BLOOMSBURG UNIVERSITY
Anthropology Newsletter
Vol. 10, No. 4
April 1986
Department of Philosophy/Anthropology
Course Offerings for Fall 1986: The anthropology faculty will offer the
following courses for Fall 1986:

*46.101
*46.200
*46.210
*46.220
*46.260
46.311
46.470

Introduction to Anthropology
Principles of Cultural Anthropology
Prehistoric Archaeology
Principles of Physical Anthropology
Men and Women
Archaeology of Northeastern North America
History of Anthropology Thought & Theory

* - general education course.
New Course - Men & Women: The anthropologists will be offering a new
course in the fall semester, 46,260, Men & Women: An Anthropological
Perspective. The course will be team taught by Reeder & Minderhout and
has been approved for general education credit. The course looks at all
aspects of the anthropology of sex roles, from sex roles in contemporary
non-human primates to speculations about the evolution of sex roles in
humans to the behavior of the sexes in contemporary cultures. Various
theories of sex role behavior will be reviewed and critiqued, and contemporary social movements, such as . women's rights, will be discussed in the
light of anthropological perspectives. We anticipate this becoming a popular
course for the future.
Hey, anthropology majors!: Just a reminder - the 46.470 Anthropology Theory
course is required for the major. Junior and senior anthropology majors
should make sure they schedule this course for the fall. The course is
open to other interested students as well. This course will also be team
taught by Reeder & Minderhout.

10-4 by Barb Emerick: Believe it or not, anthropologists do more than study
primitive societies in Africa, write books, and teach! Increasingly anthropologists
are turning to their own cultures for study. Typically these anthropologists
focus on subgroup in American society and identify the particular problems that
shape a group's outlook and actions. The application of their research helps
industry and government make decisions on a variety of issues. One such
anthropologist is Michael Agar from the University of Maryland. Agar studied
truck drivers who operate their own rigs. This work is being used by Midwestern
Transport Co. to aid in recruiting and retaining more drivers. Agar also studied
how national policies affected the private lives of the truckers.
Agar learned about the complexity involved in driving a rig of 13 speeds
and the dexterity needed to do so. There were dozens of gauges to read and
interpret. There was also a great deal of responsibility for the goods being
hauled.

In the process, Agar discovered that many of the stereotypes of truckers
were wrong. He found that some of the truckers had college degrees, one
spoke seven languages, and most were highly intelligent. What they shared
in common was a love for the independence of the open road.
He found that there are numerous dilemmas facing truckers today. One
such problem is that of the deregulation of the trucking industry. Truckers
are faced with the pressure of the cost of repairs which, being independent,
they pay for. Because trucking regulations vary so much from state to state,
the truckers say they need more uniform regulations.
He concludes his study with the thought that the independent trucker
is caught up in a struggle for economic survival. He also says that the truckers,
believe it or not, enjoy the odd hours, the cab's isolation, and the "romance"
of the road. An anthropologist's work is never done.
Great, Great, Great, etc. Grandpa Found? by Barb Emerick. One of man's distant
ancestors may have been unearthed recently with the discovery of the fossil
remains of an ancient primate, Cantius torresi, in Michigan. This primitive
primate apparantly was a common ancestor of the lemurs and tarsiers.
Cantius
torresi was dated at least one million years older than the earliest lemurs
and tarsiers which appeared about 52 million BP. This primate was an arboreal
fruit-eater about the size of a squirrel; it probably had wooly fur with a long
tail. Among the remains were 3 jawbone segments with 8 teeth. It is believed
that Cantius torresi originated in Africa and migrated through Asia until it
reached North America.
The Anthropologist's Cookbook: The following recipe is from Ghana and is
called Ghanaian Groundnut Stew.
1 medium chicken or 2 lbs of meat
2 large onions
5 or 6 tomatoes
garlic
2 or 3 small red peppers or½ to 1 tsp of cayenne pepper
1 8 oz jar of peanut butter
½ cup oil for frying - peanut oil, if possible
4 to 6 cups of broth, either from soup cubes or pre-cooking of meat.
Joint chicken or cut meat into cubes, partly cook first. Fry onions and
tomatoes over high heat. Add garlic and peppers to onions and tomatoes.
Fry all together for a couple of minutes and then add meat pieces, browning
on all sides. Use hot fire and enough oil to fry vegetables and sear meat
pieces. You -want to avoid stewing them in their own juices. Turn, don't burn.
When meat is browning, mix peanut butter with chicken broth, first to a
smooth paste, then add more broth to make a rich soup, sufficient to cover
pieces of meat in a casserole.
Take browned meat from frying pan and put into casserole. Add peanut soup
to frying pan and stir to mix with fragments of onion, meat and tomatoes left
in pan. Simmer gently a few minutes and taste for salt and pepper; add to taste
and pour soup over meat. Cover casserole and cook in slow oven (350 degrees)
until meat is tender.
Serve with plain boiled rice and whole, shelled, hard-boiled eggs.

