GN
42
A628
ANTli
nthro q notes
National Museum of Natural History Newsletter for Teachers
vol no fall 1984
THROUGH FOREIGN EYES:
INDOCHINESE REFUGEES IN AMERICA
Since 1975, about 700,000 refugees
from the countries of former French
Indochina have come to the United
States, settling in urban and rural
communities across the country. Many
Americans think of the Indochinese as
one homogenous group with a distinct
culture very different from our own.
Actually, the Indochinese represent
three nationalities and at least five
major ethnic groups: Khmer, Lao,
Vietnamese, Hmong, and Chinese. Each
group's culture, language, and politics
is unique and political barriers and
considerations of rank and status
prevent much mixing.
%
Unlike migrants, refugees live in
exile from their homeland and foel they
can never return. Many have left
family behind. In addition to the
comprehensive economic, cultural,
psychological, and social adjustments
required of all immigrants, Indochinese
refugees face particular difficulty
since almost no established Indochinese
communities existed in America prior to
their arrival. Many refugees do not
know what to expect from American life
or how best to adapt. Yet many of the
Indochinese refugees have fairly
quickly become successful students,
employees, and entrepreneurs. Much of
their success probably can be explained
(continued on p. 2)
\. w.,,
INSIDE:
The Tangled Wing: Biology and
Human Destiny 4
The Wyoming Project 6
Teacher's Corner: Random Strategies
in Archeology 7
Do You Know? 9
New Resources: Native Americans. .11
(continued from p.l)
by their resiliency and the values they
brought with them as well as by the aid
made available from public and private
agencies
.
The following four commentaries,
two written by Indochinese and two by
anthropologists, give some insight into
the refugees' response to American
culture. Le- the Bai, Vice President of
the American Vietnamese Buddhist
Association, and Vilay Chaleunrath,
Director of the Indo-Chinese Community
Center, give an Indochinese perspective
on some of the problems the refugees
encounter. Beatrice Hackett, who
participated in the Washington
Association of Professional
Anthropologists Service Project
involving Indochinese refugee
resettlement, shares her observations
about Indochinese frustrations and
rewards when adjusting to a new and
different life in America. David
Haines, formerly with the Office of
Refugee Resettlement, discusses the
anthropologist's role in helping not
only the refugees in their resettlement
but also Americans' perceptions of
these newcomers.
CULTURAL CONFLICTS
America is a "melting pot" holding
many different cul tures?or , at its
best, it is a salad bowl holding many
different ingredients...
When the Vietnamese first arrived
in America, they were very skeptical of
the American way of life, particularly
the American credit system. In Vietnam
you are more reliable and more
respectable if you owe no money. Here
in America you are encouraged to go
into debt; the more credit cards you
hold, the more trusted a client you
become. If you don't restrain yourself,
you can owe thousands of dollars to a
company overnight; and, if you cannot
make the ends meet, you also can be
dispossessed overnight!
To newcomers, it is a real culture
shock to witness Americans sending
their ailing elders to establishments
which provide lodging, meals, and some
nursing care instead of taking them in,
as Vietnamese more often do, and caring
for them until they die. Vietnamese
feel deeply affected by adversities
occurring to relatives as if they were
their own problems. Members of a
family are like fingers of a hand--if
one digit is hurt or cut, the whole
hand will feel the pain.
Contrary to the expected goal in
America of achieving personal
independence (which many Vietnamese do
admire), the Vietnamese emphasize
obedience to the wishes of elders and
acceptance of responsibilities and
obligations toward family and
relatives. This extends to looking
after ailing elders and being
responsible for the care of siblings.
The woman's role can be expressed in
the three golden rules: 1) to follow
her father when she is young; 2) to
follow her husband when she is married;
and 3) to follow her eldest son when
she is a widow. As a rule, women from
respectable Vietnamese families cannot
divorce and remarry.
Many Vietnamese men have not had
the good fortune of finding work in the
United States. In many cass their
wives have become the breadwinners.
Often the husband feels tormented
by this reversal of roles and feels a
loss of self-esteem in the eyes of his
children. For others, the adjustment
is more rapid and opportunities here,
regardless of sex, race, or religion,
are appreciated and assist in
maintaining traditional Vietnamese
qualities known as the four virtues:
1) to be able to work; 2) to keep a
clean and respectable image; 3) to
speak justly and sweetly; and A) to
have a good manner.
America, the "melting pot," allows
different cultural expressions but also
presents cultural conflicts that we, as
Vietnamese, must face living in this
new land.
