WINTER 1981 ISSUE

A PUBLICATION OF THE PEABODY MUSEUM AND THE DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY, HARVARD UNIVERSITY • 11 DIVINITY AVENUE CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 02138

America's Great Lost Expedition LEA S. McCHESNEY Until recently the largest and single most significant collection of Hopi In­ dian art lay buried amidst the dusty re­ cesses of the Peabody Museum. The "Thomas V . Kearn Collection of Hopi Material Culture," consisting of approx­ imately 4,500 ethnographic objects ranging from prehistoric pots, baskets, and textile fragments to nineteenth­ century wooden tablitas and ceremonial art, was acquired through a pioneering scientific expedition. It currently consti­ tutes the core of a major research proj­ ect at the Peabody. Renovated storage and conservation of the collection have been accomplished through support provided by the National Science Foun­ dation. A catalogue of some 1,500 of the historic ceramics has been prepared for the National Park Service. Through the Continued on page 14

Stylized stone serpent from Copan (Peabody Museum 92-49-20/C74) Photo: Hillel Burger. See page 16 for article.

Featured in this issue: Time and space in Madagascar RICHARD HUNTINGTON The Lewis and Clark Expedition: American's first great thrust into the unknown Polacca polychrome effigy water bottle, ca. JEFFREY P. BRAIN 1890 (Peabody Museum 43-39-10/25784) Photo: Hillel Burger Symbols • Winter 1981 • 1 Time and space in Madagascar: spatial indicators of social process RICHARD HUNTINGTON Richard Huntington has taught in Harvard's Anthropology Department and has been a Curator with the Peabody since 1974. Additionally, he has taught anthropology at the University of Cape Town (1972-1974) and the University of Khartoum (1979-1980). Professor Huntington has done field research with two African pastoralist societies: the Bara of Madagascar and the Dinka of Sudan. With Peter Metcalf, he recently authored a monograph on the importance of funeral rituals in human society, Celebration of Death: The Anthropology of Mortuary Ritual , Cambridge University Press. Cur­ rently, Dr. Huntington is working with the Harvard Institute for Interna­ tional Development on a program to improve the design of development projects which affect traditional peoples.

Hamlet of Anosibe village.

ocial anthropologists working Madagascar- universal system of pastoralists, who tend ample herds of in Africa have found that careful spatial evaluation. I must confess that Zebu cattle on the dry and sparsely S attention to spatial arrangements the anthropology of settlement patterns, populated southern savannah, and who is particularly illuminating for the architecture, and related aesthetics is traditionally have had a rather fractured study of the dynamics of social pro­ not a strong professional interest of political system which earned them a cesses. One thinks first of E. E. mine. But as so often happens for the great reputation as warriors and cattle Evans-Pritchard's famous study of the anthropologist, I turn to such issues be­ thieves. Nuer in which he uses a long Chapter cause one of the peoples with whom I Let me devote the rest of this paper on concepts of time and space to link studied, the Malagasy, has a profound to the spatial organization of this one the seasonal variations in the environ­ and pervasive interest in spatial rela­ people. Obviously it is difficult to pres­ ment with the structure of the segment­ tions. A couple of years ago a number ent a picture of social process and ing political lineage system. One thinks of us who had worked with various change without first presenting a nor­ of Derrick Stenning's description of the Malagasy peoples found that one com­ mative description of the stable ele­ spatial representation (in terms of mon denominator was the primacy each ments of moral/spatial evaluation. I be­ house placement) of the expanding Fu­ of our peoples gives to the spatial rep­ gin by looking at the relatively stable lani lineage. There is John Middleton's resentation of moral judgement, divina­ ideal at the wider perspective on Bara equation of the Lugbara concepts of tion and curing, political power, and social organization and move towards time, space, and morality. He shows family relations. Notions of space pro­ the smallest unit. We will quickly move how Lugbara ideas of distance toward vide an almost universal Malagasy con­ from Bara society to Bara village to the the horizon, time toward the past, and ceptual framework. arrangement of hamlets in the village to morality away from normal humanity I am speaking of the nearly 8 million the setting of houses in the hamlet to all are expressed on a uniform concep­ Malagasy people who form 18 ethnic the seating of individuals in the house. tual grid. More recently, Monica Wilson groups all living on the island of Mada­ To look at social processes I will ex­ has discussed how careful attention to gascar off the east coast of Africa. One pand back out again, looking first at the the geographical spread of certain inno­ thing you should know and probably spatial representation of a crucial per­ vations (such as hoe cultivation) among do know about Madagascar is that dur­ sonal transformation - an individual's the Nyakyusa helps to lend empirical ing the first millennium A . D. peoples of death. Then I will look at group process substance to an otherwise shadowy various cultures immigrated to the is­ - lineage fission and fusion - and fi­ history. land. To a small population of Negritos nally at macrosocietal value changes in There are so many ways in which were added several waves of Indone­ the modern world. So we shall rapidly time and space are functions of one an­ sian settlers, to which were added sev­ contract and then expand, accordion other, that it is natural that spatial ar­ eral waves of Arab and Afro-Arab set­ fashion, our perspective on space rangements often provide the researcher tlers, to which were added waves of among the Bara. with clues and, finally, evidence of oth­ Bantu-speaking East Africans. All this Hamlets in the village. A Bara village , erwise invisible processes. I think it is happened a long time ago and has pro­ and for that matter most of the vast ex­ fair to say that the temporal domain has duced a variable cultural blend which panse of Bara territory, is dotted with always been a difficult but important in some ways seems very African and small hamlets whose core consists of one for social anthropologists. Our re­ in others more Asian. The Malagasy close male agnates who share corporate search methodology generally takes a language is clearly a Malayo-Polynesian rights over the hamlet, herd, rice fields, rather thin temporal slice of another language, in spite of the many Bantu and tomb; ·and who generally manage culture. What is a year or two out of the and Arabic loan words. affairs such as marriage, circumcision, long life cycle of a lineage or a king­ The Bara people - Malagasy seden­ curing, and funerals as group enter­ dom? One cannot do participant-obser­ tary pastoralists. My own research is prises. The dispersal of these hamlets is vation field research in any time period with the Bara, a group reputed to be one important aspect of Bara residence but the present. The most systematic the "most African" of the Malagasy that does relate to practical ecological present representation of processual dy­ peoples. That appellation is not very and economic factors. One village can namics- our research substitute for a meaningful and has often had racialist serve as an example. It consists of four­ time machine- is spatial arrangement. implications. The Bara are sedentary teen hamlets spread out over several

