School for Advanced Research Public Lecture Series
2008-2009
The 2008-2009 Lecture Series is sponsored by
Thornburg Companies
The SAR Lecture Calendar is sponsored by
First National Bank of Santa Fe
The Anthropology of Food
Unless otherwise noted, all lectures take place at the James A. Little Theater, New Mexico School for the Deaf, 1060 Cerrillos Road, at 7:00 pm. Doug Schwartz’s lecture on February 12, 2009 will be held at 7:00 pm. at The Lensic, Santa Fe’s Performing Arts Center in downtown Santa Fe. All theaters are wheelchair accessible and hearing assistance devices are available upon request. SAR lectures are FREE to the public.
September 11, 2008
Patrick McGovern
Molecular Archaeologist
Uncorking the Past:
Our Love Affair with Fermented Beverages
…the history of humankind and civilization itself is, in many ways, the history of the fermented beverage.
Dr. Patrick McGovern takes us on a fascinating odyssey back to the beginning, when early humans probably enjoyed a wild fruit or honey wine. These beverage-makers must have marveled at the seemingly miraculous process of fermentation. They were mind-altering substances, medicines, religious symbols, and social lubricants all rolled into one.
Dr. McGovern is a Senior Research Scientist at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and Adjunct Professor of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. Over the past two decades, he pioneered the emerging field of Molecular Archaeology. In addition to being engaged in a wide range of archaeological chemical studies that include radiocarbon dating and the colorant analysis of ancient glasses and pottery technology, his most recent work has been focused on the organic analysis of vessel contents and dyes, particularly Royal Purple, wine, and beer. He is the author of Ancient Wine: The Search for the Origins of Viniculture (Princeton University Press, 2003).
Sponsored by Garcia Street Books, Daniels Insurance, Inc., and La Fonda Hotel.
October 30, 2008
Miriam Chaiken
Nutritional Anthropologist
Plenty and Poverty:
Food Security in the New Millennium
…the global quest to provide a minimum standard of living for the world’s people.
It is possible to reverse hunger, foster equitable economic development, and provide for a more optimistic future. We are already capable of addressing many of the underlying problems that cause pervasive poverty and hunger. Dr. Miriam Chaiken’s talk will focus on successful strategies in the global quest to provide a minimum standard of living for the world’s people by involving grassroots participation, shifting resource utilization, fostering civil society and stability, and redirecting priorities to focus on food access.
Dr. Chaiken strongly believes in the importance of including anthropologists in the discussion of global inequities in food access. Her dissertation focused on the nutritional status of children in the Philippines. Later she developed a project with UNICEF–Kenya aimed at improving child survival and nutritional status in an area characterized by chronic under-nutrition. In 2007 she was selected as the recipient of the Nutritional Anthropologist of the Year award by the Society for Anthropology of Food and Nutrition. Dr. Chaiken is a professor of anthropology at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Sponsored by Thornburg Companies.
February 12, 2009
Doug Schwartz
Archaeologist, former SAR President, current SAR Senior Scholar
Evolving A Genius:
The Extraordinary Early Life of Charles Darwin
…a special talk to honor the 200th birthday of naturalist Charles Darwin.
Charles Darwin was an indifferent student well into his undergraduate years at the universities of Edinburgh and Cambridge. Given this undistinguished background, how did he become transformed into a man of exceptional intellectual insight and produce a theory so powerful that it dramatically altered our view of the living world? Dr. Schwartz traces the unique set of events that ultimately laid the foundation for Darwin’s distinctive genius.
Dr. Schwartz has had a long-term research interest in the origins of Charles Darwin’s creativity. President emeritus at SAR and currently a senior scholar at the School, Doug hasn't let retirement slow him down. He is involved in writing, lecturing, publishing, and traveling. In the past year, his professional involvement has taken him to Ireland, Portugal, Cuba, Spain, Algeria, and Tunisia. To add to his many honors, he was named a “Luminaria” by the New Mexico Community Foundation in 2007.
