vember/December 1990 o iS ne " — =: _ ie) Pd i= E = 3 w ield Mu The Bulletin of the F upernatural S & the Death ife, L aire ge Mr te arith Ai ‘ 7 The Bulletin of the Field Museum of Natural History A $1.4 million Kellogg Foundation grant will support the new ‘Animal Kingdom’ exhibit. It's time to revive the Burnham plan for museums ina park, by re-routing Lake Shore Drive. CIFI SPIRIT By Susan Nelson hen the yellow tape and construction W barricades come down on November 10, all of us will be able to step inside the religious and ceremonial worlds of Pacific islanders as the Museum opens “Pacific Spirits: Life, Death & the Supernatural,” the second and final part of its new permanent exhibit on the Pacific islands. Multi-faceted exhibition areas have trans- formed a long, narrow hall into seven different but connecting galleries, each with its own theme and interior configuration. Angled walls, freestanding displays, and imaginative uses of vertical space stretching 18 feet or so to the ceil- ing envelop the visitor and work a little magic of their own in explaining the religious beliefs of diverse Pacific islanders around 1910. The date is significant. It was then that Albert Buell Lewis, a newly hired curator of anthropology, was dispatched to Melanesia to study island culture and bring back dazzling artifacts that would fill the new museum’s halls. Focusing on the time of the Lewis expedi- tion, “Pacific Spirits” highlights artifacts from the Museum’s world-renowned Oceanic collec- tion. Those early objects reflect the diverse artistic styles of Pacific islanders before their societies were heavily influenced by European and American colonial- ism. For that reason, the objects may be considered especially valuable. The artifacts in “Pacific Spirits” are from the Field Museum's 55,000-object collec- tion from the island groups of ¢ Melanesia, Micronesia, and - Polynesia. The Melanesian por- tion alone numbers some 36, 500 items and is among the most important in the world. “Pacific Spirits” pre- sents great objects of ceremony, ritu- @ al, and war from Melanesia and Polynesia — TGA eS KES, memorial sculptures, musical instru- In a remote corner of Borneo, curator Robert Inger notes the effects of log- ging on local fauna. A full schedule of events surrounds the opening of the ‘Pacific Spirits’ exhibit. ments, weapons, and personal ornaments. But it does more than just display exceptional objects. The 7,200-square-foot exhibit introduces many of the themes important to Oceanic ritual life and explores them in the context of specific cul- tures. Above all, “Pacific Spirits” honors the reli- gious traditions of Pacific islanders and | shows that within the diversity of their cul- tures runs a common {| thread of belief: that living people and their 7 departed ancestors are | intertwined with super- @ natural spirits in impor- tant and complex ways. The objects them- selves are sometimes amazingly intricate. : Single masks may be made of as many as a dozen different materials, from wood and vari- ous natural pigments to spiderweb or pigs’ tusks and leaves. Many objects are just plain amaz- ing, such as one of the largest, a mask from New Britain that denotes a giant praying mantis and measures eight feet across and six feet high, or a memorial figure from Vanuatu called a rambaramp. The items are not merely arranged in cases with labels to explain them. Like “Inside Ancient Egypt,” which opened in November of 1988, and last November’s 11,000-square-foot “Traveling the Pacific,” this exhibit continues the new philosophy of the Field Museum to conserve and rein- terpret its greatest collections for today’s audiences, “Pacific Spirits” was designed to guide the visitor from topic to topic and place to place, explor- ing these diverse cul- tures on their own terms and noting parallel forms and experiences in the Western — culture more | familiar to = most Museum visitors. To ; enhance the 'e sense of | presence, the setting uses blue-green — walls that nearly van- ish in the relatively the Field November/December 1990 THE FIRST MODERN BIRD A Chinese fossil, 135 million years old, is able features associated with its dinosaur ancestors, dim light required to protect the arti- facts. The exhrbit consists of seven sections: THE MASK GALLERY pre- sents more than two dozen magnificent Melanesian masks that show the exceptional artistry of the region. Two mannequins are shown in masks, one from the early 1900s and the other a modern mask, demonstrating that there is continuity as well as change in Pacific island cul- | tures. The contents of the * Gallery will change from time to time so that more of the Museum’s exten- sive collection can be exhibited. SPIRIT HOUSES depicts two men’s cere- monial houses with masks and other objects from the Gulf of Papua and the Sepik River areas of New Guinea. In these houses, which could tower 80 feet and extend 200 feet in length, men of a clan met to create masks and ritual objects and plan ceremonies that would be watched by the entire village. The men’s houses were used for initia- tion rites for boys; women and chil- dren were not permitted inside. MASKED DANCE, focusing on New Britain, includes the giant, brilliantly colored praying mantis and other distinctive masks from the Sulka people, as well as masks from the Tolai and the Baining people. HONORING THE DEAD is the theme for New Ireland, which has a history of rich memo- rial, or malanggan, caryings and ceremonies. A reconstructed ceremonial setting displays the carvings as they would have been seen in 1910; a small area with benches nearby has videotapes that include a 1987 malanggan ceremony. MAGIC FOR WAR uses dozens of clubs and spears, shields, and other weapons to explain the enormous role the supernatural played in warfare and the ways in which men called forth spirits’ powers for protection and to make themselves successful in battle. PIGS AND PRESTIGE examines the role of pigs, a symbol of wealth throughout Oceania, though the lens of the culture of Vanuatu (for- merly New Hebrides), where men raise special (Continued on Page 10) Pictures from an exhibition: Left, a portrait of a Maori chief (neg. no. 72158). Above right, the wide-eyed expressions of these bark-cloth masks identify them immediately with the Baining people of the