2 • Symbols • Winter 1981 kilometers. Five of the hamlets are west, south, or southwest, of the grouped together at the center in what houses of his immediate seniors. Usu­ Wife of 1 / is called lana-be, or the " big village." ally one builds to the south of an older 0 """''"" N / Three hamlets are spread out for several brother and to the west of a father so ~ kilometers northeast of the central vil­ that the senior generation is most east­ ooq lage, another is slightly west, and an erly with the patriarch to the northeast. additional five hamlets are stretd1ed out People related to the hamlet through over several kilometers to the south. marriage are usually placed farthest 0 /).0 ° / D This general settlement pattern is sou tl1 . This arrangement is explicit and / Patriarch largely determined by the ecology of is expressed through various taboos the area. The rice fields are spread out (Jady). The distribution of houses is sel­ 0 6 0 / in a line approximately four kilometers dom a perfect replication of the D. Women and f/ D to the west of the hamlets. The main hamlet's genealogy, for it is a custom children I river, with many of the gardens along pertaining more to the construction of the banks, is a kilometer to the east. new houses than to a village plan. Bara Important economic activities must be hamlets seem always in the process of I o~)~ ~;;;:;.~; ',:: ··~"" performed both in the rice fields and at almost achieving an arrangement coin­ the riverbank. Both of these areas are cident with their social relationships. flooded during the rainy season Oanu­ The arrangement of each hamlet ex­ )(_) junior males ary-February) and the area by the rice presses its genealogy combined with fields is without adequate water in the historical factors such l o D D. dry season (Aug us t-November). It is as who predeceased whom, who is 1/ D. essential, then, that hamlets be con­ divorced, or whose house has most structed on high ground, west of the recently tumbled down. Figure 2. Seating plan within Bara house river (in the direction of the rice fields) The house - construction. The Bara and not too far from a constant water house is a lowly object for analysis. The relates to a formal and almost mathe­ supply. The general dispersal of ham­ dwellings of the Bara are generally matical abstraction rather than reflect­ lets is related to herding activities, small rectangular houses of one story ing patterns of social intercourse, since those living in an isolated hamlet and one room, with one door leading to potentialities of building ma terials, can conveniently keep watch on the the dark interior. These houses are con­ or factors of the local climate. herd while performing tasks in the structed of mud and dung stuck upon a The house- orientation and seating hamlet. The direction of dispersal is sapling and bamboo frame. The roof is pattern. Bara houses are oriented north limited to a north-south line since ham­ thatched and the hardened mud-dung to south with the door at the southern lets built too far east or west would be floor is covered with a straw mat. It end of the west wall. Often there are no flooded in the rains or without water in takes a young man a mon tl1 or so to cut windows, although occasionally there is the dry season . the saplings and frame beams, construct a small window in the west wall; the Houses in the hamlet. The system of the frame, and to cut and split the bam­ east wall never has an opening. The patrilineal order is concretely expressed boo to be woven between the upright direction east is associated with the in the physical placement of houses saplings. Then water must be hauled ancestors and also with the particular within the hamlet. In general, the cus­ some distance bucket by bucket and the ancestral origins of the Bara. There is a tom is for a person's house to be either heavy earth and water must be turned general trend of westward migration for and mixed over and over until smooth. most Bara clans and so this association After the mud is roughly in and over of east with tl1e ancestors has an histor­ the frame, the exterior coat (mixed with ical as well as symbolic basis. The west the protective dung) must be smoothed is associated with women and affines, over it. The interior walls need a in contrast to tl1e patrilineal ancestors. r---, smoot11 finishing coat. Thatching also The north is seen as superior, light and l6 ¥: requires cutting, hauling, and tedious warm; the south as inferior and cold. l ---1 ~J skilled Ia bor. These symbolic associations also have When new, the Bara house is solid their practical associations given tl1e and the surface is smooth, yet it is a northerly trajectory of the sun and th e fairly minimal achievement in human southerly source of the rains and winds KEY: dwelling construction. In addition, vir­ of the wet season. tually no effort is made to decorate the These directional attributes guide the * Patriarch 6 Oldest male and official mud walls or tl1e wooden frames and seating arrangements of people within patriarch (incapacitated) posts, the door or window, either in­ the house, especially on important oc­ 0 House 3 Next male in line r--., I Senior agnatic woman, side or out. Nothing is painted, col­ casions. The most senior men sit along t_,...; Broken house acting as interim patriarch ored, or carved . Although the new the east wall in order of seniority with house is sturdy, the annual rains take the elder to the north. Younger men sit their inevitable toll . Little is done about along the south wall with the elder to I preventative repairs or resurfacing as the east. The seating of women and 0 0 ,_. ,_. the seasons go by. In short, relatively children is less orderly. They are allot­ I little attention is given to house con­ ted the north and west walls, but since struction, even less to maintenance, and much of the space along these walls is I I none to decoration. taken up with the fire and doorway (as o-t:,-o o-t,-o !J.-o 1::,- o It is reasonable nowadays for us to well as the storage of large objects) admire " vernacular architecture," or women must sit in an uncomfortable I I what Bernard Rudofsky calls " architec­ tJ. 6. jumble in the middle of the house and KEY: ture without architects," for the way in in front of the door. They are generally which its forms relate so well to the na­ in the way of anyone wishing to enter f1 Men living 0 Women living ture of the available building materials, or leave. The older women do sit fur­ ' Men deceased e Women deceased to the needs of the local climate, and to ther north, but still, their seating is not the human requirements of the particu­ ordered to the same extent as the men's Figure 1. House locations and genealogy lar culture. By contrast, the Bara house Continued on page 10 Symbols • Winter 1981 • 3 Before this period are only slight, Evidence of sophisticated music oc­ Ice Age Art single indications of symbolic activity. curs, including a variety of percussion ALEXANDER MARSHACK Neanderthal man buried his dead ritu­ instruments and complex six-hole ally and left a few tenuous examples of flutes. There is evidence for different simple carving and engraving. With the types of record keeping or ritual mark­ appearance in Europe of modem hu­ ing, forms of symbol that are far more man types, c. 38 ,000 B.c., the archaeo­ sophisticated than the making of recog­ logical record documents the beginning nizable images. of a veritable explosion of art, image, The first comprehensive exhibition to and symbol in every possible medium present this range of Ice Age artistic and form. There is carving and engrav­ and symbolic production, with exam­ ing in stone and bone, the firing of clay ples from both East and West Europe figurines, polychrome painting, and and Siberia, was organized in 1978 bas-relief carving on rock walls in by the American Museum of Natural caves. Images of animals, birds, fish, History in New York with Alexander insects, snakes, and plants begin to ap­ Marshack of the Peabody Museum as pear, often indicating sexual differences curator. " Ice Age Art" was recently on and seasonal or maturational character­ exhibit at Boston's Museum of Science. istics. There are images of fantastic The exhibition was not intended to be creatures which never existed and an anthology or collection of isolated imaginary anthropomorphic or mythical masterpieces but to present a cross sec­ beings, as well as an extraordinary vari­ tion of the variety and range of Ice Age ety of female images, including the symbolic production and to indicate the early, voluptuous " Venus" figurines. role that art and symbol played in Ice Amulets, bracelets, necklaces, rings, Age life and culture. It was intended to headbands, and beaded hats also ap­ document early man's cognitive and pear. Evidence exists of elaborate coif­ symboling capacity. Marshack, as a fures on women and of bodies tattooed Peabody researcher, has worked during or painted. Men and women appear in the last 18 years in all the major collec­ Balsi-Rossi Venus. (Peabody Museum realistic " portraits," both old and tions and museums of East and West 48-18-40/5826). young, in a variety of robes and gar­ Europe and in many of the important ments, some dancing or in prayer. caves, and has been able to select a few Some women are clearly pregnant. Im­ hundred examples out of many thou­ The first body of human art and symbol ages of bearded and moustached males sands which would best illustrate the to appear in the archaeological record and of " shamans" or "sorcerers" in rit­ quality and range of man's first art. comes from the last European Ice Age, ual dress occur. There are elaborate rit­ High quality casts were made specially the so-called Upper Paleolithic or Late ual burials with complex grave goods. for the exhibition; the American Mu­ Stone Age period, of about 35 ,000 to The totality gives us a picture of Ice seum of Natural History then reworked 10,000 B.c. When examples of this art Age man's image of his real world, his each of these on the basis of the began to be excavated from rock shel­ cultural world, and himself. The images hundreds of microphotographs which ters and cave sites in France more than run a gamut of styles from extraordinary Marshack has made of these artifacts in a century ago, including animal images realism to abstraction and schematiza­ Europe. Photomurals of cave walls, pre­ and female figurines, it was the cause tion and elaborate, detailed decoration. pared for the exhibition by Jean Vertut of great perplexity and surprise. The bone and stone tools with which the engravings and carvings were found in­ dicated that the artists had been " prim­ itive" stone-age hunters who had lived in Europe thousands of years before the beginning of history and long before the coming of agriculture and civiliza­ tion. Many of the animals depicted in this early art were long since extinct, such as the mammoth, woolly rhinoc­ eros and great Irish elk. Others, like the bison, had virtually disappeared from these areas of Europe or now were found only in the arctic and subarctic regions of Europe and America, like the reindeer and musk-ox. Since those Ice Age images first were found, about 1865, literally thousands of images and symbolic artifacts from the Ice Age have been discovered or excavated across Eu­ rope, from southern Spain to the Ukraine and the Russian plain, and ex­ amples have even come from across the Urals separating Europe from Asia, in mid-Siberia. Yet the surprise and awe continues after more than a century, for this first body of human art is not "pri­ mitive" and is, in fact, as complex and sophisticated as any art made by any people of historic times. Spotted horses with signs and handprints.

4 • Symbols • Winter 1981 of France, and a copy of the " nonpregnant" female images. Exam­ A study of two subcultures bison ceiling in Altamira, prepared ples of these are in the exhibition. The in that cave by the Frobenius lnstitu te Bausses Rousses amulet is the first arti­ of infant care in Frankfurt, are exhibited. fact that definitely evidences a symbolic M . F. ELIAS The impact of the exhibition on the awareness of the separate, discrete con­ press and public has been surprising, cepts and processes involved in the Do mothers take care of their babies the perhaps because the quality and com­ states of pregnancy and nonpregnancy way they say they do and does it matter plexity of this first art is still so little with a ritual or symbolic participation to the babies? This is the question ad­ known. The exhibition has received in both phases of the process. It is en­ dressed by a longitudinal research some of the most favorable critical re­ tirely probable that the crude amulet study getting underway at the Peabody views to be given an archaeological ex­ was made to be worn by a mature Museum. The study, entitled " Infant hibition and it has broken attendance woman who had a ritual concern in­ Social Development in Two American records in museums in New York, San volving the pregnant and nonpregnant Subcultures," was funded by the Na­ Francisco, Dallas, and Boston . It will states and that the other, more formal tional Institute for Mental Health in a travel in the United States for a few female images of the culture were re­ grant to Associate Professor Melvin J. years, visiting Philadelphia, Los lated to this more private expression. Konner of Biological Anthropology and Angeles, Washington, D .C., and other Other similarly unpublished exam­ Dr. Marjorie F. Elias, Research Associ­ cities, and then, probably will travel to ples of Ice Age man's awareness of na­ ate in the Peabody Museum. The study Europe, the mid-East, and Africa. ture and process are in the exhibition. was p lanned (in Prof. Konner's phrase) A number of important unpublished Alexander Marshack is a Research to "bring the cross-cultural comparison artifacts and images are in the exhibi­ Associate at the Peabody Museum. For back home." That is, to compare two tion, including some original pieces the past 15 years he has been studying subcultures of infant care within the from the Peabody Museum collection. Ice Age Art with the tools of modem broad framework of Western culture. Its One of these is of particular interest science, including spectroscopy, mi­ objective is to identify differences in since it is the only known double-faced, croscopy, and infrared and ultraviolet the social behavior and emotional two-sided amulet from the Ice Age. The photography. Marshack's primary inter­ expression of two-year-old children ac­ amulet offers an unusual and rare in­ est has been in those images and arti­ cording to their experiences of care in sight into the complex symbolism in­ facts which shed light on the evolution infancy. The researchers are -collecting a volved in the well-known naked female of human symbol systems and lan­ sample of suburban Boston middle-class guage. He has published many techni­ families who have just had a second or cal articles in professional journals and later child and who subscribe to one of is the author of Th e Roots of Civilization two styles of infant care. One style is (McGraw-Hill, 1972). He has just com­ that of the La Leche League, an organi­ pleted a major review of lee Age Art zation for the promotion of breast feed­ from the Ukraine and is now writing ing. The other is that of non-League his second book, which will be pub­ famili es living in the same communi­ lished by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. ties. The La Leche League advocates a Photos: Alexa11der Marsha ck style of infant care characterized by fre­ quent nursing, late weaning, close physical contact between mother and baby, and immediate response by the parents to signs of distress in the baby. League mothers are encouraged to de­ vote themselves to their families and Bison licking his flanks. are discouraged from spending time away from home. In recent years they images or " Venus" figurines, such as have become a vocal force against the the Willendorf (Austria), Lespugue trend of women continuing to work (France), Dolni Vestonie (Czechoslova­ during the infancy of their children. kia) , and Kostenki (USSR), which are in Non-League families in the sample say the exhibition and have long puzzled that they follow a style of infant care archaeologists. more common in western industrialized The crude, tiny stone or steatite amu­ society. They tend to nurse at more let from Bausses Rousses in Grimaldi, widely spaced intervals, start solid food Italy, c. 28,000 B.c ., comes from the earlier, wean earlier, separate them­ same Perigordian period as the selves more from physical contact with "Venus" figurines. It was studied and the baby, and leave the baby more with cleaned by Marshack when he prepared other caretakers. The central questions it for exhibition. Using a microscope, of the study are: first, whether the ac­ he removed the heavily encrusted and tual infant-care practices of the two hardened soil and found that on one groups differ as much as the mothers face of the amulet was a clearly preg­ say they do; and second, whether the nant, three-dimensional female and on differing experiences of the babies pro­ the other a flat, nonpregnant female. duce measurable effects on their social There was a hole through the chest for and emotional development by the age a band and red ochre was found in the of two years. carving. The study grew out of Konner's pre­ Some years before, Marshack had in­ vious work with mothers and infants of dicated that the female imagery of the the !Kung San in the Kalahari Desert in Ice Age was extremely complex and in­ Botswana and Elias's work on primate cluded not only images of both preg­ parental care. Among the primates, nant and nonpregnant females, but also only human mothers do not maintain a separate symbol system involving the Venus of Willendorf. continuous body contact with their ritual, periodic marking of schematic, Continued on page 13 Symbols • Winter 1981 • 5 lhe Lewis and Oark Expedition: America's first great thrust into the unknown JEFFREY P. BRAIN Jeffrey P. Brain, Curator of Southeastern United States Archaeology, is a leading scholar of the early explorations among the Indians of North Amer­ ica. He has written many articles on the archaeological identification and ethnographic effects of variou s expeditions, and has recently published a book, Tunica Treasure, Vol. 71 in the Peabody Museum Papers series.

