Mark Your Calendars

 

From the Americas to Iceland, from the past to the present, check out what we have in store for you this spring.

Understanding Arctic Communities on the Brink of Self-Governance

Shepard Krech III Lecture

Kirk Dombrowski (Associate Professor of Anthropology at the CUNY Graduate Center and John Jay College CUNY) will discuss the results of research by an anthropology team in the new indigenous autonomous area of Nunatsiavut, located in Labrador, Canada. Roughly the size of Belgium, Nunatsiavut is home to 5 Inuit communities and, most recently, the world's largest nickel mine. The purpose of the research was to document informal networks of exchange, assistance, and social connection/division. While informative on their own, these networks can be analyzed using novel network-analysis techniques. In all, 10 months of fieldwork produced over 830 interviews, and several hundred hours of local people's stories about relocation, Inuit culture, and the transitions that are taking place around them. In this presentation, Dr. Dombrowski will discuss the background of the project, and some of the emerging conclusions about the place of old economic practices in the new economy, informal structures of help that exist side-by-side with formal government programs, and emerging social boundaries that reflect both the history of dislocation in the region, and opportunities lost and found in the new development economy.  This research was funded by the Arctic Social Sciences Program of the National Science Foundation.  Lecture sponsored by the National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs, ARCUS, and donors to the Shepard Krech III Lecture fund.

5:30 p.m.

List Arts Center, Room 120, Brown University  

64 College Street, Providence

Spin me a Yarn, Weave Me a Tale: Textiles, Women and Cloth in Iceland, AD 874-1800

Unlike most parts of the world, archaeological textile collections from Iceland are abundant, rich, and diverse. Though largely unstudied, they contain important information about Iceland's past and especially the roles that women played in traditional Icelandic society and its economy. This talk by Michèle Hayeur Smith (Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology) will present results of ongoing research on textiles from sites across Iceland, looking at issues of gender, textile technology, trade and dress from the settlement (AD 873)to the late 18th century.   Sponsored by the Friends of the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology and the Samuel Cate Fund.

 

5:30 p.m.

Salomon Center, Room 001, Brown University

Near Waterman and Brown Streets, Providence

Warfare and Human Sacrifice in the Moche World: New Discoveries and Continuing Debates

Depictions of armed combat and the capture and sacrifice of prisoners are well known in the art of the ancient Moche of Peru.  Since 1995, the iconographic record has been joined by archaeological evidence of the sacrificial practices themselves. The most dramatic discoveries have been made at the Pyramid of the Moon in the Moche Valley.  New discoveries continue to be made, while debates continue over the nature of Moche warfare and human sacrifice.  This talk by John Verano (Tulane University) will give an update on the latest excavations in 2012, highlighting our current understanding of Moche sacrificial practices.  Sponsored by the Friends of the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology and donors to the Samuel Cate Fund.

5:30 p.m.

List Arts Center, Room 120, Brown University

64 College Street, Providence

Providence, Rhode Island 02912

Initial Peopling of the Americas: New Questions, New Answers

When and from where Native Americans first arrived in the New World is a question scholars have asked for centuries.  Periodically, new archaeological finds push the date of human presence in North America back an additional thousand years or so, but as yet no dates are old enough to suggest they are the earliest possible. Also, global climatic conditions during the last ice age favor entry by way of northeast Asia, but other routes have also been suggested.  Lacking direct archaeological evidence, scholars have turned to genetic clues, especially from DNA analysis, to suggest possible scenarios for the initial entry.  The talk by Douglas Anderson (Brown University) will summarize the current state of the search for "Early Man" in the Americas, and present a new perspective on the problem.  Lecture sponsored by donors to the Barbara A. and Edward G. Hail Lecture Fund.

5:30 p.m.

Salomon Center, Room 001, Brown University

Near Waterman and Brown Streets, Providence

Beneath the earth's surface, at the edge of western Iceland's inhabitable fringe, are unique and evocative archaeological remains - a house within a cave, a wall with no opening, piles of bones smashed beyond recognition. This unique archaeological site lies inside one of the world's longest lava caves that was named for Surtur, an elemental being Iceland's Viking Age Norse settlers believed would destroy the world, mankind, and the gods. In 2001, Kevin Smith (the Haffenreffer's deputy director) and a small Icelandic team documented Surtshellir's archaeological record for the first time. In August 2012 they returned, using REVEAL - an innovative, program developed at Brown University for archaeological data recording and 3D imaging - to document the unique structures within this cave and to assess their roles within Viking Age and Medieval Icelandic society. This talk reveals REVEAL and examines Surtshellir's role in mythology, history, folklore and our expanding archaeological understanding of the Viking worldview.  Sponsored by the Friends of the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology and donors to the Samuel Cate Fund.

5:30 p.m.

Salomon Center, Room 001, Brown University

Near Waterman and Brown Streets, Providence