interior of New Britain’s Gazelle Peninsula; the top mask represents a tree-fork spirit and the bottom a leaf spirit. (Photo by John Weinstein, neg. no. 111287.) Center, above, is a painted wooden mask from Tami Island in the Morobe Province of Papua New Guinea. The mask was included in the ground- breaking 1946 exhibition “Art of the South Seas” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, (Photo by John Weinstein, neg. no. 111521). being prepared in a Field Museum laboratory, The creature, as yet unnamed, is believed to be the first modern bird, but still bears unmistak- Story on Page 3 STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, AND CIRCULATION A PARK FOR OUR MUSEUMS By Willard L. Boyd President, Field Museum of Natural History he Field Museum, like museums all over the world, was planned for a park. Great park planners have envi- sioned public spaces as places where people could find renewal for the body, mind, and spir- it. The Museum was indeed built in a park. But today that park has become, in effect, the median strip of a busy highway. As a result, the Field Museum ts proba- bly the most visible museum in America — COLUMBUS DAIY. = 4 ETRIDGE DRIVE ———=> <5 a GRANT PARK JOHN G. SHEDD AQUARIUM FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Eb) GCE 2% Saige and among the least accessible. The Museum’s first \ Wy ' home, the former Palace : of Fine Arts in Jackson Park on the South Side (where the Museum of Science and Industry now resides), was not designed for a research institution with huge collections, and Marshall Field I provided in his will for a more suitable building. In his elegant 1909 design for Grant Park on the downtown lakefront, Daniel Burnham considered Field Museum to be a cen- tral element. Montgomery Ward, who fought to keep the lakefront “forever open, clear, and free,” agreed that the Museum should be located there. But the city’s civic and political leaders would not accept other building limits; Ward fought on and prevailed. Ultimately, the Museum was built between 12th and 14th Streets on land donated to the South Park Commission by the Illinois Central Railroad, between Grant Park and what would become Burnham Park. The Museum opened its doors in 1921. In 1930, with the opening of the Shedd Aquarium, whose design, facing the city at the foot of 12th Street (Roosevelt Road) matched that of the Field Museum, and the Adler Planetarium at the east end of a causeway leading to Northerly Island, the plan for a museum complex was complete. Over the years, however, these museums and Burnham Park have fallen victim to the automobile and the steady expansion of Lake Shore Drive. What Burnham had envisioned as a meandering park boulevard is now an express- way. It cuts off the museums from one another; it cuts off pedestrian access to the park and thus sep- \8 E da 2es0ae aed) SP Filing date: October 8, 1990. Title: In the Field. Publication no. 898940. Frequency of publication: Bimonthly. Number of issues published annually: 6. Annual subscription price: $6.00. Office: Roosevelt Rd. at Lake Shore Dr., Chicago, |L 60605. Publisher: Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Rd. at Lake Shore Dr., Chicago, IL 60605. Editor: Ron Dorfman, Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Ad, at Lake Shore Dr., Chicago, IL 60605. Owner: Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Rd. at Lake Shore Dr., Chicago, IL 60605, Known bondholders, mortgagees, and other security holders: none. The purpose and function of this organization and the exempt status for Federal income tax purposes has not changed during the preceding 12 months, Average number Actual number of copies each of copies single issue preceding issue nearest 12 months to filing date Total copies printed 27,216 26,000 Paid circulation (sales through dealers, vendors, carriers) none none Paid circulation (mail subscriptions) 24,939 24,428 Total paid circulation 24,939 24,428 Free distribution 744 764 Total distribution 25,683 25,192 Office use, copies left over 1,533 808 Return from news agents none none Total 27,216 26,000 | certify that the statements made by me above are correct and complete. Jimmie W. Croft, Vice President for Finance and Museum Services. November/December 1990 arates the people of the South and West Sides from the park he \ et A br FIELD LOT isi i ay LD “4 and the lakefront. The automobile entrances and exits at the Field Museum are difficult and dangerous. Within the past year two Museum employees have been hit by cars while in cross- walks going from the Metra station at Roosevelt Road across Columbus Drive and Lake Shore Drive to the Museum. One staff member was injured while walking along the sidewalk adja- cent to Columbus Drive. More than 200 auto- mobile accidents occur each year at the intersec- tions surrounding the Museum because of forced merging into high-speed traffic. Several years ago, the trustees of the Adler Planetarium, the Shedd Aquarium, and the Field Museum decided it was imperative to present a positive proposal to the Chicago Park District, the city, and the state, and retained the firm of Lohan Associates to develop a comprehensive plan, which was completed in 1988. All three institutions have new and important plans for public exhibits, as attendance is rising from 3 million to 4.5 million in the next few years, and it made sense to try to deal with the site problem in that context. The commissioners and staff of the Chicago Park District — our supportive landlord — have been cooperating enthusiasti- cally, and recently convened a joint task force with the Chicago Plan Commission on Burnham Park planning. The key to revitalizing Burnham Park is to reroute Lake Shore Drive west of Soldier Field and the Field Museum and to provide pedestrian access over the drive between the city and the park. Numerous underpasses and overpasses make Lincoln Park and Lake Michigan an inte- gral part of life on the North Side, and the same must be true for Burnham Park and the people of the South and West Sides. In the Field November/December 1990 Vol, 61, No.6 Editor: Ron Dorfman Art Director: Shi Yung in the Field (ISSN #1051-4546) is published bimonthly by Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago IL 60605-2496. Copyright © 1990 Field Museum of Natural History. Subscriptions $6.00 annually, $3.00 for schools. Museum membership includes In the Field subscription. Opinions expressed by authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect policy of Field Museum. Unsolicited manuscipts are welcome. Museum phone (312) 922-9410. Notification of address change should include address label and should be sent to Membership Department. