CONTEXTS

The Newsletter of the

Friends of the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology

Volume 35, 1-2

Fall 2006-Spring 2007

Believing Africa from Creation to Completion

By Kevin P. Smith, Deputy Director & Chief Curator
The Haffenreffer Museums second oncampus exhibition, Believing Africa, opened
on Saturday, May 27, 2006. This exhibit,
located in our satellite gallery in Manning
Hall on Brown Universitys College Green,
continues to draw visitors from around
the world. What is it about? How do such
exhibitions come into being? Has it been
a success?
The goals and perspectives explored in
Believing Africa are described in its introductory panel: Whether one is born into
or converts to a particular faith, or professes
none, religious beliefs provide answers
and guidance for billions of people around
the world. In Africa today, global religions
compete with local faiths for followers,
converge to provide new answers to
enduring questions, and emerge or reenergize to explain new challenges in a
globalizing world.

Inside This Issue:

About Believing Africa - pg. 1
Outlook on 2007 - pg. 2
2006 - 2007 Events - pg. 4
Friends of the Haffenreffer
Museum - pg. 8
Bogolan to Bagdad: giving a
voice to the voiceless - pg. 10
Recent Donations - pg. 11
Facing Mesoamerica - pg. 12

Masks used by members of the Night Society, Bangwa people, Cameroon. Gift of Paula D. Rice.
Believing Africa draws largely upon the
sub-Saharan ethnographic collections of
the Haffenreffer Museum to investigate
the diversity and dynamic nature of African spiritual beliefs. However, it would be
a mistake to imagine that Believing Africa,
or any other exhibition, could spring into
being, fully formed, without months of discussions, reextion and debates amongst
faculty, staff and students, collaborating to
create the exhibit.

faced each other across gulfs of distrust or

accommodation. Upon reviewing the museums collections, we decided to focus on
Africa in order to work from the strengths
of our African collection (now incorporating nearly 6,000 objects), to explore the
complexities of African religious practice,
and to draw on the expertise of Brown
Universitys many scholars and students
working in, and on, African themes.

The initial impetus to develop an exhibition about African spirituality came out
of discussions among museum staff about
the pervasiveness of religion and religious
debate in the contemporary world. As
our discussions unfolded, we decided that
we wanted to develop an exhibition that
would explore the meanings and material
culture of belief to practitioners of both local and global belief systems in a part of the
world where diverse faiths were practiced
side-by-side, combined in new ways, and

Two seminars, taught at the museum in the

fall and spring terms of the 2006 academic
year, with students drawn from eight departments at Brown and RISD, developed
these early thoughts into the exhibition on
view today. The rst seminar Museums
and Material Culture (Anthropology 240)
set the exhibitions tone by developing its
primary and secondary themes, its basic
structure, and a preliminary list of objects
under consideration for display. In the
Continued on page 3

Contexts
Newsletter of the Friends of the
Haffenreffer Museum of
Anthropology, Brown University
Volume 35, 1-2

Friends Board
David Haffenreffer, President
Edith Andrews, Vice President
Diana Johnson, Treasurer
Andrew Davis, Secretary
Bolaji Campbell
Ayesha Chaudry
Robert Emlen
Sidney Greenwald
Susan Hardy
Elizabeth Hoover
Alice Houston
David Kertzer, Provost
Winifred Lambrecht
Richard Lynch
Jane Roberts
Paul Sapir
Jeffrey Schreck
Henry Schwarz
William Simmons, Anthropology Dept. Chair
Loren Spears
Patricia Symonds
Shepard Krech III, ex ofcio
Kevin P. Smith, ex ofcio

Museum Staff
Shepard Krech III, Director
Kevin P. Smith, Deputy Director & Chief
Curator
Thierry Gentis, Associate Curator &
Collections Manager
Geralyn Hoffman, Curator of Programs &
Education
Linda AVant Deishinni,

From the Director

Dear Friends,
As I write this we are nearing the end of the summer and are looking towards
a full fall schedule at both Museum sites, in Providence and Bristol. Our exhibition, Believing Africa, which opened on campus in Manning Hall in May of 2006,
has attracted over 9,000 visitors this year. Believing Africa was conceptualized
and implemented by undergraduate and graduate students in two seminars last
year. Always in the background (and sometimes in the foreground) were museum staff (and budgets!) and specialists who helped with conservation, mount
preparation, and installation. With the students, we formed a large exhibition
team to explore effectively the multiple ways that Africans have drawn on local
and global religious traditions for meaning and answers to enduring existential
questions, both in the past and, importantly, today.
Since last summer, we have been focusing on how to use space better in the main
Museum in Bristol. For reasons relating to conservation, storage, and teaching
and research needs, we have converted one exhibition gallery into secure back
room space. We are also in the process of replacing the long-standing exhibit
on Hopi Katsinas with an installation called Facing Mesoamerica. This exhibit is
being curated by Cassandra Mesick and will open on September 28th! The shop,
which had been in a small room off the lower, now closed, gallery and then at the
front door of the Museum, has reemerged in the small circular silo off the main
gallery. And we have plans to change the exhibits in the main gallery, perhaps
section by section, as students wishing to become involved in exhibition projects
cross the threshold.
The Museums education programs are ourishing in the capable hands of our
new Curator of Programs and Education, Geralyn Hoffman, and Education Specialist Linda AVant Deishinni. Before joining the Haffenreffer, Geralyn was the
Education Coordinator at the San Diego Museum of Man. Tooled to changing
standards in state and national education, the in-house and outreach programs
are reaching more children than at any time since 2002.
It may not be surprising that this years programs and lectures, reported elsewhere in this newsletter, attracted robust and sometime overowing audiences
as the Museums prole has increased.
It is always our hope that some reading this Newsletter will want to get involved
with the Museum as a docent or volunteer, will join the Friends of the Haffenreffer Museum, or will visit us in Bristol, our home base, or in Manning Hall, our
satellite gallery on the Brown University campus. Please do! Our best wishes for
the upcoming year.

