Jemison Visiting Professorship brings de Waal to UAB

Morality Before Religion is the theme of the next Jemison Visiting Professorship lecture, presented by the College of Arts and Sciences the Department of History and Anthropology at UAB. Professor Francis de Waal will talk about empathy, fairness and prosocial primates. Dr. de Waal teaches primate behavior at Emory University.
The speech will take place at the UAB Alumni House on April 11, 2012, at 4pm.

Get ready for the 2012 Southern Anthropological Society meeting

The 2012 Annual Southern Anthropological Society meeting will be hosted by Anthro-Teach at the University of Alabama Birmingham at the Sheraton Hotel in Birmingham, Alabama, March 14th-17th. This year’s theme is “Peace, Justice, and Environment” and our keynote speaker will be Professor Beth Conklin from Vanderbilt University. The Sheraton is located in downtown Birmingham and is within walking distance of the Birmingham Museum of Art, the McWane Science Center and the Civil Rights Institute. Click here for map and directions. Book your room at the Sheraton by February 13, 2012 before 5 p.m. to receive the special conference rate of $115.00 per night. A field trip to the Civil Rights Institute is planned for the Sunday after the conference. The SAS Annual Meeting provides professional anthropologists and students of anthropology with an opportunity to explore and share current projects and issues within the field. Please direct any questions to the meeting chairs, Sharyn Jones ( sharynj@uab.edu) or Lori Cormier (lcormier@uab.edu). For more information, visit the Southern Anthropological Society website.

On Thursday January 19, 2012, Anthro-TEACH gave a presentation about Native American culture for Boy Scout Pack 397 of Homewood, AL at the Trinity United Methodist Church. The student presenters were Christel Carlisle, Jade Delisle, Alea Rouse. The overall presentation showed the children how Native Americans utilized their natural environment. They covered the topics of lithics (stone tools) and music and dance.

The explanations of stone tools included how they were constructed and used. There were plenty of examples presented for the troops to gain greater perspectives of how they were utilized by prehistoric Native Americans.

The scouts were very enthusiastic participants in demonstrations of traditional Native American music and dance. The music and dances that were demonstrated were from more contemporary times, but they allowed the younger audiences to see how Native Americans incorporated nature into their traditions.

Due to time constraints the all of the questions could not be answered, but the Anthro-TEACH team was very impressed by this pack's interest in these topics. We greatly appreciate the enthusiasm of the scouts and we hope that they were able take away valuable information and are further encouraged to pursue anthropological cultural explorations.

Whispers from the Past at the Aldridge Botanical Gardens

Three sisters garden at Aldridge

On October 23rd the ANTHRO-TEACH students and faculty participated in the Aldridge Botanical Gardens second annual celebration of Native American Culture. This exciting full-day of outreach and education for the public and their families was hosted by the Aldridge Gardens with the partnership and support of ANTHRO-TEACH, Moundville Archaeological Park, Legacy Partners in Environmental Education, and the Alabama Humanities Foundation.

One of the activities for kids included a puppet show about the Native American myth of the Three-sisters (corn, beans and squash).










Chip Wente created a traditional kitchen and cooked native Alabama foods in an earth oven using clay pots he created in the traditional Native American style.

 Using Native American flint knapping and hafting methods Chip created an array of tools that would have been used in the past by the Southeastern Native Americans.

UAB ANTHRO-TEACH students and faculty worked with the Aldridge volunteers and crafters to teach the public about the lifeways of the Native Americans in Alabama and the Southeast. Visitors to Aldridge learned about beading and the bead loom.

UAB Anthropology Department faculty Lori Cormier and Sharyn Jones explained artifacts, (their use and construction) from the Josselyn Archaeology Collection housed at UAB Here visitors are handling enigmatic clay "Poverty Point Objects" from the site of Poverty Point in Louisiana.

UAB Anthropology student Brandon Grisaffi explains pottery making in Alabama per-Columbian times to Aldridge visitors.

UAB Anthropology Graduate Student Christel Carlisle describes Native American homes and musical instruments to program participants.

Graduate student, Anna McCown explains ground stone technology and the distribution of Native American tribes in the past.

Dr. Jones discusses Alabama archaeology with visitors to the Josselyn exhibit.

Visitors to the Aldridge event learned about native gourd crafts, that include rattles, spoons, and bowls. Pictured above, two Anthropology graduate students, Jade Delisle and Anna McCown clean and work gourds as they teach local kids about this process.

Aldridge visitors select gourds to work and create useful household items with.

Andrew Kirkpatrick, a UAB Anthropology student (pictured below) worked with Aldridge volunteers and program participants to teach about the atlatl. The atlata is a tool invented by Native Americans in the Southeast who used it for leverage to enhance the distance that a dart could be thrown.

Visitors also engaged in leaf pounding, an ancient Cherokee craft.

Ethel Owen displays her beautiful pine needle baskets, a type of weaving art used by Native Americans.

The photos below are of the Sylestine Legacy, a troupe of Creek Indian dancers who participated in the Whispers from the Past event.

These young visitors to Aldridge try their hands at making music.....

Peace Day Proceedings

The Anthropology department and the Anthro Club held a bake sale in recognition of International Peace Day, September 21st. Many students and club members baked goodies and worked the booth in order to spread awareness about Peace Day and raise donations for the West End Community Gardens. The bake sell went very well raising over $200 dollars for the West End Gardens.

