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In the Field

The Bulletin of The Field Museum July/August 1995

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In the Field

The Bulletin of The Field Museum

The Field Museum Busman’s holiday:
Exploring A tour through the

The Earth And Its great museums of
People London, Amster-

dam, and Paris

5-8

A complete schedule

of July/August
events, including

special programs all

about bats

July/August 1995

10

Summer reading:
New books on
anthropology, evolu-
tion, and prairie
restoration in Chicago

MEMBERS’ NIGHT:
A NIGHT TO REMEMBER

Photos, Page 9

SORTING OUT NATURAL AND HUMAN-
INDUCED CHANGE IN MADAGASCAR

eading scholars and environmental

officials dealing with Madagascar

gathered at The Field Museum in

June to help distinguish ecological
threats caused by human activity from the natu-
rally occurring change that has always charac-
terized the island’s ecology.

The symposium was organized by Field
Museum biologists Bruce Patterson and Steve
Goodman. As a result of the meeting, Goodman
said, “We're now in a position to present a new
synthesis that will enable the development of a
more realistic plan of conservation.”

Madagascar, the world’s fourth-largest
island, is in the Indian Ocean east of the African
continent. Many of its native plants and animals,
including a diverse array of lemurs, are found
nowhere else on Earth. Many species have
already gone extinct and others are threatened,
but it has been unclear to what extent natural
processes are responsible — some extinctions
predate the arrival of humans on the island
2,000 years ago — as opposed to human popu-
lation growth and land-use patterns. +

The symposium, “Natural and Human-
Induced Change in Madagascar,” was the
largest assembly of Madagascar specialists ever
held, Goodman said. Twenty-six Malagasy par-
ticipants — researchers, government officials,
and conservation workers — were among the
more than 300 persons in attendance.

The weekend meeting, June 24, was spon-
sored by the Museum’s Center for Evolutionary
and Environmental Biology and the Center for
Cultural Understanding and Change. Papers and
discussions considered both the hard science of
environmental change on the island and the
social, political, and economic dimensions of
human intervention, including relations between
local villagers and international environmental
teams.

A book of abstracts of all lectures, poster
presentations, and workshops will be published
by the Field Museum Press in both English and
Malagasy, and another volume, consisting of the
seventeen invited lectures, is being prepared for
publication by a leading university press.

Travel to Chicago for the Malagasy partici-
pants was facilitated
by the John D. and
Catherine T. Mac-
Arthur Foundation,
the World Wildlife

Fund, the World
Bank, and The Field
Museum.

Elwyn Simons of
Duke University with
Steve Goodman and
Berthe Rakotosami-
manana, University
of Antananarivo.

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Paul Baker

Paul Baker

Above, Chantal
Radimilahy discusses
the rise and decline
of an 11th — 14th
century Islamic sea-
port on the north-
west coast of
Madagascar; Steve
Goodman reports on
bird extinctions
resulting from aridifi-
cation between

3,000 and 2,000
years ago, before
humans arrived on
the island.

From left, Lucien
Rakotozafy, Universi-
ty of Antananarivo;
Chantal Radimilahy,
Museum of Art and
Archaeology, Antana-
narivo; Célestine
Ravaoarinoromanga
and Henri Finoana,
Madagascar Depart-
ment of Water and
Forests; Michel
Simeon of the
World Bank, and
Solohery Rakoto-
vao, National Office
of the Environment.

43.8
John Weinstein | GN875

Above, Alison
Jolly of Princeton
University (left)
greets Isabel Con-
stable, University
of Michigan, as
they arrive for
opening festivities.

The Field Museum
June 17-September 4

IT’S MONDAY; THIS MUST BE THE TROPENMUSEUM

By Willard L. Boyd
President, The Field Museum

ime flies and I suddenly realized that

I had not visited the museums in Lon-

don and Paris for nearly eight years.

So I purchased an eight-day packaged
trip to those two cities and Amsterdam. I knew
where I wanted to go and what I wanted to see,
but I was astounded at the end of the eight days
that I had visited 25 museums in six cities.

On the ninth day — exhausted — I headed
home to Chicago feeling that no matter how
brief my visit, I had learned much about how
differing museums are changing. The museums
of anthropology and culture I visited are relating
cultural traditions to contemporary life. That
also is an objective of The Field Museum. At the
same time our Museum is taking a step further
with concern for how diverse cultures interact in

a congested world.
The natural science museums
I visited are taking a holistic approach to the
environment by describing the changes in the
biosphere through evolution and human inter-
vention. In the future The Field Museum also
will be emphasizing this holistic approach to the
biosphere and planetary change. We will
explore the ground on which we stand. My vis-
its increased my enthusiasm for our plans to
focus on the critical issues, which we call “Liv-
ing ‘Together on the Living Earth.”

Immediately upon arriving in London, I
took the train to Cambridge to see an exhibit I
had read about in a recent issue of Science mag-
azine. The University Museum of Zoology had
a special exhibition on “Dinosaur Eggs and
Embryos” collected in China. Looking through
a magnifying glass a visitor could see the tiny
bones of unborn dinosaurs.

Back in London on Saturday my first stop
was the new “Science for Life” exhibit at the
Wellcome Trust on Euston Road. This interac-
tive exhibit allows a visitor to explore the
human body and the microscopic world of cells.
It also contains a fascinating presentation on the
nature of contemporary biological research. My
next Saturday stop was at the Mexican Gallery
at the Montague Place entrance to the British
Museum in Bloomsbury. This is a new and
beautiful exhibit of Aztec objects. I took this
exhibit to be an example of the new direction

In the Field

July/August 1995

Vol. 66, No, 4
ae
tem The Field Museum
ening Exploring

itorial Assi The Earth And Its
aye ae

In the Field (ISSN #1051-4546) is published bimonthly by The Field Museum, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive,
Chicago, IL 60605-2496. Copyright © 1995 The Field Museum. Subscriptions $6.00 annually, $3.00 for schools.
Museum membership includes /n the Field subscription. Opinions expressed by authors are their own and do not nec-
essarily reflect policy of The Field Museum. Museum phone (312) 922-9410. Notification of address change should
include address label and should be sent to Membership Department. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to In
the Field, The Field Museum, Roosevelt Rd. at Lake Shore Dr., Chicago, IL 60605-2496, Second class postage paid
at Chicago, Illinois.

July/August 1995

taken by the British Museum to include anthro-
pological collections from cultures beyond
Western and Oriental classical periods. After a
quick lunch at the Virginia Woolf Restaurant at
the Hotel Russell I was off to the Museum of
Mankind at 6 Burlington Gardens not far from
Picadilly Circus. A division of The British
Museum, this anthropological museum is
unknown to many Londoners but is getting
increased attention because of the changing
demographics of London and other British
cities. Its exhibits cover the indigenous peoples
of the Western Hemisphere, Africa, Asia, and
Oceania. A publication in the museum bookshop
reflects our multicultural era. Entitled Teaching
About the Aztecs: A Cross-Curricular Perspec-
tive, it is a part of a project described as “Bring-
ing History to Life: Implementing the National
Curriculum.”

On to Cromwell Road and the extraordi-
nary Natural History Museum alongside the
Victoria and Albert Museum. The Natural His-
tory Museum is a pacesetter in developing
exhibits about natural science. Its new dinosaur,
ecology, and “creepy crawlies” exhibits —
while too theatrical for some — are engaging
for others. All visitors can agree, however, that
they are extremely informative.

Sunday morning, I visited the new Imperial
War Museum in Lambeth. “New” means “new
approach.” Located in the old mental hospital,
Bedlam, this museum (which also operates the
Cabinet War Rooms in Whitehall) is about the
two world wars. For people my age it is partic-
ularly poignant to see the piece of paper that
Neville Chamberlain brought back from
Munich. For the younger generation who did
not experience the wars there are three realistic,
“you are there” exhibits: walking through a
World War I trench; experiencing the blitzkreig
bombing in a shelter; and going with the RAF
on a bombing raid over France.