Figure 1. The famous painted buffalo robe which hung in Monticello for many years. The robe is identified as Mandan in origin (Ewers 1957) but a remarkably similar example, undoubtedly by the same artist, has been attributed to the Sioux (Viola 1976). (Peabody Museum 99-12-10 53121). Photo: Hillel Burger

hen Captains Meriwether Lewis It must be recalled that the Lewis and Nevertheless, some important items and William Clark set forth on Clark expedition, styled the "Corps of came to them through dealings with W their epic journey west from St. North Western Discovery," was one of various of these tribes and in April 1805 Louis in the spring of 1804, they held a the great explorations for the fledgling the collection was dutifully shipped specific commission from President American republic: they traversed the back east to Jefferson at Monticello. Thomas Jefferson to explore and define still largely unknown northern Plains Some stayed there, while others passed the limits of the great new Louisiana and Rocky Mountains before finally de­ directly to the museum of his good purchase which the President had (with scending the Columbia River Valley to friend Charles Wilson Peale. dubious constitutional authority) effect­ the Pacific Coast. In the context of the Foremost among the prizes retained ed. The commission was as broad in times, their expedition was equal to the by Jefferson is a "buffalo robe repre­ scope as the exploration. Jefferson held tradition which has led us to the moon senting a battle fought about 1797 be­ a passionate interest in the natural sci­ and beyond. And so, too, the speci­ tween Sioux and Ricaras [Arikara] ences, and it was made clear that he ex­ mens sent back were awaited and stud­ against the Mandans and Minetarees pected specimens from the new territory: ied with as great an interest as the [Hidatsa] in which the combatants are natural fauna (alive or stuffed), flora and moon rocks have excited more recently. represented on horseback" (L ewis and foodstuffs, and ethnological items. As Since little attempt was made to col­ Clark Journals, vol. 1, p . 240; Peabody regards the latter, he specified to Lewis, lect or, more precisely, to preserve eth­ Museum catalog no. 53121; the museum "Make yourself acquainted ... with ... nological curiosities from the native archives contain further information on their ordinary occupations in ...arts and Americans before the mid-nineteenth the authentication of this piece which the implements for these; their food, century, the few specimens from the probably hung in Monticello for many clothing, and domestic accomodations" expedition resident in the Peabody Mu­ years, before also finally being pre- (DeVoto 1953, pp. 482, 483) . Many of seum are now nearly as rare and exotic sen ted to Peale). The robe (Figure 1) is these Jefferson wanted for his own per­ as moon rocks. The probable rarities important as one of the few surviving sonal display at Monticello. Others, as were acquired at two different times by examples of such painted robes which they came in, were distributed elsewhere, Lewis and Clark. The first group, were both an art form as well as an his­ including the famous Charles Wilson chronologically, was among those gath­ torical document. The latter use is of Peale Museum in Philadelphia. Some of ered while hibernating in winter quar­ particular interest. The significance of Jefferson's treasures also came to Peale's ters (1804-1805) at Fort Mandan on the the battle depicted here has not been eventually, as did still other Lewis and Missouri River in central North Dakota. transmitted to us, but it was obviously Clark specimens through different Unfortunately, the inactivity of hiber­ of some importance to the Mandans hands. When Peale's Museum went de­ nation did not seem to inspire the con­ who recorded it. The depiction is im­ funct in the mid-nineteenth century, certed collection of valued ethnography portant to us, too. Here is one of the much of the collection ended up at the (despite their commission), as be­ earliest rep res en tations of the classic Boston Museum. When the latter suf­ moaned by C. C. Willoughby in the horseback warfare of the Plains Indian fered a fire in the winter of 1898, the only previous comprehensive publica­ dramatized so often in lore, literature, trustees decided to get out of the mu­ tion of the Peabody's acquisition of and film of the Wild West. But the seum business and concentrate on the these specimens: scenario is different: it is not the Indian primary function of theater (the speci­ versus the settlers or the United States mens had originally been used as a dis­ It [Fort Mandan] was in th e heart of the Cavalry, for it is before their time. It is play to legitimize theatrical perform­ Indian country, and the members of th e Indian against Indian. Yet it is an In­ ances which earlier in the century were expedition were in communication not dian world already modified by the considered disreputable). The collec- only with the Indians of that vicinity soon-to-come white man. There is the tions were broken up in 1899 and the but with the Assiniboin , Cree, and other horse, of course, but note also the great Peabody Museum was given its pick of remote tribes. This afforded an unusual number of guns represented (approxi­ the ethnology. The invaluable speci- opportunity for collecting objects illus­ mately one-third of the warriors are so mens gained at this time which can be trating the ethnography of the region. It armed, whether they are on horseback ascribed to Lewis and Clark - remem­ will always be a source of regret that or foot). The Mandan procured guns bering the somewhat uncertain history such an opportunity was allowed to from white traders to the east, and in of many of the pieces collected by the pass with so little accomplished (Wil­ turn were very important in their dis­ expedition - are considered here. loughby 1905, p. 634). tribution to other tribes farther west. In 6 • Symbols • Winter 1981 pipes" or calumets. There are thirteen badges of office worn by native consta­ examples in the collection of the Mu­ bulary officers who were appointed by seum which probably were collected by the chief for designated terms. The Lewis and Clark. Two of these are wearing of these items, which consisted identified as Mandan (Peabody Mu­ of two elbow ornaments and a bustle, seum catalog nos. 53099, 53101) while conferred extraordinary police powers the others collectively are attributed to (more than equal to the "tin star" of the Sioux, Winnebago, Fox, Sauk, and our con temporary officialdom) in the Iowa (Peabody Museum catalog nos. society of the Sioux nation. As re­ 53104-53106, 53109-53112, 53115). These counted by Lewis and Clark, who ap­ pipes mostly conform to the traditional parently witnessed a member of the types (Figure 2), but curiously Lewis peace office in action: and Clark do not mention them, nor their traditional usage, in their journals. While on shore to-day we witnessed a It might be expected that such impor­ quarrel between two squaws, which ap ­ tant items and the ceremonies in which peared to be growing every moment they were used, including ritual greet­ more boisterous, when a man came for­ Detail of Figure 1. ing as must have occurred with the ex­ ward, at whose approach every one pedition, would have been noted by seemed terrified and ran. He took the the reverse direction, the Mandan Lewis and Clark. Absence of such nota­ squaws and without any ceremony traded horses. At the turn of the nine­ tion raises questions about either the whipped them severely. On inquiring teenth century they seem to have been attribution of these fine pipes to the ex­ into the nature of such summary justice relatively well endowed with both of pedition or the importance of these we learned that this man was an officer these essential components of the fa­ items to an expedition of this nature. well known to this and many other mous nineteenth-century Plains Indian Lewis and Clark were well armed and tribes. His duty is to keep the peace, culture (Lewis and Clark Journals, vol. 1, frequently resorted to displays of force. and the whole interior police of the vil­ pp. 169, 181, 195, 221). Whatever the How, then, came they by this excep­ lage is confided to two or three of these reason for the altercation depicted here, tional collection? officers who are named by the chief and the victory recorded may have been due to the combined horse and firearm technology which the Mandan largely controlled at this period and which is so vividly represented in our tableau. It was a brief supremacy, fortunately cap­ tured by Lewis and Clark, who ironi­ cally were themselves the heralds of the new age about to descend. Another specimen from Fort Mandan may be a more traditional item of na­ tive warfare: namely, a bow of elkhorn backed with sinew (Peabody Museum catalog no. 52946). This bow is identi­ fied as having been made by the Crow Indians of Montana, although the Lewis and Clark inventory labels it as being of Mandan origin . It is possible that there -- -~ _,,_ ___ ·- --~~~ · - - -- is a confusion of records which misrep­ ------~------___:::_ - - - resents the attribution of this item to Figure 2. Drawing of Sioux Indian dance by George Catlin. At least two of the dancers are Lewis and Clark, but in any case it is holding calumets ("peace pipes" )- including the individual at the far right, who, like the certainly a fine example of the standard drummer at the far left, is wearing a raven bustle. Both the calumet and raven feather orna­ native weapon before the introduction ments were items of major ceremonial importance to many aspects of Plains Indian life. of the gun. Artifacts of a less martial nature, al­ Pieces of clothing and other adorn­ remain in power some days , at least till though they were as important in coun­ ments, certainly identified as Lewis and the chief appoints a successor. They cils of war as in other ceremonies and Clark acquisitions from Fort Mandan, seem to be a kind of constable or senti­ transactions, were the so-called "peace are more mundane but no less interest­ nel , since they are always on the watch ing. The latter include an otter skin to­ to keep tranquility during the day and bacco pouch, which was purportedly guard the camp at night. The short du­ "sent to Capt's Lewis and Clark by the ration of the office is compensated by its Sock [Sauk] Nation" (Peabody Museum authority. His power is supreme, and in catalog no. 53052). Rather than a to­ the suppression of any riot or disturb­ bacco pouch, the bag was probably a ance no resistance to him is suffered; his medicine bundle used in the ceremo­ person is sacred, and if in the execution nies of the widespread Plains Indian of his duty he strikes even a chief of the Shell Society. It was meant to contain second class, he cannot be punished for certain sacred objects (Willoughby 1905, this salutary insolence. In general he ac­ p. 638), and the identification as a to­ companies the person of the chief and bacco pouch may reflect the ignorance when ordered to any duty, however of Lewis and Clark or the insouciance dangerous, it is a point of honor rather of whoever presented it to them. to die than to refuse obedience. Thus Of even greater interest are three when they attempted to stop us yester­ raven feather ornaments from the Teton day, the chief ordered one of these men Oglala Sioux (Peabody Museum catalog Continued on page 12 Detail of Figure 1. nos. 53049-53051). These were actually Symbols • Winter 1981 • 7 Scholars, symposia, and seminars The topics of the Department of An­ University of New York. Dr. Gerald Lake Turkana (formerly Lake Rudolph). thropology Seminar Series for the fall Cortright of the University of Chicago Kenya. Prof. Stanley J. Tambiah has term were as diverse as the scholars spoke on "Neontological Perspectives been invited by the University of Ox­ presenting them- varying in the sub­ on the Evolution of the Hominid Bipe­ ford to deliver the Radhakrishnan fields of anthropology as well as the lo­ dal Adaptive Complex." Memorial Lectures for 1981-1982. Dur­ cation of research. Starting off the series Prof. David Maybury-Lewis spent ing his visit to Oxford he will be a was Professor of Social Anthropology two weeks in Indonesia in January. At guest of All Souls College. Two pre­ Hazel Weidman from the University of the request of the Indonesian govern­ vious lecturers in this series were Pro­ Miami. She