I Volume 43, Number 1 January 1972

I Field Museum of Natural History

^*

Field Museum
of Natural History
Bulletin

Volume 43, Number 1
January 1972

2 Art from Arnhem Land

Louis A. Allen, with introduction by Joyce Zibro
background information about the ceremonial art of
Australian aborigines

9 January Museum Calendar

Appointment Calendar for 1972

MMM

Cover: A barK painting from Central Arnhem Land
which tells of the origin of the people in the
Dreamtime. when each clan descended from a
totemic ancester and human beings could change
into animals and birds at will. In the forefront,
men are changing into a crow, a spoonbill, and
an ibis; above, a grasshopper is turning into a
man. Painted by Nanganrralil. of Ihe Diambarrpuyngu
clan Dua moiety.

Field Museum of Natural History

Director, E. Leland Webber

Editor Joyce Zibro: Associate Editor Elizabeth Munger: Staff Writer Madge Jacobs; Production Russ Becker; Photography John Bayalis,
Fred Huysmans.

The Field Museum ol Natural History Bulletin is published monthily except August by Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at
Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605. Subscriptions: S6 a year; S3 a year for schools. Members of the Museum subscribe ttirough
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FIELD MUSEUK4 BULLETIN

Art from Arnhem Land

Louis A. Allen,

with introduction by Joyce Zibro

One definition of a work of art is that
it has a life of its own. That is, it has a
universal appeal. It can be removed
fronn its particular context, from the
community in which it was produced,
to a place where its associations,
purposes, and meaning are unknown,
and yet it can be appreciated. By this
definition the bark paintings and wood
carvings produced by the aboriginal
people of Arnhem Land in northern
Australia are certainly works of art.
Almost 400 examples of this art are in
the temporary exhibit opening at Field
Museum on February 3. This largest
group ever shown is from the
collection of Mr. Louis A. Allen of
Palo Alto, California.

However, these objects were not meant
to stand alone as "art for art's sake."
They have functional roles, are integral
parts of the complex social and
religious ceremonials of the
technologically simple hunting and
gathering culture of the Arnhem
Landers.

Mr. Allen's collection is especially
important for viewers who wish to see
this art in relation to its cultural
context because each specimen is so
fully documented with information

about the artist, where he lived, and
the subject matter, style, and technique.

Art is not categorized as such in
Arnhem Land society. In fact, there are
no words in Australian aboriginal
languages equivalent to our words
"art" or "artist. " Most men in these
societies can paint, carve, and incise.
There are usually some who are
regarded as being better at it than
others or as having definite rights
through age or status to practice "art"
or some aspect of it.

The Arnhem Land artist is confined to
a set of traditional rules that determine
both subject matter and design.
Although the work of individual artists
varies in subtle ways, individual
"creative" expression is restricted.

Much of Arnhem Land art is
representational, though it may vary
from naturalistic to highly stylized, and
in this sense abstract, representation.
And it may also express either
symbolic meaning or merely
descriptive narrative. The art may be
appreciated for just its representational
subject matter — the human figures,
animals, trees, or abstract designs
standing for clouds, rain, and so on

But to understand the meanings of the
art, either the symbolic content or the
stories told, requires special knowledge
about religious beliefs and the world
view of the local community.
Dr. Ronald M. Berndt, Professor of
Anthropology at the University of
Western Australia, has pointed out,
"Representational or abstract' art
designed to convey meaning either to
an entire community, or to certain
categories of persons within it, can be
understood only by those belonging to
that society, and sharing its particular
tradition. To be able to interpret the
design and its symbolic significance
there must be shared recognition,
otherwise such designs and symbols
become meaningless, or may be
accorded quite different meanings.
There is further parallel here with
language: We can hear the sounds,
but unless we know the language we
cannot hope to understand those
sounds, to derive meaning from them, '

Appreciation at this level constitutes
understanding the art as a medium of
communication within the community.

The rainbow snake, painted by Indi, Port Keats
region. Many tribes of Arnhem Landers believe in a
great snake as the progenitor of their tribe. The
circles represent water holes and the white dots the
eggs from which the people came.

JANUARY 1972

Kangaroo being hunted by a Mimi spirit Painted by
Nguleingulei. Western Arntiem Land, in the "X-ray"
style stiowmg internal organs

These meanings might be revealed
only to certain members of a particular
community. For example, certain
designs may be seen only by men and
not women, or only by men of certain
categories. Or the meanings of certain
designs, or different meanings of some
designs, may be revealed only as a
person progresses through age-grading
rituals, or as his social and ceremonial
position in adulthood changes.

Louis Allen refers to "inside"
meanings, which are sacred and
secret, and "outside" meanings, which
can be told to anybody. It is because
he was so successful in communicating
with old men of the tribes about the
different levels of meanings expressed
in individual pieces that we have such
abundant information about the
specimens in the exhibit.

Some art critics have suggested that
nonliterate peoples are especially
adept at handling and understanding
symbolic statements through nonverbal
as well as verbal ritual, which sets
them apart from the literate world as
people who think "mythically." Berndt
argues that this is not so. "Our own
language and our art," he says,
"contain an abundance of symbolic
allusions which is part of our
traditional heritage as Western
Europeans, and this is much the same
in Arnhem Land or elsewhere." He
says that it is not merely a question of

nonliterate as contrasted with literate.
Some people have more, some less
symbolic allusions in their art, and the
development of scientific precision or
growing emphasis on technology has
no specific influence one way or the
other.

Besides art being a form of intentional
internal communication within a
society, it may be viewed as a form of
unintentional communication about the
society as a whole to those outside.
Berndt has suggested that because
sex differentiation, social and
ceremonial status, and prestige are all
involved in how the art is produced,
used, and understood by different
people in Arnhem Land, our studying
these contextual contingencies can tell
us something about social organization
within the society.

Berndt believes we may also be able
to learn through the art something
about social variations from one region
of Arnhem Land to another:
"Art, whether naturalistic or stylized, is
always an abstraction from reality —
from the empirical situation; it is a
statement about something, expressed
in a specific way, and the ways of
saying it vary as do languages and
other aspects of culture generally. But
within a particular society, although
variation takes place through time as
well as through the growth of
'schools,' an art style may provide us.

in abstract, with a 'key' to the value
orientation,"

For example, in considering Arnhem
Land bark painting, Berndt points out
that the techniques and mediums in
one part of Arnhem Land do not differ
radically from those in another part,
and, with few exceptions, the subject
matter does not differ either. But there
are noticeable contrasts of style.

The Western Arnhem Land artist
usually does not attempt to cover the
complete surface with design. His
subjects stand out boldly against an
open background; and generally he
selects fewer features for illustration on
any one bark than does his counterpart
in the east. He concentrates on the
main figure or figures rather than on
the setting and subordinates any detail
to the main design. The subject matter
includes human beings and animals
in action. The eye tends to focus on
these individual figures, giving an )

impression of suddenly arrested
motion. This tendency, suggests
Berndt, has possibly led to an
emphasis on relatively naturalistic
figures, with a minimum of stylization.

In contrast, the Northeastern Arnhem
Land artist usually attempts to cover
almost the complete surface of his
sheet of bark with design, leaving
almost no open space. In the northeast,
the main designs receive careful
attention, and there is considerable
detail, but there is not generally the
delicate treatment that is so apparent
in the west, and the background is
usually filled with crosshatching or
crisscrossing of lines. As much as
possible is crammed into this
background. Again in contrast to the
west, there is little in the way of
movement or action in design. There
is a tendency in the east to repeat
both central and subordinate figures,
as well as minor motifs, giving the
effect of a pattern, such as European-
type textile design. Where such figures
do stand out from their backgrounds,
this is achieved by the use of

FIELD MUSEUM BULLETIN

A rangga, or sacred carved figure. This one was
used in the Djalambu ceremony, one of the cycle
of death and burial ceremonies of the Gupupuyngu
people, Milingimbi region. Height, 39 inches.
Artist unitnown.

contrasting colors of outline, or by
filling tfiem, whiereas in tfie west both
tfiis technique and spatial separation
are used.

Naturalism is played down, so to
speak, in the east with a
corresponding concentration on
stylization, and symbolism is expressed
in varying degrees of complexity to
suit a society that is hierarchically
graded in respect to religious
knowledge.

Allen suggests that one reason for the
development of contrasting styles in
the east and west is that the west,
especially in the Oenpelli region, is
inaccessible to water navigation and
thus the art style, which is similar to
that found in the cave painting in the
area, believed to go back 10,000
years, has remained uninfluenced by
foreigners.

Art in the east has been influenced by
the Macassans who came regularly
from Indonesia in their great praus over
the centuries to trade with the Arnhem
Landers. The background on the
designs in the east, says Allen, is a
modification of the Macassan designs,
and led to the development of a more
detailed style of art.

If Berndt's premise is valid that art
style may provide us with a "key" to
value orientation, then a study of these
contrasting styles of east and west may
someday shed some additional light
on the relation of the social and
cultural situation of the two regions.

But there are some things which are
readily apparent about the people from
their art. Allen sums it up this way. It
tells us three basic things about the
people. (1) They have a deep and
abiding faith in some supernatural being
who created them and this belief is
part of their everyday life. (2) Culture
heroes taught them the basic rules
of living — to be honest, avoid Incest,
not to steal — and they hold on to these
values. (3) It is a stable and workable
culture which gives guidance from

generation to generation living in a
very severe environment.

In order to provide our Museum visitors
with an introduction to the exhibition
of art from Arnhem Land, we print
excerpts from the comprehensve
catalog to be published by the
Museum. It was written by Louis Allen,
and includes an introduction by Field
Museum's curator of primitive art and
Melanesian ethnography. Dr. Phillip
Lewis, who is in charge of the
exhibit. — J. Z.

Arnhem Land has been populated for
thousands of years by aboriginal tribes
who have preserved their culture
relatively unchanged from the Stone
Age to modern times. Only in this
generation is the transition to a
modern, industrialized society being
accomplished. There are still alive and
active old men who were fully
indoctrinated in the ancient traditions
and ceremonies and maintain them
with some vigor today. From them
comes our knowledge of the myths
and the significance of the bark
paintings, carved figures, and totems.

Although the tribes of Arnhem Land
differ in language and local traditions,
they share many common cultural
traits. The family is the basic living
unit; the most important tribal
groupings are the clan and moiety.
Members of each clan believe they are
descended from a common totemic
ancestor — a mythical being who
assumed animal or human form in the
Dreamtime, the time before humans as
we know them today appeared. These
totemic ancestors created the first
people of the clan, together with their
songs, dances, and totemic designs.

The clan was the cohesive grouping
around which aboriginal family life
centered. Each totemic ancestor from
whom the people of the clan were
descended has its own sacred water
hole, where this being lives to this day.

JANUARY 1972

Mortuary rites for Gurrumurrmgu, the great hunter, painted by Malangi. Manarrngu ctan, Dua moiety, Central
Arnhem Land. The corpse of Gurrumurringu. in the center, is surrounded by three men who are performing
the death rites. The four small figures are performing mortuary rites, which occur about twelve months after
the death rites. The small scale of the figures denotes the passage of time. The spirit of Gurrumurringu is
recognized as the ancestor spirit of the Manarrngu people The story of his life and death is sung
whenever a member of the clan dies.

FIELD MUSEUM BULLETIN

The creator mother myth painted by Mangrinyin.
Gunwinggu tribe. She is shown with her two dilly
bags and her digging stick

To the sacred water hole return the
spirits of the dead and from it they are
reincarnated by entering a woman's
womb. Each clan and its members
belong to one of two moieties, the
Dua or Jirritja. Each moiety has its
own special myths, totems, songs,
ceremonies, and even colors and
materials. Strict rules apply to
relationships between members of the
moieties, especially to marriage, which
is forbidden within the same moiety.

Each clan has its own territory, which
its members rarely leave. The people
are intimately familiar with every rock
and tree; they know where to dig for
tubers and roots, where to find game
and water in even the most
inhospitable regions. Outstanding
features of the terrain, such as
odd-shaped rocks, large trees, and
water holes, were given names and
invested with a personality of their
own, for this is where the mythical
ancestors had lived or accomplished
their exploits in the Dreamtime. Because
he believes his own spirit must return
to its totemic place within his clan
territory, the aborigine finds it difficult
to leave his land and unthinkable that
he should die elsewhere.

The artists often painted on bark their
impressions of the sacred places of the
clan; especially their interpretations of
the water hole and its surrounding
country or the artist's "dreaming" of it.
These paintings were displayed and
explained to initiates or were made
part of ceremonies which centered
about the activities of mythical
personages at these locations.

Two themes predominated in
aboriginal life: the search for food and
the observance of religious traditions.
From wet season to dry, food was
alternately plentiful and scarce. Every
able-bodied person, from child to
elder, was proficient in searching for
edible roots and bulbs and hunting
birds and small animals. The older
boys and men stalked wallaby and
kangaroo.

Religion was not an observance on
special occasions, but an integral part
of daily life. Like other religions, that
of the aborigine was based on a belief
in the supernatural. He believed that
spirit beings had formed the world,
had populated it with living creatures,
and had established the rhythm and
order of life. These spirit beings had
forbidden such acts as theft, incest,
and adultery, and these must be
avoided or evil would befall the
offender. When confronted by forces
beyond his understanding and control,
the aboriginal trusted his spirit
ancestors to shelter and protect him.

To the aborigine, the Dreamtime
beings were alive and everywhere
present. They lived with him now as
they had created his forefathers in the
beginning. They would reinvigorate his
powers when properly invoked and
would protect him from his enemies,
both mortal and spirit. When they
hunted or made love, gave presents or
sought revenge, the aborigines were
continually aware of the invisible, but
to them very real, beings, who
commanded the events and who must
be both trusted and served.

The styles and designs found in the
paintings of Arnhem Land have
developed over many centuries.
Paintings of totems and sacred objects
were first made in the caves and the
bark huts during the leisure time of the
wet season. The bark sheets forming
the ceiling of the hut were painted,
the artist lying flat on his back.

The artists of the aboriginal tribes
were selected and taught their craft by
the old men. Each clan and moiety
owned specific myths and designs and
these were passed on from one
generation to the next by the artist. A
remnant of what will probably be the
last generation of fully initiated master
painters is still alive today. The older
men take as apprentices one or more
younger men and teach them to paint
the secret and sacred designs in the
authentic tradition. The apprentices

inherit the stories and patterns of their
mentors, and acquire the right to add
increasing detail and significance to
their paintings as they complete the
proper age-grading ceremonies. The
apprentice is limited to two colors at
first, but as he advances in tribal
stature, he can use all four colors.
While the master painter is still alive,
the learner is required to paint each
design with some distinctive
difference, acquiring rights to the full
design only upon the master's death.

The aboriginal artist tends to think and
talk in terms of separate incidents —
the things that happened — and not
abstract ideas. His stories, songs, and
dances deal with individual
occurrences, linked in sequence. His
speech is a series of statements, not a
flow of narrative. For this reason, his
painting also shows a series of
incidents, rather than a full story. The
bark paintings serve both as history
and textbooks. Often the boys who
are to be initiated are grouped in a
circle around the bark and the story is
recounted to them. This is one reason
the barks usually can be read from all
sides and significant incidents are
repeated.

JANUARY 1972

When he paints, the aboriginal artist
tirst thinks out the story he will depict.
Often, he selects one part of the myth
to be celebrated or one group of
totems. He does not sketch or
rough-out, but starts at one end or
side of the bark and works across,
filling in his outlines with patience and
deliberation. If his bark is too small to
depict the full dimensions of the figure,
he will foreshorten or elongate; if a
line is not to his liking, he removes
the wet ochre with his thumb and
wipes it off on a stone. If he wishes to
add emphasis, he may repeat the
same figure two or even three times.
Although he does not set out to create
an esthetically pleasing object, the
finished product always has harmony
and balance; the colors blend; the
proportions are pleasing. In this, the
aboriginal artist fulfills the basic test of
real art: the beauty of his work results
from his expression of the meaning of
what he wants to convey — not merely
from the manipulation of line and color.

"stringy bark." The brushes are made
from human hair, feathers, or chewed
twigs. The paints are mixed on a stone
palette with water and a fixative of
orchid juice. Four colors are used:
white is pipe clay or kaolin; black is
made from charcoal or manganese
oxide; ochres provide yellow and red.
The styles of painting are quite
uniform within each geographic region;
however, there are stylistic differences
among the regions.

To the aborigines, their myths are true
and sacred stories which explain their
beginnings and their history. The
myths tell of the creation of the world
and its creatures; the origin of birth
and death; how the seasons began
and why there are stars and sun and
moon. The mythical heroes created all
these, together with dances and songs
now used in the ceremonies. They
decreed how the people must act and
the rules they must follow to avoid
injury and suffering.

make the women prolific and the
children strong. The spirits were
invoked in the great ceremonies, such
as the Wawilak and Djanggawul. They
returned physically — their voices were
heard in the didgeridoo, the bull-roarer,
and the Ubar drum — so they could
protect and aid their people. To gain
strength and stature, each man had to
learn how to communicate with the
spirits and to enlist their support. He
acquired this knowledge by passing
through the different age-grading
ceremonies. He became more powerful
as he learned the secret songs and
dances and was told the inner meaning
of the totems, barks, and sacred places.

Certain myths are found among many
of the clans and tribes, while others
are localized to specific tribal groups.
The two most important myths are the
Wawilak and the Djanggawul, which
tell of the travels and exploits of
Dreamtime personages who created
the land and the people.

The materials used in painting are
indigenous to the area. The bark sheets
are stripped from a tree, Eucalyptus
tetrodontus, colloquially named the

stripping bark.

'1'

The aborigines believe that the spirits
of the Dreamtime must be called upon
regularly to renew life and power, to
ensure the increase of species, to

Nanyin painting a bark depicting the opossum tree myth.

The aborigines of Arnhem Land
believe that the land and the features
of the natural environment were
created by supernatural totemic

..- #« -.

FIELD MUSEUM BULLETIN

The opossum tree myth painted by Narridjin,
Mangalili clan. Northeastern Arnhem Land. The
myth tells the story ol a lonely bird. Karawak. and
how he found his friend, the opossum, to talk to.

ancestors. Prominent landmarks are
associated with tlie great myths; for
example, a large boulder may be one
of the Dreamtime creatures who was
turned to stone; a river was created by
a crocodile who chewed his way
through a mountain. The stars and
constellations were also created by the
Dreamtime beings. The moon was
once a mythical hero, the Milky Way,
a great river in the sky.

The aborigines believe that the wet
and dry seasons first began because
of the actions of the totemic ancestors,
who also created all the animals,
birds, and other creatures. In some
cases, such as the flying fox and the
whale, these creatures were once
human; in other instances, such as the
goanna and the bush turkey, they
existed in their original form, but were
named by the creation ancestors.

Since totems are an integral part of
the ceremonies and are used in magic
and in daily life, the story of the origin
and powers of the totems is featured
on many of the barks. The totem may
be the primary theme — either in a
sacred or secular role — or it may be

shown in the background or associated
with one of the primary figures of the
design. Some totems are shown in a
conventionalized manner; for example,
a narrow rectangle may represent
Yurlungurr, the sacred python. These
symbolic representations can be
recognized only by the initiated. Most
totemic figures, however, can be
identified readily.

Each individual and group among the
aborigines has its sacred totems,
which were created by the ancestors
m the Dreamtime and then passed on
through the generations. The totem,
which may be a living creature, a
natural feature, or a special object,
has power through its totemic spirit,
which is invoked in ceremonies to act
as guardian and protector, to increase
the food supply, to promote fertility,
and for magic. Since they are sacred,
the totems are kept secret, and their
meanings are progressively revealed
during ritual ceremonies.

Each man must learn the complex and
secret meanings of the totems and
myths as he passes through the
age-grading rites, together with the

rules and taboos which relate to daily
living. In the process, he acquires the
accumulated knowledge of the old men
of the tribe, which he, in turn, will pass
on. To some degree, the paintings and
carvings thus become history books,
serving to remind the people of the
great events of the past, and to
explain birth and death, the changing
seasons, and the rules of conduct.

The aborigines remained unmolested
for several thousand years. The first
visitors were the Bajini, a prehistoric
people. Next came the Macassans.
who sailed to Australia from the
Indonesian islands to the north. They
were followed by a scattering of
Europeans, then Japanese. Finally.
European settlers came with an
industrial civilization. Although the
initiated aborigine prefers his own land
and resists change, some have
traveled to the Australian cities.
Increasingly, today, the younger
people are leaving the reserve, and
abandoning the old ways.

Louis A. Allen is a well known collector ot
Australian aboriginal art. Joyce Zibro is
editor of the Field Museum Bulletin.

JANUARY 1972

CALENDAR

Trustees of Field Museum

Gordon Bent
Harry O. Bercher
Bowen Blair

William McCormick Blair
William R. Dickinson, Jr.
Thomas E. Donnelley II
Marshall Field
Nicholas Galitzine
Paul W. Goodrich
Remick McDowell
Hugo J. Melvoin
J. Roscoe Miller
William H, Mitchell
Cliarles F. Murphy. Jr.
Life Trustees
Joseph N. Field
Clifford C. Gregg
Samuel Insull, Jr.
William V. Kahler

Harry M. Oliver, Jr.
John T. Pirie. Jr.
John S. Runnells
William L, Searle
John M. Simpson
Edward Byron Smith
Mrs. Edward Byron Smith
Mrs. Hermon Dunlap Smith
John W. Sullivan
William G. Swartchild. Jr.
E, Leland Webber
Julian B. Wilkins
J. Howard Wood
Blaine J. Yarrington

Hughston M. McBain
James L. Palmer
John G. Searle
Louis Ware

Exhibits

Through January 9

Studies in Jade, a selection of books from
Field Ivluseum's library, featured in the
South Lounge to coincide with the recent
opening of the new Hall of Jades. Included
are The Bishop Collection. Investigations
and Studies in Jade, in two volumes, and
Chinese Jade Carvings of the XVIth to the
XlXth Centuries in the Collection ot
Mrs. Georg Vetlesen. in three volumes.

Hour*

9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 9 a.m.
to 9 p.m. Friday; 9 a.m. to 5 p m Saturday and
Sunday.

Closed New Year's Day.

The Museum Library is open 9 a.m. to 4 o m.
Monday through Friday Please obtain pass at
reception desk, main floor north.

the Museum's past; and "A Sense of
Discovery" shows examples of research
conducted by tVluseum scientists. Hall 3.

John James Audubon's elephant folio.
The Birds ot America, on display in the
North Lounge, A different plate from the
rare, first-edition volumes is featured each
day. Continues indefinitely.

Free Film Program

January 23

"20th Century Wilderness," wildlife film
narrated by Tom Sterling, offered by the
Illinois Audubon Society at 2:30 p.m. in
the James Simpson Theatre.

Continues indefinitely
"Patterns for Survival" (A Study of
Mimicry) presented at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.
on Saturdays, and 11 a.m., 1 p.m., and
3 p.m. on Sundays in the second floor
North Meeting Room. The half-hour film
offers an overall view of protective
coloration in insects and provides visitors
with an insight into the "Color in Nature"
exhibit.

Children's Program

Through February 29
"Faces ot Africa," Winter Journey for
Children, a free, self-guided tour.
Youngsters test their powers of observation
by answering written questions and making
sketches of four African masks in the

Museum exhibit areas. All boys and girls
who can read and write may join in the
activity. Journey sheets are available at
Museum entrances.

Meetings

January 9: 2 p.m., Chicago Shell Club

January 11: 7:45 p.m., Nature Camera Club
of Chicago

January 11:8 p.m., Chicagoland Glider
Council

January 12: 7 p.m., Chicago Ornithological
Society

January 12: 7:30 p.m.. Windy City Grotto,
National Speleological Society

January 13: 8 p.m., Chicago Mountaineering
Club

Coming in February

Opens February 3

Australian Aborginal Art from Arnhem
Land, a selection of more than 400 bark
paintings and some wooden ceremonial
sculptures. The exhibit is unique because
of the documentation accompanying most
of the pieces, including when they were
painted, their use, the region in which they
were produced, and information about the
artists. The material is from the extensive
collection of Louis A. Allen of Palo Alto,
California. Through September 10, Hall 27

Opens February 17

A New Spirit in Search of the Past:

Archaeology and Ecology in Lower Illinois
River Valley, an exhibit exploring the new
dimensions of archaeology as reflected in
the excavations at the Koster Site directed
by Dr. Stuart Struever of Northwestern
University. Through September 4. Hall 9.

Opens January 11

Coco-de-mer, an exhibit of the world's
largest seed and its use by man, on display
in the South Lounge through March 5.

Continuing

Color in Nature, an exhibit examining the
nature and variety of color in the physical
and living world, and how it functions
in plants and animals. It focuses on the
many roles of color, as in mimicry,
camouflage, warning, sexual recognition and
selection, energy channeling, and vitamin
production, using Museum specimens as
examples. Continues indefinitely. Hall 25.

Field Museum's 75th Anniversary Exhibit

continues indefinitely. "A Sense of Wonder"
offers thought-provoking prose and poetry
associated with physical, biological, and
cultural aspects of nature: "A Sense of
History" presents a graphic portrayal of

Remember that a Field Museum membership is a special kind of gilt for all occasions.
For each gift membership we will send an announcement greeting card in your name
and portfolio of four color reproductions of bird paintings done by the distinguished
American artist Louis Agassiz Fuertes on a Field Museum expedition to East Africa.

Clip and mail to Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Lake Sliore Drive, Cliicago, III. 60605

Please send the following Gilt Membership

n Annual $15 □ Associate $150 n '■''^ iSOO n Check enclosed payable to Field Museum

in my name to: O Please bill me as follows:

Gift recipient's name

My name

Address

Address

City state

n Send bird prints (o me
Please put information for additional gift membersliips on a separate stieet

City Slate Zip

Q Send bird prints to gilt recipient

Zip

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Volume 43, Number 2 February 1972

Field Museum
of Natural History

BULLETIN

Field Museum
of Natural History
Bulletin

Volume 43, Number 2
February 1972

Cover; A student carefully records an artifact
before it is removed from an excavation at ttie
Koster Site, Photo by George D, Olson.

2 A New Spirit in Search of the Past

Stuart Struever and Barbara Baum Collins
excavations at the Koster Site demonstrate in action the
revolutionary change in archeology

8 The English Flies

W, Peyton Fawcett

Hiawatha sang of the coming conqueror: "Wheresoe'er
they move, before them/Swarms the stinging fly, the
Ahmo, /Swarms the bee. the honey-maker;"/

10 The Ginseng Mystique

Patricia M. Williams

why would anyone pay $50 for thirty dried-up roots?

13 Book Reviews

16 Field Briefs

Calendar

Field Museum of Natural History

Director. E, Leiand Webber

Editor Joyce Zibro; Associate Editor Elizabeth [hunger; Staff Writer Madge Jacobs; Production Russ Becker; Photography John Bayalis.
Fred Huysmans.

The Field Museum ol Natural History Bulletin is published monthly except August by Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at
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FIELD MUSEUIVI BULLETIN

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February 1972

A New Spirit in Search of the Past

Stuart Struever and Barbara Baum Collins

That a revolution is going on in the
field of archeology no longer comes as
a surprise to the academic world, nor
to interested laymen who have read
such excellent discussions as that of
Paul S. Martin in the March 1971 Field
Museum Bulletin. A scientific revolution
is not simply the addition of new
techniques or more rigorous analysis;
It is an intellectual metamorphosis
which shatters the traditions of a
discipline and transforms the scientist's
perception of reality.

What is this new spirit that pervades
our search of the past? Briefly, the
"new" archeologist is no longer
interested in simply reconstructing
culture history. Within the traditional
framework, archeologists as culture
historians have treated culture as the
body of shared ideas of a group. They
were concerned with setting up
chronologies of given cultures,
organizing lists of traits based on the
study of artifacts, and reconstructing
the origin and spread of the cultures
as represented by the diffusion of
"typical" artifacts. A tool or trait was
regarded as the end product of a
given group's ideas about what a tool
should look like, and the archeologist
attempted to reconstruct the "shared
idea" that served as a model for the
maker of the tool. Cultures were seen
to change as tool types changed. The
traditional or normative archeologist
looked for the "typical" artifact,
feature, and even settlement form of an
extinct culture and identified the
culture from them.

How does the new archeology differ?
The new, or scientific, archeologist
seeks to explain the processes of
culture change. To do this, he looks
at culture as a system made up of
interacting parts. And more broadly, he
looks at culture and its environments
as representing a number of articulated

North wall of main excavalion at the
Koster Site in 1971. The dark, organically-stained
prehistoric village strata are clearly visible in the
wall. The deepest stratum, near the base of the
wall, has been dated by carbon-14 at 4200 B.C.
Photo by D. R. Baston,

systems in which change occurs
through a series of minor, linked
variations in one or more of these
systems. Archeology, then, attempts to
understand the linkages as reflected in
the archeological data. The strategy
is to isolate each system and study it
as a separate variable, with the
ultimate goal the reconstruction of the
entire pattern of articulation. The hope
is that regular, repeated relationships
between certain variables will be
found, and that testable hypotheses
which explain the relationships
can then be formulated.

Most importantly, this view assumes
that material remains have a systematic
relationship to the total culture, and
that study of the total available material
remains in relation to their spatial
context will lead to understanding of
the social systems behind them. Thus,
there is no such thing as a "typical"
artifact, for everything left by a
prehistoric group has functional
significance in the system.

As Dr. Martin stated, the ultimate goals
in anthropology and archeology are to
formulate laws of cultural dynamics —
causes and effects; to seek trends and
causes of human behavior: and to
make probabilistic predictions.

The historical approach simply
describes mechanisms of cultural
process; the scientific archeologist
seeks to explain them. It has been said
that there is no such thing as historical
explanation, only the explanation of
historical events. In other words, as
Lewis Binford has pointed out,
historical explanations add nothing to
the explanations of the processes
of cultural change and evolution. If
migrations can be shown to have taken
place, then we have an explanatory
problem: What adaptive circumstances
or evolutionary processes induced
the migration?

This calls for the use of the scientific
method, and the new archeology is
explicitly scientific archeology. The
essential steps of the scientific method

are to formulate hypotheses and then
test them. Change to this methodology
is the fundamental hallmark of the
new archeology, which is still in its
infancy. No longer does an archeologist
choose a site to dig just because,
like Mt. Everest to the mountaineer, it's
there. His choices of region, of site,
and of methods are determined by the
hypothesis he wishes to test — and
the hypothesis is problem-oriented.

Traditionally, data in archeology have
been collected in the hope that the
facts would speak for themselves.
Philosophers of science argue, however,
that if explanation is to be a product
of research, it must also be an
organizing principle. Explanations or
laws are not summaries of facts. They
are the result of the researcher's
conscious, creative attempts to
perceive patterns in the facts.

A serious explanation is thus a
nomological, a covering-law, explanation
which relates the circumstances to be
explained to relevant general laws.
The recitation of a list of successive
events is not an explanation unless
there are implicit laws or empirical
generalizations linking the events.
Science, and scientific archeology, seek
causal or probabilistic statements.
The logical structure of scientific
explanation is identical with that of
scientific prediction.

Thus, an adequate explanation of a
particular case should be such that it
can predict both "backward" and
"forward." We have an explanation for
an event only if the explanation could
have predicted the event. In archeology,
therefore, we seek explanations that
can make predictions about yet-to-be-
discovered facts of the past. But the
explanations should be even more
powerful. Though the major goal of
archeology is to explain the past, these
explanations should also help to
explain contemporary events and
to predict future events. Herein lies
the excitement and the challenge
of archeology.

FIELD fvlUSEUI^ BULLETIN

New Goals, New Strategies

With the recognition of culture as a
system in articulation with other
systems, both ecological and human,
the scope of archeology has expanded
dramatically. Exhaustive reconstruction
of man-land relationships — prehistoric
human ecology — are sought, and this
requires massive multi-disciplinary
field programs involving scientists of
many disciplines and sophisticated
equipment and techniques.

While in the past 10 years archeology
in America has gone through an
important metamorphosis in problem-
definition and methods, there has not
been a concomitant change in its
institutional base. The exhibit in Field
Museum's Hall 9, "A New Spirit in
Search of the Past," presents an
archeological program in southern
Illinois that is approaching some of
these new problems by means of new
methods and, perhaps most important
of all, attempting to achieve these ends
through a new form of institution — the
archeological institute.

The major problem faced by archeology
today is the gap between its capacity
to state new and important problems
and its capacity to actually perform the
research to solve these new problems.
The main reason for this widening
gap between ideas and performance is
that universities and museums, the
traditional "archeology-performing"
institutions, are multi-purpose
organizations with diverse
responsibilities that restrict their
ability to assemble the funds, facilities,
and expertise necessary to conduct
long-term inter-disciplinary
archeological research.

Thus, the development of a new form
of institution — the institute — is a major
requirement of the new archeology.
Unlike the university or museum, the
institute would be capable of developing
the methodologies, of assembling the
requisite bodies of expertise, and of
marshalling sufficient capital resources
to undertake the complex research
programs that are the outgrowth of our
new questions. These programs would

Photo by Lewis W Jarreii.

February 1972

involve integration of specialists in the
phiysical, biological, and social sciences
whio, with the aid of substantial labor
and technical resources, would be
capable of attacking questions of
culture history and process that are
effectively beyond the reach of the
one-man-scholar, university- or
museum-based archeology.

The Foundation for Illinois Archeology
IS the modest but real beginning of
such an institution. Unlike universities
and museums, it does not conduct
archeology as just one of several major
activities. The sole, central purpose
of FIA is development of large-scale
archeological programs like that
exemplified by the Koster project in
southern Illinois.

Research by the Foundation for Illinois
Archeology has established that the
largest concentrations of prehistoric
populations were located in the major
river valleys of the Midwest, and that
the center of this occupation was
located in the area surrounding the
confluence of the Mississippi, Illinois,
and Missouri Rivers. Excavation efforts,
concentrated on the Lower Illinois
River Valley, have included the study
of five prehistoric towns and two
cemeteries. The findings thus far are
published in four technical books, with
two more volumes currently in press.

In addition to its overriding goal of
developing more effective organization
of research to achieve detailed
reconstructions of extinct cultures and
their environments, the Illinois Valley
Archeological Program has four
specific aims.

1. To provide students with clinical
training in archeological excavation
and analytical methods coupled with
laboratory experience in the specialized
interfaces between archeology and

the natural sciences, including geology,
zoology, and botany.

2. To formulate and test hypotheses
that explain the specific episodes of

prehistoric culture change beginning to
emerge from the archeological record.

3. To develop and refine new
archeological methods in the "field
laboratory."

4. To excavate the remains of
prehistoric cultures that once flourished
in this area, and to reconstruct their
lifeways before urban expansion
destroys the evidence.

The initial focus of the Illinois Valley
Archeological Program has been to
delineate the economic activities,
settlement patterns, and population
changes characteristic of a series of
"Woodland" cultures spanning the
period from 500 B.C. to A.D. 1200.
Discovery of the Koster site in 1969
enables us to extend this picture back
to at least 6000 B.C.

Two major excavation seasons (1970
and 1971) at Koster have revealed the
ruins (horizons) of 14 prehistoric
Indian villages, one superimposed over
the other in layer-cake fashion, in 34
feet of soil. Horizon 13, located at a
depth of 29 feet below present ground
surface, has been recently carbon-14
dated at 5100 B.C. The 1971 Koster
excavations terminated last August with
detailed exploration of the first 10
prehistoric village ruins. Test probes
reveal four additional ruins that lie
at still greater depths. In a microcosm
we have here a record of at least
8,000 years of pre-European history in
a three-acre corn field in southern
Illinois,

Archeologically, Koster is one of
the most important sites to be
discovered in North America in the
past quarter-century. No other site has
greater potentiality for revealing a
record of human existence before
European intrusion. Preservation of
artifacts and food remains at the site
are unusually good. Furthermore,
since each prehistoric occupation level
was followed by a period during which
the small valley of the Koster Site was
unoccupied, a layer of sterile soil

accumulated overtop the village ruin.
This soil layer served to protect the
underlying cultural stratum against
intrusion from later communities
occupying this same small valley. This
distinct separation of a long series of
prehistoric village ruins is exceedingly
rare in North American archeology.

The various special studies currently
being conducted on the materials
excavated at Koster include the
following:

1. Stone, bone, shell, and ivory
artifacts, which help the archeologists
to delineate the cultural inventory of
each of the communities represented.

2. Seeds and other plant remains,
animal bones, shells, and even fish
scales, studied by botanists and
zoologists to help establish the
prehistoric dietary and subsistence
patterns, the seasons the site was
occupied, as well as supplying
essential information for reconstructing
climatic successions during the 7,000
years of occupation.

3. Human remains, which are analyzed
by osteologists to document small-
scale evolutionary differences between
prehistoric groups. They also indicate
pathologies and burial practices, which
are clues to prehistoric behavior.

4. Pollen remains, which enable
palynologists to reconstruct the
ecological environment and climate
changes through time.

5. Snail shells, studied by a
malacologist as extremely sensitive
environmental indicators.

6. Burned wood and other carbonized
remains, which, when radiocarbon-
dated, can be used to assign dates to
the various occupation levels where
they are found.

7. House floors, storage pits, hearths,
mud daub from house walls, cooking
stones, chipping debris, and other
"features" which are studied in spatial
context.

FIELD MUSEUM BULLETIN

The Student Experience

Last summer we assembled a group of
seven professors, 25 trained student
field and laboratory assistants, and
about 50 tiigh school and college
students from all over the United States
to live for ninety days in Kampsville.
We operated six research laboratories
in abandoned store buildings w/hile
simultaneously excavating the Koster
Site.

This program combines training in
excavation technique with laboratory
experience in a number of natural
science disciplines. Students excavate
a body of prehistoric data and follow
it through a diverse series of operations.
These range from conventional artifact
analysis through study of the plant
and animal remains reflective of
prehistoric subsistence, through work
with snails and soils that disclose the
environmental setting to which early
Indian cultures adapted. Each student
not only receives instruction in
excavation methods and artifact
analysis, but works with geologists,
zoologists, botanists, and others to
learn what each can contribute to the
total reconstruction of prehistoric
systems. Installation of a computer
terminal under the direction of James
Brown of Northwestern University will
be the major specialty added to the
1972 expanded program being planned.

Looked at from another perspective,
we believe that our archeological field
school serves a broad educational
function — a function that makes it more
valuable than simply a trade school
for training future archeologists.

This is perhaps serendipity, the result
of having to integrate a large group of
scientists and students into a kind of
academic commune which cloisters
itself in a small, downstate Illinois
village for three months while it digs
and analyzes the contents of the 14
extinct Indian communities. Students
not only see life from a different
perspective as they interact with the
people of Kampsville, but their
isolation and single-purpose generate

February 1972

an unusual intensity of experience that
is almost absent from modern life.

Over the 15 years we haive conducted
these summer archeological expeditions,
many examples come to mind of
students who, over the duration of the
project, have gone through a sort of
metamorphosis. This is an archeological
research project, the students are the
labor crew, and they have the potential
to make it a productive, well-executed
excavation, or a sloppy affair that
produces bad data. There are almost
no external distractions, and the staff
of professors and trained student
assistants sets the tone. Their single-
mindedness and research skill draw
the uninitiated into the program, to
identify with these leaders and the
program's goals. It is almost axiomatic
that a student will emerge in
September different than when he
joined the expedition in early June-

Important Discoveries of the
1971 Expedition

During the 1971 season we discovered
the skeleton of an 18-month-old
human infant, covered with red paint
and buried with great care at a level
dated to 7,000 years ago. Nearby, and
at the same level, the Koster
excavators unearthed the skeleton of
a domesticated dog, carbon-14 dated
to 5100 B.C. This represents one of
the two earliest skeletons of domestic
dog found thus far in North America,
and opens a number of questions
about the lifeways of the people of the
period. Since animal domestication is
usually associated with a sedentary
way of life, the discovery of the dog
in one of the earliest Koster villages
raises the possibility that man in the

Lower Illinois Valley had established
stable, permanent communities by
5000 B.C.— and 6,000 years before he
adopted agriculture as the primary
means of subsistence.

One of the major purposes of the
Illinois Valley Archeological Program
over the past 13 years has been to
understand the history of man's
relationship to agriculture. Evidence
from the Koster Site, and from other
sites excavated by us, suggests that
people may have developed a simple
but effective "mud flat horticulture" in
areas of the floodplain that are
seasonally inundated. Large numbers of
seeds of what are today garden-variety
weeds — pigweed, lamb's-quarter,
smartweed, and sunflower — have been
recovered. Cultivation in the Illinois
Valley had certainly begun by 800 B.C.,
and possibly much earlier, but
field-cropping agriculture did not
appear until A.D. 800. The fact that
agricultural methods were known early,
but that agriculture did not replace
hunting and gathering as the basic
means of subsistence for almost two
millennia, raises interesting questions
which we are investigating.

Excavations Resume at Koster in June

Our goal for the 1972 field season at
Koster is to extend the main excavation
into the four deepest and earliest
horizons that underlie the villages
already excavated. But the engineering
problems created by deep excavation
are formidable. The long, free-standing
walls of the excavation must be
braced. Now that we have reached
the 16-foot level it is no longer
possible to shovel our back-dirt out
of the excavation by hand: a belt
conveyor system will be necessary to
transport the dirt out of our main
trench. Finally, the deepest horizons
lie beneath the water table and are
inaccessible until a pump and drainage
system are devised that will lower the
water level. Together, these have
increased substantially our 1972 budget.

We would like to invite you to share
with us first-hand the excitement of
discovery as this expedition progresses.
Student groups, organizations, and
families are invited to participate in
guided tours of the Koster Site and the
Kampsville Archeological Museum.
Tours will be conducted from June 15
through the Labor Day weekend, and
may be arranged by contacting the
writers at Northwestern University. The
Koster Site is located 45 miles north
of St. Louis on the Illinois River near
the village of Kampsville: the site is
about a six-hour drive from Chicago.
A visit to Field Museum's exhibit of
the work being done at Koster would be
good preparation for the trip.

Touring the site, you too may feel that
the modern farm and the nearby
remains of an early settler's stone
house seem to form a link with those
ancient settlers. One senses why man
has always gravitated to this spot — the
protective bluffs, the pure spring, the
rich loess soil, and the resources of
forest, field, floodplain, and the river.
It is to understand this environment,
and how a succession of prehistoric
human communities coped with it, that
is the goal of the Koster expedition.

Editor's note: Koster is one of the few
grass-roots-supported archeological projects
in the country. More than 600 individuals,
corporations, and foundations were
responsible for the success of the 1971
excavation season. While some of the 1972
expedition expenses will be defrayed by
the federal government and Northwestern
University, the increased burden of support
will again fall to the private community.

Dr. Stuart Struever is Director of the
Foundation lor Illinois Archeology
and Associate Professor of Anthropology
at Northwestern University. Barbara
Baum Collins is Editor of Foundation lor
Illinois Archeology Publications.

FIELD MUSEUM BULLETIN

The honeybee (Apis mellitera) is an
immigrant to North America, coming
over with the earliest settlers. The date
of its arrival is unknown; but, like a
good many other colonists, it quickly
settled down and prospered. The
Swedish naturalist Peter Kalm noted in
his Travels in North America that:

Several English and Swedish farmers kept
beehives, which afforded their possessors
profit; for bees succeed very well here . . .
The people unanimously asserted that the
common bees were not in North America
before the arrival of the Europeans, but that
they were first brought over by the English
who settled here. The Indians also generally
declare that their fathers had never seen any
bees, either in the woods or anywhere else,
before the Europeans had been here for a
number of years. This is further confirmed
by the name which the Indians give them;
for having no particular name for them in
their language they call them English flies
. . . They have not yet been found in the
woods on the other side of the Blue
Mountains, which confirms the opinion of
their being brought to America recently.

It is known that bees were in Virginia
by 1622 and that honey and beeswax
were abundant by 1648. In 1641 bee
colonies were being sold in New
England for 5 pounds, the equivalent at
that time of 15 days' work by a skilled
craftsman. The honeybee was
introduced into Florida by the English
in 1763 and a little later a single
colony was taken to Mobile, Alabama,
as indicated by William Bartram in
his Travels:

In the course of conversation with ... [Dr.
Grant], I remarked that during my travels
since leaving the Creek nation, and when I
was there, I had not seen any honey bees;
he replied that there were few or none West
of the isthmus of Florida, and but one hive
in Mobile, which was lately brought there
from Europe; the English supposing that
there were none in the country, not finding
any when they took possession of it after

The

English

Flies

W. Peyton Fawcett

Phiotos courtesy of American Bee Journal.

the Spanish and French; I had been assured
by the traders that there were none in West
Florida, which to me seemed extraordinary
and almost incredible, since they are so
numerous all along the Eastern continent
from Nova-Scotia to East Florida, even in
the wild forests, as to be thought, by the
generality of the inhabitants, aborigines of
this continent.

By the end of the eighteenth century
honeybees were fairly common
throughout the eastern half of the
United States. Thomas Nuttall noted in
his Travels into the Old Northwest that
in the vicinity of Detroit in 1810
"considerable quantities of wild honey
are collected in the woods but the bee
here is certainly of European origin."

The honeybee played an important part
in the lives of the early settlers of
America both as a producer of honey
and wax and as a symbol of their
rural society. They associated the
industrious and social nature of the
bee with their own and the busy hum
of the beehive with their settled farms
and flower gardens and active
community life, an association still
remembered in words like quilling-bee,
sew/ng-tiee, and husking-bee. To them

ff<f .<■

the bee also represented the advance
of their civilization along the frontier.
Thomas Jefferson noted that "the
bees have generally extended
themselves into the country, a little in
advance of the frontier," and
Washington Irving hailed them in his
Tour on the Prairies as "the heralds of
civilization, steadily preceding it as it
advances from the Atlantic borders."

It is said that the bees usually spread
too miles in advance of the actual
frontier. In this respect they were very
much like some of our forefathers; for,
despite their long domestication,
honeybees still retained their wild
instincts to such an extent that they
usually preferred to take to the woods
instead of proceeding to the
comfortable hives provided for them.

The Indians' view was, not unnaturally,
considerably different from that of the
settlers. Honeybees, like gunpowder,
horses, and smallpox, were after all
importations; and the sudden
appearance of these "English flies"
portended the approach of the white
man and his civilization — a form of

February 1972

HP-

divination whose prophecies always
came true. It is of the honeybee and
the white clover, which was also
introduced by the Europeans, that
Hiawatha sings when describing the
conning of the conqueror:

Wheresoe'er they move, before them
Swarms the stinging fly, the Ahmo,
Swarms the bee, the honey-maker;
Wheresoe'er they tread, beneath them
Springs a flower unknown among us.
Springs the White Man's Foot in blossom.

Finding a swarm of bees warned the
Indian that his people would soon
have to move westward again. Irving
remarked on the countless swarms of
bees that overspread the West in "but
a moderate number of years" and
reported that "the Indians consider
[the bees] the harbingers of the white
man, as the buffalo is of the red man,
and say that in proportion as the bee
advances, the Indian and the buffalo
retire." The advance was all too rapid.

Although the date of the first arrival of
the honeybee in the United States is
doubtful, the date of its introduction
into the Far West is better known. It
did not find its way by degrees as the

line of frontier settlements advanced
across the continent, but was carried
there with great painstaking.

It is said that attempts had been made
early in the nineteenth century to
import bees into California from
Mexico but that none sun/ived the
overland trip. There are even tales of
pioneers "herding" bees across the
Great Plains. A. J. Gridley of Michigan
is actually supposed to have done this
in 1858 or 1860, starting overland with
four hives placed in the rear end of a
wagon. Every day he halted in the
afternoon, released the bees to work
the rest of the day, and at night
reclosed the hives. Thus day by day
he moved slowly along, herding the
bees, until he arrived in California with
all four hives in good condition.

Assuming that Mr. Gridley did get his
bees safely to California he found that
others had already preceded him.
W. A. Buckley, of Newburgh, New
York, is usually credited with bringing
the first hive to California in 1852. He
started out from New York by boat
with three hives and landed at the

Isthmus of Panama, losing one hive
en route. During the arduous crossing
of the Isthmus the tropical heat melted
the wax in another hive. On the Pacific
side he took ship for San Francisco
and arrived with the third hive in
good condition.

In March of 1853 Thomas Shelton
landed twelve hives in San Francisco,
but only one of these contained live
bees. This hive was taken to San Jose,
where it threw off three swarms the
first season. The owner was killed
shortly thereafter and, in settling his
estate, two of the swarms were sold at
auction for $105 and $110 respectively.
Other importations were made from
time to time, by way of the Isthmus,
and, although great pains were taken,
about one-half usually died in transit.
By 1858 there were at least eleven
men in the bee business in California,
each with from ten to one hundred
hives. From California the honeybee
spread north to Oregon and
Washington.

When the state of Utah was admitted
to the Union in 1896, Deseret (the
name of the honeybee in The Book of
Mormon) was the name first proposed.
Today the great seal of Utah has as its
center a beehive surrounded by
flowers and overhead the word
"Industry." This emblem could as
fittingly serve for the great seal of the
United States; for the honeybee has
had a significant, if small, place in the
history of the settlement of our
country. "Je suis petite, mais mes
piqures sont protondes" is the motto
of the Order of the Bee, which can be
translated "I am small, but my stings
are deep."

W. Peyton Fawcett is liead librarian, Field
Museum.

FIELD MUSEUM BULLETIN

The

ginseng

mystique

Patricia IVI. Williams

■4 Q5/

mi

4

^m.ad

nal del (t pinxt

Drawing of Panax quinguefollus from American
Medicinal Plants, An Illustrated and Descriptive
Guide to the American Plants Used as
Homoeopathic Remedies: Their History. Preparation.
Chemistry, and Physiological Ellects. Illuslralec) by
the autfior; New York, 1887. vol. 3-4. Tfie author,
Charles F. f^illspaugh. tul.D,, was the first scientific
curator as well as first curator of botany at Field
Museum.

February 1972

Ginseng root is bitter, gray, and
wrinkled. A rather more endearing
aspect of this root is the fact that its
value sometimes exceeds the price of
gold. But the standard going price
the last few years for wild ginseng root
has been $44 to $50 per pound, and
for cultivated root, which is considered
inferior to the best wild ginseng, $23
per pound. It takes about three pounds
of green roots to dry out to a pound of
roots ready for the market — that's
generally twenty-nine to thirty medium-
to-large roots.

Why would anyone pay $50 for thirty
dried-up roots? Because these roots
are said by believers to be "good for
what ails you." The generic name of
the ginseng plant, Panax, is derived
from the Greek words translated as
"panacea" — cure-all. The Chinese
have held ginseng in esteem since
"time immemorial," as the
encyclopedias express it. Gonfucious
spoke of its great healing powers over
2,000 years ago. In his Chronological
History of Plants, Charles Pickering,
quoting an early source, reported
" 'from the dynasties of the Tsin . . .
down to that of the Tang there was no
physician who did not constantly make
use of jinseng." Pickering also told of
an emperor who in 1709 ordered
10,000 Tartars to go in quest of
ginseng. Although it seems a waste of
the Tartars' much touted skills as
warriors, they returned with 20,000
kayte, or Chinese pounds, of the root
The Atherva Veda, an ancient medical
book of India, declares that ginseng
causes an aroused man to exhale
fire-like heat. According to Sir Edwin
Arnold's The Light of Asia, ginseng is
said to add a decade to a man's life.

To millions of Asians today, who may
chew the root to ease tensions, as well
as make lea and a spring tonic from it,
ginseng means good luck, longevity,
and a powerful love and/or sex aid.

Now American health food enthusiasts
have "discovered" ginseng, and any
health food store worth its sea salt is

displaying ginseng in a variety of
guises — whole, in honey, as capsules,
as a tonic, or as a liqueur which, as
reported in a national women's
magazine, "produces the total organic
high — especially if you starve yourself
for three days." A firm in Detroit is
offering a mixture of ginseng. Royal
Jelly, and vitamin E, which, as stated
in their brochure, is supposed to
■provide a life of more endurance,
strength and general well-being."
Cosmetic companies are also in on the
ginseng movement and are boosting
ginseng eye cream.

Americans may hear that ginseng is
able to absorb bodily poisons, make
the skin glow, soothe the throat and
stomach, calm one's nerves, lure
lovers from afar, and serve as an
aphrodisiac. Not surprisingly, it is this
last quality that has given ginseng its
most enduring appeal. Although there
IS no scientific data to support the
contention that ginseng is an
aphrodisiac, the belief is a strong and
prevalent one in Asian countries, with
believers wearing the root as a sexual
amulet. The old doctrine of signatures,
which states that there is a specific
herb or remedy for every human
complaint and that the shape, taste,
smell, or color of the herb may indicate
its specific value, has probably had
something to do with the establishment
of ginseng as a sex stimulant. In fact,
James Trager in The Foodbook states
that "the Chinese penchant for ginseng
root has its foundations in its
suggestive appearance — it looks like
male genitalia."

The esteemed root also — and probably
more often — grows in the crude shape
of the human figure, and this
undoubtedly has formed the basis for
the belief that ginseng is good for the
whole man and all his ailments. It is
said that a Chinese emperor once paid
$10,000 for a man-figure ginseng root.
Carson Baldwin, Jr., in American
Forests magazine, reports that
"Chinese leaders today are said to
willingly pay $200 to $500 for roots
having a man-like shape and cured to
a translucency by a process known
only to the Chinese." Herbalist
Gertrude B. Forster wrote, "If you look
in the window of a Chinese apothecary
shop in New York's Chinatown you
will see the dessicated roots lying in

state in silk-lined boxes as proof of
their monetary value."

Although use of ancient herbal
remedies still flourishes in the Orient
after 5,000 years, and despite the fact
that about 1,500 licensed herb doctors
in Taiwan rely on ginseng as a staple
in their prescriptions, medical
researchers in the western world
presently believe its value to be purely
psychic. A quick survey of Index
Medicus indicates, however, that
research with ginseng is being actively
pursued in science labs the world over.
Its effect on tumors, corneal opacity,
and bacilli and its use as a sedative
are just a few of the areas of research
being explored.

Some ginseng is consumed in America
for therapeutic reasons without benefit
of FDA or AMA blessing. Many
mountain folk swear by it as the best
spring tonic they've ever tried. Herb
hunters sometimes drink ginseng tea
and chew the dried root, claiming it to
be good for the stomach and digestive
tract. Others may carry the root to
ward off evil spirits and bring good
luck.

These same mountaineers find ginseng
to be more than a good spring tonic.
For years hunters, woodsmen, and
mountain dwellers have been making a
comfortable spare-time or off-season
income from ginseng root. Baldwin
states that ginseng hunting was once a
part of every farmer's life in the
mountain regions of the eastern United
States, and it was not uncommon for
entire farm families to take to the
woods for a day or two of 'seng
hunting or for a father and son to
camp in the mountains for a week or
more digging ginseng roots.

American ginseng, Panax quinquefolius,
called "green gold" and "fortune
plant" by herb hunters, grows in the
woods as far north as Quebec and
Manitoba and southward to Florida,
Alabama, Louisiana, and Arkansas. It
lives inconspicuously in the shade of
hardwood forests. In fact, lacking a

FIELD MUSEUM BULLETIN

From Plantae Asiaticae Rarlores: or. Descriptions and Figures ol a Select
Number ol Unpublished East Indian Plants, by Nathaniel Wallich, M. & PH.D.,
in the Bengal Medical Service of the Honourable East India Company, and
Superintendant of the Botanic Garden at Calcutta; London, 1831, vol. II, p.
81. A copy of this rare, old folio volume is in the librafy of Field Museum's
Department of Botany.

\Vhile 1 was in Nipal in 1820 and 1821, I found on the top of SlieoiMre, one of the highest mountains which sur-
round the preat valley, near the remains of an old fortification, at an elevation of hetween 9,000 and 10,000 feet above
the iilailKS of Bengal, a plant which I had no difficulty in rccoKnizing as a species of Panax nearly allied to the
Ginseng, if not identical with it. There was a good nuniher uf inilividuals growing under the thick shade of Oaks and
llhododiiidrums, within an ,nrea of forty or fifty feet square ; hut the most diligent and frequently repeated search
hv myself and my a^si^tants convinced me that the plant w.-is fi.xed, as it were, to one circumscrihed spot ; nor were
our subsequent endeavours to find it anywhere else in Nipal attended with success. The natives of the country to
whom I showed it were totally unacquainted with it. and ignorant of its virtues, real or imaginary ; they had not
even a name for it to give me. although in ordinary cases they .are so fertile and inventive, and so utterly to be mis-
trusted in matters connected with the nomenclature of the productions of their country. The Resident at the Court
of Katmandoo, my worthy friend the Honourable E. Gardner, at my suggestion intimated to that Durbar, or Govern-
ment, that the coimtrv possessed a plant which was held in the highest estimation among their Chinese neighbours,
and which might perhaps prove the most acceptable gift that could be sent to the Emperor with the trietmial embassy
from the Riijah of Nipal. But the matter was not considered in the light of one deserving of any further inquiry ; the
Goiernnient being cither unwilling to contribute so grand a panacea to a Court which they look upon with feelings
both of awe and envy ; or disinclined to ascribe to that Court so great a degree of folly as to pay the weight in gold
for an insignificant root, iwsscssing no earthly sensible qualities, and of which not even the name is known in its native
country. A very advantageous consequeme has resulted from this proud feeling ; it is this, — that our little innocent
plant continues up to this day in the undisputed and undisturbeil possession of its secluded and small territory, on the
top of the ahoye-mciitioncd mountain.

Spectacular appearance to match its
history, the platit may be easily
overlooked. Wild ginseng grows 8 to
20 inches tall, and each plant bears
several palmate leaves with five leaflets
which look somewhat like those of the
trifoliolate strawberry leaves. Clusters of
small greenish-yellow flowers bloom in
June or July; bright red berries follow
later in the summer.

If ginseng could be found in
abundance, many now part-time herb
hunters would certainly make a
profitable full-time business of digging
and selling the roots. But the almost
constant search for it and the mass
clearing of forests in the last fifty years
have made the plant scarce. In some
of the more heavily forested areas of
the Appalachians and Ozarks, though,
the plant has made a strong comeback.

The sale of ginseng has a long history
in America. Export of wild ginseng root
from this country to China by way of
France or England began in the early
1700s. In 1773 the sloop "Hingham"
sailed from Boston for China with 55
tons of it aboard. The first shipment of
ginseng direct to China after the
American Revolution is said to have
been made by John Jacob Astor from
New York in 1782 — and to have sold
for $3 per pound. When American
ginseng was approved by its Oriental
buyers the "green gold rush" began.
In the years 1858-1896 a total of

13,738,415 pounds was exported, with
a peak total of 622,761 pounds in 1862

The plant was abundant in the
woodlands even though both the
Indians and early settlers in America
had used ginseng. Once the boom was
on, however, the woods were picked
clean of ginseng in no time at all. New
England woods were depleted first,
and the hunters began a search for
other ginseng territory. Ginseng hunters
are thus credited with exploring new
regions of the nation. Struggling
pioneers supplemented their meager —
and in some dismal instances of crop
failure, non-existent — incomes with
ginseng sales. Whole communities of
settlers are said to have been saved
from economic ruin by the proceeds of
ginseng sales.

In the time-tested tradition of supply
and demand, the market price for
ginseng rose as it became more
difficult to find. The next step,
obviously, was to cultivate it. Abraham
Whisman is believed to have planted
the first ginseng garden in the 1870s
in a place called Boones Path, Virginia.
Soon hundreds of gardens were
planted with thousands of ginseng
seeds. Government agriculture bulletins
on ginseng growing sold out. Stock
companies were formed to grow large
amounts of ginseng. There were
ginseng associations, ginseng laws,
and ginseng trade papers.

But ginseng is not a get-rich-quick
crop. It requires a great deal of time,
patience, and effort. It must be grown
under natural conditions which
duplicate those of the wild. Too much
sun will kill it — as will too little sun.
Much of the labor involved must be
done by hand. Cultivated ginseng takes
five to eight years of this intensive
care to grow a root to market size.

In 1904, Alternaria, a leaf parasite,
attacked American ginseng and ruined
both the plants and hopes of many
ginseng growers. Today only about
600 acres of ginseng are planted in
the United States, with Wisconsin the
principal producer. The boom is long
over, the excitement past, but ginseng
is still a going business in America.
The United States exports about
100,000 pounds of dried roots to the
Far East annually, which amounts to
about $4,000,000 for American ginseng
hunters. Almost all of these roots go
to Hong Kong for further distribution in
Southeast Asia and IVlalaysia.

Of course, ginseng is also grown in
Asia. Asian ginseng, Panax ginseng, is
native to Manchuria and Korea and is
cultivated in Korea and Japan. In some
markets Asian ginseng is considered
preferable to American ginseng. The
demand is great, however, for roots
from either continent.

Here in America most of those who are
aware of the ginseng plant at all
respect it as a source of income.
Naturalists admire the green leaves in
their shaded hiding places. Few but
growing numbers of Americans believe
ginseng root is in some way good for
them. Some believers — Oriental and
American alike — point to the mahuang,
a plant the Chinese used for thousands
of years in the treatment of asthma.
Western medical men discovered that
the plant contained ephedrine and now
use it in the treatment of asthma and
related allergies. Ginseng users believe
further research may produce similar
results and the vindication of "their
root" in the western world. But if it
does not, they will certainly go on
believing in the mystique of the twisted
ginseng root.

Patricia M. Williams is managing editor ol
scientific publications al Field Museum.

February 1972

Indian Power! Raymond J. DeWlallie

The occupation of the abandoned federal
prison island of Alcatraz by a group of young
American Indians in November 1969 and
Its subsequent reselzure by armed United
States marshals in June 1971 brought the
Indian power movement to public attention.
Similar take-overs of abandoned government
property, justified by a clause in the Sioux
treaty of 1868, have occurred in other parts
of the country as well, such as recent
attempts by a group of homeless Indians to
settle on government land In the
Chicago area.

The Indian power leaders and their
supporters have frequently been branded as
merely militant fanatics. Yet their actions
have powerful symbolic value. They are
effectively educating the American public to
the problems of Indians, America's poorest
minority, and to the fact that Indians will no
longer sit passively on their reservations
waiting for benefits from a sympathetic
President and Congress.

At the same time, public concern about
pollution and the environmental crisis has
stirred interest in Indians, who as the
original owners of this continent lived for
many centuries in harmonious balance with
nature. Young Americans in particular are
looking to Indian life-ways, philosophy, and
religion as sources of inspiration for solving
the important problems of our times.

In the wake of this interest a flurry of books
has appeared, some written by Indians
themselves. The six volumes discussed here,
which all appeared during the last two years,
are representative of the diversity and
breadth of this growing literature.

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian
History of the American West

By Dee Brown. New York: Holt, Rinehart
& Winston, 1970. 487 pp. $10.95.

This well-written history of the Plains Indian
wars from 1860 to 1890 is, in the author's
words, an "oral history," By this he means
that he has attempted to let the Indians
speak for themselves. Whenever possible the
narrative is told in the words of Indian
participants, taken from government
documents, reminiscences, and from a large
and diversified body of other source
material. Brown presents us with an
unabashedly biased history, while reminding
us that all history is written from a
point of view.

The book chronicles the destruction of the
entire way of life of the Plains Indians during
the unbelievably short period of thirty years.
It IS a story of wars and broken treaties, of
military forces sent against Indian tribes
with orders to fight and subdue first, and
treaty afterward. The white man's side of
the story is heard, too. Brown quotes, for
example, a military officer who told the
Cheyennes in 1867: "The white man is
coming out here so fast that nothing can
stop him. Coming from the East, and coming
from the West, like a prairie on fire in a
high wind ... the whites are a numerous
people . . . They require room and cannot
help it." Thus Indians were pushed out of
the way when their lands were needed, and
they were resettled onto lands considered
unsuitable for whites. At the beginning of
each chapter the author outlines significant
cultural and scientific events of the year in
the world at large, placing this story of
cultural genocide in the context of world
history and implicitly pointing up the parallel
to Viet Nam today.

One of the major criticisms that might be
leveled against Brown's work is that all of
his Indian characters appear flat; they do
not come across as real human beings.
Brown does not seem to have good
understanding of the cultures of the various
tribes with which he is dealing. When he
falls back on the empathic approach to
search for motives and to understand how a
situation might have appeared to an Indian
participant, his logic is always that of a child
not understanding the world around him. His
Indians are as stereotypic as those of many
a less sympathetic writer; he fails to expose
the shrewdness and tact which many Indian
leaders were able to exhibit in their relations
with whites.

It might also be suggested that some
consideration of the histories of other tribes
that did not engage in wars with the United
States would throw a different light on the
government's relationship to her Indian
wards. An analysis of the reservation system
as it was originally constituted would reveal
a philosophy of cultural genocide more
subtle and perhaps more effective than
military subjugation.

Brown demonstrates a very competent
control of a large body of source material.
His good judgment in selecting sources is
obvious even in the choice of the forty-nine
portraits of Indian leaders that illustrate the
volume But it should be kept in mind that
nothing is really new in this book; there's
nothing that has not been told many times
before. Our relationship to the Indian
populations of this country is a conspicuous
stain on the national conscience, and one
which we have generally repudiated by
attempting to submerge it. Happily, the time
seems to have come to admit and expose
wrongs, and to question what can now be
done This is one of Dee Brown's goals in
presenting a summary of what is, after all,
only the last phase of an Indian war that
began when the first colonists set foot on
North America. He writes: "If the readers of
this book should ever chance to see the
poverty, the hopelessness, and the squalor
of a modern Indian reservation, they may
find it possible to truly understand the
reasons why." As an introduction to the
history of some of America's Indians,
Brown's book is heartily recommended.

The Memoirs o< Chief Red Fox

With an Introduction by Cash Asher.
New York: IVIcGraw-Hill Book Company,
1971. 208 pp. $6.95.

Red Fox is an Oglala Sioux Indian who in
1880 became one of the first of his tribe to
be sent East to the Indian boarding school
at Carlisle, Pennsylvania. After graduation
Red Fox traveled extensively, first as a sailor
and later as a member of various Wild West
shows. During the Spanish-American War he
enlisted in the Navy. His has been a long
and remarkably varied life, but he has never

FIELD MUSEUM BULLETIN

13

Book Reviews

lived on an Indian reservation. He is now
101 years old. Editor Cash Asher based
these memoirs on notes written by "the
Chief" himself, supplemented by interviews
with Red Fox.

Historically, there is little that is useful in
this volume, although it makes entertaining
reading. Red Fox's reminiscences are
sparse, and do not fill in the details that we
would lil<e to know about his experiences at
school, with the Wild West shows, and his
later adventures in making silent films.
Instead, about half the volume is taken up
with an account of the Sioux wars with the
United States. Red Fox writes from memory
and hearsay; his narrative is historically
inaccurate and in contrast with Dee Brown's
book.

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of this
volume comes in attempting to understand
the position of this man and the many others
like him who were taken away from their
families as small children during the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,
placed in boarding schools, and educated
to become white men. Ivlany of these people
are the notorious "Uncle Tomahawks"
whose capitulation to the whims of
government and some other whites is so
disappointing to younger Indian militants.
Yet we can see in Red Fox's story that he
came to share in the value system of the
dominant white society, that he felt and feels
that the American Indian is a vanished race.
Red Fox's life is the story of personal
cultural defeat; his memoirs add another
dimension to our understanding of Indians
in America today.

The Death of the Great Spirit: An Elegy for
the American Indian

By Earl Shorris. New York: Simon and
Schuster, 1971. 253 pp. $6.95.

Earl Shorris is a journalist who traveled
extensively throughout western America,

visiting Indians both on their reservations
and in cities. From a large collection of
notes and interviews he has put together a
volume which reflects vividly the diversity of
contemporary Indian life. He has seen much,
but the feeling comes across that he has not
always understood what he has seen,
despite some attempt to make sense of the
American Indian by borrowing concepts
from Rousseau, Levi-Strauss, and Toynbee.
But the merit of the book is the first-hand
account of Indian individuals and groups,
depicted in a lively journalistic style.

Shorris blames the poverty and
demoralization of so many Indian tribes not
only on the devastating wars waged by the
European invaders but, perhaps more
importantly, on the good-intentioned but
incompetent white "Indian lovers" who since
the days of the Indian wars have tried to
hasten the incorporation of Indians into the
American melting pot and so the mainstream
of modern economic life. Their efforts have
been fruitless because Indian cultures are
based on different premises than Western
civilization; they lack the internalized drive
toward progress. Only now, Shorris
suggests, are Western men coming to
understand the validity of other cultural
styles — but too late. The American Indian
movement today, he writes, "is to save
themselves from cultural extinction while
trying to rise up out of brutalizing poverty."
To the dismay of some whites, Indians want
to retain their own cultures, and want to
retain their own land base, their reservations.
They do not want to be incorporated into the
American dream. The tenor of Shorris' book
IS to assert that it is too late, that "the time
of modern man" is "irreversible" and
"cannot be recovered." Yet this seems to
belie his own observations as he reports
them, and suggests rather that the author
himself is too intimately a part of Western
culture to see the possibility of other ways
of life.

Shorris' book is valuable for this very
built-in paradox. The author himself does
not seem to realize the implications of the
material which he has reported — that the
Indian in modern America is still alive and
ready to come into his own.

We Talk, You Listen: New Tribes, New Turf

By Vine Deloria, Jr. New York: The
Macmillan Company, 1970. 227 pp. $5.95.

Treading on the moccasin fringes of his
successful first book, Custer Died For Your
Sins: An Indian Manifesto (IVIacmillan, 1969),
Vine Deloria has presented a wide-ranging
commentary on American life. He covers the
issues of minority groups, role of the
churches, the environmental crisis, and the
political scene in general. The Indian point
of view turns out to be unique and insightful,
for the author presents us with an optimistic
picture of Indian affairs, which suggests that
Indians may be far better off than the rest of
the American population. Indians, by
retaining their tribal governments and what
is left of their land base, and by being
organized in legally recognized groups, are
more effectively able to deal with the United
States government than are other minority
groups. The most important point is that
Indians today are still Indians; traditional
styles of clothing and traditional ways of
making a living are not the distinguishing
marks of any people. Culture is what
distinguishes a people as a group, and
American Indians have clung tenaciously to
their cultural outlook on the world.

Deloria suggests that it is time for the entire
country to organize on the tribal model, with
recognized group structures and individual
group land bases, in order to combat the
problems of modern Western life more
effectively. Ivluch of the country must be
returned to the natural enviromental
conditions, he suggests, if we are to survive.
"The ultimate irony," he writes, "is that the
white man must drop his dollar-chasing
civilization and return to a simple, tribal,
game-hunting, berry-picking lite if he is to
survive." Ideas of land use that have always
been held by American Indians — that land is
sacred, a mother, to be lived with, not off of
— must be taken over by the Western world
if we are to survive. He envisions a world in
which city-dwelling people would be
organized into communityorganizations

February 1972

according to place of residence, and in
which those dissatisfied with urban life
would return In small groups or tribes to
live In the wilderness areas.

It is a wonderful opportunity with which we
are presented: the American Indian, whom
we have thought to have silenced forever,
has survived and now Is talking back.
Indians are one of the constituent groups —
or rather, form some of the many constituent
groups — of America; as such we must listen
to them, ponder, and learn. A different
cultural viewpoint adds a fresh perspective
and new depth to our understanding of
ourselves.

Of Utmost Good Faitti

Edited by Vine Delorla. Jr. San Francisco:
Straight Arrow Books, 1971. 262 pp. $10.

This Is a volume of extracts from Indian
claims cases, treaties, court decisions, and
speeches by both whites and Indians, all
concerned with the legal relations between
American Indians and the government.
Through this volume It is possible to follow
the whole course of Indian affairs in the
United States. It is intended both for Indians
and whites concerned with the legal
relations between the Indians and the
federal government. In his brief Introduction
Deloria notes that the United States has
admitted its liability in such tragedies as the
Sand Creek and Wounded Knee massacres,
and in the unsettled status of many Indian
claims, yet the government has refused
compensation. "This is a wrong that needs
to be corrected. Instead of taking over
abandoned islands to which there is a
tenuous claim, Indian militants could be
proclaiming the admitted liability of the
United States from every rooftop," He points
to the fact that over 7,000 Indians are
presently enrolled at colleges and
universities, and that the prospects for
Indians have never looked brighter. It is in
manipulating the special legal relationships
that Indian tribes have to the federal
government that Deloria sees future gains by
American Indians. But this advancement

depends on careful historical and legal
study of the vast documentation of
Indian-white relations in this country. This
volume performs the service of outlining
some of the highlights of this literature, and
suggesting, through editorial notes, the
possible applications to the current scene.

Red Power: The American Indians' Fight
for Freedom

Edited By Alvin M. Josephy, Jr. New York:
American Heritage Press, 1971. 259 pp.
$6.95.

Josephy has prepared a collection of
extracts from major policy statements by
both the federal government and Indian
groups concerned with the Indians' struggle
for self-determination. The book opens with
a 1911 statement on "The Indian Reservation
System" by Thomas L. Sloan, an Omaha
Indian, and a 1949 plea for "Indian Self
Government" by the well-known lawyer
Felix Cohen, who spent much of his life
working for the benefit of Indians. The rest
of the book is taken up with documents
written after 1960.

An extract is given from the historic 1961
American Indian Chicago Conference at
which a large gathering of Indian leaders,
young and old, enunciated their demands for
recognition of the validity and dignity of
their cultures and of their ability to manage
their own affairs. Similar extracts are given
from a 1964 Conference on Poverty and
other important gatherings of Indians,
including the manifesto of the Indians of All
Tribes at Alcatraz in 1969. Documents are
presented concerning the fish-ins in the
State of Washington and the problems of
Indian water rights.

The recent development of federal Indian
policy is documented by Senator George
McGovern's 1966 "Resolution for a New
National Indian Policy"; Josephy's 1969
study of the Bureau of Indian Affairs made
at the request of Richard Nixon when
President-elect; the 1969 Indian Task Force
report to Congress; and, finally, Nixon's
historic 1970 "Message to Congress on
Indian Affairs," which assured Indians that
the present policy of the federal government

is to reject the old policy of the Eisenhower
administration to terminate federal
assistance to Indians (including the whole
reservation system) and to reject government
paternalism in the management of Indian
affairs — "Self-determination among the
Indian people can and must be encouraged
without the threat of eventual termination."
The President emphasized the unique status
of Indian Americans because of the
government's legal responsibilities based on
treaties and other agreements. He outlined
plans for improving Indian education,
economic development, and Indian health
programs, and announced a continuing
series of meetings under the direction of
the National Council on Indian Opportunity,
a group that includes eight Indian members
and is formally headed by the Vice
President. The hope is to implement a plan
of wiser expenditures of monies for
improving the conditions of Indian life by
making Indians themselves responsible for
the development and administration of their
own affairs.

The volume concludes with an excellent
essay by Vine Deloria, Jr. entitled "This
Country was a Lot Better Off When the
Indians Were Running It." It is a personal,
autobiographical view of the Indian
reservation system and federal Indian policy
since the New Deal.

Josephy has made an excellent selection of
significant materials, and has put each in
context with good introductory notes as well
as a brief general introduction. This book
constitutes an easily read history of the
maturation of the Indian power movement
in the United States during the last decade.
We can look forward anxiously and
optimistically to accomplishments in the rest
of the 1970s.

Dr. Raymond J. DeMallie is Visiting
Postdoctoral Researcti Fellow, Department
ot Anthropology. Smithsonian Institution,
Washington, D.C.

FIELD t^USEUM BULLETIN

Spring Geology Field Trip to Ozarks

Field Museum, in cooperation with the
University of Chicago, will sponsor a
geology field trip to the Ozarks of Missouri
March 26-April 1, conducted by Dr. Matthew
H. Nitecki, associate curator in Field
Museum's Department of Geology.

The beautiful Ozark region is a diversified
geological area that consists of igneous and
sedimentary rocks. The oldest igneous rocks
and granites are at least one billion years
old. The sea covered the area many times
and deposited predominantly limey
sediments which later became sedimentary
rocks. Other geologic processes produced
deposits of mineable ores, particularly lead
and iron. A wide variety of geological
phenomena will be studied in the field, and
fossils and minerals will be collected in the
mines and quarries.

The trip will include four long hikes, for
which hiking clothes are required.
Headquarters will be in picturesque Ste.
Genevieve, a two-century-old French river
town, unique for its peacefulness and
historic and architectural interest.

Tuition of $140 includes train transportation
to St. Louis, chartered bus in the field, and
all meals. Members of the Field Museum
are entitled to a ten percent discount. Hotel
reservations at $5 to $10 a day per person
will be made for the group.

Anyone interested in joining the trip is
invited to attend a preliminary meeting
Saturday, March 4, 10 a.m., at the University

of Chicago Downtown Center. For further
information and application forms, call Mrs.
Maria Matyas at Fl 6-8300.

New Flora of Costa Rica

With the publication of "Flora Costaricensis"
(Fieldiana Botany, Volume 35, Publication
Number 1140) by Dr. William C. Burger,
associate curator of vascular plants, the
Museum initiates a new "Flora of
Costa Rica."

This project continues Field Museum's
interest in Costa Rica. It was here that
famous Museum botanist Paul C. Standley
wrote his "Flora of Costa Rica," the first
complete listing of Costa Rica's flowering
plants. Standley's work was essentially an
annotated check-list; the new Flora will
include full descriptions and keys covering
the native, naturalized, and more conspicuous
cultivated plants. The Flora is intended for a
wide variety of users, but a working
knowledge of botanical terminology is
assumed.

Preparation for beginning this Flora has
included intensive field work over the last
eight years. This work was made possible, in
large part, through grants from the National
Science Foundation. The grants were
prepared and supervised by Dr. Louis O

Student Gives $10 to Capital Campaign

Williams, who enlisted the cooperation of the
Museo Nacional of Costa Rica and the
Escuela Agricola Panamericana of Honduras

"Flora Costaricensis" may be ordered from
the Museum's Publications Division. Price
is $10. Members of the Museum are entitled
to a ten percent discount.

Aboriginal Art Catalog

Australian Aboriginal Art Irom Arnhem Land.
a comprehensive catalog of Field Museum's
new exhibit of nearly 400 bark paintings
and wood sculptures produced by the
aboriginal people of Arnhem Land in northern
Australia, is now available at the Museum's
Book Shop. The catalog was written by
Louis A. Allen and contains 92 black and
white illustrations. Price is $2. Members
of the Museum are entitled to a ten percent
discount.

Promotions for Museum Personnel

Three people in the Museum's scientific
departments were recently promoted. Dr.
Glen Cole was named associate curator of
prehistory in the Department of
Anthropology. Dr. Patricio Ponce de Leon
is now associate curator, cryptogamic
herbarium. Department of Botany. Mr. Henry
S. Dybas' new title is curator of insects.
Department of Zoology.

^^ Ji^^^M3^^vjr. ^iy^€^^«e<»^^ oM?<^7^ 1Z!V Z'''^^'^^'

February 1972

CALENDAR

Hours

9 am, to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday: 9 a.m.

10 9 p.m. Friday; 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and
Sunday; 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Washington's birthday,
February 21.

The Museum Library is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Monday through Friday. Please obtain pass at
reception desk, main floor north.

Exhibits

Opens February 3

Australian Aboriginal Art from Arnhem
Land, a selection of nearly 400 bark
paintings and some wooden ceremonial
sculptures. The exfiibit is unique because
of the documentation accompanying most of
the pieces, including when they were
painted, their use, the region in which they
were produced, and information about the
artists. The material is from the extensive
collection of Louis A. Allen of Palo Alto,
California. Through September 10. Hall 27.

Opens February 6

27lh Chicago International Extiibition of
Nature Photography, featuring award-
winning prints. Sponsored by the Nature
Camera Club of Chicago and Field Museum.
Through February 20. South Lounge.

Opens February 17

A New Spirit in Search of the Past:

Archaeology and Ecology in Lower Illinois
River Valley, an exhibit exploring the "new
archaeology" as reflected in the Illinois
Valley Archaeological Program's excavation
of the Koster Site, directed by Dr. Stuart
Struever of Northwestern University. Eleven
successive habitations, dating from 5100
B.C. to A.D. 1000, are yielding information
about man's adaptations to his changing
environments through time. Through
September 4. Hall 9.

Continuing

Color in Nature, an exhibit examining the
nature and variety of color in the physical
and living world, and how it functions in
plants and animals. It focuses on the many
roles of color, as in mimicry, camouflage,
warning, sexual recognition and selection,
energy channeling, and vitamin production,
using t^useum specimens as examples.
Continues indefinitely. Hall 25.

Field Museum's 75th Anniversary Exhibit

continues indefinitely. "A Sense of Wonder"
offers thought-provoking prose and poetry

associated with physical, biological, and
cultural aspects of nature; "A Sense of
History" presents a graphic portrayal of the
Museum's past; and "A Sense of Discovery"
shows examples of research conducted by
Museum scientists. Hall 3.

John James Audubon's elephant folio. The
Birds ot America, on display in the North
Lounge. A different plate from the rare,
first-edition volumes is featured each day.
Continues indefinitely.

Coco-de-mer, an exhibit of the world's
largest seed and its use by man, on display
in the South Lounge through March 5.

Free Film Program

February 6 and 13

Showing of prize-winning transparencies

from the 27th Chicago International
Exhibition of Nature Photography at 2;30
p m. in the James Simpson Theatre.

February 13

"Okinawa — Mecca for Mollusks," slide
lecture presentation narrated by Viola
Perrault, offered by the Chicago Shell Club
at 2 p.m. in the Lecture Hall.

