Anthropology Newsletter

BLOOMSBURG UN I UERS ITY
Bloomsburg

Pennsyluania

ANTHROPOLOGY NEWSLETTER
Uol. 16, No. 2
ANNouNc1NG:

October 1991

The 1992 Summer Field School
"EHcnuntions at the Great Circle Park:
Preh.istoric Ritual in ConteHt
by Dr. Dee Anne Wymer
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The Project's Background: ApproHimately 2,000 years ago a
remarkable culture, called Hopewell by today's archaeologists, once
eHisted i·n the mid-Ohio Riuer drainages. The Hopewell are famous
world-wide for their unique and rich burial customs that included
elaborate death rituals and interment in large earthen mounds. The
mounds were often built inside compleH geometric enclosures enclosures demarcated by earthen embankments forming squares,
circles, octagons, and other unusual shapes and features (please see
drawing of the Newark earthworks below). These embankments,
typically enclosing 25 to 30 acres in eHtent, did not contain burials but
rather functioned to define ceremonial or sacred spaces. Some
euidence suggests that it may haue taken seueral generations of
indiuiduals, piling basket-load upon basket-load of sediment, to
complete entire compleHes. Burial goods placed with the dead reflect
a uast trade network that nearly spanned the entire North American
continent, including ornaments fashioned from Canadian copper and
Florida marine shell, along with ceremonial spearpoints made from
Wyoming obsidian.
Surprisingly, giuen the dramatic and artistically important
nature of this culture, archaeologists still know relatiuely little about
the eueryday life of these people who liued in the region from
approHimately 100 B.C. to A.O. 400. This is particularly true of the
heartland of Hopewell culture - the Licking Riuer uolley of eastcentral Ohio. Many of the impressiue burial mounds. and ceremonial
compleHes were destroyed by early urban deuelopment as well as

Anthropology Newsletter

wanton destruction for the soke of retrieuing the elaborate burial
goods during the 10·oos and early 19OOs by amateur archaeologists
and relic collectors. Euen less information was auailoble about their
smaller and less dramatic habitation sites. Howeuer, beginning in
1983 a concerned group of professionals from many scientific and
education disciplines formed a research group to study the Hopewell
culture in the Licking Riuer uolley before the push of urbanization had
destroyed our archaeological past. I became a member of this set of
scholars as o graduate student and much of my research is based on
the results of our inuestigations.
Since the formation of this group in 1983 we houe conducted o
large number of inuestigations of the Licking Uolley, including surface
surueys, interuiews with local relic collectors, re_uiews of historic
documents, ond most importantly, seuerol intensiue eHcauotions. In
fact, the 1990 fieldschool took place at the Munson Spring Site located
in the uolley ond the upper-most layers were ceremonial deposits
produced by the Hopewell. Howeuer, ot this phase of the research
we houe come to realize thot we still do not houe o complete picture
of the prehistoric Hopewell culture, porticulorly in linking their small
scattered hamlets to the large central ceremonial compleH that hod
dominated the Licking Uolley riuer system. Among the things that
remain unanswered ond require further inuestigation ore: What drew
together these scattered hamlets, eoch only consisting of seuerol
family groups, to periodically conduct ceremonies ot the central
geometric compleH? How could on egalitarion society with neither
chiefs or nobles organize such o mossiue monumental public
construction? How did o society without written records keep track
of such on eHtensiue earth-mouing project or know how to place the
octagon-circle portion of the earthwork so that it matched specific
lunar alignments? How long did it toke to complete the entire
geometric compleH? Did o single generation complete one section ot o
time? How wos the labor organized, for whot period of time, ond to ·
whose oduontoge? Did the formation of these eloborote ceremonial
compleHes somehow ploy o role in the equally eHtensiue poncontinentol trade network?