discussed ·"The Miami ment, the Harvard Institute of Interna­ fessor J. K. Galbraith of Harvard Uni­ Health Ecology Project: Cultural Factors tional Development is studying the versity and Sir Joseph Needhan of in Health Care." comparative effectiveness of the na­ Cambridge U niversitv. Dr. Joseph Westermeyer, Professor of tional social programs. The study is Assoc. Prof. Jonathon E. Ericson just Psychiatry at the University of Minne­ being carried out by economists, sociol­ returned from a successful field trip in sota, spoke on "Social Networks and ogists, and anthropologists; the latter India as a Senior Fulbright-Hayes Mental Illness in a Rural Asian have special responsibility for assessing Scholar, sponsored by Prof. K. T. M. Society." Dr. Edward Folks, Professor the impact of these programs at the Hegde of the University of Baroda. A of Psychiatry and Anthropology at the village level in West Java, East Java, collaborative Indo-American project, University of Pennsylvania Medical Sulawesi (Celebes). and Sumatra. numerous mines and copper slag sites School, presented a lecture on "Social Prof. Evon Z. Vogt was the guest lec­ along the 1,000-mile copper belt of Change and Alcohol Use in an Arctic turer during the January 1981 Harvard North Gujarat and West Rajasthan were Community." Alumni College Abroad trip to Yucatan. surveyed. Changes in the copper min­ Prof. Michael Silverstein of the Uni­ Maya sites visited included Chichen ing and smelting technologies were ob­ versity of Chicago spoke on "Naming Itza, Palenque, and Uxmal. In March, served from the Harrapan to the Medie­ Sets Among the Worora" of Northern Prof. B. lrven DeVore will join grad­ val Period. The collected samples are Kimberly, Australia. Prof. Robert uate students Robert Bailey and Nadine being analyzed in the Center for Ar­ Netting, visiting from the University of Peacock, already in the field, as part of chaeological Research and Development Arizona, presented "Leveling with DeVore's long-term "Study of the Peo­ laboratories in the Peabody. Prof. Egalitarian Peasants: Wealth Differences ple of the Ituri Forest." The project, Antonio Gilman, California State Uni­ in a Swiss Alpine Community." The which includes the study of the demog­ versity at Northridge, is a Visiting next presentation, "Verbal Inflection in raphy, nutrition, and ecology of the Scholar in 1980-81 holding a Tinker the Mayan Hieroglyphs," was given by Mbuti pygmies and the Walese (a Su­ Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellowship to Prof. Victoria Bricker from the Depart­ danic black people) of the ltrui Forest, study prehistoric land use in southeast ment of Anthropology at Tulane Uni­ Zaire, is funded by the National Sci­ Spain. Gilman is assessing the agricul­ versity. Prof. Gary Gossen of the State ence Foundation. Prof. Glynn Isaac, tural potential of the areas near all the University of New York at Albany University of California at Berkeley, is better known settlements of that region spoke on "Time and History in the the George Grant MacCurdy Visiting between 5000 and 1000 B.C. Ian W. Mayan Civilization." Professor for the spring term. For the Brown, research associate with the Dr. Arthur Kleinman, Professor of past twenty years, Prof. Isaac has been Lower Mississippi Survey, has pub­ Psychiatry at the University of Wash­ working in the East African Rift Valley lished a monograph on the American ington, presented a lecture on "Anthro­ on the archaeology of early man. Cur­ Indian use of salt. The work resulted pologic Studies of Illness and Treatment rently, he is writing and editing a mon­ from Brown's investigation of a prehis­ in Taiwan and the Peoples Republic of ograph on researches at the 1.5-2 mil­ toric saline on Avery Island, off the China." Dr. Joan Silk of The Duke lion year old sites at Koobi Fora, east of Louisiana coast. University Primate Center presented some results of her research on the "Differential Reproductive Success and Facultative Adjustment of Sex Ratios among Captive Female Bonnet Ma­ caques." "Urban Primacy: The Informal Sector and Class Struggle in Central America" was presented by Prof. Carol Ann Smith of Duke University. Prof. Mark Teaford, Johns Hopkins Univer­ sity, presented "Circopithecene Tooth­ ware: A Photogrametric Perspective." Prof. Keith Hart, University of Michi­ gan's Department of Anthropology, lec­ tured on the "Commoditization of Do­ mestic Life."Prof. Michael Fisher of this Department lectured on "Interpre­ tive Anthropology." Cannibal Raven Mask, c. 1900 (Peabody Museum 17-17-10/87204). '1ndians: American Heri­ Dr. Brian Shea of the Department of tage", a collaborative exhibit between the Peabody Museum and the Museum of Our National Anthropology at Duke University pre­ Heritage, Lexington, opened in November, 1980 and continues through September, 1981. The sented a lecture on "Growth and Size exhibit presents a panoramic view of Native American artistic expression through the display Allometry in the African Apes." Dr. of nearly 300 items from the Peabody's rare historic American Indian collections, some of Montague Demment from Cornell Uni­ which never before have been publicly exhibited. Items of clothing and beautifully adorned "utilitarian" objects, are shown in conjunction with early photographs of American Indian !if~ versity spoke on " Body Size, Herbivory taken from the Peabody's extensive photographic archives. These treasures and photographs and Implications for the Evolution of reveal the pride, ingenuity, and bright imagination of peoples for whom art was- and still Body Size in Baboons." "Colobine remains- an integral part of daily life. The exhibit was organized and designed by Addis M. Niches and Social Structure: Some In­ Osborne, Assistant Director of the Museum of our National Heritage, in collaboration with sights from Feeding Studies" was pre­ C.C. Lamberg-Karlovsky, Director of the Peabody Museum, and Edwin L. Wade and Lea 5. sented by Dr. John Oates of the City McChesney of the Peabody Museum staff. Photo: Hillel Burger 8 • Symbols • Winter 1981 Viracocha , the Nature and Antiquity of Guyer appointed Assistant By contrast, this study focuses on a par­ th e Andean High God , a monograph on ticular essential function as it has been Inca state religion by graduate student Professor fulfilled over time. The research for this Arthur Demarest, will be released in project has been eclectic in methodol­ April as no. 6 in the Peabody Museum ogy, involving field research on the cur­ Monograph Series. Arthur Demarest rent functioning of the food cultivation has been elected to Harvard's Society of system around Yaounde, collection of Fellows. Election to the Society, one of economic historical data from oral Harvard's highest academic honors, is sources, archival work in Yaounde and accompanied by the awarding of the in the colonial archives in Paris on Junior Fellowship, a three-year, post­ colonial food policy, and a study of the doctoral research fellowship. Demarest major agency for food policy in the is the fourth graduate student in the 1970s. Currently Dr. Guyer is working Department of Anthropology to be on a comparison of the history of food elected to the Society. Robert H. Dyson, supply to different African cities. Jr. , elected in 1951, is Prof. of Anthro­ Third: Dr. Guyer is pursuing compar­ pology and Dean of the Faculty at the ative work on agricultural policy in University of Pennsylvania; Henry T. J. Francophone Africa. Irwin (1938-1978), elected in 1964, was In addition to teaching and research, Prof. of Anthropology at the University she is a member of the Project Evalua­ of Washington; and Dr. Thomas Wight tion Committee of Oxfam America, and Beale, elected in 1975, is Executive Di­ recently evaluated a project for them in rector of the American Schools of Ori­ Tanzania. ental Research, Cambridge, Massachu­ setts. Maryellen Ruvolo, a graduate stud­ Jane I. Guyer has been appointed As­ ent in Biological Anthropology, is in sistant Professor of Anthropology. Her Limuru, Kenya collecting blood samples early education and undergraduate de­ from Old World monkeys at the Insti­ gree were completed in Britain, the lat­ tute of Primate Research. The only one ter at the London School of Economics of its kind in Africa, the IPR houses and Political Science. After migrating animals for biomedical and behavioral across the Atlantic, her graduate work research. After blood protein analyses, was done at the University of Rochester conducted in the Peabody Museum's in New York. Field research for her dis­ new Laboratory of Biological Anthro­ sertation on the social and economic or­ pology, the group's evolutionary history ganization of food cultivation in a small will be reconstructed using genetic dis­ Yoruba town and its hinterland was Peabody Museum tance measures. Fred Valdez, Jr., a carried out in Western Nigeria. Since graduate student in archaeology, con­ then, she has taught social and eco­ Association ducted an analysis of the ceramics from nomic anthropology and completed a the site of Chola in Northern Belize. A further piece of research in Southern You are invited to join the Peabody Mu­ preliminary report on an obsidian anal­ Cameroon among the Beti people. seum Association. As a member of the ysis of materials from Copan was pre­ The situation in Cameroon posed PMA, you will be part of both a famous sented in January at a conference in some very interesting comparative and teaching and research institution dedi­ Pachuca, Hgo., Mexico by Mr. Valdez. theoretical issues which she is still pur­ cated to the study of man and culture suing and which fall into three comple­ and a Museum whose unique collections mentary subject matters. include works of primitive art and ar­ First: the contrast in the postion of chaeology from all over the world. PMA Wells author of new book women in the economies of the Yoruba members are friends of the Museum and and the Beti was striking, and the dif­ support it with their annual mem­ Peter S. Wells's book, Culture Contact ference appeared to be related to the bership. Members are invited to exhibi­ and Culture Change: Early Iron Age Cen­ general structure of occupational differ­ tion openings, receptions, special tral Europe and the Mediterranean World, entiation in the precolonial economies. events, lectures, films , and so forth. has just been published by Cambridge The growth in export crop production They enjoy special privileges at the Toz­ University Press in its series New Stud­ during the twentieth century has built zer Library and a discount on Museum ies in Archaeology. The book is an out­ on the indigenous division of labor in publications and at the Peabody Mu­ growth of Dr. Wells's doctoral disserta­ different ways in the two cases. An ex­ seum Shop. Membership includes a tion, submitted to the Harvard ploration of the literature on the social subscription to Symbols. Categories of Department of Anthroplogy in 1976. It organization of production in African membership are: Student ($15), Individ­ deals with the theme of interaction cash crop economies is being pursued ual ($20), Family ($30), Contributing between different cultures and the this year, financed by a small grant ($50) , Sustaining ($100 or more), Fellow changes brought about as a result of from the Social Science Research ($500 or more). such interaction. This issue is examined Council. All gifts to the Peabody Museum are in the context of central Europe in the Second: the major focus of Dr. tax deductible within legal limits. Please Early Iron Age, especially the period Guyer's work in Cameroon was a re­ make checks payable to the Peabody 600-400 s.c., where the archaeological construction of the history and social Museum Association. evidence is rich and of good documen­ organization of food cultivation and tary quality. While the book offers a marketing for the supply of the rapidly synthesis and interpretation of a large expanding capital city, Yaounde. Afri­ body of archaeological data from Iron can agrarian studies generally concen­ Museum hours: Mon.-Sat. 9-4:15, Sun. Age Europe, it also develops a method­ trate on structural relationships, control 1-4:15. Admission: $1 .00 adults, $.50 chil­ ology for the study of contact situations of resources, and the generation of sur­ dren 5-15. Monday free admission. applicable to a wide range of other ar­ pluses, either within indigenous society chaeological contexts. or in the context of the modem state.