After Sunday dinner of roast beef, York-
shire pudding, and beer at the nearby Three
Stags Pub, I was off to the Museum of the Moy-
ing Image on the South Bank. It contains a fre-
netic audio-visual history of how we are
increasingly coming to learn and be entertained
through television and film. Suffering from gen-
eration lag, I soon sought shelter in the Nation-
al Portrait Gallery where — even there — I
wound up buying an audio cassette of Pepy’s
Diary for a friend.

onday noon I reached Amsterdam

where all museums except my special

target of interest were closed. I visit-

ed the Tropenmuseum, which describes itself as

an “anthropological museum with a specific

objective of informing its visitors about the

developing world in relation to the western

world.” This museum has pioneered relating

cultural traditions to contemporary life. A spe-

cial exhibition, “World of Love,” centers on the

similarities in family life and family love on
four continents.

Early next morning I revisited the Anne

Frank House and
reminded myself of
the thin line between
the world of love and
hate. My next stop
was my old friend
the Rijksmuseum
which remains much
the same as it did in
the early 1970s when
I spent time there. It
was, however, a new
experience for me to
go next door to see
the Van Gogh Muse-
um,

I traveled next by
train to The Hague,
where I had spent several weeks each year for
three years in the early 1970s working on a
treaty. Upon arrival I headed for The Museon, a
pioneer in museum education. Museon exhibits
explore the theme of man and his world — both
environmentally and culturally. Then I took the
streetcar to the Mauritshuis, a small treasure
place of Dutch and Flemish paintings. Located
in a seventeenth-century mansion next to the
Parliament buildings, it is a museum one can
enjoy without being overwhelmed.

I then walked along some of the shopping
streets I had known well in the early 1970's and
stopped at the Park Hotel which I had recently
read was still very much the same as it had been
in former times. Once again I admired the love-
ly old world garden dining room. When I
inquired what time dinner would be served, I
was told it had not been served for twenty-five
years. My last dinner there was obviously well
timed.

Wednesday I was off to Paris where I spent
most of the day at the Louvre. I was over-
whelmed by the numbers of people entering the
museum. For the first time I understood what
the challenge was for I. M. Pei beneath the con-
troversial glass pyramid. I was amazed by the
vast underground entry hall and the most exten-
sive array of museum shops I have ever seen.
After a visit to familiar and crowded galleries, I
retreated to the quiet of the Orangerie and rest-
ed amid Monet’s water lilies.

Fortunately, I knew where I was going on
Thursday, because neither my guide books nor
the concierge at the Lutetia Hotel could direct
me to the natural science museum complex
located in the Jardin des Plantes. The buildings
surrounding the garden are separate “Galeries”
comprising the Museum National d’ Histoire
Naturelle. La Grande Galerie is a recently reno-
vated atrium with surrounding balconies. The
restored museum is more heroic than functional.
On the main floor of the atrium is a dramatic
procession of the animals of the African savan-
nah. Since there is no glass enclosure, a visitor
comes in closer contact with these animals than
in a zoo or for that matter on the savannah.
Exhibits on the surrounding balconies of the
Galerie are well conceived and very informative
about the diversity and unity of living species,
evolution, and the impact of humans on the
environment. Unfortunately, the area is dark and
the exhibits are sometimes hard to see.

Alongside La Grande Galerie is the Galerie
de Mineralogie. Its exhibits are being renovated,
but there is a display of breathtaking mammoth
crystals. At the end of the walk is the Paleonto-
logical Galerie, a classic nineteenth-century
museum which has never been altered. It has a
two-story atrium with balconies filled to over-
flowing with animal skeletons. The museum
could not have changed in over a century. It is of
another era, but sleeping there would be a night
to remember.

My next stop was the Museum of African
and Oceanic Art on the edge of the Bois de Vin-
(Continued on page 4)

NEW ATP FELLOWS ARRIVE

ight people selected as participants in

the Summer Session of the Advanced

Training Program in the Conserva-

tion of Biological Diversity (ATP)
were scheduled to arrive at the Museum over the
Fourth of July weekend for eight weeks of
intensive training. The program is a collabora-
tive effort by The Field Museum, Brookfield
Zoo, and the University of Illinois at Chicago,
funded by the MacArthur Foundation with
assistance from a Museum donor.

ATP provides intensive training to young
professional biologists from tropical countries,
where biological diversity is highest and the
need for conservation is most acute. Fourteen
participants took part in 1994; this year another
twelve to fourteen are anticipated, including five
or six in the Autumn Session.

The Summer Session group is again
remarkably diverse in terms of country of ori-
gin, area of specific interest, and background.
This diversity is one of the greatest strengths of
the program, said Larry Heaney, Field Museum
curator of mammals and director of the pro-
gram. “The participants clearly benefit tremen-
dously from interacting with each other, as well
as from the faculty of the program, and the fac-
ulty often feel that they have learned every bit as
much from the participants,” he said. The Sum-
mer Session fellows are:

Laura Guzman (Mexico): Since 1983,
Ms. Guzman has been a research professor at
the University of Guadalajara, where her studies
have focused primarily on the taxonomy of
macroscopic fungi. Since coming to the Univer-
sity of Guadalajara, Ms. Guzman has formed the
Laboratory of Mycology, and through her col-
lecting of macrofungi has developed one of the
most important mycological herbaria in Western
Mexico. She will contribute the mycological
portion of the Management Plan for several pro-
tected areas in Mexico, and she plans to com-
pare the fungal diversity in Westem Mexico
with the diversity in other parts of the country.
At the university she also teaches and advises
graduate students, and will develop a course in
biodiversity and conservation of fungi. Greg
Mueller, Field Museum curator of mycology,
will serve as her individual project advisor.

Natalia Hernandez (Colombia): Since
1991, Ms. Hernandez has been working at Fun-
dacion Puerto Rastrojo, a nongovernmental
organization devoted to conservation biology, in
Santafé de Bogota. Ms. Hernandez holds bache-
lor’s degrees from Universidad de los Andes in
biology (1991) and microbiology (1989), and
has been working in the Colombian Amazon
region on several projects related to conserva-
tion of protected areas. These projects have
dealt with both botanical and ecological aspects
of Amazonian biodiversity. Robin Foster, Field
Museum research associate in botany, will serve
as her individual project advisor.

Esezah Kakudidi (Uganda): Since 1985,
Ms. Kakudidi has been a curator of botany and
lecturer at Makerere University in Kampala.
She received her M.S. in botany in 1984 at the
Australian National University, and her B.S. in
botany and zoology in 1978 at Makerere Uni-
versity. Her current research projects are on
medicinal plants of Uganda and ethnobotany of
the Rwenzori Mountain Forest Area. The Mak-
erere University Herbarium is being developed
into a National Herbarium, and will play an
increasingly important role in the conservation
of biological diversity. Robin Foster will serve
as her individual project advisor.

Maria Eugenia Martinez A. (Mexico):
Ms. Martinez is Chief of the Education Depart-
ment of the Guadalajara Zoo, a position she has
held since 1991. In addition to developing basic
education programs at the Zoo, Ms. Martinez
has been responsible for the organization of
training courses in zoo biology and conservation
for staff at the Zoo. The Guadalajara Zoo works

closely with the University of Guadalajara to
promote research and improved management of
wildlife. Ms. Martinez is interested in investi-
gating the many ways a modern zoo can play a
direct role in wildlife conservation, working
with researchers active in the field, and how a
zoo can educate the citizenry about the impor-
tance of wildlife conservation. Cynthia Vernon,
Manager of Education Services at Brookfield
Zoo, will serve as her individual project advisor.

Nguyen Cuc Phuong (Vietnam): Since
1989, Ms. Nguyen Cuc Phuong has been the
Biologist at the Hanoi Zoo. At the zoo, she has
been responsible for research on and husbandry
of primates, including some extremely rare Viet-
namese species. Animal husbandry conditions at
the Hanoi Zoo are far from ideal, and they have
had difficulty in keeping these valuable animals.
The Zoo is a key link in developing cooperative
international programs for the conservation of
biological diversity in Vietnam. Melinda Pruett-
Jones at Brookfield Zoo will serve as her indi-
vidual project advisor.

Alfred Otim (Uganda): Since 1994, Mr.
Otim has been the Game Warden for Kigezi
Game Reserve in southwest Uganda. Before
taking his present position, he worked for sever-
al years with the Impenetrable Forest Project
and the mountain gorillas in Bwindi, now a
national park. Mr. Otim helped establish a field
station there as well as a cooperative project
which aimed to bring new tree-planting, soil-
and water-conserving skills, and a basic envi-
ronmental awareness to the people who live
around the margins of the forest. Doug Stotz, a
biologist in the Museum’s Office of Environ-
mental and Conservation Programs, will be his
individual project advisor.