Education Specialist
Rip Gerry, Exhibits Designer/Storage
Manager/Photo Archivist
Carol Dutton, Ofce Manager
Elizabeth Barksdale Cooper, Public
Information Coordinator
Casey ODonnell, Ofce Assistant &
Museum Shop Coordinator
Jennifer Trunzo, Manning Hall Greeter

Shepard Krech III

Director
Professor of Anthropology and Environmental Studies

Believing Africa
Continued from page 1

second seminar Exhibitions in Museums

(Anthropology 241) students and museum
staff forged those ideas into a nal exhibition script and design, which became
the blueprint for Believing Africa. From
the outset, we strove not only to explore
objects within their original social and
sacral contexts, but also to examine how
they were used to address fundamental
existential questions and how those same
questions are addressed today, in Africa,
through contemporary spiritual and social
experience.
Four of Believing Africas six stages investigate themes linked to key stages in the
human life-cycle (birth, initiation, the
acquisition of power in adulthood, and
death) through in-depth analyses of ritually charged objects from a single culture
or region.

plored African spirituality through direct

encounters with powerful objects, contextualized within contemporary issues.
Since it opened in May 2006, more than
9,000 visitors have discovered Believing
Africa, making it one of the Haffenreffer
Museums most-visited and most successful installations to date. Have you visited
Believing Africa yet? We welcome your
thoughts and impressions of the exhibit, as
well as ideas for future installations, and
look forward to seeing you in our galleries
and at our programs and events.

Masks used by the Sande Society of Sierra

Leone and Liberia for girls innitiation
ceremonies

Excerpts from our visitors book at the Manning Hall Gallery:

Absolutely beautiful! Amazing. I learned so much it made me change my way of
thinking. I will never look at some things the same way! Indescribable.
Lauren, Switzerland
The way in which you presented my culture and my peoples beliefs touched me
in a profound way. May Allah smile upon you all. Thank you.
Marilyn Edobor (MIT 08), Morocco
Different outlook: multifocal, divergently convergent. Quite eclectic and rich.
Your organization is very much on track and relevant to current global issues.
John Ogene (Lecturer, Department of Fine & Applied Arts, University of Benin), Benin
City, Nigeria
This was a fantastic teaching tool for my class. It is an outstanding exhibit. James Yarnall (Associate Professor of Art,
Salve Regina University), Newport, RI

Cofn in the shape of shing boat. Coastal Ghana

Two other stages examine the quest for
meaning across Africa through believers
adoption (and adaptation) of world religions and through their reliance on local
beliefs to explain and inuence the world
around them. Four massive photographic
panels explore the personal nature of belief, while a rotating slide show displays
additional African objects and photographs from the Haffenreffer Museums
collections.
While Believing Africa is about Africa and
brings the Haffenreffer Museums rich
African collections into the light, the exhibition is more generally about faith, the
quest for meaning, and the co-existence of
different faiths not only within regions but
also within individuals attempts to understand the world around them and their
place within it. The exhibition team hoped,
from the beginning, that museum visitors
would be encouraged to rethink their own
perspectives on belief and faith as they ex-

A beautiful exposition, giving a very forceful impression of

tradition in everyday life in Africa now. And such a surprise
to discover so much of my old friend Robert Brains work
here. Peter Geschiere (Professor of African Anthropology, University of Amsterdam), Amsterdam, Netherlands
I loved the Night Society masks! They were fascinating!
The section on African explanations for misfortune was also
very interesting! Virginia Cross, Richmond, VA
It is nice to see how you have converted our old church
space into a wonderful learning experience. Now I have
two fond memories of this space.
Kezia Ellison (Brown 05), Pittsburgh, PA
Great exhibit!
Ashanti Ghee, Silver Spring, MD

Epa mask
Olomoyeye the
mother of many
children Yoruba,
Ekiti State, Nigeria
1960s, artist unknown
Wood, pigments

I never knew this was here but it is incredible. The pictures have such insight and the
artifacts are so unbelievably amazing Danielle Dunlap (Brown 10), Atlanta, GA
Our rst visit to Brown University so glad we came across the marvelous exhibit. Niel, Mary and Andrew Lewis, Princeton Junction, NJ.
Amazing informative, artistic, and even political we really enjoyed it. Thank
you! Rachel and Jake Robards, New York, NY.
An important and interesting exhibition. It conrms the view that everyone needs
to study the different religions to understand the world.
Diego Pizano, Bogota, Colombia.
3

2006-2007 Events
The Vikings returned!
On Thursday, September 14, 2006 in a lecture co-sponsored with the Medieval Studies Department at the Annmary Brown
Memorial Building in Providence, Dr. Stephen Mitchell, Professor of Scandinavian
and Folklore at Harvard University, gave a
lecture, The Sagas, Oral History and NeoLiteralism. This lecture was the kick-off
event for the exciting four-day Viking Festival, The Vikings Return! that took place
on the Brown campus on September 14
and 15 and in Bristol on September 16 and
17. Mitchells engaging talk was followed
on the next day by Dr. William Fitzhughs
lecture The Lure of Providence: Vikings,
Romance and Archaeology. Both Dr. Fit-

zhugh, the Director of the Arctic Studies

Center at the Smithsonian Institution, and
Dr. Mitchell spoke again at Bristol during
the weekend event.

