BLOOMSBURG UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: THE STATE SYSTEM OF HIGHER EDUCATION

ANTHROPOS
DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY

VOL

27, ISSUE 2

OCTOBER

2002

SPECIAL POINTS OF
INTEREST:

PRIMATES IN PERIL
One-third of the world's
non-human primate species
now face a serious risk of
extinction, according to a
report by an international
group of conservationists.
The report, entitled
"Priviates in Peril," was
published recently by Conservation International and
the primate specialist group
of the World Conservation
Union.
According to the report,
the number of endangered
primates has risen 63%
since 1999, when the last
such report was published.
The greatest number of
species at risk are in Asia
and the island of Madagascar. Twenty per cent of the
top 25 are located in Vietnam, 16% are from China,

and 12% from Indonesia.
The primary threats are
habitat destruction and
hunting.
Most of the species listed
are prosimians and monkeys, but mountain gorillas
and the Eastern blackcrested gibbon from
China are also listed.
The conservationists
reported that many new
species and subspecies of
primates have been discovered in recent .Ivears
and that there are several
other new species waiting
to be scientifically described. These new species
have been found in remote
areas that have only recently
been opened up because of
human population pres-

sures. Because of the intersection of habitat destruction and the small numbers
of animals found, new primate species almost always
simultaneously go on the
endangered species lists.
The group did note that

there have been some conservation successes with
primates in Latin America.
In some cases, captive
breeding programs have
returned endangered species to the wild.

•
•

BU Alumni News- p. 3

•

Anthropolo9ical Haikus- p., 5

•

Contact us- p. 8

Graduate School Opportunities- p. 4

INSIDI TIIIS ISSUE:

HOPEWELL

2

REDWARE POT

3

GPA

4

CHIMPANZEES

4

CAPTAIN COOK

5

MACHU PICCHU

5

INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE & CULTURAL SURVIVAL IN SOUTH AMERICA
This spring, Dr. Froemming will offer another Special Topics course, this one
being Indigenous Knowledge & Cultural Survival in
South America. Indigenous
knowledge is the know-how
and cultural practices people in small-scale societies
use as they go about making

a

living.

In this course, Dr.
Froemming vvill look at the
local knowledge of the indigenous peoples of the
highlands and lowlands of
South America, particularly
the peoples of the Andes
and the Amazon. This will

include the ways they relate
to their environments. A
growing concern in anthropology is how indigenous
knowledge is exploited or
used by the global culture,
often without compensation
for local cultures or recognition of how that knowledge fit into traditions .

.

..,

SPRING

2003

6

ANTHROPOS

PAGE 2

THE 2002 MIDWEST ARCHAEOLOGICAL CONFERENCE: AT THE CROSSROADS OF THE
MOUNDBUILDERS BY DR. DEE ANNE WYMER

I was honored to have
been asked to present papers
in the two evening plenary
sessions at one of our most
important regional conferences- the Midwest Archaeological Conference.
The Department of Anthropology at Ohio State
University and the Ohio

'

.,....r.,_._............;:.._ Historical Society in Columbus hosted the conference from October 3 to 5.
Nearly 400 archaeologists
from across the country at-

"THE MIDWEST
ARCHAEOLOGICAL
CONFERENCE IS
ONE OF OUR
MOST IMPORTANT
REGIONAL
CONFERENCES."

tended sessions focusing on
the archaeology of the Midwestern portion of the United
States. However, the conference emphasized the most
recent discoveries and research on the Hopewell culture- the early Moundbuilders of 100 BC to 400 AD
whose remarkable ceremonial
lifeways still haunt us today.
One of the nice features of
the conference is that the
evening plenary sessions are
structured so that all confer-

work, which has been highlighted in several issues of this
newsletter, identifying organic materials preserved on
ceremonial copper artifacts.
The paper, "The Value of
Archival Collections: Organic
Preservation on Hopewell
Copper Artifacts," featured
photographs of fabric, fur,
feathers, and other usually
perishable fibers found on
artifacts. It also investigated

what insights these materials
might imply about the ritual
realm of the Hopewell.

environment and cultural
histories, the crop systems
and human-land interaction
was virtuallvJ identical for the
two regions during the Hopewell period and this implies a ·
widely shared dynamic of
social identitv
and land-use
J
practices. I must admit being
given the opportunity to dive
into more theoretical realms
and working with such a

gifted researcher as Sissel was
refreshing and rather exhilarating.