February 27

"A Naturalist Afield," wildlife film narrated
by Karl H. Maslowski, offered by the Illinois
Audubon Society at 2:30 p.m. in the James
Simpson Theatre.

Continues indefinitely

"Patterns for Survival" (A Study of Mimicry)
presented at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. on
Saturdays, and 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.
on Sundays in the second floor North
Meeting Room. The half-hour film offers an
overall view of protective coloration in
insects and provides visitors with an insight
into the "Color in Nature" exhibit.

Children's Program

Through February 29
"Faces of Africa," Winter Journey for
Children, a free, self-guided tour.
Youngsters test their powers of observation
by answering written questions and making

sketches of four African masks in the
Museum exhibit areas. All boys and girls
who can read and write may join in the
activity. Journey sheets are available at
Museum entrances.

Coming in March

Begins March 1

"Our Vanishing Wildlife," Spring Journey
for Children, a free, self-guided tour
focusing on animal species that face
extinction, to help youngsters understand
what is happening to them. All boys and
girls who can read and write are welcome
to participate in the activity. Journey sheets
are available at Museum entrances. Through
May 31.

Opens March 10

Morton Arboretum: 50th Anniversary, a
commemorative exhibit. Through June 4.
South Lounge.

Spring Film Lecture Series, 2:30 p.m.
Saturdays in the James Simpson Theatre.

March 4: "Grecian Holiday," narrated by
Ralph J. Franklin, looks at ancient ruins and
modern cities.

March 11: "Cambodia," narrated by
Kenneth Armstrong, visits Angkor Wat, the
capital of Phnom Penh, cities and villages.

March 18: "Trails of Tembo," narrated by
Larry Linnard, travels to East Africa, land
of the "big tusker," for wildlife scenes.

March 25: "On the Trail of the Arctic
Char," narrated by Karl H. Maslowski,
searches for adventure in Canada's Far

North.

Volume 43, Number 3 March 1972

Field Museum
of Natural History

BULLETIN

Field Museum
of Natural History
Bulletin

Volume 43, Number 3
March 1972

Cover: Diagram of male goat "jousting" behavior to
establish dominance: he rears erect and then
crashes down upon his rival. Design by Zbigniew
Jastrzebski.

12

How to Tell the Sheep from the Goats

Charles A. Reed and William M. Schatfer
from discovery of how to sort 8,500-year-old bones of
animals that look notoriously alike comes new under-
standing of evolutionary interconnectedness of horn,
bone, brain, and behavior

International Nature Photography Exhibition

William C. Burger

amateur photographers from around the world capture

nature on film

A Tale from the South Pacific

John Terrill, assisted by Sampson Purupuru
as archeological prehistory reveals ever more about
ancient life on the islands, legendary prehistory is
fading from people's minds

19 Book Reviews

20 Field Briefs
Calendar

Field Museum of Natural History
Director, E. Leiand Webber

Editor Joyce Zibro; Associate Editor Elizabeth Munger; Staff Writer Madge Jacobs; Production Russ Becker: Photography John Bayalis,
Fred Huysmans.

The Field Museum ol Natural History Bulletin is published monthly except August by Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at
Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605. Subscriptions: $6 a year; $3 a year for schools. Members of the Museum subscribe through
Museum membership. Opinions expressed by authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the policy of Field Museum. Unsolicited
manuscripts are welcome. Printed by Field Museum Press. Second-class postage paid at Chicago, Illinois. Postmaster: Please send form
3579 to Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605.

FIELD MUSEUM BULLETIN

How to Tell the Sheep from the Goats

Charles A. Reed and William M. Schaffer

The challenge — first stage in a loust between two male Nubian ibex (Capra ibex nubian) in the Sinai.

In scientific research, as the practicing
scientist knows from personal
experience, not everything leads straight
forward to the expected goal. The
research described here began with
one set of problems, basically
archeological, and got diverted In part
to another kind of problem, Involved
with the correlated evolution of the
behavior and anatomy of sheep and
goats.

The beginning was In 1954, when the
senior author (Reed) went out to the
Near East to help Robert Braldwood,
of the Oriental Institute at the
University of Chicago, excavate Jarmo,
a prehistoric village-site in the foothills
of northern Iraq. The villagers of Jarmo,
some 8,500 years ago, were growing
wheat and barley and rearing sheep
and goats, pigs and dogs. We
recovered the broken, scattered bones
of these domestic animals, and also
those of several kinds of hunted

species, such as wild pigs, gazelle,
deer, cattle, onagers (Asiatic asses),
and many smaller wild animals.

Reed's original problems were to
Identify species and to distinguish
which individuals were domesticated
and which wild. However, the
archeologlsts also wanted to know In
what relative numbers the different
kinds were present 8,500 years ago, at
what age the animals were killed, and
if any changes In fauna occurred
during the 500 years the village was
continuously occupied.

Many of these questions could be
answered by comparison of the bones
from Jarmo with the skeletons In the
excellent osteologlcal collections at
Field Museum. Sheep and goats
presented a special problem because,
being rather closely related animals,
their skeletons are extremely similar.
However, as Reed sorted out the

broken pieces from groups of mixed
bones of sheep and goats, he noticed
differences In the posterior parts of the
skulls. Some were shorter and
straighter; others were more elongated
and bent down. These differences
became more meaningful when the
pieces of ancient, broken skulls were
compared with skulls of some modern
sheep and goats which had been
sawed open lengthwise.

The skulls of the goats were the ones
which were short and straight In the
rear, a structure correlated with long
but relatively light horns. The skulls of
sheep not only had their rears
elongated and bent down, they also
carried heavier horns. Such characters,
in the language of the evolutionary
biologist, are "more specialized."

As an evolutionary biologist. Reed
wondered about the functional
significances of these differences, and

MARCH 1972

how they were related particularly to
the behavior of the two kinds of
animals. Answers were not to be found
in veterinary textbooks or in the books
of hunters' tales, or even in the more
technical wildlife literature of the period
on sheep and goats.

Thus the matter rested until the spring
of 1964, when Schaffer (the junior
author, and then a freshman at Yale
University) had an urge to try his hand
at independent research. Reed, who
was then mammalogist at Yale's
Peabody Museum, suggested the
problem of the sheep and the goats
Now, eight years later, we think we
have some answers. It all took that
long because we followed a few alleys
toward blind ends, and of course each
of us has done some other things too.

The common words "sheep" and
"goats," as have been used here,
make the situation sound much simpler
than it really is. Actually involved is
a definite group of animals, together
called the Caprini, of which there are
five different kinds (genera). Their
names are: Capra (turs, ibexes, wild
goats of several species, and the
domestic goats); Hemitragus, (the tahrs,
of which there are three species);
Ammotragus (the Barbary "sheep,"
which is as much a goat as a sheep);
Pseudois (the blue sheep); and Ovis
(the several species of true sheep,
including domestic sheep). All of these
are Old World in distribution except the
American bighorn, or Rocky f\/lountain
sheep; It is a relatively late Ice Age
immigrant from Asia into western
North America.

Amongst the bovids (the general group
of sheep, goats, antelopes, cattle,
buffalos, musk-oxen, etc.), the Caprini
are most closely related to the
Rupicaprini, which group includes the
chamois, a small mountain-living
antelope-like animal of Europe and the
Caucasus, and the Rocky Mountain
"goat," which isn't a true goat but
superficially looks like one. These two
groups, the Caprini and Rupicaprini,

are probably descended from a common
ancestor — some antelope of several
million years ago which had become
more adapted for climbing and leaping
in rocky hills than for swift running
on the plains. Such agility, coupled
with alert wariness, generally insured
survival from such mountain-living
predators as leopards, snow leopards,
bears, and wolves. In other words,
the rupicaprines and caprines have
become so well adapted to a difficult
terrain that what might seem to others
to be a harsh environment is for them
a favorable one.

The Caprini differ from their rupicaprine
cousins in one fundamental pattern
of behavior: sheep and goats are often
seen banging their heads together.
They butt. Rupicaprines, by contrast,
either fight rarely or, if they do, they
deliver blows of the head to the
opponent's body.

Of the Caprini, the males mostly do
the butting. But it is not an aimless,
continuing activity. Serious fights — or
better, "jousts" — occur only between
strange males, adults or near-adults,
who must settle the important matter of
their social dominance. At least in
sheep, whose behavior has been best
studied, the winner of any such serious
joust continues to act like a male,
and the loser demonstrates his
subordination by acting like a female.

The males with the larger horns are
almost always the dominant rams. They
not only intimidate or drive other males
away from receptive females, but are
seemingly preferred by such females,
and hence sire a greater proportion
of the next year's crop of lambs than
do other rams. There is, thus, a natural
selection for large horns amongst rams
of Ovis. We believe that the same
principle holds true for the males of
the other Caprini.

However, the males of the different
kinds of Caprini joust in quite different
patterns, each style consistent for one
kind; and each style of head-ramming
or horn-clashing is related to the
shape of horn and head of that kind
of animal. If, for instance, two male
goats (Capra). which merely clash their
horns together from a standing
position, were to try to act like the
males of sheep (OWs), which actually
charge each other at the full run, the

goats would kill themselves at the
first contact. A ram's horns and head
have evolved as a structural design
which will absorb a much greater shock
than does a goat's without addling
his brain. This correlation between
behavior, function, and structure is the
crux of our story.

Wild male goats, for instance, have
long thin horns curving like sabers up
over their backs. On an old buck such
horns will be forty inches or longer,
and are handy for scratching his hips.
When jousting, the males do not
charge each other. Typically one stands
firm while the other rears erect and
then, with neck down-arched, crashes
down upon his rival; or both may
stand erect momentarily before
clashing. Since the leading edge of
the horn is sharp in male goats,
cutting damage might result if the horn
hit directly on the head. But the goat
on the defensive is too clever to let
that happen; he turns his head in the
opposite direction of that of his
challenger so that the horns cross and
the bumpy edges interlock, thus
preventing slippage and protecting
the head from cuts. Accidents
(miscalculations) may happen
occasionally, as in all contact sports,
but they are relatively few, and
serious damage is rare.

A little contemplation of the paragraphs
above should illustrate to one the
niceties of the natural processes
whereby horn, bone, brain, nerves,
muscles, and behavior have evolved
together. And we append here, as a
footnote to our own thinking, the
statement that we are amazed that
some people, labeling their activities
"sport," will with purpose aforethought
destroy such wondrous animals as
wild goats, tahrs and turs, sheep,
and others.

In male goats and ibexes, horn-to-horn
contact is not at the base, but usually
about one-third of the distance from
the base toward the tip. Receiving force
in this region, the horns act as levers
upon the skull, twisting it clockwise, as

FIELD MUSEUM BULLETIN

"Qi^T

The clash — a mrlhsecond before male Nubian ibex mal<e contact in a ritual "battle" for dominance.

Viewed from the left. To compensate
for this movement, which might if
continued breal< the neck, the necl<
muscles which insert under the skull
and pull it down are particularly
enlarged in goats. What seemingly
happens here is a reflex contraction of
the muscles |ust at the moment of,
or a millisecond prior to, horn-to-horn
contact, to oppose the force of the
blow and hold the head firm.

The males of Ovis, particularly of the
populations with larger horns, have
a pattern of jousting markedly different
from that of goats. In the first place,
the horns themselves are large, heavy,
broad in front, and curled around the
side of the head. Such horns are
indeed veritable rams. A toss of a
mature ram's head, bearing such
formidable weapons, is sufficient to
intimidate an adolescent male, who of
course has smaller horns. Rams cannot
see their own horns, but they are very
aware of the relative sizes of the horns
of all other rams — by experience of the
force of blows which can be delivered
by horns of all sizes. Young rams
growing up learn quickly to respect
rams with larger horns — i.e., their elders
— and. indeed, for much of the year
each older ram is followed by a group
of younger males, each acting
submissively toward him as a female
would. The young rams in a group
practice against one another, and by

the time the members of a group have
reached adulthood, they have settled
their own position of social dominance
amongst themselves. But each of them
will challenge any strange ram with
horns of similar size to his own. A
rams ultimate goal seemingly is not to
acquire females, but to reach such a
position of dominance that all other
sheep behave toward him as if they
were females.

The joustings of the mature rams of
large-horned sheep are indeed
formidable. Two adult or nearly adult
males with horns of approximately equal
size who have not previously established
their social rank relative to each other
will almost always joust. If the
opponents are unequal, the decision is
settled in favor of the stronger after a
few rammings. With a pair equally
matched, though, the contest may
continue for more than a day and night,
marked by fifty or more full-powered
rammings. The two will walk away from
each other as if unconcerned, then,
when some thirty feet apart, will whirl
simultaneously and charge with all
speed, finishing the charge bipedally.
Each tries every possible trick to gain
advantage. Particularly, each attempts
to use the angle of the edge of one of
his broad-fronted horns to cut the other.
The other ram protects himself by
catching the blow on his horns. So
clever are they at simultaneous tricks

of offense and defense that some
observers have thought the affair to be
in the nature of a spirited but friendly
tourney. This is not true. No aspect of
friendly behavior is involved. Serious
damage is rare, and death rarer, but
one ram must emerge in the role of a
male, the other finally signaling
submissiveness by acting like a female.

During each episode of a serious set of
rammings, the individual males achieve
a speed of about thirty miles per hour
before meeting hornbases to hornbases.
Each then stands stiffly, head erect and
horns displayed, so that the other can
see what hit him, before strolling apart
— perhaps even to feed momentarily —
and then repeating the ramming.
Although no one has calculated the
forces involved, the impact on horns
and heads is obviously terrific.

If two people moving at this speed hit
head to head, they die; the force of
impact is that of hitting a wall at sixty
miles an hour. The rams of course do
not die; they live, usually uninjured, to
repeat these contests with other rams
on other days and in other years. The
social system is so organized, however,
that no ram is ever an outcast; each
has his place in the dominance
rankings, and each acts as a male
toward those below him but as a
female toward those above him.

Both males and females are usually
capable of reproduction at the age of
two years. Breeding is in the late
autumn or early winter of their third
year. Females do not compete for
mates, and their horns remain
relatively small in comparison with
those of males. Males will breed
successfully at the same age if no
older males are around, but in a normal
population the older males intimidate
the youngsters and keep them from
the females. Dominant males do try to
keep other males from receptive
females, but rarely succeed completely,
and do not form harems; nor is
monogamy the rule. Indeed, when a
female is receptive, she may breed

MARCH 1972

with several adult males, and almost
always becomes pregnant.

Although a young male is capable of
breeding at the age of two to three
years, his horns are still small, and he
dares not assert himself against an
adult with much larger horns. Horn
growth continues throughout life, which
may be as long as twenty years. The
major horn growth is, however, achieved
by the age of seven or eight years. By
that time the young adult male is
challenging and defeating any older
male whose horns do not match his
own in size. Amongst sheep at least,
older males with smaller horns are
subordinate to younger adults with
larger horns; thus neither age nor
adulthood is a guarantee of dominance
and success in breeding. The
evolutionary selection for larger-horned
males is balanced in part by the fact
that such "successful" males die
younger than do smaller-horned adults,
who may breed less frequently each
season but live to breed over a longer
life-span.

There is thus a long adolescence for a
male ram, almost a third of his life,
during which time the females of his
age-group are having a lamb each year.
The young males, while capable and
willing, are not necessary for the
immediate reproductive success of the
group, but are a kind of insurance,
available if by some chance all adult
males are killed.

We should not over-generalize for the
several species of Caprini since
prolonged behavioral and demographic
studies have been made only on the
Alpine ibex (Capra Ibex) and the
American bighorn {Ovis canadensis).
and some behavioral studies have been
made on the Barbary sheep. But for
the latter, as for Hemltragus and
Pseudois. as well as too often for many
species of wild goats and sheep, the
published accounts are predominantly
those of successful hunters recounting
their exploits. This kind of material
adds little or nothing to our knowledge
of an animal's behavior in infra-group

Male Nubian ibex sparring. Three photos by Uzi Pat. I/C Nature Reserves. Nature Reserves Authority, Kibutz
Galuyot St.. Tel Aviv, Israel

associations, his place in the social
structure, and his reproductive success
However, the behavior typical of the
three species about which we do have
good information, backed up by what
we know of the male's anatomy in each
of the five genera, suggests a similarity
of basic pattern for all the Caprini.

Now, after a necessary detour through
the subject of the jousting behavior and
age-related mating patterns of sheep
and goats, we are ready to return to
the beginning of our story and to
understand why the skulls of different
Caprini are built on recognizably
different plans. As mentioned previously.
if male goats, who merely clash their
horns from a standing position, tried
the charging ramming of male sheep,
the goats would snap their horns, addle
their brains, and possibly crush their
skulls. The horns and skulls of each
species of Caprini have become
evolutionarily adapted by natural
selection to resist successfully the
stresses created by the behavior of
their bearers. Thus, we can now begin
to understand why sheep and goats,
tahrs and turs, and ibexes and others
have distinctive kinds of heads and
horns.

Careful examination of the details of
these structural differences, correlating
them with behavioral differences, and
working out some other evolutionary

implications are what took us so long.
We will explain some of these details.

Each horn of a caprine (and of all
bovids) has two parts. The outer part
is a sheath of keratin (horny tissue that
develops from the skin, as does a
human fingernail). The inner core is
bone which is an outgrowth of one of
the frontal bones of the skull. Since a
bovid has two frontal bones, right and
left, it normally has two horns. In all
the caprines, as in all large bovids, the
center of the bony core of a larger horn
becomes absorbed as it grows, making
the horn more or less hollow. The
space so produced is an extension of
the cavity of the animal's frontal sinus
on that side, and both frontal sinus and
the sinus of the horn (cornual sinus) are
filled with air. In male wild goats and
ibexes particularly, the cornual sinus
may become so large that it extends to
the tip of the core, leaving the bony
wall at and near the tip paper-thin and
fenestrated. In other caprines the wall
of bone remains denser and thicker,
and thus the sinus is smaller.

The cornual sinuses are not, however,
occupied only by air. When forming,
they retain several to many supportive
bony struts which cross the sinus.
These struts are usually longitudinal in
the more goatlike species, while in
others (tahrs and bighorn sheep, for
instance) they form a complex pattern

FIELD MUSEUM 8UU.ETtN

like a honeycomb. No matter how
complex the interweaving pattern of
struts, the cavities are all continuous,
all air-filled, and all communicate by
way of the frontal sinus with the nasal
cavity and thus to the outside air.

Each frontal sinus is confined to one
frontal bone and is separated from its
partner of the opposite side by a thin
vertical midline wall, and each such
sinus also has some supportive struts.
The sinus typically fills most of its
frontal bone. In Capra, the frontal bone
is smaller than in Caprini with heavier
horns, in which the larger frontal bone
extends backward to cover more of the
brain. Also, in such Caprini with larger
horns — the ones that ram instead of
merely butt — the skull is bent down
sharply at the back, so that all or
almost all of the brain lies under the
frontal bone and thus also underlies the
frontal sinus. In these "rammers" —
Caprini with larger horns — we also find
the struts of the frontal sinus to be
much more numerous, making as
complex a honeycomb of bony bars as
is found supporting the cornual
sinuses of the same individuals.

Our conclusion is that the more the
frontal sinuses overlie the brain and the
more complex the pattern of struts is in
the sinuses — within both the horn core
and the frontal bone — the more forceful
the male's butting or ramming behavior
is. In other words, the behavior patterns
are positively correlated with the
detailed structure of skull and horns,
and the evolution of behavior and
structure has obviously gone forward
together over long periods of time —
several millions of years — in the
different populations of Caprini.

During this long period of complex
evolution, generation by generation, the
forces to which the head was subjected
cannot have been so great as to injure
the brain seriously. Any male with such
an injured brain, whether the individual
died immediately or not, was removed
from the breeding population and,
evolutionarily speaking, ceased to exist.

The potential types of brain damage,
particularly in large-horned rams, are
due to deceleration at the instant of
contact or rotational acceleration if the
heads meet off-center and are twisted.

The results in the brain may be torn

Honeycomb structure within cornual sinus of Ovis canadensis (fop); and within frontal sinus of Ovis ammon
(center); and Capra ibex sibirica (bottom). Back of skuM is bent down much more sharply in Ovis ammon.

blood vessels, compression of tissue,
shear, formation of internal vacuoles
due to differential pressures within the
brain (some possibly much lower than
normal), or combinations of these types
of damage. Obviously the problem of
damage to the brain has been a

limiting factor in the evolution of
different Caprini, but has probably been
most crucial in large-horned Ow's.
However, just as obviously, the
problems have been "met and solved,"
selected mutation by selected mutation,
while the social and behavioral patterns

MARCH 1972

were evolving. How was all
accomplished?

this

In the first place, the ram's horn itself,
the outer sheath, is thick and
presumably somewhat compressable.
The shock-absorbing capacity of the
bone of the horn core, with its
honeycomb of supportive struts, must
also be considerable; and it is "backed
up," so to speak, by the system of
struts below each horn, in the sinus
cavity of each frontal bone. Finally,
there is a correlation between the spot
of impact — on the broad front of the
horn directly above the forehead — and
the fact that the whole of the back part
of the skull is bent sharply downward.
The direction of the force of the blow
and the direction of the transmission of
that force through the centrally bent
posterior part of the skull are the same,
and this line continues through the
anterior vertebrae of the neck. Thus, in
normal ramming, there is no tendency
toward rotation of the head as occurs
in goats, and the problem of whiplash
is diminished. A structural correlation
is that sheep do not need the enlarged
ventral neck muscles of goats, and do
not have them.

During the several million years of
evolution within the Caprini, the usual
evolutionary processes of mutation,
differential selection in slightly different
habitats, and geographical isolation
have resulted in adaptive radiation
within the group such that we now
recognize five genera. Of these five,
the goats (Capra) seem to be the least
specialized for intense jousting by
virtue of the structure of skull and
horns. Jousting among male goats and
ibexes — and also incidentally in the
small-horned European sheep — is not
forceful enough for any marked
correlated changes in the shape of
their skulls to have evolved. The angle
between the plane of the palate and
the plane of the back of the skull
remains low (27"-48°) in these animals,
in contrast to the angle (74'-92') in
the more specialized, large-horned
animals with the backs of the skulls
bent down sharply.

Clearly, the most specialized of the
Caprini are the large-horned sheep of
the genus Ovis. But even within the
sheep there are differences. Those in
western Europe have smaller horns and
less specialized skulls (and hornless
females, whatever that may mean), and
Asiatic sheep generally have larger
horns with correlated specializations of
the skull, as do the North American
sheep, which descended from late
immigrants from one of these eastern
Asiatic populations.

Evolutionary selection for behavior,
population structure, and anatomy of
head and horns has obviously occurred
simultaneously for several million years.
To have evolved a social system that
allows the luxury of capable young
males not reproducing until half their
life is gone demands two conditions:
several million years of evolution of
behavioral patterns so that such a
social system works; and the
continuous presence of older males,
generation after generation, to maintain
a continuity of population pattern which
would channel the evolution.

Obviously, the locomotor adaptations
which allowed invasion of rocky hills
and mountains have been long
successful in the Caprini, and built
upon that success came such certainty
of population structure that the
subsequent secondary and then tertiary
adaptations we have been talking about
did evolve.

We cannot say why the special
evolution of the Caprini began to evolve
in the way it did, when that of another
crag-loving bovid, the Rocky Mountain
"goat," proceeded quite differently. The
males of this species do not usually
"fight," no dominance is established,
and the young breed as soon as they
are physiologically capable. Jousting
would be particularly dangerous in
these animals because their small,
straight, sharp horns can inflict
extremely dangerous and often fatal
stabbing wounds; even an adult could
be killed by a youngster.

The different pattern that the Caprini
as a whole exhibit indicates that a
common ancestor began to evolve
several million years ago away from
an animal also ancestral to the chamois.
In the Caprini, this combined
anatomical, behavioral, and social
evolution was toward larger horns,
male jousting, exclusion of the young
males from breeding, and consequent
extended adolescence.

So we have come full circle. The
differences between skulls of sheep
and goats which puzzled Reed ipi 1955
are better understood now in 1972. But
we had to take a long way around —
through comparative study of the
behavior, anatomy, and population
structure, as determinable, of all
caprines and some of their rupicaprine
cousins, and put these factors into an
evolutionary framework. This circle is
spotted with gaps though, because we
don't yet have intensive studies in
nature of many of the caprine
populations. The unstudied groups
include Asiatic sheep and Asiatic goats,
the single species of Pseudols, the three
species of Hemitragus, and to a lesser
degree the single species of
Ammotragus.

There remains much research to be
done by the field-naturalist — research
of the kind now called ethology, the
scientific study of the behavior of
individuals and populations, as related
to evolution, of free-living wild animals.
These studies can be aided by modern
techniques of telemetry and motion
picture photography. Such studies
must be done while natural populations
remain to be studied!

FURTHER READING

Valerius Geist. Mountain Sheep: A Study in
Behavior and Evolution. Chicago; University
of Chicago Press, 1971.

W^illiam M. Schaffer and Charles A. Reed.
"The Co-evolution of Social Behavior and
Cranial Morphology in Sheep and Goats,"
Fieldiana: Zoology, vol. 61, no. 1, 1972.

Dr. Charles A. Reed is prolessor ol
anthropology, University ol Illinois at
Chicago Circle, and research associate,
Department ol Zoology, Field Museum.
William M. Schalter is a graduate student
in the Department ol Biology, Princeton
University.

FIELD MUSEUM BULLETIN

international nature photography exhibition

Almost 900 people, from every

continent except Antarctica,

entered this year's Chicago

International Exhibition of Nature

Photography held at Field Museum

recently. The slides ranged in

subject matter from insect and

flower close-ups to desert vistas

and ocean shores. The prints were

fewer in number but covered

much the same range in dramatic

black and white as well as color.

The photographers are all

amateurs, and no one receives

any monetary reward — only the

satisfaction of having been thus

recognized in the largest nature

photography show of its kind

in the world.

Some people maintain that

photographers fail to see many

things around them because of

their concern with what makes a

good picture. I am sure that this is

not true. The search for good

photographs demands an even

keener and more persistent eye

than someone without a camera is

likely to have. Looking for new

photographic possibilities is as

fine an introduction to the depths

and subtleties of nature as one

can hope to find.

This annual exhibition, having

been held now for 27 consecutive

years, allows amateur nature

photographers to share the

discoveries and insights they

have captured on film.

William Burger

President, Nature Camera Club

of Chicago

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MARCH 1972

Running Scared, by Henry A. Schull. Darjen, Connecticui.

FIELD MUSEUM BULLETIN 9

Possum Quartet, by Evelyn Boos, West Brooklield, Massac

10 MARCH 1972

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FIELD MUSEUM BULLETIN 11

A tale from the south pacific

Johnlerrell, assisted by Sampson Purupuru

Bougainville, the largest island in ttie
Solomons, fell for thie first time under
the gaze of an explorer from the Old
World early in July 1768. The captain
of the frigate Boudeuse, on a voyage of
discovery around the globe, came upon
the island from the south and sailed
along the east side until he reached
what he called a "remarkable
promontory" on the northeast coast. He
gave to that point of land the name by
which it is still known, "Cape I'Averdi."
To the regret of history, he did not go
ashore.

If he had, we might today have
invaluable documents about the
villagers of north Bougainville and the
little island of Teop, which lies on the
south side of the harbor formed by
Cape I'Averdi. They would be
documents from the very dawn of
history in the North Solomons.

But no, the Frenchman moved on,
traveling northwest, until he found a
neighboring island, smaller than
Bougainville, but one which seemed
thickly inhabited. Natives came from
the island in canoes, shouting bouca,
bouca, onelle. Efforts to befriend them
failed, however, and the Boudeuse
sailed on.

History has awarded that captain many
honors. One was the privilege of
naming the smaller island to the north
Bouka. or as it is written on maps

today, Buka. Another is the distinction
of having one of the most majestic
isles in the South Seas named after
him, for he was the famous explorer
Louis Antoine de Bougainville,

In this fashion the island of Bougainville
passed from its long prehistory into
written history. But only in a fashion.
For although the many other islands in
the great Solomons chain experienced
the heavy impact of 19th century
European expansion, Bougainville and
Buka lay shadowed from close scrutiny
for a hundred years more.

One reason may be that the natives
gained an unsavory reputation. As late
as 1916 the South Pacific Pilot could
report: "Owing to the ferocity of its
inhabitants, Bougainville is less known
than any of the larger islands of the
[Solomons] group, and no white man
is (1887) believed to have penetrated
its interior."

Inevitably, nonetheless, history caught
up with the islands. The Germans
claimed the region in 1886. By the end
of the first decade of this century,
government, mission, and commercial
stations had been established on the
coast of Bougainville.

But traders' memoirs, government
reports, and mission records are rarely
the stuff from which full history can be
written. The transition from prehistory

to history was slow. Most of what the
world beyond the Solomons knows
about Buka and Bougainville must be
credited to those scholars who have
gone to the Pacific precisely for the
purpose of making written records —
the anthropologists.

The German ethnographer Richard
Thurnwald worked in southern
Bougainville in 1908-1909. An
Englishman, Gerald Wheeler, obtained
indirect material on Bougainville while
studying the Shortland Islands just to
the south in those same years. In 191 1
another German, Ernst Frizzi, brought
back a great deal of useful information,
again largely on the southern villagers.
Between the two world wars, the
anthropologists Beatrice Blackwood
and Douglas Oliver each lived long
enough in the area to write detailed
ethnographies. Since World War II the
pace of scientific study has increased
many times.

Thus, although there is much to be
done, today it is possible to write a
great deal about the languages,
cultures, and peoples of both Buka
and Bougainville.

Yet the scholars who have gone to the
North Solomons have dealt directly
only with contemporary life there. And
the customs of the present day are not
those of the prehistoric past — due in
large measure to the impact of

MARCH 1972

European civilization. Life on the
islands has changed deeply and
fundamentally since the Boudeuse
sailed along the coast.

If the past is to be written for these
islands, it will not be the anthropologists,
nor the missionaries, nor the
government officers who will write it,
although their contributions will be
extremely useful. Nor will the islanders
themselves be in a position to write
what has been forgotten.

Telling the story of the islands before
the arrival of the white man will be the
task of archeologists. Since it was once
the common belief that the Pacific had
nothing to offer the archeologist, that
conclusion may come as a surprise.
Nothing to offer^ We now know men
could never have been more wrong.

Modern scientific archeology reached
out into the Pacific only after World
War II. Almost at once the discoveries
were shattering. Not only could the
islanders be shown to have a past well

worth studying, they also had an
ancient past. We now know, for
example, that the ancestors of the
Polynesians of the eastern Pacific — far
from having migrated out of Asia or
the Americas in the recent past, as
many academics have long maintained —
were living in the Pacific for thousands
of years. The prehistory of the islands
farther to the west is now believed to
extend back well into the era of the
Ice Ages.

Ancient time as such is not the
attraction of Pacific archeology,
however. If archeologists were
fascinated merely by old things, then
there would still be far better places in
the world to go. What makes the
Pacific so intriguing is far more subtle.
That subtlety has many shades.

For one thing, the peoples of the
Pacific islands have only recently left
prehistory and joined the technological
age. In many areas we know enough
about the anthropology of the islanders
before industrialization to use that

Scale 1: 50.000 is

knowledge to help develop theories
about pre-industrial man, and then try
to test those statements by looking
back into the archeological past. In the
old centers of urban civilization, of
course, prehistory lies in the dim mists
of time before Egypt, Greece, and
Rome Not so in the Pacific.

Another reason for exploring the past
of the islands is that the peoples,
scattered as they are on flecks of land
spread over thousands of miles of
ocean, have developed seemingly
unique ways of life in comparative
isolation. Their adaptations to the
tropical world are many and varied.
The opportunity is there, in other
words, for both anthropologists and
archeologists to examine the causes
and conditions leading to human
diversity and change.

Like history, archeology came to the
North Solomons only recently. R. J.
Lampert, from the Department of
Prehistory at the Australian National
University, visited Buka Island in 1966
to survey the prospects for archeology.
He was follov>/ed a year later by
J. R. Specht and his wife, also from
Australia. They spent over half a year
collecting archeological materials and
excavating ancient village sites. He was
able to establish a chronological
framework based on pottery types that
could be carried back well into the
centuries we call B.C. The Spechts
also visited the Bougainville coast
across from Buka and found there a
number of old village sites which
clearly indicated that Bougainville too
would yield much to an archeologist.

In 1967 the first steps were taken at
Harvard University for a program of
archeological exploration and
excavation on Bougainville that I would
direct. I was then a graduate student
at Harvard, but had been out in the
Polynesian Islands before, in 1965, as
a Fulbright Fellow. I decided to return
again to Oceania because the intricate
cultural, biological, and linguistic
complexity of the islands in the western

FIELD MUSEUM BULLETIN

Pacific appeared to offer an
unparalleled cfiance to study ttie
causes of fiuman biological and social
differentiation by using both
anthropological and archeological
evidence.

I lived on Bougainville throughout 1969
and the first months of 1970. With the
assistance of local men, I explored
four separate areas on Bougainville:
two on the north coast, one on the east
coast, and one on the inland plain at
the southern end of the island. Forty-
five crates of archeological specimens
were collected and brought back to
America for laboratory analysis:
potsherds, stone axes, discarded
refuse bones and shells from kitchen
dumps, carbon and soil samples, and
twenty-four notebooks filled with
archeological and ethnographic
information.

It should hardly need saying that the
analysis of so much material is not yet
finished. Work on the Bougainville
survey is continuing, not in the field,
but in the Field Museum, where I am
working with students in the Laboratory
Research Training Program offered by
our Department of Anthropology. The
results will eventually be published as
an archeological report.

But archeologists write only one kind
of history or prehistory. Different
peoples of the world have their own
folk prehistory. It is not derived from
potsherds and soil samples, and it is
transmitted as oral tradition. If
traditional mythology, history, and
thought are to be recorded, the local
islanders themselves are in the best
position to undertake the task.

Therefore, Sampson Purupuru and I
wish to record here the story of the
founding of the Teop Island people, a
tale of legendary prehistory, as told by
a Teop Islander. This story is widely
known by Teop-speakers in north
Bougainville. It is rarely told to
foreigners, because the people fear
that the honest, graphic reference to
the origins of female sexuality may

offend them. They hesitate also
because they suspect that others may
not respect the integrity of the story,
and only laugh at the tale as beyond
comprehension.

When I was staying on Teop Island,
iust off the northeast coast of
Bougainville, Sampson Purupuru, the
island's representative in the Teop-
Tinputz Local Government Council, on
which he serves as vice-president, told
me the tale of the Woman of the
Trochus Shell, the first woman in the
Teop world. We discussed her history
often in the months that followed.

Her name, Topusubie, literally means
"one whose accustomed abode is the
shell of the Trochus." The Trochus,
T. niloticus, is a marine gastropod with
a pink, conical shell that has been
used for many years in the West to
make shirt buttons. Her legend, as told
by Purupuru, fully explains why she
should bear such a name. The tale is
about the first man in the world, who
lived at an ancient place called
Namatoa, in the mountains of north
Bougainville, and Topusubie, who lived
down on Teop.

Topusubie, Woman of the Trochus
Shell, as told by Sampson Purupuru

Long ago the one man here lived at
Namatoa up in the hills overlooking
Teop Island. And the one woman who
lived here lived on Teop.

Every morning she would clean the
beach with her ihiana [a kind of
wooden broom] from Teobebe where
the [Methodist] Mission used to be as
far as Pahokai on the other [west] side
of Teop. The man, sitting up in the
hills, watched her every morning. He
did not know what she was.

"What is that? A man, a dwarf, a devil,
or what?" So he decided: "I think I
must go one day and see."

He came from Namatoa one evening
and stayed on the coast after building
a tanuvu [a reef house]. He thought he

had to come across [on the reef] early
in the morning and see what it was,
while it was cleaning the beach.

So next morning at low tide he walked
across to Teop Island. The woman saw
him and ran quickly to her hiding
place, which was a Trochus shell. Her
name, Topusubie, means the shell of
the Trochus.

The man tried to find her. He followed
her tracks. Sometimes he even moved
the shell with his feet. But he did not
know she was inside. So he went back
into the hills.

Now he came down again several
times. In the morning he would see her
once more. Each time, however, the
woman would always hide. Finally he
decided: "Oh, I think I must try and
go by the other side." But on the other
side was deep water. You can only
approach by paddling a canoe.

He came down the next morning and
started to make a panasu, a raft. He
spent all day doing that. Then in the
late afternoon he came across on the
raft. He put it at a place they call
Teobana on the west side. He stayed
there all night waiting for the next
morning.

And in the morning he walked across
the island to Teobebe where the
woman lived. He saw the woman and
hid in the bush when the woman was
cleaning the beach. He thought: "What
can I do to get her to belong to me?"
He hid for a while and then jumped
out from the bush to the beach. He put
his hand on the woman's shoulder.
She had no time to get back to her
hiding place.

She asked him: "Where do you come
from?" And the man said: "Namatoa."
She asked him: "Why do you come
here?" And the man told her the whole
story about seeing her and trying to
catch her.

The woman tried to get away, but the
man was strong. He said to her: "No,
I would like you to be my wife."

MARCH 1972

They talked for some time. Then they
settled and they lived. The man did not
go back to Namatoa again, because
they married.

But he was not happy. He was a man,
but she was not fully a woman. The
man decided to make something.

He broke a shell which we call boen
[the black clam] into pieces. He took
the pieces back to the bush with the
woman and told her to climb the w'oga
palm [a small variety of betel-nut tree].
The woman climbed the tree.

When she was half-way up, the man
made the broken pieces of shell ready.
When the woman reached the top of
the tree, he put the broken shell into
the trunk in a row going up the tree.

Then he said to the woman: "Don't
look down, but slip very quickly." And
she did so. When she slipped down
quickly, she was cut by the broken
pieces of shell. And there was blood
all over.

When the woman saw that, she said:
"You spoil me. Look. Blood is all over
me and the tree." The man said: "No,
I didn't spoil you. You will see the new
things I do." So in this way the woman
became a woman.

When you see the vioga tree, you will
find that part of the vioga is red. That
is the blood, which came from the
woman. When she was well, they
started to make their family.

This is how the man came to Teop. And
all the people of Teop came from these
two, generation upon generation. The
man belonged to the clan Amara. The
woman belonged to the clan
Naomutana. Both clans come from
these two. This is the old story.

Another version of this story was
reported a generation ago by Beatrice
Blackwood of Oxford University, who
lived on Buka and in north Bougainville
from September 1929 to October 1930.
Unfortunately she was able to make

FIELD MUSEUM BULLETIN

15

Spirit stones at Teobebe.

only a brief visit to Teop island, but
Purupuru remembers that she spoke at
length with his influential father, Toave.
Sampson was a boy at the time, and
vividly recalls leaning on her legs while
Miss Blackwood and his father
conversed.

Scattered through her anthropological
report Both Sides of Buka Passage
(Oxford, 1935) are references and
allusions to the Teop people. Of
special interest here is what she wrote
about a legendary woman named
Topisbi'e and the role she played in
the origin of the matri-sibs or "clans"
of the aiea.

On Buka and Bougainville, kinship
follows a system of named matri-sibs.
Each is composed of those who claim
common descent through maternal kin
from the same legendary figures of the
past. Each has what has often been
called in the anthropological world
"totemic" associations with certain
species of plants and animals, certain
human characteristics, certain places
and things: that is, associations that
help to signify a sib's common identity.

Blackwood wrote: "With every clan
there is associated the name of a
certain creature, generally, but not
always, a bird." As Purupuru explains, if
a man meets a stranger and does not

Sampson Purupuru

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r/ e V

know if he is a kinsman, he will ask of
him: "What is your bird?" In other
words: tell me your clan name, not
directly, but by that which signifies it.

Traditionally a man must not marry a
girl of the same matri-sib, although
the strength of that "incest taboo"
decreases with genealogical distance.
And to reiterate, in this part of the
world, a man takes his sib — in our
terms, his "name" — not from his father
but from his mother.

The origin of these named kinship
groups of Buka and north Bougainville
are traditionally explained, according
to Blackwood, by very much the same
legend throughout the area. An old
woman, left alone when her people fled
a monster, conceived through artificial
means and bore two sons, who killed
the monster. The people who had fled
returned home. Her sons married, and
from the two couples all people are
descended.

In her report, Blackwood quoted
extensively from one origin myth of
this sort, told her on the island of
Saposa at the northwest side of
Bougainville. She then wrote: "A
version of the same story obtained at
Tiop, however, carries it a stage farther
}than the tale from Saposa]. Here the
woman is called Topisbi'e. When
enough children have been born, and
she has assigned a clan to each of
them, she says to them: 'You, Naboin,
must not eat the eagle. You, Natchi,
must not play too much in the sea.
You, Nakahi, must never kill a dog
You, Nawaniu, must not chase the
bush-fowl. You, Amara, must not play
with the turtles. These things you must
tell to all children who are kin to you.' "
Each name mentioned is a matri-sib
name; each taboo is a totemic
restriction recognized by those of the
sib designated.

We can only express regret that
Blackwood did not tell us more about
the story of Topisbi'e, for there is no
doubt she might have recorded much
that has today been forgotten. It is

55£?^^..:^>M?!^:" "» ■'

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certain, however, that Topisbi'e in
Blackwood's rendering of the ancestress
of the Teop people is the Woman of
the Trochus Shell, Topusubie.

Topusubie also figures in a way in the
archeological prehistory of Teop. Back
in 1935, Beatrice Blackwood reported:

At Tiop, an island at the north-eastern
corner of Bougainville, there is a group of
stones which are . . . flat slabs of limestone,
apparently unworked. There is no trace of a
design upon them. There are two large slabs
and two smaller ones ....

These stones represent a man and his wile
and their two children. The whole group
goes by the name of Tohihiu. They are said
to 'belong to' a man living in the village, who
Is of the Nakanb clan: he was described as
their kinsman

Blackwood goes on to relate that
whenever a feast is held to mark some
epoch in the life of a child of the
Nakarib clan, the child is taken to
these four stones. Not long before her
visit, such an event occurred. When
she examined the stones, "there were

16

MARCH 1972

J ^-

'^^

still traces upon them of the red paint
with which they had been smeared on
that occasion." As she observed, red
"paint," an ocherous earth called one
obtained by trade from the mountain
Rotokas people at the center of
Bougainville, is a sacred substance
which plays a part in many island
ceremonial activities.

These stones are still to be found,
along with others, on Teop Island.
They stand on the east side of the
island at a spot called Teobebe (a
name meaning "Abounding in
Butterflies") — the very place of
Topusubie's secret abode in the Teop
legend. They are not of limestone, but
volcanic rock. They must have been
imported to the coral-sand island of
Teop from the nearby mainland of
Bougainville. The largest stands 44
inches above the ground.

For want of a better term, we will call
stones such as these "spirit stones."
Throughout the North Solomons certain

stones are linked with mythological or
ancestral figures. One hears of stones
that are demons. Stones that move
about. Stones where spirits dwell.
Stones that are, in fact, ancestors or
legendary characters turned to stone.
Such remarkable stones have names.
They may be "owned" by a particular
group of kinsmen, who know the tales
connected with them.

The anthropologist Richard Thurnwald,
who worked in southern Bougainville in
1908-1909, wrote, for example:

... my attention was drawn to some big
stones of which legendary stories were told;
sometimes a man exhibited peculiar
behaviour when he passed such a
monument. At one he would spit, on another
lay fern leaves, upon another shoot an
arrow, or he would put his hand upon the
stone and then pass by without touching it
again, or he would address some words to
the stone threatening it with a small spear
such as boys use when playing.

In appearance, spirit stones vary
greatly. Most stones that Sampson and
I saw are natural boulders or rocks.
Some had grooves and basins cut into
them, suggesting that at some point in
their history they were used to fashion
stone axe-heads. Blackwood, on the
other hand, saw several stone "pillars"
in the Buka area, a few of which were
incised with geometric patterns.
Recently a similar incised pillar was
discovered on Pinipel Island, over fifty
miles north of Buka.

Those of the region in and around
Teop Island, nevertheless, show little if
any shaping by the hand of man. The
most elaborately worked stone is at
Irue Village on the Cape I'Averdi point.
It is a rounded, elongated boulder, 28
inches long, belonging to the local
Navanieuvu matrilineage or "family."
On one side there are several basins,
a groove, and small pits. The other
side has been modified more clearly to
represent a female figure, named
Kavokohi. Unfortunately, her story has
been forgotten.

The four at Teobebe are unworked, as
Blackwood mentioned Her attention

was directed to them at the very end of
her stay in the North Solomons. She
expressed regret that she was unable
to investigate them more fully. Now,
over forty years after her visit to Teop,
we may be able to cast more light
upon them.

Today the stones are linked strongly
with the legend of Topusubie, who is
said to be the second largest stone. In
other words, she has turned to stone.
The larger is her husband, the Man
from Namatoa. And the two small ones
are, of course, their chidlren. People
are able to remember with confidence
only Topusubie's name.

My interest in the four led to a great
deal of discussion on Teop Island.
In particular, Hanaiteopas, an old man
who remembered Blackwood's journey
to Teop, disagreed with Koveu, an old
woman who became my "mother" on
the island. Hanaiteopas declared that
the name of the Man from Namatoa
was Tohihiu (the very name for all
four stones as reported by Miss
Blackwood). Koveu, on the other hand,
denied the truth of what Hanaiteopas
claimed. Yes, Topusubie was the name
of the second largest stone, but the
name of the man-stone had passed
from memory because he was not, after
all, from Teop.

FIELD MUSEUM BULLETIN

17

The debate between "mama" and the
old man continued for weeks. One of
the most difficult points was what
matrilineal family owned the stones.
The Naokaripa family were supposed to
be the owners. But the legend is clear
that Topusubie and the Man from
Namatoa were not the direct ancestors
of that family. Therefore, the Naokaripa
family could not be the rightful owners
of Topusubie.

The argument was finally resolved in
this way. It was decided that the
Naokaripa family did not own
Topusubie and her family, but another
stone, called Togamirisoa, elsewhere
on Teop. The Naokaripa family, in
other words, must have gone to the
wrong stones when they came for a
ceremonial visit to Topusubie just after
World War II. That visit must have
started the confusion about ownership.
The families who actually owned the
four stones at Teobebe had to be the
Amara and the Naomutana, the
families descended from Topusubie
and the Man from Namatoa. Some
people concluded that Tohihiu was the
name for the Man from Namatoa, and
also the largest of the four stones.
Others said, no, Tohihiu was the name
of another stone north of Teobebe.
Mama, however, said Tohihiu was not
a man-stone at all. Tohihiu was a
woman.

Confusion! To add to it, we must
remember that Blackwood herself

reported that all four stones at Teobebe
were owned by the "Nakarib clan":
that is, the Naokaripa who visited them
just after the war. Thus, the only thing
we can be certain about is that the four
stones called Tohihiu by Blackwood
are the same four called Topusubie
today. We know that because she has
a photograph of them in her book.

All of this uncertainty does show one
thing very clearly. Legendary prehistory
IS not the same as archeological
prehistory. Stones stay around. In or
above the ground. But legends inhabit
only people's minds.

But if archeology rarely is able to say
very much about folk prehistory,
anthropology also runs into trouble
when it attempts to talk about factual
prehistory. Blackwood speculated in
her book that the spirit stones of Buka
and north Bougainville "may perhaps
once have formed part of an elaborate
fertility ritual, most of which has now
been lost." We can think of no way to
discover whether she was right about
the distant past. Today, we can only
say that her suggestion does not
genuinely apply.

Some spirit stones in the Teop area are
"used" as they were in Blackwood's
time: by certain families during
ceremonies marking important phases
in the growth of their children.
According to local custom, food is
taken to the stones every time a child's

"growth feast" is given, in order to
announce to the family's ancestors that
such an event is taking place for their
children.

Other stones may be used for yet
different purposes. The stone called
Vasintaono on Teop, for example, is
visited by women to gain its assistance
in catching fish. There is another,
called Matanateasubui, on Cape
I'Averdi, which is used for the same
purpose.

We say that spirit stones are used in
these various ways. We must add,
however, that the old customs of the
Teop people are dying. And with them,
the importance of the stones.

1 excavated at Teobebe, near the
stones of Topusubie. The archeological
specimens I found in the ground tell a
version of Teop prehistory going back
hundreds of years. But the legend of
Topusubie can never be dug from the
ground.

That is why we have told her story
here. In this way Topusubie will not be
forgotten in time.

John Terrell recently joined the Field
Museum stall as assistant curator ol Oceanic
archeology and ethnology. On Teop Island
he is a member ol the Namae family, and
is known as Kamahira. Sampson Purupuru
is vice-president ol the Teop-Tinputz Local
Government Council. He is a leader ol the
Navanieuvu lamily on Teop.

18 MARCH 1972

::-'!

J

! •

I

:

Mountain Sheep: A Study in Behavior and
Evolution

By Valerius Gelst. Chicago; University of
Chicago Press, 1971. 383 pp. $14.50.

I am always happy to read and review a
good book, one both interesting and at the
same time contributing greatly to our
understanding of life and evolution. Geist's
fine book is the result of several years of
intense and patient observation of wild
Stone's, Dall's, and bighorn sheep in the
Canadian Rockies, supplemented with wide
reading and a thorough grounding in the
science of animal behavior (ethology).

The mam value of Geist's work, in
comparison with most monographs on the
natural history of a species, is his
predominating evolutionary viewpoint,
particularly with regard to natural selection,
found in his discussions and conclusions.
He also has a firm intellectual grip on the
history of the Pleistocene (Ice Ages), and
interprets the morphological and behavioral
evolution of his sheep against the changing
environmental history of the past several
hundred thousands or even millions of years.
Such breadth of view, too often lacking in
ethologists, is particularly welcome with
regard to sheep {Ovis). the species of which
have had a northern circumpolar adaptive
radiation and so present a most fascinating
study of the evolution of the several species

within a genus as laid against the major
environmental turmoil of world-wide climatic
changes and the advances and retreats of
continental glaciations of the Northern
Hemisphere during the Pleistocene.

Those more directly interested in natural
history will be pleased to know that the bulk
of Geist's book is devoted to the results of
his own observations, over several years, on
the behavior and ecology of the three groups
of sheep in the Canadian Rockies. Geist, for
the first time, has worked out the intricacies
of the social organization of wild sheep and
given a logical explanation, in functional
terms of that social organization, for the
spectacular bouts of head-rammings
between pairs of adult and near-adult males
of sheep of North America and elsewhere. In
short, those males are impelled by reason of
their genetic endowments for maleness in
their particular social organization to try to
achieve social dominance — that is, to get all
other sheep to act toward them as females
would. Such social dominance is achieved
by having larger horns and greater force of
ramming than one's opponent while at the
same time withstanding his attacks
successfully until suddenly he switches from
the behavior of a male attacker to that of a
submissive female. A by-product of winning
social dominance, a result certainly not
planned with forethought by any ram. is that
during the rutting season he mates more
often with more females than do males
below him in the dominance hierarchy.

Geist's book is obviously packed with much
more information about the life history of
American wild sheep than I can outline
here. Those particularly interested in the
details of the "life and times" of one of
America's most splendid of wild mammals
must consult the book, illustrated as it is
with 89 photographic plates plus many line
drawings.

I do not do Geist a disservice when I differ
from him with regard to one of his
interpretations; scientists, like rams, make
progress when they test themselves against
each other. Geist (p. 177, and elsewhere)
argues against the horns of rams having
evolved as a selective response to absorb
concussion. The anatomical studies of myself
and my colleague William Schaffer, outlined
elsewhere in this issue of the Bulletin.
indicate firmly to us that rams' horns (and
also heads) have most definitely been
selected, and thus have evolved, in
correlation with the extreme forces of
concussion to which rams are subject in

their fighting for social dominance. Geist's
statements that rams with larger horns win
higher dominance rankings and that those
rams then beget the larger proportion of the
next crop of lambs strengthen our
conclusion, based on anatomical evidence,
that selection favors those rams Which not
only have the larger horns but also can
withstand the greater forces of impact.

Minor differences of viewpoint aside, Geist's
book is a superb one, and I commend it to
all interested in natural history or problems
of mammalian evolution,

by Dr. Charles A. Reed, research associate.
Department of Zoology. Field Museum.

Exotic Plants

By Julia F. Morton. New York; Western
Publishing Co., 1971. 160 pp.; about 400
color illustrations. $1.25 paperbound.

The word exotic in the title should and does
mean those plants which have been
introduced from foreign lands, but the word
IS also used to mean exciting or glamorous.
Many of the plants shown in the book are
exotic in this second sense of the word.

Mrs, Morton's guide covers those plants
which will grow out of doors in tropical and
subtropical regions of the world. Some 400
plants are covered in this small "pocket-
sized book," which would serve as a guide to
the commonly cultivated showy plants for the
amateur plant lover traveling or living in the
tropics or subtropics of America.

The text is brief but adequate. The
illustrations are the work of several artists
and are somewhat uneven in quality, but
will serve their purpose of easy identification.
To get some 400 illustrations, plus text, on
160 pages requires some accommodation —
and there have been accommodations.

by Dr. Louis O. Williams, chairman ot the
Department of Botany, Field Museum.

FIELD MUSEUM BULLETIN

19

NSF Grant for Analysis of Isimila Site
Materials

Field Museum has been awarded a grant of
537,600 by the National Science Foundation
for support of research entitled "Analysis of
Isimila Site Materials." The two-year
program is under the direction of Dr. Glen
H. Cole, associate curator of prehistory at
the tvluseum, and Dr. Maxine R. Kleindienst,
presently of Toronto, Canada,

Isimila is located in the Southern Highlands
Province of Tanzania, Africa. It is considered
to be of particular importance because of
the profusion of stone implements that were
found in archaeological context in the
various horizons of human occupation at the
site, dating from the tvliddle Pleistocene
Epoch.

The tool-making culture is known as
Acheulean, after the place (St. Acheul) in
northern France where well known
occurrences of such tools were found.
Estimates place the Acheulean culture from
about 75,000 to 500,000 or more years ago.

Isimila, an undisturbed site, was discovered
in 1951 as a result of extensive erosion that
exposed a large number of stone tools.
Steady deposition of sand and silt in a
basin that had alternately been a marsh and
shallow pond eventually filled it to a depth
of more than 60 feet.

Five distinct beds of coarse sediment were
found. The top three layers, which were
liberally covered with artifacts, were
excavated extensively. The uncovering of
several occupation areas on each level,
nine in the upper three and one in the
fourth, provided an opportunity to compare
different assemblages of tools known to be
roughly contemporaneous.

The Acheulean industry at Isimila comprises
a wide range of implement types, including
hand-axes, cleavers, scrapers, choppers
and picks, made from a variety of stone
material. The many types of tools found at
various places within a single level indicate

different activities by members of the same
group. The variations in style may also
suggest that more than one group of early
men occupied the site.

Before the excavations at Isimila, different
assemblages of tools had always been
found at separate sites, or in other levels at
the same site. The discoveries at Isimila
provide an entirely new idea of the full
range of the Acheulean tool complex, and
reveal an unsuspected degree of
specialization.

The Isimila site is also important because of
Its strategic location, the multiple horizons
of former human occupation, and the
preservation, though only fragmentary, of
fossil animal bones.

Much of the material excavated from the
area is now at Field Museum, and the
balance is at the Tanzania National Museum
at Dar Es Salaam.

Because of the work at Isimila, some widely
held theories about the activities of early
man have been revised. Upon completion of
the current research project, Field Museum
Press will publish a book on the Isimila site.

Laboratory Training in Archeology

Eleven students from local schools are
participating in a research and training
program in archeological techniques at
Field Museum under the direction of John
Terrell, assistant curator of Oceanic
archeology and ethnology.

Terrell arrived in Chicago last fall as a
"package deal" for the Museum: a new
assistant curator of anthropology complete
with his own research collection consisting
of seven tons of artifacts from Bougainville
Island in the South Pacific.

Each student is carrying out a project under
Terrell's guidance for course credit at his
own school. All are charged with analysis
of excavated materials from the diggings on
Bougainville. Most are learning the ropes of
pottery analysis and interpretation: several
are studying "midden" bones and shells
from old food dumps to try to discover
something about prehistoric diet and
economy on the island. One student is
editing Terrell's ethnographic notes.
The students are: Dan Cwiak (University of
Illinois Circle), Joan Franzel (Northeastern
Illinois University), Betty Haynes (Museology
student at the Museum from Waller High
School), Dan Hogan (Northeastern), Shelley
Lewis (Roosevelt University), Jennie Masur
(University of Chicago), Susan Moore
(Northeastern), Steve Peters (Northeastern),
Sue Sanchez (Roosevelt), Tom Smith
(Roosevelt), and Marty Zelenietz
(Northeastern).

Course in Geology of Chicago Region

Field Museum, in cooperation with the
University of Chicago, will offer a five-week
course for laymen on "The Geology of the
Chicago Region," beginning April 15. The
course includes an introductory lecture and
four all-day field trips conducted by Dr.
Matthew H. Nitecki, associate curator of
fossil invertebrates in the Museum's
Department of Geology.

The introductory two-hour lecture, April 15
at 10 a.m., will be at the University of
Chicago Downtown Center, 65 East South
Water Street. The field trips are: April 22,
8 a.m., to Palos Park; April 29, 8 a.m., to
Thornton and Wilmington; May 6, 8 a.m., to
Kentland, Indiana; May 13. 7 am , to
Starved Rock.

In Palos Park, course participants will see
rocks representing a four-hundred-million-
year-old shallow tropical sea that once
covered the area. Glaciers advanced and
receded, leaving behind millions of tons of
unconsolidated materials. Some of this
material formed ridges, called moraines,
behind which undrained ponds and marshes
remained.

Eighty miles west of Chicago, at Starved
Rock, a different geological record will be
viewed. Here the sandstones, limestones,
and shales of the Middle Paleozoic era,
some halt a billion years old, have been
gently deformed, giving us the spectacular
fold, or anticline, in the picturesque
canyons of the Illinois River.

At Thornton and Wilmington, 60 miles south
of Chicago, course participants will have
the opportunity to collect some unique
fossils in a coal mine, including three-
hundred-million-year-old denizens of the
shallow sea which once covered this part
of Illinois.

Further south, in Kentland, Indiana, a
geologically puzzling structure of much
disturbed rocks, called cryptovolcanic, will
be explored.

The field trips will be by chartered bus.
Tuition is $60 for the four trips and the
introductory lecture; $33 for two trips and
the lecture; and $18 for one trip and the
lecture.

Dr. Nitecki is also conducting a one-week
field trip to the Missouri Ozarks March 26
to April 1, for which tuition, including
transportation, is SI 40. Anyone interested
in joining this trip is invited to a preliminary
meeting Saturday, March 4, 10 a.m., at the
University of Chicago Downtown Center.

Members of Field Museum are eligible for
a discount on both programs. For further
information, please call Mrs. Maria Matyas
at Fl 6-8300.

MARCH 1972

CALENDAR

Hours

9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday ttirough Thursday; 9 a.m.
to 9 p.m. Friday.

The Museum Library is open 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Monday through Friday. Please obtain pass at
reception desk, main floor north.

Exhibits

Opens March 10

Morton Arboretum: 50th Anniversary, a

small commemorative exhibit. Through
June 4. South Lounge.

Through March 5

Coco-de-mer, an exhibit of the world's
largest seed and its use by man, on display
in the South Lounge.

Continuing

Australian Aboriginal Art from Arnhem
Land, a selection of nearly 400 bark
paintings and some wooden ceremonial
sculptures. The exhibit is unique because
of the documentation accompanying moet of
the pieces, including when they were painted,
their use, the region in which they were
produced, and information about the artists.
The material is from the extensive collection
of Louis A. Allen of Palo Alto, California.
Through September 10. Hall 27.

A New Spirit in Search of the Past:

Archaeology and Ecology in Lower Illinois
River Valley, an exhibit exploring the "new
archaeology" as reflected in the Illinois
Valley Archaeological Program's excavation
of the Koster Site, directed by Dr. Stuart
Struever of Northwestern University. Eleven
successive habitations, dating from 5100
B.C. to A.D. 1000, are yielding information
about man's adaptations to his changing
environments through time. Through
September 4. Hall 9.

Color in Nature, an exhibit examining the

nature and variety of color in the physical
and living world and how it functions in
plants and animals. II focuses on the many
roles of color, as in mimicry, camouflage,
warning, sexual recognition and selection,
energy channeling, and vitamin production,
using Museum specimens as examples.
Continues indefinitely. Hall 25.

Field Museum's 75th Anniversary Exhibit

continues indefinitely. "A Sense of Wonder"
offers thought-provoking prose and poetry
associated with physical, biological, and
cultural aspects of nature; "A Sense of
History" presents a graphic portrayal of the
Museum's past; and "A Sense of Discovery"
shows examples of research conducted by
Museum scientists. Hall 3.

John James Audubon's elephant folio.

The Birds ol America, on display in the
North Lounge. A different plate from the rare
first-edition volumes is featured each day.
Continues indefinitely.

Free Film Program

March 12

"Everything You've Always Wanted to
Know About Volutes but were Afraid
to Ask," slide lecture presentation narrated
by Jean M. Cate, offered by the Chicago
Shell Club at 2 p.m. in the Lecture Hall.

March 26

"West Side Story — Mexico to Alaska,"

wildlife film narrated by Walter H. Berlet,
offered by the Illinois Audubon Society at
2:30 p.m. in the James Simpson Theatre.

Continuing

"Patterns for Survival" (A Study of
Mimicry), presented at 1:30 p.m. and 3 p.m.
on Sundays in the second floor North
Meeting Room. The half-hour film offers an
overall view of protective coloration in
insects and provides visitors with an insight
into the "Color in Nature" exhibit.

"Chinese Jade Carving," shown at 2 p.m.
and 3:30 p.m. Sundays in the second floor
North Meeting Room. The unusual short
film serves as an excellent introduction to
Field Museum's new Hall of Jades.

Spring Film Lecture Series, 2:30 p.m.
Saturdays in the James Simpson Theatre.

March 4: "Grecian Holiday," narrated by
Ralph J. Franklin, looks at ancient ruins
and modern cities.

March 11: "Cambodia," narrated by

Kenneth Armstrong, visits Angkor Wat, the
capital of Phnom Penh, cities, and villages.

March 18: "Trails of Tembo," narrated by
Larry Linnard, travels to East Africa, land
of the "big tusker," for wildlife scenes.

March 25: "On the Trail of the Arctic
Char," narrated by Karl H. Maslowski,
searches for adventure in Canada's Far
North.

Children's Program

Begins March 1

"Our Vanishing Wildlife," Spring Journey
for Children, a free, self-guided tour
focusing on animal species that face
extinction, to help youngsters understand
what is happening to them. All boys and
girls who can read and write are welcome
to participate in the activity. Journey sheets
are available at Museum entrances. Through
May 31.

Meetings

March 8: 7:30 p.m.. Windy City Grotto,
National Speleological Society.

March 9: 8 p.m.. Chicago Mountaineering
Club.

March 12: 2 p.m., Chicago Shell Club.

March 14: 8 p.m., Chicagoland Glider
Council.

Coming in April

Spring Film Lecture Series, 2:30 p.m.
Saturdays in the James Simpson Theatre.

April 1: "Southern Africa Safari,"

narrated by Cleveland P. Grant, travels
to Transvaal, Rhodesia, and Mozambique.

April 8: "Amazonas Hovercraft Expedition,"

narrated by David Smithers, adventure and
exploration in South American waterways.

April 15: "Enjoying the Out-of-Doors,"

narrated by Howard Orians, highlights
nature's wonders.

April 22: "Mexico's Californias,"

narrated by Ken Wolfgang, past, present,
and future.

April 29: "The Living Wilderness,"

narrated by Walter H. Berlet, animal life
in the Rockies.

volume 43 Number 4 pjgl^ MusGum of Natufal Hlstory Bulletin

April 1972

X

mmm

This issue ot the Field Museum ot Natural History Bulletin is entirely concerned with the
discipline of botany, with special altenlion to the Museum's Department of Botany. Each
of the other three disciplines represented in the Museum — geology, anthropology, and
zoology — and the departments devoted to them will be similarly featured In subsequent
issues of the Bulletin.

The issue is dedicated to Mr. John G. Searle. A recent action by our Board of Trustees
designated the herbarium of the Museum as The John G. Searle Herbarium. This action
honoring Mr. Searle was taken in recognition of his great interest in the Museum and
strong support of the scientific program of Field Museum as a Trustee from 1952 until
1971, when he was elected a Life Trustee. The John G. Searle Herbarium, containing more
than 2,500,000 plant specimens, is one of the great research collections of the world,
serving scientists and students of all nations.

Field Museum
of Natural History
Bulletin

Volume 43, Number 4
April 1972

Cover design by Zbigniew Jastrzebski.

2 Man and Plants

Louis O. Williams

5 People in Botany

Johnnie L. Gentry, Jr.

8 Wild Illinois

Robert F. Betz

10 The John G. Searle Herbarium

Dorottiy N. Gibson

12 Collecting in Amazonian Peru: A Letter from the Field

Donald R. Simpson

16 The Flowers that Bloom in the Spring . . .

William C. Burger

Calendar

Field Museum of Natural History

Director, E. Leiand Webber

Editor Joyce Zibro: Associate Editor Elizabetti Munger. Staff Writer Madge Jacobs: Production Russ Becker; Photography John Bayalis.
Fred Huysmans.

The Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin is published monthly except August by Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at
Lake Shore Drive. Chicago, Illinois 60605. Subscriptions: $6 a year: $3 a year for schools. Members of the Museum subscribe through
Museum membership. Opinions expressed by authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the policy of Field Museum. Unsolicited
manuscripts are welcome. Printed by Field Museum Press. Second-class postage paid at Chicago, Illinois. Postmaster: Please send form
3579 to Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago. Illinois 60605.

FIELD MUSEUM BULLETIN

/mN&PWNrs

LOUIS O.WILLIAMS

Imagine, if you will, what America was
like when it was first discovered by
man — and here we do not refer to
such late-comers as Leif Ericson or
Columbus. Men out of Asia were
certainly the variable genetic source of
human populations in America. Over
millennia they came to the northwestern
extension of the North American
continent, and then by agonizingly
slow stages spread their kinds
southward and eastward, eventually
reaching and passing the equator.

Finally, and perhaps not long before
the coming of Europeans to America,
they reached the southern tip of what
we now call South America.

How long ago did the first men come
to America, and what was it like
around that part of America where
they first touched? Scholars do not
agree about the point in time past
when the first men came across the
Bering Strait, but a convenient
compromise figure might be 25,000
years ago. During the period of
migration — which may have continued
up to a thousand or so years ago, thus
spanning a very long time as
measured in men's life spans — the
northwestern region of North America
(as well as adjacent Asia) must have
been a formidable place with a climate
unbelievably harsh during many
thousands of these years as glaciers
waxed and waned.

Man certainly brought nothing with him
out of Asia, except his dogs. Hunting
and fishing must have sustained him
until finally he came to milder climates,
and somewhat drier ones. In front of
him was a great vacuum as far as
man was concerned, the only pressure
was from behind. Time passed and
new cultures developed — the earlier
ones based on the grazing animals
rather than those of the sea. Eventually
a seed-gathering economy developed,
and as man got farther south and into
the tropics, where large animals were
and still are scarce, his economy
changed to one based on plants.

The great Aztec market at TIateloIco, A.D, 1515, exhibit in Hall 8. Field Museum.

Man had now progressed far enough
in space and time that we may begin
to look for a higher culture than those
based on nomadic hunting and seed-
gathering.

Somewhere along the route of this
southward progression men — or
probably women — discovered, perhaps
by accident, that the plants whose
edible portions they gathered grew
better on their middens and in the
enriched soils around their dwellings
than in the wild places that were the
plants' normal habitats. This discovery
of the cultivation of plants for food

was, I think, the most momentous
discovery of all time. Once the
discovery was made, savagery was on
the way out and the pptential for
civilization was present.

It is thought that about 8 square miles
of land were required in a seed-
gathering economy to sustain one
man. On this basis the world could
sustain a population of some 30
millions. The discovery of the
usefulness and convenience of the
cultivation of plants changed the whole
outlook for man in America — and in
the world, for that matter — and

April 1972

permitted hiis unintiibited increase.
When one man could produce food
beyond the requirements of his family
and have some left over for barter,
someone else was freed from the
never-ending daily chore of searching
for food. Some men were then able to
give thought to the betterment of their
own condition and that of their fellow
men.

Ancient high civilizations in America,
as I conceive of them, developed in
three regions: Mexico, Central
America, and in the Andean region of
northwestern South America.

What were the plants of America that
were the basis for civilizations? I have
called attention long ago to the
coincidence that where ancient
American civilizations were developed,
there were plant foods that provided
the essentials of a balanced diet.
Basically, these plants could be as few
as two: ideally the seeds of a grass,
maize, which provided good and
abundant carbohydrates; and the
seeds of a plant that added protein to
the diet, probably always a legume
(bean family). Other kinds of plants
added variety and vitamins — frosting to
the cake if you wish — and we shall
consider some of these in due course.

What were the (two) basic food plants
upon which civilizations in America
were developed and where did they
come from? The answer to the first
part of the question is easy — maize
and beans — but to answer the second
part is not so easy.

Maize and beans (there were two
really superb kinds of beans) as we
know them now, and as they were at
the time of European discovery, were
and are the results of thousands of
years of selection. Essentially maize
and beans are the creations of ancient
men in America, men who were
certainly not savages, and were not
inferior in any way to European man
at the time of discovery and the
conquest — unless they were "inferior"
in being less savage.

The origin of maize is still a
controversial subject and one which
was opened recently at a scientific
meeting of the Society for Economic
Botany here at the Museum. Dr. Hugh
litis, of the University of Wisconsin,
presented a paper, not yet published,
in which he contended that corn is
domesticated teosinte {Euchlaena
mexicana) and differs from it not at all
in any of its basic vegetative, floral, or
genetic attributes. Dr. George Beadle
has for the past three years been
conducting tests of this hypothesis by
means of large-scale experiments with
hybrids of corn and teosinte. He will
have an article about his work and
conclusions in a future issue of the
Bulletin. This concept is different from
those previously published and one
which must be considered. A small
library has been written about maize,
the world's most important cultivated
plant, and the end is not yet!

Beans, the second component of a
balanced diet, and one of the great
civilizers, were and are abundant.
Kidney beans or field beans
(Phaseolus vulgaris), scarlet runner
beans (P. coccineus), and lima beans
(P. limensis) are the aristocrats of the
beans of the world and they are all
American.

The scarlet runner is, I think, to be
found wild in Central America and it
propagates itself without the
intervention of man. I have seen wild
beans in Central America that may be
among the progenitors of the common
kidney beans. The usual kidney beans
are man's commensals and if left to
their own devices will not persist. Lima
beans are wild in much of tropical
America, but the presumed wild
progenitor differs much from the
cultivated kinds, which, so far as I
know, require man's help to persist.

These, like many another cultivated
plant, have been selected for years,
even millennia, by man to produce more
or better food, and survival of the plant
as a wildling was not a consideration

in the selection.

A host of other food plants have been
bequeathed to us by the early
Americans. We have found no
important food plants not known to
people of pre-Columbian time.
Potatoes, sweet potatoes, cassava,
pumpkins and squashes, tomatoes,
avocados — vegetables that we all know
and that are to be found in our markets
every day of the year — all originated
here. Of these, the sweet potato is one
of very few plants of economic
importance that were cultivated in the
tropics of both hemispheres before the
beginning of recorded history.

Fruits of temperate regions were few in
America and, with the possible
exception of our native grapes, none is
of very great importance. The old
saying "as American as apple pie" is
not really appropriate, because apples
are Old World fruits. Let's change the
expression to "as American as
pumpkin pie," a traditional food for a
traditional American holiday.

Except for pineapples, tropical fruits
native to America are relatively little
known in our markets. The grandest of
all tropical fruits — citrus fruits,
bananas, dates, figs, and the mango —
are all from the Old World.

Plants important in our daily lives are
not only those that provide food. A
mere listing of the kinds of things that
are derived from plants will bring to
mind many that we use daily. There
are fibers (cotton is the most familiar
of them); forest products (wood, cork,
the paper which you are holding);
rubber and latex; gums and resins (the
list of ingredients on your next can of
soup may contain a gum); essential
oils are in perfume; many kinds of oils
and fats and waxes for literally
thousands of food and industrial uses;
sugars and starches; medicinal plants
(a few, like quinine, of really great
importance, but literally thousands
have played a part in folk medicine
from ages past down to today). Don't

FIELD MUSEUM BULLETIN

forget the antibiotics, the miracle drugs
of our day; and insecticides from
plants, which cause little permanent
damage to the biosphere. Then there
are the fumitories and masticatorles
(like tobacco), many of which are
under a cloud today; the narcotics —
opium, pot (marijuana), and coca
(cocaine), the only important narcotic
of American origin. Among the spices
everyone uses, the only important ones
of American origin are the sweet and
the hot (red) peppers.

Beverages which are made from plants
include coffee and tea from the Old
World; and cocoa and mate from
America. Cocoa beans were used in
Mexico from ancient times like
currency, a measure of value in barter.
The plants from which alcoholic
beverages are made are multitudinous.

My colleagues in the Society for
Economic Botany have raised the
questions whether or not ornamental
plants are economic or useful plants,
and whether or not its journal should
include articles on ornamentals. I feel
that they are both economic plants and
useful plants and that the world and
the garden around your door would be
a less interesting place without them.
But then I am prejudiced, for the
native orchids of the Americas have
always been my special love.

Dr. Franz Schwanitz wrote in 1957 in
his Die Entstehung der Kulturpflanzen
(Origin ol Cultivated Plants) that
cultivated plants alone made it
possible for 2.5 billion people to
populate the globe. Fifteen years later,
with probably well over 3.7 billion
people populating the same globe, the
major food source is still cultivated
plants, but the supply is being strained
in many parts of the world, even as it
was in 1957. In the year 2000, the
population of the world is projected to
be some 6.4 billion persons. // the
projection holds true, it will be due to
much improved food plants and more
efficient agriculture. Conversely, if the
projection does not hold true, it could

be because of insufficient food
production from constantly shrinking
land resources.

Last year a terrible storm blew out of
the Bay of Bengal and innundated the
fertile low-lying delta of the Bengal
River. Perhaps as many as 500,000
people lost their lives in that disaster.
It would seem that no man in his right
senses would take his family to live on
the Bengal River delta, for natural
disasters are common events there.
The fact is that man in that
overpopulated portion of the world
really has no choice. To grow the food
to keep alive, he plays Russian
roulette of necessity.

Although most plants that we use for
food are ones that were selected or
bred for special purposes by man long
ago, some of the plant foods we
collect or harvest have changed very
little or not at all as the result of
man's attention. The sap of the sugar
maple is still collected and boiled
down to make one of the prized
delicacies of our larder. Wild, or
Indian, rice, once an important food of
North American Indians, is an
expensive delicacy, now used for
gourmet disties and often as a special
accompaniment to a Thanksgiving
dinner. Wild raspberries and
blackberries are still gathered — and
both have given rise to cultivated
forms which it is easy to trace back to
the progenitor. Cranberries, another of
the delicacies often used for
Thanksgiving dinner, differ hardly at all
from the wildlings that are still
gathered. The fruits of the prickly pear
cactus, called tuna, are gathered and
to be found commonly in markets in
Mexico and even now and again in
Chicago. Algae from the sea are
collected along the shores of much of
the world either as food or industrial
plants. The forest preserves around
Chicago each spring and fall are
invaded by connoisseur gatherers of
wild native mushrooms.

Even today the gathering and breeding

of wild plants to produce better useful
plants is going on and will continue to
go on. Two recent examples will
suffice to indicate the trend. We owe
the large and luscious blueberries that
in recent years have become
commonplace in our markets to the
persistence of Dr. Frederick V. Colville,
who took the native blueberry and
through selection and breeding
produced a plant which has become
an important crop in America. We owe
to the vision of Dr. B. Y. Morrison the
glorious Glen Dale Azaleas, surely
some of the finest ornamentals in a
group of plants known for their beauty.

The United States Department of
Agriculture has for many decades now
had a broad program of exploration for
and introduction of potentially useful
plants. The program has been
eminently successful over the years.
A recent and on-going project is the
screening of a vast number of plant
species in the hope that components
in some may be found useful for the
treatment of cancer in man.

Look again at the useful plants around
you, treasures from all the world. Can
you imagine Italian cuisine without
tomatoes? They were not in Europe
before the time of Columbus.
Brazilians think that their mangoes
were always there — but they are Asian.
Spring without tulips — can you imagine
if Tulips in endless variety are largely
due to Dutch perfectionists.

We do classify plants in different ways
for different purposes, such as
"useful" versus "ornamental." One
kind of classification I would not like
to try to apply would be "necessary"
versus "unnecessary." In one way or
another almost any plant could be
useful. And who would have the hubris
to assert that plant X is quite
unnecessary to the third planet from
the sun, let alone to its human cargo?

Dr. Louis O. Williams is ctialrman ol the
Department of Botany. Field Museum.

April 1972

People in Botany Johnnie L Gentry, Jr.

The staff of Field's Museum's
Department of Botany includes five
curators, one visiting research! curator,
and eigtit subcuratorial members. The
research! activities are concerned
mostly with floristic studies of the
native plants of Central America and
Amazonian Peru. This work is
associated with the preparation of
floras, descriptive inventories of the
plants of these regions.

Botany and is the Consul of Guatemala
in Chicago. When not studying plants
he can be found operating his printing
press or bird-watching.

Dr. Louis Williams, chairman of the
department, has spent several years in
the tropics studying plants, including
eleven years as botanist and
subdirector at the Escuela Agricola
Panamericana in Honduras. The early
1940s were spent searching for
sources of secondary rubbers in
central Brazil. Prior to coming to Field
Museum he was botanist for the U.S.
Department of Agriculture. His research
project is to complete the Flora of
Guatemala, a work which will comprise
about fourteen volumes when finished.
He is very interested in orchids and
served as the editor of the American
Orchid Society Bulletin for three years.
He is presently a member of the
Council of the Society for Economic

The flora of Costa Rica project is the
responsibility of Dr. William Burger,
associate curator, vascular plants.
Before joining the staff at Field
Museum he spent four years teaching
at the Agricultural College of Halle
Selassie 1 University in Ethiopia. This is
where he was impressed with the great
need for research on tropical flora.
Dr. Burger's main research interest is
the study of the plants of Costa Rica,
particularly the group that includes the
peppers, oaks, and figs. His major
avocation is photography and he is the
current president of the Nature
Camera Club of Chicago.

Or, Patricio Ponce de Leon

professor of cryptogamic botany at the
University of Havana. His research
activities involve the group of fungi
that includes the puffballs and
earthstars. In addition to the fungi, he
has responsibility for the Museum's
collections of lichens, mosses, and
algae.

Dr. Donald Simpson

Dr. Donald Simpson, assistant curator,
Peruvian botany, is presently
conducting a botanical and forest
survey in the Amazon basin of Peru.
This research is especially valuable
because it provides a scientific base
for knowledge of the forest resources
of Amazonian Peru. He is currently
working on a synoptic flora of the
Pachitea River area in Peru and is
involved with the completion of the
Flora of Peru.

Dr. Johnnie L, Gentry. Jr.

Dr. Patricio Ponce de Leon, associate
curator, cryptogamic botany, was born
in Cuba. He was formerly curator in
the botanical garden at Havana and

FIELD MUSEUM BULLETIN

Mrs. Dorothy Gibson

The newest member of the curatorial
staff is Dr. Johnnie L. Gentry, Jr.,
assistant curator, vascular plants. His
research is a part of the Central
American projects being carried out in
the department. The potato, or
nightshade, family is being prepared
for the Flora ot Guatemala by him.
Other research interests include the
Borage family. He is active in
community affairs, presently serving as
the chairman of the Committee on
Natural Resources and Environmental
Improvement of the Willco Council of
Governments.

Dr. Rolf Singer

Dr. Rolf Singer, visiting research
curator in mycology, is one of the
world's most outstanding mycologists.
Prior to coming to Field Museum he
spent almost twenty years in South
America, first with the Instituto Miguel
Lillo at the University of Tucuman, and
then at the University of Buenos Aires
in Argentina. It was during this time he
traveled extensively and collected in
areas not previously visited by
mycologists. Dr. Singer recently
returned from a year of study in
Europe, where he was continuing work
on the large group of fungi we
commonly call m.ushrooms or
toadstools (Agaricales). He now also
teaches in the Department of
Biological Sciences at the University
of Illinois at Chicago Circle.

Mrs. Dorothy Gibson, supervisor of The
John G. Searle Herbarium, is an
important member of the team working
on the Flora ot Guatemala and is
making some major contributions to
that project. She is presently working
on a plant family familiar to
horticulturists, the Gesners, one group
of which are the gloxinias. Her
interesting career before coming to
the museum included owning and
operating a country store in the
backwoods of Kentucky.

Mr John Millar

Mr. John Millar began his career at
Field Museum in 1918 as a preparator
of botanical exhibits. At various times
he held the positions of curator of the
Harris Extension, deputy director, and
chief curator of botany, and is
currently chief curator emeritus of
botany. He continues to come in a few
days each week to work on the
economic botany collections. Mr. Millar
directed the moving operations for the
exhibits when the Museum moved from
its old building in Jackson Park to its
present home in Grant Park. The story
that he had to resort to wearing roller
skates in order to meet each moving
gang at the elevator is true.

Mr. Ronald Liesner, herbarium
assistant, who left the dairy country of
Wisconsin to go to the University of
Wisconsin for a B.S. degree in botany,
works mainly on the flora of Costa
Rica project. He does much of the
identification of Costa Rican plants and
was field assistant on a recent
expedition to Costa Rica. Nature
photography is his favorite hobby.