Dr. Stephen Mitchell, Harvard University,

talks about the famous sagas of medieval Iceland as sources of history in the Viking Age.

Dr. William Fitzhugh, Director of Arctic Studies Center, Smithsonian Institution, discusses
Viking games with Neil Peterson from the Dark Ages Re-creation Company.

Fascinating lectures complimented family activities on both Saturday and Sunday. Dr. Fitzhugh presented a more general version of The Lure of Providence:
Vikings, Romance and Archaeology; Dr.
William R. Short, Higgins Armory Museum, Worcester, MA, presented Viking
Age Arms, Armor and Combat; Kevin P.
Smith, Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, Brown University, offered his take
on Law and Order in the Viking Age;
Darrell Markewitz from the Dark Ages
Re-Creation Company discussed Adventures in Iron Smelting; Professor Mitchell
shared Viking Age Tales of Adventure
and History; Neil Peterson, Dark Ages
Re-Creation Company and Wilfrid Laurier University, wowed the crowd with
Its All Fun and Games when Someone

Dr. Michle Hayeur Smith, RISD, discusses

adornment, clothing and artwork in Viking
Age Iceland.
Loses an Eye!; and nally, Dr. Michle
Hayeur Smith, Liberal Arts/Art History,
Rhode Island School of Design, lectured
on Dressing the Living, Addressing the
Dead: Identity and Adornment in Viking
Age Iceland.

A RISD student creates a soapstone runestone using ancient techniques.

Visitors made Viking swords, shields and

helmets with the help of docent Kathy Silvia.

There were also Viking-age re-enactors

from the Dark Ages Re-Creation Company
and hands-on crafts and activities for the
whole family throughout the weekend,
which included a chance to see medieval
combat demonstrations done by volunteers and staff from the Higgins Armory

2006 Honoring the Harvest - a beautiful fall day in Bristol

We celebrated our 5th Annual Honoring the Harvest event with Native Americans from the Pokanoket Wampanoag on November 18. With the sponsorship
of the Bristol Parks and Recreation Department, and the leadership of our new
Education Specialist Linda AVant-Deishinni, tribal members came together
with local families and friends to celebrate the harvest. Activities included
storytelling by Flower Hawk and Tracey Dancing Star Brown, dancing and
drumming, craft activities and as usual, we had a great feast of Native foods
including succotash, cornbread, pumpkin bread, and cider. A great time was
had by all.
Kevin P. Smith and Keni Sturgeon greet Marc
Jacques from the Canadian Consulate, Boston,
which was a sponsor of the Viking event.

Traditional Native foods were on display

Dr. William R. Short, right, from the Higgins
Armory Museum, discusses Viking combat
techniques with colleagues.
Museum. All in all, about 1000 people
attended the event, which was funded in
part by the Friends of the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, the Rhode Island
Council for the Humanities, the Canadian
Consulate General, Boston, and the Government of Iceland.

Tracey Dancing Star Brown

Nathaniel Philbrick at site of King Philips War on Mayower

On Saturday, October 28, Author Nathaniel Philbrick came to Bristol to give a talk
and do a book signing for his new bestseller, Mayower, which looks at the very
beginnings of America: the voyage of the
Mayower, the founding of Plymouth
Colony, and King Philips War. Discussing his book just feet away from what is
thought to be the site of the onset of King

2006 Jane Dwyer Memorial Lecture

Dahomey Women warriors discussed at Manning Hall
On Thursday, October 12, we
held the 2006 Jane Dwyer Memorial Lecture in our gallery at
Manning Hall. Dr. Suzanne Blier, Allen Whitehill Clowes Professor of Fine Art and African
and African American Studies,
Harvard University, spoke on
Imaging Amazons: Dahomey
Women Warriors In and Out of
Africa. Her lecture explored
the arts and imagery of Dahomey women warriors, addressing the array of ways
in which these strong women shaped the visual culture of the famed West African
court. The importance of the role of women as African leaders is often overlooked,
yet the imagery Dr. Blier shared with us showed clear documentation of their contributions.

Philips War made the stories he told that

much more vivid. Philbrick is also the author of the New York Times bestseller In the
Heart of the Sea for which he won the National Book Award.
Despite torrential rains, ooding and falling tree branches, more than 170 fans were
on hand. We gained many new members
that day, including Mr. Philbrick.

Nathaniel Philbrick

The completed Chenrezig Mandala in the Manning Hall Gallery

Lobsang and Tenzin dismantle the mandala

by dividing it into sections and sweeping the
sand into a holy vessel that will later be taken
to the river.

A Remarkable Ritual and Blessing at the Haffenreffers Manning Hall Gallery

Our nal program during our fall season was the 7th Annual Barbara Greenwald Memorial Arts program, which
brought two monks from Namgyal
Monastery, the personal monastery of
H.H. the Dalai Lama, to create a sand

mandala a physical blessing and prayer

for compassion, tolerance and an end to
hatred. The program was held from November 14 through 18, with the mandala
being created in the Museums Manning
Hall Gallery Tuesday-Friday and then dis-

mantled during a beautiful and uplifting ceremony on Saturday, November

18. Those who see and experience the
mandalas creation and dismantling are
believed to partake in its blessings and
to be transformed by it.
More than 2500 people from the campus
and community had the opportunity to
view the creation, to meet and speak
with the monks and to participate in the
program.

