Grinnell College
Anthropology Department Spring ’14
Anthropology Class of 2014
J. Montgomery Roper
Associate Professor, Chair
Jon Andelson
Professor
Vicki Bentley-Condit
Professor
Douglas Caulkins
Professor Emeritus
Brigittine French
Associate Professor
Cynthia Hansen
Assistant Professor
Kathryn Kamp
Professor
Katya Gibel Mevorach
Professor
Maria Tapias
Associate Professor
John Whittaker
Professor
Marna Montgomery
Academic Support/
Technical Assistant
Anthropology Department
Grinnell College
Grinnell Iowa 50112
Tel: 641-269-4343
Fax: 641-269-4330
Front row (L to R): Amber Whisenhunt, Sarah Burnell & Amanda Nooter
Second row (L to R): Eva Metz, Charlotte Hechler, Elise Hadden, Adriyel Mondloch, Liberty
Britton, Liz Jang, Stephanie Porter, Nicole Paiz, Isabella Leo, MacKenzie Shanahan, Moira
Donovan.
Third row (L to R): Ben Shirar, Dylan Fisher, Toby Austin, Nicole Robertson, Anya Vanecek,
Katherine Sittig, Lydia Mills, Sara Hanneman, Chloe Griffen, Annie Leverich, Elena Gartner.
Fourth row faculty: Cynthia Hansen, Maria Tapias, John Whittaker, Monty Roper, Kathy Kamp,
Vicki Bentley-Condit, Doug Caulkins and Jon Andelson.
Not pictured: Eduardo Olmos, Lee Purvey, Grace Ryan, Carissa Shoemaker and Faculty
members Brigittine French & Katya Gibel Mevorach.
Grinnell College Anthropology Department
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Fall 2013
Lydia Mills ‘14
Charlotte Hechler ‘14
Senior Thesis Presentations & Mentored Advanced Project Presentations
The Senior Thesis is designed to provide students an opportunity to do a piece of research and
writing in any area of anthropology under the direction of two members of the anthropology
faculty. A senior thesis may be based on original research, library research, or a combination
of the two, but in any case should build on a student’s previous course work in anthropology. It
should include a thorough review of relevant previous literature and develop an original
argument on the topic. In addition to a written paper, students are expected to do a public
presentation of their thesis.
Mentored Advanced Projects (MAP) provide a chance to work closely with a faculty member
on scholarly research or the creation of a work of art. A Mentored Advanced Project is an
approved course of faculty-directed scholarly or creative work that is the culmination of
significant preparatory work. It serves to integrate the knowledge and skills gained by the
student’s course of studies, and aims to produce results that merit presentation to the college
community or the wider scholarly world.
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Grinnell College Anthropology Department
Spring 2014
Elise Hadden ‘14
Liz Jang ‘14
-
-
Stephanie Porter ‘14
Benjamin Shirar ‘14
Grinnell College Anthropology Department
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2013-2014 Honors, Asrelsky and Luebben Prize Winners
Adriyel Mondloch ‘14
Katherine Sittig ‘14
The Ralph Luebben Prize in Anthropology is awarded to graduating seniors who best exemplifies the ideal
Anthropology student, including meritorious scholarly work, breadth in the discipline, field experience, and an
anthropological viewpoint on life.
Josephine Chaet ’16 – Linguistic Style and Conflict Talk on “The Jersey Shore”
Dylan Fisher ‘14 – The Religious Consciousness of Killer Mike and Titus Andronicus: Religion in Contemporary Western Music
Stephanie Porter ‘14 – The Anthropology of Religion
Marta Andelson ‘14 – Leaving Behind the ‘Iron Routine’: Militarization and the Body in 20
th
-Century Off-Reservation Boarding
Schools.
The Rachael Asrelsky Anthropology Paper Prize award is given annually to the author of an outstanding
paper written for an anthropology class in honor of Rachael Asrelsky (’89) who died in the Lockerbie
bombing while returning from an off-campus program.