Paula Procépio de Oliveira (Brazil):
Since 1993, Ms. Procépio has been working on
a project involving translocation of endangered
groups of Golden Lion Tamarins in the Poco das
Antas Biological Reserve in Brazil. She began
working on the Golden Lion Tamarin Conserva-
tion Project in 1989, originally studying the
ecology of small mammals in the reserve. In
1993, she received her Master’s degree based on
this work from Universidade Federal de Minas
Gerais in Belo Horizonte. In her present posi-
tion, she advises several recently-graduated
biologists, and thus will be able to pass on what
she learns here to the next cohort of conserva-
tion biologists in Brazil. Melinda Pruett-Jones
and Bob Lacy at Brookfield Zoo will serve as
her individual project advisors. ;

Daniel Rakotodizavony (Madagascar):
Mr. Rakotodizavony is a professor at the Uni-
versité d’Antananarivo, where he teaches
numerous courses in zoology and ecology. He
has been studying the distribution, ecology, and
taxonomy of small mammals of Madagascar for
more than eight years, and has participated in
numerous other research projects. One of these
projects includes searching for natural products
that are toxic to rodent pests. Others have exam-
ined the impact of various development projects
on mammal populations. Mr. Rakotodizavony
advises several graduate students at the Univer-
sité d’Antananarivo. Field Museum zoologists
Steve Goodman and Larry Heaney will serve as
his individual project advisors.

NEW! IMPROVED! FIELD
MUSEUM WEB PAGE

The Field Museum's “home page” on the World
Wide Web has been expanded and diversified.
An interactive version of the “Life Over Time”
exhibit presents multiple levels of access to the
exhibit’s numerous displays on evolution, In
addition, there are resources for teachers, a cal-
endar of events, and much more. Log on at
http://rs6000.bvis.uic.edu/museum/.

CONVERSATIONS
ON CULTURES

he richness of cultural diversity in

America represents an extraordinary

opportunity for our many cultures to
learn about others. But with a long-standing
lack of communication among cultures, it
seems as though the talks are both slow to come
and easily criticized.

Some multi-cultural talks lead to “tribaliz-
ing” of ourselves and other cultures. In essence,
the dialogues ignore what it is that cultural
understanding needs the most — the ability to
identify the unifying forces and common values
which, while often ascribed to certain cultures,
are shared across all cultural boundaries.

The people perhaps best trained to N
speak about cultural diversity and got s10 a?

understanding are Sn oe a “Cy,
gists. The anthropologist’ SO ZL,
mission is to study STE t
within a comparative q, Y.
framework. But talks = 3
about cultural under- S
standing aMoRane
anthropologists and other = z
groups interested in diver- % ©
sity are rare. This presents 4 &
a great need to disseminate ae Oy
anthropologists’ findings to a Oy &
greater public. o
Recognizing this need, ais Cc

Field Museum has created The *Sap ION Have E
Nuveen Forum: “Teaching Culture and Cul-
tural Teaching: Conversations on Culture and
Identity in America.” As part of the National
Endowment for the Humanities initiative “A
National Conversation on American Pluralism
and Identity,” The Field Museum will explore
issues of pluralism, culture, and diversity in
America.

The forum will host nine separate conver-
sations involving a cross-section of Chicagoans
and anthropologists. By inviting a number of
different groups, this forum will attempt to
eliminate the problems associated with discipli-
nary and social boundaries to communication.

Beginning Tuesday, July 25, 1995 with
“Africa’s Meaning for all Americans,” The
Nuveen Forum at The Field Museum will
explore Africa’s heritage and its part in all
human culture. The conversation will begin
with a look at The Field Museum’s exhibit
“Africa,” and will be led by Hayelom Ayele,
City of Chicago Commission on Human Rela-
tions; Rev. Michael Pfleger, The Community of
Saint Sabina; and Chaparukha Kusimba and
Deborah Mack, The Field Museum.

The second conversation, “The Creation of
National Identity” will be September 7, 1995.
The Nuveen Forum at The Field Museum will
run through June 4, 1996. All conversations will
be held at The Field Museum and are free of
charge, and each will relate to a Field Museum
exhibit. The Nuveen Forum at The Field Muse-
um is supported by The John Nuveen Company
and the National Endowment for the Humani-
ties. Tickets are required. For further informa-
tion on the forum, please call (312) 922-9410,

ext. 530.
3 July/August 1995

UPSTAIRS, DOWNSTAIRS

Diane Alexander White / GN87490.5

87507.19

Diane Alexander W

John Weinstein / GN85189.10a

Below, members of the Friends of Field Muse-
um Library admire the specially-rigged display
of Audubon’s Birds of America constructed by
Ben Williams, special collections librarian

(rear).

Scott Lanyon

Peter Crane, the A. Watson Armour I/I Curator
of Geology and vice president for academic
affairs, joins Pam and Doug Walter, co-chairs of
the Founders’ Council, in greeting Nobel laure-
ate James Dewey Watson (second from right) at
the Council’s Award of Merit dinner. See story,
page 11.

an Gainer / GN87505.6

Linda Di

John Weinstein / GN87492.28

Museum trustee Bill Kurtis joins members of the Rapid Assess-
ment Project of Conservation International at a Museum pre-
view of Kurtis’s New Explorers television documentary on the

RAP team’s efforts to “triage” threatened areas of deciduous
forest in South America.

BALLARD JOINS CURATORIAL STAFF

William Ballard, former Fellow with the
National Health and Medical Research

@ Council at the University of Chicago, has
joined the Zoology Department as the first of six
new curators working to expand The Field
Museum’s biochemical laboratory. Ballard has
spent the past six months in his home
country of Australia as the C. J. Martin
Postdoctoral Fellow at the Common-
wealth Scientific and Industrial Research
Organization in Canberra.

To increase the Museum biochemical
laboratory’s usefulness, Ballard and his
team will study technological advance-
ments in labs across the nation. Once the
study is completed, Ballard will use the
laboratory to gain a greater understanding
of mitochondrial DNA evolution. Having
a laboratory capable of large-scale pro-
jects, says Ballard, will open the door for
Field Museum curators to do smaller,
necessary projects. He expects to have
auto DNA sequencing abilities by August
and a completed biochemistry laboratory
within a year.

Ballard’s interests are in velvet worms and
flies. He has done extensive work with black
flies, the ones responsible for the transmission
of river blindness in Africa and South America.
He hopes to determine DNA-based ways of dis-
tinguishing adult flies that transmit river blind-
ness from other closely related species that look
almost identical under a microscope. Eighteen
million people are infected with river blindness
and 126 million people are at risk.

Ballard, three of the new curators, and John
Hall, project director for the laboratory renoya-
tion, began their research with a trip to St.
Louis to study one of the world’s top DNA
sequencing labs. The other members of the bio-
chemistry laboratory team will arrive at the
Museum within a year and a half.

Meanwhile, two curators are leaving The
Field Museum to become directors of other
museums. Scott Lanyon, the Pritzker Curator of
Systematic Biology, will become director of the
James Ford Bell Museum of Natural History at
the University of Minnesota. Olivier Rieppel,
curator of fossil amphibians and reptiles, will
become director of the Staatliches Museum fiir
Naturkunde in Stuttgart, Germany.

Traditional dances
were part of the cul-
tural festivities mark-
ing Indonesian
Independence Day

BOYD...

(Continued from page 2)

cennes. It is housed in a building erected for the
1931 Exposition Coloniale. In her autobiogra-
phy, Malvina Hoffman describes her trips to
that Exposition to meet people who would
model for her as she made sculptures for The
Field Museum. I have been visiting this muse-
um since the mid 1960’s — long before I came
to the museum world. The interior rooms of the
building are as they were in 1931 and are quite
extraordinary. Although not extensive, the
exhibits are remarkable for their objects. The
lower level is a tropical aquarium complete with
crocodiles and tortoises. It is surprising to see
this unchanging museum in a city that has been
making extraordinary changes in its museums.

