from the chair - college of humanities & social sciences · from the chair daniel boxberger ......

From the ChairDaniel Boxberger

A PUBLICATION OF WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY

Anthropology

Maggie Dunlap Barklind Alicia Bautista John H. Beanblossom William Belcher & Linda Kohlstaedt Theodore and Victoria Bestor Dennis Ralph Bolton Morgan D. Bradwell Jeffrey and Laurie Brown Peter and Laurel Browning Nancy Jean Carlson Perry and Ellen Casper Robert and Ramona Daugherty Chad Kuaimoku De Aguiar Patricia and Charles Dyer Patrick Steven Elliott Tabitha Anne Englebright Paul and Kathleen Forman Micaela Rei Fujita Susan Marie Gonzalez Geoff and Jacki Gouette Kyle Allen Grafstrom Ronald L. Hall Kent and Poppy Hanson William Byron Holmeide

Holly Hood Yu-Ree Hyun Gerene M. and Larry A. Jackson Virginia Markham Janssen Amanda Elizabeth Johnson Teri Charlotte Kisle Susan Hvalsoe Komori Marlene and R. James Krout Curt and Judy Larsen Mark and Helen Lehmann Richard and Diane Lewis Emily Linder Lewis and Fran Maudsley Molly Raymond Mignon Gregory Alvin Morgan Stephanie L. Neil Jennifer Ann Nelson Alan and JoAnn Oiye Barbara Jane Perkins Linda Pettit Pamela Ann Pogemiller Earl Lee Reep Adina Marla Rivoli

Greetings!

Yes, I am still department chair, twelve years now. 2012 was another exciting year for the Department of Anthropology, despite the fact that we, like universities across the nation, are suffering from declining support.

Last year I told you that I am serving as WWU Faculty Legislative Representative in Olympia through the 2013 legislative session. We had many successes last year but the effort to stop the bleeding was not enough, and our state institutions continue to fall further behind. Washington State now ranks dead last in the nation in total funding per student for four-year universities. Until 2008, state funding provided about 72 percent of the cost per student, now it is down to almost 30 percent, resulting in higher tuition, reduced course offerings and larger classes. It looks grim but the Department of Anthropology is thriving, largely due to a dedicated and hard-working faculty. WWU continues to rank high nation-wide in public universities. The 2013 legislative session begins on January 14.

We are doing everything we can to educate our elected representatives about the situation facing Western, the rest of our public universities, and especially our students.

Alumni play an important role in spreading the word about the value of a liberal arts education like WWU provides, and especially, of course, the value of a background in anthropology. Read through our annual newsletter to see what our faculty and students have accomplished this year. There have been some amazing contributions to our discipline and to the both the local and global community. We have some pretty great stories to tell. Please tell us your stories as well. We are always interested in hearing what our alums have been up to.

Consider joining Department of Anthropology Western Washington University on Facebook to share with all of us. Until next year….

-- Daniel Boxberger

Thank You to our 2012 Donors! We would like to thank the following generous contributors

Sheila Klein Rubio Margaret Elaine Russell Heather Shepherd & Brandon Adams Ross Smith & Shelby Anderson Jeffrey Snyder & Carolyn Reiners Robert Lee Spear Mary Lynn Stender Annette Kay Stillwell Jeffrey John Talbot Pamela Dee Teagarden The Boeing Company Doshie Lee Thomes Dianna Lindsey Torrico Ronald Warren Tuck Amy and Wayne Van Dam Jeffery and Megan Vogel Joseph and Niki Vogt Wayne Edward Wakefield Daniel and Jane Warner Terry and Cheryl Warrington Cristina and Matt Waters Amy Heskett Wooldridge Leonard and Cherie Yarberry

anthropology newsletterJanuary 2013

Department of Anthropology516 High Street , Arntzen Hall 315Bellingham, WA 98225-9083Phone 360-650-3620, Fax 360-650-7668www.wwu.edu/anthropology

department chairDaniel Boxbergerp 360 650 [email protected]

administrative services managerViva Barnesp 360 650 5228f 360 650 [email protected]

newsletter editorJean Webster p 360 650 3620f 360 650 [email protected]

facultySarah Cambell, ProfessorJoyce D. Hammond, ProfessorTodd Koetje, Assc. ProfessorJames Loucky, ProfessorRobert Marshall, ProfessorM. J. Mosher, Asst. ProfessorJudith Pine, Asst. Professor Joan Stevenson, ProfessorKathleen Young, Assc. Professor

non-tenure track faculty Maria Chavez, Senior InstructorPaul James, InstructorAlyson Rollins, InstructorKathleen Saunders, Senior Instructor

research associates Michael Etnier, Research Assc.Phil Everson, Research Assc.

Questions or comments about this newsletter? Please contact Jean Webster at (360) 650-3620 or email: [email protected]

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Daniel Boxberger

Instead of our annual August trek this year Cheryl and I tagged along with a group of Study Abroad students doing volunteer work in Tanzania. We worked with the Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project who strives to get decent wages and working conditions for the porters who carry the tourist’s gear up Mount Kilimanjaro. We had planned on trekking Mt. Kili but after seeing how the locals are treated by tourists we decided that we will never participate in that exploitation.

We also spend time at the Kilimanjaro Kids Care Orphanage, reading, tutoring and playing soccer with an amazing bunch of kids. That was really the highlight of the trip. The kids named me Babu, which is Swahili for grandpa (I hope). We also got to visit the Kilimajaro Coffee Cooperative, run by the Chagga people, and Maasai villages which are beginning to cash in on the tourist industry.

Oh yeah, we also got to go on safari and see all the animals.I am still busy working with local American Indian and First Nations groups on issues of natural resource access and management. My eleven years at Sechelt is coming to fruition as we are beginning to development a full-blown ethnography from an ethno-ecological perspective. Work continues on western Oregon treaties with the Grande Ronde Tribe, and I have a couple other projects in the works which should be making a debut soon.