The Friday evening session, "The Anthropology of
the Hopewell," included four
more in-depth papers that
assessed our current und~rstanding of the unique culture
of these earlv
moundbuilders.
J
The papers compared and
contrasted the archaeology of

One of the highlights of
the conference was "hanging
out with Brian Fagan and
hearing his lecture at our Saturday evening banquet. Dr.
Fagan is reknown for his rare
ability to present archaeology
te the public and has vHitten

ence goers may attend the
presentations. Thus, these
sessions tend to highlight the
most "ground-breaking" research. The Thursday session, "Recent Research on
Hopewell Collections, the
Ohio Historical Society: New
Ideas, New Techniques," was
hosted at the Ohio State Museum and featured the results
of innovative new technologies applied to artifacts from
the Museum's collections. I
summarized my most recent

the "eastern" range of this
culture (Ohio) with the more
"western" portion (Illinois). I
collaborated with a researcher
from Illinois, Sissel Johannes- ·
sen, and we produced the
presentation, "Growing the
World in their Image: The
Evolutionary Trajectories of
Hopewell Farming, East and
West." We argued that, although the two regions are
quite different in terms of the

over 25 books, including the
most prominent textbook for
North American archaeology.
(I use it in my course.) It was
mesmerizing to listen to him
for he could paint pictures
with his words. Fagan compared the Hopewell earthworks he had seen earlier in
the day to his homeland's
(England) famous Stonehenge
and Avebury. He noted that

DEPARTMENT OF A~THROPOLOGY

VOL 27,

PAGE

3

HOPEWELL CONFERENCE (CONTINUED)
he thought the Hopewell
earthworks perhaps outshone
even those two places.
The conference experience
was invigorating, stimulating,
and simply, loads offun.
There is a resurgence of interest and new research into the
Hopewell culture ·with innovative technologies (such as
ground penetrating radar and
digital imaging of artifacts)
and new ideas (what do the
earthworks tell us about their
world view and psychology)

BU

being debated in the rooms
and hallwavs
at the hotel.
;
Manv; of us remarked that we
are perhaps closer to understanding this remarkable prehistoric culture than ever
before. In fact, some of us
are discussing returning to the
famous Hopewell living sites
that were excavated in the
1950'sand 1960's and reexcavating portions of them
with the new technologies.
Going to conferences, although exhausting, always

renews my "research batteries," and l fmd that I return
more productive than ever as
a scholar and as a teacher.

ANTHROPOLOGY ALUMNI NEWS

Louise T okarsky, a year
1999 graduate of the anthropology program, has received
her'M.A. in anthropology
from the State University of
New York in Buffalo. The
Master's is entitled "Por Alla"
and is based on research
Louise conducted in Michoacan, Mexico in the summers of 2000 and 2001 . She
received the Michael Matsumunyane Travel Grant from

SUNY-Buffalo to support her
Mexico research in 2001. She
is continuing to work towards
her Ph.D. at Buffalo, and she
hopes to return to Michoacan
where she is focusing on the
impact of migrant labor to the
U.S. on a rural Mexican community.
Tina Hutchinson, a 2000
graduate of BU, has recently
informed the department that

she has been promoted to the
position of Human ~esources Generalist for Independence Construction
Materials. Once she has
worked the necessarv
;
length of time in this position, she plans to become
Human Resources certified
and then perhaps go on for
a Masters degree in the area
of Human Resources.

REDWARE POTTERY BY EMILY RUPERT
I attended "Doc" Wymer's
field school in archaeology at
the Briggs' farm this summer,
and I learned a great deal
about excavating a site. I
learned to lay a grid and excavate by layers, and I learned
what is a rock and what is an
artifact. Manv
historic and
;
prehistoric artifacts were
found.