Hundreds participated in the riverside ceremony. Rose petals were tossed in by participants and oated down stream with the sand.

Ceremonially, the monks pour the sand from

the mandala into the Providence River.

When the Sun Begins to Thaw its time for Piyatokonis!

Winter break is a time for fun at the Haffenreffer Museum in Bristol. On Tuesday, February 20, we held our annual Piyatokonis
event. Special family activities included

hot chocolate served by the re in our wetu

while docent Ray Richard told stories and
introduced children and parents alike to
Native American traditions. The guided
tour to King Philips Chair, led by docent
Terry Francis, was a fascinating experience
for those who had not been here before.
More than 30 children and adults enjoyed
the walk and the tales about King Philip
and his peoples traditions and lifestyle.

The Museum also had special winter break

hours offering on-going drop-in activities
from Monday through Thursday.

Crafts took place in the Barn while on-going

activities in the Museum included an I
Spy scavenger hunt game.
A large group of visitors take a guided walk to
King Philips Chair and hear about its history

Children enjoyed creating their own patterned

masks based on Native American artwork

Bolokoli, tahara, kene-kene?

On Monday, February 26, Dr. Rogaia Abusharaf joined
us in List Hall to talk about the controversial subject
of female circumcision or female genital mutilation.
Ms. Abusharaf is the Senior Research Associate for the
Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women
at Brown. Having just completed years of research on
the subject, she has a breadth of knowledge to balance
strong opinions about the practice.
In many African countries where it is practiced, and in
some communities abroad, supporters regard female
circumcision as a coming-of-age ritual that ensures
chastity and promotes fertility. Many human rights
groups, however, consider it to be life-endangering and
oppressive.
Although Dr. Abusharaf made it clear
that she is very much against the practice, she took an anthropological teaching approach to her lecture and gave us
facts and viewpoints from both sides.
Following her talk, she answered questions from the audience that further
claried her viewpoint and allowed her
to expand on the three major topics of
religion, womens rights and the inuence of men relating to this issue.

Professor Haraldur Sigurdsson (left) at the site of

Tambora in Indonesia

Volcanic Eruptions: Large Scale Preservation of Art, Artifacts and Victims

On Saturday, April 21, Haraldur Sigurdsson visited Bristol for a talk on volcanic
eruptions. Dr. Sigurdsson is a world-renowned volcanologist and Professor of
Volcanology at the University of Rhode Islands Graduate School of Oceanography.
He visits the sites of erupting volcanoes
all over the world and has been involved

with the excavation of volcanic deposits in

the well-known cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum as well as the less well-known
sites of Tambora (Indonesia) and Santorini
(Aegean Greece). His Encyclopedia of Volcanoes received the Excellence in Professional/Scholarly Publishing Award from
the Association of American Publishers in

1999 and the Geological Society of Americas award for best earth science reference
source in 2000.
We were honored to have him speak with
us and tell us about the importance of
volcanic eruptions for archaeological research.

The 2007 Barbara A. and Edward G. Hail Lecture

Thanks to the Friends of the Haffenreffer Museum and generous donations to
the Barbara A. and Edward G. Hail Fund, the endowment for this series of lectures
continues to grow.
Barbara A. Hail, former Deputy Director and Curator of the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, is a noted scholar of Native American art and culture, whose
work spans generations and redened the Museums role in interpreting Native
American art. Barbara retired in 2002, after 33 years of devoted service to the Haffenreffer Museum.
Edward G. Hail, Associate Dean at Brown University from 1970-1989, was an
enthusiastic supporter of the Haffenreffer Museum and President of its Friends Association.
The Hail Lectures at Brown honor their service, support, and scholarship with
an annual talk relating to one of their many interests in material culture, collecting,
and museums.
This years lecture, given by Candace Greene, Ethnologist and Curator, Smithsonian
Institution, and Russell Thornton, Professor of Anthropology, UCLA, on March 8, examined the pictorial histories of the Plains Indians known as winter counts. Although
winter counts were created or drawn by different generations and were duplicated
many times over the years, events in many winter counts can be cross-referenced,
thus conrming the stories that are told and the sequence in which they occured.
These calendars of events make it possible for historians and Lakotas, as well, to
piece together indigenous histories.

A Lakota winter count

Barbara Hail introduces dinner guests

Friends of the Haffenreffer Museum,

Membership 2006-2007
Honorary Members
Monni Adams
Ferdinand & Beverly Bach III
Mr. & Mrs. Robert Baker
Theresa Bell
Mr. & Mrs. John Bockstoce
Dr. & Mrs. Sidney S. Braman MD*
Mr. & Mrs. Harry Brightman
Mrs. William Brill
Mary Katherine Burton-Jones
Stacy Marcus Chidekel
Paul A. Cohen
Mr. & Mrs. Douglas Dorsey
Mr. & Mrs. Barnet Fain*
Alison Collins Fay
Vincent & Margaret Fay
Claudia Giangola & John Menser
Mr. & Dr. Artemis Joukowsky
Mr. & Mrs. Roy Greenwald
Mr. & Mrs. Adolph Haffenreffer, III
David Haffenreffer Jr
Frederick Haffenreffer
Karl Haffenreffer
Dr. Mark Haffenreffer
Robert Haffenreffer
Mr. & Mrs.Theodore Haffenreffer