Mr. Roberl Stoize

Mr, Robert Stoize, custodian, fern
herbarium, first came to the
Department of Botany looking for
part-time work to help finance his
music studies. He soon took an
interest in the ferns and pines and is
presently responsible for our
collections of these two major groups
of plants. His research activities are
currently centered around a group of
tropical tree ferns. Recently he was
elected treasurer of the American Fern
Society.

Dr Robert F Betz. research associate

April 1972

Miss Jane Lamlein

Mrs. Roberta Carnagio

Miss Jane Lamlein, herbarium
assistant, spends most of her time on
the Peruvian projects. She is
responsible for receiving and
processing the collections, and for
identifying a large part of them. For
her B.A. degree from Miami University
in Ohio, she majored in botany.

Mrs. Alfreida Rehling

The responsibilities of Mrs. Alfreida
Rehling, herbarium assistant, include
the important activities of processing
requests for loans, exchanges of
specimens, shipping and receiving of
all specimens, and the correspondence
that accompanies such operations.
Maintaining our important collection of
"type" photographs is also one of
her responsibilities.

Mr. Almon F. Cooley, general assistant

The administrative duties necessary for
the overall support of the activities of
the department are carried out by Mrs
Roberta Carnagio, the departmental
secretary, who also serves as the
botany librarian.

Mrs. Karoline Benyovszky

The operation of mounting plant
specimens for the herbarium has been
handled by Mrs. Karoline Benyovszky
for some ten years. She is now
teaching the skill to Miss Kathy
Henning, a recent addition to our staff,
with whose help we will be able to
reduce the backlog of unmounted
material.

Professor Antonio Molina R

Professor Antonio Molina R., field
associate, is botanist and curator of
the herbarium at the Escuela Agricola
Panamericana in Honduras. At the
present time he is an associate
investigator in a field research program
being carried on jointly by his
institution and our Department of
Botany. His valuable contribution to
this project is represented by the
numerous specimens he collects and
sends to the Museum each year. He is
probably the best botanical field man
in Central America.

Miss Bertha Olguin, typist and general assistant

Photos by Fred Huysmans and Ed Jarecki

Dr. Johnnie L. Gentry, Jr. is assistant
curator, vascular plants, in the Department
ot Botany, Field Museum.

FIELD MUSEUM BULLETIN

WILD
ILLINOIS

ROBERT FBETZ

By thy rivers gently flowing,

Illinois, Illinois.

O'er thy prairies verdant growing,

Illinois. Illinois,

Comes an echo on the breeze.

Rustling through the leafy trees,

And its mellow tones are these.

Illinois, Illinois . . .

Though the first stanza of the Illinois
state song depicts a land that is a
veritable "Garden of Eden," an
automobile drive through Illinois today
is an uninspiring and rather depressing
sight. Beyond straight ribbons of
concrete, flanked by well-mowed
shoulders, stretch countless fields of
corn and soybeans. Except for a few
patches of dandelion, chicory, or
Queen Anne's lace, which are all
foreign, there are few wild flowers of
any kind. Native flowers are almost
nonexistent. Here and there a line of
scraggly trees and shrubs marks the
boundary between one cornfield and
the next. Occasionally a small
overgrazed woodlot with widely spaced
trees and grassy understory breaks the
monotony of this landscape.

Very little wildlife is to be seen. With
so few flowers from which to obtain
food, bees and butterflies are scarce.
Except for some house sparrows and
pigeons around the farm houses, there
are few birds. Rarely does one ever
get a glimpse of a fox or raccoon.

The rivers that wind through this
biological desert are dark and murky
wrth the topsoil washed into them from
the surrounding farmlands. Because of
the herbicides and insecticides, many
are almost devoid of any plant or
animal life.

But it has not always been so. Before
the hand of man desecrated the land,
Illinois teemed with flowers and
wildlife. The French explorers regarded
it as one of the most beautiful places
they had seen in North America. The
prairies, carpeted with grasses and
flowers, studded with island groves,
and enveloped by strips of river

timber, never failed to elicit the
admiration of Europeans seeing them
for the first time. Often they compared
the prairies and forest groves to an
ocean with its shores, for to many the
outline of a distant forest appeared
like a dim shoreline with capes, inlets,
and points of timber jutting out into
this "sea of grass."

The virgin Illinois landscape must have
been an unforgettable sight. In the
spring of the year the prairies were
strewn with golden Alexanders, pink
shooting stars, and purple phlox and
the edges of the forest groves filled
with the pink and white blossoms of
the redbud, dogwood, and wild
cherries. In autumn the tall waving

8 April 1972

A patch of virgin prairie in northern Illinois with big bluestem grass,
wild quinine, and prairie gayfeathers.

expanse of big bluestem grass was
flecked with asters, goldenrods, and
gentians.

The northern two-thirds of Illinois was
mostly prairie surrounding isolated
groves, while the southern one-third
was principally forest enclosing
patches of prairie. Many of the groves
were given names — some for the
predominant tree they contained, such
as Bur Oak Grove or Maple Grove;
others for a settler who homesteaded
along the edge of the grove, such as
Downer's Grove or Walker's Grove.
Many of the prairies also had names,
such as Looking-glass Prairie or
Hawkins' Prairie. The largest prairie in
the state was the Grand Prairie in

east-central Illinois, where a man
could travel for hours without ever
seeing a clump of trees.

The prairies and the forests were alive
with animals. Out in the open one
could hear the booming of the prairie
chickens and the clear flute-like calls
of soaring upland plovers, or see the
strange courtship display of the
sand-hill cranes. Small herds of bison,
elk, and white-tailed deer could be
seen grazing. In the woods there were
wolves, coyotes, black bears, mountain
lions, bobcats, and many others.
Around the marshes large flocks of
whistling swans, geese, ducks, and
other water birds congregated. In
springtime the groves rang with the

sound of hundreds of thousands of
warblers, vireos, and sparrows moving
north to their breeding grounds in
Canada, while in the river timber there
were flocks of chattering Carolina
paroquets and pairs of bald eagles. At
times migrating flocks of passenger
pigeons moving from grove to grove
darkened the sky.

Most of the streams and rivers ran
clear over gravelly bottoms, and from
the shores schools of suckers, chubs,
and shiners could be seen moving
upstream to spawn. In clumps of
eelgrass or under lily pads northern
pike and different kinds of bass and
sunfish lurked. The deep croaking of
bullfrogs resounded along the shore.
Turtles of all kinds sunned themselves
on protruding rocks.

This beautiful and unpolluted Illinois
that the French explorers knew and the
Peoria and Kickapoo Indians hunted
on has just about disappeared. Only a
few small patches of the original
landscape persist, along certain
railroad rights-of-way, in sanctuaries,
or in some old settler cemeteries —
with white prairie clovers, yellow
coreopsis, and purple gay feathers.
Virgin forest, where white trilliums,
yellow violets, and purple orchids
herald spring, still survives only in the
recesses of a few forest preserves or
in isolated draws that are protected
from the ever-increasing populations of
man and his domestic animals. And
even these pitifully small remnants are
being destroyed.

If for no other reason than to provide
us with places to go for peace and
solitude, these remnants of wild Illinois
should be preserved and cherished.

Dr. Robert F. Belz is protessor ot biology.
Northeastern Illinois University: consultant
to Illinois Nature Preserves Commission:
and research associate, Department ol
Botany, Field Museum.

FIELD MUSEUM BULLETIN

In a herbarium, a rose, by any name
whatever, doesn't smell at all — except
perhaps of the chemical insect
deterrents necessary to protect and
preserve it. That is because a
herbarium is a collection of dried
plants, preserved not for their beauty
or fragrance or souvenir value, but for
their value as records. Once a plant
specimen is mounted on a sheet of
paper, labeled with such information
as place and date collected, habitat,
flower color, etc., and identified, it
becomes much more than a dead
plant. It is a record and a symbol of a
living organism connected with the
fossil past and with the evolving future.

in the Yucatan Peninsula, 1894-96. His
collections from the West Indies during
1898-1907 added more than 5,000
plants. Curators in the Museum's
Department of Botany in the early
years, realizing that very little botanical
collecting had been done in the
American tropics, concentrated their
efforts on these regions, and staff
members since then have continued
collecting in this area.

One of the world's ma|or collections of
Central and South American plants,
many from habitats that no longer
exist, are here in Field Museum
Anyone who wishes to study the flora

The John G. Searie Herbarium

Dorothy N. Gibson

These plant collections can then tell us
many kinds of things. They tell us about
plant migrations over the ages,
sometimes from one part of the world
to another. They tell us about
environmental conditions and how they
have changed and may be changing
now. They can be used as indicators
in land-use surveys to guide men's
judgments so that human purposes can
be compatible with natural conditions.
Plants are, after all, the basis of human
economy. We put them to numerous
uses, as in farming, forestry, range
management, or for medicines or other
chemical compounds.

Our herbarium, established in 1894,
and named this year in honor of
Mr. John G. Searie, longtime friend
and Trustee of Field Museum, is
actually three herbaria. There are three
distinct collections — one of seed
plants, one of ferns, and one of lower
plants (fungi, lichens, liverworts,
mosses, algae, and bacteria).
Altogether, there are more than
2,500,000 specimens, about
three-fourths collected in the area from
Mexico to Argentina, including the
West Indies. There are also separate
collections of seeds (in vials) and of
pollen samples (on glass slides).

The first plant specimens deposited in
Field Museum's herbarium were
collected by Dr. Charles F. Millspaugh

of these regions could hardly do a
thorough job without using our
herbarium. Besides the large tropical
collections, our herbarium contains a
good representation of plants from
other regions of the world, and is
especially fortunate to have good early
collections from the midwestern states,
including the Chicago region.

The herbarium acquires plant
collections in several ways. Plants may
bo purchased, received as gifts,
received in exchange with other
institutions, or collected by botanists
on Museum expeditions. During the
past 75 years we have been
exchanging duplicate plant specimens
with 85 museums in 36 foreign
countries and with 90 museums,
universities, and individuals in ti-e
United States.

The oldest specimen now stored here
is a plant collected in 1772 by J. R.
and G. Forster, botanists who sailed
with Captain Cook on his second
voyage in Tahiti. It was received in
exchange from the British Museum of
Natural History, as were a few plants
collected in 1792 by James Wilkes and
Christopher Smith, who accompanied
Captain Bligh on his second voyage to
Polynesia (the mutiny did not adversely
affect his continuing career). Other
early collections obtained in exchange
include several hundred duplicate

plants from the Madrid herbarium,
collected in Mexico between 1788 and
1804 by Sesse and Mociho, Castillo
and Maldonado, under the patronage
of King Charles III of Spain.

Field Museum has sponsored or
co-sponsored more than 60 botanical
expeditions to the American tropics,
which have added many thousands of
specimens to our herbarium and
allowed duplicates to be deposited in
most of the world's major herbaria.

When specimens are collected in the
field they are cut to fit between the
pages of a tabloid size newspaper.
They are then flattened in a press and
dried. If heat is not available for
immediate drying, then formaldehyde
diluted with water is applied to prevent
molding and the moist plant material is
packed in waterproof material until it
can eventually be dried. The specimen
IS given a field number and all
appropriate information about it is
recorded in the field book. (A
specimen without locality and field
data is almost worthless.) When the
specimens reach the herbarium they
and their labels are mounted with glue
or plastic compound on sheets of high
quality paper about 11 '72 X 16 inches
and a little thicker than a magazine
cover. Groups of sheets are stored in
strong manila folders inside steel
cases with airtight doors.

Maintenance is a never-ending chore,
requiring continuous scrutiny of
specimens and regular periodic
decontamination procedures. Plant
specimens might last as long as the
pyramids, or at least as long as the
paper on which they are mounted, if
they are properly protected from
insects, fire, and dampness.

In recent years, the herbarium
collections have been growing at the
rate of about 20,000 specimens per
year. This figure does not include the
numerous duplicates which are sent
out in exchange to other large herbaria.

It may seem to the non-botanist that
by now there should be enough plant
specimens in storage in herbaria
around the world so that no more need
to be collected and housed — or, at
least, collecting efforts can slow down.
But this is not true. It is true that most

April 1972

ot the earth's regions are now fairly
well "known" in the sense that they
were long ago visited, mapped, named,
revisited, and in some cases even
televised. But most regions of the earth
have not yet been completely explored
for plants. In fact, some of the regions
"known" for the longest period of time
may be the least known botanically.
There are large areas of vegetation
viewed daily by air travelers which
nevertheless remain unexplored by
plant collectors. They contain plants
that are living, multiplying, changing,
developing — which we must continue to
collect, identify, and preserve for study
as indispensable records of generations
of plant life. Only by such studies can
we continue to learn about the
variability of species, the numerous
uses of the plants, what geographic
areas each species extends over, and
how that area may be expanding or
receding.

Evolutionary change is usually such a
slow process that many samples of the
forms it produces must be captured as
cross-sections out of both time, as it
flows along, and place, as
environmental conditions change. That
is the only way we can achieve full
understanding of the nature and
directions of the changes and the
forces that influence them.

The accumulation of these plant
"records" in a herbarium represents
an accumulation of specialized
knowledge. New species of plants are
based on them. If after the botanist has
compared a plant with other similar
ones stored in his herbarium and in
other large herbaria, the plant remains
unidentified, it may represent discovery
of a species new to science. It is
named, a description is published in a
scientific journal, and this plant is then
considered the "type" specimen, or
evidence, of the new species, and it
must be kept available for examination
m years to come.

The sometimes long Latin names of
plants may look unnecessarily
complicated to a non-scientist, but they
actually represent a neatly simple
classification system. Since 1753, when
the Swedish botanist Carl von Linne
perfected the system of binomial
nomenclature, plants have been given
two-part names. The first part

represents the genus; the second
identifies the particular species.
The same plant growing in three
different parts of the world may have
three different common names.
Conversely, one common name may
be applied to several different plants
Regardless of the numerous common
names applied to a single species,
botanists and horticulturists around the
world understand which plant is
referred to when the Latin binomial is
used. For instance, the widely
distributed weed Chenopodium album
is called both "pigweed" and
"goose-foot" in our northern states.
In some southern states it is known
as "careless weed." In Canada it
becomes "anserine," and in Cuba,
"apasote." The Linnean system of
nomenclature, now internationally
used, prevents misunderstanding.

In addition to numerous actual type
specimens deposited here, our
herbarium has on file more than 53,000
photographic negatives of type
specimens of Central and South
American plants. Over 40,000 of these
are of specimens deposited in the
large European herbaria. This
enormous photographing project, done
by Mr. J. F. Macbride between 1929
and 1937, financed in part by the
Museum and in part by the Rockefeller
Foundation, has proved to be far more
important than its planners realized.

Mounting a specimen for the tierbarium.

During the bombings of World War II
specimens housed in the Berlin
herbarium were destroyed, and so Field
Museum's photographic negatives are
now the only evidence of those
extremely important plant records.

Since Field Museum's herbarium was
established, its plant records have
been in constant use by botanists,
students, teachers, gardeners,
pathologists, medical researchers,
chemists, geographers, ecologists, and
even customs inspectors and
criminologists — from nearly every major
educational institution in this country
and from more than two-thirds of the
other countries of the world. And it is,
of course, used daily by Museum staff
members. Specimens are also made
available to others for study in the
form of loans. In 1971 alone, more
than 11,000 specimens were sent on
loan to other institutions.

The herbaria of the world contain the
only records of man's knowledge of
the vegetation of the earth. Field
Museum's newly named John G. Searle
Herbarium is one of the most important
of these. The value of these plant
records increases each year.

Dorothy N. Gibson is supervisor ot Ttie Jolin
G. Searle Herbarium ot Field l\4useum.

FIELD MUSEUM BULLETIN

Collecting in Amazonian Peru: A Letter from the Field

Donald R. Simpson

There had been sunny skies for two
days, rare at this time of year, so I
decided to mal<e a special side trip to
see if I could solve some puzzles that I
encountered while identifying a group
of rubiads about a year ago. Rubiad is
a kind of nickname commonly used by
botanists to refer to plants belonging
to the family Rubiaceae, a very large
assemblage of species that includes
such things as coffee, gardenias, and
the quinine-yielding cinchona tree, A
good story should have an interest-
catching beginning, and fortunately I
don't have to invent one, for this story
has its own.

The beginning was amidst the pomp
and grandeur of Europe in the
eighteenth century, what the historians
aptly call the Age of Enlightenment.
Only I really can't recount for you more
than the barest essentials, otherwise I
would never get around to telling what
happened on this two-day journey.
Fortunately someone else has already
written about that earlier period in a
book titled Flowers for the King, and I
must say that the book's author has
done a much finer job than ever I
could. But to get on with the story, the
eighteenth century in Europe was a
time when royalty and nobility took a
great interest in the new fields of
science and natural history.

At that time Charles III, King of Spain
and Emperor of the Holy Roman
Empire, though ruler over more territory
than any other sovereign, thought his
court was rather provincial. While other
princes had sent out expeditions to
various parts of the world to bring
back curiosities to fill their "natural
history cabinets," and in so doing
considerably advanced the sciences of
biology and geology, Spanish
sovereigns had been content to ignore
such pursuits. It was apparent to
Charles III that his court had in this
respect fallen behind the fashions of
the day. To correct this oversight he
ordered three grand expeditions to be
sent to the three viceroyalties into
which his lands in the Americas were

then divided. These expeditions were
instructed to inventory the natural
resources, especially the vegetable and
mineral resources of those regions.

The expedition to the Viceroyalty of
Peru was entrusted to two very
capable botanists, Hipolito Ruiz and
Jose Pavon, who were accompanied
by the French botanist and geologist
Msr. Dombey, plus a host of assistants,
including artists to make color
illustrations of the plants, minerals, and
animals. Ruiz and Pavon spent several
years in Peru and Chile making
extensive collections thro.ughout those
areas that were accessible to them.

Only in one area of Peru were they
able to get down into the rich
Amazonian forest, and then they were
able to penetrate only into the edge,
the region now called Ceja de la
Montana (Eyebrow of the Mountains).
From that region they brought back
and described a great abundance of
species of plants new to science.

Among these "novelties" were a great
many rubiads, for they had explicit
instructions to make a special study of
the quinine-yielding cinchona tree and
its relatives. Quinine bark was the most
important export from this forest
region, bringing fabulous prices on the
world market and a considerable
revenue to the Spanish government.
Thus it was that when they returned to
Madrid they took with them extensive
collections of dried plant specimens
from the Ceja region.

In the two hundred years since Ruiz
and Pavon entered the Amazonian
forest, numerous other botanists have
traveled through the same area
collecting plant specimens for scientific
study, some collectors even retracing
part of the route of the royal
expedition. Despite that, to this day
many of the new species described by
Ruiz and Pavbn have not been
encountered again and are known only
from the dried specimens they took
back to the Royal Botanic Garden in

Pucallpa, Peru
March, 1972
Madrid. I became aware of this just
about a year ago and was quite
puzzled about the reason. Are those
species now extinct in that area? Are
they still there but have just been
missed by other botanists? This
seemed unlikely because Professor
Poeppig, the very meticulous German
botanist, had retraced part of the route
taken by Ruiz and Pavon, making
careful collections when on his long
expedition of the 1840s, A third
possibility came to mind that some of
those Ruiz and Pavon species were
really just random mutants of some
common species, what the
horticulturist calls "sports," This last
possibility seemed unlikely also
because from other evidence we know
that Ruiz and Pavon were very
accomplished scientists, keen
observers, and unlikely to have been
misled into calling a wild mutant plant
a new species.

That left the first hypothesis seeming
to be the most likely — until I
remembered one other thing. The year
before, I had made a trip by car from
Tingo Maria to Huanuco and back,
looking for some plants belonging to
the gloxinia family, and our road had
taken us through the area of the Ceja
where Ruiz and Pavon had spent so
much time. I distinctly remember
passing thrqugh areas of forest, some
of which appeared to be still virgin
woodland as Ruiz and Pavon described
them. Well, there is only one way to
solve those puzzles, and that is to go
over that road again and make a
careful search in the remaining parcels
of forest for these "lost" species.

Fortunately I had a few more days
before having to go to Aguaytia out on
the flatlands of the Amazon Basin.
I mentioned my intention to some of
the biologists at the local agricultural
university and learned that the
entomologist was anxious to search for
certain types of beetles in that same
area. Pooling our resources, we hired
a car and driver and, joined by Mr.
Schunke, the field botanist who works

April 1972

Cordillera Azul between Tingo Maria
and Pucallpa. Peru.

for our Amazonian forests inventory
project, we set out on Sunday for
Huanuco.

Located in a ratfier dry part of tfie
Upper Valley of the Huallaga River,
about 6,500 feet above sea level,
Huanuco is tfie departmental capital (a
department is more or less equivalent
to a state) and dates back to colonial
times, Tfie road between Tingo Maria
and Huanuco, formerly a narrow single
lane ttiat was often impassable in tfie
wet season, fias recently been
widened, and, tfiough unpaved, has an
all-weather gravel surface. When Ruiz
and Pavon traveled here two centuries
ago there was only a trail which they
traveled by mule train. Where the
going was especially steep and slick
they were forced to dismount and
travel on foot.

We stayed overnight in Huanuco and
enjoyed breakfast in its ideal morning
temperature before making the return
trip on Monday, over the same road.
The 6,500-foot elevation here gives
night temperatures that are cool but
not chilly, while the days are warm
and dry. The highway on leaving
Huanuco leads down the Huallaga
River for a way, then climbs to the
9,100-foot-high Carpish Pass, dropping
on the other side to eventually enter
the Middle Valley of the Huallaga
River, where it passes through Tingo
Maria, which sits at about 2,000 feet.

At about 9,000 feet we stopped and
entered the forest on foot. The trees here
are small though mature, the branches
covered with heavy growths of mosses,
lichens, and numerous larger
epiphytes. The undergrowth is a nearly
impenetrable tangle of shrubs, vines,
and hardy species of bamboo grass
{Chusquea sp,). We followed paths
already cut into the dense
undergrowth, but to reach a plant in
bloom only a few yards off the path
we had to clear every foot of the way
with machetes. We were rewarded with
an important "find," a blue-flowered
shrub with only one cluster of flowers

FIELD MUSEUM BULLETIN

13

remaining, all the others having
already set fruit and dropped their blue
corollas. I was excited; this may be one
of the "lost" rubiad species. Ruiz and
Pavon collected a great number of
plants in this region that were new to
science. Most of them are now fairly
well known to present-day botanists,
but there were a few which have not
been encountered again by botanists
and which I refer to as "lost."

Later, back in Tingo Maria I checked
my notes and found this is indeed a
Ruiz and Pavon species, but it is not
one of the "lost" species. Neither is it
one of the well known ones. It seems
that our blue-flowered plant has been
seen only twice in the 200 years since
the royal expedition so it will be a
valuable addition to Field Museum's
collections. Its value, though, is not so
much in its rarity but because it may,
on examination in the laboratory,
provide some answers to some
botanical riddles concerning this
species and certain of its allies. I
shan't attempt to recount at this time
the nature of these scientific riddles,
for they are rather complicated.

The temperature dropped a bit as low
clouds moving in from the northeast
blotted out the sun. We returned to the
car to put on sweaters and jackets and
to drive on through the tunnel built
under the crest of the pass.

We continued on down the
mountainside for about six miles to
where the forest, still a cloud forest, is
taller and, we soon learned, much
richer in number of different species
it contains.

We parked along the roadside and
entered the forest on a spur of the
mountainside that juts out from the
road then drops away precipitously. My
associate stopped to join the
entomologist in tearing apart some
rotting logs in search of wood beetles,
so I proceeded along a trail that
climbed a short distance then
descended again. The trail ended

abruptly where a small tree that had
been chopped down had fallen about
five yards down a precipitous slope,
thus creating an opening with a
magnificent view of the canyon and
mountains.

As I stood there enjoying the view a
blob of red caught my eye to the left
It was an epiphytic shrub in bloom
hanging from one of the larger trees.
With binoculars I saw that it was an
ericad, of which there are a great
variety of species (they belong to the
Rhododendron family). I am collecting
them for special study. This one was
different from the ericads we collected
the previous afternoon at the summit.
Those were all terrestrial species — that
is, they normally grow in soil — and
where you find one you usually can
find several others of the same kind
nearby. This was one of a group of
species that occur only as epiphytes
in trees, and usually as widely
scattered individuals.

Many epiphytes are notoriously difficult
to find and even more difficult to
collect because to the collector at
ground level anything sitting up on the
crown of a tree is usually obscured by
intervening lianas, shrubs, and lower
trees. And when found, often the only
way to collect them requires cutting
down the whole tree — usually a great
deal of chopping just to get at one
small epiphyte. It is little wonder that
these epiphytic ericads are rarely
collected. To add to the complications,
they won't grow in just any forest; they
are almost exclusively in mature trees
in virgin forest. This was the first time
I had ever seen one outside a
museum laboratory!

I soon saw that it was on a limb that
jutted out over a cliff that dropped
away some fifty feet, and the limb
wasn't the type one could climb out
onto safely. My associate, the field
botanist, had in the meantime left the
entomologist to his beetles and joined
me on the trail. He immediately set to
work looking for the right size limb. He

selected one and with a few whacks of
the machete had a seven-foot pole
with a Y branch at the tip. He hooked
the Y against a branch of the flowering
ericad, twisted several turns, then
pulled. The branch snapped and we
soon had one specimen in our hands.
But we needed more flowering
branches, so he tried for a larger stem.
It broke off, but landed over near the
fallen tree trunk beyond the end of the
trail, some five yards below where I
was standing. It was apparent that no
more of the ericad could be reached
with the Y pole, so I set about finding
a way down to retrieve the branch
lying below. By working around the
other side of a hillock I was able to
reach the fallen tree. Stepping out on
this and hanging onto any available
stump, vine, and branch, I retrieved the
ericad.

Then I happened to look down. For
some reason I had assumed that the
fallen tree was lying on an inclined
slope of the mountainside, securely
braced against other shrubs and trees.
It was being held up by woody
branches, but when I looked down
there was no hillside below, just
branches, air, branches, and more thin
air. I could see a tree top 25 yards
directly below where I had just stood
balanced on one foot, one hand on an
unimpressive sized branchlet,
stretching as far as I could to reach
the ericad. I have all my life had
acrophobia, especially where the
surface drops away vertically, such as
at the window of a skyscraper.

I regained solid ground and rested to
let my heart stop pounding and my
nerves recuperate. By this time Mr.
Schunke was calling me to look at a
rubiad he had just found. It seems that
while poling for the ericad he had
been standing next to a shrubby
rubiad he recognized as belonging to
the group we were searching for
earlier. It was a species belonging to
the genus Psychotria. Further
examination later suggested that it very
probably is one of the "lost" rubiads.

14

April 1972

The undetermined species of epiphytic ericad that I
nearly fell into the abyss to get. Photos by the author.

ufiseen since the Ruiz and Pavon
expedition!

We had just turned to take the
collected materials back to the car
when Mr. Schunke discovered another
shrubby rubiad, which I immediately
recognized as another species of
Psychotria belonging to a different and
very distinctive section of the genus,
but I couldn't recall any species that
has the appearance of this specimen.
Even after checking my notes I'm still
unable to decide. Is it something
previously unknown in this part of
South America, or possibly something
previously unknown to science? I won't
be able to answer these questions until
I have a chance to study the specimen
in the laboratory at Field Museum and
compare it with our extensive
herbarium holdings. They include 200-
year-old specimens collected by Ruiz
and Pavon on this mountainside, which

we obtained in the early 1950s from
the Royal Botanical Garden Herbarium
in Madrid.

We traveled on, stopping once more
near where the Chinchauito enters the
Huallaga River to make one more
search for ericads and rubiads. IMo
luck here, but it was getting dark so
we returned to the car and resumed
our journey. At the juncture with the
Huallaga River we left the trail of Ruiz
and Pavon. They turned upstream and
stopped at the village of Cochero,
spending quite a long time there
collecting in the rich forests that
surrounded the village. Neither the
village nor the forests exist today; this
whole mountainside is now open
grassland.

Our road turned left to follow the
Huallaga downstream along a canyon
whose slopes have mostly been

planted in coffee bushes shaded by
low, spreading "shimbillo" trees. About
fifteen minutes later the canyon
broadened to a small valley that
contains the village of La Palma, then
closed in again. The highway is
perched on a ledge between the river
and the forested slopes. A few minutes
later the canyon ended and on our
right was the little agricultural
university, and beyond it the town of
Tingo Maria.

The journey was very successful. One
conclusion I have reached as a result
of our finds is that the "lost" species
are probably all there to be found, but
in the dense tangle of those cloud
forests of the Ceja it may require luck
as well as diligent searching to find
all of them again.

Dr. Donald R. Simpson is assistant curator,
Peruvian botany, in ti~ie Department ol
Botany, Field Museum.

FIELD fUlUSEUM BULLETIN

15

SI70 flou/GPi) tl7at bloon^ 117 tl^e spring.

Trilliums, anemones, spring-beauties,
and violets carpeting tine forest floor —
these and many more are part of
nature's yearly spectacle of spring
flowering. After a long cold winter
these delicate blossoms announce the
resurgence of life.

This sudden burst of flowering is
familiar to many people but few ask
why so many flowers bloom at this
time. Return to the woodland in
summer and you will find precious few
flowers on the dark forest floor. By fall
the asters and goldenrods are
blooming, but their numbers are mostly
in open fields and pasture.

To understand the phenomenon of
spring flowering we should observe a
native prairie. Here, surprisingly,
springtime does not produce a dramatic
floral display. But if we return to the
prairie in summer, we will find a
continuing pageant of flowers that
continues into the early fall. The
difference in flowering tempo of forest
and prairie gives us a clue to why our
spring woodlands offer such a
spectacle.

If we examine the forest floor in
summer, under a canopy of leaves, we
find few of the little plants that bore
the blooms of spring. Most completed
their life cycle in that brief period
between the time of killing frosts and
the time when the trees have fully
expanded their leaves. Only during this

^■1^^

C^^>^

period do these plants have access to
the warmer temperatures and
energy-giving sunlight necessary for
them to carry on their life processes
fully. In summer the leafy canopy of
the forest intercepts the sunshine — that
is why so many of these smaller plants
must live their lives quickly in spring.
The plants of the prairie have no such
canopy spread over them. The radiant
sun is theirs throughout the summer
and they can pace their lives
accordingly.

The forest of trees whose broad leaves
are shed each winter and replaced
each spring is our setting for the
pageantry of spring flowering. Nature
provides similar displays in other
settings too, for different reasons.
Desert areas after seasonally heavy
rains can produce a landscape
covered with flowers. A desert
"springtime" is dependent on rain that
IS none too reliable, and often there
are years with little or no flowering.
Another of nature's settings in which
spring flowering is both predictable
and spectacular is found in those areas
with a Mediterranean climate. The
Mediterranean area has a dry hot
summer and fall, a winter that is cool
and wet, and a spring that brings
warmer weather and the end of the
rains. Summer and fall are too dry for
growth and flowering, while winter is
too cold. Under these conditions
plants have little choice, and almost
everything that blooms can be found
blooming in springtime.

Some of the flowers most characteristic
of our early spring gardens came from

u/illiam g. bupgep

the Mediterranean region. The crocus,
tulip, hyacinth, and daffodil all come
to us from that part of the world. Like
many of the plants of our forest, they
flower quickly by storing food in
underground bulbs, roots, or other
organs. The embryonic flowers and the
food energy necessary for rapid growth
were developed in the previous year.
This explains how these plants can
grow and flower so quickly.

A number of areas in the world have a
Mediterranean climate and are famous
for their wild flowers. Of these, South
Africa and western Australia have the
richest diversity. In western Australia
during late September and early
October (their springtime down under)
you can go on bus tours devoted
entirely to seeing the wild flowers. 1
believe there are no other tours like
these in the world — seeing wild
flowers for seven days. That's right —

;?
^f"^^

there are so many wild flowers of so
many kinds that these bus tours need
a whole week to sample the variety.
But the display doesn't last long. Soon
the weather is hot and dry, the
vegetation is withered, and tour buses
head for the sea shore.

Dr. William C. Burger is associate curator,
vascular plants, in the Department of Botany,
Field Museum.

April 1972

CALENDAR

Exhibits

Continuing

Australian Aboriginal Art from Arnhem
Land, a selection of nearly 400 bark
paintings and some wooden ceremonial
sculptures. The material is from the
extensive collection of Louis A. Allen ot
Palo Alto, California. Through September 10.
Hall 27.

A New Spirit In Search of the Past:

Archaeology and Ecology in the Lower
Illinois River Valley, an exhibit exploring
the "new" archaeology as reflected in the
Illinois Valley Archaeological Program's
excavation of the Koster Site, directed by
Dr. Stuart Struever of Northwestern
University. Through September 4. Hall 9.

Color in Nature, an exhibit examining the
nature and variety of color in the physical

Hours

9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday through Thursday,
9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday.

The Museum Library is open 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Monday through Friday. Please obtain pass at
reception desk, main floor north.

Field Museum's 75th Anniversary Exhibit

continues indefinitely. "A Sense of Wonder"
offers thought-provoking prose and poetry
associated with physical, biological, and
cultural aspects of nature; "A Sense of
History" presents a graphic portrayal of the
Museum's past; and "A "^i^nco nf nit:,-overy"
shows examples of res d by

Museum scientists. Hall j.

John James Audubon's elephant folio.
The Birds ot America, on display in the
North Lounge. Continues indefinitely.

IVIorton Arboretum: 50th Anniversary, a
small commemorative exhibit, featured in
the South Lounge through June 4.

Free Film Program

Spring Film Lecture Series, 2:30 p.m.
Saturdays in the James Simpson Theatre.

April 1 : "Southern Africa Safari,"
narrated by Cleveland P. Grant, travels
to Transvaal, Rhodesia, and Mozambique.

April 8: "Amazonas Hovercraft Expedition,"

narrated by David Smithers, adventure and
exploration in South American waterways.

ying the Out-of-Doors,"

■-•rr] Orians, highlights

Ico's Californias

■n Wolfgang, pa::

and future.

April

narr.i

in the Rockies

Continuin

"Patterns

Mim

on r

"Chinese

and 3:30

NortI

"n.

Children's Program

Free Spring Film Series Saturdays
a.m. in the James Simpson Theatre.

April 8: "Dinosaurs: The Terrible Lizards."

April 15: Camp Fire Girls Day:
"American Indians."

April 22: Cub Scout Day: "Circus."

April 29: IVIuseum Traveler Day, with

presentation of Journey awards:
"Darwin the Naturalist"

Continuing

"Our Vanishing Wildlife," Spring Journey for
Children, a free, self-guided tour focusing
on animal species that face extinction, to
help youngsters understand what is
happening to them. Through May 31.

FIELD MUSEUM'S
MEMBERS' NIGHTS

"AN OPEN DOOR TO THE WORLD"
MAY 4 and 5, 1972
6:00 to 10:00 p.m.

Look above and beyond Field Museum's famous elephants. Get acquainted with the
many activities that go on behind the scenes. Visit the scientific departments and
see current research projects, demonstrations, and displays. Meet staff members.
Come for an evening of fun and entertainment. Here are some highlights.

Department of Anthropology — recently collected ethnographic material from New
Ireland; display of oriental weaponry; specimens renovated by conservation
laboratory.

Department of Botany — The Searle Herbarium; collecting, pressing, and mounting

plant specimens; display: "A Plurality of Singular Plants."

Department of Geology — display: "History of the Earth"; display: "Exploration of
Continental Drift"; demonstration: Washakie Basin Titanottiere Quarry."

Department of Zoology — display of illustrations for Manual of Neotropical Birds;
"Monkey Business" (a book in the making); display: "An Electric Adventure with
Cichlld Fishes."

Department of Exhibition — artistic skills used in the Museum: from sculpture, to
model-making, to taxidermy, to scientific illustration, to graphics, to design.

Don't miss these special offerings — "Botanicasa," a shop featuring herbs, foods,
and cosmetics; a "mini-tour" for youngsters, with a surprise memento at the finish
line; a slide lecture presentation and a film on current exhibits; a live program in
Stanley Field Hall; refreshments.

Volume 43, Number 5
May 1972

Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin

M6T^ORIT6S: GEOLOGY OF 9P^C€

Each day about 70 million objects from outer space impact the Earth's atmosphere. On
the average only one or two make it through to the surface before burning away completely
by friction with the air. Of these, two-thirds fall into the oceans, because the earth is
covered by that much water. The result is about 165 that might actually be recovered each
year, though most of these are too small to be noticed, or fall in areas of low population
where they succumb to weathering and crumble away before they are found. In all the
recorded history of mankind, fewer than 2,000 of these have ever been recovered. Together
they comprise the study objects of one of the branches of space sciences, meteoritics.

Meteoritics, the study of meteorites, has become important only in the last twenty years.
Before that it received only intermittent attention by a few men, who are now (of course)
called "pioneers." One of these, Oliver G. Farrington, was the first curator in this Museum's
Department of Geology. In fact, for many years he was the Department of Geology. How he
first became interested in meteorites is not known. He showed remarkable foresight, for in
his day meteorites were regarded with little interest. He gradually brought together a
collection of meteorite specimens that grew to be one of the largest and most important
collections in the world, a position it has held ever since.

With the advent of space programs, research in meteorites has increased enormously, the
research output doubling about every six years. Interest in them has still not abated even
though samples have been returned from the moon. Our moon is a single extraterrestrial
object in the same relative place in space as the Earth and sharing with the Earth a certain
common heritage. Meteorites, on the other hand, are derived from a number of planetary
objects {some possibly from comets) from varied locations in space. They are objects that
have suffered little change since the early history of the solar system, in contrast to the
Earth, which has been altered considerably from its primitive condition.

Bit by bit meteorite research has yielded clearer views on the formation of solid planetary
objects and their chemical and physical evolution. We are able to see features of the very
earliest stages, when a glowing hot gas first cooled enough for small solid specks of mineral
dust to form. As the gas cooled, more and more solid specks formed, coalescing ultimately
into the planets of the solar system and the thousands of small asteroids and comets
associated with them. We see in meteoritesthe results of over four and one-half billion
years of exposure to cosmic rays and radioactivity. We see the gradual appearance of
chemical compounds of increasing complexity, some of them the fundamental chemicals for
the creation of living things. We see in them the sequence of events that shaped the Earth
into the layers from which grew the continents as we know them.

Though many questions have been answered by the study of meteorites, other puzzling,
unanswered questions have appeared in the process. What are the tiny (about 1/25 of an
inch) spherical mineral beads that are found in so many meteorites? They were among the
first things noticed by meteorite investigators a century ago. They called them "chondrules,"
from the Greek word chondros, meaning "grain of seed." They are made of spherical
aggregates of minerals, all of which are well known in terrestrial rocks; but in terrestrial
rocks these same minerals never occur in these peculiar spherical beads. Meteorite
workers have puzzled over these for 100 years and today are no closer to knowing how
and why they formed during the early stages of our solar system. Did the Earth once
consist of a cluster of billions of them, or are they the product of some early planetary
volcanic process? Today they hold their secrets as they have since they were first noticed.
Their presence is a nagging reminder to researchers that we do not yet know everything —
and a certain amount of humility is required of even the most self-assured among us.

The cover of this issue of the Bulletin utilizes a characteristic cross-section of one of the
tiny chondrules from the meteorite Alfianello, which fell near the village of that name in
Italy in 1883. Its unique symmetrical pattern of mineral grains is difficult to explain. But as
a primitive bead of primordial solid matter of our solar system, this chondrule is a symbol
for the growth of planets and the study of them — geology. — by Dr. Edward J. 0/sen,
curator of mineralogy, Departmerit ot Geology, Field Museum.

Field Museum
of Natural History
Bulletin

Volume 43, Number 5
May 1972

Cover design by Don Skinner, based on above
photographic magnification of a chondruie from
Alfianetlo meteorite; actual chondruie measures
1/25 of an inch across.

Meteorites: Geology of Space

Edward J. Olsen

these identified flying objects from outer space reveal much
concerning the earliest stages of solid matter, but some things
about them are still a mystery

2 Mountain Building and the Theory of Global Plate Tectonics

Bertram G. Woodland

our knowledge of the evolution of Earth's crust has been
a collection of jigsaw puzzle pieces; they are now being put
together into a coherent picture

6 The Early History of the Geology Department

Eugene S. Richardson, Jr.

about Farrington, Nichols, Riggs, and Roy,

four to remember, four to enjoy

9 "The Mile-Wide Mutterings of Unimagined Rivers"

John Clark

unexplored rivers that flowed millions of years ago can tell us

as much as rivers that can get us wet

Field Museum of Natural History
Director, E. Leiand Webber

10 The Rest of the Iceberg

Katherine Krueger

exhibits display only a tiny fraction of our geological and
paleontological collection; the vast bulk submerged from
public view are explained

14 Who's Who in Geology

Patricia M. Williams

the seven scientists and six assistants who do the work

Calendar

Editor Joyce Zibro:
Fred Huysmans.

Associate Editor Elizabeth Munger; Staff Writer Madge Jacobs: Production Russ Becker: Photography John Bayalis,

The Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin is published monthly except August by Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at
Lake Shore Drive, Chicago. Illinois 60605. Sabscriptions: $6 a year: $3 a year for schools. Members of the Museum subscribe through
Museum membership. Opinions expressed by authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the policy of Field Museum. Unsolicited
manuscripts are welcome. Printed by Field Museum Press. Second-class postage paid at Chicago, Illinois. Postmaster: Please send form
3579 to Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605.

Field Museum Bulletin

Mountain building and the theory of global plate tectonics

Bertram G. NX'bodland

Very large fold, Zagros mountain belt, southwest Iran- Cliff in foreground is 1,000 feet high. Photo by Hunting
Surveys. Ltd. tor the British Petroleum Co.. Ltd.

Mountain building, called orogenesis,
IS a major earth process which results
in a relatively narrow but long zone
(hundreds of miles to thousands
of miles) of thickened, complexly
deformed, altered, and uplifted
continental crust. The external forces
of weathering and erosion act on
the zone to produce the characteristic
high mountain ranges and intervening
deep valleys seen in the present young
mountains of the Alps, Andes,
Himalayas, and other ranges. Older
mountain belts generally show more
subdued relief (although they may have
been rejuvenated by vertical uplift) —
for example, the Appalachians. Very
old mountain belts no longer form high
ground, but their linear trend may be
seen in the complex structures and
rock types of their deformed roots now
exposed to view.

Some of the major characteristics of
complex orogenic belts and various

theories of their origin were described
in a series of Bulletin articles between
November 1965 and May 1966. A new
and more inclusive theory, referred
to as "the new global theory of plate
tectonics," has been elaborated since
then.

"Tectonics" pertains to the
deformational structures present in an
area or body of rock. "Plate tectonics"
is thus concerned with deformational
processes involving plates, the major
segments of the upper thin rigid
lithosphere of the Earth. The lithosphere
includes the crust and part of the
upper mantle, and is usually some 40
to 60 miles thick, although thinner in
some zones and perhaps thicker in
others.

The basic concepts of the theory are
simple. It has acquired quick
prominence and widespread
acceptance, mainly perhaps because

for the first time many dynamic and
tectonic facts and theories, including
orogenesis, are successfully integrated
into a logical global tectonics.

The development of the new theory is
related to the vastly accelerated pace
of scientific discovery within recent
years. The number of scientists has
grown, but more importantly,
sophisticated new instruments have
been developed, and there has been a
vast increase in the total number of
instruments of all types being used.
The results are nowhere seen better
than in the mass of data now available
concerning the ocean basins — which
are some 70% of the Earth's surface.
Prior to some twenty years ago our
knowledge of the physiography of
ocean floors and the geology of the
oceanic crust and sub-crust was very
poor. Since then numerous highly
instrumented oceanographic surveys
have produced maps of the floor and
information on sediment thickness and
age and crustal characteristics. The
techniques used have involved both
direct drilling and remote sensing of
such features as magnetic and gravity
anomalies and heatflow. Sub-crustal
information has been improved by
belter seismographs to record shock
waves generated by natural earthquakes
and man-made explosions, such as
underground nuclear blasts.

From all these data a clearer picture
of the oceanic crust and sub-crust has
emerged. Although contrasts with the
continental crust have been further
emphasized, the new information has
made it possible, for the first time, to
erect a theory which depends on and
integrates the voluminous data on the
structure and history of both the
continental and oceanic crust.

The Earth may be likened to a heat
engine: a source of internal heat
(radioactivity) drives internal dynamic
processes, whose most obvious
manifestations to us are earthquakes
(indications of stress) and volcanoes
(melting products at high temperatures).

May 1972

These now better understood processes
are important components of any
conceptual model of global dynamics.
But other necessary components
involve interpretations of the
morphological, structural, and
compositional data on the crust and
sub-crust. The model, then, in turn,
enables us to look again at the
accumulated data on the continental
crust, particularly that exposed to our
view on the land surface, and
reinterpret them and attempt to develop
a more rational view of the evolution
of the large-scale features of the
Earth's crust through geological time.

The boundaries of the plates that
constitute the lithosphere are of three
fundamental types, fvlid-oceanic ridges
form an undersea mountain system
35,000 miles long with a central rift
along much of its length. The rift marks
one type of boundary between plates.
A second type of boundary is
comprised of deep sea trenches with
associated arcs of volcanic islands
(such as the Aleutians) or cordilleran
mountain ranges and volcanoes (the
Peru-Chile coast, for example). The full
extent of these oceanic features was
revealed by the late 1950s to early
1960s. Also revealed were magnetic
anomalies of the sea floor and major
fracture features which offset the
mid-ocean ridges. These fracture
features, called transform faults,
comprise the third boundary type.

Recognition of these global features,
added to many other tectonic data and
theories, undoubtedly contributed to
the concept of sea-floor-spreading,
enunciated in 1962. As part of this
concept, the mid-ocean ridges were

interpreted as sites of upwelling
of molten rock from the mantle, thus
producing new sea floor material,
which then spreads away from the
ridges and ultimately plunges
downward into the mantle at the site
of the trenches.

Subsequent additional information and
interpretations have served to
emphasize the plausibility of the theory
that the sea floor is spreading. For
one thing, magnetic anomalies of large
areas of the ocean floors have been
mapped. Positive and negative strips
characteristically parallel the mid-ocean
ridges. More remarkably, the anomalies
on one side of a ridge are the mirror-
image of those on the other. The
strips were interpreted to be the result
of volcanic rock welling up at the
center of the ridge, cooling, and
acquiring a characteristic magnetization
from the Earth's magnetic field. The
alternately positive and negative
character of the strips was explained
as the result of the Earth's magnetic
field having reversed many times in the
past. The fact of the reversals had
been discovered from study of the
magnetic directions in lava flows. By
establishing independently the dates of
lava flows, a chronology of magnetic
field reversals has been established
for the last few million years. The
chronology, applied to the magnetic
alternations on the ocean floor and
extrapolated to about 80 million years
ago, thus in effect establishes when
the strips of oceanic crust were formed.

Evidence from sediments obtained by
drilling in the deep ocean and
extracting core samples also offers
confirmation because the total age of

Schematic vertical section of lithosptiere and upper mantle stiowing oceanic littiosptiere (b!ack); continental
littiosphere {vertically lined); and plate boundaries at ridges and trencti. Ttie asttienosptiere part of ttie
mantle is less rigid ttian tfie littiospfiere.

ATLANTIC OCe^^
RIDGE

a sediment column increases away
f om the ridges.

Analysis of seismic waves from
earthquakes originating at the ridges,
trenches, and transform faults shows
that they also are consistent with this
tectonic model. Earthquakes in the
central rift regions are shallow (less
than 6 miles deep), originating in the
cooled zone, and indicate outward
lateral extension of the lithosphere.
Those in the trench region are confined
to a thin zone and dip away from the
ocean into the mantle under the
volcanic island arc or neighboring
continent to depths as great as 440
miles. They indicate that there is
extension or stretching in the shallowest
region, which is where the cool
lithosphere bends down. Below this
there is underthrusting to depths of
about 45 miles. Further below, the data
indicate compressional forces parallel
to the sinking lithosphere slab.
Earthquakes originating on the
transform faults indicate sideways
slippage of one slab of lithosphere
against the other.

All these findings have combined to
make a picture of lithosphere slabs or
plates interacting at their boundaries.
These boundaries mark the active
tectonic zones of the Earth, with the
plates themselves acting rigidly and
relatively free from deformation.

The concept of plate tectonics holds
that the continental crust (averaging
about 20 miles thick) is like a
passenger on the moving rigid
lithosphere plate 60 or more miles
thick. Some continental margins — the
western coastline of Central and
South America — coincide with plate
boundaries, have an offshore trench,
and are tectonically active. Other
continental margins — the Atlantic
coastlines — lie within a plate and are
not tectonically active.

The Atlantic is geologically a young
ocean, formed by rupture of continental
crust and lateral spreading of new
oceanic lithosphere that welled up from
the site of the present mid-Atlantic
ridge. The western Pacific is marked
by plate boundaries at which one plate
is being consumed by downward
movements into the mantle at the site
of deep sea trenches. This explains the

Field Museum Bulletin

marked tectonic differences between
the Pacific and Atlantic margins. The
San Andreas fault of California is also
a plate boundary, a transform fault
connecting ridges in the Gulf of
California (a new ocean, like the Red
Sea and Gulf of Aden) with ridges
off the Oregon coast. The plate to the
west of the fault is sliding laterally
northwestward relative to the American
plate to the east and explains the
earthquakes of the area.

Two major concerns of earth science
can be neatly and persuasively
accommodated within the framework of
plate tectonics. They are the theory
of continental drift and the explanation
of erogenic belts and orogenesis. The
continental drift theory received new
impetus during the early to mid-1950s
from the findings of paleomagnetic
directions in continental rocks. These
are the directions along which the
rocks were magnetized in the Earth's
magnetic field, from which can be
determined the apparent pole position
at the time the rocks were formed.

Study of rocks of different ages
revealed that the position of the pole
has changed throughout a large
segment of geological time and,
further, that this polar wandering path
for the North American continent was
systematically displaced from that of
Europe except for the last few tens of
millions of years, when there is an
approximate convergence. The
displaced curves were explained by
continental drift. Since then many
additional data have been added, so
the continental drift theory is now
reinstated and respectable.

VOLCANIC

CORDILLERA TRENCH

4

MOHO
CONTINENTAL
LITHOSPHERE

I

Schematic vertical section of
lithosptiere depicting one type of
mountain building at plate
boundaries: the oceanic
tithosphere underthrusts a
continental margin.

A second variation of mountain

building at plate boundaries: an

oceanic plate underthrusts

another oceanic plate, creating

an island arc.

DEFORMED

CONTINENTAL
MARGIN

SHEAR ZONE
-OLD
TRENCH -

OCEANIC LITHOSPHERE

INCIPIENT UNDERTHRUST

A third variation of mountain
building involves collision of an
island arc and continental
lithosphere. The underthrusting
that produced the collision has
ceased and a new direction of
underthrusting has started.

The complex structures and rock types
of mountain belts can reasonably be
explained by the plate tectonic theory.
They are the result of the dynamic
effects produced where one lithosphere
plate underthrusts the leading edge of
another plate. There appear to be four
main varieties of such interactions,
which are shown in the accompanying
drawings.

One variety occurs as follows. Where
the oceanic lithosphere slab bends
down and thrusts beneath a
continental margin, a deep trench is
formed — for example, the Peru-

A fourth variation of mountain

building occurs when two

continental lithosphere plates

collide. A shear zone of oceanic

lithosphere and sediments marks

the site where the former ocean

was closed. The compression and

underthrusting which suture two

continents create a wide zone of

deformation and thickened crust.

DEFORMED

CONTINENTAL

MARGIN

CONTINENTAL
LITHOSPHERE

May 1972

Ecuador trench. Oceanic crust and
sediments may be squeezed, scraped
off, and sheared at the inner trench
wall and partly carried down with the
slab. Where the slab enters the mantle,
It penetrates a zone where the velocity
of seismic waves diminishes, which
suggests that the rock of the zone is
near its melting point. This zone is
presumed to behave more plastically
than the rigid mantle above and
below it, and is given the name
asthenosphere. The added frictional
effects result in further heating and
melting, so that liquid rock, or magma,
rises in large volumes to form
volcanoes and igneous intrusions into
the continental crust. The heat also
causes extensive recrystallization and
metamorphism of sediments deposited
on the continental margin. If the plate
consumption slows or stops,
readjustment to the force of gravity
causes uplift of the sheared masses of
sediment, lava, and pieces of oceanic
lithosphere that were jammed together
beneath the trench. Such zones are
recognized in the complex and chaotic
belts of the California Coast Ranges,
for example. Further evidence of
the probable origin of such zones is
the presence of rock types indicative
of the deep ocean floor — chert, lava,
and serpentine. Such altered igneous
rocks may represent the lower oceanic
crust or upper mantle. These rocks,
together with sediments poured into the
trough, were recrystallized under
conditions of high pressure and
relatively low temperature. Uplift and
continued igneous activity in the high-
temperature erogenic zone are
accompanied by deformation, gravity-
sliding off the uplifts, erosion, and
sedimentation in marginal basins.

The second variety of erogenic belt
arises when an oceanic plate
underthrusts another oceanic plate
and creates both a trench and beyond
it a volcanic island arc above the
high-temperature zone. Most of the
effects associated with underthrusting
as described above are present except
that the high-temperature orogenic
belt is constructed on oceanic
lithosphere from volcanic activity and
its erosional products. No continental
crust is present. Modern examples are
the Aleutian and Bonin-Mariana arcs
and trenches.

The other types of interaction involve
collisions of continental crust with
either an island arc or another
continental lithosphere plate. In the
case of the former, the oceanic crust
originally separating the arc from the
continent is consumed and the arc
is welded to the continental crust along
with the sedimentary accumulation
along its margin. The relatively less
dense continental crust resists
underthrusting. Thus the results are
considerable shortening by such
processes as complex folding and
thrusting. The underthrusting ceases,
followed by uplift and erosion

Collision of two continental lithosphere
plates is a mammoth event which
involves closure of an ocean and
consumption of the oceanic
lithosphere beneath one or both
continental margins. As the two
continental slabs approach each other,
the wedges of sediment at the margins
and the tectonic melange of the
trench zone converge and are
squeezed up and thrust onto the
continents. The partial underthrusting
grossly overthickens the continental
crust, which then rises to great
elevations across a very large area.
Such a process may be the
explanation of the Himalayan Mountains
and Tibetan Plateau. Again, the
closure of the ocean will be indicated
by a narrow zone of rocks from the
oceanic plate and trench.

These theories of mountain building
were constructed from data on the
relatively young tectonic features of the
Earth. By re-examining the data on
more ancient orogenic belts and
applying the theories to them, we can
attempt to decipher their structures
and rock types in terms of plate
tectonics.

Thus the Appalachian mountain belt
appears to be the result of a long,
complex history commencing over 600
million years ago with the rupture of
a continental plate and growth of an
early ocean in roughly the same
relative position as the present Atlantic.
After some 300 million years of
complex events involving island arcs,
trenches, and orogenies at plate
margins that were being consumed,
the ocean closed in a major orogeny

that welded the European plate to the
North American. Subsequently a new
rupturing occurred, commencing about
200 million years ago. Active
formation and spreading of the modern
Atlantic probably started about 120
million years ago. The rupture does not
coincide with the preceding weld or
suture, but it parallels it fairly
closely and apparently crosses it. The
Ural Mountains may mark another
suture zone of two continental plates.
Other such suture zones of much
greater age have been proposed, with
the implied suggestion that plate
tectonics or a modified form of it has
been operative for several billions
of years.

Many problems remain to be solved
relating plate tectonics to geological
and dynamic aspects of the Earth.
For example, there is the question of
how much the volcanic arcs represent
new additions to the continental
crust derived from the mantle or from
re-melting of oceanic lithosphere, and
how much is recycled material derived
from sediments worn off the continents.
Another problem is that there is no
ready explanation for the earthquakes
that occasionally occur within
lithosphere plates rather than at the
margins, such as the Mississippi
Valley shocks. Such earthquakes
apparently are caused by slip along
ancient fractures of the crust.

The importance of the plate tectonic
theory is not only that it explains and
integrates major dynamic processes of
the Earth. Although many aspects of
the theory are not new, its ability to tie
together many seemingly independent
aspects of the Earth's evolution raises
it to the status of a general theory.
It thus provides a new way of looking
at the geological data on the Earth
and a powerful way of re-interpreting
broad aspects of the Earth's geological
history. It has repercussions for
students of evolution and the
distribution of the world's flora and
fauna. It also has implications for the
search for new mineral resources,
because their occurrence is directly
related to the dynamic processes
operating within the Earth.

Dr. Bertram G. Woodland is curator of
igneous and metamorpliic petroiogy,
Department of Geology, Field Museum.

Field Museum Bulletin

The Early History of the Geology Department

Eugene S. Richardson.. Jr.

F\ileontology laboratory. 1899.

When the Museum's Department of
Geology sprang from the brow of
Zeus in June 1894, it was not full-
panoplied. The staff on Opening Day
consisted of a scientist and a label
writer, joined a month later by a
second scientist.

Oliver C. Farrington, curator of
geology, was a young man of 30, with
a B.S. from the University of Maine
(earned at the age of .17) and a Ph.D.
from Yale. "The Deacon" (as his Yale
friends called him) was already as
well acquainted with the Field
Columbian Museum as anyone, for
while at the U.S. National Museum in
1893 he had been assigned to help put
together the geological exhibits for the
World's Columbian Exposition, and had
even come to Chicago to supervise
their installation. At the close of the
Exposition the collections that were
transferred to the new Museum
included those of the Exposition's
Department of Mines, Mining and
Metallurgy. It was the chief of that
department, Frederick J. V. Skiff, who
became the Museum's first director.
To establish the new Department of
Geology and to install its exhibits,
Skiff called the man who already knew
the material.

From December 1893, when the first
of the collections started arriving, to
June 1894, when the Museum was
formally opened, was an apallingly
brief time for what had to be done.
Geology exhibits were planned,
created, and installed in 21 exhibit
halls in those six months. Farrington
and the label writer could have had
virtually no time for other pursuits in
their little three-room suite of office,
library, and laboratory.

The very name of the scrivener has
been lost, and I'm not sure that any
of his india-ink labels survive. But
Farrington held the helm of this
department for 39 years. His
"Handbook and Catalogue of the
Meteorite Collection" (August 1895)
was the Museum's first scientific
publication. The following winter he
left on Geology's first "expedition," a
trip to Mexico, where he climbed
Popocatepetl and explored its crater,
and climbed IxtacihuatI far enough
to study its glacier. He brought back
ores and rocks for the already growing
collection. Ores and rocks were the
usual focus of his field work, though
for most of his three months in South
Dakota in 1898 he was collecting fossil
mammals in the Bad Lands, and once

while collecting minerals in the
interior of Brazil in 1923 he happened
upon and collected a portion of a
large fossil ground sloth.

Farrington's broad interests in
mineralogy are reflected in his 101
scientific and popular publications, but
his particular enthusiasm is shown by
the fact that 36 of these are on
meteorites. He once remarked in print
that "no survey of Nature can be
considered complete which does not
include an account of them." By the
time of his death in 1933, Farrington
had brought the Museum's
representation of meteorite falls from
short of 200 to almost 700, and the
Museum had become recognized as
an important center for meteorite
study, with the most complete
collection in the world.

The junior member of the infant
department, Henry W. Nichols,
remained at the Museum for 50 years,
until he retired at the age of 76 in
1944. He was a graduate of
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
and had been on its teaching staff
before coming to the Museum. His
field work, like Farrington's, usually
involved ores and rocks, but he often

May 1972

made observations and measurements
to be used in making models of
landforms to show geological
processes, or of industrial installations
to illustrate the recovery or use of
geological products. In 1917 he took
his surveying equipment to Natural
Bridge, Virginia, then accounted one
of the noblest sights of our continent.
The director reported: "The survey
made by the Assistant Curator is,
so far as known, the first detailed
survey of the Bridge that has been
accomplished since that conducted by
Thomas Jefferson shortly after the
close of his term as President." In the
succeeding months Nichols and a
preparator or two constructed the
scale model that is still on exhibit.
I particularly like that model; shortly
before "the Assistant Curator" arrived
with his theodolite, my own parents
had had their honeymoon at Natural
Bridge.

In his full-panoplied prime. Dr.
Nichols wore a neatly trimmed full
beard, perhaps the inspiration for the
nickname of "Foozleduck"
affectionately used behind his back.
He was stubbornly attached to that
beard, even when it met with an
accident while he was investigating a
gold mine near Porcupine, Ontario in
1919. Overtaken by a forest fire, he
had to dive for the only available
refuge, a shallow stream. As the fire
swept past, it impartially consumed
the right side of the beard along with
the grass and shrubbery. Otherwise
unharmed, Dr. Nichols rose from the
ashes, dusted himself off, and
returned to Chicago and the Museum
with half a beard.

His colleagues throughout the Museum
knew Dr. Nichols as a thoughtful and
gracious person, generous of his time
and talents. Though as an elderly man
he might sometimes doze off at his
desk, his ingenuity was unimpaired.
In 1936, addressing himself to an
anthropological problem, he devised a
chemical treatment for the malignant
patina afflicting some of the ancient
bronzes, and treated many of the
specimens himself. Three years later,
faced with the need for large slabs of
rock for study and exhibition, he and
his preparator, Val Legault, devised the

peculiar instrument that is still
respectfully reassembled when the
same need arises: the "meteorite
saw," based on a reciprocating strap
of steel and a sludge of abrasive. In
1942, when military enlistments had
decimated his department, the 74-year-
old chief curator, with the help of the
one remaining preparator, personally
installed the new exhibit of industrial
minerals that occupied an entire half
of Hall 37.

Normally, of course, the department
has not been so short-handed. From
the first there were laboratory
assistants, and Dr. Farrington even had
a helper to go with him to the Bad
Lands in 1898. This was Elmer S.
Riggs, graduate of the University of
Kansas and then a graduate student
at Princeton. The next year Riggs
was appointed assistant curator of
paleontology and had his own
"expedition" — to Medicine Bow,
Wyoming, with H. W. Menke as an
assistant. They shipped back five
tons of miscellaneous pieces of
Jurassic dinosaurs. For the next 41
years Riggs was often in the field,
collecting fossils in well-known
localities. When he and his preparator,
John Abbott, were working in the Red
Deer Valley in Alberta in July 1922
with George Sternberg, a well-known
professional collector, he received
word that the Captain Marshall Field
Expedition to Argentina had been
approved. The three men struck their
tents, crated their ten tons of dinosaurs
and other fossils, and hurried back to
Chicago. By November they had
everything ready and sailed for
Argentina. For five years Riggs and
various assistants, including his brother
Harold, collected in Argentina and
Bolivia. Many of the fossils they sent
back are still among the spectacular
exhibits in Hall 38.

Hall 38 is dominated by the large
Brontosaurus skeleton. Its tail,
hindquarters, and trunk were collected
by Riggs and Menke near Fruita,
Colorado, in 1901, and within the year
the individual bones were being
separately put on display as they
were prepared. The assembled hind
end of Brontosaurus remained an
imposing but incomplete exhibit for a

couple of generations, until James
Quinn and Orville Gilpin in 1941
collected a matching neck and
forequarters in nearby Utah, and Gilpin
made the present composite mount.
A bronze tablet erected by a local
newspaper marks the site of Riggs'
1901 excavation. In that same area
Menke came upon portions of a still
larger dinosaur, which Riggs described
in 1903 as Brachiosaurus, the largest
known reptile.

Naturally, the spectacular vertebrates
were the first fossils to receive formal
attention, but as the department grew,
an assistant curator of fossil
invertebrates, Arthur W. Slocom, was
added in 1906. For a while it was a
four-man department, and Slocom's
annual field trips to New York,
Michigan, Iowa, or Illinois added
hundreds of Paleozoic invertebrate
fossils to the study collections. Among
these were many new species, which
he described in five Museum
publications. Slocom left in 1913 to
become curator of the Walker Museum
of the University of Chicago, and the
senior staff was again down to three
until 1925, when Sharat K. Roy took
Slocom's old job.

Before Roy came to the United States
from his native India he had studied
at the Universities of Calcutta and
London, and had served during World
War I in the British-Indian Army. In
this country he earned a master's
degree at the University of Illinois and
a Ph.D. at the University of Chicago.
He later succeeded Dr. Nichols as
head of the Geology Department.
Hardly any Indians have become sub-
arctic explorers; Sharat was scarcely
well settled at the Museum before he
joined the 1927-28 Rawson-Macmillan
Expedition to Baffin Land and Labrador,
as geologist for the Museum. After
a summer of geological and other
observations on Baffin Island, the party
moved into winter quarters at Anatalak
Bay, Labrador. "Labrador seemed
warm in comparison to our sojourn in
Frobisher Bay, but soon the whizzing
hordes of insects yielded place to
snow and sleet, and, before we had
time to realize it, winter came with its
biting wind and killing cold. . . . But
despite adverse conditions, the lure of

Field Museum Bulletin

the Arctic is irresistible," A photograph
of their winter quarters (which they
built themselves) shows a comfortable
frame house deeply banked with snow.

The four Field Museum men — Art
Rueckert, artist-taxidermist; A, C.
Weed, ichthyologist; Duncan Strong,
anthropologist; and Roy, the geologist
— were, on the whole, adequately
provisioned. But toward the end of
winter Rueckert and Roy found that
because of unforeseen depletion of one
critical resource, it was necessary to
dip now and then into the supply of
alcohol that Weed had brought along
for preserving his fishes. They were
careful to maintain the level by
judiciously adding water. This
makeshift served them well for a few
weeks, though they did feel that the
quality was consistently deteriorating.
The aperitif hour was abruptly
discontinued when they returned one
day from a brisk walk to surprise a
colleague dry-cleaning his underwear
In the alcohol.

Nevertheless, Roy always held happy

memories of the arctic. His connection
with Baffin Island was recognized some
years later when a chart of the United
States Coast and Geodetic Survey was
published with a "Mount Sharat"
indicated on the shore of Frobisher
Bay. This was rather a surprise to the
Canadians, but they took it in good
part, particularly as it later appeared
that there was no mountain in that
vicinity anyhow. The name had been
applied in some distant office to a
purely conventional group of form-
lines that someone noticed on the
locality map, redrawn from Charles
Francis Hall, which Roy had included
in his 1941 monograph on the results
of the expedition.

Roy was a mild-mannered man, often
shy, often with a driving sense of
urgency. One of his colleagues who
bought a car that Roy had owned for
a few years found that it took him a
couple of months to get the accelerator
pedal to accept the intermediate
positions between full throttle and
none. We are reminded that "getting
there is half the fun" as we recall an

occasion when Roy set out from
Chicago to collect fossils In upper
New York State, and didn't notice until
he came to a bridge across the
Mississippi that he had made a wrong
turn somewhere. His drive for
perfection was familiar to his friends
m the elaborate care that he invested
in preparing one of his famed curry
dinners. The repast might be delayed
for three hours while the proper nuances
were developing. Such Oriental
patience led him once to spend three
weeks systematically hunting for fossils
at a Newfoundland locality before
finding the richly fossiliferous layer
that made it all worthwhile.

Sharat Roy's first interest was
paleontology, and particularly fossil
invertebrates. When he was serving as
an officer in the U.S. Army Air Force
in the Indian Theater in 1945 (he had
asked for arctic duty!), he spent a
month's leave making an extensive
collection of Permian fossils for the
Museum in the classic Salt Range
locality in the Punjab. But upon
becoming chief curator after the war,
he felt an obligation to broaden his
interests to other geological fields. He
had already made some glaciological
studies on the Rawson-Macmillan
Expedition; now for a period of nine
years he made field studies on the
volcanoes of Central America,
interspersed with studies of certain
stony meteorites that took him to
collections in Europe and India. When
he died in office at the age of 64, he
had published 62 papers in a variety
of fields.

This brief sketch has covered only the
beginnings of the Museum's Geology
Department. The four scientists so
cursorily introduced established its
direction and some of its traditions;
together they gave a total of 160 years
to the Museum. In the years between
and overlapping these men and those
of the present staff, who are introduced
elsewhere in this issue, is another
dozen of strong and present memory
who continued this history. They must
await a sequel — which, if public
clamor is sufficiently raucous, will
appear in a future issue.

Dr. Eugene S. Richardson, Jr. is curator ot
fossil invertebrates. Department of Geotogy,
Field Museum.

May 1972

"The mile -wide mutterings of unimagined rivers"

John Clark

wmmmi^t-r'-

^;::^^^^s^H':^^w^^^'^'-'^''^^-^

Kipling's Explorer would feel lost in
our modern world: there are no
unimagined rivers left to explore.

But fie need only step back into tfie
past to explore tfie unknown again.
Wfiat were thie landscapes of tfiirty
million years ago? Or forty million,
or one fiundred million? Where were
the mountains, and what rivers
inexorably wore them down? What
continents enjoyed tropic balm, where
were the deserts, and where and when
did ice ages chill the Earth? It is our
privilege to search for answers to these
questions, to ask the rocks and try to
understand what they may tell us.

For example, consider the picture of
the northeastern Colorado plains, with
a sinuous ledge of sandstone sweeping
across them.

That ledge was once the course of a
meandering stream, and the sandstone
is the sand and gravel that formed
its bed. How wide was the stream, and
how deep? As wide as the broken
ribbon of rock, about 100 feet, and
as deep as the thickest cross-beds,
about 4 feet. How fast did the current
flow? About 5 miles an hour, judging
from the size of the pebbles that it
carried. And where were its
headwaters? In a particular section of
the Colorado Front Range, just at the
Wyoming-Colorado border, because
only there do granites of the types
found in its pebbles occur together.

A little arithmetic shows us that this
35-million-year-old river carried about
1,500 cubic feet of water per second,
when it was running bank-full. That

would be smaller than the Fox and
the Desplaines Rivers, and somewhat
larger than the Du Page. The stream
was, naturally, both swifter and cleaner
than our rivers in northeastern Illinois.

Studies like this, of every 35-million-
year-old stream deposit from Colorado
through Montana, make possible maps
of ancient geography. From them we
can estimate, roughly, the runoff and
the rainfall of the past. Falls of ash
from ancient volcanoes give us
direction of prevailing winds; and fossil
animals and plants, plus rock
chemistry, tell us something of
temperatures. So we can build a
history of Earth's topography and
climate, through time.

As a visitor once said to me, "So
what? That rain won't get me wet,
and these rocks aren't even pretty!
Why do this?"

There are three answers to that
question: my own reasons, the reasons
of science, and practical reasons.
My own reasons are simple: I find
this the most fascinating exercise on
earth. Even if it had no practical
application, I would do it.

From the standpoint of fundamental
science, this information fits into the
whole body of Earth history like the
missing pieces of a puzzle. Indirectly,
it helps us to understand stream action,
flood plain deposition, and climatic
controls.

From the entirely practical viewpoint,
the action of streams relative to their
flood plains is most important. Billions

of dollars worth of property and
millions of human lives the world
around are affected by it. We can
never be sure when one piece of
information from the past may be the
one we need for better control of
rivers.

More directly, study of past climatic
change is important to us. We have
learned that climates change rapidly,
even by human let alone historic
standards. In 1870 Chicago had the
cool temperatures that presently affect
Green Bay, Wisconsin. Our climate
warmed rapidly from 1870 to 1955.
Since then it has cooled rapidly. If
this cooling trend continues, the
Russian and Canadian wheat-growing
regions will be wiped out. If it reverses
and the climate warms up again,
Texas and Kansas may find wheat
growing impossible. Groundwater for
our suburban areas, and the very
existence of Lake Michigan, will be
affected.

I'm not an applied scientist, nor does
Field Museum work in applied
science. It is our job to learn the
fundamentals about climatology so the
applied scientists can put those
fundamentals to human use. Neither
the fundamental nor the applied
scientists can function without the ■
other half of the team. We in the
Geology Department are proud of our
responsibility.

Dr. John Clark is associate curator ol
sedimentary petrology. Department of
Geology, Field Museum.

Field Museum Bulletin

Light blue topaz. 167 carats, cut from crystals in background.

institutions as well as by our own
curatorial staff. It would be e;<trcmo!y
difficult for investigators around the
world to do research were it not for
the cooperative loan policies of major
museums. Certainly one would be
greatly limited as to what field of study
one could pursue. Whenever a
researcher requests a loan of material
in the museum collections, the
specimens are promptly sent to him.

The geology collections are subdivided
into mineralogy, sedimentary petrology
("soft rocks"), igneous and
metamorphic petrology ("hard rocks"),
economic geology, biostratonomy, and
paleontology. The last is further broken
down into fossil mammals, birds,
reptiles, amphibians, fish, invertebrates,
and plants. Within these collections,
some specimens or groups of
specimens are in more demand than
others.

The I^st of the iceberg

When visitors view the many cases of
geologic specimens in the exhibit halls,
they see only a tiny fraction of the
total collection. The exhibit specimens
have been selected to best represent
the diversity among fossils and rocks.
Many hundreds of thousands of other
specimens lie in storage in the
research areas of the Museum.
Exhibition is only one function of this
Museum; maintaining collections for
study is another. What criteria
determine the contents of a collection?
How are these collections used? Why
do we amass such great numbers of
specimens? And how are they
maintained?

No museum has a collection that
represents a complete record of
Earth's natural history. New fossil
species of plants and animals and
previously unknown rocks and minerals
are still being discovered. In the case
of rare specimens, what one institution
has, another may lack. The geologic
collections of Field Museum are
specialized and shaped around many
people's interests and goals.

Although field collecting is the primary
source of specimens, purchases and
gifts are valuable supplementary means

of acquisition. Indeed, our original
collections were acquired by purchase
of fossils, rocks, and minerals from the
Columbian Exposition of 1893. Our
collections in every branch of
paleontology were greatly enriched
when the University of Chicago
entrusted its fossil collection to
Field Museum as a permanent loan.
The fossil plants and vertebrates came
to us in the 1940s and '50s, while the
enormous fossil invertebrate collection
of over one million specimens arrived
during the 1960s.

A museum is well suited for research
and for maintenance of collections
because it has the necessary staff and
the storage space for vast numbers of
specimens. Research into geologic
history — which is, after all, responsible
for our present-day ecosystem — is the
main basis of our understanding of our
present-day environment and of our
expectations of the future. The
extensive collections of a major
museum also permit the researcher to
take inventory of living and extinct
species and to study their ecological
and evolutionary relationships.

Our collections are frequently used by
specialists and students from other

^Kgtherine ^^Krueger

In paleontology our type specimens are
among the most frequently loaned. A
"type" is the specimen upon which
the original description of a species is
based. All subsequent specimens of
the species should be compared with
the type to ascertain their proper
identification. Our collections are
especially significant because they
include many type specimens in every
branch of paleontology.

Within the rock collections, meteorites
are most frequently requested. Like
type specimens, meteorites are unique
and irreplaceable. Their haphazard
occurrence and extraterrestrial origins
make them the rarest of rocks — only
about 1,860 meteorites are known to
exist. The tests for which a meteorite
is requested often require just a tiny
chip (a few grams in weight), which is
sent to the requesting party. The
weight of each meteorite is carefully
recorded, and each time a chip is
removed the specimen is reweighed
before being stored again.

Keeping all the specimens readily
accessible and retrievable through
organized storage and information
classification systems is our first job.

May 1972

All the specimens in the collections
must be numbered in permanent ink
and the information entered in a
catalog. Thus each specimen can be
precisely referred to in a publication
and can be located for further study.
In the catalog the following items are
noted in as much detail as possible:
the name of the fossil, rock, or
mineral, with a description where
pertinent; the number of specimens
assigned to that number (applies
where several of one species come
from one site and level, for example);
the collection locality; the geologic age
and formation; in some cases, the size
and weight; the minerals present; the
texture (these last two apply only to
rock specimens); the collector, seller,
or donor and the date of acquisition;
and the date of entry in the catalog.
The catalogs are columned ledgers
with headings for these categories,
of paper chosen for its durability.

The catalog entries are in chronological
order and thus do not indicate how
many of any particular group we have.
Therefore, some divisions find it
practical to keep file cards which
duplicate each catalog entry. The cards
are filed and cross-filed for easy
reference to a particular group of
specimens. For vertebrate fossils the
cards are arranged in taxonomic order,
with geographic or geologic
breakdowns within large groups. For
"hard rocks" there are two files, one
arranged geographically, the other by
type of rock. The sedimentary rock
information is punched onto special
large cards that reveal similar data by
punch alignments.

When a specimen has been cataloged.
It is placed in a tray for protection with
a numbered label that bears basic
information about it. The trays, which
come in six sizes, conform to wooden
drawers, which in turn fit into large
metal cabinets. The order of the
specimens in these drawers and
cabinets is somewhat parallel to the
order of the file cards; that is, the rocks
are arranged by geographic locality
or by type of rock, and the fossils by
taxonomic groups, age, or locality.
However, within each subdivision of
paleontology, a slightly different
arrangement is used in order to
correspond to the size and nature of

the collections. Fossil birds, reptiles,
and fish are arranged strictly according
to taxonomic order. Fossil mammals
and plants are arranged first by
geologic time sequences and secondly
by geographic localities. Within these
localities they are then arranged
taxonomically. In this way faunal or
floral assemblages are stored together.
Because fossil invertebrates are so
abundant, both in terms of population
size and in numbers of species, it
would be impossible to arrange them
in taxonomic order, down to the finest
division. A specialist for each division
would be needed, and that would be
more specialties than any museum staff
could cover. Therefore the fossil
invertebrates are grouped first by
geologic time periods, then by gross
taxonomic divisions. Within these large
groups, the specimens are arranged
alphabetically by generic names. When
convenient, a geographic breakdown
is also used. The numerous type
specimens of invertebrate fossils are
stored in separate cabinets for greater
accessibility.

The mineralogy collection is arranged
according to the Dana numbering
system, which is much like the Dewey
Decimal system of a library. This
numbering system makes it possible to
keep related minerals together, just as
taxonomic systems do for animals and
plants. Meteorites are arranged
alphabetically by the geographic name
of the place where each fell.

The whole cataloging procedure may
get a face-lift in the near future.
Because the ledger and file card
system is expensive (in both the time
it takes and the price of high-quality
paper), and because voluminous
amounts of material continue to
accumulate, cataloging by computer
becomes more and more a possibility.
The Geology Department already has
one toe in the water in that the
Division of Fossil Mammals has
converted completely to computer
cataloging. This division, a guinea
pig, has worked out a computer
program that conforms to our research
needs but is flexible enough to be
applied to an international data
clearinghouse, should one system ever
prevail. At present there are no
common standards among museums

for programming the data entries.

Let us now tour the actual collections,
for which the Geology Department is
so well known. We can see only a few
highlights, for the vastness of this
iceberg cannot be surveyed by one
explorer on a single journey.

The original mineralogy collection has
been greatly supplemented through
purchase and gifts, including many
valuable gems and pieces of jewelry
that have been acquired over the
years. From the Ural Mountains
carving industry of Catherine the Great,
we have beautiful carved ornamental
stones. Also from Russia came an
outstanding collection of blue topazes.
The recent gift of the Chalmers topaz,
found in Brazil, gave us the largest
faceted blue topaz in the world. We
also have the largest gem aquamarine
from the United States, which came
from Stoneham, Maine.

The many thousands of specimens
within the research collections well
represent the world's known minerals.
More common minerals are
represented from several localities.
One odd feature of this collection is
the predominance of fluorites from
localities in England rather than from
Illinois, the fluorite state. Among the
world's rare minerals are those of the
osumilite group. Field Museum has
specimens of every member of that
group from all of the world's known
localities (three!). Thus our specimens
have been of great importance in
studying and establishing the
distinctive crystallographic properties
of this group.

Our collection of meteorites is one of
the best in the world. The different kinds
are well represented and the specimens
are large enough to take samples of
for analysis. One significance of
meteorites is that they represent the
primordial matter of the solar system,
unchanged by weathering. Through
study of them we can answer many
questions concerning the origin of the
planets. We have been fortunate to
acquire 70% of the Murchison
Meteorite, which fell in the environs of
Melbourne, Australia in October of
1969. This particular meteorite is
currently under intensive study around

Field Museum Bulletin

the world because it has traces of
amino acids, the building blocks of
living things. Their presence may be
an indication of extraterrestrial life.

The sedimentary rock collection
became a separate division within the
overall rock collection in the 1960s.
Continental sedimentary rock types —
fluvial, lacustrine, and aeolian — are
very well represented. The collection
has three parts, consisting of (1) an
old collection of sedimentary rock
types from around the world; (2) a
demonstration-exhibition series of
sedimentary rock structures such as
ripple marks, concretions, cone-in-
cone, and fulgarites; and (3) a
research collection which includes rock
specimens under study by our own
curatorial staff or scientists from other
institutions.

Research collections of rocks are
always accompanied by a sub-
collection of thin sections — specially
prepared slices about 0.03 of a
millimeter thick, mounted on glass
slides. It is usually impossible to
identify or describe rocks from a hand
specimen. Hence we need to study a
thin section under a polarizing
microscope. The behavior of polarized
light as it passes through a crystal
0.03 of a millimeter thick is distinctive
for each mineral and provides us with
a means of identification. The shape
and color of the crystals can also be
diagnostic. Rocks are inherently
difficult to study because of the
gradation in their composition and
structure; therefore, significant criteria
must be drawn from examination of as
wide a range of variations as possible.