Todd Koetje

This year I was in the annual ‘Round the County’ sailboat race around the San Juan Islands over veteran’s day weekend. There were 81 boats racing this year ranging from 24 to 70 footers, and very fast modern Catamarans to the 84 foot, 112 year old Schooner, Martha. In the crew this year were: Viva Barnes, our department manager, Christian Opfer and Jason Reid, former Anthro students, and Ellen Bohn, a current student. In addition, John Thibault, Donna Olsen, and Seth Nuckolls (an Instructor in the Math Dept.) were aboard.

In the picture we are just rounding the southeast corner of Lopez Island on Saturday, on our way to Roche harbor for the first day’s finish and an overnight stay. It was a long, cold, but beautiful day in the Islands. Christian, Viva, and Jason are visible.

News from our Faculty

Photo credit: Donna Olsen

THE ANTHROPOLOGY NEWSLETTER - JANUARY 2013

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MJ Mosher

By Jove………I think we’ve got it! Results from our pilot program examining human variation of DNA methylation in the leptin core promoter (that be epigenetics) have indicated some distinct ethnicity, age, and sex differences in methylation density. Results have been presented at the Latin American Biological Anthropology conference in Costa Rica and led to a possible direction using DNA and data from the Kansas Nutrition Project to further identify epigenotype –phenotype relationships. A Christmas break behind the computer writing grant proposals is in line. Is this someone’s idea of fun???????

Joyce Hammond

By the time you read this, I will be in the South Pacific for a research stint of several months on the topic of tifaifai (Polynesian “quilts”) and tifaifai makers. Since my dissertation research centered on this subject matter about 30 years ago, I am very eager to explore the changes that have come with increased globalization.

This fall I have been corresponding with some folks in French Polynesia who are responsible for planning the “traditional” destination wedding ceremonies for couples coming from afar. Among other acts, the couple is often enveloped in a tifaifai in a manner similar to local marrying couples. Tahiti Tourisme promotes this through photos and descriptions. I include one of their images below:

In November I attended the AAA meetings in San Francisco (convenient since I had to visit the French Consulate to get a long-stay visa for Tahiti) and presented a poster on the use of tifaifai in hotel and pension settings.

It’s all things tifaifai this year and next!

Judith M.S. Pine

This has been an interesting year for me, with a shift of gears as my research project moves from data collection to analysis

News from our Faculty and writing. I had the opportunity to teach summer quarter classes, and to participate as an advisor for Summer Start, orienting incoming freshmen to the academic requirements of Western. I found that, as is often the case, I learned a lot more about the topic by teaching it.

This summer my family made a long-planned trip to Disneyland, an experience which felt a bit like going to the field to study consumer capitalism. I had a good time, but have not yet really written or thought about the experience. Maybe there are some things best left unexamined? I have been involved in efforts to bring some visibility to linguistic anthropology – we feel that we have a lot to offer in a variety of public discourses and hope to get into the appropriate rolodexes so that we can make our voices heard.

One element of this is the Society for Linguistic Anthropology blog, on which I have posted occasionally. A post I wrote a couple of years ago caught the attention of an NPR producer and my daughter and I were interviewed in conjunction with a production by the show Philosophy Talk. The topic of the show is “The Linguistics of Name-Calling”, and my daughter and I were briefly interviewed about my blog essay “Bad Words”. I understand that they will have played portions of the interview during the live version of the program – I am not sure when, or even if, the show will actually air.


I also had the opportunity to give a brief class on African American Vernacular English to the cast of Bellingham Arts Academy for Youth production of The Wiz. I really enjoy bringing linguistic anthropology to a general audience, and I hope to do more of that in the future.

Robert Marshall

As an anthropologist, I found an intellectual home for a decade now in the Society for Economic Anthropology. Paul Durrenberger, who also has an interest in cooperatives, invited me to present a paper on Japan’s worker cooperatives at the SEA annual meeting on labor he organized in 2001.

In 2008 I organized the annual meeting myself, on, as you might suppose, cooperation, and the papers from this meeting became “Cooperation in Economy and Society,” Robert C Marshall, ed., Society for Economic Anthropology Monographs No. 28, AltaMira Press: NY, NY., with a publication date of 2010. And for the past six years I have been SEA’s treasurer.

Founded in 1981 by Harold Schneider, Stuart Plattner, Sutti Ortiz, Rhoda Halperin, Paul Durrenberger and a number of other anthropologists, economists, geographers, SEA was chartered “not to desire the organization to be driven by a particular theoretical approach but to serve instead as a forum to bring economic anthropologists together,” as Sutti Ortiz recalled recently for the SEA’s oral history project. Since then SEA has brought together a wide variety of scholars and viewpoints in conferences every year and published a collection of papers from each year’s meeting.

Now SEA is on the verge of joining the American Anthropological Association as a sub-section. SEA members voted overwhelmingly this fall to do so, and AAA members are voting on whether to accept SEA right now; and there is every reason to think AAA members’ response will be just as overwhelmingly positive. But it has taken me a very great deal of work to line up the accounts of this very small 501(c)3 organization with the complicated and standardized books of the enormous AAA. Now I believe that work is done, our finances are in order, and, at the SEA meeting in March, 2013, my tenure as treasurer will be at an end.

The changed world of publishing drove this merger. A stand-alone collection of conference papers on a single theme can no longer claim a place in the publishing world and the price of the annual SEA volume has climbed to almost $100.00. The publication that will result from SEA’s 2013 conference, with the theme “Inequality,” will be published in a journal format by SEA under AAA’s publication agreement with Wiley-Blackwell. And, as journals are now and books are not, it will be online and searchable. The world of publishing has turned a page and SEA too will soon be a part of that brave new world.

James Loucky

The intersections of human rights, migration, and the critical need for a commons perspective have been central to my research and teaching. These are evident in co-authored publications: "Humane Migration: Establishing Legitimacy and Rights for Displaced People" (Kumarian Press, 2012) and "Mesoamerican/North American Partnerships for Community Wellbeing" (Practicing Anthropology, Winter 2012).