Sponsored by Karen Walker Real Estate, Carole Ely and Robert Wickham—AV Systems, the Flora Crichton Lecture Fund, and The Lensic, Santa Fe’s Performing Arts Center.
March 5, 2009
Mary Weismantel
Cultural Anthropologist
To Hunt and Be Hunted:
Images of Deer in the Ancient and Modern Americas
…the relationship between hunters and their prey is rarely simple.
Wherever humans have encountered deer, they have hunted them. The relationship between the species – the civilized one that kills and the wild animal that is killed – seems straightforward enough. But in fact, the relationship is rarely simple. Perhaps nowhere is this truer than in the indigenous traditions of the Americas, where Native peoples have often portrayed deer as killers of men. Dr. Weismantel explores this surprising reversal through a wide range of examples from ancient South America.
Dr. Weismantel’s lifelong interest in the ancient Americas is reflected in the variety and diversity of her research topics, ranging from food to adoption, and from contemporary popular culture to ancient ceramics. She is a professor of anthropology at Northwestern University where her recent courses include the art of the ancient Americas, the social history of food, and an introduction to American cultural anthropology. Professor Weismantel’s newest research interest is the relationship between humans and animals. She is the recipient of numerous awards and honors and is an Associate Curator at the Field Museum of Natural History.
Sponsored by The Paper Tiger and Verve Gallery of Photography.
April 9, 2009
Jeanne Sept
Paleoanthropologist
What’s Cooking?
The Meat and Potatoes of Human Evolution
…tracking the balance and relative importance of plant and animal foods to the diets of our early ancestors.
The role of diet in human evolution has been debated ever since the earliest discoveries of fossilized human ancestors in Africa. Recent finds and powerful new techniques allow scientists to reconstruct our dietary past in much more detail. They are learning not only more about the types of food eaten by our early ancestors but also the variation in diets between individuals of the same species. Dr. Sept tracks a century of inquiry about the balance and relative importance of plant and animal foods to the diets of our early ancestors.
Dr. Sept’s interest in human origins has led her out of the archaeological trenches and into the savannas of East Africa and the study of environments analogous to early hominid habitats. Her current research uses field data on the diets of living chimpanzees and their ranging behavior to help interpret the early hominid archaeological record. She is a professor of anthropology at Indiana University and Vice Provost for Academic Affairs.
Sponsored by Betty and Luke Vortman, Walter Burke Catering, Inc., and The Leakey Foundation.
May 14, 2009
John Henderson
Mayan Archaeologist
The Early History of Chocolate
…Mesoamericans were making beverages from cacao before 1000 BC.
Chocolate is so iconic in American and European culture today that it is difficult to imagine life without it. In fact, chocolate was unknown to the Western world until the 16th century, when Spaniards learned of it from the Aztecs. New archaeological evidence shows that Mesoamericans were making beverages from cacao before 1000 BC. Dr. Henderson’s rich talk takes a careful look at archaeological evidence that indicates chocolate was an essential component of all important ceremonial and social occasions among the Aztecs and their Mesoamerican neighbors, and was so valuable that the cacao seeds even served as a form of money.
Dr. Henderson’s interest in Mesoamerica dates to his days as an undergraduate at Yale. He is currently Professor of Anthropology at Cornell University. His recent archaeological work in the village of Puerto Escondido in Honduras is in collaboration with archaeologists from Cornell University and the University of California, Berkeley, and under the auspices of the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History. Their discoveries have added at least 1,000 years to the documented story of a region where a hunting-and-gathering society settled and skilled pottery-makers flourished.
Sponsored by C.T. Herman and Evalinda Walrack of Merrill Lynch and Merrill Lynch.
Image credits:
- “Chateau Jiahu” drawing courtesy of Tara McPherson and Dogfish Head Craft Brewery.
- Photograph courtesy Miriam Chaiken.
- Photograph courtesy Doug Schwartz.
- Photograph courtesy Mary Weismantel. From the collections of the British Museum.
- “Neanderthal” Mettmann by Thomas Ihle from Wikipedia.
- From Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex.
