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.

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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