Anthro Notes

National Museum of Natural History Newsletter for Teachers

Vol. 11 No. 2Spring 1989

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Our new look signals a rite of passage: Anthro.Notes is ten years old this spring! As anthropologists we celebrate an important milestone; as teachers we want to tell our story to those who were not with us at the beginning.

In The Beginning

The cartoon below, drawn in 1978, marks our mythical moment of birth. That spring four anthropologists, two affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution (Ruth Selig and Ann Kaupp) and two with George Washington University (GWU) (Alison S. Brooks and JoAnne Lanouette), created a new kind of museum/university teacher training program under the auspices of the National Science Foundation: The Smithsonian Institution/George Washington University Anthropology for Teachers Program. The cartoon, drawn by GWU anthropologist/ artist Robert L. Humphrey, served as program logo. The 1979 reviewers at the National Science Foundation encouraged us to continue the program but suggested we create a continuing link with our graduates. We thought the idea a splendid one and responded with a program newsletter. We called it Anthro.Notes! (See pp. 8-9 for ten years of Anthro.Notes cartoons.)

That first issue, vol. 1, no. 1, (spring 1979), was six pages long. It focussed on news for the 50 teachers in our year-long teacher training program as well as for the 25 graduates from the 1978-79 program. It described the program, reviewed basic teaching resources, and announced upcoming events. Three hundred Washington area teachers received the spring 1979 issue.

Early Years

In the fall of 1979 we received a telephone call from the producers of the PBS Odyssey film series: would the Anthro.Notes team write an “Educator's Guide to Odyssey"—in one month's time! We spent our Christmas vacation writing furiously, and the extra materials we wrote —too much for the completed Guide—we published in Anthro.Notes. In April 1980, we received a call from a Council on Anthropology and Education board member asking us to organize a symposium on teacher training programs for the 1980 American Anthropological Association meetings in Washington, D.C. We did, invited our participants to the session, and distributed lots of copies of Anthro.Notes.

Meanwhile, the Smithsonian was receiving increasing numbers of letters asking for materials to help teach anthropology in classrooms. Requests for Anthro.Notes increased each month (today our mailing list reflects an international readership of 3000, about equally divided among precollege teachers and college and university anthropologists as well as institutional professionals, such as librarians, museum educators, historical society administrators, and state archeologists.) Our newsletter increasingly became a national publication bridging the worlds of education, anthropology, archeology, museums, and professional societies. To answer the requests for teacher information, we pulled together materials created for our teacher training courses into teachers’ packets available from the Smithsonian's Department of Anthropology's Public Information Office. Since Anthro.Notes editors and teacher training staff also directed this Public Information Office, the dual efforts dovetailed.

Anthropology for Teachers Program

GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY/SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

In the summer of 1980, Sol Tax, anthropologist and founding editor of Current Anthropology, wrote us a lovely note of congratulations on Anthro.Notes, “always good and getting better...” Robert Humphrey “is the best anthropological cartoonist I can recall.” We were pleased and encouraged and increasingly serious about our publication and about the importance of anthropology in schools.

By the winter of 1982, Anthro.Notes had evolved into its present format of sixteen pages offering lead articles based on solid recent research on topics of interest to teachers; “Teachers’ Corner” articles with tested, practical teaching activities; articles reviewing resources for teachers such as summer field opportunities, new curriculum packages, films, or books; and feature articles balancing the subdisciplinary coverage of the newsletter. Each issue cannot cover all subdisciplines, but through the year's three issues, we try to balance the articles among the traditional four fields of anthropology: physical anthropology, archeology, linguistics, and cultural anthropology.

Philosophy

Since 1982, the philosophy of Anthro.Notes has continued to reflect the philosophy of our teacher training program, first created with George Washington University (1978-1982) and then with the University of Wyoming (1984-1985). The Anthropology for Teachers Program, both in Washington and in Wyoming, had four major objectives: 1) to give teachers a firm foundation in anthropology; 2) to help teachers integrate the subject into their teaching; 3) to aid teachers in better utilizing their community's resources for the teaching of anthropology; and 4) to create a network of teachers, anthropologists, and museum educators interested in encouraging more precollegiate anthropology.

