BLOOMSBURG UNIVERSITY
Pennsylvania
Bloomsburg
ANTHROPOLOGY NEWSLETTER
Jan-Feb 1992
Vol. 16, No. 4

Spring Semester 1992: With this issue, the Anthropology Newsletter
greets the spring semester of 1992. Now in its 16th year of publication,
the Newsletter .is circulated to interested students, faculty,
administrators, staff and alumni. If you would like to be added to the
mailing list, please contact Dr. Dave Minderhout in G07 Old Science or at
X4859.
Guest Speaker in February: On February 7 At 3 PM Dr. David Gilmore
will make a presentation on domestic power in the Forum in McCormick.
Dr. Gilmore is a professor of anthropology at the State University of New
York in Stony Brook. His talk is based on his study of male-female
relationships in the region of Andalusia in southern Spain. In an article in
the December 1990 issue of AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Dr. Gilmore
describes the descrepancy between the traditional view that males make
the important decisions in rural Spanish domestic relationships and
Gilmore's discovery in Andalusia that working class women, often united
with their mothers, are often able to prevail in domestic decision making
despite opposition from their husbands. Dr. Gilmore has also recently
published a book, MANHOOD IN THE MAKING, which takes a look at what it
means to be a man in different cultures around the world.
Dr. Gilmore's talk is sponsored jointly by the Departments of
Anthropology and Sociology and by the Scholars/Honors program. For more
information or for copies of Dr. Gilmore's work, please contact either Dr.
Armstrong in Sociology or Dr. Minderhout in Anthropology. There will be an
informal reception for Dr. Gilmore in the Forum following his talk at
which refreshments will be served.

Conservation and Native Peoples: Most Americans have become aware
of efforts to conserve the natural environment - especially tropical rain
forests .; in the Third World. What is less apparent to Americans is that
most of the areas under contention are not only habitats for endangered
species of plants and animals, but are also homes for hundreds of

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thousands of native peoples. As has been reported in earlier issues of the
NEWSLETTER (see the October 1991 issue), these native cultures are also
endangered as their homelands are destroyed for development, agriculture,
mining or any one of many other reasons. Therefore, one might expect that
environmentalists and native peoples would be allies, united in a common
effort to preserve the environment. However, this is often not the case.
In fact, native groups are frequently · deeply suspicious of conservation
groups. To native cultures, developers and environmentalists represent
two sides of the same coin.
There are several reasons why native groups are wary of
environmentalists. First, there are a number of examples in the past in
which conservation has meant that native cultures were ousted from their
homelands. In some cases, the native cultures have been relocated to
other areas by governments; more often, they have simply been told to
leave the area. Both governments and conservation groups felt that
preservation of the environment meant having no humans on the scene,
including the native groups which had managed to coexist with the local
flora and fauna for millenia. The most notorious example of this occurred
in Uganda in the late 60's when a population called the lk was ousted from
a prospective game park. The subsequent degradation of lk culture was
well documented by anthropologist Colin Turnbull in a popular book, THE
MOUNTAIN PEOPLE in 1972. The lk were widely discussed in the media at
the time because their society had disintegrated to the point where
children and the elderly were being abandoned and individuals thought only
of their own survival. Lost in the commentary was the fact that the lk had
been driven from their native lands and familiar way of life by a
government in the name of wildlife conservation.
Second - and more commonly today - native peoples object to
conservation efforts because they are not consulted. Decisions about
creating parks or preserving a particular environment are made by
government officials or legislators; they are lobbied from both sides by
developers and conservation groups. Typically, no one bothers to contact
the people who live in the contested region and find out what they would
like. When a park is created, native groups are told what they may or may
not do; again, their opinion is seen as irrelevant. What employment
opportunities the creation of a preserve might bring seldom go to natives,;
but rather to outside "experts." If employment does become available to
natives, it is at the lowest levels, as for example as garbage collectors or