Rocks of economic value, such as
ores and building stones, are
maintained in a separate collection,
IVIetallic and non-metallic ores and
fossil fuels from around the world are
represented, including some from
mines presently inaccessible or no
longer in operation, such as the old
gold and silver mines of the American
West. Lead, zinc, copper, and iron in
particular are well represented from
numerous localities.

The biostratonomy collection contains
specimens that exemplify the
relationship between fossils and the

rock in which they are embedded.
Usually they exhibit a faunal
assemblage which, more precisely than
a lone specimen, allows us to
determine the setting in which an
organism lived. The recent quarrying
of Coal Age black shales in several
Midwestern states has yielded a rich
supply of shark coprolites and
stomach ejects, which reveal just what
co-existing animals these predators
had for lunch.

Within the fossil mammal collection is
a wide selection of material from
Cretaceous through Pleistocene time in
North America. However, our
specimens from the Early Tertiary beds
of Colorado, Wyoming, and the Big
Badlands are especially well

Pennsylvanian insect, Lithoneurj carpenterl
Richardson.

represented and have been the basis
of many important publications. Field
Museum acquired a sizable collection
of South American Cenozoic mammals
from a series of field expeditions to
Argentina and Bolivia in the 1920s.
During an expedition to Australia
conducted jointly with the University of
Texas, thousands of Pliocene and
Pleistocene specimens were collected
from caves along the southern coast
of that continent. The tiny marsupial
and rodent bones and teeth from these
caves are so numerous that it will take
many years to catalog and study them.
Collections from foreign countries
facilitate the study of world-wide
evolution. It would be a slow and
complicated procedure to borrow
material from foreign institutions.

An outstanding collection of Permian
reptiles came to us through the
University of Chicago. Gathered over
the years by a succession of famous
teachers and students, this collection,
which includes many type specimens,
has been the basis of some of the
most important work in vertebrate
paleontology. The Museum has also
built up through field expeditions a
fine representative collection of North
American marine fossil turtles. Our
collection of turtles from the
Cretaceous Mooreville Chalk of
Alabama is the most complete known
from this section and contains many
type specimens. Consequently it too
has been the source for several
research publications.

The richly fossiliferous Eocene rocks
of the Washakie Basin in Wyoming
have yielded us many fine specimens
of terrestrial turtles, as well as a
unique crocodilian skull belonging to a
rare group. Most evolutionary studies
of crocodilians are based on skulls,
which are more commonly found than
the other skeletal parts. Our specimen
is the best preserved skull for this
particular kind of crocodile, and it
provides an important link in
knowledge of the group.

Backbone of our fossil fish collection
is a fine representation of North
American Devonian fishes. The
Devonian period was the Age of
Fishes, the time of their evolutionary
flowering. Our collection, one of the
most complete for North American
strata of this age, was gathered almost
entirely through the efforts of a single
researcher, over a thirty-year period.
Our fossil fish collection was also
enhanced by the University of Chicago
holdings and by over 100 Eocene fish
from a classic locality in Italy, received
in exchange for the skeleton of one
dinosaur.

The same Midwestern Coal Age black
shales that provided us with so many
fine biostratonomic specimens have
also been a rich source of shark and
fish remains. Many of these specimens
were preserved and recovered in an
articulated state, not broken and
scattered. An entire new order of fish
comprising several families, genera,
and species was discovered among

May 1972

these fossils and will be the subject of
a forthcoming scientific paper in the
Fieldiana: Geology Memoirs series.
The black shale collections have been
built up in part through numerous field
expeditions and in part through the
gifts of amateur collectors who have
worl<ed in close cooperation with Field
Museum.

Over many years professors at the
University of Chicago and their
students have collected invertebrate
fossils from the fvlississippi and Ohio
River Valleys and have published
monographs on them. These
collections, which are valuable both
for the type specimens they include
and for the numbers of specimens
available for comparative studies, came
to us through the permanent loan
mentioned earlier. Through that same
loan we also received a large portion
of tTie Hall collection of Paleozoic
Invertebrates, predominantly North
American. This huge collection
contains many type specimens and
has been the basis for numerous
publications that have become classics.
It was amassed by James Hall, a pillar
of the New York Geologic Survey in its
early years and one of the founding
fathers of North American invertebrate
paleontology. He financed publication
of his research through the sale of his
many collections, much of which was
purchased by the University of Chicago.

In the Coal Age shales of northeastern
Illinois lie millions of fossiliferous
ironstone concretions that yield
unusually well preserved plants,
invertebrates, and, on rare occasions,
vertebrates. They comprise what are
known as the Mazon Creek fossils,
named from the stream in Grundy
County. Their excellent state of
preservation permits the paleontologist
to study details of insects, spiders,
crustaceans, tiny fishes, sea
cucumbers, worms, and all sorts of
soft-bodied creatures that have
normally not survived geologic change.
In the 1960s, jointly with the University
of Chicago, Field Museum began a
massive and still continuing field
project which has yielded an immense
wealth of complete specimens and
new species. The volume of material
is great enough to guarantee research
topics for many years. Most interesting

GEOLOGIC TIME

Era

Period

Epoch

Quaternary

Recent

Pleistocene
(Ice Ages)

Tertiary

Pliocene

Cenozoic

Miocene

Oligocene

Eocene

Paleocene

l^^^^^^l Cretaceous

Mesozolc

(Age of

Reptiles)

^^^^Hl^l

^^^^l^^l

Permian

Pennsylvanian
(Illinois coal forests)

tvlississippian

Paleozoic

Devonian
(Age of Fisties)

Silurian
(Chicago area)

Ordoviclan

Cambrian

Precambrian
Proterozoic
Archeozoic

of all perhaps is the enigmatic "Tully
monster," which cannot be assigned
to any known group of animals.
Numerous amateur collectors have
also contributed Mazon Creek fossils
to our collection, some of which have
become type specimens.

Our fossil plant collection may be
expected to reflect the geologic setting
of Field Museum, and so it does.
Through purchases, loans, gifts, and
field expeditions we have acquired an
enormous collection of plants from the
Pennsylvanian period from the strip
coal mines of northeastern Illinois.
From the Gulf Coastal Plain we also
have a leading collection of Cretaceous
and Tertiary plants, all of which are in
excellent condition.

In recent years "ecology" has become
a household word, but an
understanding of the intricate
interrelationships of living things and
the delicate balance between them
and their environment would be

impossible without the groundwork laid
by patient researchers who have been
studying the separate parts in minute
detail. It is they who have, by
examining as many specimens as
possible, determined what constitutes
species and why and how one differs
from another. The research specimens
of a museum provide the material for
this documentation of Earth's natural
history.

The exact definition of a species is
still a subject for debate, but one
definition that is widely accepted
among biologists states that a species
IS an "interbreeding population" which
maintains its distinctive genetic traits
through fertile union of the male and
female, or through asexual budding.
Obviously with fossils we cannot
determine which organisms did or did
not interbreed. Hence we must use as
guidelines the morphologic features,
which reflect part of the genetic
makeup of organisms. Sometimes, until
enough specimens are lined up side
by side, the diagnostic features are
hard to determine. Two extreme
variants of one species, seen without
gradational forms, may seem to
represent two different species.

To study the geologic history of an
area, such as the course of an ancient
river and the source of its sediments,
one needs to take rock samples from
many points. To establish from what
direction earth stresses were applied
which built up a mountain range over
millions of years, or which
subsequently metamorphosed its rocks,
again numerous specimens from an
extensive area are needed. The varied
composition of a volcano's rocks give
us a peek into the chemistry of
Earth's interior. As many researchers
around the world laboriously chip
away at Earth's surface, gathering
their data, one day we will perhaps
have most of the pieces of the puzzle
and be able to put them into place.
We will understand and predict
earthquakes and volcanic eruptions,
and we will more intelligently manage
the natural resources of the ocean
and the continents.

Katherine Krueger is assistant in paleontology.
Department ot Geology, Field Museum.

Field Museum Bulletin

M

luhd/ luho in goology

pQUkJQ m. uuiUiom/

Dr. Rainer Zangerl

and Dr Eugene S Richardson, Jr

Dr. William Turnbull

Dr. Bertram Woodland
and Mr. Rudy Chavez

Rows of coffee cups labeled "Bert, Gene, Bill . . ." hang on a wooden board
in the paleontology laboratory. Office walls are lined with photographs of plaid-
shirted geologists chipping away at mountainsides. These are tangible indications
that the geologists at Field Museum are friends as well as colleagues. However,
although unified by congeniality, the department's seven curators have always
been encouraged to follow their individual interests and programs. The result is a
department diverse in its efforts, covering a wide spectrum of geological endeavor.

Swiss-born Rainer Zangerl has been chairman of the department since 1962, a
position he assumed after serving seventeen years as curator of fossil reptiles. A
paleontologist of international reputation. Dr. Zangerl is concerned with providing
an interpretation of the environment as it existed in the Pennsylvanian period of
the Paleozoic era. "The Paleoecological History of Two Pennsylvanian Black
Shales" {Fieldiana: Geology Memoirs, Volume 4), co-authored with Dr. Eugene S.
Richardson and published in 1963, is a major work focusing on the wealth of
material from the Mecca and Logan quarries in Parke County, Indiana. The volume
is now a classic and is used as a textbook in graduate seminars around the
country.

Dr. Zangerl recently completed a manuscript setting forth a descriptive and
comparative anatomical discussion and interpretation of a new order of
invertebrates from the Pennsylvanian black shale. This new order, whose nearest
relatives are the ratfishes, is of great importance in furthering our understanding
of the relationships of the cartilagenous fish groups. Dr. Zangerl, a skilled
anatomist and one of the few scientists in this country to employ the techniques
of histology in paleontological work, is now studying the approximately twenty
genera of sharks found in the Pennsylvanian black shale. He is also adjunct
professor. Department of Anatomy, University of Illinois at Chicago Circle, and
lecturer, Department of Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago.

Dr. Eugene S. Richardson, Jr., curator of fossil invertebrates since 1946, is
currently studying and describing the fossil animals of the Coal Age concretions
of the Mazon Creek area in Illinois. The area has yielded unusually well preserved
fossils of evolutionary significance. The results of Dr. Richardson's research are
being published in a continuing series of papers in the Museum's Fieldiana:
Geology.

Although Dr. Richardson has, of course, made many field trips in the Mazon Creek
area, he also relies on amateur collectors to unearth new specimens. He has
examined 147 collections of amateurs in his search for Mazon Creek fossil
material, and many of these collectors have donated specimens to the Museum.

Dr. Richardson's avocation is the Vanishing Press. Proprietor, typesetter,
compositor, artist, and author. Dr. Richardson operates Vanishing Press solely
for his own pleasure and that of his readers. Most of the slim volumes
produced are humorous and many appear under the authorship of E. Scumas
Rory, one of Dr. Richardson's favorite pen names.

Like Dr. Richardson, Dr. William Turnbull, associate curator of fossil mammals,
also joined the Museum staff in 1946. He concentrates much of his research effort
on Pleistocene and pre-Pleistocene Australian mammals; the latter he describes as
"the biggest hole in our record of mammalian history." Now, after extensive
field work, Dr. Turnbull and a colleague at the University of Texas, Dr. Ernest
Lundelius, are piecing together the history of Australian fauna. They published on
the Hamilton Fauna of the Grange Burn, Victoria, Australia in 1970 and now
have in press a paper on the Madura Cave fauna of Australia. In collaboration
with Dr. Frederick Schram, Eastern Illinois University, Dr. Turnbull is also
publishing a paper on the pygmy possums of the Wombeyan Caves area,
a late Pleistocene site in Australia. This summer will find Dr. Turnbull on a field trip
to Washakie Basin in southwest Wyoming, where he has been collecting fossil
mammals since 1956. Some of the specimens he has uncovered there date back to
the mid- to late Eocene.

14 May 1972

Dr. Bertram Woodland, curator of igneous and metamorphic petrology, was born
in Wales and seems to have fallen hieir to the Welshman's legendary gift for
language. The Department of Geology receives many visitors seeking geological
identifications and information. Like the other curators, Dr. Woodland takes time
from his research work to help these people, explaining some basic geology, if
required, and graciously cushioning disappointment when a visitor's "very unusual
rock" turns out to be quite common.

Dr. Woodland is studying the origin and structure of rocks in both the Royalton
area of Vermont and the Hill City area in the Black Hills of South Dakota. He is
concerned with the geometry of microscopic and small-scale deformation
structures of metamorphic rocks and their origins and relationships to larger-scale
structures of the same region. Dr. Woodland is seeking to determine what forces
produced the rock structures as they exist today. His report on his studies of
the Vermont area will be published in the near future.

Dr. Woodland is also studying the genesis of concretionary structures, by
analyzing and interpreting the primary structures preserved in these concretions
and working out the relationship of the concretionary development to the decay of
organic matter within fine sediments.

Dr. Edward Olsen, curator of mineralogy, joined the Museum staff in 1960. He is
an authority on meteorites and meteoritical research and was recently awarded
a NASA grant to study the chemistry of silicate minerals that occur in very minor
amounts inside iron meteorites. These minerals have largely been ignored over
the past fifty years, and Dr. Olsen believes they may yield valuable new
information about the kind of planetary object from which iron meteorites came
originally. At present there is no definite relationship known between the two main
types of meteorite, the stones and the irons.

In addition to research work in conjunction with the Museum's extensive
mineralogical collections. Dr. Olsen has analyzed Apollo 11 and 12 lunar rocks,
co-authored the results with colleagues at the University of Chicago, and examined
samples of material from all Apollo flights.

Over the years he has become interested in archeological problems in relation to
ancient metallurgy, especially in the New World, Principally with Dr. Arnold
Friedman of Argonne National Laboratory, he has published several papers on
ancient metal technology.

Dr. Olsen also serves as adjunct professor. Department of Geological Science,
University of Illinois at Chicago Circle, and guest researcher, Argonne National
Laboratory.

Dr, John Clark, associate curator of sedimentary petrology since 1963, is
presently concentrating on the geology of the western United States and will
conduct field trips to South Dakota, Wyoming, and Colorado this year. Since 1932
he has been concerned with Oligocene paleogeography and paleoclimatology,
studying the history of the development of climates, especially the relationship of
past climatic patterns to those of the present and future. He believes that an
understanding of the climatic conditions that existed prior to the Ice Age, which
may be inferred from present geologic evidence, can enable us to predict major
climatic changes to come. The publication in 1967 of "Oligocene Sedimentation,
Stratigraphy, Paleoecology and Paleoclimatology in the Big Badlands of South
Dakota" {Fieldiana: Geology Memoirs, Volume 5) summarized his research to thaJ
date and stands as a landmark in Dr. Clark's career.

Before joining the Museum staff Dr. Clark headed the Central Asiatic Research
Foundation and through it operated a medical dispensary, three experimental
gardens, and a geological survey and craft school in Central Asia. His
experiences in Asia are recorded in his book Hunza, Lost Kingdom of the
Himalayas (Funk and Wagnalls, 1956), He has served as a lecturer in the
Geology Department, University of Chicago since 1963.

Dr. Edward Olsen

Mr. Orville Gilpin
and Dr. John Clark

Field Museum Bulletin 15

Mrs. Katherine Krueger

Mr John Harris

Dr. Matthew Nitecki, the newest member ot the department's curatorial staff, was
appointed assistant curator of fossil invertebrates in 1965 and became associate
curator in 1968. His main research interest is Paleozoic fossils, particularly the
lower groups of invertebrates and algae. To help make the evolutionary record
more complete. Dr. Nitecki is working on the receptaculitids, problematic
organisms that had been considered sponges but are, in fact, calcareous green
algae. These algae existed during the Paleozoic period, over 500,000,000 years
ago, and are significant to our understanding of the development of both plant
and animal life. A monograph detailing Dr. Nitecki's findings regarding the North
American receptaculitids will soon be published in the fVluseum's Fieldiana series.

Dr. Nitecki's research interests also include Upper Mississippian snails from the
Illinois basin and the evolution, relationship, and morphology of calathiids from
North America, Asia, and Australia.

Dr. Nitecki has been a lecturer at the University of Chicago Extension Division
since 1961. His evident pleasure in his work is no doubt the reason his field trips
to the Ozarks and the Grand Canyon for l\/luseum Members are so successful.

Capable though they are, these seven men do not run the Department of Geology
fourteen-handedly. Their research efforts are supported by six other staff people
and ten volunteers,

Orville Gilpin, chief preparator of fossils, plays an important role in the
department. Mr. Gilpin came to the Museum in 1938 as a WPA worker and has
developed through years of painstaking work the unique skills required to prepare
fossils for study or exhibition. He has often devised his own tools to accomplish
the time-consuming and delicate task of fossil preparation. He spent eighteen
months scratching and scraping at rock with phonograph needles mounted in a
metal handle before a Pennsylvanian shark was revealed in its wealth of detail.
The construction of the huge dinosaur skeletons on display in Stanley Field Hall
and the impressive Edaphosaurus and Dimetrodon skeletons in Hall 38 are
spectacular examples of Mr. Gilpin's work.

Mr. Gilpin is also a good teacher. Schools do not offer courses in dinosaur-
building or fossil preparation, and Mr. Gilpin has given on-the-job training in
these techniques to many young people.

Mrs. Katherine Krueger, assistant in paleontology, joined the Museum staff in
1968, after receiving a master's degree in geology from Tulane University.
She maintains the paleontology collections, catalogs incoming specimens,
handles specimen loans, and serves as research assistant to the staff. She is
also presently assisting Dr. Turnbull in a project to computerize the fossil
mammal collection catalog.

Mr. John Harris joined the Museum staff as preparator in the Geology Department
in 1969. In addition to preparing fossils, he is skilled in making fiberglass and
plaster molds and casts, enabling the Museum to lend copies of specimens to
other institutions. Some examples of Mr. Harris' work are the fine reproductions
of artifacts from the Museum's famous collection of Benin bronzes in the
Museum's traveling exhibit "Afro-American Style From the Design Works of
Bedford-Stuyvesant" (at Malcolm X College until June 30).

Mr. Rudy Chavez is the newest member of the geology team, having joined the
staff as assistant in petrology in 1970. After a short on-the-job training period he
took on his present responsibilities of preparing rock specimens for study. This
includes cutting, polishing, and making thin sections of rocks and fossils for
microscopic study.

Completing the important support staff in the department are Mrs. Winifred
Reinders, departmental secretary, and Miss Jeannette Forster, secretary.

Patricia M. Williams is managing editor of scientific pubiications, Field Museum.

16 May 1972

CALENDAR

Exhibits

Continuing

Australian Aboriginal Art from Arnhem
Land, a selection of nearly 400 bark
paintings and wooden ceremonial
sculptures. The material is from the
extensive collection of Louis A. Allen of
Palo Alto, California. Through September 10.
Hall 27.

A New Spirit In Search of the Past:

Archaeology and Ecology in the Lower
Illinois River Valley, an exhibit exploring
the "new" archaeology as reflected in the
Illinois Valley Archaeological Program's
excavation of the Koster Site, directed by
Dr. Stuart Struever of Northwestern
University. Through September 4. Hall 9.

Color In Nature, an exhibit examining the
nature and variety of color in the physical
and living world and how it functions in
plants and animals. Continues indefinitely.
Hall 25.

Field Museum's 75th Anniversary Exhibit

continues indefinitely. "A Sense of Wonder"
offers thought-provol<ing prose and poetry
associated with physical, biological, and
cultural aspects of nature; "A Sense of
History" presents a graphic portrayal of the
Museum's past; and "A Sense of Discovery"
shows examples of research conducted by
Museum scientists. Hall 3.

John James Audubon's elephant folio,
The Birds ot America, on display in the
North Lounge. Continues indefinitely.

Morton Arboretum: 50th Anniversary, a
small commemorative exhibit, featured in
the South Lounge through June 4.

9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday through Thursday: 9 a.m.
to 9 p.m. Friday.

The Museum Library is open 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Monday through Friday. Please obtain pass at
reception desit, main floor north.

Museum telephone: 922-9410.

Free Film Program

Continuing

"Patterns for Survival" (A Study of
Mimicry), presented at 2:15 p.m. Saturdays
and Sundays in the second floor North
Meeting Room. The half-hour film offers an
overall view of protective coloration in
insects and provides visitors with an insight
into the "Color in Nature" exhibit.

"Chinese Jade Carving," shown at 2 p.m.
and 3:30 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays in
the second floor North Meeting Room. The
unusual short film serves as an excellent
introduction to Field Museum's new Hall
of Jades.

"Aborigines of the Sea Coast," offered at
1:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. Saturdays and
Sundays in the second floor North Meeting
Room. The film provides background,
information on Field Museum's "Australian
Aboriginal Art from Arnhem Land" exhibit.

Children's Program

Through May 31

"Our Vanishing Wildlife," Spring Journey
for Children, a free, self-guided tour
focusing on animal species that face
extinction, to help youngsters understand
what is happening to them. All boys and
girls who can read and write are welcome
to participate in the activity. Journey sheets
are available at Museum entrances.

Meetings

May 9; 8 p.m., Chicagoland Glider Council,

May 10: 7:30 p.m.. Windy City Grotto,
National Speleological Society.

May 21: 2 p.m., Chicago Shell Club,

Live Demonstration

May 17

Nigerian potter Ladi Kwali gives a pottery-
making demonstration in the traditional
manner at 1:30 p.m. in the James Simpson
Theatre. The program includes a short film
on the Pottery Training Center in Nigeria,
slides, and a brief lecture on the potter's
art in that country.

Coming in June

Begins June 1

"Exploring Our National Parks," Summer
Journey for children, begins June 1. The
free, self-guided tour honors the 100th
anniversary of the establishment of
Yellowstone, our first national park.
Youngsters have an opportunity to become

acquainted with various features of our
national parks and monuments by following
the Journey through Museum exhibit areas.
Through August 31.

June 16

Members' Preview/: a special showing of
"Soviet Union: Arts and Crafts in Ancient
Times and Today," 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., for
members only.

Opens June 17

Soviet Union: Arts and Crafts In Ancient
Times and Today, a collection of almost
2,000 objects representing the finest
examples of artisanship from the country's
leading museums. It is the largest show of
its kind ever sent abroad by the Soviet
Union and is being shown in its entirety
for the first time at Field Museum. Almost
4,000 years of history are spanned in the
selection of carvings, tapestries, icons,
court treasures, jewelry, and gold and silver
work, as well as contemporary porcelains,
ceramics, and embroideries. The exhibit is
part ot the thirteen-year-old cultural
exchange program between the U.S.S.R.
and the U.S.A. Through July 13. Halls 18
and 19.

Invites you to

The Women's Board

of

Field Museum

a dinner and preview
of

"Soviet Union: Arts and Crafts
in Ancient Times and Today"

Thursday, June 15

reception at 6:30 p.m.

dinner at 7:30 p.m.

music and entertainment until 9:30 p.m.

dress is informal
tickets $20 per person

for reservations, write or call

the Women's Board office

922-9419

/olume 43, Number 6
June 1972

Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin

SOMIET UNION: /1RTS &CR4FTS IN ANCIENT TIMES &.10DAY

"Soviet Union: Arts and Crafts in Ancient Times and Today," on display at Field Museum
June 17 through July 13, surveys the immense variety and richness of the folk arts of the
diverse peoples that inhabit the huge land area of the U.S.S.R.

Since far back in the dim past man has felt a need to decorate and enhance even the
simplest and most utilitarian objects that are a part of his daily existence. We call this
form of expression, which is part of the customs and traditions of a culture, folk art.

Folk art has a way of revealing much more about a people than their history books. Since
it is deeply rooted in the past, it is a means of preserving ancient themes, symbols, and
forms, and perpetuating skills that have been gradually developed over the centuries. One
value of folk art is its continuity, for it links one generation with the next. It retains what Is
esthetically most appreciated and most practical for everyday purposes, and it reflects
outside influences and changes that occur within a culture as clearly as a written document.

More than one hundred national groups are represented in the fifteen republics that make
up the Soviet Union, and each of them has its own customs, language, traditions, and
characteristic arts.

Every piece in the exhibit has been carefully selected, for its beauty, for its appeal, and for
the role it plays in telling the story of the origin and development of native arts and their
present expression in the Soviet Union.

The sheer magnitude of the exhibit (almost 2,000 pieces) and broad scope (spanning 4,000
years, from 2000 B.C. to the present day) make it the largest and most important of its type
ever sent abroad. The collection, which has been gathered from the major Soviet museums
and art centers, is being shown in its entirety for the first time in this country at Field
Museum. The showing is part of a cultural exchange program between the U.S.S.R. and
the U.S.A.

This vast aggregation of material, modern and centuries-old, includes porcelains, glassware,
majolica, carpets, tapestries, gold and silver work, ceramics, lace, wood carvings,
sculpture, embroideries, tiles, and lacquer ware.

While the emphasis of the exhibit is on decorative and applied arts and crafts, striking
examples of fine arts, jewelry, and religious articles are also included. Among these are
Scythian artifacts dating from 500 B.C., icons from the 15th to 18th centuries, treasures of
the tsars, and elaborately ornamented ecclesiastical garments.

The display is designed to acquaint Americans with the many different types of art in the
U.S.S.R. Soviet art experts and English-speaking guides will be available during the entire
showing to assist visitors and answer questions.

A special preview for Members of Field Museum will be held from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on
Friday, June 16. Members will receive a special invitation in the mail shortly. Either the
invitation or a Museum membership card will admit them to the preview, in Halls 18 and 19.
— by Madge Jacobs, Publicity Coordinator, Field Museum.

Field Museum
of Natural History
Bulletin

Volume 43, Number 6
June 1972

Cover: Detail trom rug in exhibit "Soviet Union; Arts
and Crafts in Ancient Times and Today";
contemporary; wool felt; by Jumabai Umetov; from
State Museum of Fine Arts, Frunze, Kirghiz S.S.R.

Soviet Union: Arts and Crafts in Ancient Times and Today

Madge Jacobs

an introduction to an extraordinary exhibit at Field
Museum this month

2 The Folk Art of Russia

Sarah P. Burke

since the 18th century, changes in the old forms and designs of
rustic village peasant art have both reflected and influenced
taste and fashion of city dwellers

9 Expedition into the U. S.S.R.

Nancy Nadler

some human and scientific sidelights of a Soviet-American
cooperative research project

12 Politics and Archeology

Bennet Bronson

the psychology and style of the contemporary archeologist need

revolutionary change

16 Members' Nights, 1972

photos of some of the 7,715 people who came

16 Capital Campaign

a progress report on our $25,000,000 capital improvement campaign

Calendar

Field Museum of Natural History

Director, E. Leiand Webber

Editor Joyce Zibro; Associate Editor Elizabeth Munger; Staff Writer Madge Jacobs; Production Russ Becker;
Fred Huysmans.

Photography John Bayalis,

The Field Museum ol Natural History Bulletin is published monthly except August by Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at
Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605. Subscriptions: 56 a year; $3 a year for schools. Members of the Museum subscribe through
Museum membership. Opinions expressed by authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the policy of Field Museum. Unsolicited
manuscripts are welcome Printed by Field Museum Press. Second-class postage paid at Chicago. Illinois. Postmaster: Please send form
3579 to Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605,

Field Museum Bulletin

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June 1972

This month an extraordinary exhibition of
ancient and modern arts and crafts from the
Soviet Union opens at Field tVluseum, The
exhibition brings together folk arts and
crafts from all of the fifteen republics of the
Soviet Union. Each of the republics has its
own rich traditions of folk art.

Among the richest and most varied are the
folk art traditions of the cultural and
geographic area traditionally called Russia,
which comprises most of the European part
of the US.S.R. This discussion is limited
to that area, although the objects in the
exhibition represent the whole of the Soviet
Union. Hence, the term "Russian" as used
here should not be understood as,
all-inclusive.

The first motifs of Russian folk art were the
ancient pre-Christian ones: for instance, the
solar symbols, the swastika, horses,
roosters, flowers, and grasses. They served
as the basic motifs of this art until the
eighteenth century, the time of the
westernizing reforms of Peter the Great.
When writers and artists became aware of
the peasant arts in the twentieth century,
they looked back with nostalgia to the
pre-Petrine period as a time of pure folk
art, unadulterated by Western European
ideas and art forms. These earlier peasant
art objects — most of what has survived
dating only since the seventeenth century —
are characterized by simplicity and grace in
ttieir designs. The designs varied from item
to item but were primarily floral and covered
the entire surface of the object. Their grace
results, perhaps, from the fact that the
artistic energy of the folk master was
directed not to overcoming the material but
to fashioning an object which closely tied
together the possibilities of the material, the
utility of the finished item, and the decoration.

After the seventeenth century, though the
old forms and motifs are preserved, they
appear in conjunction with new ones and take
on a more purely decorative character. In the
eighteenth century Peter the Great's reforms
deepened the split between city and village.
For all of the arts it was a time of infusion
of Western European schools and styles.
While these trends primarily affected the

Russian proverb: An object made by the hand of a
master craftsman Is more valuable than one of
precious gold.

Photo: A mythological bird-siren (alkonost), symbol
of )oy, in facade decoration of a peasant cottage;
19th century carved wood; Gorkii Region; State
History Museum, Moscow.

Cities, they also reached the villages and
influenced the peasant art. Under the
influence of the baroque style, for example,
the traditional plant designs that decorated
folk objects became more complex and
ornamented and the plants depicted became
more realistic. Scenes from contemporary
life began to appear on some objects but
the depiction did not yet go beyond
ornament; that is, the scenes still blended
in naturally with the overall decoration. On
many objects these newer motifs, in
coniunction with the older ones, resulted in
an engaging blending of fantasy and reality,
a blend so characteristic of other forms of
peasant art, such as the folk and epic tales.
As new motifs came into Russian folk art
they were manifest first in those things made
by the folk masters for city dwellers, such
as majolica, large copper bowls, and silver
objects. Things made by the peasants for
their own use retained the more traditional
patterns.

The first half of the nineteenth century was
marked by a flowering of Russian folk art,
but the latter half was a period of crisis.
With the rapid industrialization of the
country, many of the peasant-made items
were replaced by cheaper factory-made
ones, and the country markets began to be
flooded by factory-manufactured dishware,'
fabrics, and household implements. Art by
the peasant for the peasant was gradually
disappearing, and with it the rhythmic sense
of design which had resulted from the
craftsman's sense of balance between
utility and decoration. Only in the most
isolated regions of the Russian north was
peasant art able to continue its natural
development.

Whereas peasant art for the villages was
disappearing, peasant art for the cities was
thriving. It is ironic that city dwellers should
have taken an interest in the folk tradesmen
at this time, yet it is also understandable. At
the end of the nineteenth century in Russia
there was a reaction against the extreme
rationalism and materialism of the preceding
decades. People longed for the irrational,
the primitive, the Rousseauistic type of
existence. Ethnologists were just beginning
to bring peasant art to the attention of
society, which naturally seized upon it,
however idealistically, for its qualities of
naivete and directness. This widened city
"market had important consequences for folk
art, for now the design of an object was
dictated by the tastes of the city buyer
rather than by the craftsman's sense of an

organic relationship to its function. The
products of peasant workmanship were
becoming souvenirs.

During this period one trend in design,
noted in the eighteenth century, continued
and was strengthened — the trend toward
more realistic depictions of subjects. On
certain objects, such as the painted
papier-mache boxes, the designs were no
longer part of the overall decorative pattern;
they became sophisticated paintings with
three-dimensional perspective which were
valued independently of the object itself.
Another trend in decoration at this time was
to make the traditional designs more
"folksy." Often the old folk designs did not
correspond to the city dweller's image of
peasant art, and the tradesmen therefore
exaggerated the fantastic elements and
accentuated the ornamental patterns, with a
resultant stylization and even caricature of
the original.

The crisis in Russian folk art did not go
unnoticed, and there were attempts to revive
and sustain the native traditions. Two of the
most interesting and unique attempts were
carried out at the art colonies Abramtsevo,
outside of Moscow, and Talashkino, near
Smolensk. The most creative artists of the
time lived at these colonies and created
works which were imitative of folk art. As
artists they were interested primarily in
design and looked back to the pre-Petrine
period for their models. The results of their
efforts were engagingly ornate, stylized art
objects based on native art. Certain items of
furniture, for example, had so much
ornament that they were uncomfortable and
nonfunctional. Some of the artists,
especially at Talashkino, did strive for
authenticity. Nevertheless, the importance
of these colonies was not in their attempts
to revive folk art but rather in the
tremendous influence that native art through
their works had on twentieth century
Russian avant-garde art.

IVlore practical attempts to sustain the folk
tradition were made by local government
organizations, which founded trade schools
to teach and propagate the ancient designs
and forms. One shortcoming of these
institutions was that too often the directors
of the schools and not the folk masters
determined the designs to be followed.
While these schools helped the folk artists
to get through the difficult first decades of
the twentieth century, they actually were
neither creating nor continuing a tradition
in a lasting sense.

Field f^^useum Bulletin

Perhaps the most serious consequence
of the industrialization of Russia was that
peasants in increasing numbers were
moving to the cities to worl<, and thanks to
better forms of communication, the city was
also moving more and more into the
country. In Russia the distinction between
city and country life was rapidly
disappearing, so that after the beginning of
the twentieth century only in a few remote
areas did authentic folk culture and its
distinctive art survive.

I will attempt now to give a general survey
of the four main divisions of Russian folk
art: woodworking (carving and painting),
ceramics, metalworking, and decorative work
on fabrics. All items of folk art cannot be
covered, so I will limit my discussion by
concentrating almost exclusively on those
objects which were made by the folk
masters for their own use as opposed to
those made for the city markets. All the
objects described were used in peasant
households, and all, with few exceptions,
died out in the first decades of the twentieth
century, for reasons already suggested.

One of the oldest and most conservative
forms of Russian folk art is wood carving.
Wood was the most abundant natural
resource in Russia. It was used for houses
churches, and household implements, and
the Russian peasant decorated this wooden
environment with carvings. His house, sleigh,
furniture, grave marker, even his locks,
were beautifully carved and sculpted.

The most impressive type of carving was the
deep relief which decorated the exterior of
peasant houses. Unfortunately, few of these
carvings older than from the nineteenth
century are extant. The peasant houses had
a high pointed roof and the carving typically
followed the contour of the roof just under
the eaves at both ends and ran along the
sides, thus encircling the house. Wooden
cornices placed above the windows were
also deeply carved, as were gateposts and
fence posts. These carvings varied little in
their basic design, which was a mythological
creature looking out from between a floral
pattern of curving leaves and buds. The
figure, which always holds onto or is hooked
onto the floral design, is an integral part of
the design as a whole. A mythological bird-
siren (in Russian, alkonost), the symbol of
joy, is one of the most popular motifs.
Other creatures commonly represented in
this type of carving are the lion, often with
a human mask, the horse, sometimes with a

lion mask, the unicorn, and the siren-
mermaid, which was an especially popular
motif of house carvers along the Volga
River. The Volga carvers were ship builders,
and therefore adapted the dominant motif of
ship decoration to their homes, a mermaid
looking out from between waves.

While this carving remained basically the
same throughout the centuries, in the
eighteenth century it did become more
ornate under the influence of the luxuriant
baroque interiors of city homes. It is
sometimes forgotten that the village carving
masters were the ones who worked on the
construction of these interiors. The carvers
both incorporated some of their own motifs
into the interiors and adapted some of the
baroque designs to their village carvings.

In the monumental carving, deep, coarse
relief was characteristic, but on smaller
Items, flatness rather than relief was
emphasized. The designs, which are often
the same as on the houses, are much
tighter and more geometrical than the
larger carvings.

Some of the most ornately carved of the
household objects were distaffs, or hand
spindles. Spindles played an important role
in peasant life and often two were kept in
the house, one fancy and one plain, the
former being handed down from generation
to generation. The spinner would place the
working spindle at her side with the bottom
curved portion steadied under her leg. The
wool or flax was loosely tied around the top
paddle-like portion of the spindle, and the
spinner pulled pieces of the raw material
with one hand while spinning the thread
onto a small top with the other.

Kovsh-skopkar, carved and painted wooden ladle, in

traditional bird stiape, used for drinl<ing beer or kvas

or for wine-tasting: a remnant of the simple traditional

gouged stripe running from tiead to tail can be seen on

tfiis late and ornate example; tfie sun symbol on the tail

and side was a characteristic motif on ladies whose

entire surface was decorated by carving: 19th century;

Arkhangelsk Region; North State History fvluseum,

Moscow

Three basic styles are found among the
carved spindles. The most traditional was
characterized by geometrical motifs which
covered the entire surface of the object.
The ancient symbol of the sun, a circle with
a rosette form within, is the dominant

Distaffs, or hand spindles, of carved and
painted wood: 19th century; Vologda Region
and Zaonezhie Region; North State History
Museum, Moscow.

June 1972

geometrical motif and is frequently
repeated on each section of the spindle
Spindles characteristic of the laroslav-
Kostroma region also used geometrical
motifs, but as secondary elements of the
decoration. The primary elements are
scenes from contemporary life, tea drinking
being one of the most common. Depiction
of such scenes became popular in the
eighteenth and especially the nineteenth
centuries. In the Nizhni-Novgorod (now
Gorkii) region of Russia, spindles received
quite a different treatment, under the
influence of city life. In addition to the
traditional carving, pieces of darker wood
were inlaid to add variety to the designs
and scenes from folk tales and noble life.

More traditionally decorated and one of the
oldest of peasant household implements
was the chiseled and carved ladle (in
Russian, kovsh). Traditionally It was a bird-
shape, but others evolved, such as a horse-
shape, which often had multiple heads. The
tail and bill were used as handles for
drinking beer or kvas or, in the cities, for
wine tasting. Such ladles were often richly
decorated since they served as traditional
gifts as well as decorations for holiday
tables. A typical seventeenth century ladle
was characterized by a simple design such
as a flowing, broad, shallowly gouged
stripe which ran from the head to the tail.

Another common carved item of Russian
folk art was the fantastic gingerbread or
cake board. These boards resemble
rectangular trays which are covered with
relief designs of emblems and contemporary
and fairy-tale scenes. They were pressed
onto cakes which were then given as
special holiday or birthday gifts. The
decorated cakes were often quite large, one
of the largest being the gingerbread
weighing around 150 pounds given Peter
the Great when he was born. Although such
boards were used in the country, they were
carved primarily for the city dwellers, a fact
which would explain the breadth of subjects
depicted and the use of such emblems as
the two-headed eagle.

Russian folk art was as rich in wooden
sculpture as in carving. In the form of
wooden toys, this sculpture flowered
especially at the end of the nineteenth
century and is one of the arts which has
survived in the twentieth century. Folk-tale
creatures and fairy-tale scenes are depicted,
as are such real-life figures as barons and
baronesses, soldiers, and wet nurses. A
degree of irony can be noted in the
expressions and dress of the real-life
figures. The most famous toys are made
even today, in Bogorodskoe village in the
Moscow region. The masters of this village
had long been known for their carving of

Glazed facade tiles for exterior decoration; design was carved into
wooden blocks, wtiich were pressed into the soft clay; 17tti century:
State History Museum, Moscow.

bears and other animals; then at the end of
the nineteenth century they began making
the toys movable, which caused them to be
even more well known. The toys from this
village — bears dancing or beating a drum,
squirrels playing basketball — are currently
exported from the Soviet Union and can be
found in stores in the United States.

Painting of objects arose much later in
Russia than carving and sculpture, but it
soon became a popular art form, reaching
Its height in the nineteenth century. The
painted articles were originally done by the
same craftsmen who decorated the
cathedrals and icons, and on certain articles
the influence of icon painting is evident.
Painting allowed much more freedom of
line and design than carving, and its
introduction broadened the circle of themes
which fed peasant art. In its most
conservative form it reworked all the old
symbolic motifs but with less conservatism
than wood carving At the same time,
painting took new themes from everyday
life, often combining them with the older
motifs. As painting gained in popularity, it
began to replace carving on many wooden
articles, such as hand spindles, ladles,
dishes, and boxes. The traditional colors
used on these objects were mainly darker
reds, greens, and browns. The paints were
applied directly, without shading or mixing.
As new pigments were developed, the color
spectrum widened and much brighter colors
were used in more subtle ways. But in spite
of the striking colors, in Russian folk art the
graphic element always dominates the color.

As in wood carving, the treatment of the
graphic element on painted objects varied,
and three main styles of painting can be
distinguished. All three styles are well
represented on painted spindles but can be
found in other types of painted folk objects
also.

The oldest and most conservative style kept
to the more traditional designs. Of the two
painted spindles pictured here, the one on
the left is representative of this graphic style
with its strong decorative cast. The motifs
on this spindle are all ancient ones — the
symbol of the tree of life at the bottom, the
rooster in the middle, the flowering plant
motif on the upper third. The spindle on the
right is typical of a more subtle and refined
type of painting which combines the older
motifs with scenes fiom contemporary life.
The sleigh scene in the middle third of the
spindle is representative of this newer
tendency in fofk painting to show miniature

Field f^useum Bulletin

and realistic depictions, while In the upper
and lower thirds are, respectively, the
ancient bird-siren and sun symbols. The
"realistic" portion Is still part of the overall
design and Is in no way freestanding.

The third style of painting can be seen on
hand spindles from the NIzhnl-Novgorod
region. Scenes from daily life are the main
subjects and occupy the foremost place on
the spindle — the larger, upper third. The
painting is much more like easel painting
than on the other two types, and. In fact,
was influenced by nineteenth century easel
painting. The most characteristic scene
depicted, tea drlnl<lng, shows a table with
two or more fashionably dressed persons
seated behind It with drapery serving as a
backdrop for the entire scene. Such two-
dimensional depiction and drapery backdrop
are reminiscent of Icon painting. The
Influence of easel painting is represented
by the painter's choice of subjects and use
of color.

The Khokhloma wooden tableware, so well
known in the West thanks to the revival of
this craft in the Soviet Union, also comes
from the NIzhnl-Novgorod region. Although
the designs found on the contemporary
tableware are different and have a
mechanical character, the basic plant motif
and the traditional colors, red and black on
gold, have been retained throughout the
centuries. The process used to achieve the
colors Is an interesting one. After the object
was carved it was coated with loam and
then bathed In linseed oil. The next step
was to give It several coats of varnish and
cover the surface with a powdered silver
metal suspended In water. Onto this silver
surface the black and red design was
painted, more varnish was applied, and
then the object was fired. During the firing
the silver background turns Into a bright
gold color. Present-day examples of this
folk art can be widely found in the West.

Although ceramics was not so varied as
woodworking, it was also a highly
developed Russian folk art. On churches
and on peasant houses could be found
brightly colored ceramic relief tiles depicting
folk-tale creatures, scenes from real life, or
the traditional floral designs. The designs
for such tiles were carved Into wooden
blocks, which were pressed Into the soft red
clay before it was glazed and fired. Another
common type of ceramic tile, not in relief,
was used to decorate peasant stoves. The
stove was the most important part of the
peasant house and usually stretched along

Ceramic toy, a peasant woman carrying buckets;

clay is baked and ttien painted witti tempera

and gold leaf; contemporary; Dymkova Village,

Kirov Region

Otum-shaped bucket with

cover, ot painted birctibark;

used tor carrying sucti tilings

as sour cream tiome from

market; 19tti century;

Arktiangelsk Region; North

State History Museum.

f^loscow

Typical large ceramic stove tiles, with fairy-tale
motif; 17th-18th century; State History f^^useum.
fytoscow

June 1972

Wrought iron candleholders, 47.4 and
49 inches high; 17th-18th century.

one wall like a long countertop. Such stoves
were large enough to serve as sleeping
quarters for some member of the household
during the winter months. Large ceramic
tiles with brightly colored designs and
pictures painted under the glaze in the two-
dimensional folk style decorated the sides
of the stove.

Equally fanciful and colorful is the ceramic
sculpture in the form of make-believe
animals, ladies, soldiers, and other figures.
These ceramic toys were made in a number
of regions, but the most famous and most
captivating ones came from the Viatskaia
(now Kirov) region, from the village of
Dymkova. This form of folk art survived the
first decades of this century through the
efforts of one craftswoman who preserved
the tradition and passed it on to others. As a
result, the production of these toys is now
flourishing in the Soviet Union. The usual
subjects of the toys are the traditional
peasant figures: the wet nurse; a skomorokh
(an old Russian traveling musician-dancer-
juggler) riding a goat with trousers or a pig:
a peasant woman carrying buckets. The
figures are made of red clay which is first
fired and then covered with a white wash
on which the final colors are painted. In the
nineteenth century the white background
was achieved by dipping the fired object in
a solution of chalk and milk.

Some of the most interesting examples of
Russian folk art are to be found in metal
work. Everyday household items made of
metal were, not surprisingly, limited in
number and use. The most common metal
objects were the charming three-
dimensional copper locks in the form of
ducks, horses, centaurs, and other ancient
animal motifs. The same motifs were used
for copper combs and adornments for
spindles, the most prevalent motif being the
heads of two horses in silhouette.

By far the most elegant and strikingly
simple of the metal household objects is
the tall wrought iron candleholder which
stands on the floor. They were forged by
the village blacksmith always in the same
pattern: a stylized flower supported by a
slender stem which has intertwined leaves
extending from it. In peasant households
they were used to hold splints of wood
which were burned instead of candles for
light. The village blacksmith also forged
ornate lattice-work locks and smaller
versions of the candleholders for peasant
homes.

Field Museum Bulletin

Of all the Russian native arts, embroidery
and needlework are the most conservative
in their preservation of the oldest artistic
motifs. Embroidered articles were found in
every household and were closely
associated with the folk holidays and
ceremonies. This fact in part accounts for
their traditional nature.

Ornate needlework always decorates the
most traditional article of a peasant
woman's clothes, her headdress.
Headdresses were common to every region
of Russia and varied in shape and design
according to region. They were prized
possessions of women and were handed
down from generation to generation. The
needlework on these articles resembles
tapestry, with floral or geometric designs
covering the entire surface. Metallic threads

of silver and gold or silk threads were sewn
in a raised pattern onto a background of
velvet or silk. The most festive headdresses
had river pearls and colored stones sewn
onto them for a richer effect.

Embroidery with a basic red thread is the
most characteristic and traditional type of
stitching found on clothing, tablecloths,
bedsheets, and towels. The most
characteristic designs are geometrical, the
swastika being the dominant motif. Animals,
plants, and humans are all geometrically
stylized and become part of the overall
pattern. The variety found in the red-thread
embroidery results from the many types of
stitches used by the seamstress in
executing the designs. Especially brilliant
and fanciful is the red-thread stitching
characteristic of the Olonets region, noted

A lace-maker in the Vologda
Region, whicti is well known for
its lace, both within and outside
of the USSR.; her traditional
headdress is embroidered in a
geometric design.

V'i

;^ v^-x'i

for depictions of fantastic animals onto
which tiny pieces of brightly colored silk
have been sewn.

Another type of needlework, in direct
contrast to the bright colors of the Olonets
embroidery, was the white-on-white weaving
done in the Vologda region of Russia and
found most often on bedsheets. This striking
weaving differs from other Russian
needlework not only by its use of white but
also by its use of newer motifs, such as
panorama scenes from country life or folk
tales. A border of lace was often attached
to these weavings, thus forming a second
border on the article,

A discussion of fabrics would not be
complete without mention of the type used
for everyday clothing, for ordinary
tablecloths, for curtains, for book covers,
and even for flags. It was made from
homespun or linen which was then stamped
with carved, inked wooden blocks. The
patterns covered the entire fabric and varied
widely from the most traditional folklore and
floral motifs to patterns which depicted
contemporary scenes. In the seventeenth
century, for instance, sirens, lions, and
unicorns predominated, while in the
eighteenth century horsemen and country
scenes were more popular. In the
nineteenth century the cheaper factory-
woven and -printed fabrics gradually
crowded out the block-printed ones.

Because so many of the native Russian folk
arts, like the block-printed fabrics, have
died out, the Soviet government has
adopted a broad program for reviving them.
The greatest success has been with those
arts which were primarily decorative rather
than utilitarian in function, such as ceramic
and wooden toys and needlework. An
important result of this program has been to
give the Soviet population an appreciation
for their folk traditions. Now, through the
traveling exhibition of Soviet arts and crafts
at Field Museum, the Chicago public also
can see and appreciate these folk traditions.

All the examples ot Russian folk art pictured
here except the candleholders are among
the almost 2,000 obiects in the exhibit
"Soviet Union: Arts and Cratts in Ancient
Times and Today" on display at Field
Museum in Halls 18 and 19 tram June 17
through July 13.

Dr. Sarah P. Burke is a specialist in Russian
literature and folk art.

8 June 1972

Dr. Charles F. Nadler, a Field Museum
research associate, together with
Mrs. Nadler and their filteen-year-old son
Charles, Jr., spent six weeks in the Soviet
Union last summer as part oi the first
scientific research project under the joint
sponsorship ot the Academy of Sciences ol
the U.S.S.R. and the U.S. National Academy ot
Sciences. The Soviet Academy ol Sciences
had invited Dr. Nadler, Associate Professor
in the Department of Internal Medicine at
Northwestern Medical School, and
Dr. Robert S. Hoffmann, Professor of
Systematics and Ecology at the University
ol Kansas, to participate in a comparative
study ot the evolution ot Asian and North
American mammals.

expedition
into
the
USSR

nancv nadler

The purpose of our expedition in the
U.S.S.R. last summer was to study
chromosomes, proteins, and sl<ull
measurements of related Asian and North
American species in an attempt to identify
evolutionary differences between the
species that have developed since the two
continents were one land mass.

During four or five periods in the past
several million years the Bering Sea was
closed at the north by a broad "land bridge"
connecting the North American and the
Asian continents. Animals spread back and
forth across this dry land connection but
then evolved in isolation after Siberia and
Alaska were separated by the waters of the
Bering Strait.

So far, the studies have found that after
100,000 years of separation, a pair of
related mammal species, Siberian long-tailed
ground squirrels and the Columbian ground
squirrel of western North America, have
retained the same chromosome structure
but differences have developed in the
structure of blood serum proteins and skull
form. In contrast, Arctic ground squirrels of
northeastern Siberia and Alaska, separated
for only 10,000 years, have not diverged
with respect to these characteristics.

Our summer work was carried out in two
phases, first in the field, then in the
laboratory. Two weeks of field work were
spent camping in the Altai IVIountains,

centering on the Kuraiskaya Steppe
near Mongolia.

With Russian dictionaries, insulated
underwear, mountain climbing boots, a
small tent, sleeping bags, mittens, and
khaki field clothes, we three Nadlers and
Dr. Hoffmann arrived in IVIoscow in early
June and were met by Nikolai N. Vorontsov.
He started the expedition off on a cheerful
spring-like note by presenting me with a
bouquet of flowers.

Our destination was Akademgorodok, a
"science town" on the outskirts of
Novosibirsk, with a population of 40,000
people centered around a university and the
many institutes of the Siberian Branch,
Academy of Sciences of the tJ.S.S.R.

During the 1,900-mile flight from IVIoscow
east to Novosibirsk in the western Siberian
lowland, our Russian colleagues and hosts
pointed out first the seemingly limitless and
uninhabited lowland forests. We next passed
over the wooded-steppe dotted with islands
of birches, which resembled closely the
woods of northern Wisconsin.

In Novosibirsk we were lodged in an
attractive new hotel run by the Academy for
visiting Soviet and foreign scientists. We
met the other scientific collaborators, our
soon-to-be camping companions, and spent
the first few days planning the scientific and
logistic aspects of the trip to the Altai. This

was the first zoological expedition to the
Kuraiskaya Steppe of the Altai in which
Americans had participated since 1912,
when Harvard University and the
Smithsonian Institution sent an expedition.
Reading the journal kept by the members of
this expedition helped us plan what to take.
As for food, only instant coffee was brought
from the U.S.A.; everything else was
supplied by our Soviet hosts.

We boarded a small Aeroflot plane and flew
150 miles to Barnaul. No commercial flight
was available to continue that day, but
soon Dr. Vorontsov obtained a bi-wing, one-
engine, thirteen-seater and we all piled in
for a one and a quarter hour flight to
Gorno-Altaisk. Both towns are starting
points for trips into the Altai.

A minibus had been sent ahead from
Novosibirsk to meet us, accompanied by a
truck for the equipment. In the bus we
followed the turbulent and glacial-silt-laden
Katun River eastward as it cut through
larch- and pine-covered mountains similar
to western Montana. The clear feeder
streams and mountain lakes of this region
are full of trout and grayling. Collective
farms, consisting of a central administration
building, barns, schools, and log houses
with gaily decorated window borders
(nalichniki) and shutters were seen every
fifteen to thirty miles. Farms in the Altai are
devoted to grain production, dairying, maral
(elk) farming, and farther east to yak and

Field Museum Bulletin

sheep herding. At the farms we bought
fresh bread and butter. The delicious
Russian bread had a slightly different flavor
at each of the villages.

At the first campsite near the village of
Shebalino the Russians put up a large new
tent which we three Nadlers shared with
Bob Hoffmann and a Russian biochemist.
Rem I. Sukernik. The Russian sleeping bags
were warm but heavy compared to our light
weight down bags. The cots, folding tables,
stools, and eating utensils they provided
were similar to their American counterparts.
The Russians' great enthusiasm for outdoor
camping would make a ready market for the
new light weight equipment that has
bec:ome so popular in the U.S.A.

All the cooking was done by a Russian
member of the expedition, who was
originally trained as a pharmacist. The field
menu was usually kasha or semolina (hot
cereals) for breakfast, and for lunch we had
cabbage soup with canned meat in it, along
with bread, butter, jam, and occasionally an
egg plant spread similar in consistency to
applesauce called "egg plant caviar."
Dinner, usually eaten at 9 or 10 p.m., when
work had ended, was similar to lunch. Much
of the cooking of stew, soup, and the like
was done in large pails over an open fire.

The evening meal of the first night in the
field was a festive occasion, topped by a
bottle of vodka with many toasts. But we
knew we were in Central Asia when we saw
a herd of yaks wander by.

After a few days the truck was loaded,
everyone got into the minibus, and we
proceeded eastward toward the Mongolian
border along the two-lane blacktop main
highway. After surmounting two passes the
road turned to gravel and driving was
slower. The traffic in Siberia consists mainly
of trucks and motorcycles, which often had
sidecars. Beyond the town of Inya the
mountains became progressively more arid.
The Chuiskaya Steppe adjacent to Mongolia
is characterized by a gravelly, desert-like
valley surrounded by high mountains with
many glaciers on their summits. Numerous
marmots, ground squirrels, pikas (similar to
rabbits), and a few feral Bactrian camels
live on this steppe. Mongol horsemen were
riding over the barren ground herding their
sheep and yaks.

With not much wood or water available in
this area, we had to backtrack a few miles
to the Kuraiskaya Steppe to establish a

working base. There a permanent camp with
sleeping and laboratory tents was set up in
a grove of larch trees near a stream. The
expedition then settled down to collecting
and studying the specimens.

The Altai Mountains are an ecologically
varied mountain range between the
wooded-steppe zone and the deserts of
Middle and Central Asia. For centuries
inhabitants of the Altai District and other
nomad horsemen traversed these valleys
and steppes while marching back and forth
from Central Asia to eastern Europe and
Russia. Excavations of frozen graves in this
region dating back to 500 B.C. have yielded
beautiful old rugs and art objects which are
now on display in the State Museum in
Leningrad — the Hermitage.

As the days went by, cultural differences
faded and common problems and interests
were discussed. French was the common
language between Helena Vorontsov and
me and Russian or German amongst the
men, but often sentences were a
combination of French, Russian, and
English words. Camp chores are the same
in any country and we all helped with them
as well as with the laboratory work. Living
together in the mountains, sharing the
chores, and working for a mutual goal
certainly brought friendship.

All of the 100 animals we collected were
eventually prepared and tagged as museum
specimens; some were taken back alive to
Novosibirsk. There chromosome and
biochemical comparisons were carried out
in the modern and sophisticated research
laboratories of the Institute of Cytology
and Genetics.

A second and shorter field trip to the Buryat
Republic was made for more specimens
in July.

After the field trips we four Americans and
the Vorontsov family were invited to join
several Academicians from the Soviet
Academy of Sciences, including the famous
Professor Englehard, head of the Molecular
Biological Institute in Moscow, for a two-day
cruise on nearby Lake Baikal. It was on a
Soviet oceanographic research ship that
had been reserved to entertain the president
of the East German Academy of Sciences,
Dr. Mothes, and Mrs. Mothes.

Cruising on the lake allowed us to enjoy the
beautiful surrounding mountains, and
periodically the boat would stop to allow a
walk in the woods or fish picnic on the
beach.

Traditionally decorated log tiouse along the
road to Lake Baikal.

10

June 1972

Charles Nadler. Jr.; Helena Viii.iri|.,,.v Dr Nikolai Vorontsou; driver Misha;

Dr Roberl Hoflmann; Nancy Nadler, Amelia Sergevna. who did the cooking;

and Ihe Vorontsovs' daughter Masha on a mountain pass in the Altai.

7,0 40 60 80 100 120

Lake Baikal is Ihe oldest, deepest (more
than a mile deep), and so far as volume of
water is concerned, largest fresh water lake
in the world. It has unique fauna with about
100 endemic species including an endemic
seal that probably came up the Angara
River. Baikal is the source of the Angara.
The cleaning action of the fauna keeps the
lake very clear, but just as Americans are
concerned about their lakes, the Russians
are also concerned about pollution hurting
their unique lake. Research is being done at
the Limnological Institute at Baikal so that
standards for pollution control can be set
and the effects of industrial wastes on the
lake can be monitored.

We visited an unexcavated Neolithic camp
site on the shore of the lake, and there
Professor A. S. Rozhkov of our group found
flint tools and potsherds. In the historical
museum in Irkutsk were many descriptive
exhibits of these and earlier paleolithic sites
located in the Lake Baikal-Angara River
region. Thus the visit to Baikal
encompassed not only a pleasant two-day
vacation on the lake but exposure to a
diversified group of Russian scientists and a
chance to observe museum techniques
relevant to the history of the region.

Ivlany festive meals with toasts to all were
enjoyed by the travelers and, refreshed, the
Nadlers and Hoffmann headed back to
Novosibirsk. There long days were spent in
the laboratory with Charles Jr. helping with
the electrophoresis and I joining Helena
Vorontsov in performing statistical
comparisons of chromosome measurements
from the Asian and North American ground
squirrels.

The results of the summer culminated in the
preparation of three manuscripts pertaining
to the evolution of Asian and North
American ground squirrels, marmots, and
sheep. They will be joint publications of the
Soviet and American scientists, and
published in both Russian and English.
Plans were laid for a continuation and
expansion of the research during the
summer of 1972 in the U.S.S.R. and 1973 in
the U.S.A., when Dr. Vorontsov will visit
Field Museum, Northwestern University, and
the University of Kansas and do field work
with Dr. Nadler and Dr. Hoffmann in the
western United States.

Nancy Nadler is a member of the Women's
Board ol Field Museum, as well as a
research assistant in the Held to her
husband, Dr. Charles F. Nadler.

Field Museum Bulletin

11

Archeology in the post-imperial age

What I propose to discuss is a serious
problem, so serious that it threatens to bring
most foreign archeologica! work in most
developing countries — that is, on two-thirds
of the earth's surface — to a complete
standstill. The problem has not as yet been
much discussed, even among archeologists-
In fact, as far as I know this is the first time
it has been mentioned in print. Yet it is an
important problem, and one by no means
confined to archeologists. Very similar
problems affect other specialists who do
field work in underdeveloped nations: social
anthropologists, naturalists, medical
researchers, geographers, historians,
economists, and so forth. But here I will
talk only about archeologists, since I know
more about them and since the problem
affects them more acutely than most.

Once it was easy to go out and do field
work — to perform an excavation — in a
foreign country. It was especially easy when
the country in question was located in the
"Third World," in one of the archeologically
important but economically undeveloped
parts of Asia, Africa, or Latin America which
in those days were official or de tacto
colonies. One had only to contact the
nearest colonial administrator (or embassy
official in countries that were theoretically
independent) to get government permission
to dig. Excavators did of course face
difficulties even then, but the difficulties
were economic and scientific rather than
political. If the archeologist could raise the
money and master the necessary scientific
expertise, he could go and work almost
anywhere, provided his own country was not
actually at war with the country where he
wished to excavate.

Lately, however, things have started to
change. About a third of the world is
completely closed to American
archeologists. Another third is difficult to get
permission to work in. And what is worse,
these closed and semi-closed countries
include many with whom America's political
relations are friendly. It is no surprise to
find American researchers having trouble
getting into China, but what about Pakistan,
or India, or numerous other Asian or African
nations? Considering that their museums
will receive most of the things the foreigners
excavate, and that the foreigners' payroll
will give the local economy a helpful boost,
then why should these countries ob]ect to
having them come? And why do they seem
to be objecting more nowadays than they
did ten or twenty years ago?

The export of antiquities

First of all, let me make clear what is not an
issue: namely, local objections to
archeologists digging up art treasures and
taking them off to foreign museums. It is

Politics and Archeology
Bennet Bronson

true that once upon a time archeologists
were (or seemed to be to the natives of the
places where they worked) glorified
treasure-hunters, whose main purpose was
to fill the museums back home with splendid
and valuable objects from the past. To the
more clear-sighted of the natives, such men
as Schliemann and Layard must have
seemed less great scholars than great
thieves, looting quite openly under the thin
cloak of scientific research and with the
whole-hearted connivance of overawed local
officials, foreign diplomats, and the armies
of the Western colonial powers.

But those days are gone. The local officials
are less easily bribable nowadays and the
diplomats and armies are involved with
other things than helping stock European
and American museums. Moreover, the
passing of colonialism has meant that the
former colonies have enacted laws designed
to protect their heritage. Most countries no
longer permit the export of antiquities,
except perhaps the kinds of antiquities
(potsherds, stone tools, and the like) that
have little intrinsic value. One does still find
in a few places the institution known as
the division," whereby the foreign
archeologist and representatives of the host
country split the excavated objects between
them. But even this is dying out: within the
past year, at least two of the countries
where the "the division" survived have
passed laws requiring that all excavated
objects be deposited in local museums.

So the issue is not exploitation in any
material sense. Most archeologists who
work in most countries have long ago
stopped hoping or even wanting to take
their finds back home with them. With a few
lamentable exceptions, they feel that the

things they excavate in country "X" are the
property of the people of X, and that to take
them away is morally equivalent to breaking
up and exporting the shrines or monuments
of thi?ir own nations.

I should perhaps say in passing that the
argument still is heard, perhaps more in the
mouths of art dealers than field
archeologists, that taking monuments from
country X is different from stealing
monuments from the United States or
Europe — that because the people of X do
not appreciate their heritage (and indeed, in
many developing countries, heritage-
appreciation is sadly undeveloped as yet)
and because they may not care for their
monuments properly, they therefore do not
deserve to keep them. This argument is the
rationale used by collectors (and even some
museums) when they buy antiquities they
know to have been illegally excavated and
smuggled out of the country where they were
found. However, whether or not that
argument is morally valid (my opinion is
that it is not), it is beside the point. The
American or European archeologist who
hopes to work in country X or Y simply will
not be allowed into that country if he shows
signs of wanting to export what he
excavates. He must at least act as though
he holds the country's heritage in respect.
And with the majority of modern
archeologists, their attitude of respect is
quite sincere.

But this still leaves us with the question of
why archeologists are unpopular. To answer
It, we must turn to the between-the-lines
history of the discipline and consider, not
the vision and dedication of the great
scholars of the past and the lost civilizations
they have discovered, but instead the
psychology behind those discoveries: the
attitudes of the men involved, the way they
worked, and what they thought they were
doing. Looked at in this light, there are
three major types of archeologist.

Archeologist-spies

Fortunately not many archeologists work as
spies nowadays. But that was not always so.
Back at the beginning of the century a
number of archeologists are known to have
offered their services to their country as
intelligence agents and to have used
archeological expeditions, both false and
real, as covers for military intelligence-
gathering activities. Leonard Wooley's and
T. E. Lawrence's work in the Sinai in 1914
is a distinguished example of the cover-
expedition. A less well known case is that
of Aurel Stein, the greatest of all explorer-
archeologists, who spent almost twenty
years in the early 1900s discovering
unknown Central Asian civilizations and — an
activity readers of Kim will recognize —
mapping possible Russian invasion routes

12

June 1972

into India. There are even, incredibly
enough, fake cover expeditions: ones which
claim to be doing important espionage vi^ork
while actually doing archeological research.
The only definite case of this happened
quite recently when a publicity-conscious
American excavator announced that routes
mapped by his expedition were responsible
for the success of the Israeli blitzkrieg in
1967. That he was exaggerating slightly — in
these days of aerial photogrammetric
mapping, ground surveying by amateurs is
almost useless militarily — does not alter the
fact that he thought of himself as a spy or
that he thought by claiming he was a spy he
could raise more money for future
excavations. The man was a fool. By his
actions he has seriously compromised the
integrity of his profession in the eyes of
many persons in that part of the world.
Security-conscious nations can hardly be
blamed for restricting or excluding foreign
researchers when there is any likelihood
that those researchers will turn out to be
more interested in military secrets than in
scientific ones.

Archeological neo-imperialists

Somewhat more common than the
excavating espionage agent is the Ugly
Archeologist: the field worker who, through
natural aptitude or an old-fashioned style of
training, preserves the characteristic
attitudes of the days when most archeology
was done in colonies by colonialists.

These neo-imperialist archeologists can be
recognized by several distinctive hallmarks.
One IS the fact that their expeditions tend

to have large foreign staffs (twenty or even
thirty people is not an unheard-of number)
who take charge of all the white-collar work
of the excavation — the supervising,
recording, and analyzing of finds. The
leaders of such expeditions recruit their

staffs from their own or from other Western
countries, perhaps because they feel that
the local people are not capable of doing
any of the expedition's tasks except the
picking and shoveling.

From this we can deduce another hallmark:
the typical neo-imperialist archeologist, or
his expedition at least, is rich. The cost of
importing and maintaining twenty Western
staff members will usually reach three or
four times the total cost of an equally
large expedition which recruits most of
Its staff locally.

Still another of his hallmarks, and one not
unconnected with his richness, is that he is
influential in the host country — the country
where he works. While other scientists may
go to country X quite inconspicuously,
entering, working, and leaving without
making much of an impression on anyone
except a few rural villagers, the neo-
imperialist goes there as a VIP. He is
friendly with his own country's ambassador
(if a citizen of certain nations, he may,
indeed, even hold diplomatic rank himself),
he talks on equal terms with highly placed
local officials, and in general he wields a
good deal of influence. He also tends to be
unpopular with his colleagues the local
archeologists.

His unpopularity is in fact a consequence of
his importance. The problem is that most of
the native archeologists in a typical
underdeveloped country work for the
government in the national archeological
service, a job that (a) tends to be quite low
in the bureaucratic hierarchy, and (b) is
concerned largely with enforcing
governmental regulations by keeping an eye
on foreign archeologists. The relationship
between the foreigner and his local
counterpart thus has a certain antagonism
built into it anyway. The antagonism is
greatly exacerbated, however, when the
foreigner is a VIP.

A true story will illustrate what I mean. It
happened a few years ago in a country we
will call "X" (like all pseudonymous
countries in this article) and involves a man
named "Y," a scholar of international
eminence. Now X is famous for producing
a certain kind of very valuable ancient
statue whose export is, naturally, forbidden
by national law. Y is famous for his
appreciation of art works, among other things,
(including statues of the type in question),
for his occasionally high-handed approach
to niggling restrictions, and for his ability to
become friendly with the right people, such
as kings and presidents. The rest of the
story can be guessed. One day several
members of Y's expedition were discovered
at the airport of X's capital city with their
suitcases stuffed with contraband statues.
The officials of the national archeological

service were annoyed and attempted to
have Y's excavation permit revoked. They
stopped trying only when it became quite
clear that to throw him out would cost them
their jobs. So foreign archeologists in
general, and archeologists of Y's nationality
in particular, are not at present popular with
their colleagues in X.

Admittedly, this example is a bit extreme.
But the same sort of thing, on a less
splendidly arrogant scale, is far from rare.
A good many European and American
archeologists are important people —
archeology in times past was an aristocratic
profession and still attracts more than its
share of the rich and well-born. On the
whole, very few non-Western archeologists
are important people; they work in minor
jobs in obscure and badly paid government
departments. This fact alone drives in a
wedge. The gap is widened by another fact:
that many non-Western archeologists are
poorly trained and may even not be too
competent. Low pay and non-existent
prestige are not the best inducements to
attract the brightest university graduates
into a profession. This is not to say that the
Westerners are actually better archeologists
— indeed, it seems to this observer that the
average non-Western archeologist is as quick
to learn and as intelligent as his average
Western counterpart. But the point is, it
makes both groups think the Westerners
are better, and this means that the two
relate to each other in quite an
unsatisfactory way.

Ideally the relationship would be one of
equal colleagues, with the foreigners having
perhaps a slight edge with regard to
knowledge of the latest scientific techniques
and the host-country archeologists
balancing the scale with their incomparably
greater knowledge of local materials. This
almost never happens, however, in the
countries where neo-imperialist archeology

Field Museum Bulletin

13

is the fashion. At best, the relationship is
one of condescending teacher to unwilling
pupil. At worst, the two groups are open
enemies, the one regarding the other as
incompetent flunkies of doubtful honesty
and the second regarding the first as
arrogant fools, also of doubtful honesty.

One of the practical disadvantages of this
outcome — I will refrain from discussing the
more idealistic disadvantages until later — is
that it gets foreign archeologists thrown out
of countries. The problem is that the local
archeologists are capable of helping the
foreigners in one very important way that
the foreigners' highly placed friends cannot;
they can act as informed local advocates to
explain exactly what it is the foreigners are
doing. Help of this kind is always needed.
In any country, it eventually happens that
some newspaper charges the foreigners
with desecrating national shrines, or that a
xenophobic politician accuses them of
being spies. What happens next may well
depend on who the foreigners have to
defend them, if a sizable number of people
at middle levels of the government structure
— archeological officials, university teachers,
and the like — have a stake in what they are
doing, understand this, and are willing to
advise them and speak out for them, then
the foreigners may weather the storm,
especially if they have kept a moderately
low, inconspicuous profile during the time
they have been in the country. But if their
only real communication within the host
country has been with ambassadors and
high officials, they are likely to find
themselves abandoned at the first hint of
trouble. Their erstwhile friends, being in
jobs where the replacement rate is
extremely high, have their own political
skins to think of and may not be too sure
tfiat the foreigners aren't spies in the first
place — for they do. after all, spend a lot of
time wandering around doing pointless
things in militarily sensitive parts of the
country. In order to continue working for
long periods of time in any country, the
foreigner must build a base of popular
support.

Ordinary archeologists

The reader may be thinking, especially if he
is an archeologist himself, that this is all
very well but, really, most archeologists are
not like that. The average overseas
expedition director of our day and age is a
fairly average man: politically innocent,
uninflated with his own importance,
sympathetic to the problems of other
countries, and no more on hob-nobbing
terms with ambassadors and princes than is
the ordinary tourist. Yet he, the modern
low-profile scholar, also gets thrown out, with
almost as much frequency as the scholars
of the old school. Isn't it possible that the
nations of the Third World are simply

getting more and more xenophobic, and
that it doesn't matter what attitude the
foreigner has? The answers, I think, are that
they aren't, and it does. Most modern
scholars who work overseas have quite a
wrong idea about where their responsibility
lies.

The trouble is, they are researchers. Their
self-image is that of a scientist, whose
theoretical concern is with abstract
knowledge and whose personal, practical
concern is with (1) the prestige of
disseminating that knowledge among his
colleagues, (2) the money that derives from
that prestige, and (3) the satisfaction that
comes from solving an intellectual problem
successfully. For many archeologists, the
country they work in (even if the country is
their own) is simply -a place where an
mteresting problem exists. The whole point
of doing the research is seen in terms of the
situation back at the museum or university:
the achieving of tenure, the getting of
grants, and the preparation of articles that
will amaze one's friends and confound
one's enemies.

Understandably enough, however, most of
these goals do not greatly interest the
citizens of country X. The more educated
of them (and even an astonishing number
of the more uneducated) can appreciate the
importance of scientific knowledge. But they
can hardly be blamed for feeling that this
particular kind of scientific knowledge has
nothing to do with them. Maybe the
researcher will have the courtesy to send
copies of his articles and books back to X.
But he will not send many of them, and
what he does send, being written in
academic prose and addressed to problems
and controversies that have never been
heard of in country X, will almost certainly
be incomprehensible to the vast majority of
people there. Moreover, the objects the
researcher has excavated, which he has
properly deposited in local museums before
leaving the country, are not likelv to be

much more comprehensible than the books
and articles: bags and bags of broken
pottery and boxes of bones and shabby
stone and metal tools, with scarcely a
statue or gold ornament among them.

Perhaps such things are meaningful to the
foreign researcher, but it takes a lot of
explanation to make them understandable
to the average, somewhat spottily trained,
archeologist of country X, much less to the
average lay Xian. And these explanations
are never made; not once in the years I
have been associated with archeology have
I heard of any case where a modern,
theoretically oriented researcher has
managed to explain to anyone in the host
country exactly what his research has been
all about.

So, after the high-sounding talk about the
advance of science is over, and after the
foreigner has come, put everyone to a lot
of trouble, and gone home again to become
rich and famous, what is left behind in X,
the host country'' A small amount of money,
a few reprints of incomprehensible articles,
and a young mountain of excavated junk.
It is not surprising that the archeologists
and politicians of many Third World nations
come to the conclusion that foreign
researchers are more trouble than they are
worth.

The ethics of the situation

So far we have been considering the
behavior of foreign archeologists from a
very practical point of view: what they do is
unfortunate because it gets them excluded
from the places where they want to work.
But now let us put the argument on a
somewhat more elevated plane, that of what
the foreigners should do, whether practical
or not.

We need not spend long with the art thief,
the spy, and the arrogant neo-imperialist.
Everybody, or almost everybody, will agree
that their behavior is ethically as well as
practically indefensible. But this may not be
so obvious in the case of the fourth type of
archeologist, the honest, apolitical, humble
researcher. What does he do that is
unethical?

The problem is. rather, with what he does
not do: he fails to communicate his findings
to the people of the country he works in.
That this has bad practical consequences
has already been pointed out. However, one
can make a good case for thinking it is also
bad in an abstract sense, that it is a subtle
but nasty form of exploitation, in its way
every bit as cold and greedy, though not as
profitable, as the activities of the old-time
colonialist museum-fillers. The rationale for
not bothering to communicate is that doing
so is difficult. As I said earlier, nobody in
the host country is likely to have the

14

June 1972

training — and often no one even has the
desire — to understand completely what the
archeologists's research is all about. And it
seems so impossible to break off one's
research and give that training, that few
archeologists would even consider trying.
Yet, by not communicating, a great deal
IS lost.

One thing lost is the possibility of getting
what the economists call a "multiplier
effect" from one's research. A single foreign
expedition can by itself accomplish very
little, no matter how hard it works, by
comparison with an expedition which has
the mtelligent cooperation of local people.
Consider, for instance, the difference
between Illinois and our mythical country,
X. In Illinois, the excavator has a great
many people helping him. There are
perhaps twenty other excavations going on
in any given year; any of the leaders of
these expeditions and any of the perhaps
five hundred students and other non-
professionals who work on them may make
discoveries that help an excavator
understand what he himself has dug up.
fi/loreover. the state contains thousands of
other people — amateurs, scientists,
collectors, farmers — who have useful
knowledge about local archeological
conditions.

By contrast, in X there is almost nobody.
A few other foreigners may work there, and
the country may contain a handful of
government and university archeologists.

Illustrations by Zbigniew Jastrzebsk

mainly occupied with bureaucratic routine,
along with a few wealthy collectors and
mildly interested students. But otherwise,
when the excavator has a problem there is
nowhere he can turn for advice. The result
IS that research proceeds very slowly. From
the standpoint of scientific progress, a year
spent in training local archeologists and in
promoting local interest in archeology would
be at least as productive as a year spent
in excavating.

Another reason for spending time on getting
local people to understand one's
discoveries is that, measured on any real
scale of importance, those discoveries are
far more important to them than to the
people for whom archeological articles are
usually written — a small group of
archeologists back in the United States.
After all, who here really cares that the
ancient inhabitants of some exotic country
invented the plough or started living in
cities many thousands of years ago? IVIaybe
a few American specialists will pay
attention, but will anyone else? Can these
facts possibly be as important to any
American as they are, or could be, to the
people whose own ancestors are involved?

One of the main justifications for spending
money on archeology in the first place, in
fact, is helping nations to understand their
history. There is nothing idealistic about
this. Knowledge of the past is the chief
ingredient of a sense of national identity,
and this in turn is a practical necessity for
any country, particularly one which may
have become a nation only recently. Mexico
IS a good example. Fifty years ago Mexican
history, as it was taught then, began with
Cortez and was exclusively the history of a
small, Spanish-descended elite. The country
was politically unstable: the Indian-
descended majority of the population were
dissatisfied with a system where
Mexicanness excluded Indianness. But
since then the situation has changed
almost completely, largely due to the efforts
of a small group of local artists and
archeologists who were originally trained by
and soon became the full equals of their
foreign colleagues. Now Mexican
schoolchildren are taught that Mexico is
Indian and that its history is the history of
the great Indian civilizations of the past, the
Spanish conquest being just one episode in
a sequence of important events that span
more than five thousand years. The
difference this has made to Mexico is
incalculable. It has produced a new sense
of national unity. The research and
propaganda of a small group of
archeologists, it could be argued, has done
more for Mexico than a half-century of
intensive economic development. It seems
likely that properly oriented archeological
programs in other places could have
similar effects.

So, then, this business of communicating
one's discoveries to local people is not just
a question of avoiding getting thrown out of
the country. Instead, it is a question of
scientific effectiveness and general ethics.
Does the archeologist have the right to
come, dig, go home again, and eventually
send back a few reprints? Doesn't he have
a duty here, one that may be even more
important than, impressing his colleagues

and pleasing his employers? Admittedly,
there are some difficulties involved.
Communicating one's discoveries within the
host country can hardly be begun without
spending a great deal of time training local
archeologists, explaining to local
administrators, and even putting out
publicity via local media, And, admittedly,
the system does not favor doing this. Few of
one's colleagues will be impressed, and
neither will one's employers or most
agencies (the national and private
foundations) that fund overseas research.
With a few exceptions (including,
incidentally, this Museum), the people
whom archeologists work for are impatient
with any overseas activity besides field work.
They tend to think their employees spend
an inordinate amount of time loafing around
in expensive big-city hotels anyway, and
often measure an employee's competence
by the amount of time he actually spends in
the field digging. Yet the employees should
be spending time in the big cities. If the
system is against it, then the system should
be changed. It is quite clear that the way
we are doing our research now is wrong.

Conclusion

That, as clearly as I can state it, is what
seems to me the problem. I have no
complete solution. A first step is simply to
acknowledge that a problem exists and to
open It for discussion. This is what I have
tried to do here. But to go further — to
suggest programs, plans, ways of changing
the present state of affairs — is most difficult.
After all, what most needs changing is
attitude. The researchers themselves, their
employers, their backers, and the people of
the countries they work in all have to be
convinced, and this will be a lengthy
process, even with the threat of a complete
cessation of foreign fieldwork hanging over
everyone's heads.

One possible approach is to set an
example, by carrying out a research
program that puts a heavy emphasis on
training and communication. I myself am at
the moment working at setting up a trial
program of this kind, in Indonesia. But even
if this works — and there are many political
and economic obstacles in the way of such
a program — it still will not be nearly enough.
The necessary change in attitude can only
be reached through extensive discussion,
among archeologists and laymen alike.
Among the laymen who can contribute most
are those knowledgeable about foreign
countries and interested in archeological
matters — laymen like, for example, the
Members of this Museum. I invite your
concern.

Dr. Bennet Branson is assistant curator of
Asian archeology and anthropology at Field
Museum.

Field Museum Bulletin

15

MEMBERS'

NIGHTS

1972

Photos by Fred Huysmans and Robert Natkjn

%.

^
^

^W3<\^^

Field Museum is pleased to announce that
Its $25,000,000 Capital Campaign launched
in September of 1971 has reached the
halfway mark. Gifts and pledges to the
Museum through the generosity of individuals,
corporations, and foundations total
$6,355,000. These private funds will be
matched with public funds through bonds
issued by the Chicago Park District.

Of the total contributions to date, over
$2,000,000 was received from corporations
and foundations and nearly $4,000,000 came
from individuals. The Museum is especially
grateful to Standard Oil (Indiana)
Foundation, whose gift of $500,000 got the
Campaign off the ground. Other corporations
and foundations which have contributed
leadership gifts of $100,000 and over are:
Chicago Community Trust. Continental Bank
Charitable Foundation. Field Enterprises.
Field Foundation of Illinois. Robert R.
McCormick Charitable Trust. The Northern
Trust Company, and Peoples Gas Company.

Under the leadership of Blaine J. Yarrington.
president of American Oil Company, a
solicitation team is being organized to call
upon the Chicagoland business community.
Proposals have already been made to
certain ma|or firms to secure pace-setting
gifts. Future plans include calling on all
Chicagoland business and industry.
The individual gifts division co-chaired by
Marshall Field and William H. Mitchell was
given impetus by an anonymous gift of
$1,000,000. An example of interest and
support by the Trustees of Field Museum is
represented by their gifts and pledges to
date which total $1,625,000.

Plans are also under way for solicitation of
members of Field Museum's Women's Board
and other interested community leaders.
Leadership gifts are needed from this source
before the general solicitation of the
Museum's overall membership is started.

