Spring 2003 Newsletter

2003 Anthropology Senior Majors

Back Row: Prof. Doug Caulkins, Prof. John Whittaker, Courntney Prior, Ruth Anderson, Marcos Escobar, Byll Bryce, Stephanie Snow. Second Row: Prof. J. Montgomery Roper, Rob Schwaller, Alex Woods, Emily Zabor, Matt Watson, Prof. Timothy Hare, Prof. Chuck Hilton. Front Row: Prof. Kathy Kamp, Prof. Vicki Bentley-Condit, Tricia Hadley, Ann Kolbeck. Not Pictured: Christina Doxsie, Mark Matuzas, Travis Orbmsby, Ashley Pausig, Bradley Yi, Nick Wagnor Austin Wells, Prof. Jon Andelson, Prof. Katya Gibel Azoulay, Prof. Maria Tapias

John Whittaker and Kathy Kamp Enjoy a Sabbatical

We have been on sabbatical this year, and spent parts of it in Flagstaff, working on our Sinagua material. We have been continuing analysis of the artifacts from field school excavations at New Caves and Bench Pueblo, and cleaning the data set of site records so Kathy can do some more sophisticated analyses with GIS. Our plan is a book which is not just a site report, but attempts to understand the broader landscape, and consider how the Sinagua might have thought about the land and their neighbors. We have a data base of some 2000 archaeological sites around Flagstaff, about 350 of which were recorded by Grinnell projects, and others which were recorded by the Coconino National forest. Some of the site files date back years and are, to put it kindly, inadequate. The bright side of this is that we have to go out and visit a lot of sites to check on the information, especially if they are important to some aspect of our research. Another goal has been to complete an accurate map of the site complex at New Caves, where the field school excavated two sets of rooms in 1994 and 1996. We have put this off for years because the site is on the crest of a volcanic crater, and involves a steep half hour climb (with much panting at 6500 feet) just to get there, to say nothing of the problems of setting up multiple transit stations to map rooms scattered all over a mountain top. But modern technology is great! We now have an updated GPS system (essentially a range rod with an antenna on top) that is accurate enough to map rooms just by moving around and setting the rod on room corners for 20 seconds. We still have to do the panting, but the mapping is much easier. Meanwhile it has been a dry winter, with a worse one last year. The trees around Flagstaff have been hard hit by drought, fire, and beetle infestations. Around our sites, many of the pinyon pines are dead and brown. For the next few decades the woods will be more open and dominated by juniper. A relatively short drought event has wiped out (for our lifetimes at least) the pinyon nuts that would have been an important resource to a prehistoric Sinagua.
I (John) finished my book on modern flintknappers, which should be forthcoming from the University of Texas Press in the next year. A lot of students helped with that project, from Matt Hedman ('96) who did statistical analyses of a survey to an unusually faithful group of Friday knappers in the last couple of years. Many of them are graduating now and will no longer have to listen patiently as I retail the latest knap-in gossip and try out ideas on them, but the companionship of Bill Eichmann, Grant McCall, Alex Woods, Byll Bryce, Ann Feltovich, Mike Wells, Lara Gaasland-Tatro, Carl Drexler, Nate Gingerich, Gary Oppenheim, Avi Pogel, and all the rest is happily remembered.
Since we were out in Arizona, the Alumni Office convinced us to do presentations on "Grinnell Archaeology in Flagstaff"at alumni meetings in Phoenix and Tucson. We talked with many interesting alumns, including a few Anthro majors.

Iowa Academy of Science Meeting
April 2003

Five anthropology majors presented papers at the Iowa Academy of Science Meeting on April 25 at the Hotel Fort Des Moines. These students were all part of Vicki Bentley-Condit's MAP senior seminar on Human Ethology. Each student conducted independent research for his or her project, collecting observational data primarily over spring break. The students and their projects were: Byll Bryce ('03) "Competitivenes in Dyadic Conversations"; Courtney Prior ('03) "Differences in Mate Attraction Strategies between Heterosexual and Homosexual Men"; Aeleka Schortman ('04) "Gossip and the Evolution of Human Language"; Matt Watson ('03) "The Expression and Negotiation of Dominance in a Formal, Political Context"; and Alex Woods ('03) "Door Holding as a Model of Altruistic Action".