Easter Island Today: Easter Island was made famous by Thor Heyerdahl and
other authors writing about the massive stone heads which are found on this
remote South Pacific island. These heads, which may be 30 to 40 feet tall,
were quarried and sculpted on one part of the island and moved, presumably
by human labor, to their present locations some miles away from their
origins. The interpretation of the sculptures has been the focus of several
books and the source of a small-scale tourist industry. There has been
some modernization - there is a hospital and a handful of cars, motorbikes,
and telephones for the 2000 islanders - but until recently, the remoteness of
the island's location meant that contact with the outside world was minimal.
Recently, however, NASA has proposed building an emergency-landing strip on
the island for space shuttle landings. The project would cost $9 million
dollars and transform the relationship of the island to the outside world.
Islanders have not welcomed the project with open arms. They protest the
fact that the decision to build the runway was done without their consent;
Easter Island is administered by Chile, and it was the Chilean government who
agreed to the project. There are also objections that the runway would fill in
an area where there are a number of archaeological sites containing stone structures
from earlier centuries. The construction project will provide jobs, but as one
resident put it, "nobody is starving here, so the intrusion is really unnecessary."
Since the new runway will also be used by commercial aircraft, tourism will
·
probably also increase.
The Easter Islanders are not fond of their Chilean administrators,
but Chile has taken one step which might keep the Islanders from going the
way of many native cultures: only native islanders may own land. The local
language, Rapa Nui, is also protected by law and taught in the local schools
along with Spanish.
A Minor in Anthropology: A minor in anthropology consists of 18 credits.
There are three required courses; 46.200, Principles of Cultural Anthropology;
46.210, Prehistoric Archaeology; and 46.220, Principles of Physical Anthropology.
The other 9 credits are to be selected from on of three tracks, archaeology,
cultural, and physical anthropology. Please see any of the anthropology faculty
for more details .
AIDS and Anthropology: In an article in February's Natural History,
Jonathan E. Kaplan, an epidemiologist with the Center for Disease Control in
Atlanta, makes two main points about AIDS. The first is that the disease is
going to continue to spread. As the disease spreads more to heterosexuals and
becomes active in the million or so people believed to be carriers of the disease,
we can expect to see a proliferating effect. Second) he notes that the developll\ent
of a vaccine remains a distant hope. Most Americans, he believes, are being lulled ·
into complacency about AIDS on the assumption that the discovery of a vaccine is
just around the corner. This blind faith in medical science does not fit the
realities of the AIDS virus. Three characteristics of the disease are creating
severe difficulties for vaccine research. First, the AIDS virus is highly variable.
No one vaccine, it appears, will be capable of producing antibodies which will,
'
make someone immune to all forms of the disease. Second, the disease seems to be' ·
capable of finding its way into the brain tissue. This is ominous since most antiviral
compounds are incapable of crossing the blood brain barrier between the blood s~ream
and the brain tissue. To quote Kaplan, "we have a very poor track record of finding
such drugs." Third, the disease does not have an alternate host, like yellow fever
or influenza. With these other viral diseases it is possible to control the disease .

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by isolating victims and interrupting the transmission of the disease by
dealing with alternate hosts, such as mosquitoes . As a result, immediate
hope for control of the disease depends not on medical research but on educating
both groups prone to the disease and the wider public about how to avoid
transmission.
The February issue of the Medical Anthropology Quarterly contains a
symposium on anthropology and AIDS research. All of the authors focused
of the same themes: 1) prevention of AIDS depends on informing the public
on precautions which must be taken to avoid contact with the disease; and 2)
educational efforts with AIDS-prone populations are failing. For instance,
an anthropologist and a medical doctor from the University of Miami report
that Haitians in South Florida are actively resisting attempts to inform them
about the dangers of the disease. To quote the authors, "In contrast to gays,
they have little fear of contracting AIDS and are mostly concerned with day-today issues of survival. Most have a limited understanding of AIDS; they regard
it more a malicious accusation than a genuine health risk and consequently have
not modified their lifestyles." Most Haitians have been victims of active
discrimination from a population that sees them as poor, ignorant black people
who practice wierd, unholy religions, as well as criminal aliens taking jobs
from Americans. Labeling Haitians as a population prone to AIDS is seen by
many Haitians as just another form of discrimination. When Haitians with AIDS
are hospitalized, they are confused by hospital bureaucracy and ~ngered by
medical indifference to their native customs; the fact that hospital personnel
do not ordinarily speak Haitian creole just makes matters worse. As a result,
Haitians with AIDS avoid medical care, preferring either to return to Haiti to
die or to continue to interact W'ith people to whom they could spread the disease.
Similar information is produced for gays and intravenous drug users. The authors
of the symposium articles, who are primarily medical doctors, epidemiologists,
or health department officials, all assure anthropologists that there is a great
deal of important work for them to do in documenting aspects of the disease itself,
aiding interested in seeing these articles should talk to Dave Minderhout.
Physical Anthropology: No Monkeying Around: by Art Sweeney. Physical anthropology
is the systematic study of humans as biological organisms (Haviland: 1983). This
definition of one of the major subfields of anthropology gives one a sense of
generalization, to say the least. Perhaps the reason for the generalization is
that among all the disciplines in anthropology, physical seems to have the most
subfields. Whether you are interested in primates, sociobiology, evolution, or
just studying the heritage of mankind, physical anthropology has something for you.
Unfortunately, this field of study with field of study with such tremendous
potential is not well represented in the BU anthropology curriculum. Do not take
this in the wrong way: what we are not lacking is the instructor or his talents,
but instead the funds to institute such a program. In order to have a physical
anthropology program, one needs a lab, equipment, research facilities, and all
the other things which this department is lacking. Some might say that there
is no interest in physical anthropology at BU, but one can also say that with
more expansive course offerings and facilities, the interest will definitely rise.

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Congratulations!: The whole department would like to extend its congratulations
to Dr. Minderhout for getting his most recent piece of research published in
the Anthropology Newsletter, a periodical put out by the American Anthropological
Association, His article, entitled "Introductory Texts and Social Science
Stereotypes" was published in the March issue of the Newsletter.
We would also like to congratulate Dr. Minderhout for being selected as an
outstanding faculty member by the Arts & Sciences Student Council. We all know
he deserved it.
(This article was included by Art Sweeney and Mary DeLorso over Dr.
Minderhout's protests.)