I concluded the day with my first visit to
the Musée d’ Orsay. In years past when I stayed
at the Voltaire Hotel I often walked by the aban-
doned railroad station, peeking inside only to
see stored cars. Since then an artistic revolution
has taken placed within. I was so rejuvenated by
my visit that I walked the half hour back to the
hotel, not needing the cane I was carrying for a
torn tissue in my foot.

On my final day I jumped in a cab to The
Museum of Man in the Palais de Chaillot on the
Trocadero. Here is a great museum in transition.
There was a comprehensive and engaging
exhibit on the population explosion and human
diversity entitled “Six Milliards d’ Hommes.” It
vividly demonstrates how small the planet is
becoming for our species. This exceptional
exhibit about human differences in a congested
world reassured me that The Field Museum is
taking the right step by focusing on how to live
together in a diyerse world.

At noon I took the train to Giverny where I
was met by Bud Korengold, the director of the
Musée D’ Art Americain, the sister institution of
the Terra Museum of American Art in Chicago.
Having avoided museum officialdom on the
trip, I found Bud the perfect exception — an
exceptional host with his wife, Christine. Unob-
trusively set next to Monet’s home and garden,
the museum was a welcome experience after
the huge Parisian museums. This museum of
American painters is a gem. It adds much to a
visit to Giverny and the memorable gardens and
home of Monet.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

UPTERRLAINARLUTA

pterrlainarluta, or “always getting

ready,” is the subject of a new Field

Museum photography exhibit on the
Yup’ik Eskimos’ fascinating subsistence cul-
ture. Photographer James H. Barker, on his first
visit to the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta in Alaska,
initially found the region’s landscape frighten-
ing. But his fears seemed out of place when he
observed the people who lived comfortably
along the Kuskokwim river — the Yup'ik Eski-
mo. Their ability to gather food and sustain
shelter is both a honed skill and a simple neces-
sity. Barker returned to study the area where
the Yup’ik live a life of subsistence, one in
which they are “Always Getting Ready.”

“All through the year we are getting ready,
getting ready for fishing, for berry picking, for
potlatches, getting ready for winter,” says
Agnes Kelly Bostrom. “We are always getting
ready to go somewhere to get foods. And
because we are so religious, you know, we are
always getting ready for the next life.”

It is the Upterrlainarluta, being ever pre-
pared, that Barker sought to capture on film. In
the exhibit, “Always Getting Ready, Upter-
rlainarluta: Yup'ik Eskimo Subsistence in

Southwest Alaska,’ Barker’s 19 years
of photography in the Yukon-Kuskok-
wim Delta examines the subsistence
cycle from spring seal hunting to win-
ter dancing.

Barker captures the essence of liv-
ing comfortably in a barren land. His
trained eye finds the personality of the
Yup’ik in hunting practices and steam
houses. He is now a known and
respected part of the communities he
has studied. and his photographs con-
vey a sense of that familiarity. And though he
has published books of his photographs, it is
considered a true honor among the Yup’ik to
see Barker's original prints.

The exhibit opens in the Webber Gallery
of The Field Museum on July 21 and runs
through November 12. The exhibit helps
explain how a culture survives in what seems

to be an unlivable climate. As Nick O. Nick of

Nunapitchuk explains, “I've seen the outside,
it’s nice and sturdy land. The land in this area
is not sturdy, it's soft, and part of it is like
quicksand. It's like that.”

THE SAGEBRUSH OCEAN

r V he Great Basin Desert is a vast land that
covers most of Nevada, the West Desert
of Utah, the southeastern corners of

Oregon and Idaho, and California east of the

Sierra and Cascades. For humans the Great

Basin remains an enigma — its sandy dunes

and dry lake beds are still a place where devel-

opments by man are not present. The Great

Basin represents only the place where settlers

once trudged across long, hot sands without

water or nourishment.

The Great Basin has been studied by only
a few scientists, historians, and geologists.
Stephen Trimble, a naturalist, photographer,
and writer, has spent more of his life in this
region than out of it. His experience with what
he calls “the Sagebrush Ocean” began when he
would accompany his father, a geologist with
the U.S. Geological Survey, to the area.

In 1981, the University of Nevada Press
asked Trimble to work on their Great Basin
Natural History Series. Eight years later Trim-
ble's book, The Sagebrush Ocean, was pub-
lished. An exhibit based on that work opens at
The Field Museum July 1 and runs through
October 2.

In praise of his book and its photographs,
Wallace Stegner makes an interesting distinc-
tion between Trimble and others who go
through the Great Basin: “[The book] will be a
revelation to those who have habitually steeled
themselves to the drive across the desert at 70
miles an hour, generally at night.”

Trimble's approach as a naturalist will help
exhibit-goers understand the Great Basin in
four different ways. The Great Basin is an
inland area which drains inward; it can be
hydrographically defined. The geological for-
mation around the Great Basin includes moun-
tain ranges from every direction; this is the
physiographic definition. A third way to define

the region is historically. We think of the cov-
ered wagons and settlers of the 1800s passing
through the Sagebrush Ocean, but not of much
more. Says Trimble prophetically, “Time, cli-
mate, life, and history have not yet culminated
here.”

The fourth aspect of the region is its bio-
logical importance. Trimble has spent years
exploring the various forms of life in the Basin.
From sage to jackrabbits bounding from bush
to sand, the Basin is filled with life.

Too hot to live in during the summer and
freezing during the winter, the Sagebrush
Ocean opens up through Trimble’s words and
photos. Winner of the 1990 Earle A. Chiles
Award and the 1991 Ansel Adams Award,
Trimble has
put together
this exhibit of
83 photographs,
along with lyri-
cally written
insights to give
a new aware-
ness of one of
North Ameri-
ca’s major land-
scapes.

by” BBH Exhibits: Ine. qordne:
with Dr. Merlin Tuttle of Bat Con-
servation International and an advi-
‘sory council that included Carrie
Hageman of The Field Museum and
other museum experts from ae the
nation.
- “Masters of the Night” i is a fun learning
experience that dispels myths about bats,
describes their ecological importance,
explores bat research and collections at The .
Field Museum, and provides an understand-—
4 ing of one of the world’ s most t misunderstood

: a the highlights:

and the Geld: emer-
Bence of bats on a
cave at dusk oe

John Abraham and
George Chimugak,
two hunters from
Toksook Bay, study
the ice conditions.
Photograph from
“Always Getting
Ready,” a study of
the Yup’ik Eskimo by
James Barker.

AmericanAirlines”

American Airlines is
the promotional part-
ner for “Masters of
The Night: The True
Story of Bats” at The
Field Museum.

Stephen Trimble
photograph (left) of
a frosted dune at
Crescent Dunes,
Big Smoky Valley,
Nevada.

7 Files

Exhibit Opens:
The Sagebrush Ocean

Photographs and essays on the Great
Basin Desert by Stephen Trimble. Through
October 2.

7 4 Tuesday

Independence Day

Celebrate the Fourth of July, Indepen-
dence Day, at The Field Museum!

7. G Saturday

Japanese Papermaking
and Marbling

9 am - 2 pm. In this adult class learn about
traditional Japanese crafts of making hand-
made paper (washi) and printing marble ink
patterns (suminagashi). The handmade
paper will be made from the inner bark of
the kozo shrub. Suminagashi is created by
floating sumi ink and transferring the pattern
to paper—no two patterns are ever alike.
The decorated papers can be used for many
creative uses. All supplies will be provided,
but please bring a towel and tray to carry
your paper home. $45 ($40 members). Reg-
istration is required. Call (312) 322-8854 for
more information.

7#lSsSo

Dinosaurs: Mesozoic
Through Extinction

9 am - 2 pm. During the Mesozoic era,
dinosaurs inhabited the Earth, and then they
disappeared as mysteriously as they lived,
leaving fossilized remains. This adult class
will explore extinction theories, the history
of dinosaur excavation, and the latest
research on these prehistoric creatures. We
will visit the “Life Over Time” exhibit where
we’ll view the Museum’s Albertosaurus,
Triceratops, Apatosaurus, and Hadrosaurus
skeletons as well as other Mesozoic life
forms. $35 ($30 members). Registration is
required. Call (312) 322-8854 for more
information.

JULY/AUGUST HIGHLIGHTS

7/1 ssi

Nature Network
Kickoff

11:30 am. Brunch with Dr. Merlin Tuttle,
founder of Bat Conservation International.
Reservations required. For Nature Network
members. Call the Nature Network office at
(312) 322-8881. See the Get Smart page,
opposite, for information on “The Amazing
World of Bats”, a lecture by Dr. Tuttle at 2
p.m.

