BLOOMSBURG STATE COLLEGE
Bloomsburg
Pennsylvania
ANTHROPOLOGY NEWSLETTER
Vol. 6, No. 4 Jan-Feb 1982
Department of Philosophy/Anthropology
Meet the Candidates Since we began advertising for our position in anthropology last
September we have received over 100 applications from around the country and Canada.
After careful review, the anthropology search &screen committee selected 6 candidates
for interviews at the college. Each candidate is introduced below in the order in
which they will appear on campus.
Dr. Lida Wagner will be on campus on January 26. Dr. Wagner has her BA from SUNYBinghamton and her MA and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin. She has done
archaeological field research in Wisconsin, New York, Nevada, England, and the Netherlands, but her dissertation research was conducted at the pre-Incan city of Huari in
Peru. While her dissertation was on ceramic change in Peru, she also has an interest
in urbanism and the growth of states in the Andean region. Dr. Wagner has taught
courses in archaeology, general anthropology, and pre-Columbian art at the University
of Wisconsin.
Mr. Charles Vandrei will be on campus on January 27. Mr. Vandrei is completing his
dissertation research for a Ph.D. at SUNY-Buffalo where he also obtained his MA.
Currently an instructor at the Buffalo Museum of Science, Mr. Vandrei has extensive
experience in the archaeology of New York and Pennsylvania. His current research involves the study of the effects of European contact on trade patterns and sociopolitical relationships among Iroquoian groups from 1550 to 1650. This research involves
the analysis of ethnological and ethnohistorical information as well as archaeological
data from Iroquoian villages and cemeteries.
Dr. Charles Pearson will be on campus on January 29. Currently employed by Coastal
Environments, Inc., a consulting firm in Baton Rouge, Dr. Pearson has a BA from New
Mexico and a MA and Ph.D. from the University of Georgia. As a research archaeologist
Dr. Pearson has conducted extensive research in the southeastern United States; his
research has generated over forty publications. Dr. Pearson is interested in settlement and subsistence analysis, as well as human ecology and paleogeography. Dr. Pearson
has taught courses at the University of Georgia.
Ms. Andrea Fitting will be on campus on February 1. Ms. Fitting expects to complete
her dissertation in June 1982 at the University of Pittsburgh. Her BA degree is also
from Pittsburgh. Ms. Fitting was involved in excavations at the Meadowcroft Rockshelter in southwestern PA, an important site in North American archaeology. She has
also done field research in Kentucky and in her native Hungary. Ms. Fitting is interested in the origins of agriculture and the state as well as in ethnoarchaeology.
She has taught a number of courses at Pittsburgh and the Carnegie Museum of Natural
History.
Dr. James Springer will be on campus on February 3. Dr. Springer has a BA from
Illinois and a M.Phil. and a Ph.D. from Yale. Dr. Springer has done field · archaeology
in Arizona, Illinois, Massachusetts, Louisiana, Nicaragua, and Turkey. He is primarily
interested in the archaeology and ethnohistory of Eastern North America with a
secondary interest in historical linguistics and archaeology. Dr. Springer taught at
Connecticut and Massachusetts before spending the last seven years at Northern Illinois
University where he was director of the Anthropology Laboratories and Museum.

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Dr. Gary Feinman will be on campus on February 5. Dr. Feinman is currently teaching
at Arizona State University after previous teaching experience at Lehman College and
Queens College. Dr. Feinman has a BA from Michigan and a Ph.D. from CUNY. He has
done research in Arizona, Missouri, Tennessee, Georgia, and Mexico. His dissertation
research was on the relationship between administrative organization and ceramic
production in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. Dr. Feinman is also interested in human
ecology and the development of complex societies.
Each of these candidates will present a seminar on their research the day they are on
campus. If you are interested in meeting a candidate or in attending a seminar, please
contact Dave Minderhout in 219 BCH or at 3511.
The members of the anthropology search &screen committee are Mr. Jeff Bohlin,
Dr. William Carlough, Dr. Marjorie Clay, Dr. Fred Hill, Dr. David Minderhout, Mr. Robert
Reeder, and Mr. Robert Solenberger.
Pre-Registration for Fall 1982 The anthropology faculty will offer the following
courses next fall:
46.100
46.200
46.301
46.470
46.480
46.490

General Anthropology
Principles of Cultural Anthropology
Field Archaeology
Anthropology Thought & Theory
Religion & Magic
Socialization of the Child

The anthropology faculty has applied to change the name of 46.100 from General Anthropology to Principles of Physical Anthropology.
Anthropology majors are reminded that 46.470 is a required course in the major.
course will probably not be offered again until Fall 1984.

