BLOOMSBURG UNIVERSITY
Pennsylvania
Bloomsburg
Anthropology Newsletter
Vol. 8, No. 1
September 1983
Department of Philosophy/Anthropology
Welcome back! The name has changed to Bloomsburg University, but the
Anthropoiogy Newsletter goes on and on. We intend to publish four times
during the 83-84 year, providing information of interest about anthropology
and our program to the university community. The Anthropology Newsletter
is provided free of charge to anthropology majors, any interested student,
and to department chairpersons and administrators. Anyone who wishes to be
added to our mailing list should contact Dave Minderhout in 219 BCH (4334).
Changes in Personnel: Last April Gary Feinman resigned to take a position with
the Universsity of Wisconsin. We were authorized at that time to hire a
replacement on a temporary one-year basis. In July, after a two-month search,
we hired Dr. Bruce Byland for the temporary position.
Dr. Byland obtained his BA in anthropology from Rice University and his MA and
Ph.D. from Penn State. He comes to us from Herbert Lehman College (CUNY), and
he has taught previously at Yale and Suny-Albany. Like Gary Feinman, Bruce is
an archaeologist with a strong interest in Mexico. His Ph.D. dissertation
focused on the economic and political development in a Mixtec area of Oaxaca.
Since completing his dissertation , he has been working on the relationship of
the Mixtecs to the Aztec Empire in the 15th and 16th centuries. In addition
to Mexico, Bruce is also interested in the archaeology of Eastern North America.
As before, we were looking for teaching excellence in a candidate, for someone
who could generate enthusiasm in the classroom. We were greatly impressed with
Bruce's classroom abilities. His background shows that he is more than able to
deal with the new archaeology offerings in the department, including 46.210 and
46,300, and we believe that students will be glad they had some contact with him.
We hope to receive authorization from the University to hire a full-time tenure
track archaeologist for the 84-85 year. If so, Bruce wi 11 be given every consideration for that position.
Prescheduling for Spring 1984: Prescheduling for spring 1984 begins for juniors
and seniors on September 27 and continues throughout the month of October. The
anthropology offerings for spring 1984 are as follows:
46. 100 Principles of Physical Anthropology
46.200 Principles of Cultural Anthropology
46.300 Archaeological Method & Theory
46.350 Medical Anthropology
46.440 Language & Culture
46.480 Religion & Magic
46.300, Archaeological Method & Theory, is a new course being offered for the
first time. This course focuses on the nature of archaeological remains and
how they are interpreted. The principle objective of the course is to explain