Timothy & Bobbi Hamill

Norman Hurst
Kenneth Kensinger
Mr. Peter & Dr. Anita Klaus
Mr. & Mrs. Robert Laible*
Samuel Mencoff
William C. Mithoefer
& Renee-Paule Moyencourt
Joanne Pearson
Timothy Phillips
Mark Rapoport, MD
Ann Roy
William B. Simmons*
President Ruth Simmons*
Phyllis H. Stetson
David & Ashley Haffenreffer Wagstaff
Don & Beverly Weihe
Ellen & Dick Wilson

Donors Circle 2006-07

Haffenreffer Society ($1000+)
Rudolf F. Haffenreffer IV
Barbara A. Hail*
Dwight & Anna Heath
President Ruth Simmons*
Alva Way

Mt. Hope Society ($500 - $999)

David Haffenreffer
Susan Hardy
Giddings Society ($250 - $499)
Andrew Davis, Esq.*
Mrs. Robert Davis
Alice W. Houston
Diana Johnson
Ms. Michele Morrisson & Dr. David Bernstein
Dr. & Mrs. Paul E. Sapir*
Saville Society ($100 - $249)
Alice Boss-Altman
Edith Andrews*
Clinton Andrews*
Elizabeth Bakewell*
Carter & Lucy Buckley
Dr. Alton & Elizabeth Byers*
Richard & Inge Chafee*
Mr. & Mrs. Charles Collis
Mr. & Mrs. Patrick Conley
Joanna Coppola
Jose Delgado, MD
James Elder*
Robert & Julia Emlen*
Timothy Forbes
Charles Greenwald*
Sidney Greenwald*
Ms. Jean R. Haffenreffer
Mr. & Mrs. Donald Hall
Dr. Kenneth Hertz*
Alma & Fred Ivor-Campbell
Shepard Krech, Jr.
Shepard Krech, III
Louise Lamphere*
Mr. & Mrs. Stanley Livingston, Jr.
Richard Lynch
Mr. & Mrs. Timothy More
Mr. & Mrs. Paul C. Nicholson, Jr.
Dr. & Mrs. Calvin Oyer
Lydia & Barrett Petty
Mr. & Mrs. Nathaniel Philbrick*
Kyoko Redd
Mr. & Mrs. Robert Selle
Lisa & Robert Shea
Mr. & Mrs. Sisson
Ms. Loren Spears
Jane Starkey
Mr. & Mrs. Thompson
Mary Tefft White
Paul & Betsey Zimmering*
Contributing ($50 - $99)
Alexandra Allardt
Mr. & Mrs. John Allen*
Peter & Susan Allen
Eloise Angiola
Dr. & Mrs. Edwin Boger
Ann Marie Chase
Kim & Stephen Clark*
Ellen Cotter & Clinton Andrews
Mr. & Mrs. Thomas Coyne*
Bruce & Jennie Crooks*
Joan Dorsey*
Margaret Gacioch
Dr. & Mrs. Thomas Gregg*
Cathy Hadad
Sture & Doris Karlsson
Ethan & Helene Kisch
Mr. & Mrs. Lee
K.B. Liebenow
Dr. & Mrs. Malone
Professor & Mrs. Robert Mathiesen
Jeffrey Schreck
Bill White
Catherine Williams*

General Membership 2006-07

Family
Pamela Angelini
James Ashley
Cindy Barger
Barrington Public Library
Mrs. Eva P. Basehart
Baxter Family
Elisabeth Bonnier
Bruce Brazil
Melissa & Jim Bride
Brownell Library
Jonathan Cain
Kim Chan
Veronica Chan
Ms. Eunice Chow
Lori Collins
Cara Coraccio
Mrs. Deborah Cox
Charles & Elzbieta Cummings III
Hadassa Davis
Maureen Delavio
George & Karissa Dewey
Sara Eichler
David Eier & Rachel Morello
Mr. & Mrs. Robert Faulkner
Irina Finkelstein & Lev Finkelshteyn
Nancy Fitzgerald
Anita Gallagher
Yolanda Garcia
George Hail Free Library
Kris and Tyler Gibbs
William & Nellie Gillen
Marcella Goss*
Thierry & Mary Gustave
Barrett & Mary Hazeltine
Mary Helm
Ann Hobbs
Daniel Kahn
Joanna Kitch
Tracy Knowlton
Mr. & Mrs. Eric Kula
Marc & Ozlem Lamontagne
Susan Lepore
Cheryl & Keith Marden
Humphrey, Faye, Jill & Lily Maris
Professor & Mrs. Mathiesen
Mr. & Mrs. Morris
Mary Grace Nelligan
Mr. & Mrs. John Nicholas
North Kingstown Free Library
Kevin OBrian, VMD
Terry Orechia
Steve Panitz
Mr. & Mrs. Arthur Parker
Jean & Richard Pearce
Mr. & Mrs. Richard Philbrick*
Suzanne Phillippi
Portsmouth Free Library
Mr. & Mrs. Walter Quevedo, Jr.
Alden & Bob Read
Mr. & Mrs. Saul Ricklin
Mr. & Mrs. Frederick Rockefeller
Mr. & Mrs. Ronald Rodrigues
Rogers Free Library
Rich & Maya Rudowski
David Savitt
Mr. & Mrs. Schnipper

