Rotarians...

Well ...Next week I'm becoming a Magnolia Rotarian...

I'm sure that a great number of my friends will be floored by that prospect. I know...somehow it seems incongruous--an academic anthropologist joining an organization that evokes images of business...perhaps smokey rooms in hotel dining rooms in the 1950s...Please...put those images out of your mind (Although I do have the right build and glasses to fit into that mental image...I just need a cigar). The modern rotary is first and foremost a service organization with surprisingly broad-minded objectives.

I am not going into the organization blind, you see...I have given many Rotary Club programs on archaeological work in my day and I have been surprised myself at some of the ideas promulgated by Rotary International. First, anybody who knows me can easily see how I would find the Rotary motto "service before self" attractive....Additionally, the stated object of Rotary is to encourage and foster the ideal of service, to encourage high ethical standards, and to help build understanding, goodwill and peace in the world...

Well, that sounds pretty cool...not to mention pretty anthropological.

The final straw, of course, is that many of the interesting SAU folks I have met are members of the Rotary (and networking was, of course, what was behind Rotary's founding). I figure I can also use "make up meetings" in other southwestern Arkansas towns (i.e., Hope, El Dorado, Texarkana, and Camden) as a way to "spread the gospel" of archeology....

At any rate...wish me luck...

Next stop: IOOF (*grin*).

Holt Hall Foundations

On Thursday, April 12, 2007 Dr. Ben Johsnon of the SAU History Department notified me that the Physical Plant employees had unearthed some foundations...When I heard this, I hoped that it might be the foundation of Old Main (the first structure on the SAU campus...See some of early posts here for some pics). . .Alas, it was not Old Main, but it was one of the first generation of SAU's buildings.

Holt Hall was one of the first dormitories quickly built in response to the overwhelming enrollment following the opening of what was then the Third District Agricultural School (TDAS) in 1909. Dr. James Willis identified the foundations and provided us with a date of 1911, which corresponded with the material remains--the foundations are made of a simple aggregate concrete without any rebar supports (certainly pre-1930s).

David Jeane (my AAS-SAU Station Asst.) and I spent a few hours documenting the remains of these foundation before the SAU Physical Plant took a jackhammer to the upper portions of the foundations.

Interestingly, Steven Oches' digital photography class showed up as well to document us documenting the foundations...

Above: The concrete foundations of Holt Hall.

For more pictures of the foundations (including some of the pics by Steven Oches' students) check out:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jcbrandon/sets/72157600089736058/

Race, Katrina and Public Intellectuals

Last night I attended SAU's Kathleen Mallory Lecture. The series was named in honor of a long-time Professor of English and Foreign Languages at SAU who has been instrumental in the National Writing Project program, the Youth Writing Festival hosted by SAU among other important contributions.

The lecture series is meant to bring scholars working in the fields of African diasporic and African-American studies to Southern Arkansas University to share their scholarship with students and members of he greater community. . .sounds right up my alley, eh?

At any rate, this spring's lecture was a breath of fresh air...Dr. Melissa Harris-Lacewell (Assoc. Professor of Politics and African American Studies at Princeton University) provided a thoughtful analysis of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina with an emphasis on how the actual disaster was not the hurricane, but the structural inequalities that the hurricane highlighted--a long history of environmental racism, differential access to transportation, resources and political voice.

Even better is the fact that Dr. Harris-Lacewell kept a great sense of humor in her presentation that made discussions about race a bit more approachable for those who are usually uncomfortable with the topic...Dr. Harris-Lacewell is a fine example of what I think a public intellectual should look & sound like...and exactly what I needed to feel a bit more excited about SAU.

Kudos to her, kudos to the Kathleen Mallory series and kudos to SAU.

Find out (a lot) more about Dr. Harris-Lacewell at:
http://www.melissaharrislacewell.com/

Of course, I like her even more when I see that she shares my inexplicable urge to put my whole life on the web.

Of Mounds, Turkeys and Spirits....

As you know from previous posts, in late March the AAS-SAU Research Station hosted the Caddo Archaeological Conference...all went well (with a few of the normal hick-ups)...you can check out my Flickr pages here for pictures of the event if you like.

I have one interesting story to pass along from the conference, however...on Sunday a bunch of archaeologists, members of the Caddo Nation and avocational folks took a couple field trips to two legendary Caddo sites--the emergent Caddo site known as Crenshaw Mounds and the massive Battle Mound. Both are located nearby our home base over in the Red River Valley. John Miller, who was a AAS-SAU station assistant back in 1980s and who had worked some salvage at Battle Mound did us a big favor and lead the tour (Lord knows I don't know enough about these sites to yet speak with any authority and David felt comfortable with Crenshaw, but not Battle).

Turkey in foreground, Battle Mound in background (photo by Duncan McKinnon).

At any rate...we were greeted at Battle Mound (in some accounts the place of Caddo origin) by a very tame turkey who accompanied us from the farm road out to the large, multi tiered mound and back....When I ran into the land owner he said "Did you bring a friend with you?" (pointing at the turkey)...I figured that the turkey belonged on the farm and he was pulling my leg...but he finally convinced me that he had never seen the turkey before.

As the turkey escorted us on our trek away from the mound and back to our cars...I had to wonder if it was symbolic--if not an outright supernatural--manifestation of the ancient Caddo...here to make sure that their descendants and archaeologists treat the place with some respect.