Le-the Bai
AMERICA LAND OF PLENTY
In order to understand refugee
resettlement problems in this country,
one has to be familiar with the
background of the two waves of
Indochinese migrations. The first wave
of migration in 1975-1977 were people
connected with the old government and
the military as well as those who
either worked for or were closely
associated with American and other
western diplomatic missions in
Indochina. Some of these people were
educated in the Vest, had professions,
and understood and spoke sufficient
English. They were sophisticated
enough to cope with the Western way of
life. The refugees from the second
wave of migration, since 1978, are more
often illiterate and many are single
persons. Most had no familiarlity with
Western culture, and they experienced
difficulty adjusting to a culture which
was very new and strange to them.
been very limited, forcing families to
share living quarters, sometimes with
as many as ten persons crowded into a
two-bedroom apartment. These sudden
and complete changes in ways of life
have caused mental distress,
depression, and homesickness in some
people, which is likely to be with them
for a long time.
Another important resettlement
problem, which Indochinese refugees
have made efforts to accept, is the
decline in their cultural values.
Traditional family ties slowly have
been breaking down. Older children can
no longer support and care for their
aged parents, and youngsters are
learning new ways in school. Many are
becoming Americanized, taking on new
social values, hair styles, and eating
habits
.
The value of large families, which
ensures economic and emotional security
and a family line of succession, is
diminishing as many refugees face
economic depression and hardship.
Often husband-wife relationships become
strained as wives begin to demand more
rights once they are working and
earning incomes as housekeepers,
waitresses, and office clerks.
But, despite the many problems
faced by Indochinese refugees, they are
making a great effort in their
acculturation as many have become
regular wage earners, and some even
store and restaurant owners.
Vilay Chaleunrath
Many of the recent Indochinese
refugees arrived in America with high
expectations and often misleading
information they received in the
resettlement camps. Everyone expected
to have a new car, a beautiful home,
good clothes, and to be taken care of
by the "church." In reality, many
overqualif ied refugees had to accept
menial jobs, creating a serious loss of
self-respect. Low cost housing has
WHAT PRICE FREEDOM?
Many different groups of
Indochinese have settled in the
Washington, D.C., metropolitan area:
Vietnamese from urban areas, most of
whom are Catholic; Lao from rural areas
who are Buddhist; Khmer from both urban
and rural Cambodia who are also
(continued on p. 14)
THE TANGLED WING:
BIOLOGY AND HUMAN DESTINY
"The contents of this book are
known to be dangerous." V/ith this
statement, Melvin Konner, a biological
anthropologist and author of The
Tangled Wing ; Biological Constraints
on the Human Spirit (Harper, Colophon
Books, 1983)
,
confronts the serious
reader consulting the footnotes for the
first time. The subject of the book,
the biological aspects and determinants
of human behavior, is indeed considered
dangerous by many--dangerous to
fairness, to decency, to equality of
opportunity, and to the fragile
co-existence of different peoples in a
nuclear world.
If we concede that behavior is at
all determined or even constrained by
physiology, or anatomy, themselves
determined in part by genes, then might
not populations differ genetically in
behavior just as they do in other
genetically influenced traits? And
behavioral genetics has a terrible
history of misuse by social planners.
It is only a short leap from the idea
of inherited controls, or Units on
behavior, to the conclusion that
differences between the behavior or
performance of different groups are
inborn and cannot be changed. From
that conclusion to the systematic
neglect, oppression, or slaughter of
"inferior" groups is a road too often
taken in our century.
From its founding as an academic
discipline, American anthropology has
come down squarely on the other side.
Anthropologists have stressed the
shaping of a person's behavior by his
or her culture. They have argued that
hereditary differences in behavior
among human populations do not exist.
In large part, the statements of
anthropologists on the respective
determining roles of race and culture
have had a beneficial effect in
eradicating prejudice and in
instigating social programs to overcome
disadvantage. So why should an
anthropologist, even a biological one,
argue the case for biological
constraints on human behavior? Quite
simply, the case has become too strong
too ignore. And an understanding of
our biological heritage may yet be the
key to our future humanity in all the
senses of that word.
In The Tangled Wing
,
Konner
integrates insights from the social
sciences (anthropology, sociology,
psychology) , the biological sciences
(ethology, evolutionary theory,
neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, and
biochemistry), and the humanities
(history, literature, philosophy) to
examine human thought, mood, and action
on many levels. An anthropological
perspective, both cross-cultural and
evolutionary, is clear at the outset.
In the section "The Quest for the
Natural" the. San (bushmen) are seen as
in some way representative of the way
of life lived by our evolving
ancestors whose progress is briefly
reviewed in "The Crucible." Equally
emphasized, however, is the viewpoint
of biology. Konner discusses the role
of evolutionary processes and
inheritance in the determination of
social behavior ( sociobiology) , and the
anatomy and physiology of the brain in
relation to both behavioral
consequences and genetic variations.
