IUN Anthropology news  January 22, 2004

1) events at IUN:
1A) anthropology:  Friday Jan 30 Caveman and festivities,
Wed Feb 4 club meeting,
Thursday Feb 12, Darwin Day, with list of speakers and topics,
LOGO contest winner is announced
1B) other at IUN:  Monday movies

2)  In Chicago
2A)  Yoruba art thru Jan 31 at UIC
2B)  CAPA meeting Tues Jan 27 at DePaul
2C)  Ice Age climate, Thurs Jan 29 at UIC
2D)  Media Queered, Fri Jan 30 at UIC
2E)  Physicians for Human Rights' National Conference, Sat Feb 21, U of Chicago

3)  elsewhere:
3A)  Franz de Wall speaks at humanities event

4)  stuff on the web
4A)  IUN Apache visit
4B) various web sites

5)  in the news:
5A)  The Iceman returneth
5B)  early hominid  toothpicks

6)  summer field schools and other activities:
6A)  Guatemala: Summer Field School in intensive Kaqchikel Maya Language and Culture
6B)  archeology field school on Easter Island
6C)  NSF Summer Institute for Research Design in Cultural Anthropology
6D)  Great Cities Faculty Seed Fund Competition
6E)  Anthro Job in Chicago




1A)   Friday January 30, The IUN Anthropology Club presents LIVE ON FRIDAY
NIGHT, the first of this semester's monthly Friday talks and activities.  This
ANTHROPO-LOOZA of an event is open to all and will begin at 4 pm in Savannah 207
with an open club gathering to welcome new faces, and a food tasting, featuring
items brought by the regular members and faculty. Then at 5 pm there will be a
showing of the Discovery Channel special, "Walking with Cavemen" on DVD on the
big big screen TV, followed by a discussion.  This is open to all, food
contributions are welcome but not necessary, please all come and take the chill
of off what may be a cold evening.  You can park close to the north door of
Savannah, there are no parking restrictions on Friday evenings.
    
Next Anthropology Club weekly meeting is Wed Feb 4 at 4 pm in Savannah.

The Darwin Day Speaker list is finalized.  The event takes place on Thursday Feb
12 (Darwin's birthday) in IUN Library Conference Center 105AB from 1 to 3:15 pm,
and features speakers from the IUN faculty talking about a variety of topics of
interest, from Darwin to modern studies of science and the humanities.
1 pm:  Larry Ciupik, Astronomer, speaks about "Forensic Astronomy"
1:30:  Cynthia O'Dell, Psychologist, speaks on "Charles Darwin's biography of
his own child, and the evolution of the study of child development"
2:00 cutting of Darwin's 195th Birthday cake
2:15  Marisa Fontana, Archaeologist: talks about "Patterns of warfare among
Mississippian Native Americans 500 years before Columbus"
2:45  Paul Kern, Historian, speaks on "The Philosophical Context of The Origin
of Species."
Free and open to the public; darwin T-shirts and other items will be available
for purchase.
Maps and directions and parking info at:  http://www.iun.edu/maps/index.shtml
Our Darwin Day web page is at: http://www.iun.edu/%7Eanthronw/cal/2004/02-12-04.htm
The International Darwin Day site is at: http://www.darwinday.org/

Jackie Donelson's design submission has been chosen as the winner of the Club
Logo design contest; she will receive a check for $100.   Congratulations
Jackie; the logo will be used for club T-shirts, book bags, and whatever.

1B)  Monday Movies series at IUN:
FREE and OPEN to all. The screenings will be at 1:00 in HH 332 and at 7:00 in HH
400.
Jan. 26         Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (U. S., 1971) Dir., Melvin van
Peebles;   w. Melvin van Peebles, Simon Chuckster, & Rhetta Hughes.
                An angry black "action film," with a vengeance--and substance,
Sweet Sweetback early set the direction for a whole genre and style of movies.
Feb. 2          Do the Right Thing (U. S., 1989) Dir., Spike Lee; w. Danny
Ajello, Ossie Davis, & Ruby Dee.         Racial tensions rise and froth on a hot
summer day in New York.