The

Field Archaeology The field archaeology course will be listed in the Master Schedule
as TBA, a designation that typically scares students away. However, this is one TBA
that should be given a chance, as the position will be filled by one of the six
candidates listed above, each of whom is a crack archaeologist. Also, each one is
selected for an interview because of the excellence of their teaching background.
Comments include: "excellent", "sensitive", "highly motivated", "well-organized",
"inspiring", "the best instructor in the department", "made the subject continuously
interesting", etc. If you have ever had an interest in archaeology, you won't make a
mistake by signing up for 46.301 in the fall.
The Anthropologist's Cookbook Included this month is a recipe for fish from Laos. The
favored fish for this recipe in Laos is pa beuk, the giant catfish of the Mekong River
(Pangasionodon gigas), the second largest freshwater fish in the world. Its length may
be up to 3 meters, its weight 250 to 300 kilos. If you don't have pa beuk in the
freezer, try whiting instead.
2
3
3
1
2

lb fish
stalks lemon grass or 3 tsp citronella
shallots
head garlic
tsps chopped galingale

1 tsp . salt
½ tsp monosodium glutamate
2 spoonsful fish sauce
3 cups coconut cream
6 eggs - beaten
1-2 tsp chopped dill leaves

Clean the fish and cut the flesh into serving pieces or bite-size pieces as preferred.

w

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3

Chop the shallots and lemon grass. Peel the cloves of garlic and chop them, too. Put
shallots, garlic, lemon grass, (or citronella) in a mortar with the chopped galingale
and pound them.
Add the pounded mixture to the pieces of fish and season it all with the salt, MSG,
and fish sauce. Then add the coconut cream and beaten eggs. Mix all together.
Cut a large rectangle of aluminum foil. Place the fish mixture in the middle with
chopped dill on top. Fold the foil over the mixture, sealing it.
Steam this package for half an hour. Then remove it from the steamer, undo it, and
transfer the contents to a serving dish. Serve with plenty of rice.
Book Review: In recent years a number of scientists have argued that basic patterns
in sex role behaviors may well have evolved out of our primate background. While
open to cultural influence, these behaviors were primarily genetically inherited.
Now primatologist Sarah Blaffer Hrdy has written a book based on her own considerable
experience with non-human primates, a book which argues that there is no evolutionary
background to current sex role behavior. In her book, entitled The Woman That Never
Evolved (Harvard University Press, 1981), Hrdy deals with two supposed traits: that
while men are competitive, women are cooperative (as in the expression, "If woman
ran the world, there wouldn't be any wars); and that while men are sexually promiscuous, women are sexually passive and demure. Those patterns may be a result of a
sexist culture, Hrdy asserts, but they certainly couldn't have evolved out of our
primate origins. Studies of primate biology and behavior show a fairly clear trend
that should have produced human females who are fiercely competitive among one another
and sexually assertive among males. Primates in general are not monogamous, she reports,
and in heat, female monkeys and apes do not merely mate once or twice - all that would
be needed to get pregnant - but scores of times, day after day, offering themselves to
every male in the vicinity. Similarly among themselves non-human primate females are
extren1ely competitive, especially in regards to favors for their infants and for access
to males. Hrdy argues that human female sexuality evolved from such nonmonogamous
primate origins, but that men have gone to extremes to suppress women's sexuality.
Among the cultural behaviors cited are belief systems teaching girls to be demure
purdah, claustration (confinement to a cloister), infibulation (surgical closure of
the vagina), clitoridectomy, and suttee (the immolation of a widow upon her husband's
death). Like others, such as the sociobiologists, who seek general evolutionary
patterns for contemporary behavior, Hrdy sometimes overgeneralizes, but her book is
an interesting counter to the many others which see modern female behavior as a
necessary product of genes.