In light of the two perspectives
of anthropology and biology, Konner
proceeds to review current theories on
the origins, anatomy, physiology, and
purpose of sex differences ("The Beast
with Two Backs"); human emotions ("The
Well of Feeling"); and our most
characteristic trait, language
("Logos") whose uniqueness is not
diminished by its presence, in very
attenuated form, in our animal
relations near and far. As the book
progresses, Konner presents science as
perhaps the most fundamental form of
humanism. Science seeks not to reduce
the human condition to a series of
biological processes but to extoll and
explore the furthest potential of the
human mind, to recognize the limits of
the knowable, and to keep alive a sense
of wonder and mystery. In the first
efforts of a baby to name the objects
of her universe,
"what we are looking at is the
most rudimentary form of what may be
the key to being human: a sort of
wonderment at the spectacle of the
world, and its apprehensibility by the
mind; a focusing, for the purpose of
elevation; an intelligent waking dream.
In that capacity, it seems to me, we
find our greatest distinction, and in
that, and that alone, may be our
salvation."
Part II of The Tangled V'ing takes
up one by one the biological basis of
seven human emotions: rage, fear, joy,
lust, love, grief, and gluttony. Each
discussion moves from historical views
to new explanations; from the societal
level of human interaction to the
psychology of the individual to the
molecular level of brain biochemistry;
from the conclusions of rigorous
laboratory investigation to the
insights of poetry. Konner also
examines the existence of such states
as grief, love, and joy in non- human
societies, especially those of our
nearest animal relatives, pointing out
as well what we know of these emotions'
accompanying physiology. Each chapter
ends on a dual note: the biological
continuity we share with other species
and our human uniqueness. Although the
latter may also derive in part from our
biology, it is ultimately mysterious.
"What we must hope for, with
[V/allace] Stevens, is some sort of
recognition that the grieving is part
of what makes life precious, that we
would not love life nearly so well
without it. We could perhaps be less
angry at it. We could try, at least,
to stop taking it out on each other.
Perhaps we could get together sometime
and shout turbulent praises at the
sun."
In a similar way, the chapter on
gluttony ends on a note of anguish for
the children of our middle class
society whose endless and insatiable
demands for material goods, encouraged
by us, are beyond all reasonable needs
of the human organism. If we do not
teach them to distinguish need from
want, fear, or anger, "we leave them
languishing eternally, like Ciacco [the
glutton of Dante's Inferno ] , in the
rain; a vividly Dantesque fate in which
the very source of life's plenty
becomes an instrument of torture
without end."
Overall the book is beautifully
written and displays a broad range of
humanistic and scientific scholarship,
a worthy successor to the tradition of
such anthropological writers as Loren
Eiseley. Yet the sections dealing with
physiology, and biochemistry will be
tough going for those unfamiliar with
the rudiments of these sciences. In
large part, this is due to the total
lack of illustrations, which in turn
suggests that our reliance on "Logos"
can always be improved with some
communication along a more common
an ima 1 channe 1
.
(continued on p. 6)
H?*???f'8V
In the concluding sections, Konner
faces and argues down the chimera of
biological determinism. Behavioral
biology is dangerous, difficult, and
potentially explanatory. It flies in
the face of seventy years of
anti-biological- re due ti on ism arguments
in American anthropology. Yet our
biology includes our plasticity, by
which biological, environmental, and
cultural forces change and direct our
individual natures and our common
behavior. While the biology of
behavior could lead to pessimism about
the perf ec tabil ity of human society,
not to understand our biology is to
lose control of our destiny. Our
biological potential and our destiny
together are "the tangled wing" of the
title, the twisted fossilized wing of
an archaeopteryx , "a piss-poor reptile
and not very much of a bird" but the
herald of a magnificent future.
Alison S. Brooks
THE WYOMING PROJECT
topics involving four consulting
scholars from UW focus on: Human
Origins and Adaptation (George W.
Gill); Plains Indians (Anne Slater);
Growing Up in Nonwestern Cultures
(Audrey Shalinsky); and Diversity and
Change in American Society (Eric
Sandeen) . Former Smithsonian fellows
Loretta K. Fowler and George Frison,
now head of the UW Anthropology
Department, will participate as guest
lecturers. The course combines
workshops, lectures, slide
presentations, films, and the creation
and sharing of teaching units.
The new program is modelled on the
highly successful NSF-sponsored George
Washington University/ Smithsonian
Institution Anthropology for Teachers
Program, offered from 1978-1982 in the
Washington, D.C. area. This program
gave rise to Anthro. Notes and enrolled
over 350 teachers. Ruth 0. Selig,
assistant to the Director, National
Museum of Natural History, who worked
with the Washington, D.C. program, is
director of the new Smithsonian/
University of Wyoming project.