Steven Serenska
Mr. & Mrs. Shadd
Dr. & Mrs. Sholler
Lisa Silva
Clementina St. Souveur
Rendell Tan
Joanna Taylor
Sandee Tom
Shawen Williams & Andrew MacKeith
Mr. & Mrs. Robert L. Zocca*
Karen Zompa
Samuel D. Zurier
Dual/Couple
Mr. & Mrs. Will Ayton
Sylvia & Milo Berking
Frederick & Edith Bloom
Roland & Janet Gentreau
Sarah & Abbott Gleason
Richard & Elizabeth Gould
Robert & Cynthia Grant
John & Alice Gunn
Kirk Hutchings
Larry & Joyce LaCroix
Carol Entin & Daniel Lanier
Maggie Millar
Barbara & Edwin Nicholson
Mr. & Mrs. Ray Olson
Mr. & Mrs. Robert Reichley
Gildon & Cindy Stillings
Elizabeth Sublett
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Richard & Sarah Zacks
Individual
Anne D. Archibald
Paul G. Benedum, Jr.
Jane K. Blount
Betsy Bruemmer
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Robin Caswell
Rhonda J. Chadwick
Martha Christina
Anne Christner
Amelia L. Entin
Rod Evans
John Flournoy
Linda Foss Nichols
Ms. Nancy Garrison
Susan Gifford
Margaret Gradie
Matthew Gutmann
Daniel S. Harrop, M.D.
Harold Hewes, Jr.
Roger B. Hirschland
Peter Jacobson
Sheila Kramer
Barbara Legg
Robert Lev
Doris Little
Joan MacLean
John A. Metaxas
Jone Pasha Morrison
Carol Moser
Pearl Nathan
Mrs. Alice Pashalian
William Peckham
Mary B. Pitts
Jeannette Pollard
Ann Prokopowicz
Lori Richardson

* We would especially like to thank and recognize those members who

Margot Schevill*
Marilyn Seymour
Dr. Carroll Silver
Jessica Skolnikoff
Joyce Smith
Madeleine St. Denis
Jean Talbot
James Verinis*
Robert A. Walsh, Jr.
David Watson
Sarah X. Wheaton
Joseph Wilson
Sarah D. Wilson
Joy Wolff
Student
Julie Cerrito
Nathaniel Clapp
Barbara Fenig
Steven G. Wapen
Brown/RISD Students
Sara Adler-Milstein
Barbara Flinker-Ruttenberg
Kathleen Millar
Christine Reiser
Jennella Sambour
Jane Wang
Complimentary
Mr. & Mrs. Charles Ahlgren
Kathleen Claire
Anna & William Colaiace
Alfred Decredico
Katherine Demuth
Walter Feldman
Milton Freudenheim
Lawrence Gordon
John & Nikki Hatley
Ms. Anne Hausrath
Elizabeth Hoover
Mr. & Mrs. Gustavas Ide
Kevin Jarbeau
Julianne Jennings Guercia
Mr. Aboubacar Kaba
Professor Igor Kopytoff
Philip & Marcia Lieberman
Kathleen Luke
Matthew Marino
Darrell Markewitz
Mr. & Mrs. McCulloch, Jr.
Catherine McKinley
Maryellen Blount Mefford
Charles D. Miller III
Mark Millman
Stephen Mitchell
Sylvia Moubayed
Ronald Normandeau
Neil Peterson
Elaine Reed
Joan & Phillip Ritchie
Doran Ross
Kao Saechao
Patricia Sanford*
Richard Schweitzer
William Short
Professor William Simmons
Keni Sturgeon
Patricia Symonds
Thomas Urban
Jim Waring
Dianne Weaver

kindly donated to one or more of our endowed funds this year.

Per individual requests, donations were distributed as follows: Barbara A. and Edward G. Hail Lecture - $5,823; Barbara Greenwald Memorial Arts Program
- $1660; Jane Dwyer Memorial Lecture - $345; Haffenreffer Special Fund - $30,964
To make a contribution to one or more of our endowed funds for the 2007-08 year, please call our Bristol ofce 253-8388, and speak to Kevin Smith.

Bogolan to Baghdad: Giving a voice to the voiceless

By Thomas M. Urban 05
I never had much interest in textiles. Despite this, I found myself investing a great
deal of time into learning about them. As
a student co-curator of a textile exhibit at
the Haffenreffer Museums satellite gallery, I focused my attention primarily on
pre-Columbian textiles from Peru and
Bolivia. I considered myself to be more of
an archaeologist than an ethnographer, so
working with ancient textiles held more
interest for me than working with the contemporary pieces in the museums collection. This was my way around the textile
debacle. After all, my curatorial contribution to the exhibit was archaeological; no
touchy-feely interpretations of contemporary dress here.
That all changed about a year later. Not
by choice really, rather by necessity. With
my graduation from Brown rapidly approaching, I found myself looking for a
job. The textile exhibit that I worked on,
Warp Speeds, was set to open its doors on
Commencement weekend. The gallery
needed an attendant; someone to answer
questions, keep track of visitors, and protect the objects on display. A job notice was
sent out looking to ll a position called gal-

lery interpreter. More than just a guard, the

interpreter could give tours of the exhibit
and answer tough questions about the cultures, ideas, and objects represented in the
exhibit. The interpreter needed a broad
knowledge of anthropology and a solid
understanding of material culture, and
good communication skills were a must.
I responded to the job announcement and
found out two days later that the position
was mine if I wanted it.
The rst few days on the job, I read
through the exhibit text, over and over,
thinking that this would be all that I needed to answer visitors questions about the
exhibit. I was wrong. Many people asked
questions that simply were not covered in
the exhibit text, extensive as it was. Looking elsewhere to build my knowledge base
on textiles, I began reading. And reading.
And reading. By the end of the rst month
on the job, I knew more about the textiles
on display than I ever thought possible.
Through this activity I developed an appreciation for the symbolic meaning many
of the pieces expressed, and developed a
more penetrating understanding of how
these objects t into a larger cultural con-