T IND es

Founders’ Council
Reception

6 - 8 pm. Join the Founders’ Council recep-
tion to meet Dr. Merlin Tuttle, founder and
executive director of Bat Conservation
International. For information about the
Founders’ Council or this reception, please
call (312) 322-8868.

re oe

Go Fly a Kite!

10 am - 2 pm. Kites are found in the history
of many cultures. In this family workshop,
examine a variety of contemporary kites
from around the world and construct sever-
al small kites using simple materials and dif-
ferent design techniques. Afterwards, we
will fly the kites on Museum grounds
(weather permitting). Participants should
bring their own Junch. Adults and children
grades 3 - 8. $14 per participant ($12 per
member participant). Registration Is
required. Call (312) 322-8854 for more
information.

lie a

Members’ Brunch

Noon. In conjunction with “Masters of the
Night,” Field Museum members and their
guests are invited to Sunday brunch. The
buffet brunch will be immediately followed
by priority admission to the “Masters of the
Night” exhibit. Bruce D. Patterson, Ph.D.,
curator of mammals at The Field Museum,
will then present a slide-illustrated lecture
titled “Life After Dark in the World’s Richest
Park: The Bats of Manu.” Tickets for the
event are $27 for members and $30 for
guests. RSVP by July 19 by calling (312)
322-8871.

7] 228 ins

Africa’s Meaning
for All Americans

5:30 - 8:30 p.m. As part of The Nuveen
Forum at The Field Museum, this “conversa-
tion” is the first of nine talks addressing the
subject of American pluralism and identity.
How is American culture influenced by past
and present relationships with Africa? The
evening begins with a tour of the Museum’s
“Africa” exhibit and then moves to a con-
versation exploring cultural connections led
by Chicago leaders in culture and anthro-
pology. Tickets are free. For more informa-
tion, please call (312) 922-9410, ext. 530.

8/3 & 10

Thursdays
Drawn in the Field

6:30 - 8:30 pm. Join us for this two-session
beginner’s drawing class for families. The
first session will take place in the exhibits
where you will learn basic sketching tech-
niques using the Museum’s animal diora-
mas. Then we will refine our drawings using
specimens from the Museum’s collection.
$16 per participant ($14 per member partic-
ipant). Registration is required. Call (312)
322-8854 for more information.

6 5 Saturday

Entomologist
for a Day

8 am - 3 pm. Join us for this day-long fami-
ly field trip and learn about the work of
entomologists — scientists who study
insects. The first part of the day will be spent
learning about aquatic insects near the Little
Red School House Nature Preserve. Fami-
lies will then return to the Museum to
observe living specimens, identify the
insects they’ve found and present their find-
ings to the group. Adults and children
grades 4 and up. $25 per participant ($22
per member participant). Transportation is
by school bus and participants bring their
own lunch. Registration is required. Call
(312) 322-8854 for more information.

BAT PROGRAMS FOR ALL AGES

variety of summer educational pro-

grams for kids, teens, and adults will

take advantage of the traveling

exhibit “Masters of the Night: The
True Story of Bats.” For information on all of
the following bat programs, please call (312)
322-8854.

Teen Workshop: Amazing Bats!
Friday, July 14, 6:30 - 8:30 p.m.

Bats are the most mysterious and misun-
derstood of all mammals. In this workshop
teens will discover the truth about bats and tour
“Masters of the Night” accompanied by the
“real Batman” of Lincoln Park Zoo, Scott Hein-
richs. Mr. Heinrichs will discuss the special
needs of the bats at the zoo and prepare you for
a close encounter with live bats. For teens
grades 7 and up. $14 ($12 members). Registra-
tion is required.

Lecture: The Amazing World of Bats
Sunday, July 16, 2:00 pm

$5 (Free for Field Museum and Bat Conservya-
tion International Members)

One of the world’s foremost experts on
bats, Merlin Tuttle, Ph.D., will lecture at The
Field Museum on the vital role of bats in main-
taining healthy ecosystems. He will also give a
slide presentation that will take you into cav-
erns, thick jungles and arid deserts to see bats
courting, caring for their young, pollinating
flowers, and capturing a wide variety of prey.
Despite their importance, bats are among the
world’s most endangered animals primarily due
to habitat loss, pollution, and destruction by
humans. For over 30 years, Dr. Tuttle has been
studying and photographing hundreds of bat
species. In 1982, Dr. Tuttle founded Bat Con-
servation International out of concern for the
severe declines in bat populations. Dr. Tuttle
will be signing two of his books, America’s
Neighborhood Bats and The Bat House
Builder's Handbook, from 12:45-1:45 p.m.
only. Limited autographed copies of his books
will be available for purchase after the lecture.
While lecture participants will not be charged
regular Museum admission, the additional fee
for “Masters of the Night” is $3 for nonmember
adults and children, and is payable at the exhib-
it entrance. Members of The Field Museum and
Bat Conservation International will be admitted
to the exhibit, on this day only, at no charge by
showing their lecture ticket.

Family Field Trip: Bats in Your Belfry
Saturday, July 22, 5:00-11:00 p.m.

Join The Field Museum for evening of dis-
covery at Volo Bog State Natural Area, the sum-
mer feeding site and nursery for over 1, 000
little brown bats. Enjoy a slide presentation that
will dispel the myths about these fascinating
creatures. Visit an old barn, the site where
female bats and their offspring live, to watch,
listen and count as they exit the barn. Partici-
pants are encouraged to bring insect repellent,
binoculars and a lawn chair or blanket. Adults
and children grades 4 and up; $25 per partici-
pant ($22 per member participant).

Seminar: Bats in Culture

Saturday, July 22, 9:00 am - Noon

Maureen Ransom

Department of Education, The Field Museum

Kathleen Picken, Historian

Robert Welsch, Ph.D.

Department of Anthropology, The Field Museum
Throughout history and all over the world

people have used bats for food, adornment, cos-

mology, and as religious and social symbols.

Bats also conjure up negative images of vam-

pires and devils with bat wings from myths, lit-

erature, and art. Join us as the panelists discuss

and illustrate how people have used bats and bat

imagery in Mesoamerica, Europe, and the Pacif-

ic, Specifically in New Guinea. You will learn

Diane Alexander White / GN87499,20

how in Mayan and many other cultures the bat
has played a prominent role as a symbol of
death and sacrifice. Bat classification and why
they get so much bad press will also be high-
lighted. A brief question and answer session will
follow. $25 ($20 members). Registration is
required.

belees

pare rsseer sts ysrtt

Picture Bride, a fea-
ture film about early
Japanese immigrants
in Hawaii, premiered
at The Field Museum
as part of the Chica-
go Asian-American
Film Festival spon-
sored by the Asian
American Institute.
Enjoying the festivi-
ties were (from left)
lead actress Youki
Kudon; Asian Ameri-
can Institute presi-
dent Yvonne Lau;
and lead actor Akira
Takayama.

Become a Member
of The Field Museum

and receive these benefits:

Free general admission

Free priority admission to “Life Over Time”
Priority admission to special exhibits
Free coat checking and strollers
Invitation to Members’ Night

Free subscription to In the Field

10% discount at all Museum stores

10% discount at Picnic in the Field
13-month wall calendar featuring exhibit
photographs

Reduced subscription prices on selected
magazines

Opportunity to receive the Museum's
annual report

Use of our 250,000-volume

natural history library

Discount on classes, field trips, and seminars
for adults and children

Members-only tour program
Opportunity to attend the annual
children’s Holiday Tea

Children’s “dinosaur” birthday card

¥, PV oot ea Oe COVA Va VV vy

MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION
New Members only. This is not a renewal form.