Although we are "halfway there." the biggest
|ob lies ahead. Capital Campaign Chairman
Nicholas Galitzine noted. The Campaign
leadership — Marshall Field, vice-chairman

16 June 1972

CALENDAR

and co-chairman of individual gifts with
William H. Mitchell: and Blaine J. Yarrington,
chairman of corporate gifts and philanthropic
foundations — who have done so well for the
Museum, said Galitzine, will need all the
support they can get from Members, friends,
businesses, and foundations. "It's an
enormous task we have undertaken to put
this 51 -year-old building in good, modern
condition. But the generous contributions
received are an encouraging indication of
the interest of all Chicago in helping further
the research, exhibition, and education
functions of the Museum as well as aiding
in the preservation of more than 13 million
natural history items for generations to
come."

The Museum's need for a $25,000,000
Capital Campaign was outlined in the
October 1971 Field Museum of Natural
History Bulletin. Unlike most capital drives,
the Museum's program is not an expansion
effort. No new building is planned. No vast
addition will be made to the Museum. The
Campaign is not a frozen blueprint for
several decades. Rather, monies received
through the Campaign will be expended for
vital renovations and improvements to Field
Museum's present structure and facilities.
Over the 51 years the Museum has been in
its present location, innumerable
maintenance, repair, and improvement
efforts had to be postponed. Like a family
that chooses college for the children over
refurbishing its home. Field Museum
allocated its financial resources to its
scientific and education programs, not
to its house.

It is interesting to note the concern which
has been expressed by many leaders of our
nation for the preservation of America's
cultural treasures. President Nixon showed
his concern for the future of our museums
in a communication which he sent to the
National Council on the Arts: "I am pleased
to join with the Council," he said, "in urging
action by the private and public sectors to
safeguard our museum collections. Only by
such action can we preserve our treasures
for generations to come."

Exhibits

Opens June 5

Chokwe Mask from Angola, on display in
the South Lounge through September 10.
One of the most beautiful of all Chokwe
masks, it is called "Mwana Pwo," meaning
young woman, and is worn by a male dancer
at initiation and other important ceremonies.

Opens June 17

Soviet Union: Arts and Crafts in Ancient
Times and Today, a collection of almost
2,000 objects representing the finest
examples of artisanship from the country's
leading museums. It is the largest show of
its kind ever sent abroad by the Soviet
Union and is being shown in its entirety for
the first time at Field Museum. The exhibit is
part of the thirteen-year-old cultural
exchange program between the U.S.S.R.
and the U.S.A. Through July 13. Halls 18
and 19.

Continuing

Australian Aboriginal Art: Arnhem Land, a

selection of nearly 400 bark paintings and
wooden ceremonial sculptures. The material
is from the extensive collection of Louis A.
Allen of Palo Alto, California. Through
September 10. Hall 27.

A New Spirit in Search of the Past:

Archaeology and Ecology in the Lower
Illinois River Valley, an exhibit exploring the
"new" archaeology as reflected in the
Illinois Valley Archaeological Program's
excavation of the Koster Site, directed by
Dr. Stuart Struever of Northwestern
University. Through September 4. Hall 9.

Color in Nature, an exhibit examining the
nature and variety of color in the physical
and living world and how it functions in
plants and animals. Continues indefinitely.
Hall 25.

John James Audubon's elephant folio.
The Birds of America, on display in the
North Lounge. Continues indefinitely.

June hours

9 am. to 6 p.m. Saturday through Thursday: 9 a.m.

to 9 p.m. Friday. Beginning June 17 and continuing

through September 3. the Museum will be open

from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Wednesday, Friday,

Saturday, and Sunday.

The Museum Library is open 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Monday through Friday. Please obtain pass at

reception desk, main floor north.

Museum telephone; 922-9410

Field Museum's 75th Anniversary Exhibit

continues indefinitely. "A Sense of Wonder"
offers thought-provoking prose and poetry
associated with physical, biological, and
cultural aspects of nature; "A Sense of
History" presents a graphic portrayal of the
Museum's past; and "A Sense of Discovery"
shows examples of research conducted by
Museum scientists. Hall 3.

Free Film Prograin

"Chinese Jade Carving," a motion picture
presentation, at 2:15 and 3:15 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday, June 3 and 4, and
June 10 and 11, in the second floor North
Meeting Room. The unusual short film serves
as an excellent introduction to Field
Museum's new Hall of Jades.

"Aboriginal Arnhem Land," a motion picture
presentation, at 1:30 and 2:30 p.m. Saturday
and Sunday, June 3 and 4, 10 and 11,
17 and 18, and 24 and 25, in the second
floor North Meeting Room. The film provides
background information on Field Museum's
"Australian Aboriginal Art: Arnhem Land"
exhibit.

Children's Program

Begins June 1

Summer Journey for Children, "Exploring
Our National Parks," a free, self-guiding tour
honoring the 100th anniversary of the
establishment of Yellowstone, our first
national park. Youngsters have an opportunity
to become acquainted with various features
of our national parks and monuments by
following the Journey through Museum
exhibit areas. All boys and girls who can
read and write may participate in the
program. Journey sheets are available at
Museum entrances. Through August 31.

Special Events

June 15

A dinner and preview of "Soviet Union:
Arts and Crafts in Ancient Times and Today,"
sponsored by the Women's Board of Field
Museum. For reservations call 922-9419.

June 16

Members' Preview: a special showing of
"Soviet Union: Arts and Crafts in Ancient
Times and Today," 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Erratum: In some copies of the May issue
of the Bulletin there is an error on page 13
in the Geologic Time chart — the Triassic
Period is transposed; it should be below
the Jurassic.

Volume 43, Number 7
July/August 1972

Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin

Field Museum
of Natural History
Bulletin

Volume 43, Number 7
July/August 1972

Cover: a threatened species going, going, gone?
Design by Clifford Abrams.

2 Endangered and Disappearing Animals

Melvin A. Traylor

some threatened species, unable to withstand super-predator

man, may disappear like the Dodo

5 Some Approaches and IVIethods in Comparative Anatomy

Karl F. Liem

discovering the "why" and "how" as well as the "what"

of animal structures

8 An Ecological Dilemma — Our National Parks

Albert W. Forslev

can we en|oy our national parks without destroying them?

13 The World is Our Study

Alan Solem

a look at the past and a glimpse of the future
of Field IVIuseum's Zoology Department

17 Twelve Men to Learning Much Inclined

Elizabeth Munger

thumbnail sketches of some of the zoologists
at Field Museum

20 Field Briefs

Calendar

Field Museum of Natural History

Director, E. Leiand Webber

Editor Joyce Zibro; Associate Editor Elizabeth Munger; Staff Writer Madge Jacobs; Production Russ Becker; Photography John Bayalls,
Fred Huysmans.

The Field Museum ol Natural History Bulletin Is published monthly except August by Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at
Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605. Subscriptions; $6 a year; $3 a year for schools. Members of the Museum subscribe through
Museum membership. Opinions expressed by authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the policy of Field Museum. Unsolicited
manuscripts are welcome. Printed by Field (Vluseum Press. Second-class postage paid at Chicago, Illinois. Postmaster; Please send form
3579 to Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605.

Field Museum Bulletin

EndangerGd
and fiflw
disappearing
animals

melvin a. traylor

'^m

K 1

Photo by Harold M. Mayer

July/August 1972

As custodians of systematic collections that
ideally will contain representatives of all the
known species of animals, the staff of the
Zoology Department are acutely aware of
the many species that have become extinct
in historical times, or that are now rare or
endangered. It is not that extinction is a
new phenomenon. Evolution and extinction
are almost as much characteristics of
species as birth and death are
characteristics of individuals. But the rate of
extinction has become so accelerated with
the advent of modern man that there is a
real fear that whole faunas may disappear
before their very existence is known to
science.

Although natural extinction is a
commonplace, as witness the disappearance
of the dinosaurs, it is such a gradual
process that recognizing an example in the
field is difficult. We can, however, recognize
certain factors that make a species
vulnerable. The most important factors are a
restricted range and a high degree of
specialization to a particular habitat, without
the ability to adapt to change. The restricted
range puts the species at the mercy of a
natural disaster. For example, whatever
species of land snails were confined to the
island of Krakatau (between Sumatra and
Java) were quite literally blown away in the
explosion of that island, and only those that
were more widespread survived to
repopulate it later. Kirtland's Warbler is an
example of a highly specialized species that
is successful in its individual niche but will
disappear when the habitat does. It will nest
only under Christmas-tree sized jack-pines
that have grown up after a recent burn. A
prolonged wet spell of several years might
eliminate this habitat, and the warbler with it.

The same factors that make a species prone
to natural extinction make it vulnerable to
man. Over 93% of the birds extirpated in
historic times have been island forms.
Within their limited range, they have been
beautifully adapted to their special
environments and highly successful, but
their inability to adapt to a new man-made
environment or to move elsewhere spelled
their doom.

When I speak of "natural" extinction as
opposed to "unnatural," caused by man
and his civilization, I am making a
distinction that is a little furry around the
edges. Man has been a predator throughout
his evolution, and as such has always had
an impact on the animals around him. We
like to think of the tMorth American Indians
as living in harmony with their environment,
not putting more pressure on the native
fauna than it could safely bear. And so they
were at the time of the arrival of Columbus:
but it was not the same Pleistocene fauna
that had greeted the ancestors of these

Indians when they arrived from Asia some
25,000 years before. At that time great
herds of horses and camels ranged the
central plains of North America, and
mastodons and ground sloths still survived,
as did many of the old predators like the
saber-toothed tiger and the short-faced
bear. tVlan, with his stone axes and spear
points, was the super-predator on ail these,
and none was able to survive his coming.
The balance between the Indian and nature
was achieved through a drastic type of
natural selection, much accelerated because
of man's arrival full-blown rather than
through gradual evolution. Only in Africa,
where man evolved along with the rest of
the fauna, were the Pleistocene animals
adapted to him and able to survive.

Modern man is still a predator, and on a
much larger scale. The interaction between
his civilization and the non-human world is
partly the continuing process of selection
that will lead to a new balance between
them. However, in our Western culture a
new element has been introduced that has
fundamentally changed man's view of
nature: it is the ethic that sets him apart
and pits him against nature as an
antagonist. The Judeo-Christian belief that
the world was created for man's use and
enjoyment has been perverted to the
feeling that nature is our enemy and must
be broken to our will; that man was a
creation apart and stands in opposition to
the rest of the world. Our literature abounds
with references to "conquering" nature,
"subduing" the wilderness, "taming" the
rivers, "wiping out" the vermin. In the New
World particularly, subjugation of a whole
continent was our avowed aim. Only in the
past few decades has the role of man as a
part of the natural world begun to find
acceptance, and have concerned individuals
begun to take stock of the havoc that man
has wrought.

Primitive man accomplished his extirpations
with a stone axe and spear. Modern man
has added to this arsenal a conscious will
toward conquest as well as a variegated
array of much more devastating weapons —
modern firearms and transportation, axes
and chain saws, the plow, cities, factories
and their pollution, pesticides, domestic
animals, pets, his ubiquitous commensal the
rat, and other introduced animals. Each of
these has at some time or place seriously
endangered or exterminated some species,
and the process is even now accelerating.
In the less than 300 years since that epitome
of extinction the last Dodo died, 106
species and subspecies of birds and 40
species of mammals are known to have
been extirpated, and today the Red Books
of the International Union for the
Conservation of Nature list 191 birds and
161 mammals as endangered. Taken

together, these figures represent roughly
3.5% of the known birds and 5% of the
mammals, a frightening rate in view of the
tens of thousands of years needed for a
new species to evolve.

But man seldom sets out deliberately to
exterminate an animal. Those that he does
are usually a health menace or agricultural
pest or a competitor which he feels he
cannot tolerate, such as the wolf or golden
eagle. Most of the larger animals on which
man is a direct predator with his guns and
traps become endangered because he
hunts them, either through ignorance or
greed, far beyond the point at which the
remaining population can replace the
individuals that are taken. We can see this
now in the serious depletion of the various
spotted cats — leopards and cheetahs — and
of the crocodiles and alligators, all hunted
at the whim of fashion. Even more
spectacular, though less well known, is the
drastic reduction in the whale populations
of the world. With the coming of the
bomb-harpoon and small steam-chasers,
and more recently the factory-ship which
enables the chasers to remain at sea
indefinitely, the odds against the whales
became too great. First the Right Whales of
the northern seas were hunted to the point
where there was no commercial return: then
in the Antarctic seas the Blue Whale,
Humpback, Pygmy Blue, and Fin Whale
were each decimated in turn. The last
remaining commercially valuable whale, the
Sei, was then attacked, and over a third of
the remaining stock was taken for two years
running. The International Whaling
Commission finally stepped in and set
realistic quotas, but whether the action was
soon enough to save the endangered
species will not be known for some time.
The tragedy is not only In the loss of
magnificent animals, but in the waste of a
valuable resource. If only 10% or 15% of
the original herds had been cropped each
year, we would still be reaping a liberal
harvest of meat and oil for hungry peoples.

Although we are most aware of direct
exploitation of the larger mammals and
birds, either commercially or for sport, many
more species are endangered merely as a
by-product of man's activities. Foremost
among these activities are the destruction of
forests for lumber or agriculture and the
plowing of virgin prairies for farming. The
magnificent beech forests of the Ohio valley,
so continuous that "a squirrel could travel
from the Mississippi to Pittsburgh without
setting foot on the ground," are gone
except for a few carefully protected
remnants, and with them went the
ecosystem of organisms dependent upon
them. A spectacular example of a species
endangered by the destruction of virgin
forest is the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, the

Field Museum Bulletin

largest of our woodpeckers. Unlike its more
adaptable cousin, the Pileated, the Ivory-bill
must have extensive stands of virgin timber
to survive. Consequently it is now^ restricted,
in very small numbers, to the cypress
forests of east Texas and western Louisiana,
and possibly Florida. If these forests go, the
bird goes with them.

If the birds of continental areas are
vulnerable to change of habitat and the
pressures of man, those of small islands are
much more so. Evolution of island species
in harmony with their environment often
means that in the absence of predators they
lose the wariness or weapons that protected
them on the mainland. They are defenseless
when new enemies are introduced. Island
birds must cope not only with the changing
environment when man arrives, but with his
invariable commensal the rat, which plays
havoc with the endemic terrestrial animals.
Man may more deliberately introduce goats
or pigs or rabbits, all destructive of the
vegetation, and often directly predatory on
the local fauna. A measure of the
destructiveness of this combination is found
in the t^ascarene Islands east of
Ivladagascar. Besides the Dodo, there were
27 species of birds found only in this
archipelago; 24 are now extinct, and the
remainder survive only in small numbers in
scattered remnants of mountain forest.

The weapon of man's final assault against
the environment, one which directly
endangers himself as well as the wildlife,
is the pollution caused by his cities and
factories and pesticides. For evidence of
its force we need not go beyond the
newspapers' daily listings of levels of air
pollutants, which frequently exceed the
"safe" levels, or announcements that
beaches are closed because of filth in the
water. The effects of water pollutants have
been building up for decades, as witness
the slow death of Lake Erie, but only within
the last decade have the effects of
persistent pesticides been apparent. The
extirpation of the Peregrine Falcon as a
breeding bird in the eastern states first
showed how the pesticides accumulate to
dangerous levels in large predators, and
now that we are alerted we realize how
widespread this phenomenon has become.
Since man is the ultimate predator, this
danger points directly to him.

What is the role of Field Museum's Zoology
Department staff in the face of this
accelerating deterioration of our world?
Besides our humanistic obligations as
individuals to try to pass on to succeeding
generations as much of the natural world as
possible, we have a special obligation as
biologists to preserve examples of all forms
of life and a knowledge of the way they live.
The mere fact that we are able to discuss

extinct species shows that our predecessors
succeeded in collecting at least one
example of each, and in many cases of
island forms a single specimen 150 years
old may represent our only knowledge of
the organism. Of those that became extinct
before a specimen was presen/ed, we have
no knowledge. Since this is true of easily
observed and studied animals like birds and
mammals, it is vastly more so of the insects
and mollusks and other "insignificant"
groups. As Dr. Solem pointed out in an
earlier issue of the Bulletin (April 1970),
10,000 species of mollusks may have been
exterminated without the world being aware
of them. Even when they are aware, the
public will always be more concerned about
the population of the Whooping Crane than
about the hundreds of species of land snails
that are lost when a section of the
Everglades is drained. Yet it is probable
that study of these snails can tell us more
about speciation and ecology than study of
any single species of bird, no matter how
spectacular it is. In fact, parasites — the lice
and mites and roundworms that were
specific to an extinct host — may be of more
biological interest than the host itself. Often
the parasites can give good clues to the
phylogenetic relationship of the host, but
that is possible only if the host species
continues to exist; when it dies out, it
carries its parasites with it. Ornithologists
would dearly love to have the bird-lice from
a Dodo, to gain some hint of the pigeon
from which it evolved.

The author discusses with Roy Sleinbach areas in
Bolivia where the Steinbach family will make
collections.

Our concern as scientists, therefore, is with
whole faunas and their ecology as well as
with individual species. This does not mean
that we are not anxious to obtain specimens
of endangered forms, for they will be the
only permanent record of species if they
are extirpated. We would not, however, put
further pressure on a species by rushing
out to collect more specimens just because
we believe it will become extinct; this would
help to make the prophecy self-fulfilling.
Specimens should come from zoo animals
or accidental deaths, such as the road-killed

red wolf we recently received, one of our
rarer North American mammals. Our
scientific explorations should concentrate
effort on endangered habitats and the whole
faunas that are dependent on them. Many
of these are in the tropical regions of Africa
and the New World, where the developing
countries look upon their forests as
expendable resources. In Africa many of the
mountains have montane forests on the
upper slopes, isolated from each other, like
islands in a tropical sea. Each of these
forests has a rich endemic fauna that
should be studied now while the animals
are still abundant. If we wait until destructive
exploitation of the forest for lumber or
charcoal or agriculture has already
threatened the animals, the original ecology
will be too far gone to study.

The same situation prevails on the eastern
slopes of the Andes in South America,
where the forests are being destroyed for ,
resettlement projects. This is an area of
particular interest to many of our curators,
and we are now initiating a program in
Bolivia to make a faunal survey of the
eastern forest region. Collecting will be
done by the Steinbach family of
Cochabamba, the third generation of which
is now involved in scientific exploration. All
major groups of animals — mammals, birds,
amphibians and reptiles, fish, insects, and
mollusks — will be sampled, as well as their
parasites. Botanical collections will also be
made so we will have a habitat in which to
frame our creatures. We hope we will be
able to develop a comprehensive picture of
a tropical fauna, before the ecology has
been distorted by man's activities.

As biologists, we are interested in natural
history for its own sake, and would study
our birds and snails and parasites whether
they were endangered or not or in any way
involved in man's economy. But we do not
live or work in a vacuum. Knowledge of
ecology — the interrelations of organisms
and their environment — can be a weapon to
oppose the type of thoughtless destruction
that has gone on in the past. Our mechanized,
industrialized civilization cannot reverse
Itself. Even if the size of the human
population of the world were to stabilize
today, we would still have to seek new food
sources to adequately feed everyone. What
seems to us wanton destruction of tropical
forests is actually a desperate, if short-
sighted, effort to meet the immediate needs
of undernourished people. What we must
do is use our knowledge to plan our future
activities so that we do not take more from
nature than she can renew — so we can
hand on to the future a balanced world
rather than a disintegrating one.

Melvin A. Traylor is Associate Curator,
Division of Birds, Field Museum.

July/August 1972

Some Approaches and Methods
in Comparative Anatomy

Karel F. Liem

For many years comparative anatomists
have been descrlbmg the various structures
of animals In varying degrees of detail.
One thing they discovered was that there Is
a common structural plan, at least among
the animals with a backbone (vertebrates).
For example, all vertebrates possess a
backbone, skull, chambered heart, pair of
kidneys, brain with three primary divisions,
etc. Most comparative anatomists have been
describing the variations in this structural
plan. Even nowadays, many anatomists are
producing nothing else but ever greater
refinement of the details of the vertebrate
structural plan, using, among other
techniques, the electron microscope. While
describing the variations in the basic
structural plan, the majority of comparative
anatomists have been trying to discover the
history, or phylogeny, of the structural
elements of the animal body.

In recent years several workers have
developed new concepts in comparative
anatomy. They maintain that the goals of
comparative anatomy should not only be to
describe but also to explain the structural
variations among animals. In other words,
anatomy should be concerned not only with
the "what" but also with the "why" and
"how" of the structures of animals.

There is definitive proof that evolutionary
changes are based on the interplay of
random hereditary or genetic changes and
the complex of factors in the environment.
The creative evolutionary force is natural
selection, since the environment will select
which of the random hereditary changes
will survive in nature. As an anatomist, I am
interested not merely in recording the fact
of evolutionary change but in analyzing the
meaning and mechanism whereby the
changes have been achieved.

I have chosen to study the comparative

anatomy of the perch-like fish family
Cichlidae in Lake Tanganyika and Lake
Nyasa in the African Rift Valley (the Jack
Dempsey, discus, oscar, and angelfish are
familiar South American examples of this
family). In both of these lakes the fauna is
dominated by a large number of closely
related species of cichlid fishes which have
evolved within each lake basin and which
now exploit virtually every way of life.
"Explosive evolution" (very rapid evolution
of numerous closely related forms in a
circumscribed geographical area) has
produced in each lake a high percentage of
endemic species — that is, species which
are found nowhere else in the world. Lake
Nyasa, for example, contains more than 200
endemic species.

The "what" of structures

It is in their feeding habits that the cichlids
have evolved astonishingly unusual
adaptations. As a consequence almost every
food source in the lakes is exploited. There
are, for instance, numerous silvery-bodied
species which feed on the minute animals
of the plankton. Others collect and crack
open the shells of clams and snails to
expose their succulent contents. Still others
graze on rooted plants, rather like cows!
Again, there are species that live on the
sandy shores and dig for midge larvae in
the sand, while related species on rocky
shores feed by rasping the film of algae
from rock surfaces. Everywhere there are
species that prey on the smaller ones. It has
been reported that one species bites out
the eyes of other fishes. Perhaps the most
bizarre feeding method is the remarkable
habit of scraping scales from other fishes.
Within the stomach of the scale-eating
species the scales lie in packets, and as
they proceed down the intestine they
become more and more eroded until only a
mass of silvery granules remains. This

scale-eating species intermingles with a
shoal of a particular species of Tilapia.
which does not suspect any enemy activity,
since the scale-eating predator mimics the
victims in body shape and color pattern.
The fishermen are well aware of the
presence of this scale-eating species in the
shoals of Tilapia. They call it "Boss"
because of the way it harasses the other
fish.

Correlated with this great diversity in
feeding habits are adaptations in dentition,
jaw and skull forms, and the muscles
operating the jaws.

The least specialized species are those that
feed on insect larvae. They closely resemble
the insect-larvae-eating species that inhabit
the rivers of Africa, and they are considered
to be the modern representatives of the
species which existed before the great East
African lakes were formed. Insect-larvae-
eating species possess three rows of teeth
on their jaws. Teeth of the outer row have
two cusps while those of the two inner rows
have three cusps. IVIost fishes have two sets
of jaws. The first set is comparable to our
jaws, while the second set is located in the
throat (or pharynx) and plays an extremely
important role in preparing and transporting
the food toward the gullet (esophagus).

In the snail- and clam-crusher, the teeth of
the pharyngeal (throat) jaws have
differentiated into a powerful mill capable of
crushing shells.

The scale-eating species possesses
increased rows of file-like teeth in the first
set of jaws to rasp off the small scales
which cover the tail fin and adjacent parts
of their prey.

Numerous differences are found in the jaws,
the skulls, the muscles operating the jaws,
and the gill covers.

Field JHusaum, Bulletin

The "how" oJ the structures

It Is important to understand how these
peculiar adaptations function. The jaws are
operated by muscles and ligaments. It has
been discovered that one way to open the
jaws is by contraction of a muscle running
between the skull and upper border of the
gill cover. The muscle lifts the first upper
gill cover bone, which in turn pulls the
second and third gill cover bones. The third
bone pulls down the lower jaw, and the
mouth opens. Between all gill cover bones
and the lower jaw are ligaments which
transmit the movements of one bone to the
other. Fish which prey on other fish have
relatively long jaws and modified, smaller
gill covers to increase the speed of jaw
opening. Other species, on the other hand,
may need to suck water into the mouth and
through the gills in order to collect the small
organisms in the water. Such fish possess
smaller jaws, but have enlarged gill covers,
which function as a suction pump. Many
specializations occur also in the muscles
operating the two sets of jaws.

The best method of analyzing muscle
function IS electromyography. When a
muscle contracts, it produces minute
electrical activity (between 7 and 100
microvolts). These minute electrical signals
can be picked up by tiny electrodes inserted
in various muscles of the fish. The very
weak electrical signals running through the
electrodes are fed into preamplifiers and
amplifiers which amplify the signals to such
a great extent that they can be visualized
on the screen of an oscilloscope or
recorded on paper by the recorder. Records
of several muscles can be obtained
simultaneously from a fish which swims
around breathing and feeding naturally.

By using these methods I hope to unravel
the functions of the numerous highly
specialized adaptations and to explain how
these specializations have evolved. I will
also try to explain how various structures
depend on each other. In medicine it is
known that when a surgeon removes or
modifies an organ or structure many
changes occur in neighboring organs or
structures. Similar events occur in evolution.
An evolutionary change in one structure will
bring about changes in other structures, not
unlike a chain reaction. For example, the
gill covers of most fishes function in both
breathing and operation of the jaws. A
significant change in operation of jaws
brought about by a modification of gill
covers will necessitate compensatory
changes in the breathing mechanism.

July/Augutt 1972

Left, scanning electron microscope photographs: Top to bottom: lower jaw teeth of Haplochromis
intermedius. The outer row of teeth have two cusps, while those of the two inner rows have one
or three cusps. These pointed teeth are well adapted for handling insect larvae; lower |aw teeth
of Corematodus shiranus. which are well adapted for scraping scales off other fish; throat jaw
teeth of Haplochromis placodon. which are well adapted for crushing the shells of snails.

LIGAMENT

The "why" of the structures

An understanding of how various structures
depend on eacti other, and how one
evolutionary change is followed by many
accompanying changes in other structures,
has revealed the relative ease with which
some major changes in breathing and jaw
operation can occur.

Why are the cichlids so successful? Cichlids
have been "preadapted" for exceptionally
diverse feeding habits because of their
unusually modified set of jaws in the throat
which enable the various species to
specialize in preparation and swallowing of
an enormous variety of special foods. By
further specializations involving varying
growth rates of certain bones and
modification of the shape and number of
teeth, cichlids have been able to exploit
virtually all available food resources in the
lake. It is l<nown that differences in relative
bone growth are governed by small
hereditary differences. Therefore, we may
postulate that it has been relatively simple
for the cichlids to evolve such
specializations.

In my efforts to explain why the cichlids
have undergone explosive evolution in the
great East African lakes, I will also consider
geological and environmental factors. An
age of two million years for Lake Nyasa
seems a reasonable estimate. The present
form and level of Lake Nyasa were arrived
at only after a long series of downthrusts
and uplifts. During its history the lake basin
has been subjected to many changes.
Geological instability could have resulted in
the formation of several separate small
lakes, offering opportunities for colonization
on a grand scale. Physical isolation would
have allowed the respective inhabitants of
the small lakes to develop distinct
hereditary characters and to evolve various
specializations enhancing the survival of the
new species. Continuing instability could
have reunited isolated lakes, fragmented
them again, reunited them again, and each
time the process of evolution progressed.
The "why" of the structure is, therefore, a
complex biological problem, which I hope
to understand and explain in anatomical,
developmental, behavioral, genetical,
ecological, and geological terms.

Above, top to bottom: diagram of one way of law opening in a cichlid fish. The indicated
muscle lifts the first gill cover bone, which in turn pulls the second and third gill cover bones.
By means of a ligament, the third gill cover bone pulls down the lower jaw. and the moutli
opens; X-ray photograph by William M. Winn, University of Illinois, of a live fish with electrodes
implanted in the various muscles.

Dr. Karel Liem is Associate Curator, Division
ot Vertebrate Anatomy, Field Museum.

Field Museum Bulletin

An ecological dilemma -our national parks

albert w. forslev

^■MB: i

a July/August 1972

Be it enacted by the Senate and House ot
Representatives ot ttie United States of
America in Congress assembled, tliat tlie
tract ot land in the territories ot /Montana
and Wyoming, lying near the headwaters ot
the Yellowstone River . . . is hereby reserved
and withdrawn tram settlement, occupancy,
or sale under the laws of the United States
and dedicated and set apart as a public
park or pleasuring ground for the benefit
and enjoyment . . . of the people . . .

These words, signed into law by President
Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872,
established Yellowstone as the first national
park of the United States. Forty-four years
later, in 1916, the National Park Service was
established to conserve scenery, natural and
historic objects, and wildlife in the parks and
"to provide for the enjoyment of the same in
such manner and by such means as will
leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of
future generations."

Anyone who has waited for an hour in the
long lines of traffic through Great Smoky
f\/Iountains National Park or tried to find a
campsite in Yellowstone may well wonder
how successfully the National Park Service
has lived up to the 1916 mandate. Before we
draw any conclusions let us examine
some facts.

Today the National Park Service has under
its jurisdiction thirty-seven national parks,
over seventy monuments, and numerous
historical areas, seashores, lakeshores,
recreation areas, and parkways. National
parks are located in 23 states and the Virgin
islands. United States national parks range
from 19° to 64° north latitude and from
65° to 157° west longitude. The range of
climatic environments included in this area
is, to say the least, extensive.

The number of visitors to the National Parks
has risen from approximately 350,000 in
1916 to almost 70 million in 1971! And this
does not include another 130 million
persons who will visit the other areas
administered by the National Park Service
this year. Yosemite National Park alone has
close to 3 million visitors per year. During
the 92nd Congress almost three hundred
bills pertaining to the National Park Service
were introduced. In 1971 two new national
parks were authorized — Arches National
Park and Capitol Reef National Park, both in
Utah. Proposals for six other national parks
were introduced in 1971.

The above statistics may indicate to some

that the National Park Service has
undergone appropriate substantial growth
since its creation in 1916, Conservationists
will take issue, however, pointing out that
the Park Service has not expanded anywhere
near the rate it shoula have to accommodate
the increased population and the need for
preserving our wilderness areas. Only 24
new national parks have been added since
1916. When the "Ivlission 66" ten-year park
improvement program ended in 1966, only
two new national parks had been established
in that ten-year period — Virgin Islands in
1956 and Canyonlands in 1964. Facilities at
existing national parks were improved,
however, and the number of visitors
skyrocketed. Unfortunately, appropriations
for the Park Service in the 1960s did not
keep pace with park usage and demands.
In addition, more visitors brought more
problems that had to be coped with by park
officials. Although the National Park Act of
1916 states that the purpose of the Park
Service is to conserve the scenery and
wildlife in a manner that will leave them
unimpaired for the enjoyment of future
generations, we may well question whether
or not this is possible with 70 million visitors
a year camping, hiking, and driving over
these parklands.

It is appropriate, then, on this 100th
anniversary of Yellowstone that we examine
the success and/or failure of the National
Park Service in carrying out its mandate and
that we consider the path to be taken in
the second century.

Yellowstone, occupying 3,472 square miles
of a volcanically formed plateau in
northwestern Wyoming, derives its name
from the yellow color of the rhyolite rock
exposed along the Grand Canyon of the
Yellowstone River. Many visitors to the park,
entranced by thermal features such as
geysers and hot springs, are not even aware
of the existence of this beautiful 1,000-foot-
deep canyon with its 109-foot Upper Falls
and 308-foot Lower Falls. Stories of the
unbelievable marvels of this region filtered
back to frontier towns during the first part of
the nineteenth century. No organized
expedition visited Yellowstone until 1870.
when a party led by General H. D. Washburn,
Surveyor-General of Montana, investigated
the wonders of the Yellowstone Plateau. The
following year a survey was made by pioneer
geologist Frederick V. Hayden and
photographer of the early west William
Henry Jackson. The efforts of the members
of these expeditions led to the establishment

of Yellowstone as a national park within one
year. Even though these men could have
staked claims and exploited the area
themselves, they felt very strongly that this
region should be preserved for all of the
people. They campaigned vigorously to
have Yellowstone protected forever for the
enjoyment of everyone. We should
remember the example they set, for we all
have benefited from it.

Yellowstone Park owes its spectacular
geologic features to 65 million years of
volcanic history. The plateau was formed
from layer after layer of lava pouring out
onto the surface, interspersed with eruptions
of volcanic ash. The violent activity appears
to have continued into the ice age which
began around one million years ago. The
thermal features seen at Yellowstone are a
result of underground water coming into
contact with the still-hot volcanic rocks
below the surface. Some of these features
are fumaroles, geysers, hot springs, and the
mud pots, paint pots, and mud volcanoes
which result from the drying up of hot
springs. Other geologic attractions at
Yellowstone are canyons, waterfalls,
obsidian {volcanic glass) cliffs, petrified
trees, and glacial features. Associated with
the geyser basins are deposits of geyserite
or siliceous sinter, a variety of opaline
silica, formed by the action of algae. As
many as 250 species of algae occur in the
hot springs and geysers of Yellowstone,
producing a variety of colors in the water
and mineral deposits. Of special note also
are the travertine (calcite) deposits at
Mammoth Hot Springs near the north
entrance of the park.

Although most often it is the geologic
features that motivate an area being declared
a national park, the wildlife and plants
within the park are oftentimes of more
interest to the visitor and more susceptible
to the effects of man's visit. Of course
hunting of animals is forbidden in the
national parks, as is collecting of plants,
rocks, or any other natural object. For some
reason fishing is not generally prohibited.
Perhaps the Park Service does not consider
fish to be animals. The sport and domestic
fishing that is allowed within the boundaries
of Virgin Islands National Park may be
having an effect on the composition and
density of the reef fish community.

At times the Park Service is forced to
exercise "direct control" over wildlife. This
occurred in Yellowstone Park in 1961 and
1962, when park rangers were ordered to

Field Museum Bulletin

destroy more than 4,000 elk. According to
the Park Service this was done because the
elk herd had increased in size to the point
where there was not enough food for all of
the wildlife in the park. It is called "direct
control" also every time a bear is destroyed
because it is too dangerous to park visitors.
Since 1968 over 75 bears have been
destroyed in Yellowstone. Of these, 33 were
grizzlies and the rest black bears.

This brings us to an interesting result of the
establishment of the national park system.
Before many areas such as Yellowstone
were classified as national parks, a binary
ecological system existed: a balance
between the wildlife and its natural
surroundings. After the park was established
a ternary system developed: wildlife — natural
surroundings — and man. National parks, as
we have noted, are established "to conserve
. . . the wildlife therein and to provide for
the enjoyment of the same in such a
manner as will leave them unimpaired for
the enjoyment of future generations." The
Park Service is faced with a dilemma — how
can both be done? Are these two mandates
incompatible? Yellowstone expects
2,361,000 visitors this year, most of them
within a two-month period. In July and
August 50,000 to 60,000 persons a day will
enter the park. There are inside the park
between 2,500 and 3,000 campsites, plus
hotel and motel facilities to accommodate
over two thousand more. Is it consen/ing
the scenery to build tramlines, highways,
campsites, and hotels to accommodate the
visitors who wish to enjoy it? Is it
conserving the wildlife to destroy the natural
predator-prey relationship because the
predators may injure a person who is there
to enjoy the wildlife? These questions pose
great problems for park administrators.

The effect of man on the ecological balance
in a park environment can be resolved into
two components. One is the effect of the
visitor, the other is the effect of park
management. What are some of the visitor
effects? A large number of people in a park
area means the introduction of human food.
Because the animals are fed directly by
humans, and because the animals eventually
rely on garbage, their natural habits and
behavior are changed drastically. A program
has been carried out in Yellowstone since
1969 to close all garbage dumps inside the
park and remove aggressive bears that
frequent campsites. Bears are usually
removed by transporting them to other
areas of the park up to seventy miles away.

Glenn F. Cole, research biologist at
Yellowstone, reported that grizzly bears
injured from 1 to 8 persons per year during
the 1960s, for an average of 3.6 injuries per
year. In 1970 three injuries were reported,
and in 1971 no injuries were reported. The
last garbage dump in Yellowstone was
closed in 1971. There are indications that a
natural ranging grizzly bear population can
possibly be restored in Yellowstone. Similar
control methods are being carried out at
Glacier National Park in Montana. There,
however, the number of visitors has not
reached the point where interaction between
grizzlies and humans is as frequent as it
was at Yellowstone. Direct control actions
at Glacier from 1968 through 1971 resulted
in the destruction of 5 grizzlies as compared
to 33 for the same period at Yellowstone.
As Clifford J. Martinka, research biologist at
Glacier National Park, puts it, "a wild, free-
ranging grizzly bear population offers the
least opportunity for conflict with man."

Visitors have an impact not only on wildlife
in national parks, they can have a
substantial effect on the landscape as well.
An interesting example is at Virgin Islands
National Park, where three underwater
nature trails were opened during the 1960s.
The reef has been damaged by
indiscriminate anchoring of boats, and the
scuba divers may be causing changes in
the reef environment by breaking fragile
coral and causing unnatural shifting of
bottom sand. Visitor impact is being
monitored to see if these effects are
significant as compared to natural changes
such as occur during storms.

Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado offers
another example of visitor impact. In 1966
up to 500 people per hour were touring the
cliff dwellings. Damage was becoming
increasingly evident and, as a result, in
1967 tours were limited to 150 persons per
hour.

Other visitor-introduced problems include
the theft of artifacts, crime, fires,
automobiles, water and waste treatment,
drugs and drinking, and a myriad of other
problems. At Petrified Forest National Park
in 1967 over 360 people were caught
removing over 2,000 pounds of petrified
wood from the park. In just six years the
number of arrests for major crimes
(homicide, rape, robbery, etc.) in the
national parks rose more than 400%, from
90 in 1964 to 374 in 1970. Narcotics arrests
among young visitors and student
employees at the parks have increased

substantially. Motorcycle gangs, in California
particularly, have become a major nuisance
to park visitors. How has the Park Service
met these problems? Admirably, perhaps,
when you consider that at Yellowstone alone
the number of permanent park employees
has been reduced from 135 in 1961 to only
100 in 1971 because of budgetary
restrictions. The park employees must
handle more visitors, more crowds, and
more crime every year.

Let us now look at some other problems —
namely, those that arise from man trying to
manage and protect the natural environment.
We have already called attention to the fact
that the predator-prey relationship has been
disturbed as a direct result of visitor impact.
There are indirect results too of a wilderness
area being taken over and managed by the
Park Service with the intention to preserve
and protect the area for future generations.

Often the natural area is subjected to more
protection than had occurred in the past,
thereby upsetting the natural ecological

July/August 1972

result the Everglades are dying. The alligator
population as well as the bird population
has declined to the point where there is a
danger that many species will become
extinct. The droughts have become more
severe, and there is barely enough water to
fill the small waterholes which the alligators
and birds depend on in the dry season. At
the same time, poaching has become so
prevalent that the future of alligators is
precarious. We should remember this the
next time we are tempted to purchase
alligator bags, shoes, wallets, and the like.

I mentioned previously that park rangers
shot 4,000 elk in Yellowstone during the
winter of 1961-62 because of a shortage of
browse. Wildlife management, one of the
functions of the park service, represents
another effect of man's intrusion into the
natural ecological balance. When to
exercise direct control and when not to
leads to another dilemma. The amount of
browse available, number of predators,
disease, fire, and weather are the natural
controls of wildlife populations. When man
enters the scene, either as a visitor to the
parks or as a manager of the parks,
disrupting these natural controls, the Park
Service must, in most cases, take over the
function of wildlife control. In 1961, the elk
herd had grown to 10,000 and the amount
of browse available could sustain only
6,000, so direct control was put into effect.

balance that existed previously. An example
would be the matter of striking out forest
fires. When an area is declared a national
park and rangers begin patrolling it, the
number of forest fires is suddenly reduced.
A fire that previously would have been
allowed to burn is put out. This is what
happened, for example, at Sequoia National
Park, Sequoia was established in 1890,
making it the second oldest national park.
There are only two species of sequoias in
North America, the giant sequoia {Sequoia
giganlea) and the redwood (Sequoia
sempervirens). The tallest sequoia in the
park is the General Sherman Tree, 272 feet
tall, with an average diameter at its base of
30.7 feet. The tree is estimated to be almost
3,800 years old. The bark near the base of
a sequoia is thick, sometimes as much as
two feet thick, making the tree fire resistant.
Naturally occurring brush fires that swept
through the region for thousands of years
had little effect on these giant trees.

However, when man came into the picture
he put out fires when they occurred, as

might be expected. As a result, dense
underbrush accumulated, and when fires
did occur, the underbrush made them so
intense that the sequoias began to be
damaged. Also, sequoia seedlings were not
able to survive as well in the heavy
underbrush. Thus the future of the sequoias
has been endangered by man's unnatural
protection. The Park Service now allows
controlled burning in a number of national
parks besides Sequoia. Small fires are
permitted to burn as they did in the past.

Other effects of unnatural protection by man
will undoubtedly appear as we learn more
about ecology and the intricate natural
balance among plants, animals, soils, and
other elements of the environment. The
important thing is that we learn about these
before irreparable harm occurs. It appears
that such harm may have happened already
in Everglades National Park. The Army
Corps of Engineers constructed flood gates,
canals, and other structures in the vicinity
of the Everglades which diverted the water
that once used to go to the Glades. As a

There are few national parks where man
has not significantly affected the ecological
balance between predator and prey. One of
the few is Isle Royale National Park, an
island in Lake Superior. The water barrier
has kept Isle Royale relatively, but not
entirely, undisturbed by man. No
automobiles are allowed on the island, and
visitors must take a ferry to reach it. Thus
natural fluctuations in an animal population
can be observed somewhat better here than
many places, even though tew mammals
inhabit the island because of its isolated
location. Studies made since the turn of the
century have shown some species of
mammals to have declined or disappeared
and others to have been introduced or
increased over the years. For example, the
moose population on the island before 1920
was around 200 to 300. By 1930 it had
grown to 3,000. Naturalists examining \he
island in 1930 found it had been
overbrowsed and they predicted a die-off
from malnutrition. This indeed happened
between 1933 and 1936, climaxed by a fire
which burned off the browse on over a

Fie'd Museum Bulletin

11

Photos courtesy of National Park Service, U.S Department of tfie Interior.

quarter of the island. By 1936 the moose
population had dropped to about 500. The
numbers increased to about 800 by 1948,
when wolves joined the fauna of the island,
probably by migrating over winter ice from
Canada. Then man decided to help things
along and introduced four zoo-bred wolves
in 1952. These soon had to be shot or
returned to the mainland because they were
dependent on humans for food and they
harassed people on the island. IVIeanwhile,
the timber wolf population increased
naturally through more migration from
Canada and births on the island, and in
1956 there were 14 wolves known to be on
the island. Since then the number of wolves
has risen to as many as 28, The wolves'
main source of food is the moose herd, and
it is believed that at present a stable moose
population of around 1,000 coexists with a
wolf population of about 22. The wolves kill
the older, weaker moose or the weaker of
twin calves for food. As a result, the moose
population remains healthy because only the
strong survive. This type of wildlife control
is certainly preferable to the indiscriminate
shooting of animals by man.

What then, do we do now, in this second
century of our domain over parkland? Do
we ban visitors from the parks entirely? Do

we just eliminate automobiles? Or do we
build more roadways, tramlines, and
campgrounds because "parks are for
people"? If so, how do we preserve the
environment "for the enjoyment of future
generations"? These are some of the
questions facing the National Park Service
on the 100th anniversary of Yellowstone.
One thing we must not do is confuse
"enjoyment" with "recreation" or
"entertainment." This distinction perhaps
has not been understood in the past by
both the Park Service and the visiting
public. The recent establishment of a skiing
school in Yosemite: the famous, but now
stopped, nightly "firefall" in Yosemite where
burning embers were pushed over a
waterfall; the commercialization of national
parks as at Hot Springs, Arkansas and
numerous other places; motorboating; and
a variety of other entertainment and
recreational activities — all seem to be out of
character with the original purposes for
which parks were created.

Would it be better perhaps to not refer to
national parks as "parks"? I would venture
to guess that attendance would drop off
rapidly at Mesa Verde National Park if it
were called Mesa Verde National
Archeological Site. The National Park

Service has taken a step in this direction
with the establishment of national wilderness
areas, seashores, lakeshores, and rivers.

Although the Park Service feels it must
serve all the people it possibly can, it has
now found it necessary, in some parks, to
establish a reservation system for
campgrounds and other controls on visitors.
Thought is being given to keeping
automobiles out of such crowded parks as
Yellowstone and in their place run tours on
electric buses. Many officials hope to
exclude all such services as hotels and gas
stations from the park area proper. Some
park administrators encourage more
backpacking into the wild areas of a park
now visited by very few people. North
Cascades National Park in Washington, one
of our newest (1968), may set such a
direction for the future. There are no roads
and all motor vehicles are prohibited. There
are, however, over 300 miles of trails
winding through the rugged peaks, mountain
lakes, and glaciated valleys.

Establishing more national parks near urban
areas is something also being considered.
Except on the west coast, there are no
national parks near major urban centers —
none near New York City, Chicago, Detroit,
and Cleveland, for example. The Indiana
Dunes National Lakeshore, to be funded in
the 1973 fiscal budget, will be the first
federally protected "urban" park area in the
midwest. However, some conservationists
feel that the pressure on the Park Service to
develop more urban parks may be political
expediency which will delay acquisition of
more wilderness areas. Both needs should
be given serious consideration.

Having personally enjoyed the grandeurs of
Alaska, I sincerely hope that our state and
federal governments will soon take action
to preserve our last frontier by establishing
more parks and monuments in the northwest
wilderness soon to be bisected by a
pipeline.

So, birthday congratulations to Yellowstone!
May you live at least another hundred
years. And may we all have the generosity
and foresight that the people of the
Washburn and Hayden expeditions had. If
we do, a hundred years from now our
descendants may bless us, not curse us.

Dr. Albert W. Forslev is Professor and
Chairman ot the Department of E.artt^
Science at Northeastern lltinois University:
he was formerly Associate Curator ot
Mineralogy at Field Museum.

July/August 1972

Behind the scenes of Field Museum, In a
section of the ground floor and on parts of
the third and fourth floors, sitting In
countless bottles of alcohol or lying In tier
after tier of wooden trays In grey or green
steel cases, are the more than 7,500,000
specimens of animals that form the seven
major Zoology collections — Birds, tVlammals,
Reptiles and Amphibians, Fishes, Anatomy,
Insects, and Invertebrates. Gathered
together since 1893 by means of purchases,
donations, expeditions, and exchanges,
specimens originating from every continent,
every ocean, and most islands of the world
form one of the great International resources
In natural history. They are consulted by
students and scientists of many nations.
They form one of the major responsibilities
for the 12 scientists and 13 assistants of
our present Department of Zoology staff.

Used In systematic research, to provide
service Identifications, for comparative
studies, and to derive theories concerning
evolution, these collections are a biological
"Bureau of Standards" of the animal world.
They are filed away In a system that
continually changes as the progress of
systematic research alters Ideas of animal
classification and phylogeny. With the
collections accumulated to date. It is
possible to study animals from most parts
of the world and to focus research on
problems at a high level of sophistication.
Not only can we study material now
available, but we have sufficient background
material to make new field work In any area
of the world effective and productive. We
not only "study" animals of the world in our
offices, but for each collection we view the
entire world as potentially our field of
"study." Less than a dozen museums in the
world attempt to maintain such a "world
view" of zoology, and none of these Is as
young as Field IVIuseum.

In the beginning, back in 1894, Field
Columbian fvluseum had Departments of
Anthropology, Botany, Geology, Zoology
(except Ornithology), Ornithology, and
Industrial Arts. The Industrial Arts section
disappeared quite early, but it was not until
1906 that Ornithology was reunited with
Zoology and the scientific departments of
Field ivluseum of Natural History assumed
the shape that persists today — Departments
of Anthropology, Botany, Geology, and
Zoology. The biological collections
consisted of materials displayed at the
Columbian Exposition of 1893, most of
which had been assembled by Ward's

Natural Science Establishment of Rochester,
New York. At first there were two scientists
in Zoology and two in Ornithology. Over the
years. In a series of expansionary bursts,
staff, library, and collections grew to the
size of today. Involved at every stage of
growth were scientists, wealthy patrons,
amateur students, and volunteers. Often the
same individual might be patron, volunteer,
and scientist, while more than one amateur
has, in time, become a world authority on
a particular group.

Because it began separately, the collection
of Birds Is perhaps easiest to trace through
the years. It also Illustrates quite well the
interactions between people In the
community and on the t^useum staff that
result In progress and growth. Perhaps the
Initial separation of Birds as a Department
of Ornithology resulted because the
President of Field Columbian tVluseum,
Edward E. Ayer, donated a magnificent
library on ornithology, and this combined
with the possibility of hiring a well known
ornithologist, C. B. Cory, who would bring a
large collection of bird skins with him. Early
years were spent In building the collections
and gathering data for Cory's major
publications on, first, the birds (1909) and

then the mammals (1912) of Illinois and
Wisconsin. There have been subsequent
publications on the mammals of Illinois, but
the bird study remains as a standard
reference. At the same time, Cory was
starting work on birds of the Americas with
a series of notes on new species and races
from South America. Cory became Curator
of Zoology in 1906. In 1909 a young
scientist, W. H. Osgood, was hired as
Assistant Curator of Mammalogy and
Ornithology. Osgood's research interests
were in mammals, but In 1920 he met a
wealthy and enthusiastic bird hunter named
Boardman Conover. A trip to Venezuela
together that resulted in a short paper
published by Field Museum In 1922 on
game birds from northwestern Venezuela
also launched Conover Into a lifetime study
of game birds. Infrequent visits to the
Museum soon turned into five-days-a-week
study. In time Conover became the world
authority on game birds. He was a longtime
Trustee of Field Museum and generous
donor, and the Conover Fund for specimen
acquisition stands as a continuing
monument to his interest In Field Museum.
Through his labors the last four of the
fifteen-volume Catalogue ot Birds ot the
Americas started by Cory before World War I
were completed In 1949. This gifted
amateur Conover carried the work to final
completion, but It was the professional
scientists Cory and, above all, Charles
Hellmayr who Initiated, organized, and did
most of the work on this project.

The Interest in the American bird fauna
continues with the studies of Emmet R. Blake,
Curator of Birds, and a major Bolivian
project just initiated by Melvin Traylor,
Associate Curator of Birds. The Old World
was far from neglected, with publications on
birds from New Guinea, Nepal, Gabon,
Tristan da Cunha, and the Philippines by
Austin L. Rand and several studies on
Chinese and African birds by Melvin A.
Traylor in recent years. In the years
following World War II, under the curatorship
of Rand (later Chief Curator of Zoology) the
growth of the Old World collections received
their greatest impetus; the 15,000-specimen
van Someren collection from East Africa,
the 21,000-speclmen Koelz collection from
India and Iran, and a complete set of New
Guinea birds by exchange from the
American Museum were all arranged
through his Initiative. The Ayer library on
birds Is one of the finest in the country and
was described by J. T. Zimmer In a two-
volume catalog issued in 1926. The

Fie!d Museum Bulletin

collection of 325,000 bird skins is perhaps
third largest in the United States.

Besides Boardman Conover, other
volunteers have made and continue to make
great contributions to Field Museum. During
the mid-1930s Ellen Thorne Smith offered
to help with cataloging, card filing, and
other routine chores. As she phrases it,
"If I'd known that during World War II I'd
be keeping the whole Division of Birds
operating while the scientists were in the
services, I might have hesitated to start!"
For many years she has served the Museum
in a variety of ways, most recently as
founding President of the Women's Board.
Currently another volunteer, Blair Winter,
spends 372 to 4 days a week checking and
compiling data for a projected gazetteer of
collecting localities in South America. So
many scientists and professional collectors
have sent bird and mammal specimens to
museums that literally thousands of
localities are mentioned on specimen labels.
Each year scientists independently must
spend hundreds of hours checking out the
same references. A published gazetteer of
such localities will provide a working tool
of incalculable value to generations of
scientists. With the direction of mammalogist
Hershkovitz and ornithologist Traylor,
Blair Winter's work will aid thousands of
scientists in years to come.

Since its inception. Birds has had two
scientists and one or more assistants. It is a
museum in a microcosm and illustrates the
pattern for Zoology: a mixture of people,
library, and collections combining to

advance and preserve the fund of man's
knowledge concerning the world around
him. Financial and time support by
individuals from the community; the labors
of individual scientists; the accumulation,
care, and use of the working tools (library
books and specimens) — all these interact
complexly over the decades to result in the
research, exhibits, and knowledge that the
specimens in our storage cases document.

But Birds is only one facet of Zoology. In
1894 the scientific staff of Zoology consisted
of the Curator, D. G. Elliot, who was a
mammalogist, and an Assistant Curator,
O. P. Hay, interested in fishes. Despite their
interests, all animals except birds were their
responsibility. Hay did not remain long, and
was followed in 1896 by S, E. Meek, whose
studies on the fishes of Mexico and Panama,
published by Field Museum, remain
landmarks in ichthyological research, Elliot
was a compiler and collector, highly
productive in descriptive and cataloging
work. Some 3,350 pages of technical reports
published by Field Museum issued from his
pen. Under his leadership the Department
of Zoology took its first tentative expansion
steps.

The hiring of E. N. Gueret as osteologist in
1899 and William J. Gerhard as entomologist
in 1900 initiated the trend of dividing
responsibility and increasing the staff to
meet the demands of growing collections
and research potential. Gueret's primary
concern was in preparing skeletons for
exhibition and study, and he was active
until his death in 1940. Our exhibits of

skeletons and anatomy collections are
lasting monuments to his skill. In 1929 a
young assistant, Dwight D. Davis, was
added to the then "Vertebrate Skeletons"
section of Zoology. Promoted to Curator of
Anatomy and Osteology in 1940, Davis
became probably the premier comparative
anatomist of the United States. His
monograph on the functional anatomy and
relationships of the Giant Panda, published
just before his death in 1965, has been
cited as making the Giant Panda one of the
three or four best known animals in terms
of anatomy. Previously it was totally
unknown. Since 1965 the tradition of fine
anatomical research has been carried on by
Karel Liem, a specialist in fish morphology
who has recently returned from a
Guggenheim Fellowship in Europe.

William Gerhard was not a publishing
scientist. His contribution lay in starting a
functional collection of insects and for the
incredible variety of tasks that he performed
in aid of his colleagues and the Museum.
Most of the current exhibits of invertebrates
were his creation, many major publications
of other zoologists were edited and checked
by Gerhard, and generations of Chief
Curators relied upon his record-keeping
and chore-tending. A quiet and modest man
who retired in 1951 after more than a
half-century of service, he continued
working essentially every day until his death
in 1958.

Until 1930 Gerhard was alone in Insects,
but with the addition of Emil Liljeblad, first
as Assistant, then as Assistant Curator,

14 July/August 1972

growth of the Division of Insects began in
earnest. After Liljeblad retired in 1940,
Rupert L. Wenzel was hired as Assistant
Curator and, In 1942, Henry S. Dybas as
Assistant. They are now, respectively.
Chairman of the Department of Zoology and
Curator of Insects. It was through their
collecting and curatorial efforts that the
Insect collection and library rose to their
present position of eminence. For some
groups of Insects, Field IVIuseum has the
finest collections In the world. Few major
monographs of beetles, water mites, or
ectoparasites are published anywhere today
without mention of Field lyiuseum material,
fylost recently John Kethley, a young
specialist on mites, has joined the staff and
Is working on varied aspects of mite
systematics, evolution, and ecology. Over
the years a number of distinguished
Research Associates, collaborators, and
volunteers have greatly aided the Division.
Research Associates Included Alfred E.
Emerson, a termite specialist; the late
Charles H. Seevers and David Kistner,
world authorities on termitophilous and
myrmecophilous staphylinid beetles; Harry
Hoogstraal, a famous and productive
student of ticks and tick-borne diseases;
the late Alex Wyatt, a knowledgeable
amateur authority on moths; Robert Traub,
a specialist on fleas and medical
entomology; Arthur Allyn and Lee IVIIIIer,
founder and Curator, respectively, of the
Allyn Museum of Entomology; and many
others. All have contributed time, specimens,
and knowledge.

Size of larger zoology collections
Group 1921 1946 1971

Birds

51,160

177,121

325,000

Mammals

21,857

55,739

108,000

Amphibians

& Reptiles

3,000

46,000

197,000

Fishes

97,520

427,940

800,000

Mollusks

30,000

267,000

1,940,000

Insects

137,352

462,717 ca

4,000,000

Totals

340,889

1,436,517

7,370,000

Since the pre-1900 reign of D. G. Elliot the
track of both mammalogical and
ichthyologlcal Interests has continued
unbroken. After Elliot's retirement in 1909,
Wilfred H. Osgood began his long
association with Field Museum. He was the
equal of Elliot in terms of research
productivity, and his studies on the deer
mice of North America charted the way for
hundreds of studies on this highly variable
group. By any standards. It Is a landmark
in mammalogy. Equally well known are his
study on the Mammals ol Chile and a
classic review of the primitive South
American marsupial Caenolesles. Osgood
became head of Zoology In 1921 and was
succeeded as mammaloglst by Colin
Sanborn. An excellent field collector and
student of bats, Sanborn added much
material to the collections and was
responsible for encouraging several people
to become biologists. Today Philip
Hershkovltz, world authority on South
American mammals and primates, plus

Luis de la Torre, a specialist on bats,
continue to build upon the research
foundation laid by Elliot, Osgood, and
Sanborn.

For most of Zoology's history. Reptiles,
Amphibians, and Fishes have been
intermingled for study, if not for care.
S. E. Meek published widely on all groups,
although his fame depends on his fish
studies. Starting in 1921, responsibility for
the fish collection was separate, with first
A. C. Weed and then Loren Woods
amassing almost a million specimens and
bringing superb order to Important but
chaotically organized collections.
Amphibians and Reptiles were entrusted In
1921 to Karl P. Schmidt. An eminent
herpetologist and ecologlst, the only
Museum staff member to be elected to the
National Academy of Science, and a great
man In every sense of the word, Karl
Schmidt perhaps had more influence on
young biologists than any man In the
museum world. First in Amphibians and
Reptiles, then as Chief Curator of Zoology
from 1940 to 1955, Karl Schmidt met,
enthused, and helped literally hundreds of
young scientists. He transmitted a spirit, a
joy- of study, to his colleagues that set the
lone for perhaps the most productive years
of. Field Museum in terms of research up to
that time. Following him were Clifford Pope,
a specialist on the ecology of salamanders,
an excellent curator, and author of many
popular books; then R. F. Inger, an
ecologlst and frog systematlst Interested in

y~''

Field Museum Bulletin

15

tropical ecology, who also worked on fishes
for Field Museum, and now is Assistant
Director for Science and Education.
Currently Hymen [yiarx, a student of snake
phytogeny and specialist on vipers, is
charting new approaches to the study of
snake evolution.

The last collection to be separated was that
now housed in the Division of Invertebrates.
As Elliot in 1894 had "all animals except
birds," so Invertebrates has "all animals
that aren't studied elsewhere." Established
in 1938 with the hiring of Fritz Haas, the
world authority on freshwater clams, the
then Division of Lower Invertebrates has
specialized on mollusks, rapidly building up
to its current almost 2,000,000 specimens.
Fritz Haas was one of the most prolific
scientists ever to work for Field fV!useum,
publishing 89 papers totaling 2,454 printed
pages during his career in Chicago from
1938 through 1967. Prior to this time he had
written 230 papers while a curator in
Germany. Since 1959 Invertebrates has
been the responsibility of Alan Solem, a
specialist in the evolution, morphology, and
systematics of land snails.

This traces the expansion and development
of separate Zoology collections but
obscures the overall pattern of expansion in
bursts. From 1894 until 1920 the
professional staff fluctuated between 4 and
5 in number. During the 1920s and 1930s,
under the leadership of W. H. Osgood, the
staff expanded to 10 people. Immediately
following World War II, in 1946, the
curatorial staff reached a high of 13 people,
only to drop back to 10 in 1956 and
fluctuate between 11 and 12 people since
then.

Just as the expansion in numbers of
professional staff grew in bursts, so the
pattern of staff activities has changed over
the years. The initial emphasis was on
faunistic research which surveyed and
classified the animal life of a region,
utilizing the relatively small collections.
Expeditions to gather display and research
materials were the aim until after World War
I. With the move to the present building
completed, the entire Ivluseum was faced
with a monumental exhibition program. Vast
halls awaited creative efforts, and during the
1920s and 1930s almost every Division of
the Zoology Department had its own model
maker or crew of taxidermists. For example,
the then Curator of Birds, Rudyerd Boulton,
from 1931 to 1942 devoted most of his time

Illustrations from original linoleum cuts by Zbigniew
T Jastrzebski.

to developing the bird habitat groups and
systematic series now on display. The
habitat groups of birds and mammals; the
exquisite models of reptiles, fishes, and
amphibians: the skeletons and anatomical
models at Field Museum — all attest to the
unique skills of craftsmen in Zoology
working under the guidance of the
curatorial staff.

By the early 1940s most of the major
exhibition work had been accomplished.
Following World War II came the period of
greatest collection and library growth. The
accompanying table shows the size of big
collections in 1921, 1946, and 1971. In our
second quarter-century there was an
average 421% growth. In the third, starting
from a much larger base, a 513% increase,
with both mollusks and insects growing
more than 700% in collection size.

Today the collections of Zoology are major
in size and still growing, but the professional
staff is the same size as in 1946, although
with vastly increased collection resources
and responsibilities. We view the animals of
the world, and we consider that "The World
Is Our Study."

We can review the past, and adequately
state the present, but predicting the future

is more difficult. What will the next quarter-^
century bring? Certain aspects are clear.
There will be much greater use of modern
technology. Computer studies by Marx and
Inger, scanning electron microscope
analysis by Solem and Wenzel, studies of
muscle function by Liem, chromosome and
DNA reports from de la Torre, and
serological studies by students portend the
future. There will be greater involvement of
staff in graduate education and considerable
growth in cooperative research involving
scientists from several disciplines.
Anatomical projects by an ichthyologist and
a herpetologist and initiation of a project on
cat developmental genetics by an
acarologist and a mammalogist continue the
trend started by work on mammalian
parasites by mammalogists and
entomologists as well as a situation where
a vertebrate anatomist (Davis) and an
entomologist (Dybas) studied populations of
the periodical cicada in 1956.

Field Museum also stands on a threshold of
launching complete revision of existing
exhibits, which will require expert knowledge
and consultation in planning by the
scientists. Problems in ecology,
conservation, and management of natural
areas will require increasing amounts of
time. Yet the basic demands of collections
and research remain. Despite the size of
our collections and those in other museums,
collections today are still inadequate to
study geographic variation in even common
species. Few collections contain more than
40% of the species known in a particular
group. Our collections must continue their
growth to maintain excellence. To meet
these plus the new demands will require
another burst of staff expansion.

This then is a brief review of Zoology: of its
collection and staff growth, of its areas of
interest, and a small sampling of its
accomplishments in research. How small a
sampling may be judged by the omission of
much research and virtually all research
associates and volunteers except a few in
Birds and Insects. Each Division has a story
equivalent to that related concerning Birds,
but space and time have dictated the brief
introduction presented here.

Dr. Alan Solem is Curator, Division ot
Invertebrates, Field Museum.

t6

July/August 1972

Twelve men to learning much inclined

elizabeth munger

Zoology is Field Museum's largest scientific
department because the numbers of species
of ttie animal world and size of the
collections are so enormous, and differences
are often so sharply defined, that many
different kinds of special [knowledge are
necessary to curate and study them.
Zoology's scientists are all different from
one another too. Perhaps the one common
element is that they all have published
widely in their respective special fields,
including popular as well as technical books
and articles. Their names, widely recognized
and respected in the scientific world, are
therefore also often familiar to general
readers,

Rupert L, Wenzel, Chairman of the
Department of Zoology, was first fascinated
by insects as a high school student. Then
as a student volunteer worker at Field
Museum, he and equally young Henry Dybas
often collected together along the beach at
the Indiana Dunes. One thing led to another,
and led Wenzel to choose zoology as his
major, studying under the late Charles
Seevers at the old Central YMCA College:
to become a research assistant to zoology
professor Alfred E. Emerson and begin
graduate study under him at the University
of Chicago: and then at the age of 25 to
become Assistant Curator of Insects at
Field Museum. Much of his research work
has involved unraveling the mysteries of the
classification, evolution, and biogeography of
the histerid beetles and of external parasites
of mammals, especially the batflies.
"Service" may be the one best word to
describe the other aspects of Dr. Wenzel's
career — service to the scientific community
at large; to many learned and professional
societies: to educational, cultural, and
humanitarian groups: and to his home
community Oak Park — in many capacities
over the years.

As a boy, Luis de la Torre, who will formally
assume his duties as Curator and head of
the Division of Mammals later this year,
often accompanied his parents on Sundays
to the country club on the outskirts of
Madrid where his national champion father
was the golf professional. In the nearby
fields and forests he would observe
everything that was alive. When the family
came to this country during the Spanish
Civil War and settled in Highland Park,
Illinois, young Luis became acquainted with
Field Museum mammalogist Colin Sanborn,
who encouraged him to train for a career in
zoology. The Museum's Thomas J. Dee

Fellowship, awarded to him m 1955, helped
out during graduate school, as did his own
skill at golf. Now Dr. de la Torre's main
specialization is the classification, biology,
evolution, and distribution of the largest
single group of mammals in the New World
tropics — bats. Besides designing optical
and electronic instrumentation for DNA
microspectrophotometric studies, this
versatile man has also had many photos
and photomicrographs published in
textbooks and elsewhere and has produced
motion pictures that have been used tor
students and popular science programs on
network TV.

A list of the professional publications of
Philip Hershkovitz, Research Curator,
Division of Mammals, now numbers over
100, and that is only the scientific
monographs and papers, not counting
popular articles plus the well over 100
entries and articles he has written for six
different encyclopedias. Just one of the
major projects he is presently working on is
a monumental study of New World monkeys,
to be published in three volumes by the
University of Chicago Press. (Volume 1 is
1,500 manuscript pages with 500
illustrations.) Hershkovitz has described
himself as choosing to work on a series of
small, bite-sized pieces: others describe
him as one of the world's leading authorities
on the classification, origins, evolution, and
dispersal of mammals of the American
tropics. His early interest in natural history
can be partly credited to the elementary
school visiting program to the Carnegie
Museum in his native Pittsburgh. But it
wasn't until he took his first course in
zoology at the University of Pittsburgh that
he learned he was most interested in
vertebrates, and in whole animals and whole
animal systems. He has used this holistic
approach on his several collecting
expeditions to South America. More often
than not they have been of several years'
duration so that he could observe and
collect a great number and variety of
animals with the changing seasons.

Karel F. Liem, Associate Curator and head
of the Division of Anatomy, decided that the
U.S.A. was where he felt most at home after
he came from Indonesia on a U.S.
government fellowship to do his Ph.D. work
at the University of Illinois. His first language
is Dutch, but he is equally fluent in German,
French, Indonesian, and especially English,
as his article elsewhere in this issue of the
Bulletin demonstrates. (And his high school

English teacher in Bandung flunked him!)
That article describes some of his most
recent research work, on the functional
significance of anatomical differences.
Dr. Liem has always combined research
with teaching courses in human anatomy.
Awards three times from his students have
shown how much they appreciate what an
inspiring teacher he is. But Dr. Liem is an
abysmal failure at swimming. He is now
enrolled in a YMCA beginners' class — for
the second time. His intensive work on the
anatomy of fishes has convinced him that
swimming is impossible for people because
the human anatomy is just not designed
for it. Unfortunately, Dr. Liem will soon be
leaving his joint appointment at the Museum
and the University of Illinois Medical School
to assume the Bigelow Professorship at
Harvard University's Museum of Comparative
Zoology.

To find Alan Solem, Curator and head of
the Division of Invertebrates, one must
ascend to as close to a tower as we can
come at Field Museum, which is the fourth
floor level where a light well used to be.
There in well equipped bright new labs,
library, and offices, Solem and his staff work
with the collections and do sophisticated
research on mollusks especially. For much of
his current research Dr. Solem must use a
scanning electron microscope, a recently
perfected instrument that enormously
extends man's vision into the microworld.
He has pioneered in use of this instrument
to study the teeth and feeding mechanics
of both plant- and animal-eating snails.
Among other things. Dr. Solem, a world
authority on the anatomy, classification, and
evolution of terrestrial and fresh water
snails and slugs, is trying to discover why
the distribution patterns of non-marine
mollusks are so very different from those of
the vertebrates. Though his research
interests are esoteric. Dr. Solem has a talent
for generalizing scientific principles and
theories to students: and also a talent for
presenting delightful sidelights on the world
of shelled creatures through the many
popular articles he has published in this
magazine and elsewhere.

"Hy" Marx, Associate Curator and head of
the Division of Amphibians and Reptiles,
always has a friendly word to offer or
sympathetic and wise counsel or opinion if
requested. He once got a request to "Please
send me information on snakes, especially
Boa-Constrictors, I have a six-foot one and
I use him in an act here in Dallas, I'd like

Field Museum Bulletin

17

18 July/August 1972

Photo by George D. Olson

/( was six men of tndoslan/To learning much inclined. /Who v/ent to see the Elephant I (Though all ol them were blind), /That each by observation/ Might satisfy his
mind. — Irom a Hindu fable as lold by John Godfrey Saxe, 1854, Department ot Zoology stall members, top row: Barbara Brown, volunteer, Mammals; Valerie Canty,
tectinjcal assistant. Mammals; Rene Laubacti. curatorial assistant. Mammals; second row: Blair Winter, volunteer. Birds; Dennis Derda. assistant, Reptiles;
Marilyn Belka. secretary. Reptiles; Carolyn Evers. departmental secretary; John Kethley. assistant curator. Insects; Hymen Marx, associate curator. Reptiles;
third row: Philip Hershkovitz. research curator. Mammals; Karel F. Liem, associate curator and head. Anatomy; Loren Woods, curator and head. Fishes;
Emmet R, Blake, curator and head. Birds; Rupert L. Wenzet. chairman of Zoology and curator. Insects; Henry Dybas, curator and head. Insects; Luis de la Torre,
curator and head. Mammals; Melvin A. Traylor, associate curator. Birds; bottom row: Verne Reaves, technical assistant. Insects; Roberl Schoknecht, assistant.
Fishes; Pat Peyton, secretary. Insects; Nancy Kozlowski, secretary. Invertebrates: Michael Prokop, assistant. Insects; Helen Palmer, secretary, Mammals; Nancy Whitt,
technical assistant. Insects- Staff members not in picture: Sophie Andris, osteologist. Anatomy; Louise Bernard, preparator. Insects; Keith Carson, tanner. Mammals;
Dianne Maurer, assistant, Birds; Alan Solem, curator and head. Invertebrates; Barbara Walden, assistant. Invertebrates; J. L. Williams, assistant. Anatomy;
Carole Wrigley, illustrator, Invertebrates; August Ziemer, preparator. Insects, More than forty other people work with the Department of Zoology and its collections
as .research associates, associates, and volunteers. Many are distinguished scientists and teachers on the faculties of various universities.

to know how lo tame film and break him
from biting, [signed! Melanie S., Go-Go
Snake Dancer," Part of his reply reads: "If
it IS the species that is known as boa
constrictors, then it is well for you to know
that they are by nature aggressive biters.
However, a reticulated python which will
reach coverage size has a much milder and
gentler disposition. Constant handling and
body contact will keep the snakes usually
in a docile condition." Hymen Marx never
talks about himself, but ever since he came
to Field Museum as an Assistant in 1949.
directly from Roosevelt University, his
scientific work has spoken for him. He has
built an ever more solid reputation among
his colleagues both here and elsewhere by
his research on a variety of subjects,
ranging from the logic and methodology of
character analysis in determining
evolutionary relationships for classification,
based on his work on snakes, to the speed
of the lizard Basiliscus. which runs on water.

A full true story of the career of Emmet R.
Blake, Curator and head of the Division of
Birds since 1955, would read so much like a
boy's adventure fantasies that it might not
be believed. Before he officially joined the
Museum staff as an Assistant in 1935, he
had already been on four expeditions to
Central and South America. In the classic
tradition of the explorer-naturalist. Dr.
Blake's field work has often penetrated into
zoologically unknown areas. Under the
heading "World War II." some records read:
"Specialized in counter-espionage . . . 'D'
day landings at Salerno. Anzio, and
Southern France . . . Received Battlefield
Commission Nov. 17. 1944 . . . Special
assignments tracing and recovery of
Gestapo and concealed gold hoards,
apprehension of foreign secret agents, etc."
The desk work necessary to disseminate the
results of his ornithological work may seem
tame by comparison, but he has
accomplished a great deal of that too. His
current long-term publishing project, a
Manual of Neotropical Birds, which will be
several volumes, will cover complete
descriptions and information on the
distributions and habitats of the 3,200
species of tropical American birds from
Guatemala southward.

Melvin A. Traylor's avocation became his
vocation when he was appointed Assistant
Curator of Birds in 1956 (he is now
Associate Curator). For many years before

that he had worked informally with the
Museum in several capacities. As Captain
Traylor (USMC). after his World War II
service in the South Pacific, he observed the
1946 atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll, on
assignment for the government's study of
effects on wildlife. The first article he wrote
for this magazine reported some of his
observations both before and after that
milestone event. His career ever since has
been dedicated to the study of bird
speciation and distribution. He shares the
concern of all naturalists about the
diminishing variety of wild life that man and
his technology seem to be causing — which
IS the subject of his article in this issue of
the Bulletin. He is a leading authority on
African birds: has collaborated with a U.S.
Naval medical research laboratory in Cairo
on studies of migratory birds and their ticks
in relation to certain viral diseases; and
continues work on the monumental Peter's
Checklist ol the Birds of the World.

Loren P, Woods, since 1947 Curator and
head of the Division of Fishes, recently
published Fishes as one of Follett's
Beginning Science Books for very
young readers. Of course he also
has written reports that usually only other
scientists read. In between these extremes
there have been many articles for this
magazine, most recently about how and why
our Great Lakes are changing, Mr, Woods
used to lecture to youngsters when he first
came to Field Museum in 1938, for the
Raymond Foundation, whose education
programs have served generations of
Chicago-area school children. He has
built the collection of fishes to about
800.000 specimens: has become a world
authority on the primitive spiny-rayed
Berycoids; has participated in and reported
on material from several oceanographic
surveys; all of which have added enormously
to our knowledge of the classification and
distribution of fishes and of world fish
resources and marine ecology,

"He is one of the best field entomologists
and collectors in the country." says one of
his colleagues about Henry Dybas, Curator
and head of the Division of Insects. "He
knows so much about insect ecology and
the kinds of niches they can be found in,
especially the cryptic, hidden, forms, that
he can exploit what other people overlook."
His research specialties include the
classification and biology of featherwing

beetles, which are among the smallest
known insects and are indeed cryptic, the
smallest being 1 /75 inch long. What their
role might be, along with other forest floor
insects (and mites) in reducing organic
detritus to form soil nutrients, is an
especially interesting problem. Study of the
population dynamics, ecology, and evolution
of the 17- and 13-year periodical cicadas is
another of his specialties. Their dramatic
behavior when they emerge by the millions
may be more obvious, but may not be more
important in the ordering of the natural
world, Mr. Dybas describes himself as "a
product of Field Museum" because during
high school days he came often for
identifications of insects he had collected.

John Kethley, the youngest member of
Zoology's professional staff and Assistant
Curator in the Division of Insects,
specializes on mites. Their important effects
on public health were highlighted by World
War II experience with scrub typhus, a
disease transmitted by chigger mites. They
are now recognized as important to study
for other reasons too. Bird quills and the
mites living in them represent, for instance,
a relatively "simple" ecological system, and
understanding such a system would help
explain more complex systems. One thing
Dr. Kethley has discovered is that different
species of mites might live in the quills of a
single species of bird and "divide the
territory" by each species adapting to
different kinds of quills. Mites can thus tell
us something about fundamental problems
of evolution and ecology — namely, how
populations of related forms adapt so they
can coexist and share resources in the
same habitat rather than compete, to the
eventual elimination of one or more.

Besides the present eleven curatorial staff
members of Zoology, Dr. Robert F. Inger,
formerly Curator and head of the Division of
Amphibians and Reptiles and now Assistant
Director for Science and Education, should
be counted as a twelfth. He continues his
research on the organization of animal
communities, particularly of reptiles and
amphibians in tropical forests and streams,
and has also been deeply involved in
launching The Institute of Ecology as a
comprehensive independent agency to
support ecological research and forecasting.

Elizabeth Munger is Associate Editor ol the
Field Museum Bulletin.

Field Museum Bulletin

19

New Education Department Chairman

Robert A. ^ylattha

Robert A Matthai has been named chairman
of the Department of Education at Field
Museum of Natural History.

Mr. Matthai comes to Field Museum from
the American Museum of Natural History,
New York City, where he served as assistant
curator of education. Prior to that
appointment he was director of the
American Indian Program, and assistant
director, Office of Field Activities, at the
Harvard Graduate School of Education.

As a volunteer in the Peace Corps, Mr.
Matthai spent two years in Ethiopia, after
which he became an instructor in a Peace
Corps training program.

Mr. Matthai received his bachelor's degree
in history from the University of California,
and his master's degree from the Harvard
Graduate School of Education. He is
presently completing a dissertation for his
doctorate from the Harvard Graduate
School of Education.

The Department of Education is responsible
for an ever increasing number of activities
involving the Museum and the community.
In 1971 it provided 6,785 organized groups,
or 346,792 individuals, from schools,
universities. Scouts, Y's, senior citizen
centers, 4-H, Project Head-Start, the
Chicago Parl< District and others with
special services. One of the unique courses
it offered was an in-service training program

for thirty teachers from Chicago public
schools on how to interpret the Museum
to classes.

National Council on Arts Grant

Field Museum has received a grant of
$9,942 from the National Council on the
Arts to survey its climate control, security,
and storage needs. The award was one of
several made by the Council to important
museums and organizations across the
nation for conservation and renovation of
America's art treasures following a survey of
450 museums which found such programs
to be of highest priority.

President Nixon, in a recent communication
to the Council, supported the steps being
taken to preserve cultural heritage: "the
National Council on the Arts," he said, "has
shown imaginative leadership and creative
foresight in calling public attention to the
critical problems confronting the priceless
collections in our nation's museums. I am
pleased to join with the Council in urging
action by the private and public sectors to
safeguard our museum collections. Only by
such action can we preserve our treasures
for generations to come."

Anthropology Training Program

Twenty-eight high ability high school seniors
are participating in Field Museum's six-week
summer course "Student Science Training
Program in Anthropology." The students
come from twenty-eight different high
schools in three states and were chosen
from more than 100 applicants on the basis
of academic achievement, recommendation
of teachers, and personal interviews.
Supported by the National Science
Foundation for the seventh consecutive year,
the program is designed to provide a sound
foundation in anthropology through lectures,
seminars, workshops, individual projects,
study of Museum specimens, and field work
at a local archaeological site.

Building Improvements

The Museum has made the following
improvements using funds contributed to
the Capital Campaign: new Zoology and
Exhibition Department facilities, a new Jade
Hall, reinstallation of Malvina Hoffman
sculptures around the second floor gallery,
and permanent improvements to Halls 25
and 27 including new flush display walls, a
new heating unit, and new electrical wiring
and ventilation.

New Perspectives in Archaeology

Twelve high ability sophomores and juniors
from colleges and universities in ten states
are participating in a ten-week
archaeological program this summer at the
Museum's field station near Vernon, Arizona.

The tuition-free course entitled "New
Perspectives in Archaeology" includes
excavation and study of archaeological sites
in the Southwest which were inhabited from
approximately 1000 B.C. to 1500 AD. The
program is under the direction of Dr. Paul
S, Martin, chairman emeritus of the
Department of Anthropology of Field
Museum, and is being supported by the
National Science Foundation for the eighth
consecutive year.

Museum Volunteers Honored

Seventy volunteers who contributed a total
of 12,162 hours in 1971 to Field Museum
were honored recently at a reception hosted
by Remick McDowell, president of the Board
of Trustees, and E, Leiand Webber, director
of the Museum,

The 1971 total represents an increase of
37% over the number of hours donated by
volunteers in 1970. As the Museum's
programs continue to expand, more and
more qualified volunteers will be needed to
perform a variety of important tasks in the
Museum's Departments of Anthropology,
Botany, Geology, Zoology, Education,
Exhibition, and in the Library.

Corporate Division of Capital Campaign Make Plans

Section Ctiairmen of the
Corporate Division ot the
Museum's Capital Campaign
met recently to review areas
of responsibility in tfie
$25,000,000 fund drive. Seen
here, from left to ngtit, Gordon
Bent, ctiairman. Finance and
Investments Section: Blaine
J. Yarrington, ctiairman.
Corporate Gifts; David W.
Rewick. chairman, Professionat
Section; and E. Leiand
Webber, director, Field
Museum.

20

July/ August .1972

CALENDAR

Exhibits

Closes July 13

Soviet Union: Arts and Crafts in Ancient
Times and Today, a collection of almost
2,000 objects representing the finest
examples of artisanship from tfie country's
leading museums. It is tfie largest sfiow of
its kind ever sent abroad by the Soviet
Union, and is being shown in its entirety for
the first time at Field tvluseum. The exhibit
is part of the thirteen-year-old cultural
exchange program between the U.S.S.R.
and the U.S.A. Halls 18 and 19.

