BLOOMSBURG STATE COLLEGE Blo~nsburg Pennsylvania Anthropology Newsletter Vol. 3, No. 5 February 1979 Department of Philosophy/Anthropology Scheduling for Fall 1979 Scheduling for the fall semester 1979 will begin Monday, February 12 and continue through Wednesday, March 14. You may schedule with any of the anthropology faculty. The courses to be offered next fall are: 46.100 46.200 46.301 46.332 46.470 46.490 General Anthropology Principles of Cultural Anthropology Field Archaeology Personality and Culture Anthropology Thought and Theory Socialization of the Child Mr. Reeder will be teaching the Personality and Culture course. According to him, the course will be wide ranging, dealing with sex roles and marriage, socialization and personality, personality disorders, the childhood of Hitler, the historical relationship between religion and family in the Western World and so on. Reeder and Minderhout will once again team teach the theory course. Feel free to ask the faculty about course content. Society for Applied Anthropology The Society for Applied Anthropology will hold its annual meeting in Philadelphia March 15-17. Dr. Minderhout has secured the use .of a state car for March 16-17 if anyone would like to attend. He will also be trying to arrange accomodations for evernight. Applied anthropology deals with the application of anthropological knowledge to help bring about social change. Many of you may find this topic area of interest. Ethnographic Facts by Lesly Barr. Music underlies the behavior of all peoples. Internalized concepts, constituting the framework upon which music is ordered or deemed appropriate, are basic tools of the ethnomusicologist studying various music systems. Among the Basongye of Zaire the prevalent view is that musical ahn.ity is inherited unequally. Those lacking the ability attribute it to a nonmusical ancestry. This conceptual framework is highly analogous to our own in the Western world. In Akan society the duties of a drmnmer are passed on from father to son, for he inherits naturally his father's skill. The epitome of this view is that soon after birth such a person shows this trait for when he is carried on the back he drums his fingers on the person carrying him. The Mundugumer, according to Margaret Mead, must rely on persons born with tr ~ umbilical cord twisted around their necks for their supply of potential artists. J~ contrast, however, the Nigerian Anang consider all individuals to be born with equal inherent talent for aesthetic activity. Similarly, in Trinidad, the art of improvisation is not considered a special gift and a talent of the few, but rather any alert ready mind can potentially accomplish it. These conceptual differences have a direct and substantial bearing upon the definition of who will or will not become a musician or at least who will be encouraged. Consider these distinctions: the differential effect must be tremendous when every child born into Anang society is a potential musician whereas at the same time the source of musicians in a society like the Basongye or Mundugumor is severely restricted. 2 Southwest Tour News by Robert Reeder. As of January 24 all 18 open registration positions for the Anthropology Depat-tment's archaeology tour have been filled. It is hoped that the total number of students may be kept at less than 22. The only students who will now be accepted for this excursion are (1) students with personal automobiles and (2) anthropology majors. The basic itinerary, subject to modifications en route, follows: DATE SITE May 21 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Shenandoah Valley Indian City Pecos Ruin & Ghost Towns Museums, Pueblos Museums, Pueblos Archaeological Ruins Archaeological Ruins Petrified Forest Sunset Crater & Museums Grand Canyon Wytheville, Virginia Anadarko, Oklahoma Las Vegas, New Mexico Sante Fe, New Mexico Sante Fe, New Mexico Chaco Canyon, New Mexico Chaco Can~on, New Mexico Holbrook, Arizona Two Guns, Arizona or Flagstaff, Arizona Grand Canyon, Arizona KOA KOA KOA KOA KOA N.P. N.P. KOA KOA KOA N.P. 1 2 3 4 5 6-8 Canyon de Chelley Ruins Monument Valley Mesa Verde Ruins Florissant Fossil Beds Colorado Springs Area Return trip to Bloomsburg Canyon de Chelley, Arizona Monument Valley, Utah Mesa Verde, Colorado Buena Vista, Colorado Colorado Springs, Colorado N. P. KOA N.P. KOA KOA June CAMPSITE KOA - Campgrounds of America N.P. - National Parks Book Review-The Bamboo Fire by William E. Mitchell is a highly readable account of an anthropologist's experiences among the Wape of Taute village in New Guinea. The book chronicles the special problems of moving Mitchell's family, complete with two nursery school age children, into the jungle of New Guinea. The