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Sarah Bay takes 3rd place in UCSB Undergrad Slam!

Sarah is mentored by Dr. Aaron Blackwell, with whom she will be doing her senior thesis research with next year.

Photography as Narrative: Visual Storytelling and Impactful Images in Anthropology

Spring 2016 Graduate Colloquium

Practically all researchers use photography as part of their standard documentation during fieldwork. However, rather than its use as a mere scientific implement, photography has the power to bring voice and narrative to a project. While stratigraphic profiles and scaled artifact shots are important in the methods of archaeology, photography can also be a powerful tool to impart a level of humanity and an emotional connect to material culture. For cultural anthropology, there are techniques that allow researchers to capture the essence of their subject instead of more banal pictures that often only have meaning for the person behind the lens. Highly thought out and well composed photographs help to “sell” a project, as they draw both overt and subconscious interest. This presentation will have two main components. First, it will address the mental game of photography and the important steps to consider before ever taking a shot. Second, while not necessarily a technical seminar on camera function and jargon, this discussion will present a foundation for understanding the dynamics of composition, angle, lighting, and editing. While the goal of the talk is aimed at photography in the field, it will also be useful for those who just want to learn how to take better shots.

Brent Leftwich, Principal Investigator and Owner, Leftwich Archaeology

2016–17 Central Continuing Student Fellowships

The Department of Anthropology congratulates the following graduate students

Demographic Factors Influence the Behavior of Wild Chimpanzees

Spring 2016 Proseminar

Chimpanzees are humankind’s closest living relatives, and like us, they display considerable behavioral diversity. While genetic, ecological, and cultural factors are traditionally invoked to explain behavioral variation in chimpanzees, the demographic context is often overlooked as a contributing factor. For the past 21 years, I have conducted a long-term field study of an extremely large community of chimpanzees at Ngogo in the Kibale National Park, Uganda. With over 200 individuals, the Ngogo chimpanzee community is significantly larger than other chimpanzee groups that have been studied in the wild. My observations provide new insights into the hunting and territorial behavior of chimpanzees. In this talk, I review some of my findings in this regard. I include a discussion of some recently completed demographic analyses that reveal one reason why the Ngogo chimpanzee community is so large.

John Mitani is primate behavioral ecologist. During the past 38 years, he has conducted field research investigating the behavior of our closest living relatives, the apes. His current research involves a long-term study of an unusually large community of chimpanzees at Ngogo in the Kibale National Park, Uganda.

The Visual Archive: Ho-Chunk Cultural Performance, Modern Labor, and Survivance in Wisconsin, 1879-1960

This presentation explores the intersections of photographic images, family history, tourism, and Ho-Chunk survivance through an examination of two photographic collections housed at the Wisconsin Historical Society: the Charles Van Schaick Collection and the H.H. Bennett Collection. The Van Schaick collection includes nearly taken between 1879-1936, and the H.H. Bennett Collection is comprised of hundreds of images of tribal members taken from 1865-1960. Also contained within the Bennett Collection are film reels of the Stand Rock Indian Ceremonial, a major tourist attraction that employed tribal members in Wisconsin Dells, WI from the 1920s through the 1960s. The stories that these images convey of the importance of kinship, place, modern labor, cultural performance, settler colonialism, and survivance are the central themes of the Ho-Chunk experience in the 20th century, and my presentation will address these intersecting themes and the ongoing meanings that these images have for contemporary tribal citizens.

Sponsored by the UCSB Public History Program, the Department of Anthropology, and the Department of History.

Amy Lonetree, a member of The Public Historian editorial board, is author of Decolonizing Museums: Representing Native America in National and Tribal Museums (University of North Carolina Press, 2012), and co-editor with Amanda Cobb of The National Museum of the American Indian: Critical Conversations. (University of Nebraska Press, 2008).

Brown Bag: Explorers, Anthropologists, and Bureaucrats: Mapping Native Identity on the Columbia River

Dr. Jon Daehnke, Assistant Professor, Anthropology Department, University of California, Santa Cruz

Spring 2016 Brown Bag

Dr. Daehnke is an anthropologist with research and teaching interests in cultural heritage stewardship and law, and the archaeology of the North American Pacific Coast. Much of his writing focuses on the politics of cultural heritage and public representations of the past, especially within the context of Native American identity and the legacies of colonialism. He has recently completed a collaborative book manuscript with the Chinook Indian Nation that explores the challenges and successes of their efforts to reaffirm control of their own heritage.

Daehnke’s archaeological fieldwork centers on the floodplain of the Columbia River. As a partner in the Wapato Valley Archaeology Project (WVAP) his research is driven by questions surrounding the long-term use of landscape, especially within the context of human response to rapid or "catastrophic" change. He is also conducting long-term landscape surveys in the Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge in south-central Oregon, with an emphasis on the documentation of rock-art sites.

Grad Student Mattew Biwer receives Wenner Gren Award

The Wenner-Gren Foundation has three major goals – to support significant and innovative anthropological research into humanity's biological and cultural origins, development and variation, to foster the creation of an international community of research scholars in anthropology, and to provide leadership at the forefronts of the discipline. Matt's award will help fund his dissertation. Congratulations!

James F. Brooks' book "Mesa of Sorrows: A History of the Awat'ovi Massacre" reviewed in Slate

"James Brooks’ writing has a winningly mournful streak of lyricism in Mesa of Sorrows." Read the full review in Slate

From Amazon.com:

A scrupulously researched investigation of the mysterious massacre of Hopi Indians at Awat'ovi, and the event's echo through American history.

Featured Events

All News

Sarah Bay takes 3rd place in UCSB Undergrad Slam!

Photography as Narrative: Visual Storytelling and Impactful Images in Anthropology

2016–17 Central Continuing Student Fellowships

Demographic Factors Influence the Behavior of Wild Chimpanzees

The Visual Archive: Ho-Chunk Cultural Performance, Modern Labor, and Survivance in Wisconsin, 1879-1960

Brown Bag: Explorers, Anthropologists, and Bureaucrats: Mapping Native Identity on the Columbia River

Grad Student Mattew Biwer receives Wenner Gren Award

James F. Brooks' book "Mesa of Sorrows: A History of the Awat'ovi Massacre" reviewed in Slate

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