2) In Chicago:
2A)   "Evolution" at UIC
Dayo Laoyes exhibit,"Evolution,"presents portraits and scenes vividly abstracted
from the life and times of the Yoruba of Nigeria. Figures are captured in
various public and private settings that reflect the prominence of spiritual
praise and worship and secular art and politics in the life of the Yoruba. Mr.
Laoye uses tones, textures, colors, and lines in ways that reflect the creative
traditions of Yoruba culture.
Solo Art Exhibit runs thru January 31 2004 8:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.
Opening reception: Sunday January 25 2004 2:00-5:00 p.m. Addams Hall, room 207
Lecture: 2:00-2:45 p.m. Discussion: 2:45-3:45 p.m.   For information, please
call :312-996-9549

2B)   The first CAPA meeting of the new year will be on Tuesday, January 27 from
7-9 pm in Levan room 501 at DePaul University. Please see the end of this
announcement for directions and a map. We are starting out this year thinking
large. Our first presenter will be led by Dr. Monica McManus and focus on Large
Scale Mulit-Site Ethnography. As always, please come with your own personal
examples, questions, thoughts for conversation.
Large-Scale Multi-Site Ethnography
In the past, ethnographers and anthropologists had
generally left the large scale social research
projects to other disciplines and methodologies. Our
projects often featured the "lone ethnographer"
studying a people or topic yet unstudied. Now we may
find ourselves as a part of a larger team having to
share and discuss our insights collaboratively, not
only with other ethnographers, which may prove
challenging enough, but with researchers from other
disciplines as well.
Our speaker will be Monica McManus, a Ph.D. in
anthropology (UIUC) and
former Research Scientist/Site Director for the
Chicago ethnographic
component of "Welfare Children, and Families:  A Three
City Study" (http://www.jhu.edu/~welfare/index.html).
 Some of the topics to be discussed include:
How are we meeting the challenges involved in
participating in these types of projects?
What elements are involved, and what ends can be
achieved through them?
What types of responsibilities and skills are
involved?  How transferable are they?
The Levan Center is located at 1150 West Fullerton. A map can be found at
http://www.depaul.edu/maps/lpc/
We will meet at the Red Lion, 2446 N. Lincoln after
the meeting. If you can't make it to the meeting feel
free to meet us there.
See you on Tuesday!
Michael
CAPA Convener
Michael Chapman
T: 773.989.9281
F: 312.873.3714
michael@mindsparkconsulting.com
Learn more about CAPA at  http://www.erickamenchen.net/capa/

2C)   Seminar Notice "Paleoclimate Record from Lake Baikal" Alexander A Prokopenko
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
Speaker: Alexander A. Prokopenko
From: University of South Carolina
Title of Talk: "Paleoclimate Record from Lake Baikal"
Date: Thursday, January 29, 2004
Time: 4:00 P.M. - 5:00 P.M.
Location: 230 SES (University of Illinois at CHicago, east side)
Drilling in Lake Baikal is an important new source of info on the Ice Age
Paleoclimate: http://www.geol.sc.edu/sil/bdp.htm

2D)  Media Queered Colloquium on January 30 at UIC
Media Queered: Visibility and Its Discontents
Colloquium I: "MONSTERS NO MORE"
Friday, January 30, 2004, 1-4 p.m.
Location: Institute for the Humanities, lower level Stevenson Hall
The increasing media presence of queer people is fraught with paradoxes.
Scholars, media personalities, and activists will explore how visibility spurs
tolerance through stereotyping, removes isolation along with activism,
substitutes assimilation for equality, and absorbs radicalism into a market niche.
Fred Fejes, Florida Atlantic University, speaking on "From Fairy to Pervert:
Media, Meaning and the History of Lesbian/Gay Public Identity"
Edward Alwood, Quinnipiac University, Connecticut, speaking on "A Gift of Gab:
How Independent Broadcasters Gave Pioneering Gay Activists a Chance to be Heard"
James Allan, New School University, speaking on "And Baby Makes Three . . . :
Gay Men, Straight Women, and the Parental Imperative in Film and Television,
1961-2000"
Response John D'Emilio, University of Illinois at Chicago
Cosponsors: The Institute for the Humanities, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance
Against Defamation, the Department of Communication, the UIC Chancellor's
Committee on the Status of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Issues, and
the Humanities Laboratory.
For additional information, contact 312/996-6354 or visit the webpage:
http://tigger.uic.edu/~kgbcomm/mq/