Continuing

Australian Aboriginal Art: Arnhem Land, a

selection of nearly 400 bark paintings and
wooden ceremonial sculptures. The material
is from the extensive collection of Louis A.
Allen of Palo Alto. Calfornia. Through
September 10. Hall 27.

A New Spirit in Search of the Past:

Archaeology and Ecology in the Lower
Illinois River Valley, an exhibit exploring the
"new" archaeology as reflected in the
Illinois Valley Archaeological Program's
excavation of the Koster Site, directed by
Dr. Stuart Struever of Northwestern
University. Through September 4. Hall 9.

Color in Nature, an exhibit examining the
nature and variety of color in the physical
and living world and how it functions in
plants and animals. Continues indefinitely.
Hall 25.

John James Audubon's elephant folio, The
Birds ot America, on display in the North
Lounge. Continues indefinitely.

Chokwe Mask from Angola, on display In
the South Lounge through September 10.
One of the most beautiful of all Chokwe
masks, it is called "Mwana Pwo," meaning
young woman, and is worn by a male
dancer at initiation and other important
ceremonies.

Field n/luseum's 75th Anniversary Exhibit

continues indefinitely. "A Sense of Wonder"
offers thought-provoking prose and poetry
associated with physical, biological, and
cultural aspects of nature; "A Sense of
History" presents a graphic portrayal of the
Museum's past; and "A Sense of Discovery"
shows examples of research conducted by
Museum scientists. Hall 3.

Film and Tour Program

July

"Patterns for Survival" (A Study of
Mimicry), a motion picture presentation at
2:15 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays in the
second floor North Meeting Room. The half-
hour film offers an overall view of protective
coloration in insects and provides visitors
with an insight into "Color in Nature," Field
Museum's temporary exhibit.

"A Journey Back Into Time," a motion
picture presentation at 1:30 p.m. and 3:30
p.m. Saturdays and Sundays in the second
floor North Meeting Room. The film is
offered in conjunction with Field Museum's
temporary exhibit, "A New Spirit in Search
of the Past: Archaeology and Ecology in
the Lower Illinois River Valley," and
describes the excavation of a 2500 B.C.
village.

August

"Chinese Jade Carving," a motion picture
presentation, at 2:00 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.
Saturdays and Sundays in the second floor
North Meeting Room.

"Patterns of Life," a motion picture
presentation, at 1:30 p.m. and 3.00 p.m. in
the second floor North Meeting Room. The
film provides background information on
Field Museum's "Australian Aboriginal Art:
Arnhem Land" exhibit.

Begins July 5

Guided Tours of Field Museum exhibit
areas leave from North information booth at
2:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. "Through
These Doors." a color motion picture
focusing on behind-the-scenes activities at
the Museum will be shown at 3:00 p.m. in
the Lecture Hall. Through September 1.

IVieetings

July 12: 7:30 p.m.. Windy City Grotto,
National Speleological Society.
August 9: 7:30 p.m., Windy City Grotto,
National Speleological Society.

Children's Program

IVIovies at 10:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m., James

Simpson Theatre

July 6: "African Safari"

Animals of the Upper Nile.

July 13: "A Boy and His Pet Elephant"

Life in Southeast Asia.

July 20: "Animal Adventures"

Stories of a squirrel, weasels, and other

small creatures.

July 27: "Winter of the Witch"

A modern fantasy.

Continuing

Summer Journey for Children, "Exploring
Our National Parks," a free self-guiding tour
honoring the 100th anniversary of the
establishment of Yellowstone, our first
national park. Youngsters have an
opportunity to become acquainted with
various features of our national parks and
monuments by following the Journey
through Museum exhibit areas. All boys and
girls who can read and write may participate
in the program. Journey sheets are available
at Museum entrances. Through August 31.

July and August hours

9 am. to 6 p.m. Monday. Tuesday, and Thursday,

and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday, Friday, Saturday,

and Sunday.

The Museum Library is open 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Monday through Friday. Please obtain pass at

reception desk, main floor north.

Museum telephone: 922-9410

j/olume 43, Number 8
September 1972

Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin

Concerning acquisition of antiquities . .

For several years the Field Museum has been concerned about the scientific, ethical,
legal, and diplomatic problems involved in acquiring new/ specimens. In regard to
biological specimens, the Museum demonstrated this concern in 1970 when it, along vi/ith
28 other U.S. museums, issued a statement titled "Guidelines to Biological Field Studies"
{Science 169:8, July 3, 1970). The cosigners of this statement agreed to observe certain
standards in making field collections in order to insure international cooperation in research
and to safeguard the existence of rare species. However, the statement was explicitly
limited to biological collections. The Field Museum now wishes to establish similar
standards with respect to our own acquisition of cultural collections, especially
archaeological materials.

The situation in the national and international market for this material has reached a crisis
point. Dangerously large quantities of primitive and ancient artifacts are now being stolen
or looted, at times in a quasi-legal fashion; smuggled; and sold at high prices. If this market
continues to operate at its present scale and in its present rapacious manner, it will quite
soon succeed in obliterating large segments of the cultural heritage of mankind. The market
for archaeological, anthropological, ethnographic, and artistic objects stands badly in need
of regulation. However, the sector of this market most dangerously out of control is the
traffic in archaeological objects — the so-called antiquities trade. The antiquities trade is
therefore the main focus of this statement.

When the antiquities trade is Illicit — when the objects being sold have been illegally
excavated or illegally exported from their country of origin — the activity is entirely
indefensible.

Whether illicit or not, traffic in archaeological objects is ethically dubious. Proponents of
the antiquities trade often argue that some objects have such esthetic or other importance
that a dealer or collector has a duty to see them removed from supposedly irresponsible
hands in their country of origin and deposited safely in collections in Europe or America.
This argument is invalid. Such considerations do not justify despoiling a nation of the
finest monuments of Its past.

In addition to legality and ethics, there is a third major consideration: the looting of
archaeological sites Is scientifically disastrous. The cupidity of dealers and collectors has
led to such extensive destruction of many archaeological sites that no information about
those sites survives or can be salvaged, except for the trivial information contained in the
objects removed. The most serious recent destruction of sites has been in Middle America,
Peru, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, but important archaeological sites have also
been looted and destroyed in recent years within the United States.

The museum profession is not innocent of responsibility for this situation. Although the
number of ancient objects in private hands is very great, the museums of Europe and the
United States have in the past played a central, critical part In the development of the
antiquities trade through their willingness (a) to authenticate objects for public sale; (b) to
pay, or advise potential donors to pay, extremely high prices for the objects they do
acquire; and (c) to receive through gift or bequest objects of uncertain or illicit origin. In
this manner museums have assumed the position of guarantors and price leaders in a
market that, due to the prevalence of fraud and speculative investing, would otherwise be
markedly less profitable.

The Field Museum, therefore, has adopted several policies, some of which are a codification
of existing practices and some of which are new. Their intention is (1) to make certain
that the Museum does not inadvertently acquire illicit antiquities; and (2) to promote the
reduction and regulation of the antiquities market. [The formal policy statement is printed
on page 6.1

Field Museum
of Natural History
Bulletin

Volume 43, Number 8
September 1972

Cover; massive ancient stelae are stolen from
their sites by tiacl<ing them into pieces.

Concerning Acquisition of Antiquities

why a strict policy concerning cultural specimens is necessary

2 The Campaign Against the Antiquities Trade

Bennet Bronson

call to battle against the destruction of heritage, knowledge, and
even life caused by this gray as well as black market

6 Policy Statement of Field Museum Concerning Acquisition
of Antiquities

to make certain the Museum neither acquires illicit antiquities
nor inadvertently encourages the traffic in them

7 Men and Their Work

Donald Collier

a brief history of the Department of Anthropology

10 How I Risked My Life for Archaeology

Susan Ivloore

a year in the life of a student at Field fvluseum

12 An African Potter at Work

IVIaude Wahlman

Ladi Kwali builds a traditional African waterpot

at Field Museum

15 People Who Study People

Elizabeth Munger

who's who in the Department of Anthropology

18 Capital Campaign

introducing some business leaders who are helping
to raise $25,000,000

19 Field Briefs

20 Children's Workshops
Calendar

Field Museum of Natural History

Director, E. Leiand Webber

Editor Elizabeth Munger: Staff Writer Madge Jacobs; Production Russ Becker; Photography John Bayalis, Fred Huysmans.

The Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin is published monthly, except combined July/August issue, by Field Museum of Natural History.
Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605. Subscriptions: S6 a year; S3 a year for schools. Members of the Museum subscribe
through Museum membership. Opinions expressed by authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the policy of Field Museum. Un-
solicited manuscripts are welcome. Printed by Field Museum Press. Second-class postage paid at Chicago, Illinois. Postmaster: Please send
form 3579 to Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605.

Field Museum Bulletin

The campaign against the antiquities trade

Bennet Bronson

September 1972

The subject of this article is the so-called
"antiquities trade" — the commerce in stolen,
smuggled, and sometimes even "legally
acquired" archaeological objects (statues,
bronzes, jewelry, and the like) which are
taken from sites abroad, usually in one of
the underdeveloped nations, and sold to
collectors and museums in Europe and the
United States. Field Museum has recently
announced an important policy statement on
the antiquities trade. Hence this seems a
good time to explain to the Museum's
Members what that statement is about and
why the Museum feels it is necessary to
have an antiquities trade policy.

The easiest way to introduce the subject is
to begin with a personal experience, not
because my own experiences are so
unusual (in fact, most archaeologists have
had similar experiences in the last few
years), but because it may help explain this
article's rather personal and nonobjective
tone. I am. I admit, prejudiced. The things
which the antiquities traders do are liable
to arouse strong feelings.

The story starts in 1966, when I as a
beginning graduate student was working on
my first real excavation at the great Maya
site of Tikal. located in the almost
uninhabited rain forest area called El Peten
in northern Guatemala. The year before, a
wandering chicle-gatherer had come into
camp to report the discovery of a new site
with esculpturas — statues — at a place
named Jimbal, about twenty miles to the
north of Tikal itself. Although such reports
often turn out to be false alarms, they
cannot be ignored. So a staff member set
out to make the long hike (there are no
roads in that part of the Peten) out to the
place of discovery. He came back two days
later with the exciting news that this time
the alarm had not been false: Jimbal was
an almost perfect Late Classic Period site
with several well preserved temples and
two limestone stelae — large tombstone-
shaped monuments — decorated with relief
sculptures in an unusual late style.

Moreover, one of the stelae was not only
sculptured but also dated: alongside the
sculptured part of the design was a date
engraved in the Maya hieroglyphic script.
Such dated monuments are rare and of
great importance, especially when they

Jimbal Stela 1, on which thieves used saws and
stone chisels to try to remove the carving. Photo
by Joya Hairs. Operacion Rescale, Guatemala.

fall into the end of the Late Classic, just
before the mysterious disappearance of
Classic Maya civilization. The discovery
would obviously have to be examined more
closely, photographed, and a mold made.

This is where I became involved with the
Jimbal dated stela. A mini-expedition was
formed, consisting of four persons — one of
our jungle-wise workmen to act as guide,
two relatively experienced archaeologists,
and I, who as the junior member of the
team was deputized to carry the latex or
liquid rubber with which the mold of the
stela would be cast. So we set out, carrying
food, machetes, hammocks, and latex — five
heavy gallons' worth. We walked a very long
distance along narrow, dripping jungle trails,
got lost a few times, and at last arrived at
this lovely place, a compact temple site
overgrown with vines and splendid trees,
laid out with typically Maya dramatic flair,
untouched for twelve hundred years since
the region's mysterious abandonment. In the
main plaza the stela stood. We handled it
gently. To have even moved it, much less to
have attempted to take it away from Jimbal,
would have seemed a desecration.

We managed to get a mold of it in the end,
after waiting almost two days for the latex to
dry in the humid forest air. Then we left,
hiked back, made our report, and — after our
blisters subsided — resumed our regular
work. Six months later I returned from Tikal
to the United States and gradually forgot
about both Jimbal and its stela as I became
involved with other archaeological problems
in other places.

I did not think of it again until a short time
ago when Dr. Donald Collier, one of my
fellow curators, showed me an article in
Science magazine by Clemency Coggins, an
art historian from Harvard specializing
in pre-Columbian America. She describes
the enormous amount of damage being
done at Mexican and Guatemalan sites by
the agents of American antiquities dealers
and illustrates her statements with a series
of pictures of defaced monuments, some
just chopped up with chain saws for easy
transportation, and some, through the
agents' carelessness, completely ruined.

One of the ruined ones, its top half
splintered and left lying on the forest floor,
was the stela at Jimbal — the same one I
had carried five gallons of latex on my back
twenty miles for. Turned to limestone dust
because of the clumsiness of some art

dealer's agent and because of the greed of
his employer and that employer's
respectable, greedy customers. All of them
probably talking about the sacredness of
art and the service they render to mankind
by preserving it in their collections for
posterity. And all of them probably
calculating what their investment would be
worth in five and ten years' time. The whole
thing Is outrageous. It must be stopped.

Admittedly, this is only one case — my own
personal reason for being outraged. But
there are a lot of cases and a lot of
reasons, enough to outrage almost anyone.

Hem: Archaeological art has recently been
skyrocketing in value. Various causes,
chiefly the publicity given by galleries and
museums and the market manipulations of
speculators, have pushed the price of
ancient artifacts up to an absurdly high
level. This has happened in spite of the
facts that (a) a great many of the articles
now on the market are fakes; that (b)
nobody — not the art historians nor the
archaeologists, and certainly not the
innocent collectors — can tell good
fakes from the real things: and that (c) a
large majority of the articles which are
genuine are smuggled or stolen.

Item: A number of entire ancient cultures — ■
the ones whose artifacts fetch really high
prices — are at the moment in the process
of being systematically and ruthlessly
obliterated. The Maya area is perhaps the
most hard hit, but almost equally savage
destruction is also taking place in the non-
Maya parts of Mexico and Guatemala, as
well as in Turkey, Iran, India, Thailand.
Cambodia, Indonesia, Costa Rica, Colombia,
Peru, Honduras, and — interestingly — the
United States. Since some of these
countries, including the United States, do
not have effective laws to protect their
ancient monuments, part of the destruction
is entirely legal. But, whether legal or not,
it is an international disgrace.

Item: The persons and institutions
performing, directing, and bankrolling the
antiquities trade are not obscure figures
from the underworld. They are in fact quite
respectable. They include a number of the
most prominent art dealers in the United
States and Europe, many art collectors, and
some of the world's leading museums. At
a rough estimate, around half of the major
American museums with antiquities in their
collections have in the last ten years

Field Museum Bulletin

Naranjo Stela 30, as photographed by TeobeM Maler in 1905: lell. west side;
right, east side. Photos courtesy of Peabody Museum, Harvard University.

acquired at least one important illicit
archaeological object. Some may have been
fooled and thought that these objects were
legitimate. Many of the museums in
question, however, have the reputation of
being difficult to fool.

Hem: A large percentage of the illicit trade
is, in fact, carried out quite openly. Its
supporters even defend it, claiming that
such-and-such an object was too important
and beautiful to be left in the care of the
people of the country it was stolen from.
To the citizens of that country, this
argument may seem a little false in the
mouths of people who regularly tear down
their own monuments to build parking lots,
but the dealers and collectors (and curators)
who talk this way are apparently quite
sincere. And even if they are frankly in the
business to make money, there is not much
reason to be secretive; prosecutions for
fencing and receiving stolen antiquities are
few and far between.

Just a few years ago the two most beautiful
stelae from the famous fvlaya site of Piedras
Negras turned up on the U.S. art market,
having been cut up with chain saws by a
group of alligator hunters working for an
important American dealer. The fact that
these particular stelae were well known,
having been often illustrated in books and
visited by tourists, seems not to have
affected their salability. They soon found
their way to two large East Coast
institutions, which put them into temporary
storage as a concession to the sensibilities
of the Guatemalan government, the stelae's
legal owner. No real effort was made to
keep the secret, however. The news leaked
out and the officials of the two institutions
reportedly were surprised when the
Guatemalans became upset and demanded
that the stelae be returned. At last, after
seven years, one of the institutions has
agreed to give its stela back. But it lost
nothing else. No names were ever publicly
mentioned, and the possibility of prosecution
was not even considered.

Item: The American public is suffering from
the antiquities trade in a number of ways.
Our own heritage is being destroyed by
the pothunters with almost as much zeal
as is the heritage of foreign countries.
Given the laxity (or nonexistence) of
American antiquities laws, the only check on
the pothunters' activities is the
comparatively low market value of most
American archaeological material.
The public's pocketbook suffers whenever
another stolen object is bought by a
collector and given, as a tax-deductible gift,

to a museum. The idea of the tax-deductible
gift is itself an admirable one and is usually
an excellent bargain for the public. But
when the objects being given are stolen
and likely to be later confiscated, the public
can lose heavily.

And finally, that segment of the public who
collect antiquities themselves — and it is
surprisingly large — is very vulnerable to
fraud. The situation is ready-made for con
men, who are traditionally fond of
customers who like the idea of making big
profits on things that are slightly illegal.
IVIuch of what is sold is stolen and, now that
the legal situation is beginning to tighten
up, may later be confiscated from the
buyer. Also, a large part of the legally
acquired portion of the average dealer's
stock IS fake. Some famous types of
artifacts are almost all fakes, but so good
that even the professionals — the art
historians and the archaeologists — are often
fooled, although they usually will not admit
this in public. The fakes are even sold as
stolen originals. For instance, right now the
American market is being flooded with a
group of excellent faked Cambodian statues
which some dealers tell their customers
confidentially were taken right from Angkor
Wat by loyalist or communist soldiers. This
is not to say that Cambodian sites are not
being extensively looted or that some of

this loot may not turn up on the U.S. market,
fvly point IS that the average collector — even
the average collector without scruples and
with an expert advisor — has no way of
knowing. In a market as profitable and
unethical as the present one he doesn't
stand a chance.

Hem: As Clemency Coggins reported in
her Science article, the antiquities
entrepreneurs are becoming ruthless not
only with sites and monuments but with
human lives. In Guatemala alone at least
one government official and a number of
Lacandon Indians have been murdered by
these entrepreneurs' agents. Scattered
reports are coming in from other places
telling of the intimidation and beating of
local policemen, over-diligent customs
agents, and site watchmen. The stakes
involved have become huge as the market
price of antiquities continues to escalate.
The speculators on that market can always
close their eyes if their wares come into
the shop slightly stained with blood.

It is things like these, then, that have
convinced us that the time has come to do
something about the situation. Part of what
we propose to do is contained in Field
IVIuseum's policy statement. However, we
feel that still more should be done.
In the next year or so a number of other

September 1972

Naranjo Stela 30 in 1971, west side and east side. Photos by Joya Haii

museums will probably Issue resolutions
on the antiquities trade, following the lead
of the University of Pennsylvania Museum
and the Harvard University Museums, which
were the first to do so. The majority of
these resolutions, It seems likely, will be
directed specifically toward the Illegal
aspect of the antiquities business — now
that the thieves and smugglers are starting
to receive publicity, neither the honest
museum officials nor the persons who have
In the past knowingly bought stolen goods
want to risk being criticized and perhaps
prosecuted. This awakening desire to keep
skirts clean is important and will hurt
badly the racketeers who specialize In
out-and-out lawbreaklng. But It is only a
first step.

The real masters of the antiquities trade,
after all, have for long been accustomed
to operating In a gray area, neither quite
within nor entirely outside the law. Their
agents do not sneak Into sites with chain
saws; they go in openly with bulldozers and
papers signed by local officials. They do
not smuggle their finds out in fishing boats;
they send them, covered with customs
seals and official permits, by ordinary air
freight. And if It looks as though they will
have trouble with American customs, they
park their goods In a third country for a
while until they can arrange to have

documents made certifying that those
particular objects have been In private
collections In that third country for fifty
years. Museum resolutions aimed entirely
at the illicit trade will have little effect on
entrepreneurs like these.

Field Museum's policy statement was
designed to cover the gray-area as well
as the clearly illicit trade. We will not, in
the words of the statement, "acquire any
archaeological or ethnographic object that
cannot be shown to the satisfaction of the
Museum official or committee responsible
for Its acquisition to have been exported
legally from its country of origin." and we
will not "acquire objects In any case where
the responsible Museum official or
committee has reasonable cause to believe
that the circumstances of their recovery
involved the recent unscientific or
intentional destruction of sites or
monuments." What this means, essentially.
Is that we do not want any archaeological
or ethnographic objects found In the recent
past or In the future which were
acquired by looting or destruction of sites
or monuments. We doubt that anything
can be done about the split milk of the
past, but we will be especially cautious
about objects recovered within the last
several years. Some objects looted as far
back as 1960 are probably still In the

pipeline or In the hands of the dealers
who originally commissioned the looting,
and profits from selling those objects
would undoubtedly be ploughed back Into
further looting.

This also Is still not enough, and will not
be enough even if, as we hope, other
museums join us in resolving against the
gray-area trade. Several other things must be
done. The federal and state governments
must be urged to pass workable laws
against the Importation of Illicit antiquities
and against the looting of sites within our
own country. The fact that any landowner
in almost any state can loot to his heart's
content, just as long as he Is on his own
land, is a national disgrace — America has
weaker and more toothless antiquities
laws than do most countries in Africa. And
more important, the public must be
awakened to what is happening. Up till
now the operations of the antiquities
business have been shrouded from public
view, carried on within a small and slightly
secretive circle of dealers, collectors,
professors, and curators who have cut
themselves off from the world at large as
much by the obscurity of their language
as by the necessity of protecting their
enormously valuable collections. Before
the antiquities trade can be properly
controlled and cut down to size, all this
must be opened up. Facts must be collected
— no one at present has the slightest Idea
of the volume or profits of trade In
archaeological antiquities. The public must
be informed of these facts — what kinds
of damage are being done; what things are
being stolen; and what the consequences
are of their innocent desire for bargains,
their Innocent pleasure In breaking petty
foreign regulations, and their Innocent
fondness for using statues of ancient gods
as living room decorations. And eventually,
names must be named. All the talk In the
world about unscrupulous dealers and
rapacious collectors will have no real
meaning until we can begin saying, in
detail, what and where and who.

Field Museum's policy statement, printed
in this Issue of the Bulletin, Is therefore
only a modest beginning. More needs to
be done. We want to cooperate with other
institutions, and we seek the support of
private persons, especially the Members of
this r/luseum. The problem Is urgent.

Bennet Branson is Assistant Curator of
Asian Archaeoiogy and Anthropology at
Field Museum.

Field Museum Bulletin

Policy statement of Field Museum concerning acquisition of antiquities

1 (a) The Museum will not acquire any archaelogical or ethnographic object that cannot

be shown to the satisfaction of the Museum official or committee responsible for its
acquisition to have been exported legally from its country of origin.

(b) Further, the Museum will refuse to acquire objects in any case where the responsible
Museum official or committee has reasonable cause to believe that the circumstances
of their recovery involved the recent unscientific or intentional destruction of sites

or monuments. These restrictions shall also apply to archaeological objects excavated
in the United States.

(c) "Acquire" shall include acquisitions through purchase, gift or bequest. "Country of
origin" means both "country of ultimate origin," when the objects in question have
been recently transported across several international boundaries, and also "country
of intermediate origin," when applied to objects anciently transported and then
deposited in an archaeological or historical context.

(d) This Museum policy shall be taken into account in determining whether to accept
loans for exhibition or other purposes.

2 This Museum policy shall apply especially to objects of appreciable market value. The
pedigrees of such items will be subjected to particular scrutiny. Regardless of value,
however, no archaeological or cultural object of any kind will be acquired unless the
responsible Museum official or committee is satisfied as to the legality of its
exportation and the circumstances of its recovery.

3 The Museum will hereafter acquire no questionable objects except those that can be
demonstrated to have left their country of origin before the approved date of this
document. The same date shall apply as to the acquisition of objects reasonably
believed to have been illegally or unscientifically excavated within the United States.
The responsible Museum official or committee shall be entitled, however, to utilize
the principles contained in this Policy Statement in determining whether to acquire
any object reasonably believed to have been improperly exported or recovered before
that date.

4 The Museum has for many years refused to appraise archaeological objects.
Extending this policy, the Museum shall hereafter refuse to authenticate any antiquity
the acquisition of which by the vendor or owner does not meet the criteria listed

in paragraphs 1 and 3. In this manner the Museum hopes to avoid encouraging, even
indirectly, the trade in illicit or irresponsibly recovered antiquities.

5 In the future, if the Museum should inadvertently acquire an object that is thereafter
determined by the responsible Museum official or committee to have been exported or
recovered in violation of this policy, the Museum shall promptly return the object

to the transferor or, whenever appropriate, to the government of the country of origin
or other proper owner thereof, as the case may be.

July 17, 1972

September 1972

Men and their work

Donald Collier

Field Museum was a direct outgrowtfi from
tine World's Columbian Exposition of 1893,
which celebrated the four hundredth
anniversary of the discovery of America by
Columbus. The first public appeal for
extensive anthropological exhibits at the
Exposition, which would serve as the
nucleus for a permanent museum, was made
by Frederic Ward Putnam, Curator of the
Peabody Museum at Harvard, in a
communication to the Chicago Tribune on
May 31, 1890. He believed the fair offered
a great opportunity to secure and display
"a perfect ethnographical exhibition of the
past and present peoples of America and
thus make an important contribution to
science, . . . which will be the first bringing
together on a grand scale of representatives
of the peoples who were living on the
continent when it was discovered by
Columbus . . ."

The next year Putnam was appointed chief
of the fair's department of ethnology. He
made Franz Boas, then professor at Clark
University, his chief assistant and head of
the section on physical anthropology, and
George A. Dorsey, one of his students at
Harvard, head of the section on archaeology.
He then plunged into organizing, through
direct field work and negotiation with
foreign governments, the most extensive
anthropology exhibit of its kind ever
assembled. He was also responsible for
securing most of the natural history exhibits
at the Exposition, including the great
geology and zoology exhibition of Ward's
Natural Science Establishment.

On November 28, 1891. in an address
before the Commercial Club of Chicago,
Putnam again urged the people of Chicago
to take advantage of the opportunity afforded
by the Exposition to found a great natural
history museum. He outlined in detail the
administrative organization of the proposed
museum, the organization and activities of
its scientific departments (Anthropology,
Botany, Geology, and Zoology), and the
nature of its exhibits. These proposals
formed the blueprint of the future museum.

In November 1893, two weeks after the
close of the fair, the Trustees decided to
assemble the accumulating collections in
the Fine Arts Building, which became the
home of Field Museum until the move to the
present building in 1921. The collections
consisted of materials assembled and owned
by the Exposition, which were presented
outright to the new museum, and collections

Df Berlhoid Lauter (at right) and friends rn Hankow, China, about 1904

of private exhibitors, states, and foreign
governments, which were obtained by gift or
purchase. Franz Boas was appointed
Curator of Anthropology and began work on
the installation of permanent anthropology
exhibits. The Field Columbian Museum was
opened to the public on June 2, 1894.

At the time of the opening the anthropology
collections consisted of approximately
50,000 specimens (the present collection
contains over 400,000 specimens).
Because of the theme of the Exposition, the
majority of these pertained to the Americas.
The scientifically most important collections
had been gathered through field work
carried out under Putnam's direction by
about 100 persons during 1891 and 1892.
Also included was the North American Indian
collection donated by Edward E. Ayer, a
founder of the Museum, plus other private
collections purchased at the close of the
Exposition, such as the Restrepo collection
of prehispanic gold from Colombia, the
Montez collection of Inca archaeological
material from Cuzco, and the Hassler
ethnographic collection from Paraguay.

A partial listing of geographical and tribal
sources will give an idea of the scope of
the anthropology collection in 1894.
Archaeology: Alaska, Arizona, California,
Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio (including the
great Hopewell collection excavated by
Moorehead for the 1893 Exposition),
Wisconsin; Bolivia, Chile, Colombia,
Costa Rica, Ecuador, Egypt, Guatemala,
Ireland, Mexico, Peru. Ethnography: Alaskan
Eskimo, Polar Eskimo of North Greenland
(collected by Lt. Robert E. Peary for the
1893 Exposition), Siberian Eskimo, Apache,
Assiniboin, Bella Coola, Chippewa, Haida,
KwakiutI, Malacite, Menominee, Micmac,
Muskogee, Naskapi, Navaho, Ottawa, Pueblo
Indians, Salteaux; Africa, Bolivia, Brazil,
British Guinea, Chile, China, India, Japan,
Java, Pacific Islands, Paraguay, Peru,
Siberia, Venezuela (upper Orinoco).

The anthropology library began with a
nucleus of 1,200 volumes that had been sent
to the department of ethnology of the
Exposition from various parts of the world in
response to a printed circular distributed by
Putnam.

Field Museum Bulletin

Dr. Boas resigned under pressure as
Curator of Anthropology early in 1894.
The details of the crisis are not known, but
there is evidence that it stemmed from a
long-standing and bitter conflict dating bacl<
to 1891 between Putnam and Harlow
Higginbotham, President of the Exposition
and an influential Trustee of the new
museum. Boas remained loyal to Putnam,
his former chief and the man primarily
responsible for laying the foundations of
Field t^useum. (Boas was out of a job for
more than a year. Late in 1895 Putnam
secured him the post of assistant curator at
the American Museum of Natural History in
New York. He began teaching at Columbia
University and later started the department
of anthropology there. It is Intriguing to
speculate on the course of American
anthropology if Boas, who is generally
considered the greatest of its founders, had
remained at Field Museum and had taught
at the young University of Chicago.)

Boas was succeeded by William H. Holmes,
an archaeologist from the Smithsonian
Institution. In December 1894 Holmes set
out with Charles F. Millspaugh, Curator of
Botany, on the Allison V. Armour
Archaeological and Botanical Expedition to
Yucatan and Mexico, which lasted four
months. The party traveled with Armour on
his steam yacht Ituna. Holmes visited various
sites in Yucatan, assisted by Edward H.
Thompson, U.S. Consul in Merida, who had
made casts of Maya monuments for the
Columbian Exposition and later secured
important collections for Field Museum from
Chichen Itza and Uxmal. Holmes also visited
Palenque, Mitia, Monte Alban. the Valley of
Mexico, and Teotihuacan. This work resulted
in the addition of 1,000 archaeological
specimens to the Museum's collections,
including important Aztec sculptures and a
unique engraved stone tablet from
Teotihuacan (exported legally under Mexican
laws of the period). Holmes published a
now classic two-volume report,
"Archaeological Studies Among the Ancient
Cities of Mexico," illustrated by his superb
bird's-eye-view drawings of Yucatecan sites,
Palenque, MitIa, and Monte Alban {Fieldiana:
Anthropology, vol. 1, no. 1, 1895 and 1897).

Holmes resigned late in 1896 to return to the
Smithsonian Institution as chief of the
Bureau of American Ethnology. His
successor at Field Museum was George A.
Dorsey, who had been appointed Assistant
Curator the year before. (Dorsey, who
received his Ph.D. in 1896 under Putnam at
Harvard, was the first curator with a
doctorate in anthropology. Boas was trained
as a physicist; Holmes as an artist who
came into archaeology after working for the
U.S. Geological Survey as a field illustrator.)
Dorsey held the post until 1915. During his
incumbency the anthropology staff was

hiljppine

Negrito, on Luzon, lyu9

expanded and a very active field program
was carried on among the North American
Indians and in Oceania. Between 1908 and
World War I, Fay-Cooper Cole and Albert
Lewis, both Assistant Curators, assembled
the Museum's great ethnographic collections
from Melanesia and the Philippines, and
Cole worked on a series of monographs on
theTinguian and neighboring Philippine
tribes. Lewis later published a handbook
on the peoples of Melanesia based on his
three years in Melanesia. In 1909
Dr. William Jones was killed by llongot
tribesmen in the Philippines while on a
Museum expedition. He was the Museum's
only American Indian staff member — Sauk
and Fox — and also the only museum
anthropologist to be so martyred.

Dorsey was succeeded by Berlhold Laufer.
who had been appointed Associate Curator
in 1908. Laufer served as Curator until his
death in 1934. He had received his Ph.D. in
oriental languages from the University of
Leipzig in 1897. Laufer was a sinologist who
read and spoke Chinese and half a dozen
European languages, and knew in addition
Hebrew, Sanskrit, Pali, Malay, Japanese,
Manchu, Mongolian, Dravidian, and Tibetan.
He was a traditional German scholar of
wide interests and great erudition. He
conducted the Blackstone Expedition to
Tibet and China (1908-10) and then the
Marshall Field Expedition to China (1923),
during which he acquired the basic part of
the Museum's important collections of
Chinese archaeological and ethnographic
material and the outstanding Tibetan
collection. His more than 250 publications
included monographs, papers, and leaflets
in the Museum's Fieldiana: Anthropology
series and articles in English and German
in numerous scholarly journals. Probably his
most influential works, both published by the
Museum, were "Jade: A Study in Chinese

Archaeology and Religion" (1912, 370 pp.)
and "Sino-lranica: Chinese Contributions to
the History of Ancient Civilizations in
Iran' (1919, 446 pp.).

During the Laufer era the Anthropology staff
was further enlarged, and besides Laufer's
field work, there were extended Museum
anthropology expeditions to various parts of
the Americas and the Old World, which
resulted in scholarly publications and
important additions to the collections. A
partial listing will convey the scope of the
field work done by staff members during the
period,

Fay-Cooper Cole — Indonesia and Malay
Peninsula, ethnography (1922-23).

Henry Field — Europe, archaeology (1927-28,
1930): North Arabian Desert, archaeology and
physical anthropology (1928): Near East and
Soviet Union, archaeology and physical
anthropology (1934): he also participated in
three of the five field seasons of the Field
Museum-Oxford University Joint Expedition to
Kish (1923-30).

Wilfred Hambly — Angola and Nigeria,
ethnography (1929).

A. L. Kroeber (Research Associate) — Peru,
archaeology (1925. 1926).

Ralph Linton — Madagascar, ethnography
(1925-27).

Paul S, Martin — Colorado, archaeology (four
seasons, 1931-34),

J, Alden Mason — Colombia, archaeology (1922).

W. Duncan Strong — Labrador and Baffinland.
ethnography and archaeology (1927-28).

J, Eric Thompson — British Honduras and
Guatemala, archaeology and ethnology (1927,
1928-29, 1931, 1933-34),

Paul S. Martin was appointed Acting Curator
after Laufer's death in 1934 and was given
the new title of Chief Curator in 1936. The
time was the depth of the Depression.
Never again was the Museum able to fund
numerous expeditions from its own income
and gifts from private supporters. It was also
soon after the beginning of the shift of the
center of gravity of American anthropology
from the museums to the universities. From
1935 to 1941 there were only tour
anthropology expeditions, and none during
the four years the United States was in
World War II. After the war, expeditions were
resumed, but as operating costs rose and
the endowment did not increase
proportionately, the Museum depended
more and more on research grants from
private and governmental foundations. This
change has resulted in new research
orientations and the need for greatly
increased lead time in planning field work.

During Martin's incumbency as Chief
Curator (1934-1964) the Museum's
geographical interests in anthropology did
not change markedly, but on field
expeditions there was much less emphasis

September 1972

on collecting per se and much more on
documentation and obtaining significant
research data. Again, a partial listing will
indicate the scope of field work,

Donald Collier — archaeology: Ecuador (1941-42),
Peru (1946, 1956). Mexico (1949).

Phillip H. Lewis (University of Chicago Museum
Fellow) — New Ireland, ethnography (1953-54).

Paul S. Martin — archaeology: Colorado (1937,
1938), New Mexico (12 seasons, 1939-55),
Arizona (9 seasons, 1956-64).

George I, Quimby — archaeology: Michigan,
Wisconsin, Minnesota (9 seasons, 1955-64),
Louisiana (1949, 1954), Norway (1952).

Alexander Spoehr — Majuro, Marshall Islands,
ethnography (1947); Saipan, archaeology
(1949-50).

Kenneth Starr — Taiwan, archaeology and
ethnology (1960).

Elaine Bluhm — archaeological survey of Cook,
Du Page, and Lake Counties, Illinois (1954-56).

Dr. Ralph Linton with temple drum
from Marquesas Islands, 1928.

In 1958 the Museum purchased from
Captain A. W. F. Fuller his great collection
of 6,500 ethnographic specimens from
Oceania. This major acquisition was
enthusiastically supported by Stanley Field.
After Captain Fuller's death in 1961, Mrs.
Fuller gave the Museum her husband's very
important collection from Benin in Nigeria.
This gift, combined with previous holdings,
made Field Museum's collection of Benin
materials next in importance to those in the
British Museum and the Museum fijr
Volkerkunde in Berlin.

Between 1941 and 1964 under Paul
Martin's leadership, the Department of
Anthropology completely reinstalled six
American Indian halls and the halls devoted

to Ancient Mesopotamia, Roman archaeology,
Polynesia (incorporating the most important
Fuller specimens), and Ch'ing Dynasty
China; and a new hall of primitive art was
created. This was the period of the gifted
dioramist Alfred Lee Powell, the Chicago
painter Gustaf Dalstrom, and preparator
Walter Reese. Together they formed a
congenial and creative team which set the
style of new anthropology exhibits for
twenty years. This was also the time
(1950-52) of the conversion of an exhibit
hall on the ground floor to the unique
Pacific Research Laboratory, with its
excellent storage and study facilities for all
of the Oceanic collections and a duplicate
set of the 50,000 catalog cards. The space
that was provided for future expansion later
made possible efficient incorporation of the
Fuller collection into the various Oceanic
collections. The laboratory — PRL, as it is
called — was a favorite project of
Stanley Field,

Paul Martin became emeritus in 1964 and
was succeeded by Donald Collier. Dr. Martin
has continued to be active at the Museum
and has maintained his archaeological field
program in Arizona, supported by the
National Science Foundation. This program
has involved a field school for a dozen
undergraduate students and an
interdisciplinary research design in which
hypotheses about ecological adjustments,
settlement patterns, and social structure are
tested by systematic sampling and statistical
analyses with the aid of the computer.

Between 1964 and 1970 James W. VanStone
conducted three archaeological expeditions
to Alaska (1966, 1967, 1969) to investigate
Eskimo culture change during the Russian
and American periods, and Phillip H. Lewis
spent a year in New Ireland (1970) in
continuation of his museum and field
research on New Ireland culture and art.
Glen Cole excavated paleolithic sites in
Malawi, Tanzania, and Zambia in 1966, and
Fred Reinman spent a year excavating on
Guam in 1965-66.

Staging a Festival of American Indian Art
in 1968 and a Fiesta Mexicana in 1969
was a new departure for the Department
of Anthropology and the Museum. The
purpose of these festivals was to put the
Museum into a meaningful relation with the
16,000 American Indians and the 120,000
Mexican-Americans in the Chicago area and
to make better known to all the people of
Chicago the cultural background and
contemporary life of these important ethnic
groups. There were special exhibits of both
past and contemporary arts and crafts,
photographic essays on the life of these
people in Chicago, live artists and craftsmen
at work, performances of dancing and
singing, lectures and movies, and a sales

area where high quality contemporary arts
and crafts could be purchased. These events
were made possible by generous financial
support from private and government
foundations, government agencies in the
United States and Mexico, and Air Canada
and Mexicana Airlines; by the loan of exhibit
materials from individuals, museums, and
government agencies: and by the enthusiastic
support of the Chicago Indians and
Mexican-Americans. Each festival, under the
general direction of Donald Collier, took a
year to plan and arrange and a major effort
on the part of the Museum staff to bring off.
Their success in terms of response of the
people of Chicago, including the Indians
and Mexican-Americans, seems to have
justified these efforts.

Establishment of a centralized Department
of Exhibition was another development of
this recent period, followed by staging of
numerous special exhibitions and the
beginning of planning for overall revision of
the Museum's permanent exhibits. Since
Anthropology has more than twice as much
exhibit space as any other department and
has been involved in the greatest number of
special exhibitions, these changes have had
more impact on it than on the other
scientific departments. Obviously,
considerable curatorial energy and time
have had to be diverted from research to
these new and stepped-up activities.

James VanStone became the first Chairman
of Anthropology in January 1971. This new
system of rotating chairmanships, which
replaced the old chief curatorships, was in
line with the desires of the curators and is
consonant with the previously established
system of standing committees of the
scientific staff whose functions are to
investigate problems and make policy
recommendations to the Museum
administration and the scientific departments.

All of these changes have moved the
Museum a long way from a traditional
cloister of research. They are on the whole
healthy and they are necessary for the
future development of the Museum.

REFERENCES

Donald Collier. "Chicago Comes of Age: The
World's Columbian Exposition and the Birth of
the Field Museum," Field Museum Bulletin,
May 1969.

Donald Collier and Harry Tschopik, Jr. "The
Role of Museums in American Anthropology."
American Anthropologist, 56:768-799. 1954.

Ralph W. Dexter. "Frederick Ward Putnam and
the Development of Museums of Anthropology
and Natural History in the United States."
Curator, 9:151-155, 1966.

Dr. Donald Collier is Curator of Middle and
South American Archaeology and Ethnology
at Field Museum.

Field Museum Bulletin

fl 1^

MY LDIFi

$IUI$AiNl M©©l^i

In September of last year I came to Field
Museum in hopes of working as a researcti
student in tfie Department of Anthropology
with John Terrell, who had just been
appointed Assistant Curator of Oceanic
Archaeology and Ethnology. John had
recently returned from the South Pacific
after more than a year of field work on the
island of Bougainville in the Solomons. I
had heard through the Women's Board of
the Museum that he was looking for student
volunteers to help him with the laboratory
analysis of almost seven tons of
archaeological specimens from ancient
village sites on the island.

Any doubts about my qualifications as an
archaeologist were soon diminished after
talking over what I might do in the
Department of Anthropology under John
Terrell's supervision. He pointed out that
if I could read at home and take things in
careful steps, there was a good chance I
could accomplish at least two things:
discover what it was like to analyze and
interpret the evidence recovered from field
excavations and, perhaps more important,
learn something about the demands and
pitfalls in the scientific study of man. We
agreed that I would be responsible for one
archaeological site, beginning with washing
each artifact discovered there and ending
with writing a paper on my findings and
conclusions about the site.

Popular books on archaeology often fail to
give the reader a clear understanding of
what must be done to turn the objects
recovered from an excavation into
hypotheses and conclusions about the past.
I am sure many people have read about
how carefully an archaeologist must
excavate an ancient site. But how many of
us know what happens back in the
archaeologist's laboratory before he or she
can sit down and write books and articles?

For my first two months at the Museum I
sat at a sink washing small fragments of
ancient clay cooking pots from my study

site, called "Tearaka" (a name which means
"abounding in stones" and refers to the
cobble beach in front of it). I loved it. I wore
a lab coat to establish myself as an integral
part of the Bougainville Archaeological
Survey and slowly scrubbed the skin off
both hands. I knew that somebody had to
wash the specimens before they could be
properly labeled. As John reminded me, we
had agreed I was to have an experience
from soup to nuts; or at least from sink to
laboratory table! I checked around the
Museum to see if a real archaeologist would
wear rubber gloves; and when I discovered
that you could get them from the supply
room, I ordered myself a pair.

After all the washing was completed came
many long hours of labeling individual
potsherds to establish forever their
archaeological provenance. Then one day
when I had worked my way through several
trays of specimens with pen and India ink —
and was feeling well on my way to scientific
greatness — John casually left a red felt-
tipped pen on my desk with a note to come
and see him when I had time.

He complimented me on my numbering
style. And then, looking me straight in the
eye, told me that each piece would need
yet another number. My India ink numbers
established each piece as a specimen from
Tearaka and from a definite archaeological
layer at that site. The number I would add
with the red felt-tip would establish each
sherd as an individual piece of pottery from
a particular layer. It soon became obvious
that / needed an assistant. When my friend
and neighbor Sue Sanchez agreed to help
once a week, I was delighted.

In January I finished numbering my
potsherds and it was time to move on to the
next step: scientific analysis. John spoke of
it often. He rather mysteriously called it
"turning evidence into information." Clearly
something was needed, because all I had
on the laboratory table in front of me were
trays of very clean artifacts which had been
numbered twice. The problem of saying
something coherent about thousands of
potsherds looked immense. Where do you
even begin?

From September through January I had been
preparing for this next step. I had read
John's doctoral dissertation and several of
his reports on the Bougainville
Archaeological Survey, numerous books and
articles on the archaeology and ethnography
of the South Pacific, on pottery making, and
on methods of research, and I had struggled
through a statistics book. John was always
available to explain and clarify and to
discuss the problems I was encountering in
trying to grasp the information I would need
to conduct a study of my potsherds and

then to formulate ideas about the prehistory
of Bougainville.

Armed with callipers and other instruments
for measuring, my dog-eared statistics book,
and a lot of paper, 1 labored through June
of this year measuring, counting, and
describing. Gradually the artifacts did begin
to fall into place and 1 was able to develop
a system for describing them scientifically.

When I first sat down to sort my specimens
into piles of things that looked most alike,
It was apparent that I had two different
classes of pottery vessels. The sherds in
one pile looked very much like vessels
known to have been manufactured on the
small island of Buka, just north of
Bougainville, whose almost 2,000-year-old
pottery tradition has been described by
James R. Specht of the Australian Museum
in Sydney, The sherds in the second pile
appeared to be identical in most respects
to the kind of pottery vessels manufactured

on the southeastern coast of Bougainville
in the vicinity of the modern town of Kieta —
one hundred miles from Buka and forty-five
miles south of my site at Tearaka, Since one
could safely assume that the people of
Buka and the people at Kieta did not travel
to Tearaka to discard broken pots at the
communal dump there, the occurrence of
both kinds of pottery ware seemed to
indicate that prehistoric Tearaka had been
a village where two separate trade networks
came together. In support of such an
inference, it is known historically that in the
earlier decades of this century traders from
both Buka and Kieta did reach Tearaka and
neighboring villages and that they brought
with them modern cooking vessels for trade.

According to the results of Dr, Specht's
archaeological investigations on Buka Island,
the art of pottery making has been practiced
there since the last centuries before the
birth of Christ. Unfortunately, the prehistory

September 1972

of the Kieta region of Bougainville has not
yet been explored. Nevertheless, the
discovery of broken cooking pots at Tearaka
from both centers of manufacture makes it
possible to arrive at some idea of the
antiquity of trade from Kieta by noting when
Kieta pots, of unknown antiquity, are found
in the ground at Tearaka with Buka pots,
whose age and history have been
established by Dr. Specht's own excavations.

To judge from my work on the Tearaka site,
it now seems that pottery trade from Buka
reached Tearaka and the east coast of
Bougainville sometime after A.D. 1000.
Buka traders may have arrived on the east
coast well before that, of course, but there
is no evidence at Tearaka itself to support
that possibility.

Now this discovery is quite important for
the prehistory of Bougainville. Scholars
have long believed that pottery making was
introduced to the Kieta area by migrant
peoples from the Shortland Islands south of
Bougainville during an invasion about 1860.
For several theoretical reasons, John has
questioned the idea that foreigners invaded
the island scarcely more than a hundred
years ago. Tearaka confirms his suspicions.

All the evidence from Tearaka indicates that
trade in cooking pots from Kieta is at least
as old as that from Buka, because all the
archaeological layers that have yielded
Buka potsherds have also given up sherds
from vessels that most surely came from
Kieta. Such evidence may not alone
disprove the notion that there was a foreign
invasion from the Shortlands in the last
century. There is little doubt, however, that
pottery making was not introduced to Kieta
by the hypothetical invaders. In fact, the
Kieta cooking pots closely resemble the
vessels made in the Shortlands. This
similarity indicates that the history of contact
involving Tearaka, the Kieta region, and the
Shortland Islands dates back centuries
before the alleged 19th century invasion.

To help establish these hypotheses, it was
necessary for me to examine each one of
hundreds of distinctive potsherds from
several different angles. Each sherd was
measured in numerous ways. The decorative
elements were described and classified.
Variations in shape were noted and
tabulated. Then I had to test the statistical
significance of the results. The phrases
John used so often — "describe the
similarities and differences," "is that
significant?" "establish scientifically," "turn
evidence into information" — really began to
mean something to me for the first time.

Initially I was the only continuing research
student working with John Terrell. During
the winter months, however, nine other
students from universities in the Chicago

area joined the study program that John and
I had devised. In February of this year Ben
Bronson, the newly-appointed Assistant
Curator of Asian Archaeology and
Ethnology, returned from a lengthy
archaeological reconnaissance trip through
Indonesia. Soon five students also
joined the research program to help him
evaluate the many Asian exhibits in the
IVIuseum, some of which date from an early
era of museum display and are in great
need of revision.

With the arrival of so many new people in
the Department of Anthropology, it became
all too obvious that we needed a well-
equipped laboratory where we could
coordinate our efforts. We were scattered
here and there in the anthropology halls on
the third floor wherever there happened to
be an empty table and a chair.

John drew up plans for a laboratory to be
located in a little-used office in ttie
anthropology wing of the tvluseum. The
Ivluseum administration swiftly approved the
plans. In a few days carpenters and
electricians were at work painting walls,
adding electrical outlets and new lights,
building storage units, and refinishing the
floor. In May the Research Laboratory for
the Program in Archaeology and Ethnology
was officially opened and the Department
made public the news that the Program
itself, initiated back in September of 1971,
would be a regular offering to students in
Chicago.

By the end of June I was beginning to see
more clearly some of the important
conclusions that could be drawn from my
study collection.

It was also in June that 1 came close to
losing my life for archaeology.

On the morning of the 6th I went out to my
car to drive my children to their sitter before

B

<^

Linoleum block cuts by Zbigniew T. Jastrzebski.

going on to the IVIuseum. I placed my
notebook on the luggage rack on the roof
to have both hands free to fasten my
youngest child into his traveling seat.
Absent-mindedly I left the notebook there
and drove off with the children and a
friend, Carol Carr, safely inside. On Lake
Shore Drive disaster struck. Cars behind us
for some reason started honking
continuously. Somewhat irritated, I checked
the rear-view mirror again. A peculiar thing.
There was white paper fluttering all over the
Drive. I immediately realized that nine
months of carefully extracted information
about Tearaka had taken wing from the top
of my car.

For an hour and a half Carol and I placed
our lives on the line as we darted back and
forth between eight lanes of rush-hour
traffic grabbing sheets of notebook paper
from under the wheels of passing vehicles.
When we finally staggered into the Museum,
Marty Zelenietz, a fellow student researcher,
solemnly placed my battered notebook next
to a bronze plaque that had just been
brought from the basement to the Research
Laboratory: a plaque in memory of William
Jones, an ethnologist who had lost his life
in the Philippines in 1909 while collecting
specimens for the Field Museum (see Field
Museum Bulletin. September 1971).

I was, fortunately, luckier than Dr. Jones.
Not only was I still alive, but when I sat
down to examine the damage, I discovered
that Carol and I had made almost 100%
data retrieval. From then on I would keep
a promise to John, made scarcely a week
earlier. I would Xerox my notebook "in
case anything ever happens."

July and August were months of final
analysis and writing for me. Now a whole
year has passed at the Museum and I have
produced my report on the Tearaka site,
soon to be published along with reports by
other students, as one of the "Reports of
the Bougainville Archaeological Survey."

What I learned at the Museum during the
year I spent there sounds like a list of
regular classroom college courses for an
anthropology major: statistics, methods of
research, geography, Pacific archaeology
and ethnology. However, these subjects
were more meaningful to me than they
would have been if I had learned them in
the regular way, because I used them as
tools. Courses taken at a university only
rarely have the impact of the ones I "took"
at Field Museum, which grew out of an
authentic need to conduct all phases of a
rigorous scientific investigation.

Susan Moore is an anthropology student in
the University Without Walls program at
Northeastern Illinois University.

Field Museum Bulletin

11

Pottery is an important aspect of African
culture. It is made and used in almost
every tribe, usually by women, less often
by men. In an effort to communicate
sometfiing about African culture. Field
Ivluseum recently sponsored a demonstration
of traditional African pottery making by
the Nigerian potter Ladi Kwali.

Ladi Kwali's first name means "born on
Sunday"; tier second name is simply tfiat of
tier fiome, Kwali, one of tfie villages of the
Gwari people of northern Nigeria. As a child
she was trained in traditional Gwari
hand-building pottery methods by her aunt
As a young woman she was taught to throw
pots on a wheel by the English potter
Michael Cardew.

Michael Cardew went to Nigeria in 1950 as
a senior pottery officer working for the
British Ministry of Industry and Trade. He
established a pottery training center at
Abuja after much research in northern
Nigeria. Abuja was chosen for several
reasons: the traditional pottery in the area
was excellent: firewood was abundant: good
clays were plentiful: there were good local
sources for the raw materials necessary to
make glazes: and water was available. At
Abuja, Cardew taught Nigerians and other
Africans to throw pots on a wheel and to
use stoneware clay and glazes.

The Ghanaian potter Kofi Athey explains to
Christine Danziger, conservator in the Museum's
Anthropology Department, certain technical details
about African ceramics.

However, he was so impressed with the
local Gwari pottery, especially that made by
Ladi Kwali, that when she came to learn
new methods at the training center, Cardew
encouraged her to continue making
traditional pots also. She was famous as a
traditional potter when Cardew came to
Nigeria, and he simply taught her and other
native potters how to adapt traditional pots
to stoneware clay, which could be glazed
and fired to high temperatures.

Ladi Kwali's traditional waterpots actually
kept the center going in its early years when
some people in the Ministry of Industry and
Trade thought it was not profitable and
should be shut down. The enthusiasm with
which Ladi Kwali's pots were received when
exhibited in London in 1958, 1959, and 1962
helped keep the center open. In 1962 Ladi
Kwali spent three weeks in England
demonstrating her craft to audiences of
potters, students, and ethnologists. In 1963
she was invited to go on a tour of
demonstrations in Germany and Italy.

In October 1965 Ladi Kwali achieved
additional international recognition in the
ceramic world when she won a Silver Award
of Excellence for a jar with a traditional
pattern which had been entered in the 10th
International Exhibition of Ceramic Art at
the Smithsonian Institution in Washington,

Ladi Kwali making a traditional Gwari waterpot at
Field Museum. She rolls about three clay sausages
at one time and lays them in the bottom of the pot
until she is ready to add one to the pot.

m

Vfsm

lumA^^i^ikmm

At this stage Mrs. Kwali is building up the shoulder
of the pot by pressing on some of the clay sausages.
After each addition of clay she smooths both the
inside and the outside of the pot with a tool made
from a piece of gourd, which obliterates the marks
of the newly added clay and incorporates it into
the wall of the pot.

12

September 1972

D.C. The jar was brought to the United
States by the Harmon Foundation of New
York City, and they agreed to leave it on
permanent exhibition with the African
ethnological collection at the Smithsonian.

Michael Cardew arranged a United States
tour for Ladi Kwali in 1972 to major cities on
the East Coast and in the South and to
Chicago. Los Angeles, and Dallas. The
three people in the tour were Ladi Kwali,
Michael Cardew, and Kofi Athey. Kofi Athey
is a Ghanaian potter who also studied under
Michael Cardew at Abuja, and he is now in
charge of his own pottery center at Jos,
Nigeria. On May 17, 1972 Ladi Kwali made
a traditional waterpot on the terrace outside
the west door of Field Museum while
Michael Cardew answered questions and
talked informally about Nigerian pottery and
Kofi Athey prepared the clay and translated
for Ladi Kwali. About 450 people came to
see the demonstration, some from as far
away as Urbana, Illinois and Bloomington,
Indiana.

The photos show progressive stages in the
building of this pot. It is the kind traditionally
used in Gwari to transport water from its
source to a larger storage waterpot which is
kept in most African homes.

After the pottery demonstration, Michael
Cardew introduced a new film, "Abuja
Pottery," made at the Pottery Training

Shaping the neck of the pot with (ingers and the
palm of the hand.

Center by the Australian film maker Alister
Hassam. Field Museum will acquire a print
of this film for future educational purposes.
The film shows Ladi Kwali and another
traditional Gwari potter making hand-built
pots alongside men throwing pots on a
wheel. It also shows traditional Gwari firing
methods as well as contemporary firings
at Abuja. Traditional Gwari pots are fired by
making a circle of stones, laying thin sticks
on the ground, carefully piling the pots on
the sticks, and covering them with broken
potsherds and brushwood and grass. The
fuel is lit and the pots are fired for not
longer than three hours. Sometimes the pots
are basted after firing, while hot, with a
liquid made from soaked locust bean pods.
This treatment gives the pottery a
mahogany-colored surface which looks
almost like a glaze.

Traditional African pottery is often burnished
but is never glazed. In order to glaze a pot
it must be made of clay which can be fired
to a high temperature so that the clay
minerals will bond with the glaze. Some
scholars had assumed that African potters
could not achieve high firing temperatures.
Michael Cardew discovered and explained
in his book Pioneer Pottery that Africans
deliberately use low-firing clays and no
glaze. African pots are made mainly to be

The clay Just added here is not in a smooth coil
but has been pinched over the necl< for the wide
lip that will be shaped next. Mrs. Kwali is
answering a spectator's questions with the help of
Michael Cardew, who is translating back and forth
between English and Hausa.

used for cooking over an open fire. A pot
that is used in this way must be highly
resistant to thermal shock — that is, it must
not be fired to a temperature high enough
to melt the clay minerals into a rigid glass
state.

African pots are deliberately made of clays
that fire best at about 600°C., leaving the
pots in a non-glaseous, porous state with
the clay minerals still physically flexible,
and thus the pot is resistant to the thermal
shock caused by cooking over an open fire.
When the pot is placed over a fire, the clay
minerals on the outside of the pot react to
the intense heat by expanding into the
pores. When it is removed from the fire, the
minerals cool and contract back into place
without cracking the pot. A glazed pot
subjected to such extreme conditions would
crack. Porous pots also make excellent
waterpots because they can sweat and thus
cool the water inside by evaporation.

Although Michael Cardew retired from
Abuja in 1965 to Cornwall, England, the
Abuja Training Center, now operated by the
Nigerian government, continues to train
Nigerians in pottery-making technologies.
All materials used are from Nigeria. After
the trainees have mastered the various
aspects of making pottery, they may remain
at the center and produce pottery and teach

t^lrs. Kwali uses a piece of wet leather to form the
lip of the pot. This is the hardest step in making a
traditional African pot and is more time-consuming
than any other stage except decoration.

Field Museum Bulletin

13

new students or they may start a new
worksfiop elsewhere. There are now Abuja-
trained potters at centers in Kampala,
Uganda and Jos. Nigeria.

The products of the Abuja Pottery Training
Center are an example of an evolving
African art. The traditional terracotta pottery
used in villages is evolving into ceramic
ware made to be used in cities. The
traditional pots were, and still are, used in
African homes for cooking over an open
fire; for storing water, food, and fuel; for
carrying liquids and food; and in shrines to
hold ritual liquids used in ceremonies. The
contemporary pots — both those made on a
wheel and those built by hand, bisque-fired,
glazed, and again fired — are sold to
upper-class Nigerians and Europeans in
Nigeria and Europe as tableware and
decorative pieces. The products made at

The walerpot now in its final shape, Mrs. Kwali roils
a carved wooden tool called a roulette over the
side of the pot. She uses another roulette, of
twisted cotton, to impress decoration on the
shoulder of the pot. The twisted cotton roulettes
are made by women: the wooden roulettes, carved
with a pattern of simple notches, are made by men
and sold to the potters. Potters use several
roulettes, each with a different design, f^any African
pots are rouletted all over. The potters say
rouletting is for decoration, but Cardew and other
scholars have noted that the process consolidates
the surface, strengthens the pot, and assists in
cooling any liquid contents by increasing the
surface area through which evaporation may take
place. Rouletting also gives a pot a non-slippery
surface which is useful when a woman with wet hands
tries to lift a pot full of food or water. In the audience
are Ruth Duckworth, a famous Chicago potter, and
a photographer from the Chicago Daily Detender-

Abuja are glazed stoneware oil jars,
traditional waterpots, flowerpots, ashtrays,
casseroles, tumblers, bowls, mugs, plates,
teapots, coffeepots, and cups and saucers.
There are plans to sell Abuja pottery in
Chicago also.

As much as one admires traditional African
pottery, one must recognize the validity of
an art form that is evolving to meet new
needs, whether the evolution be
technological (use of the wheel, stoneware
clays, and glazes), economic (exportation
of African pottery to other countries), or
social (the emergence of a new social class
with different ceramic needs).

Africa is changing, just as most parts of the
world are changing. Some people lament
the changes but still admire what Michael
Cardew has achieved, because at Abuja the
traditional high level of craftsmanship and
design has been continued and adapted to
other clays and techniques. Ladi Kwali's
traditional waterpot constructed here at
Field f^useum was made with stoneware
clay donated by the A.R.T. Studios in
Skokie. Illinois and fired at the Art Institute
of Chicago by the Evanston potter James
Lorio. But its shape and designs are the
same as her pots made at Kwali — the native
animals, the chameleons, lizards, snakes,
scorpions, birds, fish, and crocodiles. It is
now a part of the African collections at
Field tVIuseum.

The United States tour of Ladi Kwali,
Michael Cardew, and Kofi Athey was
cooperatively sponsored through the African
Craftsmen in America, the American Crafts
Council, and the World Crafts Council as an
experiment in international understanding
between peoples. Its success will enable
other African craftsmen to come to the
United States.

FURTHER READING

Michael Cardew. Pioneer Pollery. London:
Longmans, Green and Co. Ltd., 1969.

Michael Cardew. "Ladi Kwali,
vol. 32, no. 2. p. 34, 1972.

Cralt Horizons,

Charles Counts. "Michael Cardew," Cratt
Horizons, vol. 32, no. 1, p. 22. 1971.

Alhaji Hassam and Mallam Shuaibu Na'ibl
(translation by Frank Heath). The Chronicle ot
Abuja. Lagos: African Universities Ltd.. 1962.
(Available at Norltnwestern University Library.)

Mrs. Maude Wahlman is Consultant in
Atrican Ethnology at Field Museum.

The finished pot shows the same animal designs
that Ladi Kwali has always put on her traditional
pots — crocodiles, lizards, snakes, chameleons, birds,
fish, and scorpions. At the Abuja Training Center
the large waterpots that fvlrs. Kwali makes of
stoneware clay are bisque-fired, then painted over
with a mixture of kaolin and feldspar. This is
rubbed off with a wet sponge, leaving white slip
lodging in the incised designs. The pot is then
dipped in a special glaze which when fired is
transparent rather than opaque. After firing, the
designs appear as if inlaid in white and the
background is a deep green or gray.
Photos by Fred Huysmans and Hilda f^cElroy.

14

September 1972

PEOPLE WHO STUDY PEOPLE

WHO'S WHO IN ANTHROPOLOGY

Elizabeth Munger

Anthropologists do a bewildering variety of
things because anthropology, as the "natural
history of man," encompasses the study
both of man's origins and of the great
diversity of cultures he has created. At Field
Museum the responsibilities within the
Department of Anthropology are divided
primarily by geographical area, and most of
the curators are concerned with the present
as well as the past of the areas they
specialize in. That is, they are ethnologists
as well as archaeologists. But recovering,
recording, and preserving evidence of the
immense diversity of human experience are
only the beginnings of their work. Their
goal, like that of all anthropologists, is to
find explanations of this diversity — to unravel
the varying roles of the natural environment,
of social conditions, and of the individual
psyche in producing the cultures of mankind.

Dr. James W. VanStone has three major
responsibilities at Field Museum. He is
Curator of North American Archaeology and
Ethnology, Chairman of the Department of
Anthropology, and scientific editor of the
Fieldiana series of publications. Before he
loined the staff in 1966 he taught for fifteen
years, first at the University of Alaska, then
at the University of Toronto. Dr. VanStone is
an authority on the peoples of the North
American arctic and subarctic, where he has
done extensive fieldwork. He spent the
winter of 1955-56 with Eskimos at Point
Hope, Alaska, participating fully in their
whaling and sealing expeditions. The winter
of 1960-61 he lived with the Chipewyan
Indians in the Canadian Northwest
Territories. This past summer he spent in
southwestern Alaska pursuing his current
research interest in how the early Russian
and American activities in that region
influenced the culture of the Eskimos. His
extensive knowledge of this area makes him
a valuable member of a federal government
watchdog committee to see that
environmental protection measures are
carried out in connection with building the
trans-Alaskan oil pipeline. Dr. VanStone is
especially anxious that no archaeological
sites are disturbed.

Dr. Paul S. Martin, the distinguished Chief
Curator of Anthropology for thirty years and
emeritus since 1964, can by no means be
considered retired. He has hardly changed
his rigorous schedule, established long ago,
of summer archaeological field work in the
Southwest and winter laboratory analysis
and writing in his third floor office. However,
he changed drastically the goal and product

of that work about ten years ago. He was
dissatisfied with his renowned achievements
of thirty-five years because "they were not
explaining, predicting, or clarifying cultural
phenomena; they were not concerned with
contemporary problems of behavioral
science . . . and they were not helping man
to understand and to interpret his world."
So he wrote in his article "The Revolution in
Archaeology" published here last year. His
work is now guided by the conviction that
archaeologists must view their evidence as
expressions of recurring cultural processes.
He is using computer analysis to seek
regularities of cultural change and
adaptation. The Kidder Award Dr. Martin
received in 1968 "for achievement in
American archaeology" was as much in
honor of his current as his past work.
Students count themselves fortunate to be
selected to participate in his formal summer
teaching and excavation program at the
Museum's Arizona field station. This
program has been funded since 1964 by
National Science Foundation grants.

Dr. Donald Collier, Curator of Middle and
South American Archaeology and Ethnology,
was probably the only undergraduate
student in 1932 to have a research paper
become part of the Congressional Record
and even influence government policy. It
was on peyote and the Indian peyote
religion, prepared at the request of his father
as background information for the Senate
Committee on Indian Affairs. It also
influenced the author, for it led him to
choose anthropology as a career. Since
1941 Dr. Collier has pursued his interest In
both the past and present of Indian America
at Field Museum, with the added
administrative responsibilities of Chief
Curator of Anthropology between 1964 and
1970. The many fellowships and grants he
has been awarded over the years to further
his work are recorded many places, as is
his long bibliography of research reports,
conference papers, and popular articles
(44 in this magazine alone). But another
highly significant contribution to science
may have been recorded only here. Dr.
Willard Libby, inventor of the carbon 14
dating technique, wrote last year that "it was
Dr. Collier who developed the technique of
persuading museum keepers that they
should give us materials to measure. This
was no small achievement since our method
is destructive."

Dr. Phillip Lewis, Curator of Primitive Art and
Melanesian Ethnology, didn't even know

there was such a subject as anthropology,
let alone that Field Museum had a
department devoted to It, until after World
War II and he returned to the Art Institute to
complete his B.F.A. in drawing, painting, and
illustrating. He discovered the discipline
through a teacher who made it so
fascinating that Lewis decided to go on to
graduate school and study it full time. He
had learned by this time that the problems
of an artist in society are great, and he
decided to continue study about art rather
than practice it. Anthropology offered the
framework for him to examine the forms and
functions of art in smaller, simpler societies
than our own. Two University of Chicago
Museum Fellowships enabled him to
become familiar with the vast collections
here. In 1953 Phil Lewis went to Oceania to
investigate the social context in which some
of the materials he had been studying were
created and used. In 1957 Field Museum
established a curatorship of primitive art
and Lewis was appointed to the post. He
assembled almost single-handedly our now
well known hall of primitive art. A National
Science Foundation grant allowed Dr. Lewis
to revisit New Ireland in 1970. He found that
both the forms and the religious context of
the art, though changed, showed more
persistence than he had expected.

Many of the Museum's actual specimens as
well as cast duplicates of ancient man and
his artifacts are in the office of Dr. Glen
Cole, Associate Curator of Prehistory. Their
ages range from about 10,000 to roughly
2,000,000 years old. Most of them are from
Africa, and many were excavated by Cole
himself, in Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, and
Zambia. These bits of bone and stone do
not look remarkable or even interesting to
the untutored eye, but they constitute
evidence of the early anatomical and
cultural evolution of man. Dr. Cole has been
working particularly on computerized
analysis of materials that represent the
demise in Africa of the Acheulian stone-
working tradition, which persisted through
more than 500,000 years. This tradition was
then rather abruptly replaced by diverse new
stone tool industries. The problem he is
working on is, how and why did these rapid
ancient culture changes happen? Dr. Cole
has been a member of the staff since 1965,
but he first worked here as a graduate
student when he held a University of
Chicago Museum Fellowship in 1955. In
between he has been chased by elephants,
but not caught; haunted by a lion, which
gave up; and hissed at by a twig he was

Field Museum Bulletin

,ett to right:
At5- Agnes Fennell
At. John Terrell
)r Paul Martin

1

w

1

1

^

Who's Who in Anthropology

about to pick up and throw into a fire. He
has also been bitten by anopheles
mosquitos and never got malaria, and by
tsetse flies and never come down with
sleeping sickness. An ideal field man.

John Terrell joined the Anthropology staff
just a year ago as Assistant Curator of
Oceanic Archaeology and Ethnology. He
came directly from graduate work at Harvard
University: indirectly from excavating in New
Zealand, Samoa, and Bougainville and
lecturing on prehistory at the University of
Auckland. He says that at the age of five he
wanted to be a paleontologist but decided
at twelve to dig tombs in Egypt instead.
Now he is most interested in pursuing
archaeology as an explanatory discipline
within which to study human bio-geography
— the spatial distribution and behavior of
human populations. More about what that
involves can be found elsewhere in this
issue in the adventure story of one of his
student assistants.

Our Assistant Curator of Asian Archaeology
and Ethnology, Bennet Bronson, who also
joined the staff about a year ago, studied
medieval history and literature at Harvard
before switching to graduate work in
archaeology at the University of
Pennsylvania. He has dug in England,
Guatemala, Turkey, Iran, Thailand. Ceylon,
and even Pennsylvania. A recent
reconnaissance trip to Southeast Asia was
to prepare the way for an important
excavation project in Java which has as one
of its goals the training of Indonesian
archaeologists. Ben Bronson is particularly
interested in early agricultural sites and
evidence of contact with the more advanced
Indian and Chinese civilizations. Meantime
he has organized a group of volunteers and
undergraduates from local universities to
help him in recataloging, inventorying, and
evaluating our Asian holdings.

Dr. Hoshien Tchen brought the enormous
learning and experience of an international
scholar, educator, and diplomat to his
current "retirement career" as Consultant
for the Museum's East Asian collection. In
1921 he was awarded the degree of Docteur
en droit from the University of Paris. He has
been a professor at the National Law
College in Peking; a member of the
government of his native Kiangsi Province
as well as commissioner of justice and
commissioner of education; and secretary-
general of the Chinese National Committee
on Intellectual Cooperation for International

Organizations. In 1950 he came to the
United States. At Field Museum he first
helped establish the fine East Asian library
and then began work on cataloging the
large, comprehensive collection of Chinese
ink rubbings gathered by Berthold Laufer.
This project, now nearing completion, could
have been undertaken by few other people.
It has required identifying, dating, and
locating the objects from which the rubbings
were made as well as translating the
inscriptions into English, identifying the
pictorial elements, writing explanatory notes,
and citing reference material in both eastern
and western languages. The catalog will be
a major tool for further East Asian research.

Last year Maude Wahlman held a Wenner-
Gren Foundation museum research
fellowship to catalog and analyze 200 pots
she collected in Nigeria in 1970. She was
visiting Yoruba villages to survey traditional
methods used by potters today. The data are
for her dissertation on Yoruba pottery for
Northwestern University, where Mrs.
Wahlman is a Ph.D. candidate. Now, under
a grant from the National Endowment for
the Arts, Mrs. Wahlman is Consultant in
African Ethnology and planning a 1973
exhibit in the Museum of contemporary
African arts. It will display a wide range of
textiles, pottery, jewelry, painting, block
printing, etching, music, architecture, and
dance. She is eager that authentic
contemporary African work become more
widely known, especially because so much
so-called "airport art" from Africa has
spread across this country in recent years.

Though the curators are formally responsible
for the specimens and their documentation,
the collections are far too large and complex
to be organized and cared for without
technical assistance from the department's
Custodian, Conservator, and Restorer.

Christopher Legge, Custodian of Collections,
knows exactly where and what any of the
400,000 anthropology specimens are. But
he knows a lot more than that about them,
thanks to a perpetual curiosity, a large
personal library of old books, and a world-
wide network of correspondents. In his
earlier career he legitimized an addiction to
adventure, first by choosing history as his
subject at Cambridge University, then by
serving as a British Colonial Service officer
in Africa and the Fiji Islands. Now he finds
material galore to feed this habit in the
human but not necessarily ethnographic
histories of many of the specimens.

Sometimes he can be persuaded to write
about them for us. Mr. Legge is a much
sought-out man, by both scholars and
fellow addicts.

Christine Danziger, Conservator, calls
herself the "interpreter of the needs of the
materials." Her workshop is the Robert R.
McCormick Conservation Laboratory, a
group of large, spotless rooms on the third
floor, efficiently furnished with a complete
reference library and almost every piece of
equipment imaginable to analyze and
document the chemical and physical nature
and condition of any specimen in our
enormously large and varied anthropological
collections. It is a perfect lab for its purpose
because Mrs. Danziger, who has degrees in
chemistry and physics, designed it herself
with the help of Dr. Collier and Dr. Lewis.
That was just ten years ago, when she came
to the Museum from the University of
Chicago biochemistry department. She
chose carefully and handles expertly every
piece of equipment in the lab, from an X-ray
machine and $7,500 microscope with
micro-melting stage to a ceramic-bead
polisher, drill press, glue gun, and flameless
heat torch. Those are just some of the
technological aids necessary for her to
make full use of her knowledge and skills
in carrying out the first and last
responsibility of the Museum — conservation
of its collections. As Mrs. Danziger points
out, that can be done only by studying the
chemical and physical composition of the
specimens and treating them accordingly.
Then they can speak for themselves truly,
now and to future scholars, about the
cultures that produced them.

Mrs. Ruth Andris has done many things for
the Museum over the years. Presently she
comes in part-time to do restoration and
mending of specimens as needed. She is a
sculptor whose work can often be seen in
the rental and sales gallery of the Art
Institute of Chicago as well as many other
galleries. There are also four unsung
heroines of the Anthropology Department:
Miss Lillian (Terry) Novak, departmental
secretary; Miss Joyce Korbecki. scientific
assistant: Miss Lenore Slenczka, secretary;
and Mrs. Agnes Fennell, Dr. Martin's
secretary. The not even named heroes and
heroines are many volunteers who give
much time and service to anthropology.

Elizabeth Munger is Editor ot tlie Field
Museum Bulletin.

Field Museum Builetin

Gordon Bent, partner, Bacon. Whipple & Co., is
chairman of the finance and investments sectioti

James R. Scanhn. president. General American
Transportation Corp . is chairman of the
transportation and fuels section.

Robert G. Biesel, president. International Division
of General American Transportation Corp., is
co-chairman of the transportation and fuels section.

James J. Condon, executrve vice president. The
Peoples Gas. Light and Coke Co.. is chairman
of the genpral service section.

Richard H. Neednam, executive vice president,
Needham, Harper & Steers Advertising, Inc., is
chairman of the advertising, publications, printing
and graphic arts section.

Introduced here are some of the top
executives of major companies who are
carrying leadership responsibilities for the
corporate gifts division of Field Museum's
$25 million Capital Campaign. Each one
represents a special segment of the
Industrial, business, and professional
activities of the Chicago area.

With their leadership, the corporate gifts
division team Is now launching the first
phase of its efforts. Members of the team
are personally visiting over 1,200 Chicago
area firms to explain Field Museum's capital
improvement needs. Pledges extending over
three to five years are being requested.

Both the numbers and the needs of the
public which the Museum serves have
Increased greatly In recent years. More and
more people are making use of the formal
and Informal education and enrichment the
Museum has to offer. As the Museum has
extended Itself over the years to keep pace
with its responsibilities to the general public
as well as to the scientific community it also
serves, It has had to defer many capital
expenditures. They can be deferred no
longer.

This purpose of the Capital Campaign Is one
readily understood by business. The funds
are urgently needed for renovation, major
maintenance projects, and modernization of
the Museum's now 52-year-old building.

Blaine J. Yarringion, president, American Oil
Company, is chairman of the corporate and
foundation gifts division.

David W. Rewick, partner, Ernst & Ernst,
chairman of the professionals section.

Richard M. f^^orrovbi. executive vice president,
Amoco Chemicals, is chairman of the chemicals
and electronics section.

Charles F. fvlurphy. Jr.. partner, C. F. f^urphy
Associates, is chairman of the construction
industry section.

Raymond N. Carlen, president. Joseph T. Ryerson
& Son. Inc.. is chairman of the metals and
machinery section.

John Lind. executive director (retired).
Standard Oil of Indiana and American Oil
Foundations, is campaign consultant.

18

September 1972

Illinois Endangered Species Protection Act Signed

NSF Grant for Scanning
Electron Microscope

Field Museum has been awarded a grant of
$70,000 from the National Science
Foundation to establish a scanning electron
microscope facility.

The scanning electron microscope, perfected
in the mid-1960s, enables effective study
and illustration of structures that are below
the level of optical examination. Its use is
revolutionizing many fields of study by
revealing unknown structures and suggesting
new problems for investigation. Initial studies
at Field Museum will be on such diverse
subjects as habitat selection in bird and
mammal mite parasites, pollen of
Guatemalan plants, feeding in lamp shells,
spore structure in fungi, shell formation in
land snails, hair structure in bats, skin
denticles in Paleozoic sharks, and
illustration of minute beetles for major
publications on classification.

A temporary exhibit on the potential of
scanning electron microscopy is scheduled
to open at Field Museum later this year.

John Bolt New Geology
Assistant Curator

Dr. John Bolt recently joined the Department
of Geology as Assistant Curator of Fossil
Amphibians and Reptiles. Dr. Bolt received
his doctorate from the University of Chicago
in 1968 and came to Field Museum from the
University of Illinois Medical Center,
Department of Anatomy. His research is
primarily on the evolution of early
amphibians and reptiles and the changes in
the composition of vertebrate communities
of the Coal Ages.

.i"^ ^^1

History of Eartfi and Life Course

Dr. Matthew Nitecki, Associate Curator of
Fossil Invertebrates, will teach an eight-week
non-technical course on the History of
Earth and Life at the University of Chicago
Downtown Center beginning October 10. His
lectures will discuss the following topics:
description of the solar system; meteorites
as a source of information about the origin
and structure of the solar system; structure
of the earth and theories of its origin;
problems of the origin and nature of life;
history of life and the fossil record of plants
and animals; the major evolutionary events
in the history of life; geology of the Chicago
region; and conclusions about the nature
of the physical and biological world.

This course is jointly sponsored by Field
Museum's Department of Education and the
University of Chicago Downtown Center.

Classes will meet from 7 to 9 p.m. on
Tuesdays. Tuition is $45, and Members of
Field Museum are entitled to a 10%
discount. For further information, call
Maria Matyas at Fl 6-8300.

Governor Richard B. Ogilvie came to Field
Museum to sign the Illinois Endangered
Species Protection Act August 7, in the
presence of Museum Director E. Leiand
Webber plus many Museum staff members
and an array of network TV cameras.

The new law will go into effect on January 1 ,
1973 making it illegal in the State of Illinois
to possess, sell, offer for sale, give, or
dispose of any animal, or product of such
an animal, considered by the provisions of
the law to be of an endangered species.
Among the animals presently designated as
endangered are wolves, tigers, leopards,
alligators, crocodiles, and polar bears. The
law provides for future revisions of the list.

New Women's Board President

Mrs. B. Edward Bensinger, who was recently
elected president of ttie Women's Board of Field
Museum, succeeding Mrs. Edward Byron Smitfi.
Mrs. Bensinger also becomes a member of ttie
Museum's Board of Trustees for the term of her
office. With her is Edward F. Swift.

Field Museum Bulletin

This fall Field Museum's Department of
Education is offering a nintfi season of
worksfiops for the children (and
grandchildren) of Museum Members, These
highly popular workshops have been devised
to stimulate and develop interest in the
natural sciences by providing children with
an opportunity to meet Museum staff
members and work with specimens and
materials from the scientific collections.
Workshop themes are geared to different
age levels and interests, and each program
lasts approximately one hour and fifteen
minutes. All programs will be given twice,
once at 9:30 a,m, and again at 1 1 :00 a.m.

The number of participants for each
workshop is limited so that each child can
have a close working relationship with the
staff. Reservations are necessary, and early
registration Is advised. Applications will be
accepted in the order in which they are
received. Each applicant is limited to one
workshop only. It may be impossible to
accommodate all applicants at this series,
but more workshops will be offered later in
the year; the dates and topics will be
announced in a later issue of the Bulletin.
Please send a separate application for each
child in your family who wishes to participate.
Accepted applicants will receive a
confirmation card that will admit them to the
workshop.

Eskimo Seal Hunt

Oct. 7: Edith Fleming, leader; ages 9-11

After viewing the film "Angote," which shows
the life of an Eskimo boy from the time he
is a baby until he is old enough to go on
his first seal hunt, boys and girls see and
handle real hunting equipment used by
Eskimos: weapons, goggles to protect the
eyes from sun glare, and clothing designed
to keep out the Arctic cold. Then the
children seek out the seal in its native
habitat in Museum exhibits and learn more
about the problems of the hunt.