Honors
Liberty Britton
Dylan Fisher
Elena Gartner
Elise Hadden
Charlotte Hechler
Adriyel Mondloch
Amanda Nooter
Stephanie Porter
Katherine Sittig
Amber Whisenhunt
Emeritus Research Fund
winners:
Lane Atmore (for Archeological
Field school in Alaska)
Emma Vale (Institute for curatorial
practice at Hampshire College)
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Grinnell College Anthropology Department
Events
John Whittaker and Kathy Kamp attended the 79
th
Annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology
in Austin, Texas, April 23-27. So did many alumni and others associated with Grinnell, and a number of us
enjoyed a lively dinner at a loud Mexican restaurant. Grinnell connections can be useful, and include
internships maintained by Grinnellians for Grinnell students at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science
(Steve Nash ‘86) and the Kaibab National Forest (Neil Weintraub ‘86). Our meeting dinners and
conversations exchange advice from alumni with long and varied archaeological careers like Bill Green ’74
and those who are now in graduate school like Kelly Eldridge ‘07, or are rising scholars like Ellery Frahm
‘99. At the formal business meeting of the Society, Mike Galaty ‘91 was honored with the annual scholarly
book award for his Light and Shadow: Isolation and Interaction in the Shala Valley of Northern Albania.
Kathy was the discussant for a session on the archaeology of children, and John was a co-author for a paper
by Byl Bryce ‘03. As we have recently become the editors of Ethnoarchaeology: Journal of Archaeological,
Ethnographic, and Experimental Studies, we met with our editor from Maney Publishing, and with Grant
McCall, who edits another Maney published journal, Lithic Technology. And we had the pleasure of seeing
our daughter April, who participated in many years of our archaeological field schools, at first with
reluctance, and later with enthusiasm. She is now pursuing a PhD in archaeology at Arizona State University.
At the meeting: John Whittaker, Kathy Kamp, Toby Austin ’14, Byl Bryce ‘03, Aksel Casson ‘96, Benjie
Cantor-Stone ‘07, Carl Drexler ‘02, Kelly Eldridge ‘07, Ellery Frahm ‘99, Mike Galaty ‘91, Bill Green ‘74,
April Kamp-Whittaker, Grant McCall ‘01, Steve Nash ‘86, Mike Neely ‘84.
Papers:
Bryce, William (Southwest Archaeology Research Alliance) and Heidi Roberts (HRA, Inc.)
From Here and There: Flaked Stone from the Obsidian Cache Pithouse Site of Southwest Utah
Bryce, William (Southwest Archaeology Research Alliance), John Whittaker (Grinnell College), and Chuck LaRue
(Independent Researcher) Conflict among Dispersed Early Agriculturalists: Depictions in Basketmaker II Rock Art
Drexler, Carl (Arkansas Archaeological Survey) Gateway to the Southwest: Archaeology and the American Settlement
of the Great Bend
Brandon, Jamie and Carl Drexler (Arkansas Archaeological Survey) Regnat Populus: The Intersection of Historical
Archaeology Research and Public Service in Arkansas
Eldridge, Kelly (University of California Davis) and Christyann Darwent Subsistence Roles in a Late Western Thule
Household: A Zooarchaeological Analysis at Cape Espenberg, Alaska
Frahm, Ellery (University of Sheffield) Where Obsidian Sourcing Isn’t Long-Distance Trade: Landscapes,
Provisioning Strategies, and Organization of Space
Galaty, Michael (Mississippi State University), Lorenc Bejko (University of Tirana), James Harris (Millsaps College),
Stanley Galicki (Millsaps College) and Sylvia Deskaj (Michigan State University) The 2013 Field Season of the
Projekti Arkeologjikë i Shkodrës (PASH), Northern Albania
Pullen, Daniel (Florida State University), William Parkinson (Field Museum of Anthropology), Anastasia
Papathanasiou (Ephoreia of Paleoanthropology and Speleology of So), Panagiotis Karkanas (Ephoreia of
Paleoanthropology and Speleology of So) and Michael Galaty (Mississippi State University) Alepotrypa Cave and Its
Regional Context in the Late and Final Neolithic Aegean
Green, William (Logan Museum of Anthropology, Beloit College) Museum Resources for North African Archaeology:
The Collections of the Logan Museum of Anthropology
Kamp, Kathryn (Grinnell College) Discussant, Session 115: The “Child” is now 25: Recent Research Into the
Identification of Children in the Archaeological Record and the Development of Associated Theoretical Perspectives.