2E)   Conference "The Power of the Health Professional Voice: Human Rights At
Home and Abroad" (Chicago, Feb 21, 2004)
If you are interested in:
Global HIV/AIDS * Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Health Care * Health,
Human Rights, and Social Justice * Networking with health professional and
other activists * Improving your media outreach, fundraising, or advocacy
skills * Learning more about health and human rights issues like land mines,
asylum, and youth in detention * and/or * attending an inspiring
conference...
Then you should  JOIN US
For the Physicians for Human Rights' National Conference
THE POWER OF THE HEALTH PROFESSIONAL VOICE:
HUMAN RIGHTS AT HOME AND ABROAD
Saturday, February 21, 2004
Mandel Hall, The University of Chicago
Early, Reduced Price Registration Ends January 31
This event is open to ALL health professional students, practitioners,
and all others interested in health and human rights
Highlights of the conference include:
*    World Renowned Keynote Speakers: Paul Farmer, MD, PhD & Jack
Geiger, MD, MSci
*    Issue and Skills Workshops on topics like land mines,
asylum/refugees, organizing a chapter, media outreach, advocating for
effective policy, and human rights service/rotations
*    The launching of a new national health professional campaign to
address Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care
*    Sunday leadership training to plan future AIDS and Racial/Ethnic
Disparities Campaign activities
*    Perspectives Panel on Health & Human Rights Activism throughout
your career
*    Presentation of the Nevin Narayan HHR Student Achievement Award
*    Previews of Health Action AIDS Week 2004
*    Opportunities to network with students and other activists from
around the nation
*    Fun social events to meet the future leaders in health and human
rights
*    And much much more!
View the conference agenda and register online at
http://www.phrusa.org/conference2004
This conference is open to ALL health professionals students,
practitioners, and all others interested in health and human rights. The
event is co-sponsored by the University of Chicago Pritzker School of
Medicine and Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine.
We hope to see you in Chicago!


3A)  This is in Texas, but interesting that the keynote speaker for a conference
in the humanities is a primatologist:
http://www.tamu.edu/chr/Programs_Activities/Conferences/defineculture.html
The Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research announces a conference
"Defining Culture: Who, What, Why?" to be held 1-3 April 2004 at Texas A&M
University in College Station, Texas.
Keynote Speakers:
Frans de Waal, C. H. Candler Professor of Primate Behavior and Director,
Living Links Center, Emory University
John Downing, Director, Center for Global Media Research, Southern Illinois
University
Marjorie Garber, William J. Kenan Jr. Professor of English and Director,
Humanities Center, Harvard University
Ibrahim K. Sundiata, Samuel J. and Augusta Spector Professor of History and
African and Afro-American Studies, Brandeis University
Papers address the who, what and why of culture.Who defines, produces,
participates in, studies, and otherwise engages with culture? What are the
patterns, processes, and diverse manifestations of human (or non-human)
culture? Why are we interested in understanding culture, how does culture
come to have political significance, and how might we find ways of
understanding culture from different methodological and theoretical
perspectives?
The Melbern G. Glasscock  Center for Humanities Research
Texas  A&M  University
4352  TAMU
College Station, TX  77843-4352
Phone:  (979) 845-8328
Fax:  (979) 458-3681
Website:  http://www.tamu.edu/chr
Email: glasscock@tamu.edu"