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how archaeological remains can be used to address such majo·r questions as the
importance of ancient trade, the rise of early bureaucracies, and the development
of food production. While examples are drawn from different regions around the
globe, considerable attention is given to the prehistoric and historic peoples
of the Northeastern United States. 46. 100 is good preparation for this course,
which Bruce Byland will be teaching.
46.350, Medical Anthropology, has become one of our most successful courses.
This course looks at concepts of sickness and health cross-culturally. Among
the topics covered are nutrition and malnutrition, reproduction and childcare,
the care of the elderly and attitudes towards death, and the cultural impact on
disease patterns, each viewed cross-culturally from an anthropological perspective.
The texts used are Human Sickness and Health by Corinne Shear Wood and Culture,
~rerst and Contagion, edited by Norman Klein. The course is offered on Tuesday
evenings by Dave Minderhout.
46.440, Langu~ge & Culture, takes a look at language in its various social
settings. The course looks at the origins of language, child language acquisition,
language variability (dialects & multilingualism), languages relationship to
thought, non-verbal communication and language change. The emphasis will be on
language as part of a larger social system; American English will be : _ used for most
examples. The texts are Peter Farb's Word Play and A Host of Tongues by Nancy
Conklin and Margaret Lourie. The course is offered MWF at 2 by Dave Minderhout.
Southwest Tour 1983: Twenty-eight intrepid travelers spent three weeks in the
American Southwest this past May and June as part of the 1983 Anthropology Tour.
Mr. Reeder was the coordinator and leader of this expedition, one which he describes
as the smoothest, most problem-free ever. Among the places visited were Carlsbad
Caverns; Juarez, Mexico; White Sands; Santa Fe; Pecos Ruins; Fort Union; Taos
Pueblo; Chaco Canyon; the Grand Canyon; Canyon Du Chelly; Monument Valley; and
Mesa Verde. Mr. Reeder was disturbed by the ethnocentric behavior of many of
the students on the tour, but in general, he feels that the positive aspects
outweighed the negative. The comments in the assigned journals indicates that
for most participants, the tour was the highlight of their BU careers.
Culture & Conservation: Tribal and peasant peoples are often described as being
more conservation-oriented and environment conscious than people in modern
industrialized societies. According to a recent Natural History article, part
of the reason may be a belief in supernatural protectors of the environment
who punish those who are not respectful of natural resources. In particular,
Nigel Smith contends, folk beliefs in fearsome spirits has helped to conserve
the resources of the Amazon jungle. For instance, he describes the mae de
seringa, the "mother of rubber trees" who appears whenever rubber tappers are
overzealous in draining the latex-rich sap from the trees. The mae de seringa
is described as a short woman with long hair and gashes on her arms and legs
in the herringbone pattern placed by tappers on the trunks of the trees. Tappers
who cross her are known to have unfortunate accidents in the forests.
Another protective creature is the tapire-iauara or 11 tapir-nymph 11 • This cowsized creature has a jaguar head and broad, feline paws. Its huge ears droop
down the sides of its head like those of Brahman cattle. The tapir-nymph lives
in water, where it attackes fishermen . in their boats, drowning them if possible.

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Fishermen wisely avoid areas where tapir-nymphs are known to live. Other locales
are "enchanted places" or lugares encantados. Typical examples are forest pools
where people have drowned; in local beliefs, drowning victims cannot go to
heaven. Instead they lure others to share their fate. Enchanted waters are
characterized by unexpected noises: dogs barking or human voices or music. The
cautious avoid enchanted places. Both examples in effect create "no hunting"
or "no fishing•• zones.

Smith points out that as Western education and secular values spread throughout
Amazonia, people come to reject these old folk beliefs. As a result, unrestrained
exploitation of the natural environment can occur. It is estimated that the
Amazonian rain forest will disappear by the year 2000.
Folk beliefs do not invariably lead to conservation, however. In an article
in 1978, Calvin Martin wrote about how Indians of eastern Canada decimated
animal populations in the 18th and 19th centuries. Traditionally, Indian
hunters felt a sense of spiritual kinship with major game animals, a relationship marked by genuine awe and fear of these powerful animals and their supernatural protectors or wardens. It was generally believed that humans and
animals had entered into a contract with each other. The animals would allow
a small number of their kind to be killed for human use, if in return the humans
displayed proper respect for the 1 ives they had taken. This contract could be
broken if the humans were disrespectful or if they practiced overkill, taking
more animal 1 Ives than were needed for humans• immediate needs.
After European contact, many Indians died from exposure to new diseases to whlch
they had no immunities. Diseases such as smallpox and measles decimated Indian
populations. Eastern Canadian Indians interpreted major illnesses as punishment for some sort of transgression, punishment meted out by offended animal
spirits. Martin, an historian, believes that the Indians interpreted the new
diseases as unwarranted punishment from the animal spirits--and thus, a violation
of the contract. Thus, when whites wanted Indians to trap beaver for pelts,
for instance, the Indians were only too happy to participate in a beaver slaughter.
The Indians were, in fact, making war on these creatures that had maliciously
broken the terms of the human-animal agreement. Therefore, the Indians of
eastern Canada were conservationists only so long as nature cooperated.
Coming Events: The annual convention of the American Anthropological Association
will be held in Chicago from November 16-20 -- the Council for Northeast Historical
Archaeology will meet in Newburgh, NY, from October 14-16 -- the Society for the
Scientific Study of Sex will meet in Ch .icago from November 18-20--the African
Studies Association wi 11 meet in Boston, Dec. 7-10.