Kamp-Whittaker, April (Arizona State University) Archaeology of Childhood and the Concept of Personhood
Marks, Theodore (The University of Iowa), Grant McCall (Tulane University), James Enloe (University of Iowa) and
Jordan Krummel Preliminary Report on New Excavations at Mirabib, a Middle and Later Stone Age Rockshelter in the
Central Namib Desert, Namibia
McCall, Grant (Tulane University), Theodore Marks (University of Iowa) and James Enloe (University of Iowa)
Update on the Middle and Later Stone Age Excavations at Erb Tanks, Namibia
Grinnell College Anthropology Department
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Ronald J. Kurtz
Grinnell’s Anthropology department recently paid its respects to Professor Emeritus Ronald J. Kurtz, Anthropology, who
passed away on Monday, April 21 in Sacramento, Calif. at the age of 87. Kurtz was the first full-time cultural
anthropologist at the College and played an instrumental role in working with administration to establish Anthropology as
an independent department at Grinnell in 1968.
After joining the faculty of the combined Sociology-Anthropology department in 1958, Kurtz taught at the College for 31
years before retiring in 1989. During his time at Grinnell, Kurtz was very popular with his students because of his
personable nature. He had a similar effect on his colleagues, who respected his thorough, professional work, generosity
and sense of humor.
Professor Emeritus Waldo Walker, Biology, developed a close relationship with Kurtz when the two worked together and
spoke with the late professor just five days before Kurtz’s death.
“We spent a lot of time listening to Neil Diamond back then,” Walker reminisced. “Ron had a lot of records of Neil, so we
would go to my place and listen and have a few drinks, chat and have a good time.”
Professor Emeritus Doug Caulkins, Anthropology, a former colleague of Kurtz’s during the burgeoning years of the
department, recently prepared a picture presentation in honor of the late professor for students in the two Anthropology
courses he currently teaches.
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Grinnell College Anthropology Department
“I told them, ‘Here is one of the founders of the Anthropology department.’ I did this because I want people to think
about the faculty who have gone before, who have worked to create the kind of school that we now appreciate …
that has now resulted in a stellar Anthropology department,” Caulkins said.
Kurtz served as the first chair of the Anthropology department, and his main contributions involved laying the
groundwork for the foundations of the current department. He was particularly committed to an approach that
embraced the four fields of anthropology: archaeology, linguistics, biological anthropology and cultural anthropology.
He also helped shape the budding department in a way that embraced all of the aforementioned fields.
“He would have loved the department now,” Caulkins said. “Because now we’re a genuine four-fields department.”
Kurtz’s work was crucial to developing a holistic curriculum, which grew to incorporate culture area courses covering
Africa, Asia and Latin America. His interest in linguistics also influenced the introduction of a course on language and
culture as well as a course on anthropological theory, which is now required for completion of the major.
Beyond the discipline of Anthropology, Kurtz committed himself to diverse niches at the College, most notably
serving as Chair of the Faculty. In addition to his involvement within the administration, Kurtz was largely involved
with the African Studies concentration when it existed at Grinnell, and he had spent years performing fieldwork in
Liberia.
“He had a very holistic approach to Anthropology. He really saw it as a study of all of the contexts that impinged
upon a set of people, events and so on,” Caulkins said. “He was branching out to the edges of Anthropology.”
Center for Prairie Studies Director Jon Andelson ’70, Anthropology, who considers the interdisciplinary contributions
a capstone of Kurtz’s legacy, pointed to the fact that faculty in the department live out Kurtz’s philosophy by teaching
courses in Statistics, Global Development Studies and American Studies.
“He was very outward-thinking … in being an anthropologist he wanted to reach out beyond the department and be
part of the life of the College,” Andelson said.
Andelson was an undergraduate at Grinnell when Kurtz was on faculty, and Andelson took two Anthropology
courses taught by the late professor. When Andelson returned to Grinnell years later as a professor, he recalled that
Kurtz insisted that the two shift to a first-name basis, and Kurtz became a source of guidance to Andelson in his
beginning years as a faculty member.
In later years, Kurtz and Andelson jointly taught an Anthropology course and collaborated professionally by preparing
an article for publication focused on the effects of tourism on traditional communities. Having known Kurtz both as a
student and as a colleague, Andelson holds a memory of Kurtz as a gentle, genial mentor and role model.