I spent most of the summer above 3000 meters, for the first 6 weeks with 13 students in remote Himalaya villages of Ladakh, in northern India. Harsh ecological conditions were reflected in extensive irrigation, cooperative social and economic relations, and adaptive responses to growing tourism and materialism.

The last 3 weeks saw me in Peru, one of the most biodiverse places on earth, leading another field course focusing on varied community approaches to tourism, rapid change, and climate change. In both places, the extent of glacial melt was stark and sobering.

Our shared fate is even more reason for holism, global ethics, and mobilizing the full resources inherent in cross-cultural knowledge and practices.

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Shingo-La: day 5 of our cross-Himalaya trek,crossing Shingo-la (pass) at 5051m.

Kiagar: spending a week with Tibetan nomads near the border with China, was anthropological heaven.

Sarah Campbell

Sarah’s activities for the past year include writing several grants for curation, archaeological projects and presenting at professional conferences. Sarah worked with Erin Bilyeu, the former archaeology lab collections manager, to continue grant funding for the reorganization of WWU’s archaeological lab and collections, focusing especially on the associated records. (BTW: Erin started a new position at the Smithsonian this fall. Congratulations, Erin!)

Past projects for which we have either records and/or artifact collections have been accessioned in an electronic PastPerfect collections database and the paper records have been re-housed archivally under a Transportation Enhancement grant through the Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation. Many of the primary field documents have been digitized with several dozen field notebooks available as PDFs. A second similar grant runs until fall of 2013. Under supervision of Russell Alleen-Williams, slides, photographs and over 500 maps will be translated to preservation quality TIFF images. In addition, students working in the lab the next two quarters will focus on rehousing artifacts and samples and writing up brief summaries and finding aids for collections to make them more accessible for research.

Even more tangible is the archaeology lab renovation, AH317. The addition of moveable compact shelving units drastically increased the available storage space for research and comparative collections. The classroom side now has a new computer projection system, and rolling tables and chairs which allow flexible work space reorganization. The hodgepodge of different wooden shelf systems has been replaced with a sleek, unified shelf and counter system along one wall for reference books and 6 computers, although we also kept the oak bookshelves that alums may remember from the former department library. Former students who visit are congratulatory, but envious!

Sarah presented a paper at the 2012 Society for American Archaeology (SAA) Annual Meeting in Memphis, TN, co-authored with Virginia Butler of Portland State University and titled “Understanding the Evolution of Northwest Coast

Maritime Resource Management Systems Using Collective Action Models.” It describes some of the complex systems Northwest Coast native peoples used to harvest, enhance, and manage marine resources. Campbell and Butler argued for archaeologists to integrate evolutionary perspectives on conservation with the rich ethnographic record of northwest coast peoples’ social institutions and challenged archaeologists to create linkages between abstract concepts like ownership, evolution of cooperation, and social regulation of resource use with physical artifacts and facilities to test these relationships.

Sarah, Dr. Mike Etnier (adjunct faculty in the department) and collaborators from Portland State University and University of Rhode Island, are currently analyzing zooarchaeological samples from the Tse-whit-zen village site near Port Angeles. The research project, funded by NSF, seeks to identify how people living on the shores on the Strait of Juan de Fuca over the last two thousand years responded to periodic tectonic events that may have disrupted their socially managed patterns of resource use.

This three year project will also provide substantial training opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students at each university. Sarah’s purview is the marine invertebrates, and several student research assistants have been helping sort and quantify shell samples. This fall we have completed a pilot analysis of 4 of the 44 boxes of shell samples, working out the protocols before tackling the remaining samples.

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Joan Stevenson

I took no time off after 2 hip replacements in 2011 (2nd in December 2011), but have enjoyed being out of pain in 2012.

Co-authors and I await word from journals on two manuscripts, one derived from research supported partly by a NSF grant that put me and Phil in Alaska a few years ago to work with an ex-alumnus, Dr. Ken Pratt, of the BIA. Both articles are being considered by cultural anthropology journals.

There are plenty of majors in the three biology-anthropology degree tracks. I continue to be the book review editor at American Journal of Human Biology (10 years running and hoping to be replaced soon!) and the associate editor for American Journal of Physical Anthropology. My current research focus is on food allergies.

My son, Ward, moved out to Friday Harbor to be with his girlfriend and is working in market research so we are planning a guest room in the vacated space. John is working as a computer technology support intern at WWU. Phil is preparing classes to go on-line through WWU. I continue to play violin and less successfully, saxophone, and particularly enjoy harmonizing or improvising on violin early Sunday evenings at the Green Frog Tavern’s “slow jam”.

Kathleen Young

To the left is a 4th century B.C.E. bronze sculpture of the Greek goddess Artemis, goddess of the hunt and protector of young girls and women, found on the island of Issa, the island in the central Adriatic, almost half way between the coasts of Croatia and Italy, known as Vis island today.

I continue to work on “The view from Issa,” but there are mysteries I have yet to solve. Illyrians were living on the island from at least the 12th century B.C.E. and they built a fortress on a hill, the oldest hillfort in Dalmatia, called the Talež hillfort. Did they see the Greeks from the hillfort when they arrived in the 5th to 4th centuries B.C.E.?

The island minted its own coins in the 3rd century B.C.E.; some coins depict Artemis on one side and Dionysus, the god of wine, on the other side. Since Vis was famous even then for its excellent wine, that is understandable, but why is Philip II of Macedonia, father of Alexander the Great on

some of the coins? One person associated with Issa in this era is the grandfather of Olympias, the mother of Alexander the

A Hellenistic astrologer's board from Croatia

Great. Is there a connection between the Macedonians and Issa? Archaeologists found a cave littered with wine goblets made from clay that came from an area near the hillfort and an astrology board from the 2nd century B.C.E. made out of Ivory traced to the Ptolemys in Egypt; was Issa “into” astrology? What was going on in that cave? I am going to Issa this summer to see if I can find some answers. I will let you know what I find out in next year’s newsletter.