4)  interesting stuff on the web:
4A)  Apaches at IUN  (one of several items from a december newsletter that was
never sent out due to publisher overload)
Apache legacy
GARY -- As chairman of the Apache tribe of Oklahoma, Alonzo Chalepah has the
same concerns as other ethnic groups about preserving his heritage.
"It's hard to get the teenagers away from the video games," he said. "We still
expose them to ceremonies and music, language and religion. My job is to
preserve and protect what my grandfather has done."
For more of this story, click on or type the URL below:
http://www.nwitimes.com/articles/2003/11/05/news/region_and_state/1aa3283d1941da2586256dd4007e9c26.txt

4B)  Anthro websites:
Take the caveman challenge at http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/cavemen/
Everything about early humans: http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/
Choose the gender of your children:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/Default.aspx?id=3990134&p1=0
and just for fun: TATERS: http://www.americanbridge.com/taters.htm
and if you know how to google, you can learn how to grokker:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/01/05/seeing.search1.ap/index.html

5)    News
5A)  ICEMAN    From the IU Anthrograds list:
FORENSIC GEOCHEMISTRY:
Isotopic Data Pinpoint Iceman's Origins
Constance Holden
The renowned Alpine Iceman, known as tzi, has proven to be an
extraordinarily rich source for researchers interested in life during the
late Neolithic era. They know tzi's age, his health, his mitochondrial DNA
sequence, what he ate, and how he died. But where did he live?
Plant matter in his intestine had suggested that the Iceman spent his
final days in an area south of where he was found in 1991, sticking out of
melting snow near the mountainous border between Italy and Austria. Now
researchers have used isotopic signatures from teeth and bones to pinpoint
his origins to a few valleys in southern Tyrol; they report their findings
on page 862. They say tzi probably did not stray more than 60 kilometers
from his birthplace until his death more than 5000 years ago.
Wolfgang Mller of Australian National University in Canberra, who began
the research 3 years ago while at the Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology, and an international team cleverly used various parts of tzi's
body and three kinds of isotopes to trace his whereabouts during his
lifetime. "It's a marvelous paper," says Henry Schwarcz, a geologist at
McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. "This multidisciplinary approach
simply hasn't been done in other sites."
The researchers arrived at their findings by comparing isotope signatures
from dozens of soil and water samples with those from tiny pieces of tzi's
tooth enamel and thighbone. Dental enamel is fixed at the time the tooth
is formed, so the three teeth the scientists examined contain the
signature of trace elements in food ingested when tzi was about 3 to 5
years old, Mller explains. Bone, however, is remineralized with ingested
substances every 10 to 20 years, giving a clue to the Iceman's whereabouts
in adulthood. And tiny pieces of mica in tzi's intestine yielded data
about the hours just before his death.
To link tzi to particular places, the researchers took advantage of "the
geological and topographical complexity of the area," explains Schwarcz.
Their method wouldn't have worked "if [tzi] had been found in the middle
of Iowa." For example, ratios of the stable isotopes of oxygen in rainfall
vary with altitude and geography. High-altitude inland areas, such as
those north of where tzi was found, are depleted in the heavier oxygen
isotope (18O), which drops out first as clouds travel from the Atlantic
Ocean. More southern, Mediterranean-fed rainfall carries higher levels of
18O, and tzi's teeth matched these southern values, indicating that he
lived in those valleys when his teeth formed. But his thighbone values lay
between those and the values from the area where he was found, indicating
that as an adult he spent time farther north at a higher altitude than his
native valley.
In addition, the Alpine mountains around the Iceman are so geologically
complex that they include at least four different rock types, each of
which has a distinct ratio of radioactive isotopes of strontium and lead
in the rock and soil. Because food reflects the isotopic composition of
the soil in which it was grown, the team could narrow tzi's childhood
origins down to several southern valleys.
Putting together these two types of isotope data, the researchers have
zeroed in on the Eisack Valley (see map) as a good candidate for his
childhood home; an archaeological site at a village called Feldthurns
there has revealed a megalith from the same era.
Finally, the researchers characterized tzi's later stomping grounds with
what Schwarcz calls the most "unusual and ingenious" aspect of the
research: argon-argon dating of 12 tiny pieces of white mica that may have
come from the grindstone of the wheat and barley he had eaten shortly
before his death. The age distribution of the mica pieces--between 95
million and 300 million years--is consistent with that of a small area
west of the Eisack Valley, lower Vinschgau, in the Etsch Valley.
Thus Miller's group concludes that tzi grew up in the Eisack Valley, then
as an adult spent time in the mountains of lower Vinschgau before setting
off on his final journey to the tz valley.
Jurian Hoogewerff of the Institute of Food Research in Norwich, U.K.,
however, questions the conclusions drawn from the oxygen isotopes. He
wonders whether the north-south variation seen today existed 5000 years
ago. He saw no such variation in a 2001 study of medieval Tyrolean skulls.
Still, other researchers are impressed by what Paul Budd of the University
of Durham, U.K., calls the "diverse biochemical data." The study "sets new
standards for isotopic life history reconstruction," Budd says.
Although Italy and Austria competed for access after the mummy was
discovered, it was determined in 1991 that tzi was found 93 meters into
the Italian side of the border, and he has been housed at a new museum in
Bolzano, Italy, since 1998. The new data confirm that tzi did indeed spend
his entire life in what is now Italy.

