Department of Anthropology

DEPARTMENT NEWS & EVENTS

Guest Speaker

Dr. Kevin E. Smith, Middle Tennessee State University

The Hero Twins, Spider Grandmother, and Cosmic Regenesis:
Mythic Themes in Middle Cumberland Iconography

Wednesday, February 29th from 7:00-8:30,pm in ELA 114

                     

Ritual acts designed to literally "Regenerate the Cosmos" are now viewed as a key theme underlying much of the iconography of the late prehistoric Midwestern and Southeastern Mississippian cultures. In his presentation, Smith examines a series of key iconographic objects (ca. A.D. 1100-1350) from the Middle Cumberland Region around modern Nashville, Tennessee in pursuit of their possible meanings in the context of acts of Creation and Rebirth. Drawing on Native American sagas from the historic period, Smith proposes that some of these prehistoric objects depict ancestral versions of stories centered on the epic journey of The Hero Twins into the Underworld to battle the Giants and resurrect their fallen father. In concert with these predominantly male-centered images, other objects -- enacted through ritual performance -- are proposed to represent Spider Grandmother, the bringer of both life and the Sacred Fire to humanity.

Forensic Anthropology in the News

As part of her National Institute of Justice (NIJ) supported "Project IDENTIFICATION: Developing Accurate Identification Criteria for Hispanic Individuals," Dr. Kate Spradley is developing a database on skeletal attributes of Hispanic skeletons that will be used to help identify migrants who die along the U.S.-Mexico Border.

Dr. Kate Spradley, Dr. Michelle Hamilton and Dr. Alberto Giordano (Department of Geography) recently published the results of a taphonomy project at the Forensic Anthropology Research Facility that assesses at how vultures modify human remains.

For more information on these forensic anthropology projects www.myfoxaustin.com/dpp/video/Forensic-Anthropologist--Works-to-Identify-Human-Remains-Along-Border20120202-ktbcw#axzz1lKYAAiLw.

Dr. Augustine Agwuele Publishes New Book

Development, Modernism and Modernity in Africa (Routledge African Studies, 2012)

This anthology examines the "unfinished project of modernity" with respect to the unrealized potential for economic, social, and political development in Africa. It also shows how, facing the consequences of modernism, Africans in and out of the continent are responding to these unfinished projects drawing on (a) the customary, (b) the novelty of modernity, and (c) positive aspects of modernism, for the organization of their societies and the enrichment of their lives even as they contend with the negative aspects of modernity and modernism.

Dr. Kerrie Lewis Graham Selected for NIMBioS Working Group

^{(Back row, L to R): M. Mangel, B. O'Meara, J. Schank, G. Burghardt, P. Hammerstein, K. Lewis Graham, H. Fouts. (Front row, L to R): S. Dall'Olio, M. Spinka, M. Rehakova, E. Palagi, S. Pellis, B. Smuts, M. Shimada, E. Akçay. Not pictured: M. Bekoff, T. Pellegrini, S. Siviy}

NIMBioS (National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis) is a new collaboration between the National Science Foundation and several governmental agencies in which working groups are chosen to focus on major scientific questions at the interface between biology and mathematics. Working groups are relatively small, focus on a well-defined topic with defined goals and metrics of success, and meet several times over a two-year period. Dr. Graham is one of a group of 15 international scholars chosen for the working group on "Play, Evolution, and Sociality." See www.nimbios.org/workinggroups/WG_play for more details.

Dr. Graham and her colleagues were also interviewed for a new documentary "Seriously! The Future Depends on Play" by Gwen Gordon seriouslythemovie.com.

2012 Maya Hieroglyphic Workshop

“History and Rhetoric in the Monuments of Piedras Negras”

Friday Evening, October 12th, Saturday October 13th, 9 am to 5 pm, Sunday October 14th, 9 am to 4 pm

Piedras Negras, a large site located on the Guatemalan side of the Usumacinta River, is of great importance to Mayanists because of its long and well preserved series of monuments. These sculptures, in the form of stela, altars, and wall panels, are central to the historiography of Maya studies. In her analysis of these inscriptions about fifty years ago, the scholar Tatiana Proskouriakoff proved that these texts primarily concern the lives and rituals of rulers, rather than gods. In this workshop, we will discuss the implications of Proskouriakoff’s argument for the understanding of dynastic history at Piedras Negras, as well as explore the further significance of these texts as instruments of political discourse. For more information see www.txstate.edu/anthropology/casaa/.