BLOOMSBURG UNIVERSITY Bloomsburg Pennsylvania ANTHROPOLOGY NEWSLETTER Vol. 14, No. 1 September 1989 Department of Anthropology A New Newsletter - & a New Department: Beginning this fall, anthropology has become a separate department under the leadership of Professor Robert Reeder, the new department chairperson. The anthropologists look forward to their pending move to the newly renovated Old Science Building, a move we hope will occur some time this fall. With the laboratory space being provided for anthropology in the new location, we hope to be able to provide an expanded program in field archaeology and physical anthropology as well as better research opportunities for our maJors. The Anthropology Newsletter has now been housed in three different departments since its inception in 1975, namely, Sociology/Anthropology, Philosophy/Anthropology, and the new independent Anthropology Department. We will continue to provide any and all interested members of the university community with information about anthropology on campus, nationally and internationally. If you would like to be added to our malling list, please contact Dave Mlnderhout at 4334. Meet Our New Faculty Member: We welcome Dr. Dee Anne Wymer to the anthropology staff, beginning with the fall semester. Dee Anne ls an archaeologist with a Ph.D. from Ohio State University. Her specialty within archaeology ls paleoethnobotany, an imposing label for the analysis of plant remains in archaeological sites. From her research into sites ln Ohio dating from between 100 BC and 1000 AD, she has been able to demonstrate that archaeological assumptions about the subsistence baee of Indians in the Midwest In that time period may well be wrong. In particular, the rise of the Hopewell culture between 100 BC and 500 AD in that area, with its associated geometric earthworks, impressive works of art and elaborate burials, ls not, according to her research, based on the cultivation of maize, as had been widely assumed. Rather, the Hopewell culture seems to have been built on the domestication of plants native to the eastern woodlands of North America, such as May grass and sunflowers, as well as on the collection of native nuts, berries, tubers, etc. By studying the rise of agriculture in the Midwest, Dee Anne also hopes to shed light on the question of the origins of agriculture world-wide. She has also located and begun work on a site In Ohio which may yield evidence about the earliest presence of humans in this hemisphere; BU students 2. will have an opportunity to work on this site during the summer of 1990. Dee Anne also comes to us with a strong background in teaching. Her student recomme_ndatlons from Ohio speak to her enthusiasm, her knowledge of the field, her humor, and her solid presentations. She ls very interested in physical anthropology as well as in archaeology. We are very happy that she has Joined our program. A Belated Congcatylatlons: to Darryl Gundrum who graduated from BU with maJors in anthropology and geology in May 1989. Darryl has received an assistantship In archaeology from the University of Calgary, where he has begun his work this fa 11 • AcchaeoJoalcaJ Research in South An)erlca: During this past July, ~r. Thomas Aleto conducted archaeological research on La Puna Island as part of a two month vlslt to the-South American country of Ecuador. · Assisting in this investigation was Patrick Andrews, a BU senior maJorlng In anthropology. The research consisted primarily of pedestrian reconnnaissance survey, the main method used by archaeologists to find prehistoric sites. In such a survey the researchers systematlcal1y cover the area they wish to investigate, scanning the surface of the ground in search of any indication of past human occupation. In this part of coast a 1 Ecuador, such artifacts. inc 1ude pottery, debris from stone tool manufacture, stones used for grinding corn and other seeds, human burials, and the remains of prehistoric meals, principally discarded -mollusk shells and fish bones. La Puna ls a very large island with a land mass of over 900 square kilometers (approximately 560 square miles> and cannot be easily surveyed in a short time. As a result, Dr. Aleta and Mr. Andrews restricted their investigation to two small areas on the north and west side of the island. These zones are the focus of the major economic activity of La I Puna, namely shrimp farming. In the past seven years, construction of shrimp cultivation ponds has resulted ln the destruction and disturbance of many archaeological sites by tractors and other heavy earth moving machines. One of the objectives of the summer ✓ s research was to catalog the destroyed and damaged sites and to discover additional sites before they are similarly altered. In terms of these objectives, the work was successful. Five new sites were discovered, and archaeological material was recovered from the surfaces. Most of the artifacts consist of pottery and other ceramic pieces like figurines and spindle whorls, email bead-like counterweights used in the spinning of cotton into ~oread. In some cases, this ceramic material recovered wa~ well known, and the investigators were able to place the sites in the proper I 3. cultural and temporal contexts. In other cases, the pottery was either