It is with these questions in mind that I decided to address the
larger picture by integrating the data gleaned from the recent
eHcouotions ot Hopewell habitation sites in the region with a more in-

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depth inuestigation of the currently remaining fragments of the
ualley's ceremonial compleH. Although the uast majority of this
compleH, -once couering ouer four square miles, was destroyed by the
end of the 1800s, two significant portions were saued and are now
preserued as parks within the Ohio Historical Society site management
system. Due to my eHpertise in Hopewell archaeology, and the
contacts I houe with members of the Society, I haue been giuen
permission to bring Bloomsburg Uniuersity's fieldschool to the Park to
conduct a series of eHcauations - the first systematic research to be
done there in well ouer 50 years.

The Newark Great Clrcle Park:

R major section of the earthwork
compleH, known as the Great Circle, hos been preserued as a park
within the modern city of Newark, Ohio. The Great Circle, although
once used as the county's fairground, appears to be fairly undisturbed
by historic actiuities. This is particularly true of the embankment and
adjacent interior moat (the ditch formed by remoual of the dirt for
creation of the embankment). The last research at the Great Circle
was conducted in the 1930s and concentrated on a burial mound in the
center of the park. Unfortunately, this research wos conducted
before modern theoretical perspectiues or new techniques hod been
deueloped. Thus, there is no information on the construction
technique utilized for the embankment itself, no accurate dates on
t~e building of this portion of the ceremonial compleH, or
inuestigation of non-mound archaeological materials or remains
within or immediately outside the Great Circle.
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The Great Circle (circa 1840)

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Anthropology Newsletter
The two remaining major fragments include the Octagon-Circle (now
a golf course!) located in the upper-left corner and the large circle
located in the lower-center. This circle is preserued as a large (35
ocre) park in Newark, Ohio and is known as the "Great Circle Park".
The Field School:
flpproHimately 12 to 15 Bloomsburg Uniuersity
students will thus haue the rare opportunity to work at a unique
ceremonial site that is known world-wide. Students, working
olongsi~e other archaeologists and professionals from uorious fields,
will help in the creation of a trench through o portion of the
embankment and small test units will be placed within and just
outside the circle. Our main goal is to record the construction
techniques for the building of the Circle, recouer materials like wood
charcoal for radiocarbon dating, and test for undisturbed deposits in
and around the embankment that may relate to the ceremonial rituals
that took place at the site. Our research will be eHtremely important
since these will be the first set of precise dates for the earthwork
compleH as well as the first scientific documentation of the
archaeology of these complico.t ed ritual spaces.

My ultimate goal is to conduct a series of eHcouations like those
planned for this summer at the other remaining portions of the
earthwork compleH and to ultimately tie this information together
with our habitation site data. Thus, I hope to euentuolly find answers
to some of the questions noted abm.Je - how indeed did this incredible
piece of "the built enuironment" operate as the central focus of the
uolley and how did this wondrous culture create such o monumental
construction. Please join me in this Odyssey into the ritual and sacred
life of the Hopewell people.

Details: The fieldschool will take place from mid-June through the
end of July, students will be housed in the same student apartment
compleH we stayed at last field season, and the course will be worth
6 credits. Prior eHperience or coursework in archaeology is not
required (but it looks like there will be o large number of "returnees"
from the 1990 eHcouotions ! ). The Pork itself is a beautiful tree-filled
"green-space" that is o popular picnic spot for the community.
Additionally, there is a fine museum at the site which will be our base
of operations and we will also take fieldtrips to other adjacent and
equally fascinating sites and museums. Since the number of students

Anthropology Newsletter
is limited to approHimately a maHimum of 15 please contact me as
soon as possible if you are interested (or would like more details).
Boy, are we going to haue a great summer.