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cleaning people, with little opportunity for advancement.
Third, many native peoples themselves are not environmentalists. This
is ironic, since in the struggle to achieve self-determination rights or
independence, native groups often claim a special relationship with nature
as grounds for granting them cultural autonomy. This statement from the
1981 International Conference on Indigenous Peoples and the Land sums up·
the political message: "In the world of today there are two systems, .two
different irreconcilable 'ways of life.' The Indian world - collective,
communal, human, respectful of nature, and wise - and the Western world
- greedy, destructive, individualistic, and enemy of Mother Nature_." Native
groups claim that their historic special attitude towards nature makes
them more fit to govern their own resources. Yet, with the coming of
Western technology, many individual native peoples are destroying the
environment at a record pace (for them). Inuit (Eskimo) whale hunters
now favor using explosive harpoons and other contemporary technology.
Modern slash-and-burn agriculturalists are using chain saws. Maoris are
using explosives to stun or kill fish in traditional hunting And fishing
areas in New Zealand. And everywhere, people have guns. Not
surprisingly, these people are not interested in giving up these marvels of
technology to return to an old way of life in the name of conservation.
Thus, preserving the environment comes to mean for many natives a
conflict with what they perceive as an improving lifestyle.
Happily, native groups and environmentalists are beginning to work
together more and more. Native groups have found that environmentalists
can give them access to publicity outlets which they might not otherwise
have~ while environmentalists find that they can make a stronger case for
conservation if they factor in the preservation of native cultures. As an
example, the September/October 1991 issue of NATURE CONSERVANCY
magazine describes an effort in the Sierra Nevada mountains of Colombia
which hopes to preserve an area which combines a unique ecological zone ,
a major archaeological site, and the home area of the Kogi Indians. The
archaeological site is the "Lost City of the Tairona", a mountain
community destroyed by the Spanish in 1600; the Kogi are the surviving
descendants of the Tairona culture. The ecological zone is important
because the snowfields of the peaks of the Sierra Nevada provide fresh
water for 1.2 million people in the lowlands. But a combination of
interests, including peasant farmers seeking -to grow marijuana on the
Sierra Nevada slopes and leftist guerillas using the mountains as a refuge ,

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have led to the mountain forests being cut and the lives of the Kogi being
disrupted. The Nature Conservancy has identified the area as one of 200
key sites in Latin America which urgently need protection and is providing
financial and technical support to the Colombian government towards that
goal. At the same time, the Colombian government has taken steps to
prevent further colonization of the area by outsiders and to helpthe Ko~i
with their problems. A scheme is being developed whereby fees collected
from the lowland water users will be funneled into conservation. In these
ways, hopefully, both environmentalists and the native culture will get
something of what they want.
NOTE: From NEWSWEEK, December 30, 1991, p. 53: "The problem is
economic as well as cultural: indigenous people occupy neqrly 25% of the
world's land - and sit on some of its scarcest resources."

The Anthropologist's Cookbook: The following recipe for spiced
aubergines is from Israel. Aubergine is what most of the world calls
eggplant.
2 or 3 aubergines
2 red peppers} hot, not bell
2 green peppers} same
2 pickled cucumbers
ground black pepper

salt
vine leaves (if available)
wine or cider vinegar
water
oil, approx. 1/2 cup

Wash and slice aubergines 1 inch thick, sprinkle with salt, lay out on a
chopping board and leave for 1 - 1 1/2 hours. Wipe dry.
Fry aubergines in deep oil until soft. Remove from oil and drain. Dice
green and red peppers and pickled cucumber and fry lightly in the oil until
soft. Remove and drain.
Prepare vinegar sauce by diluting 2 cups of vinegar with a little water,
according to taste. Add black pepper and vine leaves and bring to a boil.
Simmer 5 to 7 minutes.
Place a layer of aubergines in a deep dish and on top of each slice spoon
the diced pepper and cucumber mixture, continuing to do this until all the
pepper and cucumber mixture has been used. Pour vinegar over the
aubergine slices, making sure that all the slices are covered. Place in a

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refrigerator for a couple of days to allow aubergines and peppers to
absorb the vinegar. This is often served as a first course followed by
grilled or roast chicken served with potatoes, rice or macaroni.

Sweating: In the December issue of NATURAL HISTORY, Jared Diamond
describes the underlying physiology of sweating, starting with the
observation that some people seem to sweat more than others. "In
summer you can see how people differ in ·their tolerance of heat. Among a
group of your friends, some will be wilting, while others are comfortable;
some will be drenc~d in sweat, while others are scarcely sweating at
all." {p.2) This simple observation is cause for conversation, but for most
of us, there has been little reason to pursue the topic: after all, people are
different, aren't they?
However, as Diamond points out, this fact- of sweating came to be of
real concern to the Japanese in the first half of this century. Long
isolated on their own islands with their modest range of climates, the
Japanese are unusual among modern populations for their homogeneity.
But starting in 1895, with the acquisition of tropical Taiwan, the
Japanese became imperialistic, adding such contrasting climates as the
tropical Marianas Islands and cold Manchuria to their empire. As
individual Japanese were posted to these imperial outposts, they began to
notice real differences in their ability to tolerate heat or cold as
compared with the local inhabitants. With the onset of World War II, and
the spread of millions of Japanese soldiers into the tropics of the Pacific,
this concern became even more acute. Japanese soldiers doing heavy work
in the tropics were sweating at rates of up to one gallon per hour, while
local workers barely seemed to sweat at all.
Thus, Japanese researchers began to look into the physiology of
sweating. They found in their studies that while all humans have
approximately the same number of potential sweat glands, populations and individuals - differ markedly in how many functional (or operating)
sweat glands they possess. For instance, Japanese research found that the
Ainu people of cold Hokkaido island in northern Japan possess 1.4 million
functional sweat glands while the Japanese typically had 2.1 million. But
the inhabitants of tropical Thailand, Taiwan and the Phillipines had 2.4 to
2.8 million. Remember that sweating cools the body through evaporation.
Tropical natives have more functional sweat glands, so they cool down
faster; their bodies do not need to work as hard to put out great volumes