International Peace Day was also the perfect time to introduce UAB students to the Anthropology department's new class, Introduction to Peace Studies, which will be available in Spring 2012. The Introduction to Peace Studies class (ANTH 104) will be an online course taught by Dr. Jones and Jade Delisle. This is an exciting new course that introduces students to the history and utility of social justice, conflict resolution and nonviolence. Students learn about various ways to solve conflicts and address problems without resorting to violence.

In addition to teaching the Peace Studies class, Dr. Jones is working with ANEC (Active Nonviolence Education Center) to provide internships for students taking the Introduction to Peace Studies (Anth 104) and the Environmental Studies Internship (Anth 483). Dr. Jones and ANEC are also working together to offer a Study Away in India for May 2012. More information about this opportunity is forthcoming and anyone interested may contact Dr. Sharyn Jones.

The ANEC website is a wonderful resource for information about the center, its mission and activities. The website also provides recources for the public, ways to volunteer as well as global and political news about peace.

In addition to the ANEC website, there are some other websites that are as inspiring and appropriate for reflection about Peace. The Peace One Day website provides information about the Global Truce initiative scheduled for 2012's International Peace Day. The initiative calls for a day of ceasefire and non-violence to be observed globally on September 21, 2012. The website offers ways for people to become involved in the movement, videos about Global Truce as well as a schedule of events, including concerts, pod talks and festivals. The website Wisdom Portal has poems, quotes and letters from spiritual leader Thich Nhat Hanh about peace. These are a wonderful collection of writings that inspire and define the goals not just of International Peace Day but of peaceful movements and actions everyday.

The website Peaceful Societies is an encyclopedia of societies that anthropologists have described as being peaceful. The characteristics of these societies are defined. This website is interesting an resource for anthropologists as well as the public in general as it provides examples of alternatives to violence that have been practiced by social groups.

One final great website to check out while pondering peace is Les Sponsel. This is the University of Hawaii's website for the Ecological Anthropology Program that they offer. This site lists and defines specializations such as Buddist, Cultural and Political Ecology. The website provides the credentials of and contact information for the program director, Dr. Leslie Sponsel. This is a wonderful website for studente interested in Ecology, Anthropology and Peace studies.

With the success of the Anthropology Department and Anthro Club's International Peace Day Awareness bakesale, the exciting new peace courses at UAB and a plethora of websites; it may be easier to not just celebrate Peace Day every September 21st, but to actively work for peace every day!

EARTH DAY REPORT

The UAB Anthropology Department's Earth Day celebration was not just a success but a fun day full of unique and informative activities, delicious food and important goals. The activities planned were a community art project, free yoga class, gardening demonstration, slam poetry contest and a peace panel discussion that featured religious and scientific leaders from Birmingham. The Earth Day festivities also included a Sojourn booth that sold hand made and eco friendly crafts, a booth of arts and crafts made by students and a booth for the Anam Cara Irish Dancers.

Sojourns

Student Art

Irish Dancers

Of course, in addition to the booths and activities there was food! Baked goods, sushi and Indian food were available and donations were taken for the West End Community Gardens and the Red Cross for Japan Tsunami Relief. The donation collection for the baked goods was a success as $300 was collected for West End Community Gardens and $200 for the Red Cross Japan Tsunami Relief effors!

(For more information about the West End Gardens-watch the documentary filmed by anthropology students and earth day coordinators Anna Mcowen and Lindsay Whiteaker.)

After some mingling, eco-friendly shopping and nutritious eating-visitors and volunteers were treated to a panel discussion that featured religious and scientific leaders of the Birmingham community.Panelists included: Losel Maitri representing the Buddhist community, Jun Ebersol curator from the McWane Center, a representative from the Hindu Temple, a speaker for the Birmingham Bahai Center, and a speaker for The Church Without Walls. The panel discussed their varying ideas on the importance of the earth as our home and how we should fulfill our duty as stewards to the earth. Though there were some specific differences between the panelists beliefs; the discussion highlighted the similarities between the pannelists and the groups they represented. The panel discussion provided insight about how comminities as a whole could work together to solve environmental issues dispite percieved and real differences. The lesson learned was that we all live on this earth together and therefore equally share the responsibility of caring for the environment.

After the panel discussion there was an Earth Day Poetry Slam competition produced by Real Life Poets, Inc. Local middle and highscool students presented poetry they authored specifically for Earth Day. There was a cash prize of $100 awarded to the best environmentally themed poem.

The success of Earth Day was evident in the faces of attendants and volunteers as they learned about specific environmental issues and solutions and as they realized that concern about the earth is broadly shared throught the community. Due to the success, anthropology students are commited to making the Earth Day celebration at UAB an annual event that will continue to grow and inspire people to make environmentally friendly choices and take action for the sake of the planet, our home.

SAS

At the Southern Anthropological society's annual meeting in Richmond, Virginia some of UAB' s anthropology students, as well as Dr. Cormier presented research projects that they have been working on.

Lindsay Whiteaker presented findings from an ethnographic fieldschool in Fiji where she examined the deeper meanings of artwork created by the local children.

Dr. Cormier Presented a poster about obseity and body image within Fiijian society.

Chauntelle Sharp presented a poster about the syncrenicity of traditional Native American music

Mallory Messersmith presented a paper about archaeology in Fiji, where she has been examining ritual

Ashley Wilson presented a paper about Fijian food preference.

Anna McCown presented information about an ongoing study of fijian garbology as a study of the material culture of Fiji.

Jake presented information about on ongoing study of the lithic collection at the McWane Center.