5B)   AND:  Ancient Toothpicks via IU Anthrograds

From the BBC:   A surprising interest in pesonal hygiene?

Our human ancestors may have taken a close interest in dental hygiene.
Palaeontologist Dr Leslea Hlusko, of the University of Illinois, claims to have
evidence ancient man used rudimentary tooth picks.
She has shown that curved grooves found on fossil teeth dating back 1.8 million
years could be the result of erosion caused by repeated rubbing with grass
stalks.   Skeptics argue today's toothpicks leave no such marks, but Dr Hlusko
said grass is more abrasive.  Unlike wood, it contains large numbers of hard,
abrasive silica particles.  Dr Hlusko said grass stalks were the right size to
leave the marks - between  1.5 to 2.6 millimetres wide.  They were also widely
available, and required little modification to become an effective toothpick.
It is thought ancient hominids may have started picking at their teeth to try to
alleviate the pain of gum disease.  New Scientist magazine reports that Dr
Hlusko spent eight hours grinding a piece of grass along a tooth taken from a
baboon.  She then replicated the experiment for three hours on a modern human
tooth.  In both, the grass left marks almost identical to those seen in scanning
 electron microscopic images of early hominid teeth.  Dr Hlusko, whose work is
published in the journal Current Anthropology, said: "Toothpicking with grass
stalks probably represents the most persistent habit documented in human
evolution."  Tooth picks were known to be popular in ancient China, Japan,
India, Iran and other early Eastern civilisations.  It is thought they often
took the form of sharpened, fibrous sticks taken from the lentisk tree. Others
were made from gold or bronze.


6)  summer field schools and other activities:
6A)  Many of you remember Dr Walter Little, who was once an adjunct at IUN and
is now an assistant professor at SUNY Albany; he is co-director of a field
school in Guatemala:
Summer Field School
The Oxlajuj Aj Field School in intensive Kaqchikel Maya and Culture will
be held from June 14 to July 23. The class includes monolingual lessons in
Kaqchikel with cultural activities in both Spanish and Kaqchikel to
reinforce daily language instruction. Sponsored by Tulane University, the
course looks at the lived reality of Kaqchikel Maya life. It encourages
participation by both students and teachers and collaboration between Maya
and foreign scholars, while helping students develop pilot research
projects. Information on the course, photos of past activities and
application forms are available on-line:   http://www.tulane.edu/~maxwell  or
http://www.albany.edu/anthro/fac/little.htm.  Follow the links to Oxlajuj
Aj.  Further queries can be addressed to Judith M. Maxwell, Department of
Anthropology, 1021 Audubon St., Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118,
phone: (504) 862-3045; fax: (504) 865-5338; e-mail:  maxwell@tulane.edu .
Course scheduling, class topics and more general information are available
from Walter E. Little, Department of  Anthropology, SUNY, Albany,
wlittle@albany.edu .  Closing date for applications is March 26; late
applications may be considered as enrollment permits.
I have posted the full flyer at: http://www.iun.edu/%7Eanthronw/KAQ04_1_pg_flier.pdf