Fountain near Forensic Analysis Facility: Photo taken by Thomas Urban.

text. Textiles were storehouses of meaning

that communicated a story from their creator to their observer. By the end of that
month I could talk textiles all day long if
need be.
Warp Speeds only ran for nine months.
Around the time we were tearing everything down to make way for a new exhibit,
I received a call about a potential summer
project. The project director wanted an archaeologist with a background in forensics,
military experience a plus, and experience
working with and interpreting textiles. It
sounded like the position was tailor-made
for me. I had been involved in forensic
archaeology for several years, and had
served seven years in the army. I applied
for the job. If hired, I would be working for
the U.S. Justice Departments Mass Graves
Investigation Team in Iraq. The goal of the
project: to put together the evidence for
a legal case against Saddam Hussein. To
prove, with physical evidence, that Hussein had perpetrated genocide against the
Kurds in the Anfal campaign and later
against the Shias in the Intifada campaign.
They wanted someone to process and interpret the clothing of the victims men,
women, and children.
It was several weeks before I heard back.
I assumed the position had gone to someone else. Then I got an email telling me
who to call if I wanted the job. I called that
person and was hired. In a few weeks I
would be on a plane bound for Baghdad.
Not my rst deployment to a dangerous
part of the world, but my rst as a civilian.
I knew it would be a bit of a shock. I would
spend the summer of 2006 in Iraq. I would
be turning 30 years old in Iraq just as I
had spent my 21st year in Bosnia and my
18th year in Haiti. I wondered if I would
be heading to some other war zone for my
40th year. There was much to think about
over the next couple of weeks.
About a week before my departure date,
I headed to the American Museum of
Natural History in New York for a crash
course in textile conservation. I had plenty
of experience now on the interpretive side,
but wanted more on the practical side. I
received an in-depth training on handling,
cleaning, and storing textiles from Vouka
Rousakis, the museums top textiles expert. She wished me luck and I caught a
bus back to Providence. A few days later
I was on a plane bound for California to
complete my in-processing and hazardous
environment training. From there on to
Kuwait to spend several days awaiting a
military ight into Baghdad.
The ight into Baghdad was aboard a

military cargo plane packed with both

soldiers and civilian contractors. Everyone was issued a kevlar helmet and vest
in Kuwait to be worn on the ight and
used for the rest of their stay in Iraq. Most
people took this protective gear off once
airborne, however, as the temperature in
the plane hovered around one hundred
degrees Fahrenheit, with the ight being
about an hour in duration. After arriving
at the airstrip and traveling another fortyve minutes by car, I nally reached the
forensic analysis facility, a series of laboratories set up in army tents. This is where
I would spend most of my time over the
next several months. I met the rest of the
team, twelve in all, and got settled into my
new home.
I cannot relay many of the specics of the
work done in Iraq because a statement of
non-disclosure binds me. I can say, however, that textiles came to play a major evidentiary role in the trial of Saddam Hussein. In order to make a case for genocide,
it had to be demonstrated that a specic
ethnic group was targeted for annihilation.
While osteological evidence tells a great
deal about the victims, it cannot tell the
whole story. The ethnicity of the victims
was determined by the clothing they wore
- by the textiles with which they communicated their identities. Many team members
observed that working with the bones of a
victim is much less personal. The clothing
really tells you more about who a person
was and allows you to form a more complete picture of that person in life. From a
bullet-riddled shirt with a cartoon soccer
player taken from the tiny torso of a small
child, to the blood stained maternity dress
of a pregnant woman, the clothing told
many stories, and many horric stories.
I think there is a moral to this story somewhere. Right. A skill that I never wanted
led me to what was perhaps the most important undertaking of my life. I went to
Iraq, not as a soldier, but as an anthropologist giving a voice to the voiceless victims
of one of the most egregious crimes of our
time. When our team leader, Dr. Michael
Trimble, presented our nding in court,
their story was nally told. For six hours
he stood before a transxed audience that
included Saddam Hussein and Chemical
Ali, and gave the victims back a voice that
had been silenced in a hail of bullets, cries
of terror drowned out by the report of a
rie so many years before. Their voices
were nally heard.
Mr. Urban was an Anthropology concentrator
in Browns Class of 2005 and the rst guard/
greeter at Manning Hall, from May 2005-December 2006. He is currently pursuing opportunities in geoarchaeological research and eldwork through Browns Department of Geology.