“He was an extremely warm person–very supportive of students, which I benefited from. In terms of my own personal
interactions with him, we just had the best conversations about anthropology … and about life—as good as I’ve had
with anybody in my life,” Andelson said.
After moving to emeritus status in 1996, Kurtz and his wife Marilyn, a former Director of Career Services at the
College, moved to Sacramento where he continued to pursue his passion for anthropology as an honorary member
of the Anthropology department at the University of California, Davis.
Grinnell College Anthropology Department
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Students in professor J. Montgomery Roper’s Practicing Anthropology class took their studies to the community
in the fall semester, performing studies on behalf of local organizations. They used surveys, interviews with local
experts, focus groups, archival research, and hours of observation to help suggest improvements at service
organizations, for example.
"The course is about learning by doing,” Roper said. “In particular, the students are learning about
anthropological methods, policy-making at the community level, and the Grinnell community.”
“My belief is that knowledge builds greater roots when instilled through practice, particularly when the practice
involves addressing real-world problems in our own community,” he added.
One of the six student groups in the class looked into how a local food pantry could increase the frequency of
donations.
The Mid-Iowa Community Action (MICA) food pantry in Grinnell has a problem. While the need for food
remains fairly consistent throughout the year, donations fluctuate a lot.
Grinnell students Sara Hannemann ’14, Eva Metz ’14, and Gina Falada ’16 conducted in-person interviews
with staff, volunteers, and local experts and surveyed community members to determine why giving varied, and
to look for steps MICA could take to make donations more consistent.
They found that most community members donate food rather than money, but some don’t consider the needs of
the food pantry. The students suggested that the pantry get the word out about its specific needs using social
media, while radio and newspaper ads, and church-bulletin items. By increasing its profile, communicating its
needs, and informing the public, MICA could improve its standing supply of food and lessen the need for
emergency food drives, the students found.
Rachel Porath, the Poweshiek County Family Development Director for MICA, worked with Hannemann, Metz,
and Falada in the early stages of the project. “It was a pleasure working with the students,” she said. “I will
absolutely use some of their ideas moving forward.”
Porath suggested community members the students could interview, and provided the students with information
detailing the food pantry’s donations. She hopes the suggested changes will increase donations both in Grinnell
and at other MICA food pantries in the state.
Other students in the class looked at issues such as assessing the need to enhance teen and tween programming
at the local library, or to back a supported employment program for those with intellectual disabilities in
Grinnell.
In addition to poster presentations, each group sent formal reports of their research findings to their community
organization.
Applying Anthropology in the Community
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Grinnell College Anthropology Department
Gina Falada ’16, Sara Hannemann ’14, Eva Metz ’14
2014 Anthropology t-shirts
Other projects in the class included: an evaluation of teen and tween programming for Drake Library by Eduardo Olmos,
Scott Olson, and Grace Ryan; an evaluation of how the Grinnell Area Arts Council's gallery space could better meet
community needs by Moira Donovan and Adrian Rodriguez; an evaluation of the factors affecting client retention in Mid
Iowa Community Action's Family Development and Self-Sufficiency program for Poweshiek County by Joey Brown, Amanda
Nooter, and Carissa Shoemaker; a needs assessment of black hair care services in Grinnell for local hair stylist Megan
Cooper by Jacqueline Brooks, Chloe Griffen, and Samanea Karrfalt; and an assessment for Genesis Development of the
need for a supported employment program for the intellectually disabled in Grinnell by Irene Bruce and Matt Miller.
Grinnell College Anthropology Department
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Chloe Briney ’17, left, and Nora Coghlan ’17, examine the point on a skull where a muscle attached.
They were in Goodnow working on the burial lab for Professor Vicki Bentley-Condit's Intro to Anthropology class.