marginal status of the anthropologist as he tries to span his culture and that of the Wape is also clearly described. Mitchell's major problems were economic. In ~arefully trying not to be a "white master", he let the Wape decide themselves how much they should be paid for work done. This turned out to be a mistake; the Wape couldn't agree among themselves on an equitable pay scale, and they became angry at him for not paying more than they agreed to. Similarly the Wape couldnJt understand why Mitchell wouldn't open a store or buy them a shotgun; after all, he was their "business". But not everything was negative. Mitchell and his family shared an important experience, ano a reader will gain a deep appreciation of the interpersonal side of anthr0pological fieldwork through reading this book. TV Highlights by Bill Creveling. Well, its about time after years of prom0ting silly love stories, variety shows, dramas, westerns and situation comedies, that the TV people are finally giving anthropology the air time it so rightly deserves. True, there have been occasional specials and documentaries but no one has ever produced a long running series dealing with anthropology. Psychology had its chance on the screen with the Bob Newhart Show but the series was cancelled after several seasons. Apparently the American public was not ready for a show dedicated to depicting the S()phisticated and technical details of clinical psychology. 3 Now it's anthropology's turn. As all you anthropology majors are aware, ABC is currently airing a series dedicated to promuglating the problems and methods of a typical everyday ethnographer. It's the story of Mork the Orkian ethnographer. Utilizing the present ethnographic methods, Mork takes on the monumental task of exploring, decifering, and recording the strange and bizarre customs of the primitive inhabitants of our planet Earth. Mork uses the methods of participant observation as part of his research. His observations are made as an active member of our culturP., trying not to interfere with our daily activities. As an ethnographer, Mork makes no value judgements of our customs but rather simply reports them and often tries them out himself. Mork is learning the appropriate and inappropriate patterns of behavior in our primitive culture. This is often a challenging task; after all, how could an alien possibly conceive of a culture so backwards that people keep eggs in a cold box, don't drink with their fingers and don't even sit on their faces. Mork is also faced with learning the language of us earthlings. Although he has picked up our basic grammar and vocabulary on Ork, Mork has found that our language has many subtleties, and a lot of slang can only be understood by living and participating in our culture. Another problem Mork runs into is the many discrepancies that exist between our thought and actions. Our actual behavior is often inconsistent with the reasoning behind it. Mork is often misled as to the real function of our customs by his chief informant, Mindy. For example, democracy appears to be an appropriation ot votes in accordance to wealth and power rather than one vote for each person. Christmas is a time of commercialization and self-centered maintenance of personal and family tradition rather than a time of ~ood will and sharing. Just as Mead would report periodically her progress to Boas, Mork makes weekly reports to his superior, Orson. Thus Mork appears to be capturing the major characteristics of a quality ethnographer. Not bad for someone who hasn't even taken 46-200. Archaeology News Through the month of February, Associate Professor Robert R. Solenberger and David R. Kowalewski, a student of both geology and anthropology, will be conducting an archaeological resource survey for the Pennsylvania Power and Light Company of an area within a two-mile radius of a point in Frosty Valley east of Danville. The purpose of this survey is to provide the utility company with information on the location of known and probable prehistoric Indian sites within the circular area indicated, so that damage to historically valuable sites can be avoided whenever the comp~ny may undertake any future construction work in the area. There is no plan involved for building anything more than a small sub-station and some electric transmission lines to connect with those already in the area. Any type of generating station is specifically ruled out, Either Solenberger or Kowalewski would appreciate learning of any possible Indian sites believed to be within the area indicated, whi..