Lost Knowledge: Since the last newsletter, a number of articles of
anthropological interest haue appeared in national magazines. The
most prominent of these was the couer story of the September 25,
1991 Tl ME. Entitled "Lost Tribes, Lost Knowledge," the article was
about the rapidly disappearing natiue cultures of the world and their
culturally specific knowledge bases. Natiue cultures are disappearing
rapidly for basically two reasons: 1) determined efforts by
gouernments, corporations, and entrepreneurial indiuiduals to
undermine natiue ways and dispossess natiues of their assets,
especially their land; and 2) the younger people in natiue cultures
choosing to turn away from traditional ways to embrace the
materialistic culture of international society. The result in either case
is the same: a few old people who still retain the knowledge giuen to
them by their ancestors but who haue no students. Rs an eHample,
MIT linguist Ken Hale is quoted in the article as saying that 3000 of
the world's 6000 languages are doomed because no children speak
them. Since languages contain special uocabulary items which reflect
people's unique solutions to the problems facing them, the loss of a
language generally also means the loss of potentially useful
information.
The most common information lamented in recent articles like
TIME's is the medical knowledge of natiue peoples. In two recent
articles in CUL TURRL SURU I URL QURRTERL Y, anthropologists Elaine
Elisabetsky and Steuen R. King both note that drug companies are
becoming increasingly interested in the pharmacopoeias of natiue
peoples. She notes that 7000 natural compounds are currently used in
modern medicine; most of these are deriued from folk healing
traditions, especially from European and American Indian traditions.
Howeuer, in the 1960's Western drug companies cut back their
research into medicinal plants in fauor of the fermentation of microorganisms and synthetics. While this fueled a biotechnology
reuolution, recently these firms are discouering that they are now
deriuing limited success at enormous cost from those efforts; many
are turning back to plant research. Rt the same t_ime, tropical rain
forest deforestation has created o crisis in plant eHtinction; it is

Anthropology

Newsletter

estimated that 100 tropical plant species become eHtinct each day
due to deforestation, which is occuring at a rate of 80 acres ·o minute
world-wide. With fewer than 2% of higher plants hauing been
screened for pharmaceutical properties, these losses of plant species
may well mean that potential cures of all sorts are falling beneath the
deuelopers' bulldozers.
Thus, there are a great many drug companies gearing up their plant
research facilities. For instance, Merck recently announced a major
initiatiue with Costa Rica to discouer and analyze rain forest plants
for medical properties (reported in the September 20 PH I LADELPH I A
INQUIRER)~ Drug companies ore finding that the most cost effectiue
approach to plant research is to contact traditional healers in notiue
societies to learn what they use and how; many anthropologists are
engaged in this work. Howeuer, almost inuariably those healers ore
the elderly. In culture ofter culture there is no one to carry on the
work, and key information is being lost.
Both of these articles brings up on interesting legal question as
well: to whom does medicinal plant knowledge belong? If o drug
company studies a plant used by o natiue healer and finds it hos
therapeutic ualue, shouldn't the healer receiue a patent and a portion
of the proceeds from the sales? In the post, drug companies haue
refused to pay notiue heaiers for their contribution; King reports on o
non -· profit conseruotion orgonizaU•,n, the Healing Forest Conseruoncy,
which is trying to change this situation and giue natiue healers the
credit - and income - they ore due.
The Tl ME article also notes other areas of traditional knowledge
that ore rapidly disappearing, including contraception for population
control and traditional means of agriculture. For instance, the
traditional system of slash and burn agriculture used by the notiue
formers of the tropics is becoming appreciated today for its ability to
produce a crop while allowing the tropical rain forest to regenerate
itself. (in Cultiuating the Tropical Forest Richard K. Reed writes that
"The damage being done to [South American] Indian societies is
particularly distressing because they ore the only humans who haue
managed to subsist in the forest without causing permanent harm."
In. CONFORMITY & CONFLICT, edited by James P. Spradley & Oauid W.
Mccurdy, p. 1 40.) In another article in the CULTURAL SURU I UAL
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. Anthropology Newsletter
QUARTERLY, Gordon Thomasson writes that the ciuil war in Liberia has
nearly wiped out indig·enous knowledge of rice planting. Traditionally,
Liberian women (who do the farming) maintained dozens of uarieties
of rice (Thomasson collected 112 in one uillage) which were planted in
slightly different ecological microniches to produce the maHimal
potential from a piece of land. This knowledge was passed on from
mother to daughter; young women memorized the appearance of the
different uarieties and their uses. This traditional knowledge is being
replaced by one international hybrid rice which does not grow as well
in Liberian soils - and in fact, does not do well at all without
eHpensiue petrochemical fertilizers.
Perhaps the best part of the Tl ME article is the photographic work
accompanying it. Photographer William Coupon prouides some
maruelous portraits of the Penan people of Borneo, highland
tribespeople of Papua New Guinea, Aleuts from Alaska, pygmies from
the Central African Republic, and Lacandon Indians of Chiapas, MeHico.