In a paper just published in the Journal for the History of Astronomy, Stašo Forenbaher (Institute for Anthropological Research, Zagreb) and Alexander Jones (ISAW) announce the discovery of ivory fragments of a Hellenistic astrologer's board in a part of a cave in southern Croatia that was sealed off towards the end of the first century BCE after having served as a cultic sanctuary.

The board, which an astrologer would have used to display to his client the arrangement of heavenly bodies in a horoscope, is the oldest such object known to exist. It witnesses the rapid spread of Greek horoscopic astrology, which came into existence as a fusion of Mesopotamian and Egyptian astral divination with Greek cosmology probably not long before 100 BCE.

Nakovana Cave overlooks the Adriatic Sea from a ridge near the western tip of Pelješac Peninsula, 100 kilometers northwest of Dubrovnik. Some of the most important Adriatic sea-lines of antiquity pass through the channels below the cave. The Nakovana Project (directed by Timothy Kaiser and Stašo Forenbaher) began work at the cave in 1999, and towards the end of the field season a hitherto unknown extension of the cave was discovered. Fragments of pottery vessels were lying about, most of them Hellenistic finewares datable to the last four centuries BCE, evidently the accumulated remains from cult offerings. The ivory fragments were discovered among this material.

When complete, the board had twelve arc-shaped ivory plates forming a complete circle and representing the twelve signs of the zodiac. An astrologer would have displayed a horoscope by placing colored stones standing for the Sun, Moon, and planets in the places they occupied in the zodiac on a particular date, for example a client's birthdate. It is not clear whether the board was actually used where its remains were found in Nakovana cave or whether it was deposited there as a precious offering.

Mike Etnier(a belated introduction)

I’m taking opportunity of the departmental newsletter to finally answer that question: “Who’s that guy that lurks at the far end of the hallway, in a room full of animal skeletons?”

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I’m a zooarchaeologist (UW, class of 2002), and have lived in Bellingham since 2005. I hold an “Affiliate Research Associate” (read “soft-money”) position here in the Anthropology Department.

Over the past two years, I’ve been working on a project funded by the National Park Service (Anchorage) that is attempting to find a climate change signal in amongst the reams and reams of zooarchaeological data that have been generated for coastal Alaska, spanning the past several thousand years. To do this, we are doing two main tasks. First, we have to compile all the data. Then, if we can identify existing collections that would fill data gaps (either temporal or spatial gaps in coverage), we can also do some ID work on those collections.

More recently, Sarah Campbell and I (with several other researchers at other institutions) received an NSF grant to analyze faunal remains from the large Tse-Whit-Zen village site in Port Angeles. Like most zooarchaeological analyses, the nuts-and-bolts of the analysis are pretty mundane—yes, people ate salmon there. And yes, they also ate deer and seals and sea otters.

What makes this site so incredible is that the village was occupied during a large subduction earthquake and associated tsunami. The excavations were so detailed that we have faunal samples from before and after the event, from several different houses. Each of those houses appears to have had differing socio-economic status. The focus of our analyses will be to examine differences in the faunal remains from before and after the tsunami, as well as between the different households.

I wouldn’t be able to do this without the help of students. In particular, Davina Miller (Class of 2012), Laura Syvertson (Class of 2012), and Eric Guzman (anticipated Class of 2013) have been fantastic. Over the next year or two, I will need another one or two students to work in the lab. If you know of any students who might be interested, have them contact me. Also, feel free to stop by the lab any time! [email protected]; Rm AH307.

Kathy Saunders

Kathleen Saunders’ Anthropology 303 class, Qualitative Methods, will be conducting interviews and focus groups of Western students this winter to help get a pulse on attitudes and practices towards Academic Integrity on campus.

Concurrent with the renewal of the Academic Honesty Policy at Western, this class will gather students narratives about fellow students’ experiences and attitudes with regards to Academic Integrity, the implicit and explicit messages students have received on campus and the source of those messages, and consideration of the role that Academic Integrity plans in the overall quality of the educational experience at Western.

Saunders reports that hands on-experience with qualitative research is a valuable educational experience and this study could have the added value of incorporating many student voices into Western’s consideration of policy and practices surrounding Academic Integrity.

Culture & Ecology in the Himalaya Mountains

Faculty-led Study Abroad Program Summer 2012

Active Minds Changing LivesAA/EO Institution

INDIA -HIMALAYAS

For details visit:www.wwu.edu/travelprogramsContact Information [email protected] or (360) 650-3615

Study Abroad with Anthropology Professors - 2012 Classes



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FAST FACTS: The Department of Anthropology has 224 undergraduate majors including, 111 cultural concentration, 35 bio-anth BA/BS majors, 35 archaeology concentration, 4 Anth-Ed/elementary, 10 Anth-Ed social studies, and 29 bio-cultural concentration. In any year we have between eight and twelve new graduate students, while in the current 2012/2013 school year, there are 20 graduate students enrolled. In the last year faculty offered 67 undergraduate courses and 17 graduate courses. In 2012, 98 anthropology majors received their degrees and 8 graduate students completed the requirements for a masters degree; Jeff Brummel, Zach Sullivan, Angus Tierney, Katie Fawell, Matthew Adam Dubeau , Lisa Spicer, Jorelle GroverCathy Bialas. Congratulations to ALL our anthropology students for another fantastic year!

Anthropology Department awarded for efforts in reduced utility use during Spring Quarter, 2012

The 10x12 program at Western Washington University, in partnership with Academic Custodial services, Facilities Management and the AS Recycling Center, piloted a waste management improvement project in Arntzen Hall, Parks Hall, Biology & Chemistry classrooms during fall quarter of 2011. The goal of the 10x12 program was a 10-percent reduction in utilities consumption and costs by the end of 2012, which would be achieved by encouraging individual actions, technical strategies education and outreach.

