Anth 1604 LECTURES for WRITE-UPS and Extra Credit Opportunities as of April 12, 2005
April 12 [Tuesday] 7:30-8:30 p.m. Dr Jane Hovland "Obesity" Rm 142 Medical School
April 13 [Wed] 3 p.m. Dr. Jennifer Jones "City, Town and Desert: Travels Through Jordan" Rafters
April 14 noon [Thurs] Dr. Gesa Zinn "The Life of the Gypsies: Roma and Sinti in Germany Today" Library Fourth Floor Rotunda
April 14 noon [Thurs] "A Woman Like You" Kirby Lounge
April 15 3:00-4:30 p.m. [Friday] Maureen Tobin-Stanley "Reflections of the Holocaust in Spanish Culture" Library Rotunda
April 16 [Sat] 12:15 p.m. UMD graduate Richard Teske "Can We Afford the Health Care of the Future, Let Alone the Present?" Kirby Plaza Center Court Grill
April 18 [Mon] 4:30 p.m. David Gewirtzman, Holocaust Survivor and Eugenie Mukeshimana, Rwandan Refugee Baumler-Kaplan Memorial Lecture Chem 200
April 20 [Wednesday] 7:30 p.m. Dr. Mary Weems " I speak from the wound in my mouth: Developing the Imagination Intellect" Library Rotunda
April 20 12-1;00 p.m. Tineke Ritmeester "Witches in Medical European Buring Times" KSC 268
April 21 [Thurs] noon Kim Crawford "The Socio-Economic and Spiritual Life of the Mayan People of Guatemala." Rafters.
April 21 [Thurs] 7:30 p.m. Werner Fornos "Gaining People, Losing Ground" Kirby Ballroom
April 23 & 24 Free Democracy Summit. Many many panels from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Harbor City School 332 West Michigan Street 6 p.m. Jim Hightower on Superior St. in front of Norshor Theater.
A SAMPLE PAPER
Ancient Greek Myths and Legacies (an extra credit paper) by Amberly Hess for Anth 1604 January 22, 1997
The lecture given by Professor Eve Browning Cole on Sex and Gender in Classical Greece on January 18 really struck an answering chord of understanding in me. Not only did I recognize a lot of the names and events she described, but a lot of the ideas she talked about were familiar to me through Cultural Anthropology class. She talked about the separation of male and female roles in ancient Greek mythology, as well as the myth that females are the source of orignial evil, and thus should be subordinate to men. I found that there were a lot of parallels that could be drawn between that time period and our own.
To begin, she talked about the warrior goddess, Athena. Athena was both a beautiful woman, and a skilled warrior. Oddly enough, despite her blood lust, Athena also was the goddess of wisdom. This mix of traits seems to be eloquent of the gender confusion women in North American society are going through today. We are expected to do it all, be an excellent mother as well as successful at whatever career we choose outside the home. We are to be both sexy and sophisticated, but be tough enough to change the tire on our car and to fix the leaks in the plumbing. In short, we are expected to be goddesses in our own right, to fulfill both male and female roles, while still looking like we "just stepped out of a salon."
Perhaps it would be easier if we returned to a system with distinctly separate roles. Take for instance, the group we are studying as our special ethnographic case, the Shuar. The Shuar women have a specific domain, that of planting, gathering, while the men hunt and weave. It would be difficult to say who works more, or if the labor should be more evenly distributed. However, their system works. I would guess that you rarely see a Shuar woman get burned out from trying to fulfill too many roles in one day. However, as attractive as this simple delineation between the genders may be, it is hardly adaptive to our culture at this point.
Professor Cole also talked about the myth that women are the root of original evil. In the myth, Pandora was created as a punishment to mankind, after Prometheus brought fire to man and made it possible for humans to survive. The gods were furious, and so they created the first female, "a beautiful evil." Thus man, in order to propagate and keep his race alive, was forced to live with the evil creature, making his life miserable for all time.