Kathy Kamp Publishes Book on Prehistoric Children

Archaeologists have tended to ignore the personal characteristics of the people they study, preferring to discuss more abstract concepts such as settlement patterns or subsistence strategies. Beginning in the 1980s however, some archaeologists began to attempt to look at gender categories- how they were defined in a variety of prehistoric and early historic societies and how these definitions influenced both behaviors and symbol systems. Nevertheless, age was still overlooked. In an attempt to rectify this omission, Kathy Kamp has recently published an edited volume, entitled Children in the Prehistoric Puebloan Southwest. (University of Utah Press, 2002) In most past studies, when children were even mentioned, Western stereotypes prevailed. Despite ethnographic information that attests to considerable variability in definitions of age categories and their meanings, childhood was often treated as if it were a natural biological category, lasting until around eighteen. Activities were usually described as play and learning, based on a middle class late twentieth century Western model. Articles in the book include discussions of the possible stages in childhood, the role of cradleboards in child raising, depictions of initiation in rock art, the learning of ceramic techniques, prehistoric violence and childhood. An article by Kathy talks about evidence that even fairly young pueblo children probably provided a real contribution to the economic system, countering previous assumptions that children only acted as a drain on the system, and an article co-authored by Kathy and John Whittaker describes the ways prehistoric Puebloan children have been depicted in art and contrasts depictions with the patterns suggested by articles in the volume.

Special Topic: an unplanned tribute in favor of radical and non-partisan scholarship
K. Gibel Azoulay

My contributions to this newsletter are a few random thoughts from teaching a Special Topics course this semester, Transnationalism & Public Culture. While crafting the syllabus over winter break, it did not occur to me that the course would be disrupted by the American military intervention in Iraq. But this sadly fortuitous event facilitated opportunities for hands-on and immediately relevant persual of news coverage. From Ireland to Tanzania, China to Nicargua, internet news appears and disappears in ways that seem to ridicule formulaic thinking and yet still tease those who take abstract theory too seriously. One need not mystify the phenomenon of globalization: the cacophony of questions which surfaced in the readings in the first half of the semester seemed to acquire some clarity over the second half .
I think the class discovered that only the cumulative array of information circulating within a variety of news sources provides an always-only-almost complete story while the very idea of alternative media depends on its opposite to have meaning or credibility. Arjun Appadurai's -scapes became a little less abstract when considered in the context of anecdotes of bi-lingual immigrant soldiers in the battlefield or stories about residents in the U.S. who look at news on satellite tv with an urgency that witnesses how blurred life is between the local and global.
How does a professor successfully convey the significance of making salient the gaps between a lived and a learned experience so necessary to understanding efforts to theorize the simultaneity of a shifting and stable locale of local, global and transnational (in which the mind and senses occupy a different site than the physical body)? A glimpse of this was experienced by students considering what it might be like to carry out multi-sited and collaborative research projects that involve people socialized by multi-culturalism (radically different from the corrupted euphemism that names without naming difference by default). Getting people on campus to help in translations of texts on-line was a step in this direction (we may be reminded of psychiatrist and political theorist Franz Fanon who noted how profoundly language conveys a culture - it is more than just a translation of words with the use of a dictionary). The extent to which local and global interests clash and coincide in predictably unpredictable ways is nowhere more transparent than in the unfolding discourse of reconstruction where companies in eastern Europe, businessmen in the Muslim world and underemployed workers in Latin America and Africa hope to participate at some level in various rebuilding projects currently initiated by the Bush administration in Iraq.
To bring the semester to an untidy close, just as 24/7 coverage of American troops in Iraq waned (not, incidentally, without the audience becoming aware that France and Germany wanted to participate in rebuilding efforts), SARS became headline news. A new layer of transnational public culture has unfolded, inviting ethnographic projects on the discourse of a threatening global epidemic. Foci include the emergence of new metaphors, in different languages as they travel. Translation reveals social values which operate on local and global levels as well as in-between (for instance, should this syndrome be contained or eliminated? The choice of vocabulary and language dictates radically different policies as representatives of multi-national, transnational, institutional and other -ionals with their own political -isms meet in front of cameras and behind closed doors to decide on how to confront a syndrome that ignores boundaries, tangible or metaphorical.) More than I anticipated, this course turned out to have actualized an exploration of the limits of partisan scholarship, the merit of maximizing objectivity and the desirability for collaborative research.