"In the first five months of the 10x12 pilot, electricity consumption reduced to below baseline average levels in three of the four

pilot buildings."Participating departments were offered 25% of up to a 10% utilities reduction, as an initial incentive to promote conservation and waste reduction actions. The Office of Sustainability and Facilities Management awarded a total of $1,790 in utilities rebates. The rebate, symbolized by a "giant Check" signed by Rich Van Den Hul, WWU Vice President for Business & Financial Affairs, was divided among the six academic departments in the successful buildings.Arntzen Hall showed a reduction in utilities consumption, thanks to Facilities Management building systems efficiency changes and building occupant actions. Arntzen Hall used a monthly average of 17% less electricity in 2011, compared to the 2007-2009 baseline measurement, and the Anthropology Department was awarded $277.24. for their efforts in reduced utilities.

The program is inspired by green office programs at other universities, including the University of British Columbia, and Harvard. Achieving energy reduction goals through personal action is economical, practical, and effective. Bringing big climate goals to the level of personal action helps to foster awareness and creativity for larger-scale solutions.

Truly Lahu – Representing Authentic Identity in Karaoke VideosThis talk will draw on fieldwork in Thailand and China to explore the way that Lahu speakers in the Greater Mekong Subregion present themselves as individuals who can be authentically Lahu and at the same time modern, challenging the idea that authenticity and modernity are diametrically opposed. Professor Pine will use examples of material collected during three summers of fieldwork to briefly explore the concept of authenticity as approached from the perspective of linguistic anthropology. Opportunities to view and perhaps sing along with Lahu language karaoke will be included!

Judy Pine is a linguistic anthropologist whose fieldwork among Lahu speakers in northern Thailand and southwest China began in the 1990s. She has done research on the topic of Lahu literacies and is now engaged in a project exploring Lahu language media as it is created, circulates and is consumed throughout the Lahu speaking world. Judy has taught in the Department of Anthropology at WWU since fall 2008. Funding for her research on Lahu language media was provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

February 16, 2012

Noon - 1 p.m.

Wilson Library Presentation Room

Free and open to the public

The Center for International Studies sponsors this lecture series so that Western faculty, staff, and students who have had

significant international experiences can share the perspectives they have gained with the larger community.

For more information contact CIS at 650.7544. International.wwu.edu

Special Event :: Lecture Series Truly Lahu - Representing Authentic Indentity in Karaoke Videos, by Professor Judy Pine

Do you Want to knoW...?Find out the latest upcoming speakers, anthropology news, & special events when you friend us on FACEBOOK! http://www.facebook.com/ANTHROPOLOGYATWESTERNhttp://www.facebook.com/WWUArchaeologyhttp://www.facebook.com/WWUAnthropologyClub

A n t h r o p o l o g y D e p a r t m e n t

Spring Quarter 2012AWARD WINNER


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Archaeology Department Opens Contents of 1912 Time Capsule at WWU

Archaeology Professors, Sarah Campbell and Todd Koetje assist in Western Washington University's 1912 Time Capsule Recovery. Even our department chair, Dan Boxberger got involved!

To read the stories in full and to see additional photos, go to the Bellingham Herald website:

Article http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2012/02/10/2387466/contents-of-1912-time-capsule.html#storylink=misearch

Galleryhttp://www.bellinghamherald.com/2012/02/03/2379080/wwu-1912-time-capsule-excavation.html#storylink=misearch

Daniel Boxberger, an anthropology professor at Western, looks into the 1912 time capsule Thursday

The Anthropology Department. got to show off its hard work identifying bits of deteriorated WWU memorabilia from the 1912 time capsule.

Contents of 1912 Time Capsule at Wilson Library



WWU selected for national 2012 President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction written by Western Today staff

Western Washington University has been selected for the national 2012 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction award, which recognizes higher education institutions across the country that reflect the values of exemplary community service and achieve meaningful outcomes in their communities.

Western, which is the only public university in the state of Washington selected for Distinction, has received the award for the second consecutive year.

For the 2012 award, Western was recognized for three programs at Woodring College of Education: the Compass 2 Campus mentoring program; the Latino Outreach Project, and the Building Bridges with Migrant Youth program.

“This is an extremely significant recognition for the community service efforts of Western and Woodring College of Education. It speaks to the dedication and commitment of an outstanding group of students and their faculty mentors. It represents the best of what the college and university are all about,” said Francisco Rios, dean of Woodring College.

The President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll was inspired by the thousands of college students who traveled across the country to support relief efforts along the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina; the initiative celebrates the volunteer spirit that exists within the higher education community.

"The Compass to Campus program provides skilled support and positive role models wherever they are placed in our school. Our students naturally gravitate toward college students and find great tutors and mentors in these programs,” said Jay Jordan, principal at Shuksan Middle School.

The Corporation for National and Community Service, which has administered the Honor Roll since 2006, admitted a total of 642 colleges and universities for their impact on issues from literacy and neighborhood revitalization to supporting at-risk youth. Of that total, 513 were named to the Honor Roll, 110

received the recognition of Honor Roll with distinction, 14 were identified as finalists, and five -- one of them being Seattle University -- received the Presidential Award.

“To receive this national recognition again is a fantastic honor, and further establishes our reputation as a university that is integral to the world around us. The Center for Service-Learning is proud of Western's commitment to prepare our students for their place as contributing citizens in a complex, global society. And we are grateful to Western's leadership who truly makes this award possible,” said Tim Costello, director of Western’s Center for Service-Learning.

Curious about Compass to campus? Check out out the video from Compass 2 Campus, posted on the Western Front below:

Compass 2 Campus program offers path

to the future for young students.

Compass 2 Campus is a program at Western Washington University designed to increase access to higher education by

providing an opportunity for fifth grade students from traditionally underrepresented and disadvantaged backgrounds in Whatcom and

Skagit counties to be mentored by university students.

