College of Liberal Arts

Department of Anthropology

232 Evans Liberal Arts
601 University Drive San Marcos, TX 78666
Ph: (512) 245-8272
Fax: (512) 245-8076

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Texas State > College of Liberal Arts > Department of Anthropology

UPCOMING EVENTS

Huffman Lecture
On April 6, 2010 Dr. Tom Huffman, professor emeritus at The University of the Witwatersrand, will give a lecture entitled Mapungubwe and Great Zimbabwe: pathways to social complexity in Southern Africa. Dr. Huffman has conducted field work in Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Zambia and South Africa for over 40 years where he excavated at Mapungubwe, Great Zimbabwe and many other sites. He served at the Head of Archaeology and later the Chair of Archaeology at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg for over 30 years and he is a world renowned scholar on the spread and development of Bantu societies in Southern Africa. He recently published Handbook to the Iron Age, the archaeology of pre-colonial farming societies in Southern Africa (University of KwaZulu-Natal Press).

RECENT EVENTS

Previc Lecture-In November 2009 the Departments of Anthropology and Psychology invited Dr. Fred Previc to speak on this new book, The Dopaminergic mind in human evolution and history (Cambridge University Press). Dr. Previc has argued that the evolution of modern human cognition is an epigenetic process that resulted in the increased presence of chemical neurotransmitters in human brains. According to Previc this was due to major changes in diet and physical activities during the Pleistocene era.

The History Department’s Public History Program and the Anthropology Department co-sponsored the presentation of The Search for Amelia Earhart, an illustrated lecture by Thomas F. King, PhD, author of Thirteen Bonesand Amelia Earhart’s Shoes on November 11, 2009.

The 1937 disappearance of aviation pioneers Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan is a mystery that continues to fascinate. Several drastically different hypothetical answers have been provided to the question: “What happened to Amelia Earhart?” These include:

· Ran out of gas and crashed into the Pacific Ocean

Captured by the Japanese and executed
Hidden as part of an elaborate espionage operation by the U.S., Great Britain, or others
Trapped in a time/space warp
Became Tokyo Rose
Returned to the U.S. and died in the 1990’s
OR the Nikumaroro Hypothesis—landed, survived for a while, and died on Nikumaroro atoll in the Phoenix Islands

Author Thomas F. King is the senior archaeologist for the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR), an interdisciplinary scientific research team that has been working since 1989 to solve the enduring mystery of the 1937 disappearance. King’s talk will review the fascinating history of the concerted effort to find out what happened to Earhart. He will highlight the latest findings since the updated 2004 edition of Amelia Earhart’s Shoes, a book he co-authored on the search. He will also discuss his treatment of the evidence in his new novel, Thirteen Bones, and TIGHAR's plans for another expedition in 2010 to ─ perhaps ─ finally solve the mystery.