Katya Gibel Azoulay (Fall 2002- Spring 2003 activities)

Book
2nd Printing (March 2003) Black, Jewish and Interracial: Its Not the Color of Your Skin but the Race of Your Kin and Other Myths of Identity. (Duke University Press, 1st ed., 1997)

Invited Publications
Contribution to The Woman's Table: A Passover Seder Sourcebook, sponsored by Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale University (Jewish Lights Publishing, 2003)
Chapter 4 "Interpreting the Census: The Elasticity of Whiteness and the Depoliticization of Race" In Racial Liberalism and the Politics of Urban America, pp. 155-170 (Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2003).
Book Review: Betty N. Hoffman. Jewish Hearts: A Study of Dynamic Ethnicity in the United States and the Soviet Union. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 2001. American Anthropologist, September 2002 pp. 979-980.
Book Review: Rachel F. Moran. Interracial Intimacy: the Regulation of Race and Romance. Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press, 2001. The American Historical Review, June 2002 pp. 886-887
Book Review: Ed. David Parker and Miri Song. Rethinking 'Mixed Race.' London: Pluto, 2001. Researching African Literature 34, 2 (Summer 2003), pp. 233-235.

Invited Presentations
- 4th Whiteness and Privilege Conference. Central College, Pella, Iowa, 11 April 2003.
- Panelist: Take Back the Night Faculty Panel: 6 November 2002, Grinnell College
- "Common Ground" Scholars Meeting re 2004 Exhibition, The Jewish Museum 28 October 2002 New York City.
- "Current Issues Affecting Blacks in America: Commitment, Consistency, Continuity and Community" Presentation to Concerned Black Students (CBS),"Not Done Yet..." Presented to The 1st Annual Black Awareness Week Kickoff, Grinnell College, 6 October 2002.
- "When Words Have Failed and Political Rhetoric Turns Stale: Race, Racism and Caste." Presentation to Beyond Durban: Caste and Race Dialogues, Symposium Sponsored by The Crossing Borders Program and the South Asia Studies Program, University of Iowa, 4-6 Oct 2002.
- Panelist: The Lasting International and Domestic Impact of the September 11 Terrorist Attacks. Grinnell College, 11 September 2002.

J.Montgomery Roper

Well, it seems another semester has slid by. This one has been relatively light for me in terms of the teaching load. I have had a total of 14 students in two classes. This semester adapted the course Human Ecology and Adaptation to become Cultural and Political Ecology. I am enjoying it quite a bit and expect that it will become a regular offering. We examine how the relationship between small-scale societies and the environment is changing with increasing globalization and expansion of the world capitalist system, as well as the impact of environmental change on these cultures. Despite the relatively low grading workload, I have managed to stay fairly busy organizing events as the chair of the global development studies concentration. In addition, I organized and chaired a panel for the meetings of the Society for Applied Anthropology, which took place over spring break in Portland, Oregon. In the panel, Managing Trees for Sustainable Development: Issues in Community Forestry and Agroforestry, I presented the paper, Indigenous Participation in Forestry Markets in Nicaragua's Northern Atlantic Autonomous Region, which is based on a consulting project that I undertook. I have also been preparing to turn my dissertation into a book. This will be my major project for the summer. Finally, my articles for the journal Latin American Perspectives are finally in print. These include the following:
Roper, J. Montgomery, Thomas Perreault, and Patrick C. Wilson. 2003. Introduction. Latin American Perspectives: Indigenous Transformational Movements in Contemporary Latin America 31(1):2-22.
Roper, J. Montgomery 2003. Bolivian Legal Reforms and Local Indigenous Organizations: Opportunities and Obstacles in a Lowland Municipality. Latin American Perspectives: Indigenous Transformational Movements in Contemporary Latin America 31(1):139-161.