The Smithsonian is once again
involved in an anthropology teacher
training program-- in Wyoming! A new,
cooperative program between the
National Museum of Natural History and
the University of Wyoming (UW) will
provide expanded educational
opportunities for Wyoming teachers this
spring. Co- sponsored by the UW
departments of Anthropology and
American Studies and the Smithsonian's
Museum of Natural History, the
and the Humanities
Teacher Development
funded by the Wyoming
the Humanities and the
"Anthropology
Pre-College
Program" is
Council for
National Endo\/ment for the Humanities.
The program involves a new UW
graduate credit course "Anthropology
and the Humanities," a one semester,
interdisciplinary class specifically
designed for Wyoming teachers
interested in integrating anthropology
into various curricula. Four monthly
"Teacher training is a priority
need of the nation as recognized in
several recent nationally commissioned
reports," explains Selig. "The goal of
this program is to enrich teacher
education in America and to further
develop a training model for other
universities and museums to follow."
TEACHER'S CORNER: RANDOM
STRATEGIES IN ARCHEOLOGY
I. To introduce the principles of
archeology and the importance of
material culture:
A. Have each student, at home,
list on a 3x5 card ten of
his/her personal possessions which
would survive a fire (these can be
parts of things, such as the pulls
on a chest of drawers, etc.). Do
not put names on cards. You might
put in a card for yourself also.
In class the next day
redistribute the cards at random.
Make sure that no student has
his/her own card. Have students
write a description of the person
whose list they receive. Mention
such things as: can you tell the
age and sex of the person?
his/her likes and dislikes? the
kinds of activities he/she engaged
in? his/her hobbies?
Then have students read both
the artifact lists, and their
interpretations of them. Discuss
with students the accuracy of
their interpretations, the nature
of the evidence they had to work
with, the problems associated with
interpreting fragmentary evidence,
etc. You might also discuss other
sources which could help in
interpreting the evidence, such as
wills, deeds, census records,
public school records, etc.
B. Ask students to suggest
definitions of archeology and list
these on the board. Then show one
of the following films: "Doorway
to the Past," "Search for a
Century," the Martin's Hundred
early 17 th century site filmsed
as it was excavated, (both films
issued by Colonial Williamsburg);
"Other People's Garbage" (Odyssey
film available from Documentary
RANDOM CTMTEWS
ARCHAEOLOGY- .
Educational Resources, 5 Bridge
St., Watertown, MA 02172). After
discussing the film, have students
re-evaluate their original
definitions, making changes where
necessary.
II. To get students involved in the
techniques and questions of
archeology:
A. Divide students into teams.
Each team is secretly assigned to
a different area of the school
grounds (i.e., cafeteria,
playground, parking lot, front of
school along road, etc.). Each
team is to survey its assigned
area and come back with:
--a collection of the artifacts
they picked off the ground
from their area.
--a description of the physical
characteristics of the area
they surveyed (caution: do not
refer to the area by name;
only describe)
.
(continued on next page)
Then: exchange team artifact lots
and site descriptions. Each
recipient group analyzes the
evidence from the surveys and
tries to guess:
a. the functional name of the
area surveyed.
b. the kinds of
behavior/activities which
took place in the area; and
c. how recently this behavior
took place, and how long
(time span) it has been
going on there.
assemblage. (They will probably
classify on the basis of the
material from which each artifact
was made.) Ask them to explain
their system.
Then suggest that other systems
might be used. An easy one is that
of classifying all these items by
their function. Another one is by
date (i.e., how old) or context
(location derived from). Follow-up:
Ask students what kinds of questions
they might be able to answer by
using these systems of classifying:
Fol low-up:
1. How did your interpretive
group arrive at its
conclusions? (method of
analyzing the data)
2. V/hat other kinds of
information would have been
useful to you in arriving at
the conclusions or answers
to the questions posed?
3. What would happen to your
interpretation of the
artifacts if the site
description were changed?
-- material
:
what kinds of
resources were available to
the society? what kinds of
technology did the society
have at its disposal?
-- function: what kinds of
activities did the people of
this society engage in?
-- date: how long did the
society endure?
D. Excavating wastebasket:
B. To focus student attention on
artifacts and features: Show Part I
of the film "The Hunters." Instruct
students to view the film from the
perspective of an archeologist doing
a site survey 100 years from now.
Ask them to make a list of the
artifacts and features they might
find while surveying this site.
C. To sharpen skills of
classification and illustrate how
evidence can be manipulated to gain
maximum information from it:
Take student-gathered artifacts from
the site survey; or have each
student contribute five dissimilar
artifacts from his or her home.