This same story line is echoed in the Christian theme of Eve and the apple in Eden, and repeated over and over in history, from the witch hunts in Europe to the fashionable theory of blaming the mother for the crimes and sins of her children. This has been the rationale for keeping women in submissive roles throughout history. Take for example the Caryatids of the Erechtheion, in Athens, as discussed by Professor Cole. These are very beautiful stone carvings of women, dressed in their finest jewels and and silks. They are not merely decorative though, as they support the roof of the back porch in the temple of Poseidon, a massive structure weighning tons. At first glance, it seems to be a tribute to women's strength and ability to effortlessly bear such a burden. In reality, it reflects a cruel page in Greek history. Greece was waging war on Caryad's neighbor, Persia. The Caryads betrayed Greece to the Persians by warning them of their plan to attack. After Greece destoyed Persia, they then destroyed the city of Caryad and killed all the men and children. The women they ordered dressed up in their finest clothes and jewels, chained them together and forced them to walk barefoot throughout the Greek empire, as an example to all who were arrogant enough to defy them
Nothing as blatantly obvious as Greece's oppression of women is seen in the USA now, but we are still trying to overcome this legacy in our culture. Granted that women's suffrage was won long ago, but old habits die very hard, and very slowly. Even today women only earn 70 cents for every dollar men earn, and they are forced to prove themselves repreatedly for the same respect received by a man.
There were many other examples provided by Dr. Cole, like Persophone the Virgin, who is eternally youthful, as though her life would end if she grew to look older; which sounds familiar. In short, many of the ideas held about women in ancient Greece have been passed down through myth and legend to become a part of the fabric of our American society. We can't turn around without coming in contact with something bequeathed to us by the Greeks of Tiresias' and Achilles' time. Even though these traditions are slowing changing, we will probably have some reminders of that ancient time with us for a long time to come, due to the enculturation process of parents teaching children what they know and believe.
Extra credit opportunity only. Cannot be used for Lecture Write-up. There is a maximum of 2 (two) extra credit papers @ (up to) 25 points each. However, you are welcome to attend all of these events!
March 28 7:30 p.m. Film: A Mongolian Tale (Mongolia) Montague 80
March 29 7 p.m. Film: The Pianist Weber
March 30 7 p.m. Film: Europa, Europa Weber
March 31 7 p.m. Film: The Shop on Main Street Weber
April 12 4p.m. Film: Maria Full of Grace KSC 273
April 2 7 p.m. Spring Drag Show Kirby Ballroom
April 2 7 p.m. Film: The Grey Zone Bohannon 90
April 3 7 p.m. Film: Judgement at Nuremberg Bohannon 90
April 4 7:30 p.m. Film: Children Underground (Romania) Montague 80
April 5 noon Film: A Day Without Mexicans KSC 273
April 5 noon Film: Arlington West M.W. Alworth Hall 195
April 5 7 p.m. James Halleman, Female to Male Trans-Man Kirby Ballroom
April 7 GLBT Lobby Day at Capitol (bus charge)
April 7 4:30 p.m. Film: To be Announced: Documentary on the Hmong people in the US
April 9 3 p.m. Twin Cities Gay Men's Chorus Weber Music Hall (admission charge)
April 11 7:30 p.m. Film: Smoke Signals (Contemporary American Indians) Montague 80
April 12 4 p.m. Film: Maria Full of Grace KSC 273
April 14 4:30 p.m. Film: Tales from Arab Detriot (U.S.A) Humanities 480
April 16 6 p.m. ANNUAL FIESTA ($12 admission charge for students, $15 for general public)
April 16 7 p.m. Film: Ghosts of Rwanda Bohannon 90
April 17 2 p.m. Play: The True Life of Benito Juarez (bilingual puppet show)
April 18 7:30 p.m. Film: Cry, the Beloved Country (South Africa) Montague 80
April 19 noon Film: La Cueca Sola KSC Rafters
April 20 7:00 p.m. Deaf Duckling (Mixed Blood Theatre) Dudley Experimental Theater
April 25 7:30 p.m. Vibes (Ecuador) Montague 80