Who's Who? — An Animal Guessing Game

Oct. 14: Julie Castrop, leader; ages 9-11

Can you identify an animal by examining
only its tusks, its fur, its shell? This
workshop gives children an opportunity to
see and handle many such specimens, draw
pictures of their animal owners, and
participate in a guessing game with other
children.

Picture Stories

Oct. 21: Harriet Smith, leader; ages 9-11

Children learn the importance of animals
and of story-telling by studying the use of
pictures in the lives of our western tribes,
by viewing a film, and by examining
decorated objects made by Plains Indians.
Children have the opportunity to draw, using
Indian symbols, either their own picture-story
of a "happening" on a miniature tipi cover
or their own dream of the future on a paper
shield.

Bone Soup

Oct. 28: Martha Lussenhop, leader;
ages 9-11

Participants "fish" for bones in a large pot,
examine them, and group them with other
bones belonging to the same animal.
Children work together in arranging the
bones of a skeleton according to their own
ideas of the vertebrate plan. Comparable
bones of different animals (including human)
are used, and differences in structure are
related to the different animals' food habits
and modes of locomotion.

Microscopes — How Does It Look Up Close?

Nov. 4: Julie Castrop, leader; ages 11-13

Participants will have an opportunity to work
with microscopes to gain an understanding
of how this essential scientific tool works
and how it is used. Living organisms will be
observed "up close."

Fossils — "Antiques in Nature's Atlic"

Nov. 11: Martha Lussenhop, leader;
ages 9-1 1

What is a fossil'' How is it formed? What
can we learn by studying fossils? These are
some of the questions that participants will
try to answer. Following a demonstration of
how fossils are formed, the children will
make clay molds and plaster casts of small
objects. Children will have the opportunity
to examine fossil bones still encased in
plaster jackets and in various stages of
preparation.

African Drums and Masks

Nov. 18: Edith Fleming, leader; ages 11-13

Original African art and music are examined.
Participants study African masks and then
make their own designs with colorful material
such as seeds and beads. After listening to
Ghanaian drum music, participants learn
to play African rhythms on African
instruments.

Totems

Nov. 25: Harriet Smith, leader; ages 12-15

A film that illustrates the totemic art of the
Northwest Coast Indians plus several actual
examples of the art demonstrate the close
relationship these people feel with certain
animals prominent in their mythology. Each
participant then explains why he chooses a
specific animal as his totem and stylizes it
into symbolic designs he paints on a storage
box for himself.

Application for Fall Workshops

Program desired

1st choice

3rd choice

4th choice

Time (circle preterence) 9:30 am. 11:00 a.m.

Name ol child
Address

Age of child

Membership in name of

Cut out and mail to: Raymond Foundation,

Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road

at Lake Stiore Drive, Chicago Illinois 60605.

20

September 1972

CALENDAR

Exhibits

Closes September 8

Chokwe Mask from Angola, on display In
the South Lounge. One of the most beautiful
of all Chokwe masks, it Is called "Mwana
Pwo," meaning young woman, and Is worn
by a male dancer at initiation and other
important ceremonies.

Closes September 24

Australian Aboriginal Art: Arnhem Land, a

selection of nearly 400 bark paintings and
wooden ceremonial sculptures. The material
Is from the extensive collection of Louis A.
Allen of Palo Alto, California. Hall 27.

Opens September 9

Shorebirds of North America, a collection
of original Illustrations by Robert Clem, on
display in the South Lounge through
November 5.

Continuing

A New Spirit in Search of the Past:

Archaeology and Ecology in the Lower
Illinois River Valley, an exhibit exploring the
"new" archaeology as reflected in the
Illinois Valley Archaeological Program's
excavation of the Koster Site, directed by
Dr. Stuart Struever of Northwestern
University. Hall 9.

Color in Nature, an exhibit examining the
nature and variety of color in the physical
and living world and how it functions in
plants and animals. Continues indefinitely.
Hall 25.

Field Museum's 75th Anniversary Exhibit

continues indefinitely. "A Sense of Wonder"
offers thought-provoking prose and poetry
associated with the physical, biological, and
cultural aspects of nature; "A Sense of
History" presents a graphic portrayal of the

Museum's past; and "A Sense of Discovery"
shows examples of research conducted by
Ivluseum scientists. Hall 3.

John James Audubon's elephant folio,

The Birds of America, on display in the
North Lounge. Continues indefinitely.

Film and Tour Program

Guided Tour of Field Museum exhibit areas
leaves from North Information booth at
2 p.m. "Through These Doors," a color
motion picture focusing on behind-the-scene
activities at the Museum shown at 3 p.m.
in the Lecture Hall. September 1 only.

Weekend Motion Pictures at 1 and 3 p.m.

Saturdays and Sundays in the second floor
North Meeting Room:

September 2 and 3: "The Mystery of
Animal Behavior"

September 9 and 10: "Seals"

September 16 and 17: "Land of the
Drowned River"

September 23 and 24: Private Life of the
Kingfisher"

September 30 and October 1 : "The Hidden
World: A Study of Insects"

Meetings

September 10: 2 p.m., Chicago Shell Club.

September 12: 7:30 p.m., Nature Camera
Club of Chicago.

September 13: 7 p.m., Chicago
Ornithological Society.

September 13: 7:30 p.m.. Windy City Grotto,
National Speleological Society.

September 14: 8 p.m., Chicago
Mountaineering Club.

September 26: 7:30 p.m.. Nature Camera
Club of Chicago.

September Hour*

9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday,
September 1, 2, and 3, and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Monday. September 4 (Labor Day). Remainder ot
month (rom 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily Saturday through
Thursday, and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday.

The Museum Library Is open 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Monday through Friday. Please obtain pass at
reception desk, main tloor north.

Museum telephone: 922-9410

Children's Program

Begins September 1

Fall Journey for Children, "Archaeology In
the Midwest," a free self-guided tour.
Youngsters are provided with a questionnaire
which routes them through Museum exhibit
areas. It helps them to reconstruct the story
of human happenings In the Midwest from
the arrival of the first Indians until Europeans
began recording the history of this area
300 years ago. All boys and girls who can
read and write may participate in the
program. Journey sheets are available at
Museum entrances. Through November 30.

Coming in October

Fall Film Lecture Series, 2:30 p m.
Saturdays In James Simpson Theatre.

October 7: "Britain's Holiday Islands,"

narrated by Robert Davis.

October 14: "The Sea in your Future,"

narrated by Owen Lee.

October 21 : "Belgium and Luxembourg,"

narrated by Branislav Denitch.

October 28: "Exotic Korea," narrated
by Gene Wlancko.

Motion pictures of the Northwest Coast
Indians will be presented Sundays in the
second floor North Meeting Room. "Legend
of the Magic Knives" Is shown at 1 p.m.
and "The Loon's Necklace" at 3 p.m.

Erratum: In the April issue of the Bulletin,
page 2, beginning at the sixth line from
the end, the sentence should read: On this
basis the world could sustain a population
of some 6 millions.

Volume 43, Number 9
October 1972

Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin

Field Museum
of Natural History
Bulletin

Volume 43, Number 9
October 1972

Cover design derived from this time exposure
of 1971 Cerro Negro volcanic eruption in
Nicaragua

2 Scientific Hot Line

Edward J. Olsen

how the Center for Short-Lived Phenomena keeps

scientists informed

6 New Neanderthals

Glen Cole

why contemporary ideas about what Neanderthal man

looked like are different from earlier beliefs

8 The Cave of the Peking Man

Willis Barnstone
a poem

10 The Search for Pel<ing Man

Christopher G. Janus

a chronology of events since June 1972

11 Onward and Upward with Geology

Eugene S. Richardson, Jr.

a second chapter in the history of the Geology Department

15 Capital Campaign

more Chicagoland business leaders who have joined
Field Museum's $25,000,000 capital campaign

16 Letters
Calendar

Field Museum of Natural History

Director, E. Leiand Webber ',

Editor Elizabeth Munger; Staff Writer Madge Jacobs: Production Russ Becker; Photography John Bayalis, Fred Huysmans,

The Field Museum ol Natural History Bulletin is published monthly, except combined July/August issue, by Field Museum of Natural History,
Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605, Subscriptions: S6 a year: $3 a year for schools. Members of the Museum subscribe
through Museum membership. Opinions expressed by authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the policy of Field Museum. Un-
solicited manuscripts are welcome. Printed by Field Museum Press. Second-class postage paid at Chicago, Illinois. Postmaster: Please send
form 3579 to Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605.

Field Museum Bulletin

October 1972

Ecology, like the weather, generates a
good deal of talk but painfully little
action. One of the difficulties of course
is that, like the weather, the problem is
so massive it is difficult to tell where and
what to attack first.

One of the many aspects of ecological
problems — indeed, of the whole of our
physical, anthropological, and biological
environment — is the lack of a sufficient
storehouse of data from which to draw
so that attacks can be planned and
goals outlined. True, we have been
gathering data in an orderly, scientific
sense about the world around us for
several centuries. The physical,
biological, and anthropological
environments are known in general, and
in some limited instances in great detail.
However, not enough is known in detail
sufficient to make confident predictions
of the consequences of possible major
courses of action designed to control
undesirable conditions.

In the past a good deal of our
information about phenomena in the
environment around us was gathered
not by scientists but by newspaper men.
For examples: Volcanic eruptions, if
large and destructive, were reported in
newspapers, while small eruptions or
ones which were large but occurred in
isolated regions were ignored. The
discovery of a small tribe of heretofore
unknown primitive people in an isolated
mountain valley in South America, say,
was reported in detail in the Sunday
supplements if they were headhunters or
practiced human sacrifice. If, however,
they raised squashes and minded their
own business, they were not generally
considered newsworthy, deserving only
of perhaps a few words on the back
pages. A plague of ants in a jungle in
Central America was important provided
that huge losses of crops occurred.
Smaller plagues would generate little
or no attention.

Photos: top. Robert Citron, director of Center
for Short-Lived Phenomena; lelt, Mount Mayon
volcanic eruption, Philippines; right. Tanzania
armyworm outbreak.

In each of these examples even if the
event were deemed newsworthy, it
might still pass unreported if some
political, military, or social outrage or
scandal preempted the space in that
day's papers. More significant,
however, was the time lag between the
occurrence of an event or new find and
the newspaper report to the world. For
many such items the time lag often
depended on how a given editor
decided to compose that day's
editions. It might be left until the next
edition or left out entirely, depending
on the space available. Many an event
would be only a memory before any
professional scientist was aware it had
occurred at all. Chances for immediate,
on-the-scene examination and gathering
of data were diminished in most cases.

Thus, for a long time first-hand
knowledge of natural events has been
fairly biased and statistically unsound.
This state of affairs was the result of
the fact that the most complex
inter-continental communications and
reporting networks consisted of
newspapers and their correspondents.

SMITHSONIAN ISSTIUITION

] ^P.i

■£,MER FOR SHORT-L'IVEO PHENOMENA

OJARTERLY INDEK TO EVENT CARDS

1 JSNUARY-3I HARCH 1972

CARD

NO. EVENT REPORT NO.

ISSUE DATE

1338.

WEST FAYU OIL SPILL

N

5 JANUARY

1339.

QUARTERLY INOEI TO EVENT CARDS

10 JANUARY

1340.

LABAN ISLAND OIL SPILL

1

7 JANUARY

1341.

SOyPRIERE VOLCANIC ACTIVITY

5

11 JANUARY

1342.

IZU-OSIHA EARTHOUACE SUARH

N

24 JANUARY

1343.

TAIWAN EARTHQUAKE

N

25 JANUARY

1344.

GERMANIA CHEMICAL POLLUTION

N

25 JANUARY

1345.

TORRES ISLAND EARTHQUAKE

N

28 JANUARY

1346.

TAIWAN EARTHQUAKE

1

1 FEBRUARY

1347.

VULARRICA VOLCANIC ERUPTION

2

1 FEBRUARY

1348.

TAIWAN EARTHQUAKE

2

1 FEBRUARY

1349.

HOMESTEAD BIRD KILL

N

2 FEBRUARY

1350.

SDUFRIEKE VOLCANIC ACTIVITY

6

3 FEBRUARY

1351.

OYSTER CREEK FISH KILL

N

7 FEBRUARY

1352.

TAIWAN EARTHQUAKE

3

7 FEBRUARY

1353.

E. FLA. COAST CDWiON LOON HORT

N

9 FEBRUARY

1354.

KILAUEA VOLCANIC ERUPTION-1972

N

14 FEBRUARY

1355.

FIRTH OF FORTH SEAOUCK KILL

N

14 FEBRUARY

1356.

PACAYA VOLCANIC ERUPTION

N

17 FEBRUARY

1357.

MELBOURNE BEACHED WHALES

N

18 FEBRUARY

1358.

SOUFRIERE VOLCANIC ACTIVITY

7

23 FEBRUARY

1359.

SOUFRIERE VOLCANIC ACTIVITY

8

29 FEBRUARY

1360.

HACHIJO JIHA EARTHQUAKE

N

29 FEBRUARY

1361.

NYIRAGDNGO VOLCANIC ERUPTION

N

2 HARCH

1362.

PUYEHUE VOLCANIC ACTIVITY

N

2 MARCH

1363.

ERTA'ALE VOLCANIC ACTIVITY-1972 N

6 HARCH

1364.

SOUFRIERE VOLCANIC ACTIVITY

9

7 HARCH

1365.

GRAY FOI EPIZOOTIC CANINE DIST

N

10 HARCH

1366.

50UFRIERE VOLCANIC ACTIVIPf

ID

20 HARCH

1367.

RECICE LANDSLIDES

N

22 HARCH

1368.

F.L. HAYES OIL SPILL

N

22 HARCH

1369.

GRlMSVOTN OOKULHLAUT

N

27 HARCH

1370.

SOUFRIERE VOLCANIC ACTIVITY

11

28 HARCH

1371.

PUYEHUE VOLCANIC ACTIVITTT

1

28 HARCH

As a basis for news gathering it was
highly efficient. As a basis for data
accumulation on natural systems of our
world it was generally unsatisfactory. It
was certainly not the fault of the
newspapers, for they certainly do not
exist to act as scientific data-sorting
centers.

What has been needed for a long tima
is a means of obtaining rapid,
complete reports of natural events. We
would like to know for example, if there
is any periodic or sequential pattern io
volcanic eruptions around the world.
For this we need to know the
occurrences in time and place of all
eruptions of any magnitude — not just
the few most destructive ones each
year. Or, for another example, we need
to know if plagues of ants are
infrequent newsworthy disasters ot if
they actually occur every year to some
degree or other.

For many years the scientific
community has been chewing on the
idea of an international clearing house
for all such events, with a widespread
network of resident correspondents
with training or interests in the
sciences to report any phenomenon
deemed useful, howevc-r small. In 1968
such an operation came into being.
Under the sponsorship of the
Smithsonian Institution, the Center for
Short-Lived Phenomena was started.
Robert Citron, formerly a manager of
several overseas satellite tracking
stations, was made its director, with
headquarters at the Smithsonian
Astrophysical Observatory in
Cambridge, Massachusetts, just down
the street and around the corner from
Harvard University. In the almost four
years it has been in operation it has
chalked up an impressive record.

It works like this. In 150 countries
around the world are located over
3,000 correspondents, all volunteers.
If any natural phenomenon occurs that
is different from the expected day-to-day
process, the nearest correspondent
reports it. In the United States, reporting

Field Museum Bulletin

is done by phone usually; from
overseas it is done by telegraphing
SATELLITES NEW YORK. The event
reported is evaluated at the Center by
a team which judges whether it is
truly a short-lived phenomenon
(correspondents occasionally are
carried away in their zeal and make
poor choices of events to report). A
notice is then written and run off on
3x5 cards by a high-speed printer
and sent off airmail to the subscription
mailing list within a few hours of the
time of the event.

The subscribers represent a large
range of interests and disciplines:
astronomers, anthropologists,
geologists, physicians, geophysicists,
teachers, students, statisticians,
government agencies, libraries,
zoologists. Depending on the nature
of each subscriber's activity, he may
subscribe for immediate reports,
weekly summary reports, or monthly
summaries.

Photo courtesy of Panamin Research Center, Manila. Phlhppines.

Subscribers may elect to receive
reports in any or all of four major
categories: (1) earth sciences,

(2) astrophysical sciences,

(3) archaeological/anthropological
sciences, and (4) biological sciences.
The results have been most gratifying.
Every year between 150 and 250
reports are issued. Some examples
follow.

Over the past several years three
groups of primitive peoples have been
discovered in isolated regions (in
Surinam, Paraguay, and the Philippine
Islands) and reported to professional
anthropologists within days of the
discoveries. This permitted small
numbers of anthropologists to go in
and make observations before
excessive contacts with the civilized
world would cause alterations in the
primitive state and life patterns of
these several peoples.

EVENT

67-71

"TASADAY HANUBE" TRIBE DISCOVERY

An account of the discovery of a tribe thought to
have been cut off from the outside world for at least
hundreds of years was compiled and reported by Manuel
Elizalde, Jr. held of the Presidential Arm on National
Minorities-PANAMIN--with the collaboration of Dr, Robert
B. Fox, Chief anthropologist of the National Museum
and Director of PANAMIN research.

Contact with the "Tasaday Manube" tribe, living in a
rain forest about 3,000 feet up Tasaday Mt. of South
Cotabato Province on Mindanao Island in the southern
Philippines, was made by helicopter June 7-8 and June 16.

The Tasaday were described as having no Isnowledqe of
rice, corn, salt, sugar or pottery; no contact with the
sea (their language has no word for the sea); spealting a
unique tongue related to that of Manubo neighboring
tribes. They were described as food gatherers and trao-
pers whose technology was still based on the use of stone
tools. Fox described them as southern mongoloid with a
cultural appearance basic to early peoples in the Phil-
ippines. The Tasadays' greatest fear appeared to be
epidemic sickness. The tribesmen recalled a plaque of
smallpox they call fugu. The Tasadays drape palm leaves
over tree limbs for shelters and weave floor matting.
They live in informal family groups with no apparent
leaders, making group decisions--usual ly concerning food
gathering, in open discussions. People who die of old
age or accidents are buried where they die. Sick people
may be abandoned.

DATE OF OCCURRENCE

SOUTH COTABATO PROVINCE, MINDANAO
ISI ANO, PHII IPPINFS

12 JULY 1971

1253.

EVENT NOTIFICATION REPORT

TYPE OF EVENT

LOCATION OF EVENT TASADAY MOUNTAIN

ANTHROPOLOGICAL

DATES OF COWTACT
JUNE 7-8 S 16.

REPORTING SOURCE

ASSOCIATED PRESS

MANILA, PHILIPPINES

SOURCE CONTACT

MANUEL ELIZALDE,
JR. HEAD OF THE

PRESIDENTIAL ARM ON NATIONAL MINOR-
ITIES, PANAMIN, S DR. ROBERT B. FOX,

CHIEF ANTHROPOLOGIST, NATIONAL MUSEUM
i DIR. PANAMIN RESH . .HANILA.PHIL ■

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

I FMIR H'R SHORT I U 1 1> PtOMlMINA

<,l l,„J(n ■w.crl

( AMhRIIX.F MASSA( HlMrP. ti:HR
I smnMAllSl)t AMfHUA
ae.t Sa'fLLi'ES NE • TOO"

■f . (PHONE

- e&4-

In August of 1970 a large lake (Lake
Linda) located on the Lemon Creek
glacial field near Juneau, Alaska

October 1972

42-72

TRAN5ANDEAN OIL PIPE LINE llAlf.

"At Biribilf, about 50Km from the Pacific Coast termi-
nal at Balao (Esmeraldas Province, Ecuador), the Trans-
andean pipe line developed a leak which was imiediately
followed by an explosion and fire. One person was killed
and several others were injured.

"The oil flowed into the Vilche River, an affluent of
the Esmeraldas River. The spill, first estimated at
50,000 barrels, will probably turn out to be much less
as the dMU^e was detected early. It was thus thought
that the detrimental effects on the flora and fauna in
the area would be limited. It was expected that the
leak would be repaired in three to four days. The pipe
line had been in operation for less than one week when
the leak developed.

"The pipe line starts at Lago Agrio (Amazone) at 137M
above sea level. Its total length is 503IOn and its
highest point in the eastern Andes is 4,063M above sea
level. The terminal at Babalo is 900M above sea level.
The storage tanks for 322,000 barrels are located approx-
imately 5Kjii north of the town of Esmeraldas. capital of
the province of the same name. 432ta of the pipe line
is 26" in diameter and the remainder is 20" pipe. The
pipeline has a maximum capacity of 500,000 barrels of oil
daily."

12 JULY 1972

HIJ

EVENT NOTIFICATION REPORT

TYPE OF EVENT

DATE OF OCCURRENCE

LOCATION OF EVENT BIRIBILf

BIOLOGICAL

30 JUNE 1972

ECUADOR, S.A.

REPORTING SOURCE QLAF HOLM

GUAYAQUIL-ECUADOR, S.A.

SOURCE CONTACT

QLAF HOLM

CASILLA 49-66, GUAtAQUIL-ECUADOR,

SOUTH AMERICA

SMTTHSONIAN INSTITirnON

I tNKR FO« SHimT lIVtD PHfNdMfNA

(i) G.idc" Unn

(.AMBRIDC.E MASSAf HUStTTS OJItf

I NITED STATES <tf AMEKlfA

1409a.

QUARTERLY INDEX TO EVENTS
5 JULY 1972

EVENT NO.

21-72
22-72
23-72
24-72
25-72
26-72
27-72
28-72
29-72
30-72
31-72
32-72
33-72
34-72
35-72
36-72
37-72
38-72
39-72
40-72

NAME

DEWDALE OIL SPILL

JAHROM EARTHQUAKE

TASMANIAN COAST WAVE DAMAGE

BRAMBERG FIREBALL

BUEDINGEN FIREBALL

MARBURG FIREBALL

MT. SEMERU VOLCANIC ACTIVITY

CHINO FARM GOOSE DIE-OFF

HUA-LIEN EARTHQUAKE

MANILA EARTHQUAKE

TIEN CHEE OIL SPILL

LUNAR METEORITE IMPACT

KURIL ISLANDS SUBMARINE VOL. ACTIVITY

CHARLESTON NITRIC ACID RELEASE

CANADIAN LYNX IMMINENT INVASION

SANGIHE EARTHQUAKE

HONG KONG LANDSLIDES

ALAID VOLCANIC ERUPTION

BRITAIN GANNET 4 SHAG MORTALITY

QUEENSLAND HOUSE PLAGUE

LOCATION

DATE

OF EVENT

CROMARTY FIRTH, SCOTLAND

20

MARCH

IRAN

10 APRIL

TASMANIA, AUSTRALIA

25-26

MARCH

AUSTRIA

21

MARCH

WEST GERMANY

21

MARCH

WEST GERMANY

22

MARCH

INDONESIA

APRIL

MARYLAND, U.S.A.

11

MARCH

TAIWAN, CHINA

24

APRIL

PHILIPPINES

25

APRIL

MONTEVIDEO, URUGUAY

11

MAY

MOON

13

MAY

KURIL ISLANDS, U.S.S.R.

29

APRIL

ILLINOIS, U.S.A.

29

MAY

MINNESOTA, U.S.A.

MAY

INDONESIA

11

JUNE

HONK KONG, B.C.C.

18

JUNE

KURIL ISLANDS. U.S.S.R.

JUNE

BRITAIN

FEB-JUNE

AUSTRALIA

1972

began to drain. Within 54 liours it
had completely disappeared. Because
of the alert sent out by the local
correspondent, a number of interested
scientists were able to arrive at the
scene and make a series of
observations and measurements that
could explain this strange event.

It was the Center that first sounded
the alarm over the rapid population
explosion of the so-called "crown of
thorns" starfish and its increasing
devastation of the Australian Barrier
(coral) Reef.

Destructive invasions of caterpillars
in East Africa have been only
sporadically reported in past years.
The reports of recent years to the
Center have shown these invasions
to be an annual event of greater or
lesser magnitude, and only infrequently
does the magnitude attain disastrous
proportions. It is hoped that reports
over the coming years to the Center's
subscribers will reveal a pattern to the
peak population years that will be
useful in understanding the problem
and controlling it in a reasonable,
ecologically sound manner.

Every year these reports of short-lived
phenomena continue, the more useful
they will become. Meteorite falls, oil
spills, sudden animal migrations,
wildlife kills (sudden discovery of large
numbers of dead birds or fish in one
area), forest fires of major ecological
significance, volcanic eruptions — all
are phenomena which bear upon our
natural environment and require instant
study to learn their small but lasting
effect upon the world on which we
live. The cumulative effect of many
small events can ultimately be of
major significance in creating changes
in our environment. Keeping track of
these will continue to be the work of
the Center for Short-Lived Phenomena.

Dr. Edward J. Olsen is Curator of Mineralogy,
Department of Geology, Field Museum.

Field Museum Bulletin

OQO aOQOQQQOOQOQ

QOQOQQOQ

Comparison of the two photos on the
opposite page shows that our ideas
today about what Neanderthal man
looked like are quite different from what
was believed by anthropologists of an
earlier day.

When the Neanderthal family diorama
was installed in the Hall of Stone Age
Man (Hall C) 40 years ago, it was
generally supposed that Neanderthal
man was a creature who walked with a
shambling gait with head thrust
forward and knees always at least
somewhat bent. Few anthropologists
today see any reason to regard
Neanderthal man as a creature whose
stance or gait differed in any significant
way from that of presently living people,
and the figures in the Hall C diorama
have been updated accordingly.

Earlier notions concerning the posture
of Neanderthal man were strongly
influenced by a reconstruction made
from a particular skeleton found in
1908 near the village of La Chapelle-
aux-Saints in France. This is a
relatively complete skeleton and the
only one with an appreciable part of a
vertebral column. Complete or
fragmentary remnants of 21 vertebrae
were recovered. Nevertheless, as
observed by Straus and Cave, two
investigators who re-examined the
skeletal material in 1955, "the La
Chapelle spine . . . does not constitute
the most favorable material for an
attempted assessment of healthy
normal Neanderthal posture." It was
found that this individual, a male,
probably between 40 and 50 years old,
was suffering from osteoarthritis which
seriously deformed the spinal column,
especially the cervical portion.
Although the paleontologist Marcellin
Boule, who reconstructed these fossil

remains, recognized the arthritic
condition, he discounted its deforming
effect.

Further, the skeleton, although
relatively complete, was quite
fragmentary and a considerable amount
of reconstruction was required. The
intellectual climate of the time,
conditioned by the then current state
of evolutionary theory and the
imperfect knowledge of the Quaternary
time scale, seems to have oriented
Boule to expect a brutish individual
quite different from living forms of
man, although still clearly Homo. With
poorly preserved material, then, there
was plently of room for interpretation,
and Boule seems to have let his
expectations color his judgment. So,
he was led to see, and reconstruct,
many "simian" traits and archaic
features which more recent
investigators are inclined to regard as
unduly emphasized or simply erroneous.

Certain characteristics of the femoral
shaft and heads of the tibiae had been
cited as evidence that Neanderthal
man walked with a bent-kneed gait.
However, similar characteristics of the
femur and tibia are often found in
modern populations and do not affect
the standing or walking posture. A
backward-bending tibia head, for
example, is commonly met with
amongst people much given to
squatting, as are certain supplementary
facets at the lower end of the bone
(as Boule recognized). The presence
of these characteristics in the La
Chapelle-aux-Saints and other
Neanderthal bones, rather than
indicating archaic or "simian"
characteristics, more likely indicates that
the posture of the older man tending
the fire in the Hall C diorama was a

common one amongst the Neanderthal
peoples.

In making the new figures, sculptor
Joseph Krstolich worked from casts
and measurements of various
Neanderthal remains from western
Europe. We did not attempt to
reconstruct particular individuals from
sites on Gibralter, the setting for the
diorama. Remains of only two
Neanderthals, one a child and the
other an adult female, are known from
this locality. Rather, we felt that
persons resembling our new figures
would not have been out of place in
the Neanderthal populations of France
and Spain of 50,000 years ago, at
least insofar as general body
conformation is concerned.

Of course, when such unpreserved
aspects of Neanderthal man's
appearance as clothing, skin color,
and hair form, length, and style are
concerned, much guesswork is
involved and we could be far from the
mark. We don't know, for example,
that a Neanderthal female would have
been apt to wear her hair long, or a
male to wear his short, or even if
either would have had any choice in
the matter. It is not known just when
in the history of human evolution
people began to be capable of
growing long hair. As no
anthropological data could be brought
to bear on the question, Mr. Krstolich's
artistic sensibilities were allowed to
hold sway and the new Neanderthal
woman, as was true of her predecessor,
has retained her long hair.

Dr. Glen Cole is Associate Curator of
Prehistory, Department ot Anthropology,
Field Museum.

October 1972

BEFORE

Early interpretations of fossil

remains of Neanderthal people led

us to think they looked like this.

m^^

OFf-iriK

By around 100,000 years ago, Homo sapiens was distributed over much of the Old
World: as far east as Java and China, and in the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. In
Europe the type was Neanderthal man who inhabited the numerous caves and rock-
shelters especially in France and Spain. By 25,000 years later the climate was becoming
cold with the onset of the most recent glaciation and much of Europe became tundra
and cold forest. Neanderthal man hunted wooly mammoth and rhinoceros, reindeer,
and steppe-horse. Sheltering caves and fire were important for warmth.

Gibralter, the home of this family, was far enough south to be one of the milder areas
of European Neanderthal's domain. These people, like their northern relatives, did
hunt some of the large cold-weather animals but had. as well, shellfish from the
Mediterranean for food.

Compared to his ancestor Homo erectus. Neanderthal man's progress is evident in his
larger build, and in brain size now comparable to modern man's. Improved techniques
in stone-working and the invention of a variety of tools show cultural advancement.
Burial of the dead is also practiced for the first time In man's history, suggesting belief
in an afterlife.

Approximately 35.000 years ago the Neanderthal population in Europe was replaced by
completely modern Cro-Magnon men. who were probably descendants of Near Eastern
Neanderthaloids. The replacement was complete whether due to competition, war,
interbreeding, or other causes, and no Neanderthal remains are found after this time.

. . . AFTER

New reconstructions of Neanderthal
figures, recently installed in
Field Museum diorama, look much
more like us.

Field Museum Bulletin

THE CAVE OF THE PEKING MAN

soon after dawn a red dust is in the sky
and old men shadow box

or jog in shorts around the block. Shanghai* cabs
are driving on their horns

in the great Plaza of Heavenly Peace,
the masses in blue trousers

hurry to work, we go west by the silk route . . .
mirrors float on the paddies,

fields stink of human fertilizer, and hills
of green ink are fragrant

with wild herbs and mist . . . the ancient cave
is empty, we climb down

and rub our fingers futilely on the wall
where the cranium was stuck.

the Peking Man is gone, he may be in a
marine's footlocker or

at the bottom of the Pacific or in a
Japanese coffee shop.

his forty comrades of the cave have also
split, they stopped breathing

about a half a million years ago . . . the masses
in blue trousers hurry to work

and dig up ancient coffins of an emperor
or greatly raise production

in a rubber shoe or paper factory, we have
been dying for a long time.

Willis Barnstone

'"Shanghai" is the name of the automobile built in Shanghai.

October 1972

Photos at lelt: cave at
Choukoutien, near Peking, where
first Peking Man fossils were
found in 1926; reconstruction of
Peking Man in museum at
Ctioukoutien; taken in June 1972
by Willis Barnstone.

Dr. Barnstone is Professor of
Comparative Literature, Indiana
University. His recent book The
Poems of Mao Tse-tung was a
Book-of-tfie-Montti Club alternate
selection earlier this year.

Photo below: some of long-lost
Peking Man fossils?

The missing Pelting Man tossils are halt-a-
million-year-old remains from about forty
individuals ot a species ot man now
classified as Homo erectus lliat were
excavated from a cave near Peking
beginning in 1926. In 1941 ttiey were
removed from the Peking Union Medical
College for safekeeping, and went
underground again December 8, 1941, the
day after Pearl Harbor. They have been lost
to the scientific world ever since.

The whole story — as much as is known —
was told by Dr. Harry Shapiro, Curator
Emeritus of Physicaf Anthropology at the
American Museum of Naturaf History, in
the November 1971 issue of Natural History.
Apparentfy U.S. Marines who were interned
as prisoners of war by the Japanese kept
at feast some of the fossils hidden from their
captors for severaf years. Then those too
disappeared.

Last month — September 1 to be exact —
the photo at left was brought to Field
Museum and shown to Dr. Glen Cole,
Associate Curator of Prehistory. He was
asked, "Could these possibfy be some ot
the fossifs of Peking Man?" Thus another
chapter of the story may have started to unlofd.

ft started this summer when five
Americans on a cultural tour of China
visited the Peking Man Museum at the site
where the fossifs were first found. Its director
told them how important recovery of the
fossils would be to the Chinese. The
experience inspired the poem "The Cave
of the Peking Man" by one member of the
group. It inspired the leader of the tour,
Christopher G. Janus, to set in motion
events which ted to his bringing the photo
to Dr. Cofe. Mr. Janus's chronology of
those events is on the next page. — Editor.

Field Museum Bulletin

THE SEARCH FOR
PEKING MAN

Christopher G. Janus

The first real breakthrough in the more
than 25-year search for the Peking
Man fossils could be a photograph I
received recently from a woman in
New York who claims she has in her
possession a footlocker left her by her
late husband, a Marine, containing
some of the fossils of Peking Man.

The black and white photo shows an
open wooden footlocker containing
what appear to be a nearly complete
skull, part of another skull, a fragment
of a pelvis, two distinct leg bones, and
at least 20 other bone fragments.

The Greek Heritage Foundation offered
a $5,000 reward in June to anyone in
the world for information leading to the
recovery and return of the Peking Man
fossils to the Chinese. The photo and
numerous other leads received since
then are apparently in response to this
reward offer. It all started when I and
four other Foundation representatives
made a 17-day visit to China.

This IS the chronology of what has
happened.

June 8, 1972. Visit to Peking Man
Museum in Choukoutien, outside of
Peking, where Wu Xing-chih, Museum
Director, told us story of missing
Peking Man fossils and how the
Chinese regard them as among their
most priceless historical treasures. He
asked our help in finding them.

June 16. Arrived in Hong Kong, where
at press conference I announced that
the Greek Heritage Foundation offers
$5,000 reward to anyone in the world
giving information leading to return of
Peking Man fossils to China.

June 19. Arrived Tokyo. Reward offer
is repeated and story is carried on
wire services.

June 27. Met with Dr. Harry Shapiro
(Emeritus Chairman of Department of
Anthropology, American Museum of
Natural History) for lunch at Club 21,
having learned about his interest in

Peking Man fossils and his recent
magazine article on them.

June 27. Received call at Harvard Club
from woman who claims she has
valuable information on Peking Man.

June 28. Met with Mr. Herman Davis,
who with Dr. W. T. Foley was last
known Marine to be with footlockers
after Japanese capture. Davis gave me
map he drew of Holcomb Prison Camp
at Chinwangtao, where he last saw
footlockers during World War II.

June 28. Mel woman on 102nd floor
Empire State Observatory, who showed
me 5" X 7" picture of a footlocker
allegedly containing Peking Man
fossils. Won't reveal her name and
scared off by photographer taking
pictures at observatory.

July 17. Received letter from Colonel
John White from San Francisco, who
was one of Marines in China at time of
capture. Offers to help in search for
Peking Man so long as it does not
conflict with book he is writing on
subject.

August 1 . Lunch with Dr. Shapiro at
American Museum of Natural History to
see his casts of Peking Man fossils.
Invite him to come to China with us on
October 14 to search for Peking Man.

August 2. Lunch with Dr. W. T. Foley,
now a heart surgeon at Cornell Medical
Center, who was entrusted with

Wu Xing-chih, Director of Peking Man Museum
in Choukoutien.

footlockers for transport to U.S. before
captured by Japanese. Commends our
search and suggests we somehow run
story in China offering $5,000 reward
for information on Peking Man. We
invite him and Mr. Davis also to come
to China with us October 14 as our
guests to help in search for Peking
Man in sites of former prison camps.

August 4. Ran front-page 2-line ad in
New York Times asking "Empire State
Observatory Woman" to phone me.

August 6. Received telephone call in
Winnetka from "Empire State Woman"
asking for a letter relieving her of all
possible liability regarding her
possession of Peking Man footlocker
and asking for $500,000 for delivery of
footlocker.

August 11. Received photo in mail — no
return address or identification — of
footlocker containing fossils. Picture is
similar to one shown me by woman at
Empire State Building.

August 12. Sent letter regarding $5,000
reward for information on Peking Man to
135 living Marines who were in Peking
area at time Japanese captured them.

August 18. Sent representative of
Greek Heritage Foundation to Dayton,
Ohio to attend reunion August 19 and
20 of U.S. Marines captured in China
at time of loss of Peking Man,

August 29. Sent copies of picture of
fossils to Director of Peking Man
Museum in Choukoutien and other
officials in China, and also copies of
picture to Dr. Shapiro and Dr. Foley
for comment.

September 1. Took copy of picture to
Field Museum of Natural History and
showed to Dr. Glen Cole. He said if
the skull is a fossil rather than a cast,
it could be Peking Man — it is kind
Peking Man had — very different from a
modern skull. He also said some of
the other bones are not human, and
some that could be human weren't
found at Choukoutien. He thought
photo looks promising and urges
pursuing the matter.

Clirislopher G. Janus is an investment
banl<er with Bache & Co. and president ot
The Gz-eeA Heritage Foundation.

10

October 1972

Chipf Preparator Orville L. Gilpin and rockhound in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming, 1960.

(Bntioard &upzoard mtHgaohgy

Cugans S. %JiicRardson, %3r.

In the first chapter of this chronicle of
the Geology Department (see f;e/d
Museum Bulletin, May 1972) I mentioned
that on Opening Day, June 2, 1894, the
labels for all the Geology specimens
were in India ink, penned by the
Department's hard-working scribe. He
wrote on slips of buff cardboard.
Presently the Museum Press took over,
and labels for added exhibits were
printed — on the same small buff
cards — in up-to-date DeVinne type. But
by 1901 these labels looked a bit
old-fashioned. Never willing to fall
behind the times, the Museum shifted
to an ingenious arrangement: small
specimens were glued to heavy cards

of dead black with the information
printed (in DeVinne) in aluminum ink.
The cards, of half a dozen modular
sizes, could be laid out cheek-by-jowl
in an endless pavement with no
breathing space. Large specimens were
accompanied by independent labels of
the same black and silver design. The
print shop set to work again. For 26
years they efficiently printed the modish
new labels, two or three thousand of
them each year. Farrington, Nichols,
Riggs, Slocom, and finally Roy
industriously kept the printers supplied
with new or revised copy. By 1927 a
trickle of 307 black labels came from
the press and were placed among the

exhibits. The job was done! A month
or so later someone pointed out that
black-and-silver labeling wasn't really
consonant with the taste of the times.

Once more the curators set to work
devising or revising copy, and the
printers changed their ink. Over the
next generation the black labels and
cards were gradually replaced by good
old buff, now reinstated, with the
information printed in black in the old
reliable DeVinne type.

When I first visited the Museum, during
the Century of Progress Exposition in
1933, most of the fossil invertebrates

Field Museum Bulletin

11

were still on black cards: when I
returned in 1946, as Curator of Fossil
Invertebrates, they were all on buff
ones. Case after case displayed a
mosaic of the modular cards,
confronting the visitor with thousands
of examples in every category. But by
now there was something rather
old-fashioned about this exhibition
technique. Already plans were afoot to
remedy the matter. Some of the
Mineralogy and Economic Geology
exhibits were already being redesigned
by Harry Changnon, Assistant in the
Department. Printed cards were
abolished, the number of specimens
was drastically reduced to give oomph
to the exhibits, and labels were
painstakingly made in the Geology
Department itself, built up of individual
letters pasted directly to the background
of the exhibit cases.

In 1948 the Frederick J. V. Skiff Hall
(Hall 37) was closed for reinstallation.
Some of the specimens were brought
upstairs to a large new storage room
and others were placed temporarily in
the blocked-off end of a neighboring
exhibit hall. The displaced exhibits
included Economic Geology from the
east end of the hall — the displays that
Dr. Nichols had personally installed in
1942 — and fossil invertebrates and

plants from the west end. Carpenters
moved in and new exhibit cases, built
immutably into the walls, arose.

For three years, while I picked out
specimens and wrote label texts,
Changnon's assistants, Henry Horback
and (from 1950) Henry Taylor, laid out
the labels, spray-painted the letters,
gummed them in place, and mounted
the specimens on concealed hangers.
Color was coming to the Museum.
Each of the 54 cases in Hall 37 had its
own combination of background color
and two colors of letters. Each case,
with Changnon's proposed colors and
layout, was personally approved by
Mr. Stanley Field, President of the
Museum, before the installation
proceeded. The absence of pink, which
we hadn't seriously considered anyhow,
reflects Mr. Field's judgment.

One of the features of Hall 37 is the
series of ten small habitat groups. A
contract was made to have the
restorations of extinct animals for these
made by George Marchand, who had
done similar reconstructions for some
eastern museums. The actual installation
of the models and the painting of the
backgrounds was to be done by Art
Rueckert, the same artist whom we last
encountered in winter quarters in

Hall 37 just before it was closed in 1948 for reinstallation. The dark
mahogany cases were precisely spaced 12 feet apart.

Labrador. But before Art had actually
worked on the first of the groups, he
dropped into my office to discuss the
work and was abruptly felled by a fatal
heart attack. The habitat groups were
then completed by George Marchand
on another contract.

Hall 37 was the first Museum exhibit
hall to be entirely re-done in one
operation after the war. The
achievement had to be signalized.
Invitations were sent out and on
October 1, 1951, the new hall was
opened for the first Members' Night
in Museum history. Laboratories and
offices, strangely tidy, were open for
inspection; members also had a chance
to see Bushman, freshly mounted and
just receiving his finishing touches in
the Zoology Department's taxidermy
workroom.

More exhibits were updated. Harry
Changnon, in charge of designing the
new cases, now held the rank of
Curator of Exhibits. He was studying
geology at the University of Chicago
and soon became the man to ask on
matters of local geology. But until
1965, when he was transferred to the
new Exhibition Department, the
succession of new exhibits, eventually
including almost every display in
Geology, were all designed by him and
executed under his supervision.

Harry was not the only one on this
staff destined to rise through the ranks.
A teenager, Bryan Patterson, appeared
in 1930 as "Assistant in Paleontology."
In the same year Dr. Riggs returned
from a season of collecting in Quinn
Draw, Nebraska, bringing with him not
only fossils but also Jim, one of the
Quinn boys. Having left school early to
work on the family ranch, Jim had
managed to return later and complete
the entire high school course in two
years. While he worked with the
paleontologists who came to the ranch
he actually studied the fossils.
Patterson, eventually our Curator of
Fossil Mammals, left the Museum in
1955 for the Agassiz professorship that

12

October 1972

he now holds at Harvard University.
Quinn, who had become Chief
Preparator in our fossil-fixery, left in
1946 to continue his formal studies and
is now Professor and Chairman of the
Department of Geology at the University
of Arkansas. It was probably a good
thing that Patterson and Quinn worked
under the same roof; every observation
that one of them made on a fossil was
vigorously denied by the other. If wits
are sharpened by friction, two
universities can be grateful to the
Museum for two sharp-witted professors.

Pat and Quinn were often in the field
together starting with the 1931 season,
when they tagged along as Riggs's
assistants to Quinn's home territory in
Nebraska. Collecting went on for five
summer weeks, well beyond the
budgeted time. In the Museum's
annual report the Director acknowledged
that "about one-third of the expense
of the expedition was contributed by
Messrs. Riggs and Patterson." It is
almost a tradition in the Department to
outlast field funds. It is certainly a
tradition to extend a field trip (formerly
called an "expedition") as long as
possible.

Patterson's field trips developed
something of an elaborate structure.

Even before coming to the Museum
Pat had collected butterflies and moths;
a net was requisite for him. Sitting in
his tent at night with a gasoline lamp
while he wrote up his field notes, he
was surrounded by a cloud of flying
specimens drawn by the light. His
typical field camp included a tent or
two, a table or two, the butterfly net, a
gasoline stove, and a trunkful of
essentials, with particular emphasis on
the pancake griddle. The only allowable
pancakes in his camp were those
prepared by Pat himself, mixed to a
special formula and cooked with a
special panache. If Sharat Roy was a
perfectionist with curry, Bryan Patterson
would admit no contest with pancakes.
But even the curries could not remain
unchallenged. Pal entered the field,
and over the years his curries became
ever more intricate. As, during the long
simmering, he customarily annointed
his taste-buds with strong potions, his
curries attained a spiciness that readily
separated the men from the boys. It is
said that on later field trips he carried
one suitcase for personal belongings
and another (larger) for curry
ingredients. On such heroic fare he
worked long seasons in the field, with
important results memorialized in the
exhibits in Hall 38 and in many well
acclaimed publications.

Sometimes serendipity is a feature of
paleontological field work. We may
name the discovery of "Triconodon
Gully" as an example. Driving to the
annual meetings of the Society of
Vertebrate Paleontology in El Paso in
1949, Reiner Zangerl and Bob Denison
had armed themselves with a hint from
a Texas colleague about a spot where
they might find some Early Cretaceous

Above: Chief Preparator Jim Quinn and part
of a dinosaur leg bone found on a 1946
field trip to Texas. Lett: Pancake expert
Bryan Patterson on tfie same field trip.

Field r^useum Bulletin 13

turtles along the way. Just off the road
in Montague County, Texas, they
stopped and had a look. From among
the scraps of turtle bone on the
ground, Denison almost immediately
picked up a fragment of a tiny jawbone.
Small though it was, he recognized it
as a mammal. Early Cretaceous
mammals being then virtually unknown,
he bore it off to El Paso in some
excitement. The first order of business
was to show the specimen to Patterson,
who was already there. Shaking with
excitement himself, Pat could hardly
focus on the little thing, and made the
occasion memorable by calling Room
Service for a binocular microscope.
Room Service couldn't supply one, but
even without it, Pat shortly recognized
the specimen as a piece of a
triconodon, member of an extinct and
little-known group of early mammals.

On the way back to Chicago the men
stopped at the same place again, and
once again Bob Denison picked up a
partial triconodon jaw. That settled it.
For the next two field seasons, Patterson
was in Triconodon Gully — with Zangerl
in 1950 and with Orville Gilpin (who
had succeeded Quinn as Chief
Preparator) in 1951. Besides the
griddle and the butterfly net, the field
equipment now included sturdy sieves
and burlap bags. Since the specimens
were small, and were widely scattered
through a foot of sand, it was
necessary to concentrate the proper
sized particles, and this was done by
washing the sand through a screen in
a nearby cattle tank. While tons of sand
and mud built up in the cattle tank,
dozens of bags of concentrate were
loaded for return to the Museum. Though
Pat went off to Argentina in 1952 to
make comparative studies of Riggs's
earlier collections, Gilpin continued
working at Triconodon Gully, assisted
by Bill Turnbull, preparator (later to
succeed Patterson in the chair of fossil
mammals). A final six weeks in 1954,
with Patterson and Gilpin together
again, finished the triconodon field work.
Eventually the concentrate yielded
hundreds of little mammal fragments

along with a greater number of fish,
amphibian, and reptile bones.

The discovery of these early mammal
remains depended on luck, certainly,
but it depended also on Bob Denison's
sharp eye for specimens. And the
mere discovery would have been of
little value without the long weeks of
heavy labor in digging, washing, and
concentrating the specimens and then
picking out the mammal fragments
individually back in the laboratory —
which, in turn, would have been
pointless without Patterson's subsequent
study and the publication of his results.
Thomas Edison's "nine-tenths
perspiration" is a factor in paleontology,
and so, sometimes, is luck — and so
(importantly) are the study and the
writing that put new knowledge on
record.

At the end of that last field season
there was another opportunity for luck
to operate. On leaving Triconodon
Gully, Pat and Gillie stopped for the
last time at the General Delivery
window of the Forestburg post office.
A letter from the Director of the
Museum was handed to them. It had
been reported from Salt Lake City
(wrote the Director) that a dinosaur
might be collectible somewhere in
Utah. The tip of a tail was just
beginning to weather out and apparently
could be followed into a hillside to
expose the rest of the monster; please
visit the locality on your way back
and report on the feasibility of
collecting the skeleton. The inevitable
response from Forestburg was a wire
requesting money — Messrs. Patterson
and Gilpin had naturally come to the
traditional end of their field funds.

Newly solvent, they set off for Salt Lake
City to confirm the dinosaur report-
but by way of the Rio Grande country,
where there were some fossil-bearing
rocks that ought to be looked at. At
that far-off locality Pat strode over to
a hill about half a mile from the truck
and wasn't seen again for six or eight
hot, parched hours. Either he had lost

his way or Gillie had moved all the
landmarks — the matter remains obscure.

The detour to the Rio Grande involved
nearly 300 miles. Upon tracking down
in Salt Lake City the source of the
dinosaur report, they found that the
first step was to backtrack another 300
miles, to Hanksville, Utah. There at last
they met the local person who had
reported the tail tip peeking out of
the hillside. He led them to a suitably
flat site where by sundown they had
their camp set up. That night a dry
wind arose, which soon was strong
enough to propel grains the size of
BB shot. All night, sand and gravel
drummed on the canvas. Gilpin was up
early, fighting his way to the outcrop
with its bit of dinosaur bone. With the
first vertebra that he uncovered, he
knew the worst. That dinosaur wasn't
going into the hillside; it had been
coming out, and now all that was left
of it were a few tail bones.

The bacon and pancakes that
morning were rich with the airborne
concentrate and quite unusable, but at
least the stuff settled to the bottom of
the coffee. On the way to Green River,
where they met the highway back to
Chicago, sand several times choked
the cooling surface of the truck's
radiator. They didn't get a dinosaur,
but they did get a memorable wind.

Hot air, however, is not one of the
Museum geologists' main
preoccupations, even when it's in the
field. We are concerned with field
work, certainly — and the more the
better. But even this is not reaWy an
end in itself: from the field come the
specimens that build up the collections.
And the collections are the basis for
the study that leads to our real
objective, the increase of knowledge
of the earth and its ancient
envi''onments.

Dr. Eugene S. Richardson, Jr. is Curator o/
Fossil Invertebrates, Department ot Geology,
Field Museum.

October 1972

^Wan^^

^

#

more Chicagoland business leaders who have joined Field
Museum's $25,000,000 capital campaign

Kenneth B. Marble
midwest regional sales
manager, A. B. Dick
Company

chairman of office
equipment and supply
group

H

James P. McHugh
president and a
director, James McHugh
Construction Company

chairman in
construction industry
section

John J. Cardwell

^^^^^^^^m

managing director,
Chicago office,
McKinsey & Co., Inc.

chairman of

CF

management
consultants group

r

photo by Fabian
Bachrach

..M^M

Harry Weese
president, Harry Weese
& Associates

chairman in
construction industry
section

photo by Hans Namuth

Ray Castro

chairman of the board,
Jacques French
Restaurants, Inc.

chairman of restaurants
group

Vernon D. Rogers
vice president,
administration, Joseph
T. Ryerson & Son, Inc.

chairman of iron and
steel group

Curtiss E. Crippen
vice chairman of the
board. The Milwaukee
Road

chairman of railroad and
railway supply group

Edward E. Carlson
president, United
Airlines

chairman of airlines
group

Edwin L. Brashears, Jr.
president, Drake Hotel,

nc.

chairman of hotels and
motels group

William S. McConnor
vice president,
refining and marketing.
Union 76 Division-
Eastern Region, Union
Oil Company of
California

chairman of coal and
petroleum group

Robert E. Samuels
president and director.
Yellow Cab Company

chairman of taxi cabs
and car rentals group

photo by Fabian
Bachrach

Joseph C. Szabo
chairman of the board,
Szabo Food Service,
Inc.

chairman of automatic
merchandisers group

^^^^_^^^_

William P. Salmon

■I^T^

executive vice

Ww^ m

president, Werner-

V^ 1

Kennelly Moving &

fc*""^'!

Storage Company

« - J

W^ ■

chairman of motor

^B ^ m

truck and warehouse

^A t. >■ M

group

Karl F. Nygren
attorney, Kirkland &
Ellis

chairman of attorneys
group

William J. Kennedy
vice president, market
development, Illinois
Tool Works

chairman of drugs group

Field Museum Bulletin

ETTERS

To the editor:

I have been a reader of your fine Bulletin
for many years. In fact, my fatfier sends it
to me since I fiave moved to Ivloorhead,
Minnesota. [However, I am somewhat
concerned over an article and the pictures
accompanying this article in your July-
August of 1972 issue. The article I am
referring to is "Endangered and
Disappearing Animals" by Melvin A. Traylor.
In the group of pictures directly opposite the
article there is one showing two
snowmobilers. I have read the article over
and over trying to find why this picture was
included with others showing poaching of
alligators, air pollution, water pollution,
atomic explosions, garbage, strychnine,
whaling, etc. Since there was no mention of
snowmobiles or snowmobiling in the text, I
fail to see the connection of the picture with
the title. That is, unless the author wants to
imply that snowmobiling is an endangering
factor when it comes to the preservation of
animals. If this is indeed his purpose, I
would like to see in writing why he feels that
snowmobiles are a threat to animal life and
to possibly explain where he obtained this
Information. I hope environmentalists,
preservationists, ecologists, biologists, and
sportsmen are not crying wolf before all the
facts are examined. In fact, that is just about
the way the wolf did become extinct.

W. Wayne Larson

Marine Products Manager, Arctco, Inc.

Fargo. North Dakota

Editor's reply:

The editors, not the author of the article
referred to, chose the photos, including the
one of two snowmobilers, and therefore
assume responsibility for the implication that
snowmobiles are a threat to animal life.

It is true that as yet not much research data
about the specific effects of snowmobiling
on animals have been accumulated — partly

because of lack of funds allocated to such
research. That fact is pointed out in
Proceedings ol the 1971 Snowmobile and
Oft the Road Vehicle Research Symposium,
which is a report of a June 1971 conference
held in East Lansing, Michigan, sponsored
by Michigan State University and the U.S.
Bureau of Outdoor Recreation. However,
several recent research projects were
reported on at that meeting. Here is a
quotation from one: "Snow cover is
considered to be important to the survival
of many animals that live beneath it
(subnivean) because of the protection it
affords from stresses of direct exposure to
severe winter climate and predation . . .
The recent explosion in popularity of
snowmobiles for winter recreation has raised
questions about ecological effects because
in addition to their noise and exhaust fumes,
snowmobiles compact the snow. It is the
last factor, mechanical compaction of
snowfields, that can produce a stress upon
subnivean organisms and thereby increase
winter mortality rates." ("Snowmobile Use
and Winter Mortality of Small Mammals" by
Miss Julie A. Jarvinen and Dr. William D.
Schmid, Department of Zoology, University
of Minnesota.)

And, from another report entitled Oft
Road Recreation Vehicles, a U.S.
Department of the Interior Task Force Study
published November 1971: "Recent
experimental work done in Minnesota has
demonstrated through the compaction of
snow from the use of vehicles that a severe
temperature change occurred in the subsoils.
Such temperature changes can cause a
retardation in vegetative growth which may
well be the answer to summertime chemical
treatment of powerline rights-of-way.
Although of benefit under power lines,
similar compaction and retardation of
vegetation is of concern to the Bureau of
Sport Fisheries and Wildlife in its Waterfowl
Production Areas in the North Central States.
The dead and compacted vegetation is
apparently much less attractive to nesting
birds."

The two documents mentioned contain a
wealth of information about research
completed and in progress, individuals and
agencies involved, and regulatory measures
that could minimize harmful effects of
snowmobiling. They are available in the
Field Museum library.

To the editor:

Please cancel my membership. Too much
evolutionary theory in your Bulletin and
Museum. As a Christian I don't want my
family exposed to such rot.

Ellsworth K. Ewert
Cicero, Illinois

To the editor:

Congratulations to Bronson for his ringing
piece ["The Campaign Against the
Antiquities Trade," Field Museum Bulletin,
September 1972], and to the museum for
its concurrent announcement of the new
policy. Please convey my admiration to
Bronson, and you might tell him, in view of
his special interest, that the Jimbal stela is
now lying behind the Tikal museum.

Clemency Coggins
Auburndale. Massachusetts

To the editor:

We were delighted to receive your strict
acquisition statement regarding antiquities
of unknown origin. This subiect has been
one of great concern for ICOM, and we have
been working for some time to encourage
museums to adopt this kind of acquisition
policy. As so many museums seem
impervious to this line of thought, it is
encouraging to see others taking an ethical
stand despite the trends and rationalizations
offered by the profession at large.
Congratulations!

Bonnie Burnham

Project coordinator. Ethics ot acquisition
The Inlernalionai Council of Museums
Paris, France

To the editor:

Just a note to tell you how much we
appreciate the Field Museum ol Natural
History Bulletin. The articles are very
interesting and easily readable for the
layman. The first thing we turn to is
"Calendar" because it gives such
convenient and detailed information,
particularly about programs for children. We
have found the year's calendar in the
January issue particularly useful, not just for
Museum events but also for entering our
own events in the daily squares. We look
forward to future issues.

Mrs. Patt Murray
Chicago, Illinois

Please address all letters to the editor to

Bulletin

Field Museum of Natural History
Roosevelt Road and Lake Shore Drive
Chicago, Illinois 60605

The editors reserve the right to edit letters
for length.

16

October 1972

CALENDAR

Exhibits

Continuing

Shorebirds of North America, a collection
of original illustrations by Robert Clem, on
display in the Soutti Lounge ttirough
November 5.

A New Spirit in Search of the Past:

Archaeology and Ecology in the Lower
Illinois River Valley, an exhibit explaining the
"new" archaeology as reflected in the
Illinois Valley Archaeological Program's
excavation of the Koster Site, directed by
Dr. Stuart Struever of Northwestern
University. Through [Vlarch 25. Hall 9.

Color in Nature, an exhibit examining the
nature and variety of color in the physical
and living world and how it functions in
plants and animals. Continues indefinitely.
Hall 25.

Field Museum's 75th Anniversary Exhibit

continues indefinitely. "A Sense of Wonder"
offers thought-provoking prose and poetry
associated with the physical, biological, and
cultural aspects of nature; "A Sense of
History" presents a graphic portrayal of the
Museum's past; and "A Sense of Discovery"
shows examples of research conducted by
Museum scientists. Hall 3.

John James Audubon's elephant folio,

The Birds ot America, on display in the
North Lounge. Continues indefinitely.

Children's Program

Continuing

Fall Journey for Children, "Archaeology in
the Midwest," a free self-guided tour.
Youngsters are provided with a questionnaire
which routes them through Museum exhibit
areas. It helps them to reconstruct the story
of human happenings in the Midwest from
the arrival of the first Indians until Europeans
began recording the history of this area

300 years ago. All boys and girls who can
read and write may participate in the
program. Journey sheets are available at
Museum entrances. Through November 30.

Film and Tour Program

Fall Film Lecture Series, 230 p m.

Saturdays in James Simpson Theatre.

October 7: "Britain's Holiday Islands,"

narrated by Robert Davis,

October 14: "The Sea in Your Future,"

narrated by Owen Lee.

October 21: "Belgium and Luxembourg,"

narrated by Branislav Denitch.

October 28: "Exotic Korea," narrated by
Gene Wiancko.

Motion pictures presented at 1 and 3 p.m.
Saturdays and Sundays in the second floor
North Meeting Room:

Sunday, October 1, only: "The Hidden
World: A Study of Insects."

Following weekends: Two films on the
Indians of the Northwest Coast, "Legend of
the Magic Knives" and "The Loon's
Necklace," included in each program.

Meetings

October 10: 7:30 p.m.. Nature Camera
Club of Chicago.

October 11:7 p.m., Chicago
Ornithological Society.

October 11: 7:30 p.m.. Windy City Grotto,
National Speleological Society.

October 12: 8 p.m., Chicago
Mountaineering Club.

October 24: 7:30 p.m.. Nature Camera
Club of Chicago.

October Hours

9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday through
Thursday, and 9 a.m. lo 9 p.m. Friday.

The Museum Library is open 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Monday through Friday. Please obtain pass at
reception desit, main floor north.

Museum telephone: 922-9410

Live Demonstration

October 7

Lamidi Fakeye of Nigeria, Africa, will give
a wood carving demonstration at 10:30 a.m.
Saturday, October 7 at Field Museum.
Inquire at information booth for specific
location of event. The sculptor, who works
in the traditional manner, is of Yoruba
ancestry and is descended from several
generations of wood carvers.

Traditional carvings done by four contemporary
Nigerian carvers. Carving at left is by Lamidi Fakeye,
who will be at Field Museum October 7.

Coming in November

Opens November 11

Greenland: Arctic Denmark, a major
special exhibition covering all aspects of
the history and culture of the world's largest
island. The extensive collection of
archaeological and ethnological material
Is supplemented by photographs and audio-
visual material to illustrate various areas of
economic development and social change in
modern Greenland. The exhibition is
sponsored by the Embassy of Denmark and
is shown under the auspices of the
Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition
Service. Through March 8. Hall 27.

Fall Film Lecture Series, 2:30 p.m.
Saturdays in James Simpson Theatre.

November 4: "Sweden," narrated by
Dick Reddy.

November 11: "Hawaii," narrated by
Norman Schley.

November 18: "Saga of the Inca Empire,"

narrated by Geza De Rosner.

November 25: "The Little Things in Life,"

narrated by Fran William Hall.

Volume 43, Number 10
November 1972

Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin

i

'0^

Field Museum
of Natural History
Bulletin

Volume 43. Number 10
November 1972

2 The Mystery of Maize

George W. Beadle

a Nobel-prize-winning geneticist explains why he is

convinced that teosinte is the wild ancestor of corn

12 The Two Revolutions

Bennet Bronson and William Burger
the Agricultural Revolution that began 10,000 years ago
increased the quantity of life; the Green Revolution
happening today is enhancing the quality of life

15 Field Briefs

16 Capital Campaign
Calendar

Cover: Chicomec6atl, Aztec
goddess of corn and the fertility
of tfie eartli; 15tti century
specimen from Texcoco, Valley of
Mexico: in Hall 8, Field Museum.

Field Museum of Natural History
Director, E. Leiand Webber

Editor Elizabeth Monger;
Fred Huysmans.

Editorial Assistant Vicki Wilson; Staff Writer Madge Jacobs; Production Russ Becker, Ptiotography John Bayalis,

The Field Museum ol Natural History Bulletin is published monthly, except combined July/August issue, by Field Museum of Natural History,
Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605. Subscriptions: S6 a year; $3 a year for schools. Members of the Museum subscribe
through Museum membership. Opinions expressed by authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the policy of Field Museum. Un-
solicited manuscripts are welcome. Printed by Field Museum Press. Second-class postage paid at Chicago, Illinois, Postmaster: Please send
form 3579 to Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605.

Field Museum Bulletin

Ihe my/ler V of moize

''ij^^.

george uu. beodle

November 1972

Passersby on Ellis Avenue near 55th
Street are likely to wonder what a
half-acre of corn Is doing on the
University of Chicago campus, so close
to the heart of the city. If I happen
to be working there, which is often
during the summer months, some will
stop to ask. Depending on the
pressure of work, my answer may be
brief: "It is a part of a study of the
origin of corn involving plantings also
at the University of Illinois, Urbana,
and Mexico City." Or, if interest
persists and time permits, I may
explain that I worked on the origin
of corn forty years ago as a graduate
student and thought then that I knew
the answer. But in the intervening
years several other biologists have
published different theories, and
textbooks and encyclopedias continue
to present confusing and, I think,
inaccurate accounts. Therefore on
retirement from academic administration
I elected to have a try at enlightening.

Corn and the origin of agriculture

Why is the problem significant? For
one thing, corn, or maize, is now the
world's third most important grain
crop — more than 200,000,000 tons
are produced per year. That is only
slightly less than wheat and rice. It
is the only major crop plant about
which there is so much uncertainty
and disagreement as to its genealogy.

Given an encouraging display of
interest, I may go on at some length,
beginning with some thoughts on the
importance of agriculture in general
to man's remarkable achievements.

Depending on how one defines man,
he has been around for a good long
time. The earliest known primate with
man-like traits evolved some ten
million or more years ago and lived
in India and Africa.

Geneticist Dr. George Beadle in his Ellis
Avenue "cornpatch" holding an ear of corn and
p distinctly teosinte-like hybrid grown there as
(jart of his research on the wild ancestor of
corn. Photo by Ed Jarecki.

Archaeological evidence suggests that
it took our line of descent seven or
eight million more years to reach
the stage of making and using the
first primitive stone tools.

An estimated two million more years
passed before our forebears regularly
used and preserved fire for warmth,
food preparation, and protection. That
was some forty thousand years ago.

It was only about ten thousand years
ago that some of our more
enterprising ancestors discovered that
they could plant, grow, and harvest
food plants. Seemingly this discovery
was made independently in the Middle
East, the Far East, and in Middle
America.

These evolutionary developments
would therefore indicate that for 99.5
per cent of the time man has been
making and using tools he had no
significant agriculture — no domestic
animals, no cultivated food crops.
With agriculture, the cultural evolution
that so clearly distinguishes our
species from all others took a great
leap forward.

It seems a reasonable estimate that
prior to agriculture each person had,
on the average, to exploit the resources
of about seven square miles of land
area for his food, clothing, and
shelter. The earth has a total of some
fifty-eight million square miles of land.
Therefore the maximum possible
population would have been about
eight million people — not uniformly
distributed, of course. But I doubt
if the human population ever reached
more than half that.

Thus, where ten thousand years ago
there was one person, there are now
a thousand or more. Where most
able-bodied persons then had to be
food gatherers, now in the United
States only about one person in thirty
is directly engaged in primary food
production. The remaining
twenty-nine-thirtieths of our population
are freed for other activities.

Up to ten thousand years ago. there
were no large cities, mostly campsites
that were moved from one food source
to another for gathering edible wild
plants and hunting wild animals.

There was relatively little technology,
not much more than fire plus stone,
bone, and wood tools. Except in limited
areas where edible wild plants and
animals were abundant, there could
be little more — most human time and
energy had to be devoted to mere
subsistence.

By the time of Columbus all the major
crop plants we know today were being
cultivated, and they were essentially
as fully developed as they are today.
Modern plant breeders have indeed
multiplied the number of varieties,
greatly increased the yields and quality,
and selected and bred insect- and
disease-resistant varieties. But I know
of no major new cultivated food
plants that have been developed in
the last thousand years.

The discovery o( corn

When Columbus arrived in the New
World his men found on the island of
Cuba great fields of a strange crop
plant unknown to the eastern
hemisphere. That was corn, or maize.
Both names can be confusing, for in
Europe the term "corn" refers to
grains in general, while the name
"maize " can be confused with the
sorghum called milo maize, from
Atnca. Later, Linnaeus gave what we
call corn the taxonomic name Zea
mays, the genus Zea from Greek and
the species mays from the Taino
language of the West Indies. In this
account I shall refer to it as corn.

Columbus had no way of knowing how
tremendously important corn had
been to the population growth and
cultural evolution of the peoples of the
new land. Only later was it found that
corn, beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes,
cucurbits, peanuts, tomatoes, cacao,
and the other New World plants had
played such essential roles in the

Field Museum Bulletin

Toltec-Aztec religious, art, and trade
center of Teotihuacan in the Valley of
Mexico, site of the great Pyramids of
the Sun and the Moon; of Dzibilchaltun
in the land of the Maya; and of Chan
Chan in Peru, built by the Chimu and
conquered by the Inca. These places
were all thriving cultural centers almost
a thousand years before Columbus,
with elaborate religions, arts, industries,
and trading arrangements. Each is
estimated to have had a peak
population of from seventy-five thousand
to two hundred thousand. They were
major cities of their time — some of the

Sizes of a modern hybrid corn plant, an ear of
corn, and two kernels at left compared,
respectively, to sizes of a teosinte plant, a
teosinte "spike," and two teosinte fruits
or "seeds."

largest in the world. They could not
have existed without great quantities of
foodstuffs which could be transported
easily, and some of it dried and stored
for long periods of time. Corn was
the most important of these.

Corn kept the Pilgrims from starving
during their first terrible winter in the
new land. Governor Bradford wrote,
"And sure it was God's providence
that we found this corne for else we
know not how we should have done."

Even with corn, half the members of
that new colony died the first year.
Without it, probably the others would
have suffered the same fate. Had this
happened, the estimated fifteen million
descendants of the Mayflower Pilgrims
wouldn't be with us today.

The fate of the Jamestown settlers
was similar. Of the 105 who arrived in
1607, only thirty-eight survived. Had
not their leader John Smith been
spared by his Indian captors, on the
pleading of thirteen-year-old
Pocahontas, to later barter corn from
his captors, none of his compatriots

would have survived — in which case
there would not be ten or so million
descendants of the Jamestown colony
living today.

If these estimates are correct, and I
judge them to be conservative, they
mean that something like one out of
ten of us in this favored nation would
not have been born — had it not been
for corn.

How did corn happen?

Neither could Columbus have known
that the American Indians had already
developed two or three hundred races
of corn, essentially all we have today.
Theirs was the most extraordinary
achievement in plant breeding in all
of man's existence, including his most
recent history. Remarkably, it was all
accomplished without knowledge of
genetics or any of the other sciences
now applied to plant breeding. Perhaps
most remarkable of all were the
earliest steps, when man (or, more
likely, woman) first began to influence
the evolution of what I believe to be

1

1

^4

November 1972

Teosinte as the ancestor of corn

the wild ancestor of corn. (It seems
probable that women were the first
agriculturists — that they first cultivated
food plants and selected the more
valuable types — while the men were
off hunting, fishing, warring, gaming,
and perhaps carousing a bit.)

For most cultivated plants, wild
relatives are known from which they
could reasonably have been derived. In
fact, if one lists a dozen of the world's
most important food crops — corn,
potatoes, sweet potatoes, beans, and
peanuts, all of New World origin, and
wheat, rice, sugar cane, sugar beets,
barley, sorghum, and soybeans, of the
Old World — we find that for all except
corn there are so many closely related
wild species it is difficult to determine
just which one or more were ancestral
to a given present-day crop plant.

In the case of corn, early plant
explorers had great difficulty finding
any wild relative that could conceivably
have been its ancestor. Even today no
closely related grass is known with a
female inflorescence like that of an
ear of modern corn. The reason is
obvious: corn is a man-made
monstrosity, biologically speaking. It
could not survive in the wild without
his help because it has no satisfactory
way of dispersing its seeds. Any wild
plant that depends on seeds for
survival must be able to do that. If
an ear of corn is left to its fate in
nature, it will, under conditions
favorable for germination, give rise
to a group of seedlings so densely
clustered that none is likely to survive.
Thus all known living corn is dependent
on man for survival.

Finally, however, early plant explorers
found what looked as if it might be a
relative. It was a plant that grows in
parts of Mexico, Guatemala, and
Honduras, which natives in parts of
Mexico called teocentii, from NahuatI,
the Aztec language, meaning "support
of the gods." This is now anglicized to
"teosinte." Taxonomists assigned it
to the new genus Euchlaena and gave
it the species name mexicana.

In 1780 teosinte was described by a
botanist as a plant that ". . . looks
like maize but its seed is triangular,"
Teosinte "seeds" (technically, fruits)
are arranged in a single row of six to
ten to form a somewhat flattened
"spike" a few inches long and a quarter-
inch wide. This is teosinte's counterpart
of an ear of corn. Each individual
kernel is completely enclosed by a
dark, hard, shell-like fruitcase or
jacket. The fruitcases develop as cup-
like segments from the rachis (spine)
of the spike. Cell layers that develop
between the fruitcases cause the rachis
to shatter at maturity, thus scattering
the segments, hence the "seeds."

Teosinte plants tend to be more highly
tillered than most cultivated corn
varieties — that is, they have more
stalks growing from the base of the
plant — and each tiller, or stalk,
produces female inflorescences — the
spikes, or ear-equivalents — at many
nodes. Teosinte tassels — the male
inflorescences — are very much like
those of corn.

Is teosinte the ancestor of corn? A few
botanists thought so. Vinson, for
example, wrote in 1877, "Following the
thinking of Darwin, teosinte is the
ancestor of maize." But most of his
contemporaries disagreed. The female
inflorescences, the "ears," were so
different they could not believe the
one could have been transformed into
the other.

Later what seemed a more likely
candidate was found, a plant
intermediate between teosinte and corn.
Because of its small ear with pointed
kernels that resemble dogs' teeth and
v/ere partially exposed from individual
jackets, it was called Zea canina, dog
corn or coyote corn. But this was soon
found to be a naturally occurring
hybrid between teosinte and corn, a
hybrid that is easily man-made and
which is quite fertile. The fertility
of this hybrid indicated that the genetic
relation between teosinte and corn
was much closer than was previously
assumed.

That was pretty much the situation
when I began graduate work at Cornell
in 1927 with the late R. A. Emerson.
He had shortly before demonstrated
that teosinte is a so-called short-day
plant. It wants no more than about
twelve hours of sunlight a day,
combined with a warm temperature,
and hence grows wild only where these
conditions exist naturally. Emerson
could induce teosinte to mature at the
Cornell latitude by artificially shortening
the summer day. As a part-time
graduate student assistant, I was
assigned to study the cytology and
genetics of corn-teosinte hybrids.
We confirmed the fertility of the
hybrids and showed that the ten
chromosomes of Mexican teosintes
were highly compatible with the ten
chromosomes of corn. They pair
normally during formation of sex cells
in the hybrids. We also showed that
in the nine chromosomes which we
could mark, the pairs exchanged
segments in the hybrids essentially the
same as in pure corn.

Our conclusion, perhaps not stated in
so many words, was that cytologically
and genetically corn and the Mexican
teosintes can reasonably be regarded
as one species. Therefore the
hypothesis that the wild teosinte was the
direct ancestor of cultivated corn was
entirely plausible to us. We regarded
the problem as essentially solved,
believing that a relatively few major
gene changes could and probably did
convert the wild plant into a more
useful cultivated one.

I well remember discussions with
Emerson in which he pointed out that
just two mutations could make teosinte
an easily usable food plant — one to a
non-shattering rachis, so the fruits will
not be scattered and lost as food; the
other to a soft fruitcase, so the kernels
can be threshed free of them. I should
add that these postulated mutations are
much the same as known mutations
that have played such significant roles
in the evolution of cultivated wheat,
rye, barley, and oats from their wild
ancestors.

Field Museum Bulletin

Experimental plantings of teosinte and hybrids in the University of
Chicago greenhouse. Teosinte can be grown at this latitude only if
amount of sunlight is regulated. Plants here are wheeled into a dark shed
in early afternoon and brought out again in the morning.

To jump ahead now forty years, shortly
before my retirement from academic
administration I received a copy of
Garrison Wilkes's 1966 monograph
Teosinte, the Closest Relative ot Maize.
It is by far the best and most useful
document on the subject I know. I read
it with great interest and admiration,
qualified by a deeply felt reservation
on noting in one passage his
characterization of the maize-from-
teosinte hypothesis as a "crude"
attempt to explain the origin of corn,
and in another as the "myth" that
teosinte is corn's ancestor. In
retrospect I realized I over-reacted to
those terms because of not appreciating
the full context in which they were
used. Through correspondence we
argued the matter of corn's origin
without coming to any agreement. I
was, however, stimulated enough to
decide that on retirement I would
return to a study of the relation of
teosinte to corn.

I should add, before elaborating, that
Wilkes and I have remained good friends
and have collaborated in two teosinte
collecting trips in Mexico. I believe
I have influenced his thinking to some
degree. I know he has mine, though
I remain firm in my belief that teosinte
is the true and only wild corn.

How did I propose to study further the
relation of the two? I decided to grow
large-scale populations of second-
generation and backcross populations
of corn-leosinte hybrids — larger than
anyone had grown before, in order
better to estimate the magnitude of
the genetic difference between them.
The first cross was between Chapalote
corn, a primitive variety and the most
teosinte-like that was clearly corn, and
Chaico teosinte, the most corn-like
teosinte that was unmistakably teosinte.
These choices were made to reduce
the differences to those that are
essential.

Mendel's laws say that if original
parents differ from each other by only
one gene, in the second generation of

descendants each original parental
type will reappear with a statistical
frequency of one in four. With a
difference of two genes, the frequency
with which each parental type will be
reproduced is one in sixteen; and so
on for more genes. For ten gene
differences, the reappearance of
original parental types will be
somewhat less than one in a million.

And for twenty differences, the
reappearance of a particular parental
type will be less than one in a trillion
plants — which just happens to be about
the total number of corn plants grown
per year in the entire world. Thus if
teosinte and corn differed by a large
number of genes, even as few as ten
or a dozen, I could not grow and
examine hybrid populations large
enough to produce good offspring
equivalent to the original corn and
teosinte parents. They would be so
rare as to be unrecoverable in any
population that could reasonably be
grown and classified.

I resolved to grow up to 50,000 second-
generation plants, if necessary. This
would give a reasonable chance of
finding types like the two different
parents — corn and teosinte — if there
were no more than six or seven major
gene differences involved. With this
year's plantings, I estimate that we will
have grown and examined just about
that many— 50,000.

Since teosinte will not mature at U.S.
corn-belt latitudes — because, as
mentioned, it is a short-day plant —
there was a problem of where to grow
the hybrid populations. I was fortunate
m being able to make arrangements
with Dr. Edwin J. Wellhausen to grow
them at the International Maize and
Wheat Improvement Center's El Batan
station near Texcoco, Mexico. I have
been additionally privileged in having
as a collaborator there Dr. Mario
Gutierrez, who is now looking after our
fourth planting. Professor Walton
Galinat of the University of
Massachusetts collaborated in the

November 1972

Dr. Beadle examines a primitive type of corn he has derived from a cross
between teoslnte and corn.

classification of \he first large second-
generation crop grown in Mexico.

Wtiat have been the results? In the
second-generation cross of Chapalote
corn and Chaico teosinte we found
good parent corn types and good
parent teosinte types with a frequency
of about 1 of each in 500 plants. These
frequencies are intermediate between
those expected with four and those
expected with five gene differences. Of
course, the genetic complexities are
greater than this kind of arithmetic
implies, but I will not go into them here.
Second-generation and backcross
populations have been grown involving
other races of both corn and teosinte.
They show that the frequencies with
which the parental corn and teosinte
reappear may vary rather widely
depending on the races involved.

In response to doubts about whether
the recovered corn ears were really
"good" parental type corn expressed
by Professor Paul C. Mangelsdorf, who

has published very different ideas about
the origin of corn, I devised a "cob
quiz." Cobs from "pure" parent corn
and cobs from my hybrid populations
were coded and presented separately
to Professor IVIangelsdorf and also to
Professor Galinat for classification. Both
of them judged enough cobs of hybrids
to be those of good corn to reassure
me, and I hope convince them, that
"good" parental type corn is indeed
recovered in reasonable frequencies in
second-generation hybrids and in
backcrosses of first-generation hybrids
to corn.

It seems clear that the genetic
differences between corn and teosinte
cannot be so great as to render
untenable the hypothesis of an
ancestral relationship of teosinte to
corn. And it seems reasonable to
assume that pre-Columbian man could
have selected and preserved the
relatively few mutants required to
produce a useful plant from teosinte —
primitive corn.

Contradictory theories

One of the principal skeptics of this
theory is Professor Mangelsdorf,
formerly at Texas A. & M., then at
Harvard, and now at the University of
North Carolina. In 1938 he and a
colleague, R. G. Reeves, proposed that
teosinte was not ancestral to anything,
but instead was a relatively recent
species resulting from hybridization of
corn and a species of the genus
Tripsacum. This hybrid does not occur
naturally but can be man-made by
special techniques. Their principal
argument was that teosinte is
intermediate between Tripsacum
and corn in many morphological traits.

I never believed this hypothesis and
said so in 1939. My reasons were:
First, corn and Tripsacum have never
been known to hybridize naturally,
despite the fact that they grow in close
proximity over millions of acres.
Second, none of the eighteen
chromosomes of Tripsacum pairs
normally with any one of the ten corn
chromosomes. Third, the man-made
corn-Tripsacum hybrids are completely
male sterile.

Nevertheless, this Tripsacum hypothesis
has for a third of a century been
supported by its proposers, with the
result that it has thoroughly permeated
genetic, botanical, plant breeding,
anthropological, and other literature,
often being transformed from an
hypothesis to an established fact. It is
repeated in encylopedias, in compendia,
and in many textbooks.

Recently Professor Galinat has shown
that the fruitcase of teosinte, which the
Tripsacum hypothesis must assume to
have been contributed from Tripsacum
as a block of closely linked genes,
could not have arisen in that way for
the simple reason that no such group
of genes can be demonstrated in
Tripsacum. In contrast to teosinte, the
Tripsacum fruitcase appears to be
governed by genes that are not closely
linked.

At a recent conference at Harvard
Professor Mangelsdorf conceded that

Field Museum Bulletin

the evidence against the Tripsacum
hypothesis was substantial. He now
proposes an alternate hypothesis, to be
presented in his forthcoming book on
corn and its relatives, which he has
kindly permitted me to see in
manuscript form.

His new proposal assumes that the
oldest corn found in archaeological
sites was wild and was the ancestor of
modern corn. Further, he believes that
wild corn antedated the teosintes, which
he now proposes were derived from this
wild corn by mutation. This is indeed a
dramatic reversal, for prior to this new
view he maintained that teosinte and
corn were so different that teosinte
could not have been ancestral to corn.
If corn could have given rise to
teosinte, the reverse must also be
possible — and I would say much more
probable, for teosinte is a highly
successful wild plant and corn is not.