Among the historic artifacts was a large concentration of red ware pottery
shards. Putting the pieces
together was an exercise in
patience and dexterity. After
many hours of trying a piece
here and then there, I learned
to look for the thickness of a
piece as well as coloration.
The result is approxi-

mately half of a large redware crock that is unglazed on the
outside. The inside of the crock is glazed with a slightly ribbed
pattern in a dark reddish brown. The crock has a small base
which flares out into a \.vide top opening. , It has two handles
resembling ears with which to lift and carry it. The top opening is approximately 18 or 20 inches across. About 3 / 4 of the
top is there, but only a very small portion of the base. It was
probably about 20 inches high, although this is a guess because
not enough pieces were available to join together to get a jointure from top to bottom at any one place. I thoroughly enjoyed working on the crock, and I am sorry that not more
pieces were found.

I

PAGE

ANTHROPOS

4

GRADUATE SCHOOL OPPORTUNITIES IN ANTHROPOLOGY
This past summer, Dr.
Wvmer had a number of discussions "\\-i.th various anthropology students about
what it takes to get into
graduate school. She found
that many of them thought
that their undergraduate
GPA's weren't all that important in terms of being
accepted into graduate
school. In fact, some felt
that they could be accepted
into graduate school of GPA's
ofless than 3.0. That impresJ

above factors.

A 3.5 GPA IS
GENERALLY
EXPECTED IN
GAINING
ADMISSION TO
GRADUATE
SCHOOL IN
ANTHROPOLOGY

Some of those contacted
commented that GPA's lower
than 3. 5 might be considered
if the student also had higher
grades in their last two years,
if they had very high GRE's,
or if thevJ had extensive research.
All of the respondents also
indicated that if a student
wanted funding, then that

sion is not shared bv the anthropology faculty, and Dr.
Wymer decided to look into
the realities of graduate
school admissions by contacting (via e-mail) the chairs at
major and mid-level institutions to ask what they were
looking for in new applicants.
J

1)

a GPA at or over 3.5;

2)

An extremelv well\\-Titten and focused
Statement of Purpose;

3)

Outstanding letters of
recommendation;

4)

Evidence of research,
studv or work outside
the classroom, including
internships, papers, posters, etc.;

J

J

At this point she has received responses from almost
all of the institutions she contacted, and she fmds that the
responses are quite uniform.
They are:

individual must have a high
GPA, high GRE's, and a well"\\-Titten letter.
BU students must understand that getting into graduate school in anthropology is
highly competitive. In the
last decade, a bottleneck has
been building in anthropology
graduate programs. Undergraduate programs have been
attracting more and more

5)

High G RE' s were helpful
but not as crucial as the

majors (like BU's), but graduate programs have been cutting costs by cutting back on
admissions and fmancial
awards. Since onlv
14% of
J
American universities offer
graduate degrees in anthropology, the competition is
fierce.
So ... go to class, get A's in
all your courses, prep for the
GRE's, and do research!

HUMANS, CHIMPS MORE DIFFERENT
It has been a staple of anthropology courses that discuss human evolution to note
how similar humans and
chimpanzees are with regards
to their DNA. Anthropologists and biologists have long
held that the genes of chimps
and humans were about 98.5
similar. This was a great
teaching point that could be
used to emphasize the conti-

nuity among chimps and humans or how verv
small difJ
ferences in DNA could produce very different looking
creatures.
Now, however, Dr. Roy
Britten, a biologist at the
California Institute of Technology, has burst that bubble
with a new studv
that conJ
eludes that the gene similari-

ties amount to only 95%.
Britten based this on a
computer program that compared 780,000 of the 3 billion
base pairs in the human DNA
helix with those of the chimp.
He found more mismatches
than previous researchers
had.

DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY

VOL. 27,

PAGE

ANTHROPOLOGICAL HAIKUS
The March 2002 Anthropology News, published by
the American Anthropological Association, had a set of
anthropological haikus in its
"To Wit" column. Here are a
few samples:

warpaint.

Deep in the jungle,

My grant proposal.

At mvJ consent form ..

Like circling vultures
Committees gather to shred

Lost, I pause to curse at my
Off-brand GPS

In gorilla eyes
I see my ancestors' gaze -

Eyes blazing, bow drawn,

I smile, like
Pharoah,
While slaves toil in
blazing sun.
Ahhh- teaching
field school!

Next month: some
anthropological
limericks.

Uncle Lester's, in fact.