Medical Anthropology
Developing an Indigenous Health Tracker: A Wellness Resource for Yankton and Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribes

by Douglas Caulkins

During this past year I have been involved with developing an assessment for a new technology for managing diabetes among several tribes in eastern South Dakota. Type II diabetes is very widespread on the reservations. The project, funded by the Department of Health and Human Services, incorporates a wide range of medical and social science professionals, including Indigenous Medicine Men. This team is developing a web-based personal health information base, called the Turtle Tracker, to help Native Americans keep informed of their own health trends. Individuals participating in this grant will be using a website to track their exercise, diet, and cultural & social activities. Western biomedical traditions tend to emphasize only diet and exercise in diabetes prevention. Sioux Medicine Men, however, also emphasize the importance of cultural participation and social connections in a holistic approach to wellness. This holistic information, which is collected and summarized for each individual in the project, should help diabetics manage their health more easily. Participation in the development of the Turtle Tracker is voluntary and all the information entered into the program will be kept confidential. The second goal of the project is to determine whether or not the Turtle Tracker is effective in helping individuals to improve their health over a 24-week period and whether its use should be expanded on the two participating reservations and on other reservations in South Dakota. A student will be helping me with the project this summer. The college has contributed several computers for use by residents of the Yankton Reservation and the Sisseton-Wahpeton Reservation.

Timothy Hare

I have kept busy with many activities this Spring semester. I am teaching Aztecs, Incas, & Mayas this semester and I am thoroughly enjoying teaching in my own area of research. Travis Ormsby '03 presented our joint paper on the urban organization of Mayapan at the Midwest Mesoamericanist Conference at Ann Arbor, Michigan. For this year's Society for American Archaeology Annual Meeting in Milwaukee, I presented a poster on the mapping strategy I am employing at Mayapan and a paper on the relationship between political hierarchies and market exchange systems in the cyclical expansion and collapse of Mayan societies.
This Summer I will continue with the second of a three year NSF-funded project at the archaeological site of Mayapan in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. I have thus far, directed the mapping of many new parts of the ancient city. This year I will shift from mapping large fields to excavating test pits in domestic middens across the site. The resulting data are the basis for my research into political and economic transformation prior to the Spanish conquest. Once again, I will be taking some Grinnell students into the field to participate in my research.
This coming Fall I will begin my new position as visiting assistant professor in the Institute for Regional Analysis and Public Policy at Morehead State University, Kentucky. I will be teaching half-time in each of the Sociology and Geography departments and continuing the development of quantitative methods of spatial analysis for understanding regional social systems.

Grinnellians at the Society for American Archaeology

Kathy Kamp and John Whittaker attended the annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology in Milwaukee in April, and had dinner and gossip with several alumns. Mike Galaty ('91), is teaching Anthro at Millsaps College and co-authored a paper on "Site Soil Chemistry at Veszto-Bikeri, Hungary." Bill Eichmann ('97) is a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin, and has just received a Fullbright grant to work in Hungary next year. Grant McCall ('02) is a graduate student at University of Iowa, and co-authored "Examining Mobility Patterns in the Namibian ESA through Lithic Analysis." Steve Nash ('86) is Head of Collections, Anthropology at the Field Museum in Chicago, and soon to be a father. Megan Drechsel ('04) will be interning with him this summer, working on southwestern collections, the third Grinnell intern he has supervised. Karen Poulson ('84) works for Archaeological Research Inc in Chicago. Rob Brubaker ('87) is finishing his degree at the University of Michigan. He presented "Peer Polity Borders: A South Asian Example," and hasjust published an article on "Aspects of Mortuary Variability in the South Indian Iron Age" (Bull. of the Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute, Vol 60-61:253-302.) Bill Green ('74 ) now Director at the Logan Museum of Beloit College, co-authored a paper on early archaeologist WC McKerns' work in Wisconsin. Mike Neeley ('84) just passed his third year review at U. of Montana, and co-authored a paper on "The Camp Baker Quarries: Lithic Resources in Montana." Neil Weintraub ('86) couldn't come to the meetings, but was co-author of a paper with others working on the Kaibab National Forest where he is an archaeologist. Back at Flagstaff we scouted a high and windy hill with him and a colleague interested in wind power, deciding that too many archaeological sites would have to be disturbed to make the project practical. Timothy Hare, finishing his 2 years teaching with us at Grinnell, presented a paper on "A GIS Approach to Mapping the Postclassic Site of Mayapan, Mexico," results of a project in which he involved a number of Grinnellians.