Anth Club President, Andrea Grover, talking to participants.

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ALUmNi!We'd love to know what you are doing these days!

Please drop us a line and if you can, include a photo. We love to see our grads living and loving life after

college! Email me: [email protected]

the World Issues Forum presents

Julie Tate-Libby, PhD Instructor of Anthropology and Sociology,

Wenatchee Valley College

The Himalaya range has long been a site for mountaineering and exploration as well as pilgrimage, mountain worship and high altitude farming and pastoral life. Kawa Karpo (Meili Snow Mountain) in Southwestern China is a prominent site for pilgrims from across the Tibetan plateau, and increasingly popular with Han Chinese tourists as well. Government plans for roads to facilitate tourism are likely to have major effects on remote villages. Similar tourism promotion is slated for small mountain communities in Zanskar, in northern India. The fate of community development and mountain worship in these villages provide lessons for tourism, politics and development issues across Southwest China and the Himalaya region overall.

Wednesday, October 1012 - 1:20 p.m.

Fairhaven College Auditorium

James Loucky (Professor of Anthropology at WWU) will offer a comparative response

Sponsored by Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies

For more information, contact Shirley Osterhaus at [email protected] or call Fairhaven College at 360.650.6680

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Irena Lambrou with her poster presentation on Food Waste at American Anthropological Association conference in San Fransisco, CA, November 17, 2012

Natalie Mickey. Undergraduate Alumni via email to Viva

I moved to Israel in September of 2011, learned Hebrew for the year and began my Master of Urban and Regional Planning at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology this fall. It's a really great program and studying in a new language and in a new country is certainly a wild experience. I could write a book based on the wacky things that happen in this eventful country. Not to mention how fabulous the food is here. My American friends, you have never had hummus until you have had fresh hummus in the Middle East. Happy New Year!

Students Lead the Way as Co-inquirers of Teaching & Learning

Serving as the hub for the study of teaching and learning at WWU, the Teaching-Learning Academy (TLA) has engaged many student participants in its ongoing dialogue with faculty, staff, and community members. As one sign of that engagement, students and alumni have co-presented at national and international conferences this past year including:Blair Kaufer (Anthropology student) and Carmen Werder (Libraries & Learning Commons/Communication), did an invited keynote presentation in Michigan titled “Engaging Student Voices in the Study of Teaching and Learning: Ordinary People, Plain Pretzels, and Conversational Scholarship.”


News From Our Alumni!


News from Our Alumni - Excerpts taken from Facebook, emails and notes from faculty.

Michael Shepard , Graduate Alumni, via email 2012

I completed my MA in 2007 and while I did not immediately start work in anthropology, my MA was essential for continued work as a college administrator in eLearning and for teaching both undergraduate and graduate level anthropology courses. Somehow I forgot the pain of graduate school and enrolled at the University of British Columbia Anthropology Department to work on a PhD. I was fortunate to receive a full fellowship for 4 years and their block scheduling allowed me to commute to campus for two years while I completed course work and exams. I am currently a PhD Candidate working on research and writing. My topic examines themes of language ideology, technology, and documentation and dissemination of endangered native languages. One day I hope to finish! It is easy for life to push back dissertation work and as proof my wife and I spent the past year living in Moshi, Tanzania. My wife taught geography at an international school and I volunteered on campus and worked online (power/Internet permitting). We have both done lots of traveling, but Tanzania was the poorest place we have been and the most distinctly non-Western. Africa has experienced extensive colonization, but dress, language, customs and values reflect African identity to a degree not found in many other colonized cultures. One explanation is that many African colonizers came to extract people and resources, but did not successfully establish permanent settlements. Compared to colonization in the Americas, enculturation in Africa is much more nuanced. We got to do lots of safari in Tanzania, climbed their second tallest mountain, traveled to Dubai and Cape Town. We returned to Bellingham in July and last month had a beautiful baby girl, Ramona Lillian Shepard. We plan to keep traveling and hope to teach abroad again once I finish my dissertation. -- Michael --------------------------------------------------------------------------Kristin Almskaar, Undergraduate Alumni, via email to Joan 2012

I realize I never updated you on my grad school endeavors...thought you might want to know that I'm starting the Anthro Ph.D. at Temple University next week! I'll be working with Dr. Christie Rockwell. She's into human reproductive physiology, genetic epidemiology of reproductive disorders, and recently comparative primate genomics. Our lab is collaborating with people in the Bio department so there is a lot of opportunities for human biology research. I am taking two of my three courses this semester in the Biology Dept (Developmental Bio and Endocrinology). I will also be TAing the undergraduate course in Bio Anth (meaning of course that I have funding!!). I will keep you updated on my progress in the program. -- Kristin--------------------------------------------------------------------------

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ALUmNi! We'd love to know what you are doing (and where) these days! Please drop me a line with some

details and include a photo if you have one. We love to see our grads living and loving life after

college! Email me: [email protected]

Cailín E. Murray Boyd (facebook) Muncie, Indiana

I am an alum of WWU's awesome Anthropology program. Now I am an associate professor of Anthro at Ball State University. Much of my teaching pedagogy evolved out of watching Dr. Hammond teach! Also, as an alum I am happy to announce my new book (with Coll Thrush), Phantom Past, Indigenous Presence (2011)! ( Coll Thrush) And I'm a Fairhaven grad ('93). Go Bellingham!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------Curt Larsen , WWU Alumni, via email

Thanks so much for sending on the department newsletter. I'm always glad to see and hear about the goings on there as Western and the department are special places for me. I left Western before the Anthro department came into existence on its own. I was Gar Grabert's first grad student and left with my M.A. in 1971. During our time there, my wife Judy was also the resident director of Mathes Hall and I worked in the Campus Planning Office during the planning for the campus expansion including your building. The old Soc/Anth department was back in Old Main then. We are planning to be in B'ham on June 29th and will stay for a couple of days. I hope to visit the department at that time. You've asked for information about alums so I thought I would give you the url for a recent interview with me regarding my fractured career on an archeological talk show on an internet radio station. I've been retired since 2005 from USGS, but moonlight on a project by project basis for an archeological consulting business in New York. Here is the url in case anyone is interested: http://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/57974/profiles-in-contemporary-archaeological-careers-a-life-in-geoarchaeologyWe look forward to seeing Western again after so long.Sincerely,Curt Larsen--------------------------------------------------------------------------Megan Otis, Graduate Alumni, via email

I got a job working in the College of Education at Seattle University! I support five graduate programs in the College of Education; I work with some great students and great faculty here. I’m really enjoying my work here so far and the benefits are amazing. -- Megan Otis

Phantom Past, Indigenous Presence: Native Ghosts In North American

Culture And History


Excerpts taken from Facebook, emails and notes from faculty.

