LAST week my old school, Ateneo de Manila, where I received an MA in Anthropology with major in archaeology some decades ago, invited its alumni and friends to the formal inauguration of a levels-up Department of Sociology and Anthropology. Its acronym is ASIA, for Anthropological and Sociological Initiatives of the Ateneo, an umbrella organization for research and public scholarship of its various transdisciplinary studies.

Ateneo's Department of Sociology and Antthropology started in 1960 with the Jesuit anthropologist, Frank X Lynch, SJ who was joined by John F. Doherty who became chairman and with Mary Racelis and John Carroll, SJ part of the faculty and research staff.