Symbols • Winter 1981 • 9 Madagascar, continued from page 3 of twelve signs repeats each month largely through these spatial representa­ while simultaneously revolving around tions that the Bara express, perceive, since most of the women are unrelated the interior of the house. The first sign and judge individual social actions. The to one another, being wives of the is at the northeast comer and the last is placement of a house expresses the hamlet residents. The seating of men at the eastern part of the north wall. owner's position or lack of position in within the house follows the same Each of the corner signs lasts for three the community. The orientation of the northeast to southwest line as the days, the wall signs each last for two house demonstrates the degree of one's placement of houses within the hamlet. days, for a total of twenty-eight days acceptance of Bara values. As a result of The Bara explicitly use the house plan each month. Essentially it is a complex this, a man living in his father's hamlet as a model to express the order of social means of expressing certain aspects of (as he should) is constantly reaffirming relationships. All can diagram the seat­ spatial, temporal, and moral dimen­ his own place in the lineally ordered ing arrangements and, also, can and do sions of life in a single unified system . organization of the living and the dead . comment explicitly on the moral attri­ In a sense, one can say that the Bara do The Bara house, in spite of its mean­ butes of the four directions. not view time as we do, as stretching ness, performs that function for which Several houses in the village where I out in a sequence before us. They think the best of modern architecture ulti­ did research are oriented differently. of themselves as surrounded by time, mately strives. It creates an emotional, Significantly, one of these is that of a surrounded by space/time. Time and affective bond between the individual man of a different ethnic group who space revolve around the walls of their and his surroundings, and it expresses was married to a village woman of slave house. Rarely these days do two astrol­ a meaningful framework which guides descent. The door of this house is at the ogers agree as to the sign of a particular him in practical and important deci­ northern rather than the southern end day, but they are not disturbed by sions. In this sense, the house form of the west wall. At a feast held in this these discrepancies. As one explained provides a positive and aesthetic moti­ house there was evident confusion to me, time is like a wheel going vation toward normative behavior and about the seating arrangements. The around, and not everyone is at the social integration, and con tributes elders of the village felt that it was same spoke. much to the noncoercive tone of Bara proper to sit at the northern end of the Each sign is associated with certain social life. east wall, but, at the same time, felt it qualities of personality or fortune such There is a strong contrast between was awkward to sit so near the door. as wealth, power, or intelligence. The the central importance of the house as a They solved the problem by sitting signs themselves are not inherently symbol of Bara values and the lack of along the southern part of the east wall, good or evil, but in conjunction with a elaboration, decoration, or maintenance but with the eldest sitting in the most certain day of the week, each sign can of the structure. The characteristic northerly position (at the center of the become dangerously strong. Being born plainness and disrepair of the Bara wall). The rest of the people, all men, on a strong day causes a person to exert house derives directly from the very just sat anywhere, with apologies to influence which dangerously transcends values it expresses. The astrological sys­ those sitting close by who might have his fixed place in the social hierarchy. tem represented in the house stresses cause for offense. For a child born under one of these that one is surrounded by potential The house - space/time and the strong signs, the father must arrange misfortune and capricious powers. The zodiac. The Bara also use the house to for a shaman to alleviate the danger so Bara have explicit taboos (jady) against represent the cyclical astrological calen­ as to protect the child's kin. In sum­ certain house decorations. If you white­ dar which determines, among other mary, one is born into two systems of wash the house or plant flowers around things, the personalities of individuals moral space/time: the social system of it, the Bara say, you will be forced to according to the day of birth. Briefly, patrilineal ancestral seniority, and the move. It is not just that they dislike each of the twelve signs of the zodiac is astrological system of cyclical move­ moving their hamlets; they do so only associated with a position along the in­ ment. For people born on a strong day, as a result of grave and fatal misfortune terior walls of the house, with one sign the influence of this latter system pre­ due to the intervention of bad spirits or at each corner and two along each wall. dominates and threatens the social or­ a negative astrological conjunction. All Bara know the locations of these der unless the effects of the sign are From this aspect, the plainness of the twelve signs; they never actually are in­ ritually neutralized. The interior of a Bara house is a purposeful protective dicated by house decoration. The cycle properly oriented house is an explicit device. It is similar to other Bara and model of the human dilemma as seen general Malagasy customs, such as giv­ by the Bara. The social order of men ing beloved young children insulting descended patrilineally from a common names so that they will not attract any 2 days 2 days ancestor is compromised on two sides: special attention from supernatural 3 days X XI Xll 3 days by the fertile disorder of women and forces. The Bara protect what they value children and by the cyclical astrological most highly (their children and their /---- home) by carefully and lovingly making I system of individual personalities. I The house- disrepair. Notice that them seem inconspicuous, even ugly. I arrangement of the house does not de­ The seating pattern in the house is a t I 2 days !X I ll 2 days velop naturally from the style of daily highly abstract representation of the ag­ 12 zodiac social intercourse. It does nothing to natic lineage linking the living to the I signs equal • express or facilitate the cooperative pat­ ancestors who are the source of all I 28 days terns of work and leisure that typify the blessings. Since the values are repre­ I Bara extended family. Nor does it, in sented as almost pure abstractions, dec­ 2 days _ym I lll 2 days any but a rudimentary sense, exemplify oration and smooth maintenance are ir­ the exigencies of the climate or the po­ relevant. One does not decorate an \ / tentialities of the building materials. algebraic equation or a proof in plane ...... ___ .,...... " House form is slave to a complex philo­ geometry. Moreover, the abstraction sophical abstraction. In the house is stresses the subordination of individu­ 3 days TVll VI V IV 3 days represented an idea; when a Bara als to the total relational structure of the L------~ 2 days 2 days builds or sits in a house, he participates social order. The decent Bara helps in this abstraction and, in so doing, de­ maintain the moral order by unobstru­ t fines his proper place in human society sively establishing his proper place and and in the wider physical universe of by upholding his link in the chain of Figure 3. House and zodiac earth, heavens, and seasons. It is generation. Male and female, senior 10 • Symbols • Winter 1981 Ri ck Huntingto n with son Matthew and neighbors in Anosibe village. and junior, and the relentless cycle of about the Bara view of death. the Bara house, is split in two. All the time and fortune all provide the princi­ I had hypothesized, in a fashion women and the corpse with its now de­ ples of life and continuity toward which much more complex and abstract than caying flesh go to the female " house of the individual accommodates himself. I'm going to discuss here, that death is many tears. " All the men go to what is This is a keystone of Bara philosophy viewed as a radical incompatibility be­ called the " male house." For three days and it receives its most thorough and tween the male and female components there is this radical separation by sex: systematic expression through the me­ of an individual's social and physical no men enter the women's house and dium of the house. To build, decorate, person. According to a complicated and no women enter the " male house." Fur­ or maintain ostentatiously the very subtle metaphorical notion of sexual thermore, at night, the girls and boys symbol of nonostentation would be an conception, a child is conceived when meet out in the courtyard for what is obvious contradiction. Such an act, for the father's sperm orders and arranges essentially a mandatory orgy. So for the a Bara, would be even graver. It would the female substance of blood in the several day period between death and put him outside of his place and would mother's womb. Sperm hardens to be­ burial, there is this representation of separate him and his children from the come bone, giving male structure to the the radical contradiction in the relation life-giving social and moral order. female blood and flesh. Eventually the between maleness and femaleness: total Life process of the person - spatial male bones, devoid of all female flesh separation inside the houses, and an representation of death. Madagascar is and blood, are placed in the tomb of abnormally obscene togetherness in the a place where the social, economic, and the patrilineage. Life is, in this Bara public space of the hamlet. religious values and the activities center view, a complementary balance be­ Six months later begins the second on an ancestor cult. At the center of life tween maleness and femaleness. Dying phase of the funeral process. This is the is death. One's past and one's future is involves the radical opposition between most "liminal" phase of this final "rite with the ancestors. Elaborate funeral these two factors . of passage," to use anthropological jar­ rituals provide the most important cul­ Much of this seems like a " just-so" gon. The activities do not take place in­ tural statement of the purpose of life. story, an ethnographer's model the rep­ side the house, but in the nearby fields While reworking an earlier article for lication of which is difficult to demon­ by day and in the hamlet courtyard by inclusion in a general study of death strate in Bara thought. What is striking night. The liminal phase of a ritual is rituals, 1 found myself writing that old in the funeral customs is the change in that period when the participants are cliche, "and now let's bring this ab­ spatial arrangements of men and " betwixt and between" any normal so­ stract discussion down to earth." How women immediately following death. cial state, to use Victor Turner's expres­ often we anthropologists use such an At the moment of death, men and sion. It is fitting that this phase of the expression but fail to follow through. I women are all in the house "as usual." Bara funeral is excluded from the inside carefully examined the spatial location The men sit along the eastern and of a house, removed from that symbol of the whole three-part sequence of southern wall and the women are of the social and cosmological order. Bara funeral rituals and found that this grouped in the western portion of the This second phase of the ritual is main­ provided the best (briefest and most house. As soon as breath has ceased, ly a three-day feast. The chief event is verifiable) evidence for my hypothesis the cosmos, as normally represented by Continued on page 12

