoughts and analyses about the on-going transformation. Such contributions can go beyond 'both the analytical limitations of journalism as well as the time limitations of scholarship. Given the region's fluidity, we see few other options left us. Finally, it is sad to note the passing of Lajos Vincze who died unexpectedly this past May. Lajos was active in East European research and contributed a number of interesting articles on pastoralism in the region. A more complete obituary submitted by Eva Huseby-Darvas can be found in the current (annual meeting) issue of the AAA's Anthropology Newsletter. Eastern Europe at the AAA There are a number of meetings and symposia at the upcoming annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association which deserve your attention. First, the East European 2 Anthropology Group will meet Friday Nov. 30 at noon to 1:30 and the Society for the Anthropology of Europe meeting will also be the same day at 5:30-7:00 p.m. The Hungarian Research Group will meet Thurs, 11-29 at noon. SAE Network meeting for the Anthropology of Germany is also scheduled to meet Friday at 5:30 but that may well be changed due to conflicts with the SAE business meeting. Notable symposia include "Germany Between Perestroika and European Integration” (We, 9-28), "The European Melting Pot: National ideologies and Ethnic Minorities' (Fri a.m., 11- 30), "Communal Life and Collective Action" (Fri p.m., 11-30) and "Author Meets Critics: Ernest Gellner on the Structure of Human History" (Sat p.m., 12-1). A number of other SAE-sponsored sessions are devoted to Europeanist themes. A tout a l'heure!