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to In the Field, Field Museum of Natural History. Second class postage paid at Chicago, Illinois. Zz "HE ADLE! PLANETARIUM, a 4 es) 4 The long-range plan for the museum complex prepared by Lohan Associates for the Field Museum, Adler Planetarium, and Shedd Aquarium. Several developments make this a propi- tious time for action on this issue — the current discussions about the Central Station project immediately to the west of the Museum, the possible expansion of McCormick Place, and the proposed relocation of the Chicago Bears from Soldier Field to a new domed stadium near McCormick Place. In a restored Burnham Park, the Field Museum and its neighbor museums will have the environment and access necessary to do their vital work of teaching future genera- tions about the great issues that confront our society in relation to the natural world. O POLICY ON NEA GRANTS he Field Museum’s Board of Trustees in August voted not to apply for or accept grants from the National Endowment for the Arts that would be subject to content restric- tions and guidelines recently imposed by the agency. The regulations reflect Congressional concern over NEA funding of controversial works, especially the traveling retrospective exhibit of Robert Mapplethorpe photographs. The Board’s policy would apply to poten- tial grants for exhibits or publications but not to grants for conservation work, according to Museum President Willard L. Boyd, since the restrictions presumably cannot apply to activity not intended for public presentation. The NEA requires applicants and grantees to certify that their proposed work is not “obscene” within the legal definition estab- lished by the Supreme Court, and establishes procedures for agency review to determine whether applicants and grantees are in compliance. President Boyd said that in presenting the NEA issue to the Trustees, “I placed it in the general context of controversial ideas.” Boyd cited instances in which Museum exhibits have been criticized by some visitors for alleged obscenity, sexism, violence, or ethnic insensi- tivity, and pointed out that other basic Museum research and exhibits, dealing with issues of the environment and the evolution of species, are also capable of generating controversy. “Since we are engaged in research and exhibits sometimes deemed controversial by others,” Boyd said, “we have an obligation to allow and encourage the presentation of other points of view. ... But we should do so as a function of our own mission and professional judgment, not that of the government or a par- ticular group.” O) UPSTAIRS, DOWNSTAIRS THE RAREST BIRD illiam Simpson, Field Museum’s chief preparator of fossil vertebrates, had to destroy the remains of the world’s oldest bird in order to save it. But the result will be at least three hard and durable epoxy casts of the skeleton that scholars can study; the bird, as yet unnamed, has morpholog- ical links to both dinosaurs and modern birds. Researchers at the University of Chicago and the Beijing Natural History Museum identi- fied the fossil, found in China in 1987, as the earliest known modern bird, about 135 million years old. The fossil and a portrait of the creature, believed to have lived 10 million years before any previously known modern bird, and some 10 million years after Archaeopteryx, a transi- tional form between dinosaurs and birds, was presented at the October meeting of the Society for Vertebrate Paleontology at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, by Paul Sereno, assistant professor of paleontology at the U. of C. Sereno has recently been appointed a research associate in the Field Museum’s Department of Geology. Sereno said that while Archaeopteryx could fly, “it’s not clear how well.” The new creature was well equipped for flight. The fossil skeleton was flattened and pre- served in a piece of shale-like rock, about four inches square and a quarter of an inch thick, that had fractured along a sagittal plane, expos- ing cross-sections of the bird on both pieces. Simpson worked with the larger of the two pieces, which carried a more complete portion CURATORS APPOINTED IN ZOOLOGY Scott Lanyon, associate curator and head of the Division of Birds, has been appointed chairman of the Department of Zoology. Dr. Lanyon is also head of the Museum’s biochemical labora- tories, and serves as a member of the Committee on Evolutionary Biology at the University of Chicago. His principal research interest is the evolution of New World black- birds. In addition to fieldwork in North, Central, and South America and the Caribbean, Dr. Lanyon has also worked in Kenya and in the Marshall Islands. He did his undergraduate work at the State University of New York at Geneseo, his mas- ter’s degree at Indiana University, and his Ph.D. at Louisiana State University (1985). Dr. Lanyon is a Councillor of the Wilson Ornithological Society, a member of the Membership Committee for the American Ornithologists’ Union, and the AOU and Field Museum representative to the International Council for Bird Preservation, among other pro- fessional memberships and distinctions. Rudiger Bieler has joined the Department of Zoology as a curator in the Division of Invertebrates. He was previously assistant cura- tor of malacology and head of the Curatorial and Research Division of the Delaware Museum of Natural History. At the Delaware museum, he was responsible for one of the major U.S. mollusk collections. Dr. Bieler has both his master’s degree (in biology, geography, and biology education) and his doctorate (1985, zoology) from the University of Hamburg, where his Ph.D. thesis focused on the taxonomy, comparative mor- phology, and zoogeography of Architectonicidae, a family of Indo-Pacific gas- tropods. His current research interest is the phylogenetic relationships, and thus the evolu- tion, of the larger groups of gastropods. Dr. Bieler