He scowls through his red

CAPTAIN COOK
In 1768, English sea captain James Cook sailed to the
Pacific to '"'itness the transit
of Venus across the sun; this
was important in terms of
calculating the distance between the earth and the sun.
This was the first of three
voyages to the Pacific in
which Cook is credited with
ha""ing been the 1st European
to see the eastern side of Australia and later with the dis-

covery of many Polynesian
islands, including the Hawaiian Islands in 1778. This year ,
there i~ a tremendous amount
of interest in Cook, ·with several new books about him
appearing and a recreated
version of his first ship, the
Endeavor, once again sailing
the Pacific.
But archaeologists in Australia announced on Oct. 7

the discovervJ of a sunken
sailing vessel off Fraser Island
on the east coast of Australia.
Examination of cannon from
the '"'Teck show that the vessel was Portuguese and dates
to the 1650' s. The Portuguese are known to have
charted much of north and
western Australia in the 16th
and 17th centuries. It seems
that thevJ were the first to the
eastern side as well.

INCAN BURIAL DISCOVERED AT MACHU PICCHU
On October 14, the Peruvian government announced the discovervJ of the
first full Inca burial site at
Machu Picchu since the site
was discovered by the U.S.
explorer Hiram Bingham in
1911.
Machu Picchu, a fortress
built on a mountaintop more
than 500 years ago, is Peru's

top tourist attraction and a
U.N. World Heritage site,
dra'"'ing some 500,000 foreign visitors a year. Machu
Picchu was not discovered by
the Spanish in their conquest
of Peru.
The burial site was discovered in earlvJ October in an
area where excavations had
been going on for several

months; the grave was discovered about 30 inches below
the surface.
The burial is of a young
woman. It is notable for its
manv artifacts--clav and
stone vessels, bronze pins, a
mirror, and clasps. Peru
plans to place the burial on
display somewhere to attract
even more tourists.
J

J

"IT'S NOT AT ALL
UNLIKELY THAT
THERE WERE
PORTUGUESE
SHIPS WE DON'T
KNOW ABOUT." MARION
DIAMOND,
HISTORIAN

5

I Department of Anthropology
400 E. 2nd Street.
Bloomsburg, PA 1 7815

BLOOMSBURG UNIVERSITY OF
PENNSYLVANIA: THE STATE
SYSTEM OF HIGHER EDUCATION
Dr. David Minderhout, Editor
.
Phone 570-389-4859
FAX: 570-389-5015
E-mail:dmindem@bloomu.edu

WE'RE ON THE WEB:
WWW.BLOOMU.EDU/
DEPARTMENTS/ANTHRO

ANTHROPOS: the Anthropology Newsletter, is published
six times during the academic year and is mailed to inter­
ested students, faculty, administrators and alumni . It is also
distributed in anthropology classes on campus and made
available on the department's home page. If you would like
to be on the newsletter mailing list, please contact Dr. Dave
Minderhout at the address and numbers on the left .

The Department of Anthropology offers a 36 credit B.A.
degree and an 18 credit minor in anthropology. If you
would like details, please see any of the anthropology fac­
ulty.

ANIHROPOLOGY LS 1HE Sfl.lDY OF
HUMANS

ANTHROPOLOGY COURSES FOR SPRING
Dr. Dauria
46.101 (Intro to An. thropology) MWF 10
46. 200 (Prin of Cultural Anthropology)
TuTh 8 &TuT h 11

MWF 9 & 10,Tu 6:309:30
46.495 (Special Topics)
TuT h 2-3:15

46.102-MWF 11 &
TuT h 3:30-4:45

Dr. Froemming:

46.350 (Medical Anthropology) - Tu 6:309:30

46.200-MWF 12.

Dr.Warner:

.

46.200-MW 4-5:15
46.470 (Anthro
Thought &Theory) M 6:30-9:30
Dr.Wymer:
46� 210 (Prehistoric
Archaeology) - MWF
1 &2

Dr. Minderhout:

46.320
(Contemporary World
Cultures: T he Caribbean) MW 3-4: 15

46.102 (Anthro &
World Problems)

2003:

.

46.220 (Human Origins) - TuT h 9:3010:45
46.311 (Archaeology
of NE North America)
- TuTh 11-12:15