BLOOMSBURG STATE COLLEGE
Bloomsburg
Pennsylvania
Anthropology Newsletter
Vol. 2, No. 4
December, 1977
Department of Philosophy and Anthropology
FALL SEMESTER ARCHAEOLOGICAL ACTIVITY
The BSC Archaeology Project has continued its activities through the Fall semester,
taking advantage of periods of good weather to carry on further excavations at a
prehistoric Indian site near Northumberland, in the area of the American Legion
County Park. This work has been carried out both by members of the current Field
Archaeology class (46.301) and by members of the M.A.N. Club. At almost every
session the instructor, Mr. Solenberger, has been assisted in the field by an
expert amateur archaeologist, Mr. Jack Snyder, original discoverer of the site.
On the basis of stone artifacts and pottery unearthed at the site, the locality
is believed to have been inhabited both during the Archaic period, extending
several thousand years B.C., and also during the Woodland Period, an agrirult~ral
era dating from about 1000 B.C. and lasting until the time of European settlement.
On the weekend of September 16-17, Mr. Solenberger and a small group of students
camped out at a site opposite the village of Ramsay, Pennsylvania, on the Pine
Creek, where pottery and other Indian artifacts had been found. A systematic survey
using test pits a meter or more in depth yielded only a few pottery and stone
fragments indicated Indian occupation. Nevertheless, the site will be reported
for recording at the Pennsylvania State Museum.
Mr. Solenberger reports that he and several interested students have been attending professional meetings on archaeology, including the Society for Pennsylvania
Archaeology and the Eastern States Archaeological Federation. If you are interested in archaeology, Mr. Solenberger is the man to see.
Con9ratulations to graduatinq senior Linda Shively. And welcome to new majors
Leslie Barr, Judi Johnson, and David Kowaleski. Leslie and Judi are double
majors in psychology and anthropology; David in earth science and anthropology.
MAGAZHJE REVIEW
A brand new magazine of interest to anthropologists is Human Nature. The magazine
will be published monthly with a $15.annual subscription rate. To quote the
editors: "Each month we will bring you literate, intelligent, accurate articles
drawn from the human sciences. Research in these sciences - biology, genetics,
psychology, anthropology, sociology, ethology, health and medicine, linguistics,
education, paleontology, and ecology - casts a strong light on human nature. 11
The first issue, January, 1978, includes articles on kinesics, hypnosis, and
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cancer research. Jerome Kagan has an article entitled ~'The Baby's
Elastic
Mind,
and Rene Dubas has one called "Health & Creative Adaptation. 11 Anthropologist
Thomas Rohlen looks at Japanese culture in an article called "The Education of
a Japanese Banker. 11 Book reviews are included as well as a section called

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"Reconsiderations," a look by the editors at a classic in the "human sciences."
The magazine is published in the glossy·Psychology Today style. Dr. Minderhout
subscribes to it if you'd like to see a copy.
ETHfWGRAPHIC FACTS
Most of the world's cultures favor cosmetics. Rouge is probably the world's
most common cosmetic if for no other reason red ochre is widely available. But
the trouble with cosmetics is that the application is not lasting. The solution
hit upon by many cultures is tattooing. i~hile tattooing is fairly common around
the world, the two high centers of the art were Rilynesia and Japan. Incidentally
Western attitudes and non-Western attitudes towards tattooing were reversed. With
us, soldiers and sailors in the lower ranks, longshoremen, and unskilled laborers
are the persons who usually get themselves tattooed, perhaps as a symbol of
masculinity and toughness. In Polynesia, the higher the social status, the fuller
the tattooing. It extends over face, body and limbs and even to the tongue. The
process was long-drawn-out and painful, but socially rewarding. The technique of
tattooing is to puncture the skin with needles carrying an indelible dye - usually
carbon black. To dark skinned peoples, this presents a problem. The solution
hit upon in Africa and Oceania is to incise the skin instead of puncturing it.
Then by rubbing ashes grit or other irritants into the wounds, scar tissue can be
encouraged to form, so that a series of raised lumps remain in a permanent visible
pattern. The Maoris made their tattooing pigment from the dung of dogs which
had been fed on very fat meat until over-secretion of bile colored their dung black.
Since the grooves are obliterated in time, tattoos had to be recut several times
in one's life. The American Museum of Natural History has a fine collection of
preserved Maori heads which show the intricacy of tattooed designs.
BOOK REVIEl•.J
In this century, the study of Homo sapiens has rested on several important assumptions: (1) man differs in kind from the beasts; (2) all human behavior is learned;
and (3) human cultures represented potentially infinite ways of acting out human
lives. This view stood counter to an older idea that man is an animal governed
by instinct. Anthropology has contributed much ammunition to the cultural determinist point of view. But in recent years some anthropologists have advocated a
different view: human behavior is limited by inborn capacities which are a
product of human evolution and natural selection. One of the first books to present
this hypothesis was The Imperial Animal by Lionel Tiger and Robin Fox (Delta: 1971).
The authors argue that in viewing man as a species, one sees many behaviors in
common from culture to culture, that while differences in content exist, the process
of behavior is the same in every culture. Borrowing heavily from Chomskian linguistics and biology, they suggest that the child is born with a series of openended capacities which automatically come into operation given maturation and
exposure. To quote Tiger and Fox: "the human organism is 'wired' in a certain
way so that it can process and emit information about certain facts of social
life such as language and rules about sex, and that, furthermore, it can process
this information only at certain times and only in certain~ways. 11 The book is a
compilation and discussion of data to support these assertions, focusing on
political behavior, sex role and parenting behavior, reciprocity, and language.