is a research associate at the National Museum of Natural History and at the of the skeleton but which itself had broken in three. Both Simpson and Claire Vanderslice, a U. of C. illustrator and preparator, had tried to prepare the specimen mechanical- ly, by scratching the rock away from the fossil. “But there wasn’t much relief,” “ Simpson said, “so the best that could be done was to outline the bones in cross-sectional view. I decided to try what I call the ‘lost-fossil’ method — on the model of the lost-wax method in bronze casting.” Soaking the specimen in alternating baths of acetone (to remove the glue holding together the three pieces) and a ten-percent solution of hydrochloric acid, Simpson dissolved the soft bones, which floated off as carbon dioxide gas, leaving a natural mold in the rock. Most of the work had to be done under a microscope. Simpson glued the three pieces back together and laminated the back with epoxy and fibreglas, to strengthen it. “What we have now is essentially a nega- tive,” Simpson said, “and the next move is to make a positive. I think what we’ll do is use an airbrush to spray on natural latex rubber. The rubber will become what’s called a “latex peel,” and we'll use that to make another mold out of silicone rubber. From the silicone mold we’ll make epoxy casts — the ultimate goal. They'll be hard and durable and won’t change dimen- sions over time.” Sereno said the bird’s skull bones were dis- turbed before being fossilized. “I wish the skull were intact,” he said. “It looks as if the bones floated apart a little bit before it fossilized, and Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University, and adjunct assistant professor of marine studies, University of Delaware. He is Councillor-at-large of the American Malacological Union, Editor-in-chief of “Monographs of Marine Mollusca,” and a mem- ber of numerous professional societies. Janet R, Voight has been appointed a curator in the Division of Invertebrates, Department of Zoology. She recently earned her Ph.D., for studies of the population biology and morpholo- gy of octopuses, in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson. In recent years she was awarded a Conchologists of America Smithsonian Fellowship in Systematic Malacology and a Hawaiian Malacological Society research grant. Dr. Voight has published widely on both octo- puses and owls. HAAS BOOK PUBLISHED Cambridge University Press has recently pub- lished The Anthropology of War, a collection of essays on the role of warfare in prestate, “tribal” societies, edited by Jonathan Hass, Field Museum curator of anthropology and vice presi- dent for collections and research. that makes it difficult to interpret.” Sereno said that Simpson was “one of the few people who could have done the job — without him we wouldn’t have known as much about the bird as we do.” The fossil and one of the casts will go on display in the Beijing Natural History Museum. Cheng-gang Rao, a curator at the Chinese museum who worked with Sereno on identify- ing the creature, said the fossil, found in a farmer’s field in Liaoning Province (coinciden- tally [llinois’s sister state), was “very impor- tant” and “will help us learn a lot about the evo- lution of birds.” A second cast will be kept at the University of Chicago and the third at Field Museum, for research purposes. The Museum is seeking per- mission from Beijing to display its cast. O An Anasazi petroglyph of a war- rior, from the Kayenta region of northern Arizona, rendered by Katrina Lasko for the cover of The Anthropology of War. The essays are the result of a week-long seminar at the School of American Research in 1986, spon- sored by the school’s Advanced Seminar program and the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation. The nine contributors represent a variety of theoretical perspectives and study of prestate societies in many parts of the world; the goal of the seminar, Haas writes in his preface, was “to arrive at a better understanding of the causes of both war and peace in prestate societies and the impact of war on the evolu- tion of those societies.” DONALD W. LATHROP 1927-1990 Donald W. Lathrop, research asso- ciate in anthropology, died in May at the age of 63. His interests were wide-ranging, and col- leagues described him as among the last hemi- spheric archaeologists, concerned with the his- tory of culture throughout the Americas. In a eulogy at the University of Illinois in Urbana, where Dr. Lathrop taught for many years, Don Collier, curator emeritus of Middle and South American archaeology and ethnology, said: “Don had a rare gift for spotting stylistic and technological connections and for gaining and applying insights from linguistics, mytholo- gy, and iconography to culture history; for example, in examining early connections between Chavin in Peru and Olmec in Mexico. His greatest love and the field of his most original contributions was the ecology and culture history of the Amazon. The most important of his conclusions there was that before the rise of civilizations in Nuclear America, a relatively dense human population was present in Amazonia, probably before 7000 B.C., which depended on a productive root-crop horticulture and intensive exploitation of the resources of river and forest.” O 3 November/December 1990 ° a 3 = = oO z=) = fei D 2 = =] D 3 £ 7] a= 1 3 g 5s —< 2 a oO ae ° 2 2 o D = 3 a — —_ te 1 ie ee 3 . | \ Th! ) \\ y f N STAIRS Lucille Long, a Pawnee from Stillwater, Okaslhoma, stopped al the Museum as part of a visit to her family in Racine, Wisconsin. Ms. Long was surprised to find, in this photomural, a picture of her own grandiather, Roam Chief. Sophie Ann Brunner, a volunteer in the Division of Amphibians and Reptiles, has logged more than 5,500 hours over the past 12 years, preparing study skeletons of lizards, turtles, land snakes, and, especially, marine snakes. With the aid of legions of dermestid beetles, she has prepared more than 750 marine snake skeletons, making the Museum’s collection the most important in the world. In recognition of her work, the marine snake osteological collection has been named for her. Harold K. Voris, curator, presents the plaque. Field Museum’s guides can help you chart your course. When planning your gift to Field Museum, why