Anthropology & Business: Another article appeared recently which
takes a look at another aspect of anthropology. The September 30,
1991 BUSINESS WEEK contains an article about the increasing use of
anthropologists as corporate consultants to study interactions and
communications in the working place. Actually this is nothing new;
BUS I NESS WEEK published a similar article in June 1986. Howeuer,
recently the number of corporate hirings of anthropologists hos been
on the rise. The current article quotes a prediction from a Wayne
State anthropologist that half of all new anthropology Ph.D.'s will get
their first employment in the business world by 1 993.
What do anthropologists haue to offer corporate eHecutiues?
Anthropologists are trained in participatory obseruation, a data
gathering technique in which anthropologists liue and work among the
people they are studying. When a business hires an anthropologist,
the anthropologist goes out into the workplace, working and
interacting with employees and discouering how they see their jobs.
If possible, the anthropologist also gets to know the workers outside
the job, going with them to their homes or restaurants or any other
setting where the employee is comfortable about talking about
problems on the job. This differs from the approach of most
corporate consultants who either talk with managers about how

Anthropology Newsletter
problems can be solued or who inuite employees into their offices for
one-on-one "chats" or formal interuiews. This often leads to
eHecutiue solutions imposed from aboue which may not address a
problem from a worker's perspectiue. The anthropologist, by
comparison, offers management an employee-based solution, which
often comes closer to the heart of a difficulty.
The BUS I NESS WEEK article cites cases from three companies, HeroH,
NyneH Corporation, and General Motors, where these employee-based
solutions are working. The HeroH eHample is a typical one. The
problem put to the anthropologist, Julian Orr, by HeroH management
was this: euery year the number of seruice calls for HeroH equipment
was increasing. Management's solution had been to produce new
technology which was "simpler", but with the introduction of the new
machines, seruice calls continued to increase. What could be done?
Orr went out with HeroH seruice technicians to see what the problem
was from the technician's perspectiue. He found that the technicians
knew that the problem was not technology breakdown, but
unfamiliarity with the machines. People didn't know how to use the
equipment, and each new model added to the confusion. Seruice
technicians were trained to fiH breakdowns, but not how to
effectiuely show people to use the equipment. Orr suggested to
management that seruice technicians be trained as teachers; he also
initiated a training program which drew on the knowledge of ueteran
technicians, rather than on outside eHperts, to -help new personnel.
With technicians trained for the job they actually had to tackle, the
number of seruice calls decreased.
This kind of anthropological consultant work has a number of
problems built into it. First, many of the problems anthropologists
discouer in these situations are those of poor employee/manager
communications; a common employee complaint is "We told them, but
they just don't listen to us." In this conteHt, managers may not listen
to anthropological solutions either. Second, many of these
anthropological solutions seem deceptiuely simple - like the HeroH
eHample. Managers are prone to say "I paid a consultant to tell me
this? Rn article in HR magazine in October 1990 by Dau id M. Stipy
( "Rnthropologist Uncouers Real Workplace Rttitudes ") addresses this
problem by noting the kind of intense work performed by an
anthropologist to come up with these apparently simple solutions:
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Anthropology Newsletter
When inuolued in a project [the anthropologist] literally works
whateuer hours are required. Spending 14 to 15 hours a day in a plant
is not uncommon. Being in a plant all day and then going home with
someone for dinner and continued discussion frequently occurs. This
intense commitment to the project means that buying 30 consultant
days from an anthropologist is like buying 45 to 50 days from most
other consultants. Few managers are willing to make that kind of
commitment to interacting with_employees.
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Finally, there is a problem of ethics in this kind of research.
Anthropologists belieue that their first ethical responsibility is to
their informants, the people who prouide them with information.
Traditionally anthropologists haue belieued that if publishing a piece
of information will harm an informant in some way, then it is best not
to publish, euen if this aduersely affects the anthropologist's data
base or publications record. This is especially a problem in the
workplace, where many employee complaints end up being about
management - or indiuiduol managers in particular. Since
management is paying the anthropologist's fee, they feel they haue o
right to her or his information, but will on employee be fired for her
or his candor? Similarly, an anthropological solution may lead to
greater productiuity, which may in turn lead to lay-offs as the
company finds it needs fewer workers. Whose side is the
anthropologist on in that case? To dote, anthropologists houen't hod
to confront these problems, but as BUS I NESS WEEK notes, sooner or
later, these issues will emerge. Rs anthropology turns more and more
away from being on academic discipline to the world of business,
these ethical concerns will need to be addressed.
The Anthropologist's Cookbook: For a different taste, try this
groundnut stew from Ghana in West Rfrico. Groundnuts ore what we
coll peanuts.