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Tiger i s knovm for anot her co ntrover sial boo k, t1en in Gro up s, wh i ch argues t hat
t he uni versa l bond among men i n cultures i s bio l og i ca l ly based, wh il e Fox has a
book, Ki nship &Marr i age, whi ch argues that patterns of t hese behaviors are fixed
mathematically and biologica ll y. All three are provactive reading; Dr. Minderhout
has copies of all three books.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
Donna t1urray, who was our first graduate with the degree of Sociology/Anthropology
in December, 1976, is working for the Agricultural Extension in Lycoming County
as a nutritionist. Pat Fryling, a May, 1977 grad, is working in Illinois as an
occupational counselor in a program for the mentally retarded. Bob Kridler, who
graduated in August, 1976 with the old sociology degree with a concentration in
anthropology, is working for a law firm in San Francisco, computing statistics
and occasionally summariz~ng testimony." He hopes to enter a program in Urban
Planning next fall at Berkeley.
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NEXT SEMESTER?
There will be four more issues of the Newsletter next semester, the first appearing
in early February. If you are not in an anthropology class, but would like to
continue to receive the Newsletter, give Dr. Minderhout an address where you can
be reached and the Newsletter will be mailed to you·. There will also be. copies
available at the Anthropology Bulletin Board. Check the bulletin board for
announcements of Film Festivals, Anthropology parties, etc.
INTERVIEW OF THE MONTH by Steve Styers
Marj Whitmer is a senior majoring in Anthropology, 21 years old, and hails from
Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
SS:
MW:

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M\J:
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MW:
SS:
MW:
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MW:
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MW:

\Jhy and when were you converted to Anthropo 1ogy?
It happened when I was a first semester freshman. At the time my major was
Biology, and I went through a few others. Finally, I realized there was a
name for those things I was interested in. I had never realized that
Anthropology included so much.
What specifically attracted_you?
rJothing specifically - everything that was in it I wanted to know more about.
What's your favorite color?
Black . . . because it's natural . . . everything began in bJackness.
Favorite book and film?
Sociobiology and Behavior by David Barash. Another one is Man's Rise to
Civilization, etc., by Peter Farb. The Pink Panther animated films are
my favorites; they're well animated, inventive, and funny.
Do you think anthropology has or is going to have any practical role beyond
academia?
I think it already does, because anything learned in the classroom can be
readily applied to things seen out of the clas?room. I don't think it's
removed from reality because it is reality.
What do you think is the biggest probl em with the Anthropology Department?
They don't have enough anthropologists to teach all those subjects which
students are anxious to learn.