not let our experts guide you through the dozens of giving opportunities to the one best. suited to your needs? Write or call for your free Guide to Giving in the 1990s. Call Melinda Pruett-Jones / (12) 322-8868 Your Guide to Gift and Estate Planning November/December 1990 [4 | — $1.4 MILLION KELLOGG FOUNDATION GRANT FOR ‘ANIMAL KINGDOM’ Among the Museum’s priceless collection of animal mounts and dioramas is this one, of the greater kudu. Many will be refur- bished and reinstalled for “Diversity and Survival in the Animal Kingdom.” A grant of $1,468,000 from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation will support development of the Animal Resource Center, the educational cen- terpiece of the new permanent exhibit “Diversity and Survival in the Animal Kingdom,” opening in November 1991, The exhibit will include an introductory- level exhibit, the Nature Walk, and the major thematic exhibit, which reorganizes the Museum’s extraordinary collections of bird and animal mounts and dioramas into a rich, , multi-dimensional experience in animal biology, ecology, and conservation. The Animal Resource Center, which will occupy nearly half the exhibit’s 32,500 square feet, will offer opportunities for pursu- ing individual interests; visitors will have access to books, periodicals, videotapes, activ- ity kits, and interactive computer units. “Diversity and Survival” will be housed in the Museum’s first-floor west wing. The wing will be renamed the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Wing in recognition of a major gift totaling $5 million from the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Foundation announced in April, which included $1 million for the exhibit. The exhibit is also supported by a grant of $1.2 million from the National Science Foundation. Reworking the zoology mounts and diora- mas into this major new exhibit is the next step in the Museum’s plan to refurbish some 60 percent of its exhibit space by the time of its centennial celebrations in 1993-94, Still to come are major new exhibits on natural histo- ry and social change in Africa, and on geology and evolution. The Kellogg Foundation, in Battle Creek, Michigan, is among the world’s largest private philanthropies, supporting programs in agri- culture, education, and health in the Americas and in southern Africa. O - Se za | AUDUBON PREVIEW RAISES $3,000 FOR LIBRARY preview showing of original oil paint- A= and watercolors by John James Audubon and his son, John Wood- house Audubon, raised some $3,000 for the Field Museum Library. Sponsored by Friends of the Library, the September 21 preview reception was held at the Douglas Kenyon Gallery (pictured here), where guests were able to visit | the garden and state-of- © the-art restoration work- ‘)shops as well as the showrooms. Among the guests | were several descendants of the Audubons and a delegation of Soviet pub- lishing executives. O —_ ¥ f AN y. \ Baw Wm — ae a 6 —_ LE END AR C)EF im N -_ SF Ae XX y a ‘PACIFIC SPIRITS’ SPECIAL EVENTS Friday, Noy. 2 — 6:30 p.m. WOMEN’S BOARD GALA — Cocktails, din- ner, and dancing to the music of the Scott.Olson Orchestra, in Stanley Field Hall; tour of the exhibit follows. Underwritten by Kraft Ine. By invitation. Monday, Ney. 5 — 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. SPECIAL PREVIEW. — For Field Contrib- — utors, Adventurers, Naturalists, and Explorers and their families. Light refreshments served, Enter the Pacific Sweepstakes (see below) and win a trip to New Zealand or Hawaii. Wednesday & Thursday, Nov. 7 & 8 — 5 to 3 p.m. MEMBERS’ PREVIEW NIGHTS — Visit the Museum either night and enter the Pacific Sweepstakes. (Details below.) Saturday, November 10 — 2 p.m. LECTURE: “Masked Spirits of the Pacific’? — Lawrence E.-Sullivan, Ph.D., director of the Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard University, will give a historical and geographical overview of Pacific masking tradi- tions, using examples from the Museum’s col- lection. Supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities. ($5 per person; members $3.) Call the department of education, (312) 322-8854, Monday epoueh Friday, for more information. Saturday & Sunday, November 17 & 18 — 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. TASTE OF THE PACIFIC FESTIVAL — « Authentic foods and beverages of the Pacific islands, prepared»by O’Hare Marriott’s Kona Kai restaurant; served from thatched-roof kiosks in Stanley Field Hall. (Priced per item.) * Music, dance, storytelling, and traditional arts and crafts by performers from Hawaii, Palau, and the Solomon Islands. (Free with reg- ular Museum admission or membership card.) ° “Family Feature Workshops” at 2 p.m. both days, to introduce children (accompanied by an adult) to hands-on activities related to the Pacific islands. ($2 per person; children under two free; limited to 50 people; register during Museum visit.) Tuesday, November 20 — 7 to 9 p.m._ SPECIAL TOUR — Master Exhibit Developer Phyllis Rabineau leads a special after-hours tour’ of “Pacific Spirits.” ($10; $8 members) Thursdays & Saturdays throughout November — 2 to 3p.m. _ FAMILY FEATURE WORKSHOPS - = brief geographical/historical introduction to the Pacific followed by four hands-on learning activities (playing: musical instruments, mask- ing, wearing @ pareu, hearing myths of the. Pacific); a take-home craft project; and receipt of a hand-out to help explore “Pacific Spirits.” Supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. ($2 per person; children under 2 free; call the department of education,.(312) 322- 8854, Monday through Friday.) Monday, November 26 E 4 to 6 p.m. FREE. EDUCATORS? VIEWING — a special program for Chicago-area educators introduces topics presented in “Pacific Spirits: Life, Death & the Supernatural” and suggests ways to incor- porate study..of the Pacific region into the cur- ticulum. Advance reservations required by Friday, November 23; RSVP to mailed invita- tion or send a note to Education Department, Field Museum, Roosevelt Road and Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605. Pgh refreshments served. New Educational Materials ¢ The Harris Educational Loan Center has PACIFIC SPIRITS OPENING CELEBRATIONS There are special events for everyone with the opening of Field Museum's major new exhibit, “Pacifie Spirits: Life, Death-& the | Supernatural.” “Whether your interests lean more toward a lecture on reli- gious masks or.an.island food fest, you'll find some- thing of value in the schedule below. prepared a collection of “experience boxes” and printed materials related to “Pacific Spirits” to lend to teachers. The center is open to educa- tors every Tuesday and Thursday from 2:30 to 5 p.m. and:-Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; for information, call the Harris Center at (312) 922- . 