SEPC News
Student Educational Policy Committee

After being busy fall semester working on faculty reviews, the Anthropology SEPC has turned its attention this spring to social events! We kicked off spring semester with a dessert reception in Goodnow, which was well attended by both students and faculty. Keeping with the dessert theme, we recently had an ice cream study break outside of Goodnow on a lovely spring evening. If you couldn't make it, let's just say that you missed out on six kinds of sprinkles! And in keeping with trusty tradition, the spring potulck. A chance for students and faculty alike to showoff their cooking (and eating!) skills. The Anthropology SEPC has also been involved in a Trivial Pursuit tournament with other departments as well as being active on the Student Curriculum Committee (SCC). The members of the SEPC for spring semester include Courtney Prior, Tiffany Lewis, Tricia Hadley, Emily Zabor, Rachel Sandler, Megan Drechsel, Rachel Haile, and Kate Howell. Questions? Comments? Want to join the SEPC? Just email anthsepc@grinnell.edu. Good luck graduating seniors!

Student News

Erin Will '04 I thought it might interesting to give a mention of my internship this semester in London. I work at the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF), where I am improving their artifact storage. I am currently going through the PEF's Samaria excavation collection from 1931-1935. This includes massive amounts of ivory, bone, and ceramics. Since I am working at such a small institution, I have the benefits of full 'hands on' experience. My typical day includes making repairs to ceramics, bone tools, stone carvings, and preventing further destruction to the metal collection, which mainly consists of bronze rings, pins, and needles. Working in such a small environment has given me a greater understanding of what a small scale museum does regarding restoration, conservation, displays, and public announcements. Had I been placed in a large scale museum, I would have none of this wonderful experience.

Rob Schwaller '03 Next year I will be attending graduate school in History at Penn State University. I will be working towards earning my Ph.D.

Emily Zabor '03 After graduation I will be volunteering with the Peace Corps and will work on agriculture and forestry projects in sub-Saharan Africa.

Matthew Tragger '03 Next fall I will start in the Interdisciplinary Ecology graduate program at University of Florida, where I will research ant-plant mutualisms in Brasilian rain forest fragments.

Tricia Hadley '03 Post-graduation plans: I received a grant to accompany Dr. Robbie Davis-Floyd, a Research Fellow at the University of Texas - Austin, to Oaxaca, Mexico where she works with global issues in traditional midwifery. I will participate in an international midwives conference and spend the remainder of my time as an apprentice to traditional Mexican midwives.

Matt Watson '03 under the supervision of Katya Gibel Azoulay gave his Senior MAP Presentation entitled "Kinship and Identity in Practice and Text: Interpreting one Nineteenth Century Family and one Mexican War Journal." He discussed his Mentored Advanced Project on the Social dynamics of two economically distinct lineages of his nineteenth century Nortch Carolina ancestors. Among other topics, he descired the impacts of plantations and slavery on intrafamilial relations and the significance of anti-slavist rhetoric in an ancestor's journal. Matt has enrolled in the anthropology graduate program at the University of Florida and will begin his studies there next semester. At Florida, he will pursue his interest in historical archaeology.

Alex Woods '03 This summer I will be living in Iowa City, getting ready for Grad School, and (hopefully) working for the state archaeologist or a local contract firm.

Alumni News

Jon Till '89 has just become the Laboratory Analysis Manager at Crow Canyon, an archaeological research and education institute in Colorado. He says "Send us some interns! Grinnell students with Anthro background will always rank high in my estimation." Meanwhile, he and Erin have taken on a new responsibility: Grace Marie Till, born December 2002.

Jon Van Hoose '92, at U. of New Mexico, wrote to say: I won't be making it to the SAAs this year. Just 5 weeks ago, I quit my paying job (as Lab Director for TRC's Albuquerque office) in order to focus on my dissertation full time. So I guess I'm on sabbatical too!

Sharon (Kramer) Lite '93 is finishing a PhD at Arizona State University in Water Management.

Erica Ferguson '90 lives in Tucson, where she does social work housing AIDS victims.

Matt Kaler '02 is about to start graduate school in psychology in Minneapolis and is doing great!

Sue Hyatt '76 received a teaching award given by ATTIC to faculty in the college of Liberal Arts.

Carl Drexler '02, pursuing a degree in Historical Archaeology at the University of Nebraska: I'm co-editing the Nebraska Anthropologist this semester, in addition to preparing a paper for the Nebraska Academy of Sciences and perhaps an article for Historical Archaeology. My World Systems professor from last semester is pressing me to turn in my term paper on Chaco to the Journal of World Systems Research... I'm somewhat daunted.