Photo courtesy of Justin Hayworth, Communications Photography/Videographer
John Whittaker and Kathy Kamp have taken over editorship of Ethnoarchaeology: Journal of Archaeological,
Ethnographic and Experimental Studies, a small journal now published by Maney Publishing: http://
www.maneyonline.com/loi/eth This summer we are scheduled to do a short irregular course test-excavating at the
historic schoolhouse at the former hamlet of Westfield near Grinnell. We have been granted a study leave by the
college to write up our work in Arizona, where we have been directing Grinnell field school excavations and other
projects since 1984. We will continue to work there, but do not plan further excavation. Too bad, we loved doing
the field school (9 seasons at 4 sites, plus other things like group MAPs and survey sessions). Not only was it a focus
of research, it was also some of our best and most satisfactory teaching, and many alumni are still in touch; quite a
few went on in archaeology and are now colleagues teaching somewhere, working for the government or contract
firms or museums, and in a couple of cases, offering long-running internship opportunities for Grinnellians (Neil
Weintraub ’86 at the Kaibab National Forest, and Steve Nash ‘86 at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science).
Our daughter April, dragged willy-nilly to archaeological sites (oh no, not another rock pile!) year after year,
eventually was convinced that archaeology and academia is not a bad life, and after a degree in museology and
a couple years working at a historic mansion, has returned to school for a PhD in anthropology and archaeology
at Arizona State University.
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Grinnell College Anthropology Department
Ben Shirar and Toby
Austin present at the
Iowa Academy of
Science
Archaeological
Field Methods class
firing pottery:
Nick Conway, Kate
Klesner, Florian
Perret, Mary Zheng,
Annie Leverich, and
Collin Davis-Johnson
Students in Jon Andelson's Culture & Agriculture class
on a visit to Angela Winburn's alternative agriculture
farm near Grinnell
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Grinnell College Anthropology Department
Students in Jon Andelson's Culture
& Agriculture class visit Robert and
Mark Dimit's farm near Grinnell.
Grinnell College Anthropology Department
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Presentations at Professional Conferences for Doug Caulkins’ Students:
In October 2013 the Northern Ireland summer research team of Doug Caulkins and seniors Anya Vanecek
and Mackenzie Shanahan each gave papers dealing with Regeneration Strategies for Derry-Londonderry
City of Culture at the Midwest American Council on Irish Studies meetings in Iowa City. Anya and
Mackenzie also co-presented on their work in Northern Ireland at the annual Peace and Conflict Studies
Conference at Grinnell in April.
Elena Gartner’14 and Doug Caulkins co-presented a paper on Collaborative Ethnography and the
Genesis of an Environmental Organization at the Society for Applied Anthropology meetings in
Albuquerque, New Mexico in March 2014. The panel on Collaborative Anthropology was organized by
Susan B. Hyatt’76 Associate Professor of Anthropology at Indiana University-Purdue University
Indianapolis.
Jozi Chaet’16 and Doug Caulkins gave a paper at the Central States Anthropological Society meetings in
Normal, Illinois in April. The presentation was a continuation of their article on Grinnell President Howard
Bowen and Corporate Social Responsibility in the winter 2013 GRINNELL MAGAZINE. Doug also gave
a paper on Digital Derry and the Regeneration of Derry-Londonderry at CSAS.
Page 14
The Marching season in Northern Ireland.
On the 12th of July the Orange Order
marches to celebrate the victory of
William of Orange over King James II in
1690.
Grinnell College Anthropology Department
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Brigiine French recently has been appointed as the new Book Review Editor for the Journal of
Linguistic Anthropology published by Wiley-Blackwell for the Society for Linguistic
Anthropology, a section of the American Anthropological Association. The Journal of
Linguistic Anthropology is a central journal for the publication of new work in linguistic
anthropology, sociolinguistics, and related elds. The work of the book review editor is to
identify books that will be of importance to the readership of the JLA, solicit reviews from
scholars with expertise in the area of the new book to give a critical appraisal, edit the reviews
as they move into the production process, and to arrange the sequence of reviews for each issue
of the journal. The reviews are an important venue for identifying and recognizing important
new work in the eld. French has published her own peer-reviewed research in the JLA, had
her own book, Maya Ethnolinguistic Identity, reviewed in its pages, and has been a book
reviewer over the years. French remarks: “I am deeply commied to the JLA and the scholarly
community to which it belongs. I consider the book review editorship a service to the
discipline and a professional honor.”
hp://linguisticanthropology.org/journal/
The Marching season in Northern Ireland.
Anthropology students have been doing
research in Derry—Londonderry since
2009 under the direction of Emeritus
Professor Douglas Caulkins.