Symbols • Winter 1981 • 11 Madagascar, continued from page 11 the dynamics involved would necessi­ Lewis and Clark, continued from page 7 tate a complex discussion of the some­ the performance by professional dan­ what unique Bara kinship system of to take possession of the boat; he imm e­ cers who as a " caste" are forbidden to ambilineal recruitment to ideologically diately put his arm around th e mast, live with a Bara hamlet or village, but agnatic corporate kin groups. But per­ and, as we understoo d, no force except must always make their homes to the haps an anecdote can indicate to the th e command of th e chief would have south and west of the village. Addition­ reader something of the salient spatial induced him to release his hold. Like th e ally, the troupe of dancers hired for the and physical aspects of such social oth er men his body is blackened but his affair does not dance in the hamlet processes. There was once in a village I distinguished mark is a collection of two courtyard, but only in the nearby field . knew a rather "grab bag" residential or three ra vens' skins fixed to th e girdle Also, they are required to leave the vil­ group of individuals related to each behind th e back in such a way that the lage before the conclusion of the feast. other in various ways and all living on tails stick out horizontally from th e All of the most concrete evidence that the southern fringe of a more estab­ body. On his head too is a raven-skin identifies this phase of the ritual as the lished hamlet. One man was building a split into tw o parts, and tied so as lo let critical period of liminality derives from new house and I went to visit him to th e beak project from th e fo rehead spatial considerations. see how the work was progressing. As I (Lewis and Clark journals, vol. 1. pp . The last phase of the funeral ritual, stepped back out of the doorway, it 138, 139). the exhumation and reburial of the de­ suddenly hit me that the addition of ceased, takes place some years after this one house in this spot made order The authority vested in these items of death. This ritual is performed entirely out of all the rest. The man had finally regalia obviously rested in a larger cere­ outside of the village space. The activi­ managed to get a reasonable enough monial application (see Figure 2) . ties alternate between the distant fields collection of dependents together to On the distaff side, there are two and the more distant tomb up on the form a true hamlet, now to be repre­ women's dresses from the Cree Indians mountain of the dead. The ritual repre­ sented by the erection of a "patriarch's of Saskatchewan, Canada (Peabody Mu­ sentation of the long process of becom­ house." Tragically, he died suddenly seum catalog nos. 53046, 53047) . These ing an ancestor moves gradually over shortly thereafter; the group and the are relatively modest garments, in­ several years from house to courtyard to residential hamlet disintegrated. tended to cover the body from shoulder fields to tomb. Each phase of the fu­ Societal change - spatial representa­ to knee, which reflect the northerly lati­ neral ritual is a movement to a more tion of new values. Interestingly, Bara tudes occasioning relatively complete distant location. The ritual pertains to customs of house design and placement covering of the torso. They are of an invisible conception of the human are not necessarily conservative and moose skin and prettily ornamented condition and the human end. The only certain innovations do occur. Building with quills, paint, doth, beads, and consistently tangible evidence for the on certain traditions regarding the pa­ metal trinkets. The Cree, who lived dynamics of the ritual is the parameter triarch's house, some men do deviate closer to the Hudson's Bay trading of space. from narrow tradition. The patriarch's posts in Canada, were a vital source of Corporate group process - lineage house is often a large house in the guns and munitions for the Mandan. fission and fusion. The spatial repre­ northeast comer of the hamlet. It is not The Cree visited the Mandan annually sentation of the processes of lineage fis­ adorned or maintained any better than for this purpose during the winter sion and fusion is both the easiest and the rest, but it is grander and the object months and so in the winter of 1804- most difficult level of process to pres­ of some public pride. This house can be 1805 they also met Lewis and Clark. It ent. It is easy in that, having seen the a bit grand since it represents the unity may be expected that the Cree women system of arrangement of houses in a of the lineage, the community of its liv­ were as free with their favors as their hamlet, the reader can pretty well guess ing and dead. The partiarch himself, southern neighbors, as recorded by the what happens as the lineage gradually however, actually tends not to reside in journals of the expedition, and these expands over genealogical time and fi­ this house. This house expresses some­ skirts may be regarded as souvenirs of nally separates into two. One could do thing additional about his social per­ amorous liaisons, although who the time-lapse aerial photography of a ham­ sonality. Following this, innovative principals were is not recorded. Despite let over a quarter of a century and it Bara deviate safely from tradition sim­ their sexually specific origin and orna­ would look like a single-celled animal ply by building more than one house. mentation, their utility was perceived undergoing mitosis. It is the in-marry­ One small dwelling (where they gener­ and appreciated by at least one member ing women that split the patrilineage, ally reside) is properly placed and ori­ of the party: apparently Captain Clark not because they are women, but be­ ented in characteristic disrepair in the actually wore one, probably both, dur­ cause they represent competing affinal hamlet, A larger, less traditional house ing later stages of the expedition. One alliances tugging at the increasingly is built separately, out along the road. can only surmise the amusement of In­ fragile patrilineal solidarity. First, our One man had a house near the road dian peoples whom he encountered time-lapse film will show two, rather that was whitewashed, had flowers in while thus innocently attired. than one, placements of the women's front, and was oriented the wrong di­ The second group of specimens in rice-pounding mortars. Gradually cer­ rection. When I asked him about it he our collection was acquired by Lewis tain houses in the middle of the hamlet replied that this is not his house but and Clark in 1806 from the Chinook In­ will be allowed to tumble, new configu­ merely his " kitchen." He took me out­ dians who lived in the far Northwest rations will form at each end, grass will side and pointed out the lines etched in near the shores of the Pacific. These in­ grow in the space between the houses the earth showing the future location of dude another woman's garment: a of the related sublineages, and finall y a the walls of his real house, all oriented woven skirt made of shredded cedar dispute will lead one group to move according to custom. The abstraction bark (Peabody Museum catalog no. entirely, forming a satellite hamlet was maintained. The focus on architec­ 52990). This skirt was collected from the nearer the hamlet of its affines. It is tural representation of values remains, Wahkiakum, who lived on the north largely as a result of such inevitable even if the values alter. Bara who feel bank of the Columbia River near its group d ynamics that we have the char­ the pull of new lifestyles on their tradi­ mouth below Puget Sound in Washing­ acteristic division of Bara villages into tional ways create separate and multiple ton State. Little else is known about central dusters of hamlets and out-lying dwellings to express their stance toward this tribe, making the skirt a unique satellite hamlets. the changing world in which they live. and important ethnological specimen. The opposite process, group fusion Lewis and Clark, themselves, were suf­ and formation, also occurs. To explain ficiently impressed to describe the man-

