Anthropology

Spring Term, 2013
Anthropology Tan Sack Lecture Series
Friday's at Noon
Waldo 201A

April 26th, 2013 Student research presentations

Mollie Manion, OSU Anthropology - Postholes, Brick Rubble and a Well, Oh My: Excavations at the Newell Farmstead
For several field seasons the OSU archaeological field school has worked at Champoeg State Park on the Newell homestead site. Research at the site has uncovered a domestic occupation, by several owners, which dates from the 1830s until 1861, making it the oldest domestic home site from the Euro-American settlement period in Oregon, with intact architectural features. Work in the 2011 field season produced further evidence in support of proposed settlement patterns, as well as significant features indicating remodeling and expansion of the dwelling. Excavations have also revealed cribbing boards that indicate the top of a well, which was excavated during the 2011 field season. 

The Newell site contains significant data that has given great insights into domestic lives of people living in the Oregon Territory in the early and mid 19th century.

Justin Eichelberger, OSU Anthropology- Status and Authority: The Historical Archaeology of the Fort Yamhill Officer’s Row
The 2013 OSU Department of Anthropology Historical Archaeology Field School will be held at the site of the 1856-1866 U. S. Army post Fort Yamhill, Oregon.  The site is located on the western edge of the central Willamette Valley in the foothills of the Oregon Coast Range near Grand Ronde, Oregon.  Constructed in 1856 Fort Yamhill was part of a three fort system set up by the U. S. Army to guard the newly established Coastal Indian Reservation.  Positioned strategically along the Killamuck Trail, a major travel route between the Oregon coast and the Willamette Valley, Fort Yamhill was charged with the protection, monitoring and policing of the reservation and the surrounding Euro-American settlements.  The 2013 historical archaeology field school will focus excavations on the archaeological remains of the six officer’s houses along officer’s row.  Previous excavations at the site (2004-2011) have revealed intact archaeological features outlining the house foundations and a large artifact assemblage associated with the military and domestic activities of the site.  The 2013 field season will continue the excavations of these features, the results of which will be used to explore the material culture representations of status and authority in the U. S. Army Commissioned Officer Corps.

May 10th, 2013 Student research presentations
Braden Elliott, OSU Anthropology
Braden Elliott's thesis research is on the integration of indigenous cultural geography into habitat distribution modeling of native food plants. Using camas (plants in the genus Camassia) as a case study in the state of Oregon, the model improves with the addition of human variables. These results may be used to augment the modeling of native food plants, as well as measure indigenous management of certain species.

Tom Conte, OSU Anthropology - The effects of settlement patterns and land tenure policy on the attitudes towards cooperation and perceptions of land degradation among Inner Mongolian pastoralists
The effect settlement patterns and land tenure policy has on the cooperation and perceptions of ecological degradation of Mongolian pastoralists is poorly understood. Previous research suggests that insecure land tenure and sedentarization policies have contributed to grassland degradation in China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. This case-study aims to elucidate how the shift from nomadic grazing and common pool resource strategies to privatized sedentary herding in Inner Mongolia has affected pastoralists’ attitudes towards cooperation and perceptions of grassland degradation. The study results can be utilized by pastoral communities to design more ecologically and culturally appropriate rangeland management policies in the region.  

May 17th, 2013 David Price, St. Martin's University
On The Dual Use Nature of Cold War Anthropology: Historical Interactions with the CIA and Pentagon Drawing on two decades of archival research and a collection of over 60,000 pages of CIA, FBI, and Defense Department documents released in response to his Freedom of Information Act requests, David Price discusses the methods, and findings of his current project documenting witting and unwitting interactions between anthropologists and military and intelligence agencies during the Cold War. Price draws on congressional investigations, and journalistic revelations from the 1960s and 70s identifying foundations used as CIA funding fronts to sponsor international social science research during the early Cold War. While ignored in most considerations of the development of mid-century anthropological theory and practice, in 1976, the US Senate's Church Committee concluded that "the CIA's intrusion into the foundation field in the 1960s can only be described as massive…CIA funding was involved in nearly half the grants the non-'Big Three' foundations made during this period in the field of international activities." Price focuses on the "dual use" nature of Cold War anthropology, examining processes where anthropologists at times pursued projects of their own choosing without adequately considering the political economy in which this work was embedded, or the larger political area in which this knowledge was at times consumed.

May 24, 2013 Sharyn Clough, OSU School of History, Philosophy, and Religion - Wanted: Objective, Politically-engaged Social Scientist. Reward Offered if Found
As a feminist philosopher of science, my research focus is on the concept of objectivity in science, especially as it is deployed in biomedical sciences. Many people (perhaps a majority of them) think that if scientists let their political values affect their research, then those values will interfere with the objectivity of the research. The situation is presumed to be even worse when non-scientists, such as politicians, or otherwise politically-motivated individuals or groups, such as feminists (ack!), try to influence scientific research. I think, however, that much depends on what we mean by political values, objectivity, and scientific research. Actually, I'll just come out with it: Political values affect scientific research all the time, but not always for the worse, sometimes for the better. This is counter-intuitive: I need to show that and how we can make the distinction between political values that affect science for the better, and those that affect it for the worse. I admit that, as with everything, we might get the distinction wrong in particular cases. But, I argue, there are ways to check. And we might get it right. More than ever, it is important that we get it right.