Grinnell College Anthropology Department
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Students: Annie Leverich, Erica L. (visitor), Kate Klesner, Christi Peterson, Shadman Asif participate in the raging cow
event
Doug Caulkins and Jon Andelson
talking at the annual Pot Luck
event.
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Grinnell College Anthropology Department
Maria
Tapias
and
John
Whittaker
Grinnell College Anthropology Department
Page 18
Karie Wiltshire ‘99
Gazing from afar I’ve enjoyed watching “sustainability” crystalize from idea to action in the Grinnell community. Sustainability is a
concept I subconsciously embraced with my choice to study cultural anthropology and environmental studies in 1995, and this systems-
analysis paradigm in its many forms has been a foundation of my pursuits since. My work immediately after Grinnell as a prairie
specialist and food systems initiator even led me to earn my Master’s of Science degree in Sustainable Agriculture from Iowa State
University!
My formal pursuit of sustainability seemed stalled in my current job as an Environmental Planner with the Tahoe National Forest, as
implementing many-cog dynamic ideas in a federal bureaucracy can move slowly. But with sparks from a refreshed federal agenda
requiring reduced consumption of non-renewables along with some local coalition building, I organized and facilitated cutting my
office’s energy use by more than 25 percent, and even instigated an inclusive cultural change to bring more mindfulness to our
consumption habits. With my Green Team I won my Regional Forester’s Honor Award for Leadership in Sustainable Operations in 2013,
and I’m now serving as a “Net Zero” mentor to help more Forest Service offices shift their energy use.
With these recent developments I’m grateful to more directly apply the systems analysis paradigm that I began with anthropology at
Grinnell, and my overall work as an environmental planner, interdisciplinary team leader and geographic information systems specialist
(on fires and emergencies) satisfies my liberal arts drive to integrate and synthesize. I’d love to discuss these practitioner routes with
anyone! Contact me at karie_wiltshire@hotmail.com.
Carl Drexler '02
I recently completed my doctorate in historical archaeology and anthropology at the College of William & Mary. My dissertation
focused on the home front in Civil War Arkansas as seen through the lens of a site known as Dooley's Ferry, an antebellum crossing of
the Red River in the southwestern part of the state.
I am working for the Arkansas Archeological Survey, the state's public and research archaeology program. Though specifically tasked
with public outreach and archaeological research in the southwest corner of the state, I get to direct and assist with projects throughout
the state. This ranges from late Woodland mound sites to a WWII POW camp.
Chloe Skies ‘10
Was accepted to UT's Cultural Studies in Education program today, and plan on attending in the fall.
Mike Galaty ’91, now directing the Department of Anthropology at Mississippi State University, received the prestigious Society for
American Archaeology book award for his book Light and Shadow: Isolation and Interaction in the Shala Valley of Northern Albania.
Galaty directed a multiyear project of archaeological survey and ethnohistoric documentation of one valley system in the northern part
of Albania, where the last tribal societies in Europe survived despite the pressures of the outside world. http://www.amazon.com/Light-
Shadow-Isolation-Interaction-Archaeologica/dp/1931745714/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397161547&sr=8-
1&keywords=galaty+shala.
Marissa Gilman ‘09
Accepted to Wharton, UPenn's MBA program, where she will attend in the fall. She is interested in the intersection between social
impact and business.
Alumni news
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Grinnell College Anthropology Department
Restricted Contributions to the
Anthropology Department
Sandra Gifford Edwards ‘80
Steven R. Hingtgen ‘88
Curtis Scribner ‘73
Jessica Roff ‘93
Sarah Casson ‘11
Kevin Gartner
Steve Alderson ‘84
Kathleen Kerger Greene ‘61
Rosalie Mae T. Russell ‘11
Douglas Caulkins
Jonathan Andelson
John Whittaker
Kathryn Kamp
THANK YOU!
Anthropology Department
Grinnell College
Grinnell IA 50112-1690
Tel: 641-269-4343
Fax: 641-269-4330
G R I N N E L L C O L L E G E
If you do not wish to receive the Anthropology Newsletter, please e-mail Manra Montgomery at
[email protected] or write to Grinnell College, Anthropology Department, Grinnell, IA 50112-1690