too poorly preserved to allow such determinations or represents a previously undiscovered and unknown culture. Of particular significance are two sites that were intensively collected ln order to procure a large sample of artifacts for further study. One of them belongs to the culture known as the Punaes, the people for whom La Puna ls named. They Inhabited the island when the Spanish made their first contact with the cultures of Ecuador and Peru. Pizarro and hls, fellow conquistadores spent three months with the Punnaes in 1531 before launching their assault on the Inca empire. Because the Spanish were horrified by many , ' Punae customs and spent much of their time in open conflict with them, they left several detailed accounts of the Punae way of life in their Journals and letters to the King of Spain. However, relativel7 little ls known about many · important aspects of Punae culture that can only be answered through archaeological investigation. For this and other reasons, the discovery of the Punae village at the site called Celbo Grande ls especially exciting. . The other site, known as Lorna Alto, ls Important because it promises to shed light on Valdivia culture, one of the first pottery producing societies in all of South America. The Valdivlans are among the first sedentary and agricultural people in all of the Americas and can shed light on why people first domesticated plants and began to live ln permanent settlements. Until the present, most of the Valdivia sites that have been studied have been located on the mainland of Ecuador. The presence of Valdivia culture in an Island context may offer a new perspective on these earliest of farmers. Because there was not sufficient time to undertake a complete analysis of the artifacts during the investigators/ stay In the field, a collection of the material was brought back to BU for further study. This analysis will be undertaken by Dr. Aleto and must be completed by June 1990 when the pottery must be returned to Ecuador. Dr. Aleta welcomes any student who ls interested ln assisting in the analysis and who would like to learn more about either the techniques of ceramic analysis or Ecuadorian archaeology. If you would like to help, please contact Dr. Aleto in 219 BCH. ·Another SuQVQer Traveler: BU anthropology maJor Travis Pickering participated ln Harvard Unlversity/s Koobl Fora field school in Kenya this past summer. Koobl Fora ls the area where Richard Leakey discovered KNM-ER 1470, a nearly complete Homo habilis skull from 1.8 million years ago. Travis got to meet Leakey, tour the KNM-ER 1470 site and many others, and to do sane field archaeology on sites; he also toured the East African countryside to see the wildlife and topography. We hope to persuade him to write up his experiences for the Newsletter in the near future. Anthropology Club News: As of this writing, the Anthropology Club has met three times, planning its activities for the upcoming year. The club hopes to sponsor speakers, provide film programs, and attend regional or national meetings of anthropologists. The first activity of the year was held on Sunday, September 10, as the anthropology faculty provided a picnic for the students at the Bloomsburg Town Park. · Any student interested ln anthropology ls welcome to attend club meetings. The club ·meets every Tuesday at 3:30 PM in 106 BCH. Pat Andrews ls the club president for the fall semester; Andy Goldfine ls treasurer; and Dr. Aleto ls the club advisor. The Anthropologlst ✓ s Cookbook: Here ✓ s a recipe to use up all the extra tanatoes from backyard gardens. This recipe for "Tornates Frltes" (tomato fritters> ls from France. For the fritter batter: 3/4 cup plus 1 tblspn flour 1/2 tsp salt 2 tblspns butter, melted 1 egg lightly beaten 1 cup beer 1 egg white, beaten stiff but not dry 16 medium-sized firm tomatoes, cut in 1/4 inch slices salt pepper chopped parsley oil for deep frying Sift the flour together with the salt. Beat in the butter, then the egg. Then beat in enough beer to lighten the flour and turn it into a thick but pourable batter that will coat a spoon. Let rest an hour; then whisk ln the stiff egg white. Press as much juice and as many seeds out of the tomatoes as possible without crushing the slices. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with parsley. Heat the oil in a heavy skillet until it smokes. Then dip the tomato slices in the batter to coat them. Slip a few at a time into the oil and fry until golden brown. Drain on a paper towel and serve as soon as possible. Yield: 8 servings s. Seeing ls BeJlevlng: Aristotle defined the Western concept of the senses as he cataloged the five that Americans routinely think of: sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. But as anthropologist Alan Dundee has pointed out, Americans emphasize the sense of sight, giving it an importance equal to or greater than all the other senses put together. Using American colloquial expressions, he notes that Americans favor politicians with vision; we can see their point of view; they need a public image. If our perspectives are challenged, we may claim that it all depends on how you look at it. Having a hard time with an idea? Well, then, 1 ✓ 11 believe it when I see it; I can;t picture it; there/a more to this than