Expanding Our Collections

Recent Donations
Political cloth with the image of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Liberia.
Gift of Catherine McKinley
Commemorative portrait and silk screened sampler,
collected in Kumase, Ghana. Gift of Doran Ross
Collection of archaeological stone tools and debitage, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Gift of Jim Waring
Set of 24 Taoist scroll paintings, two priests masks, a crown, 2
ritual wands, a censer and a ritual water container. Gift of the Mien
family of Kao Txieng Saechao
Montagnard textiles, collected by Willis Blount in
Vietnam and a huipil, Guatemala. Gift of Maryellen Blount Mefford
Ethiopian scroll; Songye mask, Democratic Republic of the Congo; West African
iron currency; Pharaonic votive carving of Hathor, (Middle Kingdom). Gifts of
Sylvia Moubayed
Maya Late Classic terracotta nial depicting God L; terracotta gurine of a standing drummer; Orange-ware cup depicting Tlaloc, Mexico. Gifts of John
and Nikki Hatley
Girls Day doll set, Japan. Gift of Rebecca More
Sotho mats and broom, Tuareg pillows and Nigerian gourd bowls. Gift
of Professor Katherine Demuth (Brown Faculty)
Pre-Columbian featherwork, Peru. Gift of Professor Walter Feldman
(Brown Faculty)
24 textiles, Guatemala. Gift of Milton Freudenheim
Collection of 39 Ethiopian artifacts and ve artifacts
from Yemen. Gift of Anna and William Colaiace
Pre-Columbian terracotta Maraca two-part gural urn,
Brazil. Anonymous Gift
Terracotta head of the Old Man Fire God; terracotta mold-made
female gure; terracotta standing gure. Vera Cruz, Late Classic,
Mexico. Anonymous Gift
Headrest, Ethiopia; three African knives; seven African currencies;
mask, East Timor, Indonesia; mask, Mexico. Anonymous Gift
Board, gerua, Siane, Papua New Guinea; Bull roarer, Kerewa, Papua New
Guinea; Bark cloth beater, Savae, Fiji; Sago pudding spatula, Geelivink Bay, New
Guinea; Ceremonial bowl in the form of an abstract Frigate bird, Eastern Solomon
Islands; Two masks, Bali, Indonesia; Kava bowl, Fiji; Bowl with two skid feet, Gaua,
Iles Banks, Republic of Vanuatu. Gift of Mary Katherine Burton-Jones
Ritual vessel, Lobi, Burkina Faso; Brass bell, Ibo, Nigeria; Seated human efgy pot,
Costa Rica; Seated bronze gure with three faces, Benin, Nigeria; Gourd container
with gural stopper, Makonde, Tanzania; Bronze Mirror, Myanmar (Burma). Gift of
Sylvia Moubayed
Yoruba iron double gong currency, Nigeria; Tutsi woven reed and grass screen,
Rwanda. Anonymous Gift
For the Library: ten books on Native American Indians. Gift of Dianne K. Weaver
Transfer
Tibetan Mandala painting, 2 Balinese painted textiles, 2 Indian paintings of Hindu
deities, Japanese wood block print, Thai painting, Egyptian faience beads, African
political cloth, Chinese wooden beads and mahjong game set. Transferred from
Lippit House. Bequest of Freddy and Mary Ann Lippit.
Purchases
Two Kuba mats, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Haffenreffer Special Fund
Collection of 3 Mien ritual objects. Haffenreffer Special Fund

11

Haffenreffer Museum
of Anthropology
Brown University

Contact the Museum at:

300 Tower Street, Bristol, RI 02809
Tel. 401-253-8388
Fax 401-253-1198
www.haffenreffermuseum.org
Museum Hours:
Manning Hall:
Tues. - Sun., 10 a.m.. - 4 p.m.
Bristol:
September - May: Sat. & Sun., 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.
June - August: Tues. - Sun., 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Facing Mesoamerica - our newest exhibit

By Cassandra Mesick 06

The newest exhibition at the Haffenreffer

Museum of Anthropology, to open September 28, 2007
2007, showcases the growing
number of Precolumbian objects in the
Museums collection. To provide a broad
overview of ancient Mesoamerican cultures, the pieces on display include material culture from the Classic
Period Maya, Veracruz, Western
Mexico and Costa Rica.
Incorporating pieces from diverse cultural groups, geographic regions, and time periods,
Facing Mesoamerica emphasizes
the varying ways Precolumbian
peoples represented the human
formranging from large stucco
depictions of Classic Maya nobility to the diminutive gurines
of the Colima. By offering glimpses of the
faces and bodies of ancient individuals,
such representations personalize the past.
Yet, the variety of portraiture produced in
ancient Mesoamerica also challenges contemporary understandings of the meaning
and intention of the portrait as a form of
material expression.
Facing Mesoamerica consequently explores
how such depictions of individuals articu-

late with other forms of Mesoamerican

art and how they were involved in wider
means of cultural and political communication. It prompts many interrelated
questions about the material on display
and the people who created, viewed, and
interacted with it: Were the makers of Precolumbian portraiture
attempting to depict
their subjects realistically, as is true in many
Western portraits? Did
the original viewers
understand and use
such representations
as a means to learn
about the identity of
those being portrayed?
Is the term portrait
or portraiture even applicable in the
Mesoamerican context?
Asking such questions about the funtion,
role, and meaning of Precolumbian portraiture has become increasingly possible
for Mesoamerican researchers aided by
the decipherment of hieroglyphic texts,
advances in the interpretation of iconography, and a more comprehensive understanding of the archaeology and material
culture of the area. Facing Mesoamerica ad-

dresses the state of archaeological research

in this region, taking a Brown University
afliated project as a case study to illustrate the types of questions scholars are
currently investigating in their work.
Additionally, the exhibit considers important ethical considerations that
arise in excavating, collecting,
and curating artifacts from the
region, as well as the logistical
challenges of working in countries with complex and often
conicting notions of cultural
heritage.
Collectively, the artifacts on
display in Facing Mesoamerica
demonstrate that facing the past
ultimately involves both personalizing ancient people through a consideration of their bodily representations as
well as confronting the delicate concerns
and challenges inherent in research on
Precolumbian material culture.
Cassandra Mesick is the student curator of
Facing Mesoamerica and is currently doing
research in Mesoamerica for her dissertation
through Brown Universitys Department of
Anthropology.