9410, ext. 361. Private Viewings Private viewing for groups of 15 to 50 people may be arranged during regular public hours and include.a lecture, exhibit tour, and continen- tal breakfast, luncheon,.or refreshments; rates and information at.(312) 322-8864.« Private viewing is also included in rates for reserving __ the Field Museum for cocktail and dinner recep- tions by businesses and organizations; informa- tion at (312) 322-8864. 0 PACIFIC SWEEPSTAKES -*FOR FIELD MUSEUM:-MEMBERS, ~ CONTRIBUTORS, ADVENTURERS, NATU- RALISTS, AND EXPLORERS — Grand-prize trip for two to New Zealand; second-prize trip for two to Hawaii. e FOR. THE GENERAL PUBLIC — Five trips for two to Hawaii. All trips are sponsored by United Vacations and United Airlines, “Field Museum’s Official Airline. for Traveling the Pacific.” (For more information, call the department of public rela- tions, (312) 322-8859, Monday through Friday.) —_ fj ¥ = _- ‘* Novembe r/Dece é NOVEMBER The Women's Board of Field Museum of Natural History-cordially invites you and your family to Christ ea ~~ A family CG Wednesday, D TEACH ME TONIGHT Educators! Take a flashlight tour of Egypt! Do plastic bottle activities! A Museum overnight for educators only. Bring your own sleeping bag. Registration fee of $35 covers activities, snack, and breakfast. For more info, call (312) 322-8854. B0z0 the Clown and his pal Cooky . The Stu Hirsh Orchestra The Jesse White Tumblers A Special Arrival by Santa Claus Costumed Characters and assorted entertainments Dino the dinosaur Activities by the Museum's Education Staff An Assortment of Christmas Tea Refreshments Reservations are limited and will be accepted in the order received. Mrs. Stephen Mt ‘am Mrs. Theodore A. Bell... Mrs, Willard L:Boyd _. _-Mrs. John J. Kinsella Party attire is encouraged. No early Mrs. Douglas H. Cameron “ee Mrs. John W. Madigan admission to the party. Mrs. Stanton R. Cook =~ Mrs. William Putze ‘ . Mrs. Howard M. Dean, Jr. Mrs. Charles E. Schroeder No tickets will be sold at the door. Mrs, Charles Harrold III Mrs. Stephen Byron Smith Mrs. Duncan Y. Henderson Mrs. Harlan F, Stanley Mrs. David Horn The Family Christmas Tea is the Women's Board gift to the children of Chicago FIELD MUSEUM _ Reservations are limited and _CHRISTMASTEA — rlerreceived. Present your Bears ticket at Field Museum on game day and receive a ee _No early admission to the party. w : “Field Goal” ticket, entitling you to half-price admission and free re- : at the door, For further information, pl : ne Ee j _ Women's Board Office, 312/322-8870 admission to Field Museum on game day. Home schedule: Nov. 11 ATLANTA Dec. 2 DETROIT Dec. 23 TAMPA BAY Dec. 29 KANSAS CITY r tickets, which will be mailed | check. Please make check payable 2 Women’s Board Gala: 3 Stories Around the “Jewels of the Pacific” World — Museum (By invitation) fours, 11 and 11:30 am World Music: 4 ; 5 ; 9 0 Museum safari — World music Special preview of Members only Members only Lecture: African Ark: 42:30 pm 1:00 pm “Pacific Spirits” for preview of preview of Peoples of the Horn,” 3:00 pm Field Contributors, “Pacific Spirits” “Pacific Spirits” 7pm World Music, Adventurers, 1pm&3pm Naturalists & Explorers 7 6 ; 17 Taste of the Pacific, World Music, Teachers’ Overnight d1am-4pm ipm&3pm (Advance registration) Stories Around the World, 11 & 11:30 am World Music, 1pm &3pm What's ney jan He + dinosaurs? Museum 18 Taste of the Pacific, 2 Thanksgiving — 2 World Music, tour, noon 11am-4pm Museum closed Tpm&3pm Fireballs & shooting stars — Museum World Music, Costa Rica tour tour, 1:30 pm 1pm &3pm departs World Music, 1pm&3pm Cz Li jae) = Ll > O fz World Music, 1pm &3pm November/December 1990 ey a ‘asd Xe iat r | | Wax XC y ie. | A GUIDE TO : f THE ORCHESTRA 40AN The Chinese Music Society of a f= 7 | a LG y North America introduces the instruments of the Chinese orchestra for the World Music PICTURE THIS Program. 1 p.m. The Nature Camera Club of Chicago has been meeting at Field Museum for over forty years. Meetings are open to everyone and held on the second Monday evening of every month, except July and August. Programs by experienced nature photographers and naturalists alternate with slide competitions during which color slides are evaluated and criticized by visiting judges. The subject of the slide competition on the 10th of December will be Autumn. The program for January the 14th is “Yellowstone in Winter” by Ronald Kurowski. The club meets at 7:30 in Lecture Hall 2; parking is in the west lot and entry by the west door. Q y | | ~X | \ oy oy Ge wl ai all ar a Vy P| | tf ia q | in oT | q | a i = 3 | J Among the Museum’s continuing special exhibits are “From Old to New: Crafts of Alaska’s Indians” (below); “In Shadows Ancient: Life Amid Mayan Ruins,” which features photographs of the contemporary people who live with that past; and “Who'd a Thought It: Improvisation in African-American Quiltmaking.” | World — Museum tours, | 11 & 11:30 a.m. | Museum safari, 12:30 pm Lt] . World Music, al q | 1pm&3pm 1 Stories Around the a] | Dinosaur Lifestyles, , , noon | L Za | | | Tibet & Bhutan, slide | program, 1:30 pm | = , x q » World Music, | 7 : = E > * ; mil 1pm &3pm Hanukkah 13 Nature Camera Club | of Chicago meets in World Music, | { Lecture Hall 2, 7:30 ipm&3pm Women's Board Christmas Tea |S Museum closes 3 pm Stories Around the | , World, Museum /——— | | | tours, 11 & 11:30 am | -_ , ‘ World Music, — %. : J ‘ ee, : “ 1pm&3pm [ World Music, 1pm &3pm Christmas 30 | Museum closed | World Music, | 1pm &3pm q XN | q oN q World Music, World Music, l World Music, 1pm &3pm 1pm&3pm | 1pm &3pm nem eee ee ee ee eee ee rg | , ig ~=November/December ar = / WHAT’S UP, DOC? / That’s what we'd like to know, and we'll send a copy of The Greenpeace Book of Dolphins to the author of the most interesting guess. The winning entry will be published in Jn the Field. 