1 small jar (8 oz) of
2 1 /2 lbs lean meat
peanut butter
1 large onion
salt
1 lb okra
3 chili peppers or 1 1 /2 tsp ground chili 2 tbsp tomato puree
1 /2 cup peanut oil
3/4 pt. beef stock
Cut up the meat, onion, and peppers. Fry in oil until the onions ore

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Anthropology Newsletter
soft. Rdd salt and stock and cook until the meat is tender (1 1 /2 to 2
hrs?). Half an hour before the meat is ready, add okra, peanut butter
and tomato puree. When it is ready, the sauce should be the
consistency of a thick soup.
In Ghana this dish is serued with side dishes of bananas, dried fruit,
coconut, oranges, apples or fried plantain. Serues 4-6.

BU Rnthropologlsts Mnke Presentations: Seueral of the BU
anthropologists haue been making presentations around campus in
the past month. Dr. Tom Rleto made a presentation, "Children of the
Uirgin", on September 16 as part of the uniuersity's Latino Heritage
Month. Dr. Rleto talked about the integration of religion into
eueryday life in MeHico. He stressed the roots of this integration in
both Spanish and the pre-Columbian Indian cultures; he then showed
how Spanish Catholicism merged with Indian beliefs to produce
contemporary MeHican faith and practice. He illustrated his talk with
slides taken on his many uisits to MeHico.
Dr. Daue Minderhout presented a workshop at the Phi Beta Lambda
Fall Workshop on October 5. Entitled "Why Businesspeople Need
Anthropology", Dr. Minderhout showed how anthropology is becoming
more and more utilized in the American business community.
Anthropologists are helping businesses understand the international
marketplace as well as cultural minorities in the U.S. Riso, as noted
aboue, anthropologists also are in increasing demand as consultants
to study internal problems in American businesses.
Dr. Dee Anne Wymer will make a presentation on October 25 to the
Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi's annual freshman awards luncheon.
She will talk about her archaeological research ouer the past two
years, focusing on her part in analyzing an 11,500 year old mastodon
and in the eHcauation of Hopewell Indian mounds in Ohio. The team of
which Dr. Wymer is a part had their Mastodon research published in
QUATERNARY RESEARCH recently. Dr. Wymer analyzed the uegetable
contents in the gut remains of the creature and found that the animal
was ingesting a wider uariety of plants than had preui"ously been
thought to haue been true.