-'.. extends a short distance south of the Susquehanna east of Danville, and includes the boroughs of Danville and Riverside, and parts of Montour, Northumberland and Colt::. :.,ia counties. Any identifiable archaeological sites located in the course of this survey will be registered with the state archaeologists at the William Penn Museum in Harrisburg. So far the only registered sites in this part of the Susq4ehanna valley have been reported by Professor Solenberger in connection with excavations by his class in Field Archaeology, or by members of the student archaeology club (M.A.N.). Such registration may help prevent destruction of a site by any future public or private construction activity, and could lead to "salvage" excavation if this is planned, 4 Another by-product of the Danville area survey may be a number of interesting Indian sites which could be tested archeologically by the M.A.N. club this Spring, as soon as weather permits. Watch for M.A.N. Club meetings. Sociobiology Interviews by Bill Creveling & Jan Dunlevey. Here's the conclusion of our survey on sociobiology: (some editing was done because of space-DJM) Dr. Baird. Psychology: I caution students of sociobiology about the error of "anthropocentrism", ascribing human motives, explanations, concepts, etc. to natural phenomena. "Altruism", for example, cannot be inherited anymore than ''intelligence". The only characteristic which we pass on to our progeny is survival. Call it what you wish, but that doesn't make it real. We should keep in mind that theories are never true or false, only useful or net, and if sociobiology is useful to your understanding of behavior, then study it. Dr. Brook, Philosophy: I take it that the important thesis of sociobiology is that there is evidence of a strong genetic basis for behavior. The implications for the social sciences is perhaps that they should turn more to biology than to the conditioning of culture to explain social life. Assuming the above to be true it might be appropriate for a non-expert to make the following conunents. (ay The fact that behavior has a genetic base does not itself tell us how malleable that behavior is; that is how much can it be changed through conditioning. It would be a mistake to think that because there is a gen,e tic base to behavior that it is impervious to modification. And how subject behavior is to conditioning may depend on the resources of the culture. For example in a culture which has hearing aids genetically based deafness might not be at all that important. In the same way even if a trait like "intelligence" has a genetic component, no particular policies follow simply from that fact. (b) The preservation of any particular genetically based trait is always linked to past environments in which it has been adaptive. The concept of adaptiveness makes no sense unless linked to a particular environment. And the past adaptiveness ~fa trait is no argument in itself for its present or future adaptiveness. Thus studies of the past adaptiveness of a trait (be it eye color or behavior) has in itself no implications for social policy. There might be implications for social policy if we assume present and future environments remain same (in significant ~e~pects) as the past. But we should note that human beings have innnense capabilities for alt ering their environment. Thus in culturally altering or modifying behavior that has been adaptive i.n the past may be, in fact, the right thing to do since given the changed environment, it is _no longer adaptive. (For example, the "fight or flight" response is often inappropriate in many situations.) (c) As far as I can see Sociobiology has little to 0ffer philosophy concerning the possibilities of altruism. And this is because ".::~ . . ru.ism" and "egoism" are not defined in Sociobiology as they are in philosophy. 'T.his is not to say whose "definition" is right, just that different concepts are being used.) In philosophy the debate is over whether there can be basic altruistic motives; that is whether a person can have as a basic motive a desire for the welfare of others. As I understand sociobiology altruism and egoism are defined purely in terms of consequences, not in terms of motives. Suppose for purely selfish motives I have huge amounts of children. I plan to enslave them in order to benefit from the fruits of their labor. The children, unhappy with this arrangement, conspire together and do me in. Philosophy would call this behavior egoistic though self-defeating. Sociobiology, I presume would call this behavior "altruistic" since it is behavior that as a consequence my own destruction and the wide distribution of my genes. Thus the 5 ,. concepts are used quite differently. - ~ Dr. Gaynor, Psychology: I have several observations. The ethologists have been discovering the "wired-in" behavior of animals for three decades or more, including