Teacher Training Program

To achieve these objectives, the teacher training program was structured with four separate components: a full year, eight graduate credit university course specifically designed for precollege teachers; a museum-based Anthropology Resource Center for Teachers filled with curriculum materials; the newsletter Anthro.Notes; and evening lectures by distinguished anthropologists. In Washington, D.C., the course was presented to 75 junior and senior high school teachers in three sections each year, focussing on eight monthly topics relevant to precollege classes such as Human Evolution; Civilizations of the Past; Native Americans; Socialization in Africa; and Language and Culture. Each monthly topic involved an introductory lecture; experiential, practical teaching activities; a seminar session with museum and university scholars; and a workshop at which teachers shared their own curriculum units. The four Anthro.Notes editors served as program staff, including Alison Brooks (director), former secondary school teachers JoAnne Lanouette and Ruth Selig (senior teaching staff), and Ann Kaupp (program administrator /newsletter editor).

Anthro.Notes

Mirroring the philosophy of the teacher training program, the newsletter tries to balance the research and applied side of anthropology. Through lead articles we have highlighted “cutting-edge” research on topics relevant to precollege teaching. These articles also have included controversial topics such as in: “Creationism ≠ Science,” “PreColumbian Settlers: Fact or Fancy,” “Speaking of Apes: Language Experiments and Communication Among our Closest Relatives,” “Vinland Revisited: 986-1986,” and most recently/The Roots of Ancient Egypt.”

We have shown an equally strong commitment to helping teachers bring anthropology into their classrooms by offering practical teaching strategies, reviews of new resources, a yearly “summer opportunities” article, and helpful items in our “Do You Know” columns. Some favorite “Teacher's Corners” showed teachers how to teach family folklore, study community festivals, learn about stratigraphic analysis, teach human origins, and introduce anthropology through literature.

Finally, we have tried to draw from a wide range of resources, bringing as many of those resources in Washington, D.C. to teachers and anthropologists across the country. Whether through an article by a visiting Maasai post-doctoral fellow at the Smithsonian; or a review of a new Smithsonian exhibit that will be travelling throughout the country over the next few years; a teachers’ corner drawn from a new commercially available archeology curriculum package; or an invitation to attend a conference or join a new task force on precollege anthropology education, we have tried to create a network of professionals who are interested in anthropology, believe in its relevance to their lives and the world around them, and who find it helpful to share research, teaching ideas, and resources among themselves.

It has been a pleasure to serve our readers for the past ten years, and we look forward to another ten years of Anthro.Notes!

Ruth O. Selig

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PRECOLLEGIATE TASK FORCE

The AAA has established a new national AAA task force on The Teaching of Anthropology in Schools co-chaired by Jane J. White (University of Maryland, Baltimore County) and Patricia J. Higgins (SUNY, Plattsburgh). Further information will appear in the fall issue of Anthro.Notes.

MEET THE EDITORS AND THE CARTOONIST

Alison S. Brooks

Alison is Professor of Anthropology at George Washington University and Smithsonian Research Associate. Her research specialties include the palaeo- anthropology of Central and Southern Africa as well as ethno-archaeology based on research with Botswana's San people.

Ann Kaupp

Ann directs the Public Information Office of the Smithsonian's Department of Anthropology, which produces bibliographies and teacher resource packets, in addition to Anthro. Notes. Ann is senior editor of Anthro.Notes and editor of a Department of Anthropology newsletter, Anthropolog.

JoAnne Lanouette

JoAnne teaches English at Sidwell Friends Upper School in Washington, D.C. and integrates anthropology into her senior elective, Individualism and Cultural Pressures. JoAnne has also enjoyed leading students to Japan and China.

Ruth Selig

Ruth serves as Special Assistant to the Smithsonian's Assistant Secretary for Research. She joined the Institution in 1975 to develop a new office of Information and Education for the Department of Anthropology. Ruth helped establish the AAA Task Force on Teaching Anthropology, and co-chairs its Committee Three: Review and Development of Curriculum Materials with Ann Kaupp.

Robert L. Humphrey

Bob is a professor of Anthropology at George Washington University and specializes in Mesoamerican and Paleoindian archaeology and the prehistory of Washington, D.C. An undergraduate major in art history, Bob has cartooned since the 1950's, mostly in the privacy of his own study. He became official Anthro.Notes cartoonist in 1979.