Nathan Weller '02: "My most recent job is with a small weekly newspaper, out of Saratoga (southwest of Laramie, WY). Our staff is small, so I get to do it all-ad sales, writing, photography, and the greatest joy of all (sarcasm) dealing with the public. The town is about 1500 people strong, and we print 2000 copies of our 24+ page publication. Myself, I live in Riverside, Wyoming, population 51. It's pretty rural ranching/tourism country out here, and up until recently, it was also a big lumber producing area. Just last Thursday, however, the Louisiana Pacific Lumber Mill shut down here in Saratoga, laying off almost 100 people. That's a real sucker punch for a town this size and an area so rural, and I wrote an editorial about the layoff.

Neil Gibson '99 After returning in September from Peace Corps service in the central Urals city of Perm, Russia, I've been working with the Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program in Washington, DC. I'm enjoying life back in the States and despite terror threats, sniper shootings and the odd illegitimate president, I really like living in our nation's capital. Continuing our proud tradition of "Grinnell on the Hill," my neighborhood includes such reknowned Grinnell Anthro majors as Erin Doyle, Jocelyn Wyatt and Oma McLaughlin, all anthro majors from the class of 1999, and also Carissa Page '01. Mansir Petrie (Anthro '99) is also in Washington and joins us from time to time.
Having wetted my feet in the world of Russian studies during my Peace Corps service, I'm taking the plunge this fall and heading back to graduate school in International Relations and Russian. A far cry from my days of bones 'n stones at Grinnell, but a stimulating field nonetheless, and for a variety of reasons. I've accepted an offer in the dual Master's of Public Affairs (Int'l Relations) and MA (Russian) program at the University of Indiana for this fall, and I look forward to being a full-time student once more. Bloomington is a charming little place with a decidedly challenging Russian program, and I'm excited at the opportunities on offer. If you ever find yourself in southern Indiana with time on your hands, drop me a line at neilsgipson@yahoo.com!

Kirsten Tretbar
Special three-week course "Making Documentary Films"