Divide students into groups. Each
group takes one assemblage or group
of artifacts and develops a system
of classification for that
To prepare: for one day, do not
empty your classroom wastebasket
(better yet, get another teacher
to prepare the wastebasket for
you). Instead, compact the
material in it after each class
or activity period. Then:
Next day: have students
"excavate" this site. See if they
can reconstruct the previous day's
activities.
E. The ultimate: Play "Dig," a
simulation, which takes five to
six weeks, available from
Interact, Inc., Box 262, Lakeside,
CA 92040. It asks students to
(continued on p. 10)
^j> i
<*)<> 'fou ? ICnow ?
?that Robert McCormick Adams, the new
Secretary of the Smithsonian
Institution, is a distinguished
an thro po log is t/archeologist whose
fieldwork, mostly in the Middle East,
has resulted in important publications
on the development of early
civilizations.
#that Natural His tory magazine ran a
series of articles on the theme of
human origins, in conjunction with the
exhibition "Ancestors: Four Million
Years of Humanity" which ran from
April 13 through September 9. The
articles recount recent discoveries
and various interpretations of the
origin and evolution of the human
species
.
#that you can obtain the heavily
illustrated exhibition leaflet
Ancestors : Four Million Years of
Humani ty for $1.75, including postage,
by writing to: American Museum of
Natural History, Attention: Museum
Shop, Central Park West at 79th St.,
New York, NY 10024. Also a set of 14
slides (K set 153) of the exhibit
is available for $10 from the American
Museum of Natural History, Library
Services Dept., Photographic
Collection.
?*P?rt?j.
#that "Treasures of Shanghai Museum" is
on exhibition in the Evans Gallery,
National Museum of Natural History
through November 30. Free films on
China are being shown Fridays at noon
in the Baird Auditorium.
#that "Praise Poems: The Katherine
White Collection" of masks and
sculpture from west and central Africa
are on exhibit at the National Museum
of African Art until February 24. In
conjunction with the exhibition, the
museum is presenting a film and
lecture series. To receive a Calendar
of Events call 287-3490.
#that a national exhibition of Maori
artifacts can be viewed at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York
City. Photographs of a few of the
objects can be seen in "Maori Power"
in the September issue of Natural
History .
^that a new biography-
-
Margaret Mead
:
A Life by Jane Howard (Simon and
Schuster, $17.95) was reviewed in the
September 1984 issue of Smithsonian .
Also out is With A Daughter's Eye: A
Memoir of Margaret Mead and Gregory
Ba teson by Mary Catherine Bateson
(William Morrow and Co., $15.95).
(continued on p. 10)
10
#that Jane Goodall received the J. Paul
Getty Wildlife Conservation Prize, a
$50,000 gift, for her long devotion to
the study of chimpanzees in the wild.
#that you can obtain "Songs Jumping In
My Mouth", by Pamela Brooke, a
humanities activity guide full of
innovative anthropologically oriented
activities and suggestions for
classroom and after-school use. To
order this free guide, write: "Songs,"
WETA, Box 2626, Washington, D.C.
20013.
?that Faces is a new anthropology
magazine for ycung people published by
Cobblestone Publishing Inc
,
(see "New
Resources: Native Americans, p. 13).
#that Alison Brooks will be
representing the American
Anthropological Association at the
annual meeting of the National Council
for Social Studies, November 15-19.
She will also exhibit educational
materials on anthropology/archeology
for precollege teachers. Brooks will
appear on a social science task force
panel (see below) with representatives
of four other professional
organizations to discuss the
guidelines for social studies
curricula in grades K through 12,
published in the April issue of Social
Education .
?that the October AAA newsletter
includes a report "Support for
Precollege Anthropology" submitted by
Patricia Uiggins, Ruth Selig, and
Marion Rice to the AAA Executive
Committee and an article on the Social
Science Task Force "established to
improve the teaching of the social
sciences at the precollege level."
(continued from p. 8)
create and bury a culture. Other
teams of students then excavate
the culture using valid
archeological techniques.
III. Finale: Judging
interpretations:
archeological
A. Show the film "in Search of
Ancient Astronauts" (an exposition
of von Daniken's theories about
extra-terrestrial visitors). Ask
students to analyze the film:
--what is von Daniken's basic
as sumption/ hypo thesis?
--what kinds of evidence does
he use to support his
hypothesis? (Give reasons for
skepticism or belief)
B. Show any of the films listed
above in IB and ask the same
questions. Which hypotheses are
more convincing, given the data?
IV. Field trips and guest speakers in
the Washington, D.C. area:
A. Alexandria Archaeological
Research Center: Pam Cressey,
838-4399. (speaker or trip)
B. Fairfax County Archeological
Survey will take interested
student volunteers on historic and
prehistoric digs. Call 642-5807.