100 words or less, please; deadline is December 1. Send your essay to Editor, In the Field, Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Rd. and Lake Shore Dr., Chicago, IL 60605. THE RECORD IN THE ROCKS By Peter Laraba Department of Education The earth is 4.5 billion years old, and people have been writing history for only the tiniest fraction of that time, a few thousand years. Still, we can discover what the world was like before people were around to see it, or able to describe what they saw. The record is written in the rocks, in a kind of code that sci- entists have learned to read. From rocks and fossils we know that Chicago was once covered by warm shallow seas, that insects flew on wings 12 inches long just southwest of the city, and at one time Chicago was on the equa- tor. (Of course, Chicago hadn’t been built yet.) The rocks also tell us of recent ice ages and changing lake levels. You can sometimes see the pages on which the geological history is written. Look at the marble, granite, limestone, and other decorative Drumming at the Edge of Magic By Mickey Hart with Jay Stevens A —_—_- November/December 1990 S stones on buildings in your neighborhood, or natural rock formations outside the city. There may be different minerals, fossils, layering, or other structures in the rock which each add a page to the story. One such story is the making of sandstone. Most of the earth’s surface is covered with loose material called sediment. It may be soil in a garden, mud in a river, or the sand and pebbles on a beach. Geological processes turn these loose materials into sedimentary rock. Sandstone may start out as beach or river sands or as desert sand dunes. After millions of years, new minerals develop between the grains of sand and cement them into solid rock. Many sandstones are made of layers or beds of sedi- ment, an important feature of sedimentary rocks. Here’s an experiment you can do that will show how grains of different sizes form differ- ent layers when deposited in water: Fill a large jar about 1/3 full with garden soil or some other type of mixed sediment. Slowly add water to the top of the jar. Stir well and leave it to settle. In a few days you will have layers of dif- ferent sediment in your jar. On the bot- tom will be a very thin layer of black carbon from plant remains. Next will be a layer of fine mud, then some fine sand, and nestled on top will be small stones, eesees: Mickey Hart, virtuoso percussionist of The Grateful Dead, tells the compelling story of his quest to unlock the power, myths, and legends of percussion. $19.95 at the Field Museum Stores. To order by telephone, call (312) 922-9410 ext. 236, Mon-Fri from 10 am to 4 pm. Also available, in both CD and cassette, is At the Edge, conceived as a companion album to the book. With a host of international stars, including Jerry Garcia and Babatunde Olatunji. ECOLOGICAL PUZZLE IN BORNEO on’t bother to look for this place on a D= It’s in the southwestern corner of Sabah, not far from where Sabah meets Sarawak (the other Malaysian state on Borneo) and the sultanate of Brunei. This is an area of low mountains — at least geologists would call them mountains, though no one from Colorado would. The highest is Mt. Lumaku, 5,500 feet. Originally, the hilly region was covered with tropical forest, like the rest of Borneo. It is being logged at a great rate. In fact, when I first came here in 1987, most of the reachable terrain had been selectively logged, leaving only a small part of the forest intact. I was very disappointed by that, as I had come here to get a sample of the herpetofauna (frogs, lizards, snakes) from primary tropical forest. To my surprise, 95 percent of the species I caught then were typical inhabitants of undisturbed primary forest. Obviously, they represented the original fauna of the site. That observation led Harold Voris and me to wonder how long that fauna could hang on in logged forest. (None of these species lives in cleared areas — agricultural fields, villages, towns, etc.) That, in turn, led to our present interest in measuring the effects of selective logging on natural communities of amphibians and reptiles in Bornean forests. Maybe I should explain that term “selective logging.” Strictly speaking, it means the cutting only of trees above a certain size (about one and one half feet in diameter). But big Curator Robert Inger. trees can’t be The Illinois chapter of removed with The Nature surgical neatness. Conservancy recently announced Dr. Inger’s election to the organization’s board of trustees. When one of them comes down, its 100- to 175-foot length takes a lot with it. Then there’s the BORNEO business of getting the log out: Bulldozers cut wide drag roads for timber trucks, and in the end the forest is a mess. Of course, opening a forest this way changes its microclimate drastically — there’s more air movement (reducing general humidity); more sunlight reaches the ground (reducing humidity and increasing temperature). Despite these gross changes, there must be many nooks and crannies retaining the old microclimate, because we have found the same species we find in undisturbed forest. Can these populations continue to survive, barring further destruction of the forest? We have noticed that streams flowing through logged forest differ in the amount of silt they carry. Since about half of the frogs here have tadpoles that live in streams, water quality may be the ultimate factor determining whether Amolops cavitympanum and Rhacophorus gauni continue to survive in these forests. The existing population of adults may survive for a while, but unless enough tadpoles complete development, the show is Over. By the time we measure oxygen content, acidity, and current, and filter water to measure turbidity at each riffle and pool where we look for tadpoles, well, the sun has moved appreciably. So far, this trip has differed from those of recent years, in an odd way — we have no funny snake story, like the one about the night in Sarawak when we were wading up a stream and a small python fell out of a tree; Harold and three of the local men simultaneously broke the world record in the standing broad jump. But last night, Paul Yambun, a 20-year-old who has worked for me each of the past three years, allowed himself to be fooled by a frog in a plastic bag. Paul is as good as anyone I have seen at tracking frogs by their calls — an important collecting procedure. Paul heard a frog calling and turned every which way to locate it, only to realize it was one of those he was carrying in his bag. He won’t live that down for a while. What else? Well, the frogs are beautiful, the data interesting, and the weather warm. 0 PUBLICATIONS OF INTEREST The following papers, by Field Museum scientists and other experts, were published in 1990 in Fieldiana, the Museum’s monograph series. Copies are available for purchase. Address inquiries and correspondence to Field Museum Library — Publications Division, Roosevelt Rd. at Lake Shore Dr., Chicago, IL 60605-2498. Geology CARMAN, M.R. Catalog of Type, Figured, and Referred Mazon Creek Fossils in Private Collections. 