BLOOMSBURG UNIVERSITY
Pennsylvania
Bloomsburg
Department of Philosophy/Anthropology
ANTHROPOLOGY NEWSLETTER
Vo 1ume 9 , No. 1
September-October 1984
Welcome Back to BU and the Anthropology Newsletter! This publication is issued
four times each academic year to anyone interested in anthropology and anthropological issues. If you would be interested in being added to our mailing list,
please contact Dave Minderhout in 219 BCH at 4334.
Course Offerings for Spring 1985: The anthropologists will be offering the
following courses for the spring semester:
46. 101
46.200
46.220
46.350
46. 380
46.440

Introduction to Anthropology
Principles of Cultural Anthropology
Principles of Physical Anthropology
Medical Anthropology
Culture Change & Culture Contact
Language & Culture

Those of you who are familiar with anthropology offerings will notice some changes
in our curriculum. The new introductory course will be offered for the first time
this spring by Bob Reeder, while the number on the physical anthropology course
has been changed from 46.100 to 46.220. We have found that students have often
been confused by our 46.100/46.200 sequence, often assuming that 46. 100 was the
introductory course and 46.200 a higher level course. Actually our intent has
always been to view these two courses as equivalent in degree of difficulty, each
being an entry course into a different subdiscipl ine of the field. To clear up
the confusion, we will now offer a truly introductory course, one which surveys
all the subdisciplines of anthropology. At the same time, we will offer a battery
of 200-level courses, each of which will deal in greater depth with a particular
subdiscipl ine. At present we have three 200-level courses: 46.200, 46.210 (World
Prehistory), and 46.220.
46.380 will be taught by our new archaeologist, Elise Brenner. This course used
to be 46.481, Culture Dynamics. A culture change course should be a major part
of an anthropology curriculum, not only because world cultures are changing so
rapidly, but also because of the very nature of human adaptability in the face
of environmental pressures. Archaeologists are keenly aware of culture change
since much of their work involves the documentation and analysis of change at a
particular site over long periods of time. The course will both look at general
mechanisms of culture change, as well as major periods of change in human history,
such as the invention of agriculture. A student taking this course should, as
a consequence, get a much clearer picture of their place in a dynamic world.
46.350, Medical Anthropology, deals with a variety of topics having to do with
human sickness and health, including human influences on disease spread, nutrition
and malnutrition world-wide, the place of the healer in traditional and modern
society, cross-cultural attitudes toward pregnancy and child-birth, the role of
the elderly in society, and death and dying cross-culturally. The course will be
offered Tuesday nights by Dave Minderhout.

Page 2

Spring courses--continued

46.44O~ Language & Culture, is offered by Dave Minderhout. The course looks at
a variety of topics which interest anthropologists about language such as the
origins of language, child language acquisition, language variation (dialects
and bilingualism) and the problems created by language variation in American
education and elsewhere, language and thought, non-oral communications, and
language play.
Meet Elise Brenner: A six month long nationwide search culminated last March with
the hiring of Dr. Elise Brenner as the third anthropologist in our program. Elise
replaces Gary Feinman, who resigned in April 1983 to take a position elsewhere,
and Bruce Byland, who was here as a one-year replacement in '83-84. Elise has a
BA in anthropology from Boston University and an MA and Ph.D. in anthropology
from the University of Massachusetts. She is an archaeologist with special interests in archaeological method and theory and the prehistory and ethnohistory of
the Northeastern US. However, she is also interested in exchange systems,
ethnicity, symbolic uses of material culture, and political organization and change.
Elise has a number of projects in hand to try and (finally) get the archaeology
program rolling. When the psychology department moves into the new Human Services
Building, the archaeology lab will be moved out of the attic of the Boyer Building
into Old Science. Then Elise can anticipate many fun-filled hours sorting out
and classifying old finds. She also hopes to get a summer field program off the
ground as soon as possible, beginning with a systematic survey of the Fishing
Creek tributary in Columbia County. At present she is actively involved in her
courses, while also preparing proposals for courses and research funds.
Elise can be found in BCH 219 (phone--4334).

Stop by and meet her!

Southwest Tour in 1985: The anthropology faculty again intends to offer its
Southwest Tour in the summer of 1985. As before, this will be an early summer
tour of archaeological and historical sights in the Southwest, as well as a
visit to the spectacular natural wonders of the area (e.g., the Grand Canyon)
and to the life of the contemporary Southwest. The group travels in both private
and university vehicles, camping out along the way. Tentative plans are
progressing to make this a combined tour with a geologist, thus making this a
6 credit tour, instead of the 3 credits given previously. Watch this space for
more details or contact Bob Reeder for more information.
A Minor in Anthropology: Final approval is drawing near for an 18 credit minor
in anthropology. The minor will be made up of 3 required courses and 3 electives
chosen within one of three "tracks." The complete proposal looks like this:
I.