C. Take students to Turkey Run
Farm and Woodlawn (or similar)
plantation. Ask them to
systematically compare the
material culture exhibited by each
site. (Woodlawn has a "What is a
House?" information retrieval
sheet which also can be adapted
for Turkey Run Farm .)
Martha Williams
George C. Marshall
High School
Fairfax, Virginia
11
NEW RESOURCES: NATIVE AMERICANS
Elementary school explorations of
Native American cultures too often
focus on traditional arts and
crafts?making tipis, totem poles,
baskets, pottery, and bows and arrows.
Unconscious stereotypes persist so
that, in the minds of students, North
American Indians and Eskimos still live
as they did in the 1700's. Any real
understanding of many different peoples
with distinctive cultures never
emerges. Fortunately, some recent
books and classroom materials can help
correct such biases as well as provide
rich learning experiences. The reading
level of these materials ranges from
kindergarten through ninth grade.
BOOKS
Ashabranner, Brent. Morning Star,
Black Sun: The Northern Cheyenne
Indians and Americans Energy
Crisis. New York: Dodd, Mead, and
Co., 1982. (5th-9th)
A readable, caring history of the
Cheyenne is told movingly from their
viewpoint. The book also
chronicles why the Tribal Council
voted in 1973 to cancel all Northern
Cheyenne coal leases and exploration
permits, and why, instead, the tribe
itself is trying to exploit possible
oil and gas reserves on their land.
Bierhorst, John, editor. The Whistling
Skeleton; American Indian Tales of
the Supernatural, collected by George
Grinnell and illustrated by Robert
Andrew Parker. New York: Four Winds
Press, 1932. (4th-8th)
Between 1870 and 1890, George B.
Grinnell collected these dramatic
tales which come from the Pawnee of
Kansas and Nebraska, the Blackfeet of
Montana, and the Cheyenne of Wyoming
and Colorado. The aptly illustrated
and engaging stories reflect the
world of Plains Indian peoples, their
hunting
warfare
,
me thods
,
values
,
family lives,
and beliefs.
Bierhorst, John. _A Cry from the Earth
;
Music of the Nprth American Indians .
New York: Four Winds Press, 1979.
The important role music -played among
all North American tribes is
described with illustrative musical
examples from the late 18 th century
to today, from the major culture
areas of North America. Both of
Bierhorst's books include
bibliographies of other excellent
works, including Bierhorst's earlier
books.
DePaola, Tomie, author/ illustra tor
.
The Legend of the Bluebonne t
.
New
York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1983.
(K-4th)
A beautifully retold legend from the
Comanche people in which a young girl
gives up her beloved doll to save her
people, and in return they receive
the gift of the bluebonnet flower.
*mvi~
12
Erdocs, Richard. The Native Americans:
Navajos
.
New York: Sterling
Publishing Co., 1978. (K-6th)
Vivid colored pictures dominate the
text that describes Navajo history,
land, and traditional and present
lifestyles. At times the writing is
simplistic, but the book provides the
Navajo viewpoint which is often
missing from books on Native
Americans. In addition, contemporary
issues such as strip mining, oil and
gas mining, health problems,
education, and housing standards arediscussed
Coble, Paul. Buffalo Woman . New York:
Bradbury Press, Inc ./Macmil Ian , 1984.
(K-4th)
The most recent effort of Paul Coble,
this beautifully told tale is based
on a legend from the Great Plains and
is richly illustrated by the author.
Coble has written other highly
recommended books for young people
such as the 1979 Caldecott Medal
winner The Girl Uho Loved Wild
Horses
,
and has illustrated many
other fine collections such as The
Sound of Flutes and Other Ind ian
Legends
,
transcribed and edited by
Richard Erdoe's (New York: Pantheon
Books, 1976 ) ,? appropria te for grades
4-9.
Meyer, Carolyn. Eskimos : Growing Up
in a Chang ing Cu 1 ture . New York:
Atheneum, 1979. (7th-9th)
Through the descriptions of daily
life of a representative Eskimo
family living near the Bering Sea
today, the book not only introduces
Eskimo culture as it was and is but
also portrays the conflicts between
subsistence hunting and fishing and
the prevalent cash economy. The
reader learns how each family member
lives, how school, sports, and
religion are arenas for value
conflicts, and what resolutions have
been found.
Meyer, Kathleen Allan. Ishi, Story of
an American Indian. Minneapolis:
Dillon Press, Inc., 1980. (4th-6th)
Since the well-known 1973 book by
Theodora Kroeber ( Ishi, Last of His
Tribe ) is too difficult for younger
students, Meyer's book provides an
authentic and engaging narrative for
elementary school children. The book
recreates Ishi's childhood,
describing the arts and skills he
used, how the Yahis were slowly
decimated over the years, and what
Ishi's life was like once he came out
of hiding and was befriended by
anthropologist Alfred Kroeber. In
this excellent series, Dillon Press
also publishes books on Crazy Horse,
Maria Martinez, Chief Joseph,
Sacagawea, Sitting Bull, Tecumseh,
and Jim Thorpe.