12 • Svmbols • Wi11trr IQS I ufacture and wearing of these skirts in complete list of the Lewis and Clark considerable detail (Lewis and Clark specimens which presently reside journals, vol. 3, pp. 209, 241, 242). within our walls. Undoubtedly, there Yet another item of female apparel is are others which came to us through so a hat made of basketry (Peabody Mu­ many intermediary hands that authenti­ seum catalog no. 53080). This specimen cation of pedigree is too tenuous to af­ (Figure 3) was purchased from a Clat­ firm on the basis of present evidence. It sop Indian, another Chinookan tribe on is frustrating not to be able to relate the Columbia River, for a steel fish­ some of these possible specimens to the hook. It is so remarkable a piece that it exciting venture of Lewis and Clark, gained a place on our current "Master­ specifically, to some of the times and pieces of the Peabody Museum" ex­ places, and most importantly to the hibit. As noted in the catalog for the peoples which they describe. It is most exhibition (Wade 1978, p. 75), this hat unfortunate that their collections were was actually made by the Nootka Indi­ broken up at the very beginning. But, ans who lived on Vancouver Island to in the end, we should be grateful for the north. Woven tightly enough to these few definitely au then tic heirlooms shed water, the hats apparently were from an era and area now little known. popular items among many Indian They remind us not only of that famous tribes of the rainy Northwest Coast. expedition and its place in the national They were traded widely, even, it destiny, but most of all of the many na­ seems, to the anonymous Clatsop tive American peoples before their des­ woman on the Columbia River. Proba­ tinies were to change irrevocably. bly this same hat is described by Lewis and Clark: Infant care, continued from page 5 The only covering for the head is a hat made of bear-grass, and the bark of ce ­ newborn babies. However, the !Kung dar, interwoven in a conic form , with a San, a hunter-gatherer peoples, hold knob of the same shape at the top. It their infants a great deal more than do has no brim , but is held on the head by women in western societies. Western a string passing under the chin , and tied mothers wean much earlier than !Kung to a small rim inside of the hat. The col­ mothers and tend to adopt a pattern of ours are generally black and white only, nursing with relatively large feedings at and these are made into squares, trian­ long intervals which is adapted to their gles , and sometimes rude figures of ca­ greater physical distance from the ba­ noes and seamen harpooning whales bies but differs from the frequent short (Lewis and Clark journals, vol. 2, suckling bouts found among the !Kung. p. 329) . Many primate infants display attach­ ment to their mothers at the age when Similar hats were often mentioned and Figure 3. The Lewis and Clark basketry hat, they begin to move off the mother and and a closely similar example being worn by sometimes illustrated by the early Euro­ a Nootka Indian woman. The original draw­ explore at a distance from her. Human pean explorers, but this specimen is ing from life by john Webber in 1778 is in infants show the same phenomenon one of the few known surviors of the the collections of the museum. (Peabody during the early months of crawling once popular headgear. Of special in­ Museum 41-72-10/498). Photo: Hillel Burger and walking. !Kung infants show it as terest to us is that a nearly identical ex­ strongly as western infants and it tends ample is depicted crowning the head of pies, close neighbors of the Pishquit­ to last longer into the second year. a Nootka woman in a pen and ink pah, were making such fine figured However, within a year, they become sketch drawn by John Webber in April basketry long before the appearance of as independent as western children and 1778 which is also in our collections the white man (Schlick 1979). Thus, transfer much of their attachment to the (Figure 3). Thus these specimens- the while Lewis and Clark were the harbin­ multiage child group which surrounds hat and the drawing- demonstrate the gers of a new world which would soon them. Although !Kung mothers and ba­ incredible depth of our collections, as change things forever, once again they bies maintain closer physical contact, well as being confirmation of the his­ were responsible (albeit accidentally their social contact is no less frequent toric record. perhaps) for salvaging the pride of na­ than that shown between western Another piece of basketry was ac­ tive workmanship. mothers and babies. In summary, cross­ quired from the Pishquitpah tribe (Pea­ Also in our collection are two Chi­ species comparison indicates that hu­ body Museum catalog no. 53160; the nook cradles and a wedge for splitting man infant care is characterized by catalog entry identifies it as "Wasco") wood which probably are Lewis and early weaning and a reduction in phys­ who lived on the south side of the Co­ Clark specimens, although they are not ical contact. Cross-cultural comparison lumbia River in Oregon. This is a finely so identified. In fact, they were re­ indicates that western infant care is woven bag-shaped basket, which was ceived via the famous George Catlin characterized by even earlier weaning made by the twined weaving technique (see Figure 2), who, although he never and less contact than hunter-gatherer using native hemp and grass. It is dec­ got that far west, was a close friend of infant care. If we want to use informa­ orated with a striking pattern exhibit­ Captain Clark who is known to have tion from other cultures to increase our ing stylized faces and small dog-like shared his personal collection with his understanding of our own society, we creatures. We can never know the sig­ friends. The early nineteenth-century are immediately faced with a question nificance of the design to the weaver world of those truly in teres ted in the which cannot be addressed by cross­ and to the ideology of her peoples. But Indians as objects of study- not cultural studies- "does it matter?" Do this beautiful basket does have signifi­ merely antagonists - was small and our children develop differently because cance to us beyond the intrinsic. In a intimate. we wean them so early and hold them recent article, it was presented as the As mentioned at the outset, the items so little? Does it make them smarter, evidence that the Wasco-Wishram peo- discussed above probably are not a Conrir111ed on page 14