social behavior. What is the major difference between the ethologists and the sociobiologists? I suspect it is the fact that the sociobiologists are expousing a broader philosophy while the ethologists are staying closer to their data. I think also that the sociobiological position is another reaction (the humanistic school as the first) to rigorous behaviorism. It is clear that behaviorism cannot account for all behavior. Perhaps the pendulum has swung from over-emphasis af the environmental factors to over-emphasis of the genetic factors. Finally, it appears that to be heard over the crowd one's statement must be extreme. A good example from tne history of psychology is' Watson's statement on behaviorism in 1913. Sociobiology certainly is heuristic. All those who feel uncomfortable with the idea that humans are indeed under genetic control will be spurred to action to refute the sociobiological view. These goadings are necessary for progress for they force us to rethink positions we have accepted with little or no questioning. Also, even though the genetic basis for human behavior is a thought permeated with political explosiveness it is a counterpoint to the radical behavioristic position and may · serve to bring behavioral thinkers to a balanced point of view. In sum, my opinion is that sociobiology is a useful alternative that will cause us to rethink our "iewpoints of human behavior and thus retain that which is valid and to incorporate the new validities of the sociobiologists. Mr. Manley, Biology: Sociobiology from the evolutionis_t ' s view, places emphasis on the inter-relationship of man and his sub human ancestors. Unique as man may be, much of his activity, behaviorally and physi~ally as he reacts as a social animal, finds its roots deep in his primate past. Realization of this association makes mans' comprehension of the ancestral basis for social action meaningful and provides a greater understanding of the level of social behavior that occurs in lower primates. States of emotion, pain, anguish, fear and nia_ny others so obvious in man now are recognized to be equally important to other primates. 1· Sociobiology can bring man down from his throne as king of beasts, with exclusive feelings and exc-lusi:ve domain over other lower forms of life to the level of sharing his supericn: "fntelligence by comprehending that all higher forms of life may share some of the emotions and feelings'·he erroneously helienes are exclusively his. With increased knowledge of the social interaction of lower primates we may find the basis for our irrational behavior and lack of co- ·,:ern for not only our fellow human beings but for all life. Our future existEmce depends upon a new concept of respect for the environment, a concept which at. -~sent has not fully emerged. Hopefully, sociobiology will be the field capable of causing man to achieve this awareness before he destroys that small amount of the ecosystem that remains biolog:l:cally functional that support the human population and all other living things. If man can achieve respect for himself as a partner in the family of animals by recognizing he is merely an extension of the more simple faunal forms. He hopefully will reorient his behavior towards preservation of the environment, providing 6 acceptable living space, and conditions for all life to interact not only in their prespective niches, but in a harmonious web of interactions. Sociobiology does not place man in a conquering or dominative role but man as understanding the role every organism plays for the normal succession biological activity. Mans' evolution is resplendent in his role of seeking superiority. As an animal we even call ourselves human, yet if we reflect on mans' behavior today as well as the past, "human" takes on some frightening qualities. Man as a social animal leaves much to be desired; perhaps greater knowledge of his ancestors will modify this trend. If sociobiology can achieve this new concern for himself and his role in shaping the evulution on this planet it might well be considered the ultimate s cience. As you can see, from the responses published in the last two newsletters, there are a lot of diverse opinions about the topic of sociobiology. I hope this column will help you from your own opinion of the subject. NOTE: Any majors who have been taking Anthropology courses but have not yet filed a Declaration of Intent in Soc/Anthro should do so. The appropriate forms can be obtained from the Registrar's Office. This will help keep our records up to date. Office Hours-Spring Semester Mr. Reeder (219 BCH) 11 MW, 10 TuTh, 5:30 Monday evenings Mr. Solenberger (Boyer Garage) 10 F, 11 W, 2:15 TuTh · Dr. Minderhout (219 BCH) 9 MW, 1 MWF