Mitchell, Barbara. Tomahawks and
Trombones
.
Minneapolis: Carolrhoda
Books, 1982. (lst-3rd)
A captivating story about the people
in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and the
Delaware Indians, and how trombones
kept peace between them during the
French and Indian War.
SanSouci, Robert C. Song of Sedna
,
with illustrations by Daniel
SanSouci. New York: Doubleday and
Co., 1981. (K-3rd)
Beautifully illustrated in color,
Song of Sedna retells in detail the
powerful, ancient Eskimo legend of
Sedna ,and how she came to rule the
seas. The book can be usefully
compared to the also highly recom-
mended version by Beverly McDermot
( Sedna , New York: Viking Press,
1975), which is illustrated in
dramatic indigo and violet block
print drawings, and is geared for the
same age group. Also recommended is
SanSouci's earlier book, The Legend
of Scarface (New York: Doubleday,
19787!
13
Vick, Ann, ed . The Cama-i Book. Garden
City, New York: Anchor
Press/Doubleday, 1983. (6th-9th)
This recent collection of oral
history stories and legends from
Southwestern Alaska reflects the
changing culture of Alaska's native
peoples. The stories were collected
by students interviewing older
residents in their communities.
Yue, David and Charolotte Yue,
author/illustrators. The Tipi: A_
Center of Native American Life. New
York: Alfred Knopf, 1984. (4th-8th)
Illustrated with attractive pencil
drawings, this detailed study
demonstrates the structural
sophistication of the tipi, the
aesthetic and spiritual significance
of its design and decoration, and the
central role it played in the
adaptation of the Plains Indian
peoples.
MAGAZINES
Cobblestone, The History Magazine for
Young People . Cobblestone Publishing
Inc., 20 Grove St., Peterborough, NY
03458, 12 issues/$18.50.
Recently an entire issue focused on
one cultural group, the Cherokee
(February 1934). Other issues also
include articles on Native Americans.
An excellent magazine geared for ages
8-14.
covering a wide range of topics in
cultural anthropology and archeology.
GUIDES
Guidelines for Evaluating Textbooks
from an American Indian Perspective
.
Report No. 143. National Education
Improvement Center. Education Progam
Division, $5.00. To order write:
Publications Department, Educational
Commission of the States, Suite 300,
1860 Lincoln St., Denver, CO 80295;
(303) 830-3820.
Indian Children'sGilliland, Hap.
Books
.
Montana Council for Indian
Education, 3311 1/2 Fourth Avenue
North, Billings, MT 59012, 1980,
$7.95 PB.
An annotated list of books about
American Indians for children,
arranged by title with indexes by
tribe, region, and subject. The
annotations have been largely written
by Native Americans or by evaluators
who work with Native American
children and include judgements
concerning historical and cultural
accuracy and suitability for use with
Native Americans.
Unlearning "Indian" Stereotypes, A
Teaching Unit for Elementary Teachers
and Children's Librarians. The
Racism and Sexism Resource Center for
Educators, The Council on Interracial
Books for Children, Inc., 1841
Broadway, New York, MY 10023, 197 7.
Faces , The Magazine About People
.
Cobblestone Publishing Inc., 20 Grove
St., Peterborough, NY 03458, 10
issues/$ 16 .50
.
This new magazine, geared for ages
8-14, is published by Cobblestone
Publishing Co. in cooperation with
the American Museum of Natural
History. The second issue highlights
the Pueblo peoples, and the third
issue includes an article on the
Alaskan Eskimos. The subject of
Faces is human life the world over
An older but still useful resource
which includes many classroom
activity and role playing suggestions
as well as guidelines for sensitizing
students to stereotypes.
( An thro. Notes editors wish to thank
Professor Barbara Chatton of the
University of Wyoming for her
assistance in preparing this article.)
14
(continued from p. 3)
Buddhist; and Chinese Cambodians, many
of whom converted to Christianity in
the refugee camps. Anthropologists are
working directly with these refugees in
programs focusing on family and social
services, mental health, English
language and culture training, and job
counseling.