6B)   University of Hawai`i ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD SCHOOL ON EASTER ISLAND
(Rapa Nui).  There will be two sessions starting 31 May or 5 July).
The field school is open to undergraduate and graduate
students. Participants will learn survey, mapping,
excavation, geophysical survey, museum/laboratory
analyses, and training Native Rapa Nui high school
students.
Applications are made through U.H. Study Abroad.  The
application DEADLINE is 17 FEBRUARY, 2004.
Please visit our up-dated webpages for details and
applications:
http://www2.soc.hawaii.edu/css/anth/projects/ppp/
Terry L. Hunt, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Anthropology
University of Hawai'i
Phone: 808-956-7310
(Web site says 2005 field school will be in Fiji -- plan now)

6C)  2004 NSF Summer Institute for Research
Design in Cultural Anthropology (for PhD students):
http://personal.ecu.edu/johnsonje/summer.htm

6D)  Great Cities Faculty Seed Fund Competition
Applications are due Friday, February 20, 2004 by 4:00 pm. Guidelines and
application for the Great Cities Faculty Seed Fund are available at:
http://www.uic.edu/cuppa/gci/fellows_and_scholars/faculty_seed_fund_cover_and_appl.htm

 6E)  Anthro Job in Chicago:
Qualitative Research Study Coordinator
DEPARTMENT: Chicago Dept. of Public Health REPORTS TO: CDPH Epidemiologist
Office of HIV/AIDS Surveillance and Howard Brown Health Center
FLSA: Non-Exempt (1.0 FTE)
The Organization Founded in 1974, Howard Brown Health Center (HBHC) provides the
finest cutting-edge, comprehensive healthcare services to the lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgendered community through primary medical care, counseling,
social services, education, prevention, outreach and research. With locations in
Uptown and Lakeview, HBHC serves more than 30,000 people annually. HBHC is the
leading private provider of HIV and AIDS services in the Midwest and the GLBT
health center in the region. Further information can be found at
http://www.howardbrown.org.
Responsibilities: The Qualitative Research Study Coordinator will be required to
follow a systematic sampling protocol to locate, recruit and interview
participants for a qualitative case-control research project to examine
psychosocial and environmental factors surrounding recently-acquired HIV
infection or HIV risk and testing behaviors. Project will be conducted at
numerous community locations, including Chicago Department of Public Health
clinics, University of Illinois COIP field stations, and the Howard Brown Health
Center. Project will be completed by December 31, 2004.
Working Conditions Interviewing will be conducted primarily in numerous
community locations, including Chicago Department of Public Health clinics,
University of Illinois COIP field stations, and the Howard Brown Health Center.
Project central office is located at the Chicago Department of Public Health
Lakeview Specialty Clinic (2861 N. Clark).
Qualifications: Required: Bachelor’s degree in related field. Be able to
demonstrate strong interpersonal skills with a motivation to conduct
face-to-face interviews. Must be willing and able to work at multiple sites. Be
able to demonstrate a broad knowledge of HIV/AIDS Desires: Master’s degree in
Public Health, Anthropology or a related field preferred. Experience with
working with HIV and/or GLBT populations. Experienced in conducting qualitative
research. Be familiar with managing research protocols including assessing
eligibility criteria, monitoring case and matched-control selection, and
maintaining reliability and consistency in data collection.
Equal Opportunity: Howard Brown Health Center affords equal employment
opportunities to all qualified persons, regardless of race, color, religion,
national origin, age, sex, disability, sexual orientation, gender expression,
veteran or marital status.
Application Details Please send cover letter, résumé and salary history to:
Thomas P. Clyde, Field Coordinator
Chicago Department of Public Health
Lakeview Specialty Clinic, Room 8
2861 N. Clark
Chicago, IL 60657
Email: tpcproject1@aol.com
NO CALLS PLEASE