Please enroll me as a Member of
The Field Museum

Name

Address
City
State __<Zip
Home phone

Business phone

GIFT APPLICATION FOR
Name
Address
City
State___Zip
Home phone

Business phone

GIFT FROM
Name
Address
City
State ___Zip
Home phone
Business phone
MEMBERSHIP CATEGORIES
C) Individual — one year $35 / two years $65
e) Family — one year $45 / two years $85
(Includes two adults, children and grand-
children 18 and under.)
Student/Senior — one year $25
(Individual only. Copy of L.D. required.)
@) Field Contributor — $100 - $249
ie, Field Adventurer — $250 - $499
() Field Naturalist — $500 - $999
C) Field Explorer — $1,000 - $1,499

All benefits of a family membership
— and more

. Founders’ Council — $1,500

Send form to: Membership Department,
The Field Museum, Roosevelt Road at Lake
Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605

Saturday, July 1

10am-1pm Adinkra activity. Stamp
a traditional design from Ghana
that represents an African proverb.

10am-1pm Human Origins activity.

Participate in a game to discover
the theories and traces of our
human ancestors in Africa.
10am-4pm Bat Shadow Puppet
activity. Make a shadow puppet
bat then take part in a puppet
show.

llam & 1pm Highlights of The
Field Museum tour.

Noon-3pm How Scientists Study
Bats demonstration. Watch as bat
specimens are prepared for The
Field Museum collection.

Sunday, July 2

10am-4pm Bat Shadow Puppet
activity.

Noon-3pm How Scientists Study
Bats demonstration.

Monday, July 3

liam & 2pm Highlights of The
Field Museum tour. Visit some of
the exhibits which make this muse-
um one of the world’s greatest.
Find out the stories behind the
exhibits.

Wednesday, July 5
11am & 2pm Highlights of The
Field Museum tour.

Thursday, July 6

liam & 2pm Highlights of The
Field Museum tour.

Friday, July 7
Jiam & 1pm Highlights of The
Field Museum tour.

Saturday, July 8

10am-1pm Human Origins activity.

10am-3pm Bat Houses demonstra-
tion. See an array of bat houses
and learn how you can attract
these insect-eaters to your
neighborhood.

10am-4pm Bat Shadow Puppet
activity.

11am Highlights of The Field
Museum tour.

Noon-3pm How Scientists Study
Bats demonstration.

2pm Through Ancient Egypt tour.
Explore the mysterious empire of
Ancient Egypt that has fascinated
the world for hundreds of years.

VISITOR PROGRAMS

Sunday, July 9

10am-3pm. Bat Houses demonstra-
tion.

10am-4pm. Bat Shadow Puppet
activity.

Noon-3pm. How Scientists Study
Bats demonstration.

Monday, July 10

l1am & 2pm Highlights of The
Field Museum tour.

Wednesday, July 12

11am & 2pm Highlights of The
Field Museum tour.

Thursday, July 13
llam & 2pm Highlights of The
Field Museum tour.

Saturday July 15

10am-1pm Horns & Antlers activi-
ty. Find out the differences
between horns and antlers.
10am-4pm Bat Shadow Puppets
activity.

11am Stories from Around the
World. Gather around as our
storyteller transports you to other
lands and times.

liam & 1pm Highlights of The
Field Museum tour.

Noon-2pm How Scientists Study
Bats demonstration.

Sunday, July 16

10am-4pm Bat Shadow Puppet
activity.

Noon-3pm How Scientists Study
Bats demonstration.

Monday, July 17

11am & 2pm Highlights of The
Field Museum tour.

Wednesday, July 19
liam & 2pm Highlights of The
Field Museum tour.

Thursday, July 20
liam & 2pm Highlights of The
Field Museum tour.

Saturday, July 22

10am-4pm Bat Shadow Puppets
activity.

Noon-3pm How Scientists Study
Bats demonstration.

Sunday, July 23

10am-4pm Bat Shadow Puppets
activity.

Noon-3pm How Scientists Study
Bats demonstration

Monday, July 24

llam & 2pm Highlights of The
Field Museum tour.

Friday, July 28
llam & 1pm Highlights of The
Field Museum tour.

Saturday, July 29

10am-4pm Bat Shadow Puppets
activity.

11am & 1pm Highlights of The
Field Museum tour.

Noon-3pm How Scientists Study
Bats demonstration.

Sunday, July 30

10am-4pm Bat Shadow Puppets
activity

Noon-3pm How Scientists Study
Bats demonstration.

Monday, July 31
11am & 2pm Highlights of The
Field Museum tour.

Wednesday, August 2
Tlam & 2pm Highlights of The
Field Museum tour.

Thursday, August 3

llam & 2pm Highlights of The
Field Museum tour.

Friday, August 4
llam & 1pm Highlights of The
Field Museum tour.

Saturday, August 5

10am-4pm Bat Shadow Puppets
activity.

Noon-3pm How Scientists Study
Bats demonstration.

Sunday, August 6

10am-4pm Bat Shadow Puppets
activity. ;
Noon-3pm How Scientists Study
Bats demonstration.

Monday, August 7

11am & 2pm Highlights of The
Field Museum tour.
Wednesday, August 9

11am & 2pm Highlights of The
Field Museum tour.

Thursday, August 10

11am-2pm Highlights of The Field

Museum tour.

Saturday, August 12

Saturday, August 19

10am-4pm Bat Shadow Puppets
activity.

Noon - 3pm How Scientists Study
Bats demonstration.

Sunday, August 20

10am-4pm Bat Shadow Puppets
activity.

Noon-3pm How Scientists Study
Bats demonstration.

Monday, August 21
1lam & 2pm Highlights of The
Field Museum tour.

Wednesday, August 23

11am & 2pm Highlights of The
Field Museum tour.

Thursday, August 24

11am & 2pm Highlights of The
Field Museum tour.

Saturday, August 26

10am-1pm Horns and Antlers
activity.

10am-4pm Bat Shadow Puppets
activity.

Noon-3pm How Scientists Study
Bats demonstration.

Monday, August 28
llam & 2pm Highlights of The
Field Museum tour.

Wednesday, August 30

llam & 2pm Highlights of The
Field Museum tour.

Thursday, August 31
llam & 2pm Highlights of The
Field Museum tour.

10am-1pm African Metals activity.
Learn about the ancient African art
of metallurgy.

10am-3pm Bat Houses demonstra-
tion.

10am-4pm Bat Shadow Puppets
activity.

Noon-3pm How Scientists Study
Bats demonstration.

Sunday, August 13

10am-1pm Bat Houses demonstra-
tion.

10am-4pm Bat Shadow Puppets
activity.

Noon-3pm How Scientists Study
Bats demonstration.

Monday, August 14
11am & 2 pm Highlights of The
Field Museum tour.

Wednesday, August 16
11am-2pm Highlights of The Field
Museum tour.

Thursday, August 17
liam & 2pm Highlights of The
Field Museum tour.

GN87493.20

GNB87496.23

by

Diane
Alexander
White

ore than 6,000 mem-
bers and their families
and guests attended the
44th annual Members’
Night on May 5, a nine
percent increase over
1994 attendance, Clockwise from top left: In
the ever-popular “Blood & Guts” demonstra-
tion, Bill Stanley entranced (or sickened) visi-
tors to the Mammals Prep lab, where the
carcass of a bear was being prepared for the
collections. John Flynn showed off new tech-
nology in geomagnetics; Bob Jackson played
traditional Native American music and origi-
nal compositions on hand-crafted wooden
flutes; a young visitor got up-close and per-
sonal with a bat; others scoped out botani-
cal specimens; live snakes provided a
hands-on experience in an exhibit pro-
duced by the Chicago Herpetological
Society; Ben Bronson went eyeball-to-
eyeball with a figurine from the Bara
people of Madagascar; Mike Dillon
demonstrated how to access his
Andean Botanical Information System
(ABIS) on the World Wide Web
<htip://ucjeps.berk-
eley.edu/abis/abisinfo.html>;
Chuimei Ho explored the subtleties
of lacquerware; Barry Chernoff and

his South American fishes created a
traffic jam; and Bill Simpson dusted off some
large vertebrate fossils.

GNB7494.30

GN87494 2

Photographs

GN87493.23

8749423

"
ay

C

GN87495,37

GN87496.18

GN87495.17

James Balodimas

SUMMER READING

Three stages in the
reestablishment of
native prairie in
Moraine Hills area of
McHenry County,
Illinois. The patch at
left has been burned
to replace nitrogen
in the soil; the mid-
dle patch is drying
out for a planned
burn; the patch at
right has started
regenerating and will
eventually be a
mature prairie.