REQUIRED COURSES: A core program of 3 courses for 9 credits is required of
each student who chooses a minor in anthropology. These 3 courses are:
46.20O--Principles of Cultural Anthropology
46.21O--World Prehistory
46.22O--Principles of Physical Anthropology

I I. ELECTIVE COURSES: 3 elective courses must be chosen to complete a minor in
anthropology. Electives are to be chosen within one of three areas of
anthropology: Physical Anthropology, Archaeology, and Cultural Anthropology.
The courses which fall within each of these areas are listed on the following
page. Students may choose other anthropology courses to fulfill the requirements for a minor with the approval of the anthropology faculty.

Page 3
Elective Courses--continued
A.

Physical Anthropology (Choose 3 courses)
1 . Requ i red (2 courses)
46.300
Archaeological Method and Theory or 46.301--Field Archaeology
46.405
Primates
2.

Elective
46. 350
50. 102
!0.133
50. 102

( 1 course)
Medical Anthropology
General Biology I I or 50.454--EthJology
Human Genetics
/
Historical Geology

B.

Archaeology (Choose 3 courses)
Archaeological Method and Theory
46.300
Field Archaeology
46.301
Archaeology of Selected Areas
46.310
North American Indians
46.340
Culture Change and Culture Contact
46.380

C.

Cultural Anthropology (Choose 3 courses)
46.300
Archaeological Method and Theory
46.350
Me d ical Anthropology
46.390
Socialization of the Child
46.410
Primitive Arts
46.440
Language and Culture
46.480
Religion and Magic

Allergies and Human Evolution: The editor of this newsletter is a hay fever sufferer,
1 ike millions of other Americans, and since August and September are peak periods
for ragweed pollen, it is not surprising that an article in the September Natural
History had special appeal. The article reported on a study conducted by two
M.D.s and an anthropologist among the Waorani Indians of Ecuador. This group has
remained relatively isolated from oubside contact and so provided a natural laboratory
for a study of infectious disease among tribal peoples. Overall the findings were
pretty much what other researchers had discovered among other similar populations:
the Waorani maintain an excellent state of health, marred only by minor infections
and parasite infestations. The only unusual discovery among this group was their
poor state of dental health, attributable to high sugar content in their diet; most
tribal peoples studies in the last century have manifested excellent dental health,
with very few cavities or teeth missing. The researchers also tested for allergic
reactions among the Waorani, and found them to be essentially free of allergies
as wel 1.
Blood tests confirmed also that the Waorani had a high level of the antibody called
immunoglobulin E (lgE). This is perplexing because lgE is associated with asthma
and hay fever; indeed, for some time the only known effect of lgE on the body was
to produce allergic reactions. The symptoms of hay fever are produced by the
attachment of lgE molecules, in the presence of an allergy-producing substance
(such as ragweed pollen), to tissue cells known as mast cells, with the subsequent
release of histamine by the mast cells. Histamine causes increaded leakage in
blood vessel walls, allowing fluid to escape into the extravascular spaces and
culminating in symptoms we call allergy. Antihistamines block the effects of
histamine.

Page 4
Allergies--continued
Why, then, should the Waorani, who have no allergies, have lgE in their bodies?
More recently, researchers have found that lgE is also associated with ce.rtain
parasitic infections, such as hookworm and trichinosis. The chain of events is
tricky. Apparently the lgE directed against the infecting parasite becomes
attached to mast cells in the vicinity of the intestines, releasing histamine,
which increases blood vessel leakage and allows the escape of a parasite-specific
antibody into the intestine to fight the parasite.
Therefore allergies, 1 ike hay fever, could be a vestige of an ancient immunological
response to worm infestations, which judging by contemporary tribal peoples were
probably very common. That is, in the presence of worm infestations, lgE might
be an antibody of great worth, but remove the parasites, and the allergic reactions
are free to emerge. Thus, civilization marches on!

Faculty office hours: (all in BCH 219, phone--4334)
Elise Brenner
Dave Mi nde rhout
Bob Reeder

10:30-12:00 MW, 9:30-10:30 TTh, and by appointment
1:00 MTWThF, and by appointment
11:00 MTWF, 5:30-6:30 PM W.