8LOOf1SBURG STATE COLLEGE
B1oomsburg
Pennsyivania
A!HHROPOLOGY iJE\-JSLETTER
Ila rch, 1977
Anthropology is no\•1 part of the joint department of Philosophy and Anthropology.
This reorganizational event does not in any way affect the antl1ropology major or
its curricula at 13SC. The Anthropology major, called 11 Soc/Anthro 11 major, consists
of a variety of courses from anthropology, sociology and biology as described in
the college catalogue. It is believed by the profession of anthropology and those
who practice that profession at BSC that there is a natural and complementary
relationship between anthropology and sociology wl1ich should compel students of
those t\-10 majors to have substantial course training in both subjects. For this
reason tl1e professors of anthropology will continue to cooperate with sociologists
wheneve1· amicable cooperation is reciprocated.
Anthropology majors, 11 minors 11 and fellow travelers, should have a personal copy
of "Job Opportunities in Soc/ Anthro" \vhi ch describes and identifies hundreds of
employment opportunities for which anthro is an appropriate college major. See
Bob Reeder, Bob,Solenberger or David Minderhout for a copy.
Dr. f1inderhout \vill be attending the Georgetown Roundtable on Languages and
Linguistics during the month of rtarch, in t✓ ashington, DC.
FEATURE

The professors of anthropology were asked this question:
anthropologist? Included are the responses:
I.

t✓ hy

did you become an

REEDER: Unknowingly I believe I have always been interested in anthropology
but I \'✓ as not able to identify "anthropology" as the prnper place to study
th ese ·interests until I \•1as required to elect a minor study area while
pursuing a Ph.D. program in sociology at Indiana University in Bloomington,
Indiana. /1.fte:-- exposure to my first anthropology course (Religion and tlagic)
in my seventh year of college, it became obvious to me that anthropology
provided the kinds of explanations of the events of social and biological
life . . . in combination . . . \•1hich were more meaningful than the somev1hat
limited horizons of sociology. I subsequently received a fellowship to
study anthropology at the University of Colorado for sixteen months and
became further a\'Jare that anthropology ansv,ered more questions, opened more
intellectual doors, exposed me to many different kinds of study, including
field archeology, than subjects I had previously studied. Anthropology
ultimately made me feel more complete as a person, and more totally educated
than I had been. Anthro is exciting, variable, and a profound intellectua·1
adventure while providing, in my judgment, more professional opportunities
than perhaps any other area of study. lly regr2t is that I did not begin
anthropological study v,hen I l'/as an undt:rgraduate and thus I have not had as
much opportunity to study as I might have preferred.

Anthropology Hev1sletter
II.

:::

f1IllDERIIOUT: The most influent·ial experience I had in becoming an
anthropologist v1as reading Louis Leakey 1 s account of the discovery
of Zinjanthropus in a flational Geograph·ic in 1960. I v1as "13 at the
time, but I knew that this was vihat I \vas interested in. However, I
didn't knov, hovJ to get v1hat I wanted; I didn 1 t knov1 1vhat anthropology
was called. So when I started college at Grand Rapids Junior College
I was a speech major, specializing in debate. Because GRJC only had
three speech courses, I selected courses to fill out my schedule from
a wide variety of disciplines, including an introductory course in
cultural anthropology. Again I was fascinated. When I transferred to
t1ichigan State University in my junior year and tock noth~ng but speech
courses for a term, I found that I didn't like speech much. So I began
looking for another major. I took several anthropology courses and was
hooked.
I prefer anthropology to sociology, psychology and the other social
because of its holistic perspective. Man, it seems to me, is not a
dimensional creature; rather the fascinating thing about man is his
faceted nature. The other social sciences are too particularistic,
limited in their view of man. Anthropology looks at the Hhole man,
and culture, past, present and future. I like that.

III.

2

sciences
onemultitoo
biology

SOLEiJBERGER: 1•1y interest in \vhat I now know as anthropology grew out of
childhood reading. One of the books that was given me was about Lawrence
of Arabia. Just before I was 13 I went to live with my aunt in Santa Fe,
ilew Mexico v1here I attended the 8th grade. She took me to visit Pueblo
and Apache Indians in northern and central llew Mexico and several Indian
ruins. In school v.Je made notebooks on llew t1exico archeology, on the basis
of a course our teacher had taken. In Santa Fe I visited museums of Spanish
and Indian curios and archeological objects, including the type collection
of ancient and modern Pueblo pottery at the Laboratory of Anthropology.
It \'tas this name, I think, that first let me knov1 it was "anthropology': I
really v1ished to study. It happened that my art teacher at the G2orge
School, t1. Louise Baker, spent half ti me at the University of Pennsylvania
f1useum, copying archeological finds. This combination of professional
excellence and world travel to copy art works inspired me to reject a bid
to attend Swarthmore and enter the University of Pennsylvania, vihere I
spent the next eight years, partly with scliolarship and fellov1ship aid.
College summers on archeological expeditions and work camps among Indians
in Hew t1exico, Arizona, Ol~lahoma and rural tlexico afforded opportunities
for both scientific study and informal contact with Indians of several groups.
In all I have visited over 50 American Indian communities
At tile conclusion of my graduate studies, I was engaged by the Association
on American Indians Affairs to make a field study of local government, with
special reference to lav1 enforcer,ient problems, on the eight Iroquois
reservations in flew York state.
fly role as anthropologist in the narianas is discussed in the books

"Anthropology and Ad111inistration, 11 by Homer G. Barnett, and "The Secret of
Culture," by Laura Thompson. In 1968 I completed visiting all parts of

Anthropology Newsletter

3

f1icronesia, and gave two institutes at the University of Guam on "Culture
and Conflict and Language Learning in Micronesia," and presented a paper
on this topic in Tokyo, based on the interv·iews with school personnel
throughout the area. This trip brought the total of Pacific islands I have
visited up to 22.
Having been appointed at BSC in 1960, originally to teach a combination of
sociology and history, I gradually managed to introduce anthropology as a
subject of study. For August, 1977 I am enthusiastic about the possibility
of enjoying outdoor living while carrying on a Field Archeology course
sponsored jointly with QUEST.
IV.

FOLLOHUP:

Reeder:

Last month a list of 11 great 11 books in the history of anthropology
was printed in the newsletter. David Minderhout has pointed out
that many of the books on that list are "great" in the sense
that they were innovative when they were written but that more
contemporary works might be mentioned to guide the anthro student
to works of more direct academic significance today. Hence,
Minderhout and Reeder have made lists of books which were most
influential in their professional careers.
l. E. Durkheim, Elementary Forms of the Religious Life
2. L. White, The Science of Culture
3. W. Howells, Mankind in the Makfog
4. V. G. Childe, Man Makes Himself
*5. S. Washburn, Tools and Human Evolution
*6. Hockett and Ascher, The Human Revolution
*7. A. F. C. Wallace, Revitalization Movements
8. R. Ardrey, African Gensis ("pop" anthropology)
9. D. Barash, Socio-Biology and Behavior (current)
*articles, reprinted in many places.

Mi nderhout:

l . E. Durkheim, Division of Labor in Society
2. Radcliffe-Brown, Structure & Function in Primitive Society
3. E. Leach, Political Systems of Highland Burma
4. F. Barth, Models of Social Organization
5. Chomsky, Syntactic Structures
6. S. Tyler, Cognitive Anthropology
7. L. White, The Science of Culture
8. D. Hymes, Language in Culture &Society
9. C. Geertz, The Religion of Java
l O. B. Whorf, Language, Thought & Reality