This letter hails from a fellow Grinnell Anthropology major, class of 1989! I'm Kirsten Tretbar, and I'm writing this on my computer, in my office at Grinnell College, which I've had the pleasure of using here in the Anthropology Department! I'm teaching a special three-week course called "Making Documentary Films" as a "Wilson Scholar for Enterprise in the Arts".
As I drove my little VW Beetle up to Grinnell last week from Kansas City - where I've moved back to after living in Los Angeles for the last 14 years - I couldn't help think about my times here at Grinnell as a student, and wonder nervously how it would feel seeing Grinnell from "the other side". Although I'd been back for the 10-year reunion, I hadn't been back to see my favorite Anthropology professors. I ran up the steps of the newly renovated Goodnow Building. Doug Caulkins had left a note on the door for me, "Kirsten, come on up!" My heart was racing! As I turned the corner on the third floor I found Doug, now the head of the department. Doug had been my favorite teacher here! With a beard, and longer hair than I remembered, he looked not a bit older, and still had those kind, twinkly eyes and that wonderful calming gentle voice. Gosh, it was so good to be back!
Doug showed me to a beautiful new ground floor office (spare for now for lucky visiting teachers like me). With my own new computer, a view of the campus, and bookshelves galore, I felt like a Filmmaker who'd landed in Heaven! Was I naïve? No, I was just a typical Filmmaker, who, like a P.H.D. student trying to finish a tough thesis over several years, was exhausted after working on her film for the last 5 years - and I was probably just starved for these wonderful creature comforts.
Let me backtrack a bit. You see, I had spent the last fourteen years working as a professional TV and Film producer (in London and Los Angeles). In the mid 90s, I'd had several glamorous high paying jobs in the Documentary Film World. From 1995 to 1997 I had been the Executive Producer for a very prestigious client: The Sultan of Brunei! Known to the rest of the world as "The Richest Man Alive!" the sultan heads a tiny country on the Island of Borneo, in Southeast Asia, near Singapore. I was lucky enough to land the job of running a multi-million dollar production company based in Bandar Seri Begawan, and we made dozens of high quality documentaries and entertaining films for the Royal family and their famous guests. Before that, I had lived and worked out of Leeds and London, producing dozens of documentary films for the BBC and ITV - two top UK Television Networks. But more recently, my luck had changed - through my own desire to make more personal and soulful documentaries. Yes…I'd gone "Indie"! In 1998, after a difficult divorce and a return home to the States from England, I decided to start working on my own films. So, for the last 5 years, I've worked solely on researching, fundraising, shooting, directing, and producing my own feature documentary film, ZENITH! Funded in part by the UCC church, and mostly by myself, this "Independent Film" meant sacrifice and a level of artistic struggle and economic hardship I've never before experienced…So, getting three weeks in this beautiful office has been LOVELY!
My film's story ends on a very happy note! I finally completed the film last year - and critics, audiences, and festivals love it! ZENITH is about a revitalization movement in the struggling farming community of Zenith, Kansas (Pop. 30). My film focuses on the town's yearly outdoor Easter drama called, The Great Plains Passon Play. Layering Cinema Verite scenes of everyday life during a difficult Wheat Harvest, and scenes of daily life in town and church, with dramatic images of the Passion Play (shot at night) - the film follows the key local farmers, ranchers, and retirees who play the lead parts of Jesus and his Disciples. Ultimately, the film shows ways that Faith and Art have inspired the town, and ways the play has become an uplifting life-changing mission for the people in it. I'm proud to say that ZENITH just won "Honorable Mention" on Filmthreat.com (a prestigious Indie Film Web Site) for "Top Ten Films of 2003!" And it's coming to national TV in a month! Now, back to my time here at Grinnell!
My first night back in town, Lorna Caulkins (and Doug) had me over to a beautiful gourmet dinner. But that night, I slept restlessly, nervous about my first day teaching! What would the students be like? The next morning I woke up tired but excited. As I made my tea and strolled around the home of my friend, Grinnell Theatre professor Ellen Mease (who's on sabbatical from the Theatre Department) I suddenly began to cry. I had to sit down. I started sobbing. I just kept saying, "Thank you! Thank You!" Then I couldn't stop laughing. I realized suddenly that I was having what Joseph Campbell calls an "epiphany" - a moment of profound joy! It hit me! Here I was, 36 years old, and in some beautiful way, my life had come full circle. I suddenly felt so blessed that not only was I a well-respected Documentary Filmmaker, but that I had been honored enough to be invited to teach here at Grinnell. It chokes me up even to write this. And my classes? Well, I've been given the opportunity to teach two very large sections, which are overbooked to overflowing! I have 60 students taking "Making the Documentary" - a three week look at the business of documentary filmmaking.
Grinnell students are smarter than ever. They have an intense desire to learn. They are energetic, funny, open, and intense. They are absolutely starving to learn all they can about filmmaking, documentary film, screenwriting, editing, theory, business, and practical information about the LA/NY Indie Film Scene. It's the end of week two, and so far I've met with over 20 students for an hour at a time outside of class (in my beautiful office). Their documentary ideas are smart, and unique. I've already introduced several students to summer internships, and pitched some of the better project ideas (for students who want this) to contacts of mine in LA and NY, who work within PBS and in London for the BBC. If I can help these bright young filmmakers, I will! I'm hoping we can have more classes like this at Grinnell in the future.
On a final note, you can see ZENITH on TV in April. ZENITH airs nation-wide on NBC this Easter! Local affiliate's air dates and times will vary, so please check my web-site for details: www.zeniththemovie.com. Many thanks to Grinnell, to the Anthropology Department, to Doug Caulkins here, and to Ellen Mease and the Theatre Department for hosting this important class; and thanks to the Wilson Board, for supporting me. Thanks and God Bless! (February 7, 2003.)

Brigittine French
Incoming Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow

I'm very excited to join the Grinnell faculty as a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow! This summer will be a very busy one for me. I'll be traveling to Florence, Italy in July to participate in the symposium "Language Dynamics and Linguistic Diversity in Anthropological Perspective" as part of the XV International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences. I will be presenting a paper that discusses the shift from Kaqchikel to Spanish among bilingual Maya communities in Guatemala. Also, I will conduct some preliminary interviews with Irish linguists attending the conference as part of my new research project in Ireland. Upon returning, I plan to talk more with Grinnell faculty and students about their interests in language and culture and work on ways to incorporate linguistic anthropology into the departmental curriculum. I look forward to seeing some familiar faces and to meeting many new ones, particularly in Anthropology 260 (Language, Culture, and Society) scheduled for Spring 2004.