Sy111bols • Wi11ter 1981 • 13 Infant care, continued from page 13 Lost Expedition, continued from page 1 clition and the Kearn Collection, and in piecing together the puzzle of the ne­ slower, happier, nastier, more verbal, support of both the National Endow­ glect of both, the Kearn Project em­ more achievement oriented? To address ment for the Arts and the National Park barked on what amounts to a great de­ this question we must compare children Service, that catalogue is being readied tective search. The s tory of " America's whose rearing differed in these particu­ for publication now by the Peabody Great Lost Expedition," told through lar ways but who otherwise share the Museum Press. the archival materials compiled from same cultural influences. The League Over 150 ceramics from the Kearn this search, and through the objects non-League comparison provides such Collection, dating from A . D . 1200 to themselves, provides the proper per­ an opportunity. A.D. 1900 and selected for their great spective for appreciating the great leg­ The study sets out to measure infant artistic and historic significance, have acy of the Hopi people preserved in the care and infant development in a num­ been loaned to the Heard Museum, Kearn Collection. ber of different ways. First, to assess at­ Phoenix, AZ for an exhibition entitled The primary reason for the obscurity titudes about infant care the investiga­ " America's Great Lost Expedition: the of both the expedition and the collec­ tors interview the mothers when the Thomas Kearn Collection of Hopi tion lies in the fact that the Hemenway baby is about 6 weeks old . They ask the Pottery from the Second Hemenway Expedition was originally a private un­ mothers what they consider to be good Expedition, 1890-1894." This major ex­ dertaking, and its collections were only ways to take care of a baby, when they hibit, prepared by the Kearn Project subsequently " institutionalized" at the plan to start solid food , to wean, etc. staff in conjunction with the Heard Mu­ Peabody Museum. Mary Hemenway, Then, to document the infant care as seum staff, opened in Phoenix on the Boston patroness who sponsored practi ced , observers visit the home and December 12, 1980, and subsequently the expedition, intended to house the observe the infant's actual experience - will travel to four other museums in the Kearn Collection, purchased for $10,000 how much it is held, talked to , fed , and southwest over a two-year period. in 1892 by the Second Expedition's Di­ how the mother responds to the infant's "America's Great Lost Expedition" is rector, Jesse Walter Fewkes, in a private distress. Occasionally, the mothers are a novel and multidimensional exhibit. museum adjoining her 40 Mt. Vernon asked to keep diaries to document the Not only does it return to the southwest Street residence on Boston's Beacon infant's patterns of sleeping and feed­ and the present generation of Hopi pot­ Hill . ing over a 24-hour period . Social and ters an array of ceramics spanning 700 It was her intention that this ethno­ emotional development are assessed years of their history and aesthetic tra­ gra phic collection, in conjunction with both from the home observations of dition, it also documents and explores an archaeological collection made by the spontaneous behavior and from more late nineteenth-century American life, Firs t Hemenway Expedition (1886-1888), formal test situations. The infants are especially for the native inhabitants and serve to inform the public and students given the Bayley Scales of Infant Devel­ transplanted Europeans of the north­ of American Indians of the antiquity of opment and a tool-using test. They are eastern Arizona frontier. Through the Indian cultures. With he r untimely observed in a standard face-to-face situ­ letters and correspondence of the men death in the spring of 1894, Augustus ation with their mothers and in the and women who conceived, organized, Hemenway, Jr. , her son and vice presi­ Ainsworth " strange situation" para­ and lived the Second Hemenway Expe­ dent of the expedition foundation, digm with their mother and a strange dition- from Boston benefactress to chose Harvard's Peabody Museum as adult. They are observed with a strange remote field worker to Hopi informant the most suitable alternative to this child and with a sibling. They are sub­ - the exhibit and its accompanying plan. Hence, the Kearn Collection ad­ jected to mild stress by a brief separa­ catalogue chronicle the events affecting ventitiously was acquired by the Pea­ tion from the mother and by a difficult their lives as they recorded the passing body . task. It is not expected that the groups traditional life of an ancient American Dr. Fewkes was not, however, in any will differ in motor or cognitive devel­ Indian people. (The Hopi and their way officially affiliated with the Pea­ opment, but differences may be found ancestors have inhabited the harsh, arid body; he held no curatorial or other in attachment to the mother late in the mesa country of Arizona, living in staff position, nor was he a trained second year or in ability to derive com­ adobe pueblos and subsisting through archaeologist or ethnologist. His ap­ fort from physical con tact with the agriculture, continuously for over a poin tment as Director of the Second mother after mild stress. thousand years.) Hemenway Expedition was somewhat The study has implications for both The Second Hemenway Expedition to fortuitous. Receiving his baccalaureate theory and practice. From a practical the American Southwest evolved over and doctoral degrees in zoology from point of view, it may provide informa­ four arduous years, from 1890-1894. In Harvard in 1875 and 1877 respectively, tion of interest to parents exploring al­ its time it was the earliest, best fi­ he served as Curator of Invertebrates at ternative methods of infant care. Infor­ nanced, and most ambitious anthropol­ the Museum of Comparative Zoology mation about the consequences of ogical undertaking of its kind. Today it for ten years. He was dismissed from different styles of care may help them is only dimly remembered, referred to that position when a plagiarism contro­ in deciding on their own course of ac­ but sporadically in scholarly journals versy arose involving Fewkes and the tion in caring for their baby. From the and unknown to the public. The expe­ museum's director. Almost simultane­ point-of-view of theory, the results dition was a pioneering venture which, ously, Frank Hamilton Cushing, Direc­ might provide evidence to support the through its successes and failures, tor of the First Hemenway Expedition, evolutionary theory of Bowlby which helped to define the new goals of was dismissed from his position be­ predicts that a complex of " natural" American anthropology and archaeol­ cause he had proven to be an incompe­ features of maternal care tend to vary ogy. The expedition's greatest accom­ tent administrator in the field . Augus­ together and that infants who experi­ plishment was the procuring of the tus Hemenway, Jr., Fewkes's Harvard ence such care will differ in social and Kearn Collection, the scientific and aes­ classmate, chose Fewkes to head the emotional development from infants ex­ thetic potential of which was never re­ Second Hemenway Expedition. It was periencing other patterns of care. The alized in its own day. felt that a more conven tiona! scholar results may provide evidence to support Why have the Second Hemenway Ex­ could better administrate a scientific the psychological theory that early ex­ pedition and especially the Kearn Col­ expedition than Mr. Cushing, a self­ perience effects social and emotional lection, given its current artistic and taught student of American Indian cul­ development, at least for the first two historic value, so long been ignored? In tures. years of life. attempting to answer this seemingly Because he held no permanent posi­ simple question, in assessing the sig­ tion at the Peabody, Fewkes only nificance of both the Hemenway Expe- agreed to install a small portion of the 14 • Symbols • Winter 1981 Kearn Collection on exhibit in a gallery from either interpretation or preserva­ search over the past year has uncovered named for Mrs. Hemenway. Upon com­ tion of these materials. The result was some of these in rather unlikely places, pletion of these duties he terminated that an invaluable study collection from family albums and collections of his Hemenway salary and assumed a which records the formation of historic memorabilia in Massachusetts to archi­ postion with the Bureau of Ethnology Hopi society remained " lost" for several val collections as far away as California. in Washington, D.C. The remainder of generations. Fewkes's field notebooks and all of Ste­ the Kearn Collection was scattered Fewkes's dismissal at least in part phen's correspondence for the duration among the museum's five floors. Most stemmed from the fact that Stephen's of the Second Hemenway Expedition, of this material was never accessioned theoretical framework, an evolutionary located in the National Anthropological or catalogued until the 1940s when, as schema presenting the rise and fall of Archives, Smithsonian Institution, con­ part of a larger task of systematically or­ Hopi society and culture, had fallen out stitute an extremely rich body of mate­ ganizing all Peabody southwestern of fashion by the turn of the century. rial on Hopi culture. In Stephen's letters holdings, Dr. J. 0 . Brew and his staff What Fewkes fajled to realize, however, lies the story of a hard life on the west­ undertook to do so. Lacking time and was that the manuscript showed re­ ern frontier, and of a " lost" yet wholly funds to give special attention to Kearn markable insight in to the mythic asso­ committed ethnographer of American materials, nothing further was accom­ ciations of pottery designs with Hopi Indian life. Stephen is not unknown in p lished u n tjJ 1976. Jn that year, as a Re­ religious beliefs. Whether these associa­ American anthropology, but his full search Fellow, Dr. Edwin Wade's work tions are " true" or not is debatable, but contribution to this field has yet to be to survey the Kearn Collection initiated we can be sure that the legends and realized. Other manuscripts, field re­ the Kearn Research Project. oral traditions transcribed in the manu­ ports, and correspondence from both Along with the Kearn Collection, the script reflect Hopi religious beliefs, not expeditions still await interpretation Hemenway Expedition and then the Stephen's interpretations. His letters ir­ and publication. The full story will be Peabody Museum, acquired a catalogue refutably prove this to be the case, as an important one as the history of the manuscript of the ceramics compiled by they reveal that he literally dedicated Hemenway Expeditions records the Alexander M . Stephen. Stephen was a his life to the faithful rendering of Hopi professionalization and i nstitu tionaliza­ Scottish metallurgist who assisted religious thought. He never hesitated to tion of American anthropology, and as Thomas Kearn, trader to the Hopis for chastize other respected ethnologists or the artistry of the Kearn Collection con­ nearly 25 years, in assembling and even Fewkes for printing Hopi lore that tinues to yield more and more of the eventually classifying his outstanding was in any way misrepresentative. richness, diversity, and endurance of collection of Hopi art. Unfortunately, Because of the controversy surround­ this American Indian culture. the catalogue manuscript was dismissed ing the First Hemenway Expedition's LeaS. McChesney, Program Coordi­ by Fewkes as scientifically useless. This director and Fewkes's brief and unoffi­ nator for the Keam Project, is a gradu­ proclamation essentially condemned cial affiliation with the Peabody, confu­ ate of Bard College and holds a Master's both the manuscript and the Kearn Col­ sion developed about where documents degree in Anthropology from Wesleyan lection to obscurity for nearly a century, were placed, and business records were University. keeping students and curatorial care scattered. An extensive and intensive

Grants awarded The Peabody Museum has received a $300,000 challenge grant from the Na­ tional Endowment for the Arts to launch a revitalization program. Each dollar of the federal grant now must be matched by $3 from nonfederal sources. The grant will enable the Museum to establish a conservation center with special equipment and trained conserv­ ators to better protect its collection. Basketry, featherwork, and textiles are particularly prone to deterioration with age, but can be preserved through chemical treatment, climate control, and other methods. Some of the Museum's metals, including archaeological finds about 3,000 years old, also need chemi­ cal treatment for protection against ero­ sion. Over the next few years the Mu­ seum also hopes to use the grant to construct improved storage facilities with areas where temperature and hu­ midity can be controlled. The National Endowment for the Hu­ The great Sikyatki ceramic tradition of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries is today, and manities recently announced the award was at the time of the Hemenway Expedition, considered the finest Southwestern ceramic of a planning grant for interpretive ex­ tradition. A revival of that style which began around the turn of the century is currently pro­ hibits on Cambridge history to a team duced at Hopi. The style, Sikyatki Revival, was believed to be the work of one exceptionally of applicants which includes Harvard's talented potter, the famous Nampeyo. The Kearn Collection manuscript compiled by Alex­ ander Stephen states that Kearn commissioned certajn unnamed Hopi potters to make repro­ Institute for Conservation Archaeology ductions of ancient wares, including Sikyatki pieces, which he included in museum collec­ and the Cambridge Historical Commis­ tions. Kearn therefore provided a stimulus for a "new" style of Hopi pottery which had sion. The exhibits will take several previously been unknown. This recently uncovered " lost" information has helped to revise forms; a major display to open early in the date of the inception of the Sikyatki Revival style from 1890-1900 to 1880-1890, and to 1982 will be installed in the Peabody reassess some popular myths about this American Indian art tradition. Museum. Symbols • Winter 1981 • 15 Subscription to Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology SYMBOLS NONPROFIT ORG. Harvard University U.S. POSTAGE Symbols will be published twice a year 11 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138 by the Peabody Museum and the De­ PAID partment of Anthropology at Harvard. CAMBRIDGE, MA The yearly subscription rate is $4.50. PERMIT NO. 54565 Please make checks payable to "Symbols -Peabody Museum" and send to Pea­ THIRD CLASS body Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, 11 Divinity Avenue, Cam­ bridge, Mass. 02138.

Copan, continued from page 1 Though the New World was the home of civilizations fully equal to those of the Old World, many Americans still suffer the misapprehension that, before Columbus, the continent was settled only by primitive hunter-gatherers. No other New World civilization reached any greater heights than the Maya of Mesoamerica. A new exhibit, jointly sponsored by the Peabody Museum and Boston's Museum of Science, will help to fill the gap in public under­ standing of this ancient culture. Enti­ tled "Copan: Ancient City of the Maya," the exhibit focuses on the peo­ ple and their civilizations, from the great achievements in art and science to the everyday life of the average person. The exhibit will attempt to show how archaeologists interpret ancient artifacts and how our view of the ancient world develops. The exhibit consists almost entirely of artifacts drawn from the Peabody Mu­ seum's extraordinary collec.tions. One such artifact is the sculpture fragment pictured above. It appears to be a styl­ ized depiction of a serpent, often asso­ ciated with one of the most important Maya deities, Itzamna, the lord of the heavens and the earth . " Copan: Ancient City of the Maya" opens on May 21 , 1981 at the Museum of Science. The exhibition is part of the Peabody's Collection-Sharing Program under which more than one thousand artifacts from the Peabody will be loaned to nine art, history, science, and general museums across the nation. Funded by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humani­ ties in the spring of 1980, the program integrates the needs and goals of the Peabody- to organize, conserve, and share its remarkable collections - with the borrowing institutions' wishes to expand their exhibition programs be­ yond the scope of their own holdings. Dr. Richard Leventhal, Post Doctoral Fellow at the Peabody Museum, served as Guest Curator for the exhibition. Gordon R. Willey, Bowditch Professor of Central American Archaeology at Harvard, directed the excavations in the Copan Valley. He will be presented with the William]. Walker Prize for meritorious scientific investigation and discovery on the occasion of the open­ Peabody Museum's Stela A leaves from a third floor window enroute to Boston's ing of the exhibition. Museum of Science.

16 • Symbols • Winter 1981