meets the eye. Or, how about, out of sight, out of mind? We talk about doctors seeing us as patients; hopefully they will do more than that. In fact, the doctor will probably Interview us about our complaints. As we travel, we see the sights; If amazed by them, we couldn;t believe our eyes. Who wants to buy something sight unseen? We prefer to go into something new with our eyes open. After all, we need to be able to see through a fake. Maybe we need to use a seer; lt;s useful to be able to foresee future events. As we leave a conversation, we part with "See you!" Accordingly we greet someone with "It/s good to see you; I haven;t seen you in ages!" Apparently it;s not good to hear, smell or feel you. We don;t want to rely on hearsay; we need an eyewitness, and we ✓ 11 hire a private eye to find one, if necessary. And we can;t rely on that person ✓ s word; we need to see it "In black and white" on paper or in a contract. Anthropology ls caught up In the metaphors of vision as well. We do participatory observation, we say, though we probably ask more questions than we observe. We do our research to gain insight into the world-view of another society. Ruth Benedict warned anthropologists about looking at another culture through their own cultural perceptions: "We do not see the lens through which we look." And, after all, other cultures do not place our emphasis on sight - or even define the senses in the same way. The Javanese, for Instance, say there are five senses: seeing, hearing, smelling, feeling and talking. Dundee also believes that the emphasis on sight in American culture has grown in recent decades. For Instance, the familiar saying "Seeing ls believing" at one time went on to say "but feeling/a the truth." As our technology for pres~nting visual images continues to grow, the emphasis on sight may well continue to strengthen. See my point? 6. Sahl ins Speaks: On September 5, University of Chicago anthropologist Marshall Sahl ins spoke at Bucknell University as part of the Ralph Spielman Memorial Lecture series. The lecture was attended by several students and faculty from Bloomsburg University Departments of Anthropology and Philosophy. Dr. Sahl ins, who ls widely known for hie theoretical writings in anthropology and social science, read a paper entitled "Social Science: The Tragic Western Sense of Imperfection." In the lecture he turned to one of the themes that runs through his writings, namely, the consideration of whether culture ~nd society are products of human ideas or whether they arise . from the material conditions of life. Drawing on a vast body of literature that included sources such as the Bible, St. Augustine, John Locke, Karl Marx and Karl Polanyi, Sahllns argued that modern social science is based on the fundamental idea that life ls a punishment. In this context the primary motivation in life ls the avoidance of pain and the search for pleasure. This ls manifest ln the economizing principle: individuals are driven by an attempt to maximize unlimited wants with limited means. This leads to a view of society as a force that constrains individual desires and sublimates what ls natural. Sahllns argued that although thle view of society ls widely held in the West to be objective truth, lt ls, in fact, a subJective construct that ls a product of a specific cultural tradition. To support his position, Sahllns cited the case of the Algonkln Indians of northeastern Canada. These people inhabit one of the least hospitable regions of North America; starvation ls a constant threat. As reported by the Jesuits who made contact with them In the 17th century, the Algonkln were happy despite their suffering and did not lament their fate. Their generosity, which extended to sharing food even it might have resulted In hunger for the giver, was seen by the Jesuits as a lack of conmen sense. Sahl ins argued that the Algonkln cultural pattern could be explained only lf social life was not seen to arise from the avoidance of pain and the quest for pleasure. Rather, he argued, lt reflected a view of the world in which life ls seen as the antithesis of suffering. The apparent lack of common sense in sharing scarce food in the face of certain hunger springs from a view of hunger as a collectlye problem rather than as an individual concern. Sahl ins argued that the overriding fear of the Algonklns was not individual privation, but fear that the band would break up if food were withheld and social life would end. The end of social life was seen as the cessation of life itself. Sahllns elaborated on these themes by drawing on much of the social philosophy that forms the basis of social science. His presentation was erudite, and his command of the literature was most impressive. Dr. Sahl ins and his ideas were well-received by a large, attentive audience. Minor in Anthropology: Yes, It ls possible to minor in anthropology. A minor in anthropology consists of 6 courses or 18 credits. Three of the courses are required. They are: 46.200 Principles of Cultural Anthropology 46.210 Prehistoric Archaeology 46.220 Principles of Physical Anthropology Three other elective anthropology courses should be chosen ln consultation w1th an anthropology adviser. Feel free to see any of the anthropology faculty for more information.