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--------------------------------------------------------------------------Diana D.. Undergraduate Alumni via email to Prof. Stevenson

I wanted to say thank you again for writing a letter of recommendation for me and let you know that I was accepted into 3 of the 4 schools. I'm just ironing out the final details right now, but it looks like I'll be going to the University of Connecticut next year! Anyways, thanks for helping me out! -- Diana Dimarco--------------------------------------------------------------------------Carly C., Undergraduate Alumni via email to Prof. Stevenson

I wanted to let you know that I have been accepted to medical school! I will attending the College of Osteopathic Medical of the Pacific (COMP) - Northwest Campus in Lebanon, Oregon starting in early August and am so excited to get back in the classroom! Thank you so much for all of your support over the years - it has really paid off. I hope you are doing well and not working too hard... Thanks again and have a wonderful day.All the best! -- Carly Crider--------------------------------------------------------------------------Andrew O., Undergraduate Alumni via email to Prof. Stevenson

It has been a long ride but the application scramble has finally settled. I've been accepted at A.T. Still University of Kirksville, MO. A well established school with a strong program, and definitely one of my top picks! The only question remains whether I will begin this coming August, or be deferred one year due to the over crowded 2012 class. Either way I have an in, and that is a very exciting thing!

I did also interview at the UW, and after much deliberation made the alternate list, which means there's a distant possibility of me getting in, always something to hope for. It has been a long process and I have learned a lot, and now I am looking forward to what the future will hold. Meanwhile my job in Seattle is going great, and I continue to gain hands on experience working with under-served patients at the Tacoma Neighborhood Clinic. I can look back on the past year and see how I have grown both personally and professionally.

Again I want to tell you how much I appreciate all the help and advice you've given along the way. Your help and guidance have been invaluable. Thank you. I hope this letter finds you in good health as spring slowly creeps towards the Northwest. Kind Regards, Andrew Owen--------------------------------------------------------------------------Updates via email from Prof. Young

Naomi graduated from WWU. She was accepted into the Grad program at the University of Victoria, got a full scholarship, and now a paid internship. The paper she wrote on Sex Workers in the 490 T&R class developed into the topic she's pursing in grad school and the very subject of the internship.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------Crystal M., Undergraduate Alumni, update from Prof. Young

Greetings all! I'm currently in my second year at the University of Iowa in the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Genetics. At the end of my first year I joined the Erives Lab where I will remain through earning my PhD. Our lab focuses on characterizing the syntax and lexicon of cis-regulatory elements, with particular focus on transcriptional networks of development within several evolutionarily divergent Drosophilid species. The work involves a mix of bioinformatics (dry-lab) and bench work (wet-lab), which keeps me *pretty busy. I have several active projects- one of which involves the development of a Drosophilid model of pleiotropic brain-lung-thyroid syndrome through characterization of the scarecrow gene- a fly homolog of Thyroid Transcription Factor 1 (TTF-1). No signs yet as to which project will serve for my thesis. At the end of next summer I will head in to my comprehensive exams, which are considered one of the primary hurdles to graduation.

In other news I seem to be adjusting to my new Iowan life... but as soon as I break free from my PhD tethers I will be back on the west coast (where all the best people live). And in yet other news, my coworkers are slowly adapting to me. I'm sure some people reading this will be humored, and I'll just leave it at that. :) Oh, and I still escape with my camera periodically. --Crystal Maki --------------------------------------------------------------------------Kristin Almskaar, Undergraduate Alumni, recent recipient of the research award via email from Prof. Stevenson

I realize I never updated you on my grad school endeavors...thought you might want to know that I'm starting the Anthro PhD at Temple University next week! I'll be working with Dr. Christie Rockwell. She's into human reproductive physiology, genetic epidemiology of reproductive disorders, and recently comparative primate genomics. Our lab is collaborating with people in the Bio department so there is a lot of opportunities for really awesome human biology research. I am taking two of my three courses this semester in the Biology Dept (Developmental Bio and Endocrinology). I will also be TAing the undergraduate course in Bio Anth (meaning of course that I have funding!!). I will keep you updated on my progress in the program. -- Kristin--------------------------------------------------------------------------Updates via email from Prof. Stevenson

Nicolette Bohn and Laurianne Sakai (both Biology-Anthropology BS) were two of the first students accepted into the UW Dental School last year and started this fall. Ms. Bohn is willing to advise students also interested in dental school (Email: [email protected]).

Alex McAlvay started his program in Botany (ethnobotany) at Wisconsin-Madison with full support.

Margaret Willson, h.D. has a National Geographic grant for research in Iceland.

In Memoriam - Justin Head

The department sadly reports the passing of Justin Head (Archaeology 2011) on August 17th, 2012.



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The accurate assessment of age-at-death from skeletal remains is key in both forensic anthropology and bioarchaeology. DiGangi et al. (2009) have proposed that three anatomical regions of the first rib demonstrate age-correlated changes that can be used in determining gage at death.

Their research incorporated 470 male individuals of Balkan ancestry recovered yfrom a mass gravesite in Kosovo. The exclusion of female individuals thus raises the question of the reliability of their method reliability of their method when applied to both sexes.