Many of these refugees have
learned to make major compensations and
adjustments as new residents of the
United States. Some aspects of
American life are deeply disturbing,
particularly those which touch most
closely the basic social structures and
values of the new immigrants. Rural
people living in city apartments long
for land to farm. Tiny garden plots
for planting mint and eggplant must
suffice. For former entrepreneurs,
banking procedures for borrowing money
to start a business, and state and
federal tax requirements seem
burdensome and intrusive. In the
refugees' former societies, businesses
are financed by family savings, and
earnings are not always counted on a
purely cash basis. Furthermore,
earnings are a private matter within
the family domain. For Indochinese
women, male obstetricians and
gynecologists cause dismay for
childbirth is the business of women and
birth a home event watched over by an
attending midwife, with mother and
sisters close by to provide comfort.
But, ask any Indochinese refugee
what he or she likes most about America
and chances are the answer will be
"freedom." Being free includes not
only political freedom but perceived
economic opportunity and its
symbols ? an apartment, a television,
perhaps a car, a better job, saved
money for one's own business, and
unrestricted travel around the country
to visit or join relatives and friends.
On Saturday mornings, Indochinese
refugees gather at the many
grocery-restaurants which have emerged
as social centers. Friends meet and
exchange information, buy familiar
foods and other commodities, eat
traditional foods too difficult for
small families to prepare at home,
converse with relatives and friends in
a familiar language, and in general
enjoy the leisure of the day.
We are a nation of immigrants and
adaptation takes time, but it is
happening once again in our generation.
Beatrice Hackett
ROLE OF THE ANTHROPOLOGIST
Anthropology has always been
concerned with the understanding of,
direct experience with, and ability to
explain cultural differences.
Anthropologists typically point out
that particular American assumptions
about the nature of society are often a
poor guide to other cultures.
Predictably, anthropologists have
attempted to sketch some of the details
of culture and society among
Indochinese refugees: the way
Vietnamese look at jobs, the nature of
clans and family alliance among the
Hmong
,
patron- client networks among the
Lao, and conflict between Vietnamese
and American views of how to fish off
the California coast. Anthropologists
thus perform their traditional role of
challenging ill-examined and
over-generalized assumptions about
people, opening a window onto a more
culturally sensitive and diverse view
of others.
The initial anthropological effort
has often taken the form of emphasizing
polar distinctions such as the American
nuclear family versus the Asian
extended family; Western individualism
versus Eastern emphasis on the
individual's immersion in the social
group; the role of the unappreciated
American teacher versus the great honor
attached to the teacher in Southeast
Asia; and the independence of the
American wife versus the submissiveness
of the wife in Southeast Asia. Such
distinctions are useful, but they do
not apply generally to all Southeast
Asian refugees. The patrilineal,
extended structure of Vietnamese and
Hmong kinship is counterpoised to a far
more bilateral pattern among the Khmer
and Lao. The notion of the subordinate
role of the Asian wife is challenged by
the long established autonomy of
Vietnamese women, particularly in the
public economic domain. The
anthropologist is thus necessarily at
the forefront of the unending task of
greater specification among diverse
ethnic groups. The increasing public
acceptance of a five-fold
categorization among Indochinese
refugeess of Khmer, Lao, Hmong,
Vietnamese, and Chinese is an important
step forward.
One difficult aspect of the
anthropologist's efforts is the
necessity to understand the situation
of refugees, the kinds of cultural and
social resources they bring with them,
and the kinds of difficulties they face
and usually overcome--all within the
context of an exceedingly complex
governmental assistance program. The
attention the refugee program receives
at the national, state, and local
levels ensures that the national
dialogue about refugees is conditioned
as much by political goals and
perceptions of American society as by
the realities of the refugees'
situation. Current discussions about
refugee "dependency" and refugee
"impact," for example, reflect far more
the internal workings of American
government than they do the adjustment
of refugees to the United States and
the actual effects they have on the
communities in which they settle.
The anthropologist, then, in
attempting to work with the refugees
and understand and explain their
situation, must distinguish among
issues that relate to refugees, those
that relate to the interaction of
refugees with American society, and
those that relate more directly to the
complexity of the refugee aid program.
That complexity, in fact, provides a
challenge to the anthropologist that
rivals that entailed by the cultural
and social complexity of the various
Indochinese refugee groups.
David Haines
ANTHRO. NOTES, a National Museum of Natural
History Newsletter for Teachers, is published
f ree-of-charge three times a year--fall,
winter, and spring. An thro. Notes was
originally part of the George Washington
University/ Smithsonian Institution Anthropology
for Teacher Program funded by the National
Science Foundation. To be added to the mailing
list, write, Ann Kaupp, Department of
Anthropology, Smithsonian Institution,
V/ashington, D.C. 20560.
ANTHRO. NOTES STAFF P. Ann Kaupp, Ruth 0.
Selig, Alison S. Brooks,
JoAnne Lanouette, editors;
Robert L. Humphrey , artist.
Illustrations (c) Robert L.
Humphrey 1984-85.
Kaupp NHB 363
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