These earliest archaeological specimens
which Professor Mangelsdorf postulates
as wild corn he assumes to have
dispersed their seeds in part by virtue
of a fragile cob. There seems to be a
curious inconsistency in this view.

If these earliest archaeological
specimens were wild corn and had
brittle cobs, how could they have
survived harvesting, transportation to
the caves where they were found,
shelling of the kernels, mixing with
other debris on the cave floors, plus
being tramped on before being covered
with the protecting layers of soil that
preserved them to become
archaeological specimens? If the cobs
were indeed brittle, this would indicate
teosinte ancestry. If they were not
brittle, I fail to see how they could
possibly have been wild corn, for how
then would they have disseminated
their seeds?

LeII to right: a "spike" of pure teosinte,
a teosinte-like hybrid, teosinte with tunicate
gene introduced, and a primitive type of corn-
all approximately life-size.

The archaeological evidence

What is the archaeological evidence?
Beginning in the 1940s many dry caves
in the U.S. Southwest and in Mexico
have been explored by experienced
archaeologists. Among the many
recovered materials that reveal much
about the lives of the peoples who
occupied these sites are remains of
corn, including cobs. Radioactive-carbon
dating has shown that the oldest cobs
so far found were grown something
like 7,000 years ago.

The cobs tell us a great deal about the
evolution of cultivated corn over the
past seven millennia because
sequences of cobs have been found in
some caves that clearly indicate
changes under domestication.

The oldest cobs are very small, just an
inch long, more or less. Mangelsdorf,
MacNeish, and Galinat, who have
studied a great many of them in detail,
estimate that each of them bore about
fifty to sixty small kernels. Mangelsdorf's
interpretation of these cobs as the
remains of a truly wild corn rests
mainly on their reported uniformity plus
the fact that they occur at earlier levels

November 1972

Distribution of teosinte compared with that of
corn: teosinte grows wild only in Mexico.
Guatemala, and Honduras; corn has spread
throughout most of North and South America.

than other plant remains unmistakably
known to have been cultivated.

If there had been such a wild corn
growing independently of teosinte, it is
now extinct, or as yet undiscovered
despite extensive searches for it. While
it is logically impossible to prove that
such corn never existed as a wild plant,
I see no compelling evidence whatever
to indicate that it did.

Let us examine the alternative, and to
me more plausible, interpretation: that
these oldest cobs represent stages in
the transition of teosinte to corn
through human selection.

First, it is obvious that these ancient
cobs are much closer morphologically
and genetically to teosinte than are the
cobs of modern corn. The very simple
reason is that cobs closely matching
them are readily recovered in second-
and later generations of corn-teosinte
hybrids — as Mangelsdorf has indicated
and as we have shown in our recent
hybrid populations.

Second, this earliest corn is said to
have had brittle cobs. If indeed they
did, this would indicate teosinte
ancestry, as I mentioned earlier. The
trait would be a persistence of the
brittle rachis in teosinte (by which
means it scatters its seeds), and could
reasonably be expected to have
persisted for some time after teosinte
was deliberately cultivated.

Third, some of the earliest cobs are
two-ranked — that is, had two rows of
kernels — another teosinte trait.

Fourth, these earliest corn cobs are
reported to have had long, soft glumes
— that is, leaf-like "flaps" covering
each kernel, as similarly the leaf-like
husks cover the whole cob. A modern
mutant corn called tunicate or pod
corn has similar structures. In ordinary
modern corn these tunicate "flaps" are
reduced to chaffy scales on the cob
that cannot be seen until the kernels
are removed. Mangelsdorf and his
associates have suggested that the

early archaeological corn could well
have had the genetic equivalent of the
modern tunicate trait. In fact,
f\/Iangelsdorf has used tunicate types
of modern corn in breeding
reconstructions of a close approximation
to these earliest archaeological
specimens.

To elaborate on the tunicate trait, I
believe it to have had a far more
important bearing on the origin of corn
than has previously been recognized.
It suggests how in a simple and
plausible way teosinte could have been
converted into a more useful food plant
and a logical precursor of corn.
Professor Galinat has generously
provided me several strains of hybrid
teosinte which carry the tunicate gene
from corn. With these I have produced
many additional strains by backcrossing
to teosintes. The resulting modified
teosintes have just the characteristics
Emerson postulated as the first steps
in a teosinte-to-corn transformation.
Their fruitcases are reduced to shallow,
softened, cup-like structures, and the
glume "flaps" which protect the kernels,
sealing them within the fruitcase, are
enlarged and also softened so that
even a fingernail can scrape one off to
reveal the kernel underneath. In
addition, the abscission cell layers
between the fruits are less well
developed, with the result that there is
much less tendency of the teosinte
spikes to shatter upon ripening. Thus
a single mutation could transform
teosinte with its hard shell-like fruitcase
sealed by the hard glume "flaps" into
a plant from which naked kernels can
be threshed with ease. However,
though this mutation would have been
advantageous in the beginning of the
transformation of teosinte to corn,
getting rid of it would have been
advantageous in subsequent stages of
evolution through domestication from
primitive to more modern corn. That is,
further selection was toward more and
more reduced glumes, or tunicate
"flaps," so that completely naked
kernels could be removed from the cob
without threshing.

Field Museum Bulletin

Lett: To convince himself it could be done, Dr. Beadle ground teosinte on a

primitive metate borrowed from Field Museum; it is similar to ones known from

6,000 B.C. in central Mexico. He is likely to offer an interested visitor teo-tortillas

(in foreground) made from teosinte meal. Ptioto by Ed Jarecki. Rigtit: Tfie metate

is still used for grinding corn into meal. Photo by William Madsen.

Teosinte as a food plant

One of the arguments against teosinte
as an ancestor of corn has been that it
is not obvious how its nut-like seeds
with their heavy "shells" could have
been used for food by primitive man.
This view has persisted despite early
Spanish evidence that teosinte seeds
were indeed used as food. Garrison
Wilkes in his book Teosinte mentions
several codex references to teosinte
being used as human food. Also,
young teosinte stalks were undoubtedly
chewed, as archaeological evidence
indicates early corn was. Young spikes
can be eaten before the cases become
hardened.

In 1939, without knowledge of any
documented use of teosinte as food, it
occurred to me, as a boyhood lover of
popcorn, that perhaps teosinte seeds
would pop. A simple experiment
demonstrated that they do. The
popped kernels exploded out of their
shells are indistinguishable from
popped corn.

One is popped corn, the other popped teosinte;
which is which?

More recently, as a result of a friendly
disagreement with Professor
Mangelsdorf on the edibility of ground
whole teosinte seeds, in which he
expressed doubt as to whether one
could tolerate ingesting the fifty per
cent or more roughage contributed by
the shell, he suggested we appeal to
Professor Nevin Scrimshaw, biochemist-
nutritionist of M.I.T., whom we both
know and who has worked in the
tropics with teosinte. We did so, and
Scrimshaw proposed that I do the
following experiment: Consume 75
grams of whole ground teosinte seeds
on each of two successive days. If I
experienced no ill effects, increase the
intake to 150 grams per day for two
more days. If there were still no
unpleasant consequences, I would have
made my case. I completed the
experiment with no ill effects whatever.

I have also had a try at cracking dried
teosinte seeds with the same kind of
primitive grinding-pounding stones that
pre-Columbian Indians used, the metate
and the mano. Field Museum kindly let

me use archaeological specimens for
this experiment. I convinced myself that
an energetic person inspired by
extreme hunger could in one day
separate from the shell-kernel mixture
enough shell-free teosinte to feed a
small family that day. I have also
satisfied myself that one can consume
whole teosinte seeds without great
difficulty by first soaking them until
they have been sufficiently softened to
masticate.

Linguistics

Such linguistic evidence as exists is
consistent with the teosinte ancestry of
corn. As pointed out by Professor
Wilkes, in the Nobogame area of
Chihuahua teosinte is known as madre
de maiz (mother of corn), presumably
from an earlier native designation. Does
this term represent a kind of cultural
memory? With many other existing
native names for teosinte in the various
parts of its range, this would appear to
me to be a rewarding area for linguistic
study.

November 1972

Folklore

Regional folklore might also contribute
to furttier understanding of tfie role of
teosinte in prehistoric times. The
Wilkes monograph clearly indicates
this. It records that Lumholz, who
traveled extensively in l\/lexico at the
turn of the century and reported his
observations in considerable detail,
noted that in the Nobogame area
teosinte growing in or near fields of
corn was said to be "good for the
corn."

Of course, it is easy to minimize the

significance of such an assertion by
assuming it to be an excuse for not
making the effort to weed the interloper
out of corn plantings. In fact, there is
good evidence that teosinte can be
"good for the corn."

Under primitive conditions of culture in
which corn is grown in small areas,
often relatively isolated from other corn,
seed is saved from each crop for
successive plantings. Inbreeding is thus
intensified, and this we know reduces
vigor and yields. If teosinte grows
adjacent to or in such isolated plots,
hybrids between it and corn occur. The
frequency depends on a good many
factors, such as relative times of
pollination and spatial relations. When
corn is pollinated by teosinte, the
resulting hybrid kernels are usually
indistinguishable from pure corn and
thus may be chosen for planting. The
resulting first-generation hybrid plants
exhibit marked hybrid vigor. But, like
Zea canine, the ears are small and
undesirable and therefore will not be
chosen as seed for the succeeding crop.

However, these hybrid plants will have
shed abundant pollen, which will be
widely disseminated because of the
plants' tallness and vigor. Thus the
hybrids will be male parent in
backcrosses to corn in the next
generation. Some of the backcross
product will be good corn showing
marked hybrid vigor and increased
yield. Second- and later generation
backcrosses to corn result in an even

Four cribs of corn on a page of tfie tribute lists of Montezuma,
as sfiown in the Codex Mendoza. Eacfi individual town conquered
by tfie Aztecs fiad to pay particular kinds and quantities of
products as annual tribute; corn was frequently an item.

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higher frequency of high-yielding good
corn plants. In this way the corn will be
rejuvenated according to the same
principles used in producing modern
high-yielding corn hybrids.

Such rejuvenation has been
demonstrated in a well controlled
experiment by Lambert and Leng of the
University of Illinois, Urbana. These
investigators hybridized a well adapted,
high-yielding, inbred line of corn with
four races of teosinte and made several
successive backcrosses to the inbred
corn parent. Yields in the second and
third backcrosses were increased as
much as 100 per cent.

Such hybridization is not infrequent in
parts of tVlexico where corn and
teosinte grow close together, thus
creating populations in which teosinte
and corn genes are exchanged
regularly at a rather low frequency.

Space does not permit a more detailed
presentation of my findings bearing on
the teosinte-corn relation. I can only
say that I judge them to lend additional
support to the view that a teosinte of
some 8,000 to 10,000 years ago was
the direct ancestor of corn — and was
converted into corn over a period of
many centuries through human
selection.

Dr. George W. Beadle is President Emeritus
and now Professor at the University of
Ctiicago and Adjunct Professor at
the University ol lliinois. Urbana. He was
co-winner ot the Nobei Prize tor physiology
and medicine in 1958 tor his wort< in
genetics. This article is a modified version
ol the first Donald Forsha Jones Memorial
Lecture, which Dr. Beadle presented at
the Connecticut Agricultural Experimental
Station, New Haven, Connecticut on
September 14, 1972.

Field Museum Bulletin

11

the two Revolutions

Bemet BRonson swiLLidm BUPqeR

To domesticate something is to tame
it, literally "to bring it into ttie tiome."
Ttie word makes most people thiink of
taming animals: the wolf for instance
becomes a dog, or a wild aurochs
becomes a common cow. But
"domesticate" also applies to plants.
Men have, all told, domesticated a
great number of different kinds of
plants and a small number of animals
to produce a very impressive defense
against famine. Hence the taming of
wild plants was one of the crucial
"events" in human history.

We are talking about this idea for two
reasons — partly because Dr. George
Beadle's article here is related to it,
but also because, coincidentally, it is
the basis of the theme of a new exhibit
that Field Museum is planning. It will be
an introduction to the hall of Economic
Botany, the relationship between Man
and Plants. People from both the
Anthropology and the Botany
Departments are involved in planning it.

The theme decided on for the exhibit
is that there have been two great
revolutions in the relationship between

human beings and the Plant Kingdom.
The first one started 10,000 years ago:
the so-called Agricultural Revolution
that followed the initial discovery of
farming. The second one is happening
even now: the Green Revolution of the
19th and 20th centuries.

The main effects of the Agricultural
Revolution had to do with demography
— the size and density of human
populations. We could think of it as
affecting mainly the quantity of life.
The Green Revolution is having an
important effect on the quality of life.

Men probably started planting and
caring for crops because it was easier
or more secure than gathering wild
plants. But once they had started, they
discovered they had in their hands a
tremendous new resource of food
energy. Not all food plants worked out
so well, but a few did. Certain key
crops allowed thousands to live where
previously only a handful had roamed.

Most Important were those members
of the grass family that produce the
cereal grains — corn, wheat, rice.

barley, and rye especially. These
were the basic foodstuffs that fueled
the world's first great civilizations. And
they continue to feed hundreds of
millions of people today.

Why did early farmers pay so much
attention to grass seeds? For the same
reason that insects, birds, and animals
do. Seeds are exceedingly nutritious;
they contain proteins and fats in much
greater quantity than does the rest of
the plant. Also, they are splendidly
packaged and storable, having been
"designed" to protect an unborn
generation through harsh winters and
long dry seasons with enough stored
food to produce vigorous new
seedlings. And in much of the world
grass seeds are the most numerous
of all seeds. They grow so densely
that hundreds of thousands of them
may be found in a single acre. So the
opportunity was clearly there — to take
advantage of nutritious, storable food
from productive plants that grow on
the steppes and savannahs and prairies
of half the world. Early man simply
picked up the option that his
environment offered him.

12

November 1972

Domestication was no simple process.
Men had wandered the globe for
3,000,000 years before they began to
transform wild plants into tame crops.
They must have begun haphazardly,
almost accidentally. Perhaps they
brought seeds or other plant parts to
their shelters and then threw some
away, thus encouraging useful plants
to grow in and adapt to the fertile
but disturbed ecology of human
neighborhoods. Perhaps they made an
effort to gather only the largest and
least insect-eaten plants. Thus, when
some were thrown on garbage heaps,
they began, without knowing it, the
long selection process that has caused
domesticated plants to become larger
and more productive.

Then as the selection process created
more productive plants (from man's
point of view), the stage was set for
the really big step. People had to save
the seed over the non-growing season,
prepare the area to be planted, and
plant the seed at the beginning of the
next growing season. N/ore had to be
learned about seasons, water, soils,
and fertilizers. IVluch more had to be
done to improve plants themselves
before they could be counted on as a
staff of life. But the great step had

been taken, and the first revolution,
the Agricultural Revolution, began to
flower.

Populations grew, techniques were
perfected, scattered villages appeared.
After only a few thousand years,
towns appeared, then cities, then
civilization itself.

Ancient agriculture peaked at that
point. At its best, as in Egypt, Rome,
China, and parts of Africa, Peru, and
Mexico, it was very good farming
indeed. Large cities were fed and
enough people were freed from the
labor of daily food-getting to produce
the great religions, monuments, and
arts of those days. But ancient
farming had its limits, for only a
certain number of people could be
thus freed and fed. The number of
non-farmers and the size of cities
were not much different in the Roman
Empire than in Sumeria 2,000 years
before, or in Western Europe in
Shakespeare's time. The world was
on a plateau and stayed there for
more than 3,000 years.

The roots of the second great
revolution in man's control over nature
lay in the Renaissance and

Reformation over 400 years ago. As
men renewed the search for
knowledge, they also developed a
critical and skeptical attitude that gave
rise to something entirely new: the
scientific method. If it could be
characterized by one sentence, that
sentence would be a question: What
is the evidence? No longer was it
enough merely to proclaim "truths"
or conclusions based only on formal
semantic logic; experiments had to be
devised to test ideas. The key that
opened doors through which men had
never passed before had three parts:
hypothesis; experiment or observation
to test the hypothesis; and verification
by others of those experimental
results or observations.

But it is not a foolproof, failsafe
method, for interpretation enters into
the method at many points. Hence the
best of minds can, and often do,
interpret evidence differently.
Nevertheless, the method gave birth
to science and to an explosion of
technology which has made a new
world.

The Green Revolution is thus a
particular branch of the Scientific
Revolution, the impact of which came

Opposite page: Illustrations of Aztecs planting, harvesting, and
storing corn, from Historia general de las cosas de Nueva Espana
by the Franciscan Bernardino de Sahagun, who went to Mexico in
1529. Below. Sowing and reaping in 19th century America.

>^'***-*-- ,

Field Museum Bulletin

13

Literal horsepower was stilt often combined

with machine power in the 1920s to

harvest the "amber waves of grain." Photo

courtesy of International Harvester Co.

slowly to agriculture. Beginning about
1750, new industries in Western
Europe were demanding workers —
many more workers thian could be
freed from the land by any kind of
farming previously known. For the
next hundred years there were attempts
to introduce more rational farming
methods: crop rotation, fertilizing, and
techniques for estimating the
profitability of farms. Then beginning
about 1850 the results of technology
and industry began to feed back into
farming. fVlachines — multiple plows,
seed drills, threshers, harvesters, and
tractors — began to replace manpower
and horsepower. Agricultural
productivity in the wealthy industrialized
countries increased a hundredfold,
and now just a few farmers could feed
a hundred city dwellers.

But it wasn't until the beginning of the
20th century that the Green Revolution

Photomicrograph of the ten pairs of
chromosomes of corn in a pollen mother cell,
from a slide prepared by D. T. Morgan, Jr.
Genes Me on chromosomes like beads on a
string.

began for most of the people of the
world. The new, industrialized
agriculture already established was of
little benefit to Indians or Indonesians
or Africans or Brazilians. They could
hardly afford to buy a hoe, let alone
a tractor-drawn plough. For them the
Green Revolution began with the
explosion of knowledge in genetics
(stemming from rediscovery of Gregor
Mendel's laws of heredity), statistics
(based on the mathematics of an
agricultural researcher named R. A.
Fisher), pedology, agronomy, and a
host of other disciplines in the areas
of plant nutrition, crop protection, and
produce handling. Agronomists,
chemists, and soil scientists invented
new methods of fertilizing and handling
the soil. Plant geneticists began to
breed new varieties from the genetic
building blocks provided by
botanist-explorers who fanned out
through the countrysides of the world
looking for the oldest and most
genetically variable kinds of plants.
They crossed, recrossed, backcrossed,
selected, tested, reselected, and tested
again, often using the simplest of
equipment in combination with the
ideas of Mendel and Fisher. Out of all
this, within the span of one lifetime,
has burgeoned a cornucopia of new

crop varieties. They produce more
food for more people in more places
than men dreamed of just a
generation or so ago.

The science of genetics has played
one of the most significant roles in
this Green Revolution. Knowing the
origins and wild relatives of a crop
plant is essential in any breeding
program. These wild relatives are
often the source of important
characteristics that can be added to
a crop variety or they can serve as a
reservoir of genetic variation to be
tapped when the breeder faces new
problems, such as a new disease. It is
for these reasons, among others, that
a knowledge of the true ancestor of
Indian corn, or maize, is so important.

The work Dr. Beadle describes in his
article about the origin of corn — his
experiments, observations, and
arguments — is the kind that created,
and that is necessary to sustain, the
Green Revolution,

Bennel Branson is Assistant Curator, Asian
Archaeology and Anttiropology, Department
of Anttiropology; Dr. William Burger is
Associate Curator, Vascular Plants,
Department of Botany, at Field Museum.

November 1972

Mr. and Mrs. Ray A. Kroc Make Major
Contribution to Museum

In September Mr. and Mrs. Ray A Kroc
made a generous contribution to Field
Museum of $450,000. The gift marked tfie
occasion of Mr. Kroc's birttiday.

The gift was also an expression of the
personal philosophy of Mr. Kroc, who as
the founder and chairman of McDonalds
Corporation, saw his business expand from
a single restaurant in 1955 into a national
and international chain of more than 2,100
today. "Such a dream could be realized
only in America," he said. "On my 70th
birthday, my greatest pleasure is the
opportunity to share my good fortune with
others."

Because of Mr. Kroc's interest in ecology,
his gift will be used to help support a
comprehensive public education program
at Field Museum in 1974: "Man in His
Environment."

The Museum's large collections and the
expertise of its scientific staff put it in

an especially favorable position to provide
the kind of unique public education
experience that "Man in His Environment"
will offer to millions of people. The
program will include a semi-permanent
exhibit at the Museum, a traveling version
of the exhibit, and films, lectures, and
publications. All of these components will
offer significant help to the layman as he
is called upon to become more and more
involved in making intelligent decisions
regarding environmental problems.

Mr. Kroc's birthday celebration went even
further than his personal gift toward
helping the Museum's work. His friends
and business associates chose to honor
him by establishing the "Ray A. Kroc
Environmental Fund" at Field Museum. It
too will be used to assist the Museum's
research and education in the ecological
and environmental sciences. To date, more
than 240 friends of Mr. Kroc have made
contributions to the fund, which presently
totals approximately $100,000.

Congressional Subcommittee
Members Learn Museum
Financial Needs

Officials of major Chicago area museums
testified at a hearing held by the
Congressional Select Subcommittee on
Education September 23 at Field Museum to
inquire into the critical financial needs of
museums.

Listening to the testimony were Congressmen
John Brademas (D., Ind.), chairman of the
hearing, and Dan Rostenkowski (D., 111.)
co-sponsors of a bill to establish a $40
million fund to assist in the operation of
museums over a three-year period. Their
p.'-oposed Museum Services Act, known as

H R, 8677, would authorize federal funds to
meet up to 50 percent of the cost of
renovating museum facilities, installing
exhibitions, providing trained staff, and
general administration expenses.

Participants at the hearing included
representatives of Field Museum of Natural
History, the Museum of Contemporary Art,
the Museum of Science and Industry, the
Chicago Historical Society, The Adier
Planetarium, The Art Institute of Chicago,
the Milwaukee Public Museum, and the
Northern Indiana Historical Society of
South Bend, Indiana. Daniel J. Shannon,
president of the Chicago Park District, also
testified.

Congressman Brademas noted that
"Museums of art, science and history are
a vital part of our national educational and
cultural life, and they are now reaching out
into the community in new ways to serve still
wider audiences. But there is evidence that
museums have reached their limit in meeting
the rising costs of their services. Increased
expenses for trained personnel, exhibit
space, conservation, building maintenance
— these are only some of the reasons for
the financial crush many museums are
enduring."

He further observed that "thirty years ago,
attendance at the nearly 6,000 museums in
the United States totaled some 50 million
visits annually. Today that figure has reached
nearly 700 million and is still climbing."

The hearing was part of a careful study by
the Subcommittee of the changing role of
museums in American life, the problems
they face, and the appropriate means of
federal support for them. A similar hearing
has been held in Washington, D.C., and
further ones are planned next year in New
York City, Los Angeles, and other
communities in various parts of the country.

Mr. and Mrs. Ray A. Kroc

Lett to right: Congressman Dan

Rostenkowski {D., III.);

Congressman John Brademas

(D., Ind.); Emory Williams,

president, Ttie AdIer

Planetarium (rear); Marshiall

Holleb, member of board of

trustees. Museum of

Contemporary Art; Colonel

S, N. Black, comptroller, Ttie

Art Institute of Chicago;

Clement M. Silvestro, director,

Chicago Historical Society;

Joseph M. Chamberlain,

director. The Ad!er Planetarium;

and E Leland Webber, director.

Field Museum of Natural History.

Field Museum Bulletin

16

i(^^''\

^

Capital Campaign Section
Executives Meet

Six Chicago area business leaders
representing the finance, investments, and
insurance section of Field Museum's
$25,000,000 Capital Campaign included a
tour of the paleontology laboratory when they
met last month to coordinate their part of
the capital fund drive.

Gordon Bent led the meeting as chairman of
the section, assisted by Nicholas Galitzine,
who is general chairman of the campaign.

These executives have joined with 37 other
businessmen volunteers, all from the ranks
of top management, to carry the Museum's
case for corporate support to the business
community of Chicagoland. The target of this
phase of the Capital Campaign is to call
upon some 1,200 business firms, plus
corporate and private foundations.

Each member of Mr. Bent's section, like the
volunteer members of nine other sections
of the corporate division of the campaign,
will personally visit many companies to tell
the Field Museum story. The vital role of
these executives is to develop prospects for
capital gifts and also to attract colleagues
to join them in the campaign.

This first Capital Campaign in the Museum's
79-year history was announced in Sep;ember
1971. Its goal of $25,000,000, urgently
needed for rehabilitation and improvements
to the Museum's building and facilities,
should be reached by September 1974. The
Museum must raise one-half privately in
order to receive matching funds for capital
improvements through the bonding authority

of the Chicago Park District. To raise its
share, the Museum has organized a
solicitation of individuals, corporations, and
foundations.

Gifts already generated by the corporate
division alone, including Mr. Bent's section,
presently total $2,100,000.

Hotline to Museum Membership

There are two ways you could order a Field
Museum membership as a special kind of
holiday gift for special people. One is to
telephone your order to the Membership
Department special number: 922-9546. The
other is to fill out the coupon below and
put It in the mail.

For each gift membership an announcement
greeting card will be sent in your name
plus a portfolio of four color reproductions
of bird paintings done by the distinguished
American artist Louis Agassiz Fuertes on a
Field Museum expedition to East Africa.

Members of Capital Campaign finance, investments, and insurance section learn about significance of a unique
collection of 40-million-year-old titanotheres, an extinct line related to fiorses, rhinoceroses, and tapirs. Ttiis
fossil specimen still in its plaster field jacket was collected in souttiwest Wyoming ttiis summer by Dr. William
Turnbull, Associate Curator of Fossil Mammals. LeU to right: Nictiolas Galitzine, pailner. Bacon, Wtiipple &
Company; Dr. Turnbull; Jofin E. Colnon, president, Jofin E. Colnon and Company, Inc.; Gordon L. Teacti, executive
vice president, Stiearson, Hammill & Company; Edward C. Wilson, Jr., grain broker; Jofin W. Stimpson, vice
president, Jofinson & Higgins of Illinois, Inc.; Gordon Bent, partner. Bacon, Wfiipple & Company; Jofin Laemmar,
First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Chicago.

Clip and mail to: Field Museum of Natural History,
Roosevelt Rd. at Lk. Shore Dr., Chicago, 111. 60605

Please send the following Gilt Membership
a Annual $15 O Associate $150 D Lile $500
in my name to:

Gift recipient's name

City

Slate

Zip

n Check enclosed payable to Field Museum
n Please bill me as follows:

My name

City State Zip

O Send bird prirtis to gilt recipient
n Send bird prints to me

Please put information for additional gift
memberships on a separate sheet

November 1972

CALENDAR

Exhibits

Opens November 11

Greenland: Arctic Denmark, a major
exhibition covering all aspects of the history
and culture of the world's largest island.
The extensive collection of archaeological
and ethnological material is supplemented
by photographs and a daily film program
to illustrate various areas of economic
development and social change in modern
Greenland. The exhibition is sponsored by
the Royal Danish Embassy and is shown
under the auspices of the Smithsonian
Institution Traveling Exhibition Service.
Through March 8. Hall 27.

Opens November 13

Paracas Whistling Jar from the lea Valley
of Peru, Ocucaje Phase II (ca. 700 B.C.).
is featured in the South Lounge through
January 21. The unique pottery jug, which
makes a whistling sound when water is
poured out of it, is the earliest known of
its type. It is the gift of Mr. and Mrs.
Raymond J. Wielgus.

Continuing

A New Spirit in Search of the Past:

Archaeology and Ecology in the Lower
Illinois River Valley, an exhibit explaining
the "new" archaeology as reflected in the
Illinois Valley Archaeological Program's
excavation of the Koster Site, directed by
Dr. Stuart Struever of Northwestern
University. Through March 25. Hall 9.

Color in Nature, an exhibit examining the
nature and variety of color in the physical
and living world and how it functions in
plants and animals. Continues indefinitely.
Hall 25,

John James Audubon's elephant folio.

The Birds ot America, on display in the
North Lounge. Continues Indefinitely.

Field Museum's 75th Anniversary Exhibit

continues indefinitely. "A Sense of Wonder"
offers thought-provoking prose and poetry
associated with the physical, biological, and
cultural aspects of nature; "A Sense of
History" presents a graphic portrayal of the
Museum's past; and "A Sense of Discovery"
shows examples of research conducted by
Museum scientists. Hall 3.

Film and Tour Program

Fall Film Lecture Series, 2 30 p.m.
Saturdays in the James Simpson Theatre.

November 11: "Hawaii," narrated by
Norman Schley.

November 18: "Saga of the Inca Empire,"

narrated by Geza De Rosner.

November 25: "The Little Things in Life,"

narrated by Fran William Hall.

Weekend Motion Pictures at 1 and 3 p.m.
Saturdays and Sundays in the second floor
North Meeting Room. Each program
includes two films: "Fire Mountain,"
describing the second greatest eruption of
Mt. Kilauea in Hawaii, and "Continental
Drift," exploring the origin of our
continents.

Children's Program

Continuing

Fall Journey for Children, "Archaeology in
the Midwest," a free self-guided tour.
Youngsters are provided with a
questionnaire which routes them through
Museum exhibit areas. It helps them to
reconstruct the story of human happenings
in the Midwest from the arrival of the first
Indians until Europeans began recording
the history of this area 300 years ago. All
boys and girls who can read and write may
participate in the program. Journey sheets
are available at Museum entrances.
Through November 30.

Meetings

November 14: 7:30 p.m., Nature Camera
Club of Chicago.

November 14: 8 p.m., Chicagoland Glider

Council.

November 28: 7:30 p.m., Nature Camera
Club of Chicago.

Coming in December

Winter Journey for Children, "Dog Meets
Man," begins December 1. The free,
self-guided tour explores the many aspects
of man's partnership with "his best friend"
since prehistoric times. Through February 28.

Film and Guided Tour Program, December
26 through 29. "Through These Doors," a
color film focusing on behind-the-scenes
activities at the Museum, is shown at
1:15 in the second floor North Meeting
Room. A "highlights" tour leaves at 2 p.m.
from, the north information desk.

November Hours

9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday,
9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday, and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday. On Thanksgiving Day.
t^ovember 23. the Museum will be open from
9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The Museum Library is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Monday through Friday. Please obtain pass at
reception desk, main floor north.

Museum telephone: 922-9410

olume 43. Number 11
ecember 1972

Field Museum of Natural HIsti

"ijj 'J .i 1 .

Field Museum
of Natural History
Bulletin

Volume 43, Number 11
December 1972

Mother and infant Mountain Guereza,
Photo by Leiand LaFrance.

2 The Mountain Guereza

Robert Norwich and Leiand LaFrance

a picture-story of behavior and development of a
zoo-born infant within its "extended family" troop

6 On Being Mother to a Tiger

Joyce IVlarshall Brukoff

why a zoo nursery is necessary and how it functions

9 Greenland, Robert E. Peary, and Field Museum

James W. VanStone

the current special exhibit "Greenland; Arctic Denmark"
reminds a curator of Field Museum's first connections
with the island, through Peary, more than 80 years ago

12 Book Reviews

15 Capital Campaign

16 Field Briefs

Calendar

Field l^useum of Natural History
Director, E. Leiand Webber

Editor Elizabeth Ivlunger; Editorial Assistant Vicki Wilson; Staff Writer Madge Jacobs; Production Russ Becker; Pliotography John Bayalis,
Fred Huysmans.

The Field Museum ot Natural History Bulletin is published monthly, except combined July/August issue, by Field fvluseum of Natural History,
Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive. Chicago. Illinois 60605. Subscriptions: $6 a year; $3 a year for schools. tVlembers of the IVIuseum subscribe
through Museum membership. Opinions expressed by authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the policy of Field Museum. Un-
solicited manuscripts are welcome. Printed by Field Museum Press. Second-class postage paid at Chicago, Illinois. Postmaster: Please send
form 3579 to Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605.

Field Museum Bulletin

The Mountain Guereza

Robert Horiuich & Leland LaFrancG

Research is an important activity at the
Chicago Zoological Society's Brool<field Zoo
lacillty. under the guidance ol its Director, Dr.
Peter Crowcrolt, and its Associate Director lor
Research and Education, Dr. George Rabb.
Dr. Rabb's dual responsibilities are not just
coincidence. The philosophy behind research
at Brooklield Zoo is that it should contribute
information about animals that can be
incorporated into the zoo's public education
program as well as develop new knowledge to
share with zoologists at other zoos, at
universities, and at natural history museums.
A sample ot some of that research is presented
here.

Zoos and natural history museums are naturally
complementary, and zoo and museum curators
have traditionally worked closely together. In
tact, encouraging zoos to undertake research
on their animal populations was a particular
interest ot Karl P. Schmidt, Field Museum's
renowned Chief Curator of Zoology from 1940
until 1955, and ot Alfred E. Emerson, the

distinguished Prolessor of Zoology (now
Emeritus) at the University of Chicago and
Research Associate at Field Museum. Drs.
Schmidt and Emerson were both long-time
trustees of the Chicago Zoological Society and
were instrumental in the initial appointment ol
a research zoologist at Brooklield Zoo. The
tradition ol cooperation between the two
institutions was carried on by Dr. Austin L.
Rand, the Museum's Chiel Curator ol Zoology
Irom 1955 to 1968, who contributed so much to
popularizing natural history education; he was
chairman ol the zoo's scientific advisory
committee.

Recently, as part of a long-term zoo research
study, a perceptive ethologist and a patient
photographer began filming the behavior ol a
captive troop ol Mountain Guerezas, Colobus
guereza, shortly alter the birth of its youngest
member. These animals are a species of social,
leal-eating East African monkey that lives in
close-knit troops of two to thirteen individuals,
composed typically ol a single adult male, one

or more adult females, and their offspring of
varying ages. Within the tropical rain forest
that is their natural habitat each troop
maintains its integrity and territory through
visual and vocal displays.

Dr. Robert Norwich and Leiand LaFrance
selected and organized parts ol the film
footage to show three stages of growth ol the
infant within its social matrix: mother-infant
unity; individuation; and socialization. The
picture-story presented here was taken Irom
their completed 24-minute color film, with voice
narration, which is now being prepared lor
general distribution. Inquiries about the film
should be directed to the Education
Department, Chicago Zoological Society,
Brooklield, Illinois.

Dr. Robert Norwich is Research Zoologist,
Leiand LaFrance is Photographer at Brooklield
Zoo.

December 1972

Mother-infant unity

The white newborn Mountain Guereza begins
life on the nipple. Here it finds food and
security.

Other females in the troop show great interest
in the newborn. The mother allows them to
take and carry her baby. These infant transfers
may occur during the infant's first day of life.
Despite the extra attention of the other females,
the two-month-old infant prefers to be with its
own mother and on her nipple, often returning
to her immediately following a transfer. This
may discourage transfers.

The other females mouth, sniff, and groom the
infant — even more frequently than does its
mother. Females often sniff or kiss the infant's
back during and immediately after a transfer.

During the first part of its life, the infant
constantly uses ifs mother's nipple as an ever
available source ofssc«»tty;^iR-'».- -"*-j

Field Museurrv Biiltetin

Individuation

As the infant's pelage starts to change to adult
coloration, a period of intense scratching
begins. The relationship to pelage change is
uncertain.

Scratching, when it first appears, is
uncoordinated, arhythmic, and often misplaced,
sometimes even missing the infant itself and
ending on the mother. Those scratches falling
on itself may give feedback to help the
individuation process. Scratching, like other
individuation behaviors, begins in an
uncoordinated manner, but becomes more
integrated as the infant develops; specifically,
scratching becomes more directly placed and
shorter in duration.

The infant gains identity as it pays more
attention to itself than to the comfort it has
with its mother.

The infant moves out from the maternal cavity
more and more. It reaches out, explores things,
explores itself, and explores other individuals
in the troop in an asocial manner.

Although the Colobus monkey doesn't ride on
its mother's back during transit as baboons do,
it, like other Old World monkey babies, does
climb on her and use her as a base for
pre-social play. The female tolerates the
infant's behavior, although it sometimes appears
to be annoying to her.

Individuation marks the beginning of an
interest in solid food. The infant shows interest
in the food its mother eats by sniffing her
mouth, as do other individuals in the troop.
Such sniffing is common in most Old World
monkeys; it seems to give the other troop
members an idea of what the individual is
eating.

There is a period of mouthing of various
objects. This is common in many other Old
World monkeys and in humans. The infant
mouths its own hand as well as parts of its
mother. Mouthing is an important behavior of
this individuation period. At the same time the
hands begin to manipulate and explore objects
as the infant grows. Later the infant integrates
the use of its mouth and hands.

December 1972

Socialization

Lip-smacking occurs consistently in social
contexts after about 50 days of age, indicating
tfiat the infant is moving into tfie socialization
period. Tfiougfi lip-smacking is first noticed at
18 days of age, at tfiat early stage it is outside
of social context.

Tfie infant lip-smacks as it shows great interest
in the dominant male. The male may respond
by lip-smacking and gently pulling the infant's
head toward him. Earlier in the infant's life the
male has few interactions with it. As the infant
grows, the male may carry it occasionally.
The young male may repeat some of the mild
interest the dominant male shows, cupping the
infant under the chin. He may capture the
infant as it travels by itself. He may attempt to
carry the infant but is unable to control it as
well as adult females do.

As the infarit develops socially, it is controlled
more by the others in play. Often it responds
from the security of the maternal cavity. It
shows great interest in the play of other troop
members.

Social play in Colobus guereza is common in

older juveniles and adults. In captive troops, all
individuals play at one time or another,
including adult females. They play with other
adults as well as with the young of the troop,
although play most often occurs between
individuals of similar ages. With individuals of
different ages, the older one seems to modify
the intensity or roughness of the play, being
more gentle with the younger individual. Play
includes a great deal of mouthing of each
other's face, arms, hands, and feet.
Occasionally play ends in grooming.

The period of intense mothering of the infant
gives way to a gradual disenchantment, until
scenes such as this rejection of a five-month-
old infant become common.

But the youngster is allowed to find some
security on the nipple until it is over a year old.
From the security of the maternal cavity, that
holds the Guereza baby between womb and
entry into a group of adult peers, the young
monkey passes from mother-infant unity through
individuation to gradual weaning, and on into
adult socialization.

Out of the infant comes the adult. The Guereza
troop renews itself.

Field Museum Bulletin 5

Tiger! Tiger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

Did he smile his work to see?

Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

William Blake

on being mothor to o Ugor joycomar/hQiibrukoFF

There is little resemblance between the
fearful beast described by William
Blake and Tigger, a striped baby in the
nursery at Lincoln Park Zoo. Playing
with a ball on the nursery floor, this
house-cat-sized tiger is as endearing
as any baby, as are its animal "tot"
companions — a brilliantly spotted
jaguar, about the same age as Tigger;
the bumbling and temperamental
queen of the nursery, Kumba, prize
two-year-old gorilla; two puma
youngsters; a miniscule snow leopard,
who spent her first few weeks in the
incubator; and Caria, a black leopard,
growing large now, and soon to be
transferred to her own quarters in the
big lion house.

Unfortunately the old axiom "everybody
loves a baby" doesn't always hold true.
In the case of animals in captivity, the
exception to this rule can often be the
animal's mother. Naturally, animal
behavior under the conditions imposed
by any zoo will be altered from that in

the wild. Many lucky babies are loved
and cared for in normal fashion. Other
newborns are rejected — sometimes
even harmed by the mother — and so
must be removed to be saved. Some
of the older zoo buildings do not have
adequate cubbing dens for the mother
to retire to prior to giving birth. That is
the primary reason for the nursery at
Lincoln Park Zoo. Here, as part of the
children's zoo, a controlled environment
is offered for very young animals under
the supervision of a qualified animal
keeper. There they are raised to a point
of maturity when they can be safely
placed in their own area of the zoo, or
perhaps sold or traded to another zoo
where this specimen is in demand.

While saving the lives of many infants,
the nursery also provides a unique
place for the zoologist to study the
behavior of these very young animals.
Much can be learned about them as
each one struggles to adapt to the diet,
colds, exposure to other animals, and

varied trauma of growing up. What is
learned will fill the pages of research
reports as well as allow the nursery
programs to be improved as each new
group of babies comes along.

A third and very important function of
the nursery is to provide the public
with a close-up view of the young
animals. The faces of children are
radiant as they look through the glass
to observe, just inches away, a tug of
war between a two-foot-long jaguar
and a bit of cloth caught under the
wheels of a toy wagon. They have
watched Kumba flee from a tiny puma
one-tenth her size — and then later,
when the puma least expects it,
Kumba's arm come sneaking out to
yank the spotted tail. They watch as
Jill, the sloth with the huge eyes and
the indolent air, drinks milk from a tiny
baby bottle. They watch the Geoffrey
marmosets, minute primates from South
America, chatter excitedly over a plate
of finely diced fruits and vegetables.

December 1972

' 1 p ♦ -»

A puma baby tries solid food.

As they watch, they learn — and,
hopefully, they begin to love and
understand the living world better,
growing up to protect the vanishing
animal populations of our globe. One
feels much closer to a tiger or an
orangutan when one sees the animal
at this most beguiling time of its life.

A few afternoons at the children's zoo
will leave an indelible mark on the
sensitive child's mind such as no
amount of reading Ranger Rick or an
animal book will do. f\/laybe he will
remember to care when it's his
turn to act.

Few people can be unaware these days
that we are faced with the almost sure
extinction of many species. Certainly
there are a number which will always
remain very rare, even it the utmost
effort is made to save them. In recent
years the idea of cooperative "zoo
banks" has caught on. The premise is
that zoos must continue to raise and
keep animals that are rare or actually
extinct in the wild as our last chance to
save these species from total and
eternal oblivion.

The nursery is an important part of this
strategy. If indeed we are to have this

tremendous responsibility — if some day
the fate of the cheetah or the lowland
gorilla hangs on our ability to keep
these animals alive and well in
captivity — we had better be ready.

Working under the keeper at the
nursery are a group of women
volunteers who are meticulously trained
in the care of the baby animals. The
nursery is sealed off by glass from the
rest of the children's zoo, and guests
inside are infrequent. All workers must
wash thoroughly when coming in, wear
uniforms, even special shoes, and all
foods and medicines are prepared and
handled in a spotlessly clean kitchen
within the confines of the nursery.

Some animals are more difficult to
raise than others and require special
attention. And, quite frankly, they don't
always make it. But as time goes on,
more and more survive. Each animal
that shows signs of weakening in any
way is given all the special attention of
a heart patient in an intensive care unit.
Dr. Lester Fisher, director of Lincoln
Park Zoo, and Dr. Eric Maschgan,
consulting zoo veterinarian, are always
within reach to advise and give
medication. The sick animal is
completely isolated from other residents

of the nursery. Charts of other animals
of the same species who are graduates
of the nursery are checked to compare
symptoms and treatments. The trained
men who keep vigil throughout the
night are carefully briefed. The zoo
curatorial staff remain on call at their
homes nearby or, as they have many
times, remain on the scene most
of the night.

Everything possible is done to save a
sick animal, but naturally some die.
Then an autopsy is performed, from
which more is learned. Thus, as time
passes, problem after problem is
conquered, and each new animal has
a greater chance for adulthood.

The routine in the nursery is simple,
and usually very busy. We play with
the animals as much as possible, for
they need the warmth of cuddling and
the excitement of romping, as do
human infants and youngsters. But
most of what nursery volunteers do can
be classified as work. It all depends on
how many animals are there. When
there is a full house, everybody must
scurry from the time work starts —
7:30 a.m.

The day begins with cleaning cages.

Field Museum Bulletin

Jaguar and black leopard "kittens" during playtime in zoo nursery.

Shy Kumba and author. Photos by Ed Jarecki.

This includes taking all the animals
out and letting them play while the
night's droppings are scrubbed away.

The animals can be very playful in the
morning, and hungry, so quick
stepping helps avoid the stinging
crunch of baby teeth on an
unprepared ankle. It's also wise to
watch the pail of soapy water. Caria,
the black leopard, loves to tip it over.

After scrubbing, feeding — and then the
preparation of formula for the day.
This can be a long process, as usually
each animal gets a different formula.

Then before lunch, if the weather
permits, we take the animals out on a
leash for a romp in the grass next to
the children's zoo. After lunch there is
washing dishes, sterilization of all the
baby bottles, feeding again (twice — at
1:30 and again at 4, but it changes
from time to time), perhaps another trip
outside, and of course the constant
cleaning up. This in addition to the
daily weighing of very young animals,
bath time, and many other chores too
diverse to mention.

The animals play well together. Except
for shy Kumba, we can put them all

together on the floor and visitors can
watch the ensuing circus through the
glass. The tiger and the pumas chase
each other or worry a big plastic bottle
that is one of their many toys. The
jaguar leaps from atop an upside-down
chair onto the back of CarIa, who is
twice its size. CarIa turns, and they
become a mixed-up mass, rolling balls
of black and spotted energy. And
nobody gets hurt. From her cage
Kumba reaches out her arm and slaps
the jaguar on the top of the head. She
wants to play, but is very selective. The
tiger's OK; the jaguar is definitely not.

Kumba is so nervous about this rough
playmate that our cleaning up job
doubled every time she was put with
the jaguar. She would rather play with
the pumas on one side of the divider
while on the other the tiger and the
Jaguar go to it. Above it all, Jill the
sloth hangs unconcernedly in her
roomy cage with her "security" tree
limb and her little hard chew toy. The
marmosets chatter incessantly in their
wire cage. And the faces of children
press against the glass.

It is good that in a world where hunters
are still poaching baby alligators, where
ecologists are ringing the death knell for

our environment, where we are making
a desperate stand for the natural
heritage of our wilderness areas, there
is a place where men are vitally
concerned with a few animal babies—
the representatives of their species.

Perhaps one part of the battle for
survival is being won in zoos, where it
is the animals that come first. For some
species, it is their last chance on
earth.

But even if the species cared for are not
endangered, zoos and their animal
nurseries are of vital importance to
museum zoologists. Their research on
the diversity and interrelationships
within nature's dynamic system
encompasses all aspects of the animals.
They need museum collections of
skeletons and skins, but they study
living forms too when possible. Often
that can be done best in zoos.

Jo''jce Marshall Brukoft is a freelance
writer specializing in natural history, and
also a volunteer wori<er in the nursery at
Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago.

December 1972

(^reenknd. Robert E, Pe^ry. <5 Field Mujeum

d,meiWVan/[one

Robert Edwin Peary

The traveling exhibition "Greenland:
Arctic Denmark," which opened at Field
Museum on November 11 and w^ill run
through March 8, 1973, recalls the
circumstances of Field Museum's first
involvement with Greenland research
and exploration, more than 80 years ago.

In 1891 Frederic Ward Putnam, as
Chief of the Department of Ethnology
and Archaeology for the World's
Columbian Exposition here in Chicago,
was given the task of assembling a
large anthropological collection for the
1893 fair. Field parties to various parts
of the world were directed to collect
ethnographic specimens representing
many different cultures. One of these
parties, an expedition to northwest
Greenland, was under the command of

Lieutenant Robert Edwin Peary of the
United States Navy.

Lieutenant Peary eventually became a
rear-admiral and received worldwide
recognition for his arctic explorations,
particularly his achievement in reaching
the North Pole in 1909. In 1891,
however, he was serving as Chief
Engineer at the Philadelphia Navy Yard
when he received an appointment to
lead an arctic expedition for the
American Geographical Society and
the Academy of Natural Sciences in
Philadelphia. It was during this
expedition (1891-1892), the first of
many to the remote country of the
Polar Eskimo in northwest Greenland,
that Peary made the collection for
Putnam and the 1893 Exposition.

The North Greenland Expedition, as it
was called, consisted of Peary, his
wife, and five associates. The party left
Philadelphia on June 5, and although
the explorer broke a leg aboard ship a
few days later, he was sufficiently
recovered to direct the establishment
of a permanent base camp at the
entrance to Inglefield Gulf on July 25.
The ship then departed and the little
party prepared to spend the winter.
The expedition's surgeon and
ethnologist was Dr. Frederick A. Cook,
who later gained considerable notoriety
for his claims to have reached the
North Pole before Peary. It is likely
that the bulk of the ethnographic
specimens collected for the World's
Columbian Exposition were obtained
by Dr. Cook.

Field Museum Bulletin

This map of contemporary Greenland shows only a few of
the many coastal towns and settlements; the interior of
Greenland, which has an elevation of from 6,000 to 10,000
feet, is covered with glacial ice of great thickness.

30

50"

INDEPENDENCE
FJORD

60-

GODTHAAB

ANGMAGSSALIK

• 75

Above: Eskimo-made maps carved of wood, from Angmagssalik, in "Greenland:
Arctic Denmark" exhibit at Field fwluseum through Ivlarch 8; largest map is
probably an imitation of European maps.

When Peary's ship landed on the
shores of northwest Greenland, he was
greeted by the Polar Eskimo from
villages in the vicinity of the
expedition's camp. These remote
people, who numbered less than 250
Individuals at the time of Peary's visit,
have long been famous in
anthropological literature as the
world's most northerly inhabitants.

Students in ethnographic survey
courses are frequently told how this
small band of arctic peoples, occupying
a region well above 75° N. latitude,
had lived in total isolation for so long
that, when first contacted by the
English explorer John Ross in 1819,
they believed themselves to be the
only people in the world. Following the
explorations of Ross, the Polar Eskimo
had intermittent contact with English
and Scottish whalers and later, in the

early 1850s, with expeditions in search
of Sir John Franklin. Nevertheless, at
the time of Peary's stay among them,
the Polar Eskimo continued to be one
of the most primitive and remote
peoples to be found anywhere in
the world.

It was in the spring of 1892 that the
major work of the expedition was
carried out. Departing from Inglefield
Gulf in late May, Peary and one
companion, proceeding overland by
dog team, reached the head of
Independence Fjord on July 4, thus
determining for the first time the
northernmost extension of the
subcontinent. They were back at the
base camp by August 6, and during
their absence Dr. Cook had obtained a
sizable collection of ethnographic
specimens from Eskimos living in the
vicinity in exchange for pieces of iron

and brass, barrel staves, metal tools,
boxes, and miscellaneous lumber
fragments no longer needed by the
expedition. While Peary was away, a
ship from Philadelphia arrived to take
the expedition home and, although
delayed by the loss of one member of
the party on a glacier near the base
camp, the explorer and his remaining
companions left Greenland on August
24, reaching Philadelphia exactly one
month later.

The Peary collection of Polar Eskimo
material culture consists of more than
250 items. Including clothing,
household utensils, hunting and fishing
gear, and ceremonial equipment. At the
conclusion of the World's Columbian
Exposition, these objects together with
other scientific collections which had
been acquired with Exposition funds,
were turned over to the Field

December 1972

Items in "Greenland: Arctic Denmark" exhibit. Top: Runic stone (shown approximately life-size)
found in 1824 at Kingigtorssuak, just north of Upernavik. It reads: "Eriing Sigvatsson, Bjarne
Thordarsson, and Eindride Oddsson erected Saturday before Rogation Day these cairns and runes
well." Date is interpreted as April 25: type of runic letters places the year in the 14th century.
Below: Typically armless carved wooden doll amulets, 2Vz to 5 inches high, of the Thule culture,
from Nualik, north of Angmagssalik. Right: Early 20th century water bucket, scoop, throwing stick
for harpoon, and eyeshield, decorated with representations of the seal carved from bone.

Columbian Museum as a nucleus to
found this institution, now Field
Museum of Natural History. The material
collected by Peary is thus one of the
oldest collections in the Department
of Anthropology, and although not on
exhibition at the present time, is part
of the Department's large reserve
collections utilized by scholars for
research purposes.

Virtually every explorer from Ross to
Peary who had contact with the Polar
Eskimo noted the small amount of
wood and metal utilized by the people
in the manufacture of their tools,
utensils, and weapons. Such exotic
materials as were available to the
Eskimos have generally been attributed
to contact with whaling ships, the
various explorers themselves, and
occasional wrecked ships or driftwood
fragments. However, if Polar Eskimo

material culture was relatively
unaffected by outside influences until
Peary's first expedition, we would
expect his collection to be notably
lacking in items utilizing iron and wood
in their construction. This is definitely
not the case. These materials were
utilized extensively by the Eskimos who
made the tools, weapons, and other
objects collected by Peary in 1891
and 1892.

Trade materials such as wood and iron
may have been introduced by migrating
Canadian Eskimos in the mid-19th
century or, more likely, they were
obtained through trade with Eskimos to
the south along the west coast of
Greenland, where driftwood was
plentiful and where there had been
contact with European whaling ships in
the 18th century. If would appear,
therefore, that although the Polar

Eskimo were, beyond a doubt, an
extremely isolated people, they probably
had more contact over a longer
continuous period of time with the
peoples of southwest Greenland and
northeastern Canada than has been
generally noted. It is therefore possible
to doubt whether, even in Ross's day,
the Polar Eskimo really believed
themselves to be the only people in
the world. Field Museum's Peary
collection thus not only associates the
institution with one of the most famous
names in arctic exploration, it also
provides us insight into the lifeways
of the most northern human population.

Dr. James W. VanStone is Curator, North
American Archaeology and Ethnology, and
Chairman of the Department of
Anthropology, Field Museum,

Field Museum Bulletin

-

i

:

The Fuller Collection of Pacific Artifacts

By Roland W. Force and Maryanne Force.
London: Lund Humphries, 1971. xvi +
360 pp. $35.

Since the turn of the century Field Museum
has been justly world famous for the
richness of its ethnological collections from
the Melanesian Islands of the southwest
Pacific. There are few museums that can
rival, much less equal, the scientific and
cultural worth of the great collections
acquired from Otto Finsch, Richard
Parkinson, J. F. G. Umlauff, W. D. Webster,
W. P. Harrison, and especially those
gathered out in the Pacific by two of the
Museum's earliest curators, George Dorsey
and A. B. Lewis.

By comparison, for decades the Museum's
holdings from the Polynesian Islands east of
Melanesia and from Australia to the south
were small in numbers and very uneven in
their representation of the native cultures of
the farther reaches of Oceania. To be sure,
there were a few exceptions: notably the
Captain T. E. Donne Collection of lyiaori
artifacts from New Zealand, and the large,
old Maori council house that stands today
in Hall F on the ground floor of the Museum.
But the deficiencies were acute for most of
the island cultures beyond Melanesia.

Then in 1957 Roland Force, at the time Field
Museum's Curator of Oceanic Archaeology
and Ethnology, first visited an elderly
gentleman in London who was renowned as
one of the greatest collectors of all time:
Captain A. W. F. Fuller. Force has described
him as one of the most memorable men he
has ever met: "He was a gentleman in the
most complimentary sense of the term. He
was courtly and formal; even Victorian in
his view of life."

Over the years since the acquisition of his
first Pacific artifact in 1896, Fuller and his
wife, Estelle, had carefully amassed a
collection of over 6,000 items. Recognizing
its great intrinsic worth. Force arranged lor

Its acquisition by Field Museum through the
generosity of a number of private citizens.
From February to July of 1958 Captain Fuller
and Roland Force cataloged every specimen
on sound tape and packed each item for
shipment to America.

The collection's arrival in Chicago was
greeted enthusiastically. Field Museum's
Annual Report for 1958 observed:
"Together with the Museum's already
excellent and comprehensive materials that
emphasize Melanesia in particular, the Fuller
Collection provides a source for scientific
study and exhibition that ranks exceptionally
high among museums the world over."

Roland Force, now director of the Bishop
Museum in Hawaii, and his wife have at last
issued the long awaited homage to Fuller
and his collection. The Fuller Collection ol
Pacific Arlilacts contains hundreds of superb
photographs. Many reveal the artifacts in
close detail. Unquestionably, those who are
mterested, as Fuller was, in things Pacific
will want to add this large volume to their
own libraries. It is not a catalog of
specimens, one by one. Rather it is a vivid
pictorial sampling of the esthetic and cultural
richness of the great Fuller Collection.

by John Terrell, Assistant Curator ol Oceanic
Archaeology and Ethnology, Department of
Anthropology. Field Museum.

Indian Life on the Northwest Coast of
North America as Seen by the Early
Explorers and Fur Traders during the
Last Decades of the Eighteenth Century

By Erna Gunther. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1972. xiv + 277 pp.;
illustrations; map. $15.

During the last three decades of the 18th
century the northwest coast of North America
was explored with varying degrees of
thoroughness by four maritime nations, each
with colonial or commercial ambitions
toward the region. The Russians, perhaps
the least dedicated to disinterested
exploration, were first on the scene. Spanish
explorers came north from California to keep
an eye on the Russians, and the English
followed to find out what the Spanish were
doing. Following the establishment of a
maritime fur trade. New England sea
captains arrived and boldly intruded on the
commercial operations of all the others.

In this superbly designed and well
illustrated volume. Dr. Erna Gunther, an
anthropologist with considerable field
experience on the northwest coast, relates
and interprets information in the journals of
these explorers concerning the Indian
inhabitants they encountered between
northern California and about 57° north
latitude. In the course of her research she
also examined most of the known

ethnographic specimens in the world's
museums that were collected by 18th
century explorers. This interrelation of
literature and artifacts gives a new and vivid
dimension to ethnohistory. Contemporary
sketches, some rare and unpublished, are
also utilized to provide as complete a picture
as possible of the lifeways of northwest
coast Indians at the time of first contact with
Europeans. Lacking, however, are detailed
maps that would have made it much easier
for the reader to follow the progress of each
of the many explorers and traders
mentioned.

In the first chapter the author discusses the
initial Russian explorations in the north
Pacific together with the Spanish response.
Next we are with Captain Cook at Nootka
Sound, and the artifacts collected by
members of the expedition, most of which
are now in the British Museum, are
described and illustrated. The drawings of
the expedition's artist, John Webber, are
carefully analyzed. Since several members
of Cook's party published accounts of the
voyage. Dr. Gunther gives multiple
descriptions of certain Incidents involving
the Indians of Nootka Sound in order to
ascertain the accuracy of the ethnographic
data they contain.

In chapter 3 we follow the explorers along
the coast south of Nootka to the Strait of
Juan de Fuca and the Columbia River.
Various Spanish explorers, American traders,
and the Englishman John Meares figure
prominently, but there are few known
artifacts and drawings to supplement the
written historical data. Also featured in this
chapter are the southern explorations of the
greatest seaman of them all. Captain
George Vancouver. For his voyage, which
began in 1790, there are numerous artifacts
which have survived: unfortunately, few are
illustrated. In the following chapter we follow
the careful explorations of Vancouver as he
works his way through the intricate channels
of the Inside Passage.

Dr. Gunther devotes a chapter each to the
Haida and Tlingit Indians, both powerful
tribes who greatly impressed the first
European visitors to their lands. The Haida
were shrewd traders who established
patterns for the fur trade that were to extend
well into the next century. The aggressive,
warlike Tlingit were more than a match for
the Russians when they tried to establish a
settlement at the present town of Sitka. Many
explorers and travelers have left detailed
descriptions of these colorful people and
their elaborate culture. Spanish drawings
and artifacts collected by the Malaspina
expedition help give reality to the
descriptions of the explorers. The final
chapter describes the northern limit of
explorations in Prince William Sound, Cook
Inlet, and in the vicinity of Unalaska.

December 1972

The book concludes with two appendices,
the first of which lists and describes all
known 18th century artifacts from the
northwest coast in European collections, as
an aid to future ethnohistorians. The second
appendix discusses the technological
processes of the 18th century with special
reference to these artifacts.

Even if Dr. Gunther had done no more than
bring together documentary material for the
period, she would have made a valuable
contribution to northwest ethnohistory. She
has. however, done much more. Her
carefully researched interpretations provide
a truly three dimensional portrait of Indian
life. It is a superb scholarly achievement.

by Dr. James W. VanStone. Curator. North
American Archaeology and Ethnology, and
Chairman, Department ol Anthropology.
Field Museum.

The Serengeti Lion

By George B. Schaller. Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 1972. xiii !- 480 pp.
$12.50.

This book is a balanced and meticulously
organized treatment of four years of data on
the lion, as well as on the species it
depends upon and competes with for food.
The study is comprehensive. Schaller
dispels and verifies some common beliefs,
but is careful not to extend himself beyond
the time and geographic limits of the study.
A lucid and sometimes poetic exposition is
documented with 79 appended tables and
many fine figures and plates.

Lion society has two strata in Tanzania's
Serengeti National Park. Most animals are
born into a pride, a relatively sedentary,
stable, and closed social group of related
animals. A smaller segment of the population
consists of small transitory groups of
unrelated nomads. Females are centripetal
elements of the pride. Food is procured
primarily by female pride members, and
variations in its abundance apparently
control frequency of estrus but not litter
size. Any female may nurse any cub within
its pride. Cubs depend on adults for food
for the first year and a half, and most males
become nomadic in another year or two.

Wildebeest, zebra, and Thomson's gazelle
compose the bulk of the diet, but their
availability varies with season, habitat, and
topography. Since only nomads follow these
migratory herds, these food species are
unavailable to most lions for part of the year.
Plains lions scavenge far more than
woodland populations, apparently because
herds are concentrated and also more
vulnerable to other sources of mortality.
Stalkers, like the lion, select more randomly
from available age classes than do wild
dogs and hyaenas, which course down

disabled and young animals. Hunting success
increases when more than one lion
participates, and is greatest where cover
permits close approach.

Schaller collected a surprising amount of
information on the leopard, cheetah, and wild
dog also. His treatment of these and other
predators in the third part of the book
provides the basis of a comparative
discussion of the adaptive relationship
between the ecology, social structure, and
behavior of the large Serengeti carnivores.

This book does much to promote the study
of mammalian carnivores, and such study
has wide-ranging significance. While many
zoologists and anthropologists feel it "nobler
in the mind" to pursue man's societal and
communicatory origins by studying non-
human primates, Schaller has shown that
human social qualities such as cooperation
and sharing are emergent properties of a
hunting habitus rather than of a primate
heritage. Food is an important determinant
of social organization, and food is often
more easily studied in carnivores than
herbivores. In the case of the Serengeti, a
comprehension of the predator-prey axis is
critical for conservation as well as for
scientific reasons.

George Schaller is still a young man and in
a league of his own. What large and
mysterious species will he study next?
Giant Panda?

by Dr. Chris Wemmer, Curator ol Small
Mammals. Brookfield Zoo.

Alfred Kroeber: A Personal Configuration.

By Theodora Kroeber. Berkeley: University
of California Press, 1970. xi + 292 pp.;
illustrations; bibliography. $7.95.

Alfred Lewis Kroeber, who was a Research
Associate in American Archaeology at Field
Museum from 1926 until his death in 1960,
was one of the great anthropologists of his
time, and his passing marked the end of an
era in American anthropology. He was not
only a great figure but the last of the
"universal" anthropologists in this country.
His book Anthropology, published in 1923,
was the first general textbook in
anthropology. His more than five hundred
publications included contributions in
ethnology, archaeology, linguistics, folklore,
historical syntheses that were often of
world scope, and numerous papers on the
nature of culture. He received his Ph.D. in
anthropology at Columbia University in 1901
and taught at the University of California
in Berkeley from 1901 to 1946. After his
retirement he continued to the end of his
life to teach — at Columbia, Harvard, Yale,
Brandeis, and Chicago — and to write,
edit, and take part in symposia and
conferences.

No one is so well qualified to describe
Kroeber's personal configuration as his
widow, Theodora Kroeber, well known as
a writer for her beautiful and moving book
Ishi in Two Worlds and for The Inland Whale,
a retelling of northern California Indian
myths. She explains in the preface to her
biography of her husband that she
discovered when working on what began
as an aide m6moire on Kroeber that there
was "no unpatterned miscellaneous way
of writing meaningfully of him. To tell
anything of him is to become aware of the
pattern and the configuration which are at
the heart of the person and the personality.
This is true, I am sure, of any achieved
personality: it is just that Kroeber was more
of a piece than many of us, his life pattern
deeply cut, cleanly outlined." She does

A L, Kiutbul oil Fil;,! Mjtshall FiulJ

Archaeological Expedition to Peru, 1925.

not attempt to assess Kroeber as an
anthropologist and scientist. Rather, she
hopes that "what 1 have written will give
some pleasure to those who knew Kroeber
well, explain some matters which they never
understood; and that for those young
anthropologists who never knew him, may
suggest some flicker of what he was, of
how he got that way, of how deep and vital
was his interest in the future. ... I would
like the 'new horizon anthropologists' to
know he wished them so very, very well;
that he would have so liked to know them
and their work."

In addition to being a prolific writer and
a great teacher, Kroeber was a museum
man. His first field work, among the
Arapaho Indians, was sponsored by the
American Museum of Natural History. For

Field Museum Bulletin

many years he was director of the Museum
of Anthropology at the University of
California. His association with Field
Museum began in 1925, when he conducted
the First Marshall Field Archaeological
Expedition to Peru. The following year he
headed the Second Marshall Field
Expedition to Peru. During these two
expeditions he surveyed the whole Peruvian
Coast, made extensive surface collections,
and excavated in the Lima, Cahete, and
Nazca Valleys. These efforts nearly doubled
the Museum's holdings in Peruvian
archaeology. As a result of this field work,
he published two survey articles in the
American Anthropologist and four
monographs in Fieldiana: Anthropology.

Kroeber was a humanist and natural
historian rather than a social scientist.
Mrs. Kroeber quotes (p. 227) his views on
the nature of anthropology and his position
in it, expressed late in his career:

"I believe anthropology to consist of three
about equal components — natural history,
humane and social science. I consider my
own motivations and interests to consist
overwhelmingly of the first two; I am not
really a social scientist at all. I had to reach
seventy before I began to discover that, but
I think I know it at eighty.

"I have increasingly realized in recent years
that I have never been a behavioral or even
a truly social scientist, but a humanist with
a sort of natural history slant. I am interested
in languages, grammars, civilizations, styles,
religions, logics — all of which have patterns
and forms and are products of social
behavior but are not behavior themselves. I
have really been only incidentally interested
in the interrelations and actions of groups
of people."

I came to know Kroeber first when I was
an undergraduate at Berkeley in 1932 and
then in the spring of 1938 at Chicago
when he joined four of us in a memorable
party celebrating the passing of our
"prelims." I knew him more intensely
during the last decade of his life. He was
a stimulating and generous mentor, a warm
friend, and a colleague of wide ranging
interests and extraordinary erudition. I
recall a conversation in 1938 while driving
him to Robert Redfield's farm northwest
of Chicago — the subject was the variety
and distribution of barn styles in eastern
United States. Kroeber had not made a
systematic study of barns but had a rich
store of obsen/ations on the styles in
various regions and was interested in the
nature and cause of their distributions.

I feel that in this book Theodora Kroeber
has succeeded admirably in her hopes, has
reflected truly Kroeber's fundamental
thinking, and has written a beautiful

biography. It will afford pleasure and
stimulation not only to anthropologists but
also to anyone interested in the American
Indian or American intellectual history
of the past hundred years.

by Dr. Donald Collier. Curator of
Middle and South American Archaeology
and Ethnology, Department of Anthropology,
Field Museum.

Eyewitness to Space

By Hereward Lester Cooke, with
collaboration of James D. Dean. Foreword
by J. Carter Brown. Preface by Thomas O.
Paine. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc.,
1971. (Printed and bound in Japan by
Toppan Printing Co., Ltd.) 241 pp.
(unpaginated). $35.

When Leif, son of Erik, sailed from
Greenland on a voyage of discovery to
North America, no anxious, cheering crowd
saw him off or welcomed him back. Indeed,
we have only the spottiest details of his
voyage at all. Columbus, 500 years later,
fared better (temporarily) as far as public
regard was concerned, though even then
we have only moderately detailed accounts
of his preparation, discoveries, and return.
Stanley's explorations of the Upper Nile and
the Congo Basin, on the other hand, were
reported in considerable detail. It is clear
that as time has gone on expeditions of
discovery have enjoyed ever better and
more detailed documentation, culminating in
the several voyages of discovery to the
spaces surrounding the earth, and to the
moon beyond.

In documenting this, the most recent,
example of man's continuing desire to
explore the unknown, no detail, however
minute, has been omitted. Because the
camera is capable of recording stark fact,
often devoid of meaning, the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration and
the National Gallery of Art together
commissioned forty-seven of the United
States' best artists to record any and all
aspects of the venture into space.
Eyewitness to Space is the result.

Armed with sketchbooks, easels, and media
of all kinds, from simple pencils to oils and
canvas, these artists trooped through the
facilities at Florida's Cape Canaveral,
Houston's Manned Spacecraft Center, and
over the decks of recovery ships in the
Pacific. They were not required to record
specific scenes, events, or activities, but to
draw what struck their respective fancies or
whetted their Imaginations.

Just as no concert is completely perfect, or
no art showing an absolute success, so too
is this book a mixture of the excellent and
the average. It contains a total of 289

reproductions of drawings, of which 103 are
in color. The format of the book is spacious,
with 12-by-16 inch pages. The majority of
the originals were larger than this, so most
of them have undergone some reduction.

Of the 186 black and white pictures, most
were originally done in pencil, or pen and
ink. Some were done in watercolor and
reproduced in black and white, for what
reason it is not clear. True to their
assignment, the artists captured a mass of
moods, impressions, and details of the men
and machines that have assaulted the
ultimate physical frontier — space.

Many of the drawings, both black and white
and color, record mundane details — launch
pads, preparation rooms, an astronaut being
hauled into a recovery helicopter, men in
Mission Control hunched over monitors, bits
of hardware, long views of stretches of
Florida beaches. But, like any art showing,
sprinkled among these is a goodly number
of show-stoppers.

The book is beautifully put together and the
color plates carefully prepared, separated,
and printed — a typically top-notch
production of Harry Abrams' publishing
company. As is always the case with
quality, the price will limit the number of
possible purchasers.

I found the book pleasant to leaf through,
though it was not entirely what I had
expected. Personally, I would have been
pleased with a larger number of pictures of
the kinds I have specifically singled out
above. There were, I felt, too many of what
I would call documentation drawings:
rockets being launched, gantries, flight
decks of aircraft carriers, and the like.

In any event, whether you are interested in
art or not, this collection holds something
for you and is worth seeking out in a library
if you cannot afford to purchase it.

It is fitting that man's venture into space be
recorded in this fashion. It is one of the few
times that both the explorers and the mass
of mankind have been fully aware of the
unusual significance of the exploration.
Whatever the future will say about this
space program, one thing must stand out:
as Astronaut Neil Armstrong has pointed
out, it is the first time mankind has ventured
into a new, unknown land without sword or
gun — surely a hopeful sign.

By Dr. Edward J. Olsen, Curator of
Mineralogy, Department of Geology,
Fietd Museum.

All of the books mentioned here are
available from the Field Museum Book
Shop — with a 10 percent discount to
Museum Members, of course.

December 1972

Liaison Committee of Women's Board
Helps Trustees in Capital Campaign

Full and enthusiastic support of the Field
Museum Women's Board for the current
$25,000,000 Capital Campaign has been
assured with the creation of a Women's
Board Liaison Committee for the Capital
Campaign.

Chaired by tVlrs. Corwilh Hamill of Wayne,
Illinois, those who have volunteered to
serve with her are: Mrs. B, Edward
Bensinger of Chicago, Women's Board
President: Mrs. Leonard S. Davidow of
Highland Park: Mrs. Elliott Donnelley of
Lake Forest: Mrs. R. Winfield Ellis of
Chicago; Mrs. Burton W. Hales of Winnetka:
Mrs. John T. Moss of Chicago: Mrs. Paul W.
Oliver of Northfield: Mrs. Leo H.
Schoenhofen, Jr. and Mrs. John R. Siragusa,
both of Barrington: Mrs. Edward Byron
Smith, Mrs. Hermon Dunlap Smith, and Mrs.
Morrison Waud, all of Lake Forest; and
Mrs, William Wood-Prince of Chicago.

According to Field Museum trustees Marshall
Field and William H. Mitchell, co-chairmen
for the individual gifts division of the
Capital Campaign, the Women's Committee
is expected to obtain gifts from members
of the Women's Board, their husbands,
and others.

Mrs. Hamill and her committee are
arranging a series of luncheon meetings of
small groups in order to acquaint them
with the specific work being done in the
scientific areas and the specific needs for
the Museum's renovation and rehabilitation.

At a recent meeting, Mr. Field congratulated
Board members for having made a departure
from their stated purpose when the Board
was founded in 1966. Although originally
public relations and promoting "interest in
the Museum and its activities" was its
purpose, the Board felt the time has now
come to give all the material support
possible to Field Museum.

Dr. Mallhew H. Nitecki. Associate Curator of Fossil
Invertebrates, explains some points about
paleontology to Mrs. Corwith Hamill. Mrs Gardner
Brown, and Mrs Homer J Livingston v^tien they
visited the geology storeroom after a recent luncheon
meeting.

Mr Marshall Field discusses with Mrs Burton W.
Hales and Mrs. John T. Moss the important role the
Museum's Women's Board is playing in the Capital
Campaign

Mrs. William Wood-Prince. Mrs, Edward Byron Smith,
and Mrs B. Edward Bensinger visit the cramped and
antiquated kitchen facilities of Field Museum's
restaurant, which are high on priority list of
renovations to be accomplished with Capital
Campaign funds.

On an inspection tour of some of the building's
critical problems to be corrected with Capital
Campaign funds. Museum Director E. Leiand Webber
explains the sunken ground floor problem to Mrs.
Robert C. Gunness, Mrs. Lewis E. Myers. Mrs. Edwin
N. Asmann. Mrs. David Mayer, Mrs. George Harry
Walkins, Mrs. Hermon Dunlap Smith, and Mrs. W.
Press Hodgkins. The building itself has not sunk— it
s supported by pilings that extend almost a hundred
feet below lake level to rock or other hard substance
—but the ground floor has— having been laid directly
on land fill; it must be tied into the building structure.

Field Museum Bulletin 15

Botany Has New Associate Curator

Dr. John J. Engel. recently appointed the
Donald Richards Associate Curator of
Bryology, is the Department of Botany's
newest staff member. He came to the
Museum from IVIichigan State University, East
Lansing, where he was a post-doctoral
research associate, having received his
Ph.D. in 1971. Dr. Engel's current research
is on south temperate and subantarctic
hepatics (liverworts).

John J. Eng

■^f-

'^^

ry^

New Assistant Curator of Fishes

Dr. Robert K. Johnson recently joined the
Department of Zoology as Assistant Curator
of Fishes: He received his Ph.D. from the
University of California (San Diego) in 1971.
His dissertation research was on a family of
deep sea fishes at the Scripps Institution of
Oceanography. In the intervening year
Dr. Johnson was a research associate at the
University of Maryland, Chesapeake
Biological Laboratory, working on the eggs
and larval stages of Chesapeake Bay fishes.

Robert K. Jotinson

National Science Foundation Grants

Field Museum was recently awarded grants
by the National Science Foundation to
support two important research projects of
its scientific staff for a period of 24 months.
One grant of $30,900 is for a study of the
taxonomy of the Basidiomycetes, directed by
Dr. Rolf Singer, visiting research curator of
mycology in the Department of Botany.
A grant for $36,100 supports work on the
comparative anatomical and phyiogenetic
relations of the elasmobranch fishes, under
the direction of Dr. Rainer Zangerl, Chairman
of the Department of Geology.

Give Field Museum to Someone

Remember that a Field Museum membership
offers something for the whole family: free
admission at all times: previews of new
exhibits: the excitement of Members' Nights;
the stimulation of workshop programs for
children: a discount on purchases at the
Book Shop: and the Field Museum Bulletin
delivered to your mailbox eleven times a year.

There is still time to order a membership as
a holiday gift for some special friends or
relatives. You could telephone your order
directly to the Membership Department:
922-9546. Or you could use the order
coupon here. Either way, you would give a
gift that would be a lasting reminder of your
special thoughtfulness.

For each gift membership an announcement
greeting card will be sent in your name
plus a portfolio of four color reproductions
of bird paintings done by the distinguished
American artist Louis Agassiz Fuertes on a
Field Museum expedition to East Africa.

Clip and mail to: Field Museum of Natural History,
Roosevelt Rd. at Lk. Stiore Dr., Chicago. III. 60605

Please send the lollowing Gilt Membership
n Annual $15 D Associate $750 D Lite $500
in my name to:

Gift recipient's name

City

Slate

Zip

C Check enclosed payable to Field Museum
n Please bill me as lollows:

My name

Address

city State Zip

n Send bird prints to gilt recipient
I

□ Send bird prints to me

Please put information for additional gift
memberships on a separate sheet

Merrill Trust Gift to Help "Man in
His Environment" Program

E. Lee Cotton. Vice President of Merrill,
Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc.,
recently presented a 350,000 check from the
Merrill Trust to Field Museum Director
E. Leiand Webber, as Dr. Robert F. Inger,
the Museum's Assistant Director, Science
and Education, looked on. The sum from the
Merrill Trust will be matched by a gift from
the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The funds will be used for a comprehensive
public education program, "Man in His
Environment." The core of the program
consists of a permanent exhibit at Field
Museum as well as a traveling version of
the same exhibit designed to visit other
metropolitan areas. The exhibit opening at
Field Museum is scheduled for 1974.

Jade grapes from mainland China.

Museum Has Exotic Holiday Gifts

In the Book Shop you can find jade from
the Far East at 84 to $200; a leather
shoulder bag decorated with cowry shells
made by the Mossi tribe of Africa's Upper
Volta; a wall hanging made from a
patterned, hand-woven Ethiopian camel
blanket; collectors' rock and mineral
specimens; African glazed clay trade beads;
lacquer ware and coin necklaces from
Taiwan; and much, much more, from
stocking stuffers to Important Presents — all
at a 10 percent discount for Museum
Members, of course. Come and see.

December 1972

CALENDAR

Exhibits

Continuing

Greenland: Arctic Denmark, an exhibit
covering all aspects of the history and
culture of the world's largest island. The
extensive collection of archaeological and
ethnological material is supplemented by
photographs and a daily film program
to illustrate various areas of economic
development and social change in modern
Greenland. The exhibition is sponsored by
the Royal Danish Embassy and is showin
under the auspices of the Smithsonian
Institution Traveling Exhibition Service.
Through IVIarch 8. Hall 27,

A New Spirit in Search of the Past:

Archaeology and Ecology in the Lower
Illinois River Valley, an exhibit explaining
the "new" archaeology as reflected in the
Illinois Valley Archaeological Program's
excavation of the Koster Site, directed by
Dr. Stuart Struever of Northwestern
University. Through IVIarch 25. Hall 9.

Paracas Whistling Jar from the lea Valley
of Peru, Ocucaje Phase II (ca. 700 B.C.),
is featured in the South Lounge through
January 21. The unique pottery jug, which
makes a whistling sound when water is
poured out of it, is the earliest known of
its type. It is the gift of (VIr. and IVlrs.
Raymond J, Wielgus.

Field Museum's 75th Anniversary Exhibit

continues indefinitely. "A Sense of Wonder"
offers thought-provoking prose and poetry
associated with the physical, biological,
and cultural aspects of nature; "A Sense of
History" presents a graphic portrayal of the
Museum's past; and "A Sense of Discovery"
shows examples of research conducted
by Museum scientists. Hall 3.

John James Audubon's elephant folio,

The Birds ol America, on display in the
North Lounge. Continues indefinitely.

Color in Nature, an exhibit examining the
nature and variety of color in the physical
and living world and how it functions in
plants and animals. Continues indefinitely.
Hall 25.

Film and Tour Program

A special series of films relating to the
"Greenland: Arctic Denmark" exhibit
is shown continuously beginning at
the following times:

Daily: 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.

Friday: 10 a.m., 1 p.m., and 6 p.m.

Saturday and Sunday: 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Weekend Motion Picture, "The
Unexplained," presented at 1 and 3 p.m.
Saturdays and Sundays in the second floor
North Meeting Room. The documentary
film reveals investigations of scientists
and amateurs into strange and unexplored
frontiers of knowledge.

December 26 through 29

"Through These Doors," a color film
focusing on behind-the-scenes activities
at the Museum, shown at 1:15 p.m. in the
second floor North Meeting Room. A
"highlights" tour leaves at 2 p.m. from
the north information desk.

Children's Program

Begins December 1

Winter Journey for Children, "Dog Meets
Man," a free, self-guided tour exploring
the many aspects of man's partnership
with "his best friend" since prehistoric
times. Youngsters are provided with a
questionnaire which routes them through
Museum exhibit areas. All boys and girls
who can read and write may join in the
activity. Journey sheets are available at
Museum entrances. Through February 28.

Meetings

December 12: 7:30 p.m.. Nature Camera
Club of Chicago

December 12: 8 p.m., Chicagoland Glider
Council

December 13: 7 p.m., Chicago Ornithological
Society

December 13: 7:30 p.m.. Windy City Grollo,
National Speleological Society

December 14: 8 p.m., Chicago
Mountaineering Club

Coming in January

Opens January 10

Below Man's Vision: Electronic Windows to
Unseen Worlds, an exhibit exploring the
world of details in common objects and
familiar plants and animals, and offering
glimpses into current research activities.
Over 200 photographs, displayed at up to
200,000 times life size, introduce a
previously unseen world. Through June 10.
Hall 18.

December Hours

9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday ttirougti Ttiursday. except
9 a.m. to 5 p.m. December 26 ttirougti 28. Friday
tiours are 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Saturday and
Sunday tiours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Field f^useum is closed on Christmas Day.

Ttie f^useum Library is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Monday ttirougti Friday. Please obtain pass at
reception desit, main floor nortti.

Museum teleptione: 922-9410