This thesis attempts to validate DiGangi and colleagues’ method by colleagues method by applying it to a set of female remains.

Experiencing stress in the work environment is common for most occupations, and some occupations experience more work-related stress than others. Environmental factors including lighting, temperature, air quality and noise, can affect workers’ stress levels in subtle ways often overlooked during typical work-related stress evaluations. The present study examines the relationship between these environmental factors and their effects on the stress levels of corrections officers.

JeFF BrummeL:environmental Stress

in the Correctional Workplace

ZACh SuLLivAn:Use of the First Rib

in the Age-at-Death Assessment of Adult

Female Skeletal Remains

AnguS TierneyWalking With Wapiti:

Measuring the Effects of Late Holocene Climatic

Variability Through Stable Isotope Analysis

on Cervus elaphus in the Gulf of Georgia.

KATie FAWeLLResiliency Strategies in Transnational Families:

Case Study with Highland Guatemalan

Women

grAduATe STudenTS TheSiS TopiCS & preSenTATion pieCeS 2011-2012

mATTheW AdAm duBeAu

Late-Holocene Mammal Use in the Gulf of Georgia Region:

A Case Study from the Cherry Point Site

(45WH1), Northwestern Washington

LiSA SpiCerCollective Effervescence: Fire, land, and children

provide common ground between hippie

newcomers and rural old-timers on the

Redwood Coast

JoreLLe groverIdentity and

Icons: Conflict and Consequences

Surrounding the University of North

Dakota’s “Fighting Sioux” Name & Logo

CAThy BiALAS11,000 Years on the

Rogue River: Prehistoric Occupation of the Stratton Creek Site

(35JO21), Josephine County, Oregon

grAduATe STudenTS TheSiS TopiCS & preSenTATion pieCeS 2011-2012

ANTHROPOLOGY CLUBThe Anthropology Club is a group of students and faculty who promote interest in the discipline of anthropology. We plan and promote speakers, trips and events, which relate to all of the sub-fields of the discipline. Anyone with the slightest interest in anthropology is invited to the meetings and events we organize. We welcome undergrads, grad students, faculty, alumni, your kids...

Each year, the Anth Club helps host the Compass 2 Campus visit from our local 5th graders. Compass 2 Campus is a program at Western Washington University designed to increase access to higher education by providing an opportunity for 5th grade students from traditionally underrepresented and disadvantaged backgrounds in Whatcom and Skagit counties to be mentored by university students. We plan and present a presentation covering the four subfields of Anthropology to 5th graders when they come visit WWU’s campus.

The other highlight of the academic year that we participate in annually, is the planning and hosting of the Anthropology Conference in conjunction with Scholar's Week, including coordinating the Poster Session and Reception for the department.

Between events, we plan and promote speakers, trips, and events which relate to all 4 of the subdivisions within Anthropology. Past events include visiting the Hibulb Cultural Center & Natural History Preserve; traveling to the University of British Columbia's Museum of Anthropology; attending the Bellingham Human Rights Film Festival; listening to dynamic speakers both on and off campus; watching/ discussing provocative movies; (ie: Yes Men Fix the World) and other thought inciting documentaries. But best of all, we have fun and connect with others who have similar interests -- Thanks to the officers and other club members for their hard work and support. Visit the WWU Anthropology Club on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/anthclubat online: http://www.wwu.edu/anthclub

DEPARTMENTAL AWARDS 2012-2013TAYLOR-ANASTASIO AWARd

• Rebecca Hoffmeister – Geophagy• Todd Lagastee – Crystal Clear: Not all Microblades Are Equal • Kristen Morley– Examining Power Dynamics Between Captives and Captors in the Beslan

OUTSTANDING GRADUATEKirsten White was selected as the 2012 Anthropology Department’s Outstanding Student of the Year. Kirsten graduated this last June with a B.A. in Anthropology, (magna cum laude) and a minor in Raza Latina Studies. Throughout her time at Western, Kirsten received multiple awards and scholarships including Associated Students Academic Scholar Award, Presidents Two Year Scholarship, Western Foundation Award and the Princeton Prize in Race Relationship Scholarship Award. During her time at WWU, Kirsten volunteered as a Student Coordinator/mentor with the WWU Digital Storytelling Project where she collaborated with classroom teachers at local middle schools to facilitate storytelling projects for 6th and 7th grade students, as well as mentoring students in workshops to create digital stories to share with their communities. She was the Vice President for WWU’s Student Coalition for Immigration Rights where she developed and facilitated multiple community events, workshops and presentations including the first annual SCIR Community Conference on Immigration. During her final year, Kirsten presented papers at both the AAA conference in Montreal, Quebec and at Anthropology Scholars Week and co-authored an article on digital storytelling for Ladder Magazine, a publication of the Los Angeles Unified School District which is currently pending publication. In her spare time, Ms. White was a volunteer member of the US Board of Directors for the Dunga Orphanage Project where she collaborated with the Kenyan Advisory board to operate a community-based organization dedicated to sponsoring Dunga and Kisumu-based youth in their educational pursuits. Since graduating, Kirsten is realizing her goal of combining her interests of community-driven projects with Anthropology by moving to Phoenix with Teach for America.

FRIENDS OF ANTHROPOLOGY UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH AWARD WINNERThe Friends of Anthropology Undergraduate Research recipient for Fall 2012 was Jennifer Hoang for her project “Ethnographic Narrative of the Karenni Students of Western Thailand’s Refugee Camp, Mae La”. She proposes to contribute to the spread of awareness about the issues surrounding the refugee camps on the border of Thailand by filming a documentary following the lives of three Burmese engineering students living as refugees inside the camps. The film aspires to give the global community a greater understanding and to connect a wider array of audiences to the refugee situation in Thailand by showing the human dimension of life.

from the chair - college of humanities & social sciences · from the chair daniel boxberger ......

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