29 pp. Pub. No. 1407, n.s. 19. Botany FRANQUEMONT, C., PLOWMAN, T., FRANQUEMONT, E., KING, S.R., NIEZGODA, C., DAVIS, W., AND SPERLING, C.R. The Ethnobotany of Chinchero, an Andean Community in Southern Peru. 126 pp., 34 illus., 3 tables, erratum. Pub. No. 1408, n.s. 24. BURGER, W., AND VAN DER WerrF, H. Edited by William Burger. Flora Costaricensis [Families 80 and 81]. 138 pp., 23 illus., index. Pub. No. 1406, n.s. 23. Zoology Gritis, PAUL, AND Voris, H.K. Variability and Significance of Parietal and Ventral Scales in the Marine Snakes of the Genus Lapemis (Serpentes: Hydrophtidae), with Comments on the Occurrence of Spiny Scales in the Genus. 13 pp., 8 illus., 1 table. Pub. No. 1410, n.s. 56. INGER, R.F., ZHAO, E., SHAFFER, H.B., AND Wu, G. Report on a Collection of Amphibians and Reptiles from Sichuan, China. 24 pp., 5 illus. Pub. No. 1413, n.s. 58. GoopMAN, S.M., AND GONZALES, P.C. The Birds of Mt. Isarog National Park, Southern Luzon, Philippines, with Particular Reference to Altitudinal Distribution. 39 pp., 6 illus., 5 tables. Pub. No. 1415, n.s. 60. GALL, L.F., AND HAwks, D.C. Systematics of Moths in the Genus Catocala (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae). I. Type Material in the Strecker Collection, with Lectotype Designation. 16 pp., 4 plates, 2 tables. Pub. No. 1415, n.s. 59. HERSHKOVITZ, P. Titis, New World Monkeys of the Genus Callicebus (Cebidae, Platyrrhini): A Preliminary Taxonomic Review. 109 pp., 47 illus., 13 tables. Pub. No. 1410, n.s. 55. HERSHKOVITZ, P. Mice of the Akadon boliviensis Size Class (Sigmondontinae, Cricetidae), with the Description of Two New Species from Brazil. 35 pp., 22 illus., 4 tables. Pub. No. 1412, n.s. 57. ECONOMIC BOTANY mong the Field Museum’s most Aisne collections is a host of ordinary items — plants and products derived from them that are used in the domestic and working lives of people around the world. The Timothy Plowman Economic Botany Collection, named for the late ethnobotanist and chairman of the Department of Botany, has been accumulated since the Museum acquired items assembled for the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893. In recent years, thanks largely to Dr. Plowman’s interest in it, the collection has been housed in proper quarters, thoroughly curated, and catalogued in a computer data base. Nancy Pliml, an assistant in the Department of Botany, writes in a recent issue of The Herbalist that it is now possible “to call up a list of specimens of medicinal roots from Bolivia, or a world-wide list of fiber products used as floor coverings.” Shown here are a variety of objects carved from ivory nut palm nuts; an uncarved nut is at top, second from left. O Photo by John Weinstein, Neg. No. BOT 83434 9 November/December 1990 PACIFIC SPIRITS (Continued from Page 1) boars with long, spiraling tusks that figure prominently in their art and in many aspects of daily life and ceremony. CHIEFS AND GODS focuses on Polynesia, presenting not only deity images but also displays on fishing and food, tapa cloth, music and dance, and fapu (the source of our word taboo). acific Spirits” may be seen in tandem with or separately from “Traveling the Pacific,” which introduces visitors to the geological forces that led to the creation of the Pacific’s volcanic islands and coral atolls and the jour- neys of plants, animals, and humans that colonized and survived on these remote islands. The multi-disci- plinary, two-part exhibition in the newly renamed Regenstein Halls of the Pacific was more than four years in the making, cost $4.2 million, and represents the work of some 100 per- sons, Development of the ; exhibit was made possible in > part by a grant from the Regenstein Foundation, a TRAVELING THE PACIFIC major supporter of Chicago cultural institutions, higher education, and medical research. Other major funding came from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts. The National Science Foundation provided additional support for “Traveling the Pacific.” Except for a case filled with some of the objects A.B. Lewis collected in a single day ina village in New Guinea, the display cases in “Pacific Spirits” do not contain only artifacts and small placards to identify them. Instead there are “exhibits within the exhibit” that advance each story. These are sometimes arranged in the same kind of old-fashioned glass-and-wood case, disguised by bamboo or thatching, and modified to control humidity and thus protect these fragile objects. Other parts of the exhibit were designed to engage viewers in different ways. For instance, large blowups of Museum expedition photographs show objects as they were originally worn and used by the people who created them. Video clips made from expedition films, including black-and-white silent footage of a Field Museum trip up New Guinea’s Sepik River in 1929, may be seen in a small area. Recorded sounds recreate the swamps of New Guinea’s Gulf of Papua where mosquitoes buzz, pigs forage, and water sloshes beneath the plank floor of a giant men’s house. Special panels recount myths that parents may want to read to small children, such as how the moon got its markings or a bird got its call. Displays on natural history, prepared with the cooperation of the Museum’s departments of VASTNESS OF OCEAN / HOW ISLANDS FORMED / HOW PLAN ee AS Rf Ne TS y ANIMALS GOT THERE | HOW PEOPLE GOT THERE ry ENO 4 BS s One is j ‘3 N f ‘ me