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of sweat, and thus they appear more comfortable.
On the face of it, this seems like a good example of natural selection.
It is advantageous to have more functional sweat glands in the tropics, so
the environment should select for that trait. But Japanese researchers
noted something else. In the years between 1900 and 1945, many
Japanese moved to the tropics and raised children there; these children in
the first generation had significantly more functional sweat glands than
their parents, an effect unexplained by natural selection. Japanese
researchers explained this phenomenon through critical-period
programming. In critical-period programming, a behavior is fixed
irreversibly by conditions prevailing at a certain critical age, usually
early in life. · The most famous study of this was done by Konrad Lorenz
with greylag geese. These geese are born programmed to follow the first
large object they see within a short critical period after they hatch. If
that object is a goose, all well and good, but if that object is a human
(e.g., Lorenz), they will follow the human just as faithfully as if he or she
were a mother goose. If goslings are kept from seeing any large object
during the critical period, they lose their tendency to follow, a loss that
is irreversible.
While critical-period programming is demonstrated in many animals,
there are few examples of it seen in humans. A possible important
example is language ability. As it turns out, sweating appears to be one
example of human critical-period programming. A baby is born with a
given number of sweat glands, none of which is functional at birth.
Functioning depends on post-birth experiences in the first two or three
years of life. If a child grows up in a hot climate, most of that child's
glands will become activated, and for the rest of that child's life s/he
will be. relatively comfortable in hot weather. If the child grows up in a
cold climate, the child's body decides that's what it will be like for life,
and barely half the child's glands will become activated.
Critical-period programming offers an intermediate level of flexibility·
between learned and genetically fixed behavior; the critical period causes
us to end up in a rut, but it's a rut that isn't selected for us until after
birth. If we move later in life to a different environment, we'll ·be
uncomiortable. But our children, born in the new environment, can be as
suited to that environment as the children of people who have lived there
for generations.

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Color Symbolism: Colors vary from culture to culture in the symbolic
meanings associated with them. Take, for example, the color white which
in Western history has been associated with purity or virginity. But for
the Japanese and other orientals, white is used at funerals as a symbolic
representation of hope; therefore, in Japan, white chrysanthemums are the
flowers associated with death and funerals. White is right for brides in
the United States, but not in India. There they prefer red or yellow for
wedding gowns. Even in Western history brides have not always worn
white. Historians say that Roman brides insisted on yellow or on white
trimmed with orange which symbolized passion. In the Middle Ages the
more colorful the gown, the better. Medieval brides often wore red
wedding dresses, and in the Victorian era, brides wore their brightest
finery, no matter what the color. The Japanese often today have two
wedding ceremonies. In one they wear a Western-style white gown, and in
the other, brightly colored traditional Japanese clothing is worn. But one
color to avoid at a Japanese wedding is purple. According to Japanese
culture, purple fades faster than any other color and might signify the
fading of marital happiness.
The French, Dutch and Swedes associate green with cosmetics and
toiletries, but in Egypt, such packaging is insulting, since green is the
national color. In the Orient, green symbolizes exuberance and youth. But
in China, men should not casually wear a green hat - in some regions
there, a man wearing a green hat advertises that his wife or sister is a
prostitute.
In England and France, red is regarded as more masculine than blue.
And in the Orient, at the time of the Chinese New Year, the most popular
gift tradition is to present bright and distinctive red envelopes containing
money.
In England, yellow connotes youth and humor. But in the Orient, yellow
is considered the imperial color because it suggests grandeur and mystery.
In Brazil and Mexico, purple is the color of death. Brown as seen in
withered leaves, is the funeral color in Iran, ·while blue (for heaven) is the
color associated with death in Syria.
In England, black cats are considered lucky.

BU Anthropologist News:
Congratulations are in order to Dr. Tom Aleta, who was granted tenure
by the university during the semester break. Dr. Aleta was in Mexico at
the time, traveling in Mexico City and the region of Michoacan, while
preparing to teach Mayas & Aztecs during the spring semester.
Dr. Wymer's work on the Ohio mastodon was featured in the January
1992 issue of DISCOVER magazine. The work by the research group with which Dr. Wymer is affiliated was described by the magazine as one of the
top 50 discoveries in science in 1991, and Dr. Wymer is extensively quoted
in the article.