ANTHROPOLOGY: YESTERDAY,
TODAY, AND TOMORROW

AFTER THE Fact: Two COUNTRIES, FOUR
DECADES, ONE ANTHROPOLOGIST by Clifford
Geertz. Harvard University Press. 198 pages.
$22.95.

Reviewed by John Terrell
Curator of Oceanic Archaeology
and Ethnology

lifford Geertz is a professor at the
famed Institute for Advanced Study
in Princeton. Many say he is one of
the finest anthropologists of this cen-
tury. He writes enviably well. His latest book,
After the Fact, is so readable, so rich in
metaphor, allusion, and imagery, it might be
likened to a prose poem about the social sci-
ences. He details anthropology’s recent loss of
faith in its mission, course, and direction. He
also relates his own career as an anthropologist
and asks whether what he has done, what
anthropology has done, adds up to anything:
“Suppose, having entangled yourself every now
and again over four decades or so in the goings-
on in two provincial towns, one a Southeast
Asian bend in the road, one a North African out-
post and passage point, you wished to say some-
thing about how those goings-on had changed.”
The problem, of course, is that much has
changed over those forty years. The towns have
changed; the world has changed; the anthropol-
ogist himself has changed. So too, has the disci-
pline of anthropology. “What we can construct,
if we keep notes and survive, are hindsight
accounts of the connectedness of things that
seem to have happened: pieced-together pattern-
ings, after the fact.” But what are such pieced-
together patterns good for? Geertz and other
anthropologists these days are none too sure.
The great ideas of the Victorian Age were
the idea of progress and the idea of decadence.
It has been said the Victorians faced the future
alternatively with hope and fear. Some, howev-
er, sensed with greater horror — partly because
Victorians knew about the vastness of geologi-
cal time, partly because of Darwin’s particular
theory of evolution — that history may lead us
neither up nor down. As the Victorian poet
James Thomson wrote in The City of Dreadful
Night,

The world roils round forever like a mill;
It grinds out death and life and good and ill;
It has no purpose, heart or mind or will.

Thus did both science and intellectual skep-
ticism lead to a loss of faith in the 19th century
not only in God’s Will but in any meaningful
alternative. And the more sensitive felt,
Matthew Arnold wrote in Stanzas from the
Grande Chartreuse, they were

Wandering between two worlds, one dead,
The other powerless to be born,
With nowhere yet to rest my head... .

According to the Anthropology Newsletter
of the American Anthropological Association,
many anthropologists, like some Victorians, are
wandering between two worlds. The first is the
world of science, objective scholarship, careful-
ly determined facts, clever statistics, and exper-
imental proof. Many now say this world, this
faith in Anthropology as Science, once so pow-
erful, is all but dead. Unfortunately, what
anthropologists should turn to now for guidance
and direction is contested intellectual ground.

In spite of Geertz’s success in anthropolo-
gy, After the Fact is not a map to a new world,
nor a catechism for a new faith. This is a disap-
pointing book. To state matters simply, Geertz’s
vision of anthropology is introverted and
scholastic. And strangely narrow-minded.
Here’s a test. How quickly can you think of a
word in English for “hindsight accounts” or
“pieced-together patternings, after the fact’?
Doesn’t the word “history” just pop into your
mind? Judging by this book, Geertz either has
something against what historians and philoso-
phers of history have mapped out for the social
sciences or (to make a horribly poor pun) he
thinks anthropology is about prehistory, i.e., that
events in the last forty years or so are too young
to qualify as history.

on’t get me wrong. Geertz is charming,
Do seductively self-effacing, and

important. But reading this book is like
listening to a worldly, and weary, raconteur at a
small and exclusive dinner party. His tales of
adventure in distant places (in Geertz’s case,
Indonesia and Morocco), transcribed and print-
ed as a book, are a novel kind of autobiography
about his years in the service of anthropology.
But these collected words have the tone of an
annotated anthology — lest we forget the seri-
ousness of this volume, Geertz includes 25
pages of end-notes, plus an index — of a racon-
teur’s favorite (and, I'll bet, often told) anec-
dotes about what it means to be an

RESTORING NATURE IN ILLINOIS

MIRACLE UNDER THE OAKS: THE REVIVAL OF
NATURE IN AMERICA by William K. Stevens.
Pocket Books. 332 pages, illustrated. $22.00

Reviewed by Paul Baker
Coordinator, The Nature Network

iracle Under the Oaks is the story of
M: unique place, a trendsetting organi-
zation and an implacable man. It is of
great regional interest, describing organisms

SO 10

and vistas familiar to many in the Chicago area
and chronicling events and anecdotes involving
local leaders in conservation and ecology.

William K. Stevens, a reporter for The New
York Times, tells of the rescue of a tract of land
along the North Branch of the Chicago River
named Vestal Grove in honor of Arthur Vestal,
an early ecosystem theorist. The story revolves
around Steve Packard, now Director, Science
and Stewardship, of The Nature Conservancy’s
Illinois Field Office. Packard recognized the
value of this degraded land and set about restor-
ing it to its presettlement grandeur. The mix of
mystery and discovery during this quest makes
for exciting reading, unexpected in a book about
the environment and ecosystems.

A brief natural history of Northern Illinois
is presented in early chapters. The book then
emphasizes the botanical side of restoration
while also discussing political and ethical
issues. Important issues needed resolution:
deciding which plants should be reintroduced
and in what ratios, whether the area had origi-
nally been a prairie or true savanna, whether

anthropologist.

After the party, after hearing these captivat-
ing tales told by its most distinguished guest, is
there much to be remembered and retold later by
other, less renowned mortals? Geertz ends this
volume on an ineffective note. “After the fact,”
he tells us, is a double pun. (I guess I’m not the
only one who loves puns.) It means “ex-post
interpretation, the main way (perhaps the only
way) one can come to terms with the sorts of
lived-forward, understood-backward phenome-
na anthropologists are condemned to deal with.”
It also means the post-positivist critique of
empirical realism, the move away from simple
correspondence theories of truth and knowledge
which makes the very term “fact” such a deli-
cate matter. “There is not much assurance or
sense of closure, not even much of a sense of
knowing what it is one precisely is after, in so
indefinite a quest, amid such various people,
over such a diversity of times. But it is an excel-
lent way, interesting, dismaying, useful, and
amusing, to expend a life.”

Such sentiments are what is giving anthro-
pology, and the social sciences generally, such a
sorry reputation around Congress and City Hall.
If this is anthropology, so what? I’ve been a
practicing anthropologist for thirty years, to
Geertz’s forty, have considerably less celebrity,
and have never even been to Bali or Morocco.
Stull, I find that Geertz is selling anthropology
short. The New Guinea Research Program at
The Field Museum — my colleagues and I are
exploring the social anthropology, prehistory,
and human diversity of people on the Sepik
coast of Papua New Guinea — is not just a chal-
lenging amusement. This work, and the Collab-
orative Kinship & Adoption Project (CKAP)
currently being developed here in Chicago by
the Museum’s Center for Cultural Understand-
ing and Change and Columbia College’s
Department of Television, add up to more than
just an interesting way to expend my life. In
CKAP we are studying how responsibilities for
the welfare of children are shared by individuals
other than biological parents, and we are finding
that what adoption means, and what it signifies
for participants, is malleable, contingent, and
pragmatic, a “social construction” rather than a
natural fact or a universal cultural given. I have
worked too hard for too long to submit to
Geertz’s vague dismissal of what I think is
important and meaningful work.

burning should be induced and how best to han-
dle introduced species — all of which required
immense amounts of time, research, and manu-
al labor.

The state of Illinois has been a leader in
evaluating native flora and fauna. In the late
1970s Illinois undertook a comprehensive
inventory of surviving natural ecosystems.
Often the definitions of habitats conflicted with
other groups’ evaluations and generated conflict
with land-use laws set up under State regula-
tions. In addition, Packard and his group had to
work closely with local governments, develop-
ers, businesses, and other conservation and
environmental agencies to organize a restoration
plan — no easy task.

Set in a moderately large typeface, the book
is readable by all ages. I have a personal reason
for recommending the book, having been
involved in the early bird survey work.

Miracle Under the Oaks tells an enyoyable
story and can be finished on a long weekend. It
is an entertaining and educational introduction
to important conservation and restoration efforts
and issues and the people trying to effect them.