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SS: . . . t he bi ggest problem wi t h t hi s coll ege?
MW: I th i nk t he co ll ege spend s too muc h t ime on organizin g and reorganizing
and not enough ime usin g t he structure they already have.
SS: . . . the biggest problem with the world?
MW: It's too ethnocentri c; if it lost al l of its ethnocentrism, peace would
automatically be the result.
SS: If you had to choose, for the future, between living in a world society
with a single utopian-oriented culture, or in a world similar to the present
fragmented and culturally diverse .one, which would you rather be part of,
and why?
MW: I would prefer this world, slightly improved . . . because I think itJs
more interesting than a utopian society wou l d be. With my present interests,
a utopia would not provide very many absorbing characteristics to study.
And, the dynamic personalities of individuals would be stifled.
SS: What do you do in your leisure hours?
M~J: I read, and I look at common things and try to get uncommon things out of
them - other than what is there.
SS: And what do you intend for your personal future?
MW: Grad school, but I don't have any particular schools in mind right now.
THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF STAR WARS by Steve Styers (continued)
Culture clash - In Star Wars, cultures clash all over the place. Luke is suddenly
confronted with the Imperial culture that murders h.i's aunt and uncle and is thrust
into a new culture, in fact, many new cultures. The war is the manifestation of
culture clash. A special individual case is the Princess, who is, by her title,
from a royal subculture, but has certain responses and attitudes that are definitely
not regal by our s_tgl]dards. This ma.kes her more heroic and mru:.e.._human.
Culture is learned - All the major characters, and minor ones, show variations
of behavior which stem from this anthropological idea. But the Princess and Luke
are the best examples of deviants who have learned something other than what their
cultures probably taught them. The Princess learned practicality and humor, while
Luke taught himself expertise in piloting, something inessential to farm life, but
which comes in handy later. The figures who have learned their culture very well
a,r:e tne.·more. si)nple pe.r sonali'ties of Obi-wan and Vader. They are complimentary
f1~ures, both with long experience, but one is righteous while the other is satanic.
Culture is an interdependent system - In Star Wars, cultures are systems, and
there is the galactic Empire which is composed of many cultures bound by interdependence. What one culture does definitely affects the structure of the entire
Empire's hugh complexity. Just as Tatooine is an interdependent planetary society,
so is the galaxy an interdependent interstellar system. Perhaps the evil of the
Empire stems from a striving toward reduction of social i ntricacies to to insure
less fragility of interdependence whereas the Rebellion is possibly attempting to
maintain the incredible variety of cultures within the galaxy through a certain
degree of cultural relativism, yet still have an interstellar connection and
agreement leading to a fruitful network of interdependence. The Rebellion wants
to insure cultural flexibility as a means of survival, while Vader and his gang
want to keep cultures suppressed and static as a means of survival. I suppose
.
which one is good or evil depends on personal ideology; my hopes are for flexibility,
or at least the possibility for change. Thus I am with the Rebellion.

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Anthropology also puts great emphasis on participatory observation - fieldwork
as it were. And yes, there is fie~dwork in Star Wars. And who is participating
in close observation? Everyone who sees the film! The film is made from the
viewpoint of the member of the audience, who is compelled to enter the film's
context and be there.
The film envelops you, just as doing fieldwork on Sri
Lanka would envelop you. You respond to the ethnocentrism of the various cultures
and also to the cross-cultural data. Star Wars may be the future of the West on
Earth warmed over and put on fast spin, but it also gives another perspective;
it makes contemporary Americans more aware of life beyond that of the Earth's.
Star Wars is human-centered, but it is not strictly Earth-centered. In the bar
scene, there are many different forms of Intelligent Beings, admittedly a bit
rough, but still different from us. Actually these extraterrestrials are not
that imaginative, since the real thing, if it exists, and I'm certain it does,
will be utterly unlike us, physically and mentally. Extraterrestrials may even
perceive the universe in ways totally inconceivable to us. So the bar scene is
just one step in the right direction of giving Earthlings a cosmic consciousness.
(To be continued . . . )
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OFFICE HOURS
Dr. Minderhout (219 BCH) MWF at 8 and 2
Mr. Reeder (219 BCH) MW at 2, TuTh at 12:30
Mr. Solenberger (Boyers Garage) MW at 11:15, Wat 2 and 3, Th at 11
If you would like to be on the fJewsletter mailing list or if you have news
to include or ideas to share, please contact any of the anthropologists or
one of the student editors. Steve Styers can be reached at 784-7421; Marj
Witmer at 784-4566.