J.D. WATSON RECEIVES AWARD OF MERIT

ames Dewey Watson, co-discoverer of
the double-helix structure of DNA and
the father of the Human Genome Project,
received The Field Museum Founders’
Council Award of Merit at a dinner on May 18.
The award recognizes important contributions
to bringing evolutionary and environmental
biology to the forefront of public attention.

Watson, a native Chicagoan who in his
youth was a volunteer in the Museum's Depart-
ment of Botany, shared a Nobel Prize in 1962
and 1s now president of the Cold Spring Harbor
Laboratory on Long Island, New York, a major
biological research and conference facility.
From 1989 to 1992, he was director of the
National Center for Human Genome Research
of the National Institutes of Health, where he
launched the worldwide effort to map and
sequence the human genome, the three billion
DNA “letters” that code the development of a
human being,

At the Founders’ Council dinner, Watson
spoke on “Ethical Implications of the Human
Genome Project.” He noted that the Cold Spring
Harbor Laboratory had been founded by indus-
trialist Andrew Carnegie as part of the eugenics
movement in the early years of the century,
which sought to promote genetically “good”
marriages and to prevent breeding by “defec-
tives.” The ultimate expression of this effort,
Watson said, was in Nazi Germany, where in
1939 patients in mental hospitals were sent to
the gas chambers, to be followed by the gypsies,
the Jews, and other “undesirables.”

As a consequence of this history, the pro-
posal to map the human genome was a contro-
versial one, igniting fears that the results could
lead to. eugenics-based social,,.economic, and
cultural policies. Watson's response was to ded-
icate a portion — now five percent — of the
Project’s research grants-to ethics and policy
studies. Three questions dominate this discus-
sion, he said:

1. Is it okay to study the genetics of disease

Diane Alexander White / GN87507,23

James Dewey Watson with Brachiosaurus. On
Topic A for DNA buffs, Watson said: “Either the
Los Angeles Police Department is guilty or O.J.
Simpson is guilty. There are no other possibili-
ties.”

but not the genetics of human behavior? Why?

2. Given that genetic technology can be
used by prospective parents for sex selection,
selection against Down syndrome, etc., should
we try to control the genetic destiny of our off-
spring?

3. Should we treat genes legally as intellec-
tual property? Can a researcher or a corporation
patent a genetically engineered mouse?

Despite the seriousness of these issues and
the passion with which they are argued, Watson
said, “the net effect of all this genetic knowl-
edge will finally be to the good.”

SUMMER READING

LIFE IS LIKE A RIVER

RIVER OuT OF EDEN: A DARWINIAN VIEW OF LIFE
by Richard Dawkins. Basic Books. 172 pages,
illustrated. $20.

Reviewed by Scott Lanyon
Pritzker Curator of Systematic Biology

ichard Dawkins’ latest contribution
is a wonderfully thought provoking
and very readable discussion of evo-
lution. In it the author continues his
tradition of developing non-traditional views of
the natural world. Most people interested in nat-
ural history tend to focus their thoughts on indi-
vidual organisms: the robin extracting an
earthworm from the lawn after a spring rain, or
the worm about to be lunch for a robin. But as a
researcher and writer Dawkins is rarely content
to take the path of least resistance. He revels in
forcing his readers to look at the world in new
ways. He makes us see the world through
unique glasses that he provides and, having
done so, he leads us along stimulating lines of
reasoning that emerge from this new viewpoint.
To demonstrate this point I can do no better than
to quote an example from the first page of his
newest book River out of Eden. It refers to all
organisms that have ever lived on this planet:
“Not a single one of our ancestors was
felled by an enemy, or by a virus, or by a mis-
judged footstep on a cliff edge, before bringing

at least one child into the world. Thousands of

our ancestors’ contemporaries failed in all these
respects, but not a single solitary one of our
ancestors failed in any of them. These state-
ments are blindingly obvious, yet from them
much follows: much that is curious and unex-
pected, much that explains and much that aston-
ishes. Al] these matters will be the subject of this
book.”

Dawkins asks us to consider the natural
world from the point of view of DNA (the mol-
ecule in which the genetic blueprint is encoded).
The robin isn’t just the single whole organism
that you and I tend to envision. Rather, the robin
is a vessel built by DNA to house and enhance
the survival of DNA. The robin is a conduit
through which DNA is transmitted into the
future. The reader is asked to stop thinking of
evolution primarily in terms of individual
organisms producing yet more individual organ-
isms. Instead we are asked to view evolution as
an unbroken river of DNA flowing through
time. This perspective allows the author to
explore the nature of life and its evolution in
new ways and to gain valuable insights. Having
established this new perspective, Dawkins visits
a number of pressing issues in evolutionary
biology. Most notable are his excellent discus-
sions of the “African Eve” theory of the origins
of modern humans, and of what he terms “‘God’s
Utility Function.”

jg racien? rathiokk af intetlectuet property.
artr Pinay hands-on; the first interactive Ty tests
4 Herat Pat

gad-boy evolution

The intent of this book is not to argue that
the evolution of life can only be understood and
appreciated from a molecule’s perspective.
Rather, Dawkins wants the reader to recognize
that evolution is a complex and dynamic process
that cannot be understood fully from any one
perspective. I think he is very successful in
accomplishing this goal. River out of Eden is an
intellectually invigorating book that I recom-
mend highly to anyone who has stopped to won-
der about the process we call evolution and how
it could possibly have produced the diversity of
living things that inhabit this planet.

11

July/August 1995

On the cover of
Wired magazine,
Richard Dawkins’s
image is morphed to
match his computer-
generated prediction
of the shape of things
to come in human
evolution.

FIELD
MUSE
TOURS

312/322-8862

Amazonia

September | — 13, 1995

our guide on this fabulous tour

YY tnroush the ancient past and
contemporary culture of Ama-

zonia is Dr. Anna C. Roosevelt, curator
of archaeology at The Field Museum.
Dr. Roosevelt has been excavating in
the region for twenty years, and has
found a world near the mouth of the
Amazon far more complex than our
traditional notions of Indian culture
and rain-forest ecology would allow.
In Manaus, we'll visit the famous
National Amazon Research Institute,
see tropical forest research stations,
and talk with some of Brazil's

BR,

wii

leading ecologists. Aboard the M/V
Desafio, a luxurious, specially outfitted
river cruiser, we'll spend six days on
the Rio Negro, visiting the Anavilhanas
Islands and the colonial city of
Barcelos.

In Santerém, Dr. Roosevelt will
take us to her pottery site and other
digs in the area, We'll tour historic
Taperinha Plantation, a rain forest
reserve, and verdant springs before
setting off for picturesque Monte
Alegre and the nearby rock painting
sites, including a picnic lunch at an
11,000-year-old cave discovered by Dr.
Roosevelt.

The tour is limited to 20 persons.
Cost is $5,800 per person, including
round-trip air fare from Chicago.

Natural Sciences Seminar ¢ Alsace, France

September 17 — 25, 1995

hollow of the Vosges Mountains and surrounded by
forests, orchards, and vineyards, we'll spend
mornings in seminars on interesting regional topics and
afternoons exploring the natural beauty and historic
treasures of the area. On a full-day excursion to nearby

F rom our base in the town of Ottrott, nestled in a

Strasbourg, we'll visit Notre Dame Cathedral, the Ethnic
Alsatian Museum, and the gardens of Institut Botanique,
among other sites. Our guide is Dr. Thomas Lammers,
assistant curator of botany at The Field Museum.

Cost is $2,545 per person, including round-trip air
fare from Chicago.

Cruising through Provence aboard the M.S. Cezanne.
Sept. 19- Oct. 1, 1995

selected for a new Field Museum journey. Begin in Camargue, a pristine wetland within the Rhone delta

T he celebrated region of Provence, one of the most picturesque and rich provinces of France, has been

aboard the M.S. Cézanne, a sophisticated five-star cruiser. The journey winds through regions of France made
famous by Van Gogh, Gauguin and Cézanne. Full and half-day tours of Arles, Avignon, and Luberon Regional Park
are just part of the stops the Cézanne will make. No need to pack and unpack your belongings, just join resident
scholars as they share with you their knowledge and enthusiasm for an enchanting, bewitching region with
convenient tours from the cruiser. The cost for this eleven-day tour is $5,825 per person with shared cabin aboard

the M.S. Cézanne. Includes round-trip air fare from Chicago.