CONTEXTS

The Annual Report of the Haffenreffer Museumof Anthropology

Volume 39 Spring 2014
The Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology is Brown Universitys
teaching museum. We inspire creative and critical thinking about culture
by fostering interdisciplinary understanding of the material world.
The museums gallery is in Manning Hall, 21 Prospect Street, Providence,
Rhode Island, on Browns main green. The museums Collections
Research Center and Circumpolar Laboratory are at 300 Tower Street,
Bristol, Rhode Island.
Manning Hall Gallery Hours:
Tuesday Sunday, 10 a.m. 4 p.m.
Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology
Box 1965
Brown University
Providence, RI 02912
www.brown.edu/Haffenreffer
www.facebook.com/HaffenrefferMuseum
(401) 863-5700
haffenreffermuseum@brown.edu
About the Museum
On the front cover (clockwise fromupper left): Doing research on an Egyptian Old Kingdom carving; a pre-Columbian vessel from Costa Rica donated
to the Museum; students in Faculty FellowElizabeth Hoovers class Native American Environmental Health Movements examine an Inuit mukluk in CultureLab;
a Thai Spirit House purchased for the collection; delegates of the Bangwa (Lebialem) community examine masks collected by Robert Brain in Cameroon.
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As the newDirector of the Haffenreffer
Museumof Anthropology, I would like
to share some thoughts about museums
in general and university-based
anthropology museums in particular.
All museums, from the Smithsonian Institution,
to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to the Haffenreffer
Museum, are experiencing challenging times today.
They are facing increasing public scrutiny regarding
their traditional missions. There is an ongoing academic
discourse about their elitist origins, their collecting
histories, and their representational authority. At the
same time, there is a popular debate about the value
of museums in the Internet age. After all, why go
to a museum if you can see their collections on-line?
These challenges have led to a productive rethinking
of the functions of museums and a growing awareness
of the importance of engaging the needs and agendas
of diverse interest groups. A new museum ethos is
emerging that sees museums not as passive reposito-
ries of things, but as places where new relationships
can be established. The Internet has not rendered
museums obsolete; rather, it has provided a new con-
text for museums to reach out to broader audiences.
Museums are now recognized as active participants
in society, often taking on challenging social issues
in order to highlight injustices and to promote greater
cross-cultural understandings.
University-based anthropology museums, like the
Haffenreffer Museum, occupy a special role in this
new landscape. Such museums are places for the
acquisition of new knowledge through archaeological
and anthropological fieldwork and research. They are
places for the development of innovative approaches
to teaching. They are places for the exploration of
representational practices by combining virtual and
digital exhibitions. They are places for the promotion
of ethical practices regarding collecting, stewardship,
and repatriation.
My vision is for the Haffenreffer Museumto help
shape this newethos, both nationally and in the state
of Rhode Island. The Haffenreffer is well positioned
to serve as a key site for the production of newunder-
standings about the material mediation of culture,
in the past and for the present. It provides unparalleled
opportunities for faculty and students to explore some
of the interrelationships between identity discourse
and heritage claims inall their complexities and nuances.
Significantly, this newdialogue needs to critically
examine the interface between objects and their repre-
sentations, museums and the Internet, and research
and teaching, for the benefit of multiple audiences.
Robert W. Preucel
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Haffenreffer Faculty Fellows
ProgramInstituted
The Haffenreffer Museumof Anthropology has
established a Faculty Fellows Programto encourage
faculty to use the museums collections in their
teaching. The 2013-2014 fellows are Ariella Azoulay
(Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature and
Modern Culture and Media), Peter van Dommelen
(Professor of Archaeology and Anthropology),
Paja Faudree (Assistant Professor of Anthropology)
and Elizabeth Hoover (Assistant Professor of
American Studies). Stephen Houston (Professor
of Anthropology), and AndrewScherer (Assistant
Professor of Anthropology) will share the award.
More information on this project appears on page 7.
Two Postdoctoral
Fellows are Appointed
The Museumhas appointed two Postdoctoral
Fellows for the academic year. Jennifer Stampe has
been reappointed as the Postdoctoral Fellowin
MuseumStudies. She is particularly interested in
American Indian self-representations in museums
and tourist sites and non-Native responses to these
representations. Sean Gantt has been appointed
as the Postdoctoral Fellowin Native American
Studies. Sean is a visual and public anthropologist
specializing in tribal economic development,
Indigenous self-representation, and identity among
Southeastern tribes.
Mellon Foundation
funds collaboration
with RISDs Art Museum
Robert Preucel and John Smith (Director of the
RISD Art Museum) received a four-year $500,000
grant fromthe AndrewW. Mellon Foundation to
support a programon object based teaching and
research. The organizing concept for the programis
the idea of the assemblage, which has a variety
of meanings in different disciplines. The project will
involve Faculty Teaching Fellows, Postgrad/Postdoc
Photography Fellows, conferences and workshops.
It is the first major collaboration between our
two museums.
NSF funds research
on womens roles
in the production and trade
of cloth in the North Atlantic
Michle Hayeur Smith was awarded a three-year,
$605,000 research grant fromthe National Science
Foundations Arctic Social Sciences programto
examine womens roles in the production and trade
of cloth across the North Atlantic fromthe Viking
Age into the early 1800s. Dr. Hayeur Smiths new
project expands upon her previous, successful,
3-year (2010-2013) collections-based archaeological
project also funded by the Arctic Social Sciences
program. This is the largest federal research grant
ever received by the Haffenreffer Museum. More
on Dr. Hayeur Smiths research can be found on
page 14.
NSF funds Viking Age research
Kevin Smith received a $45,503 RAPID grant from
the National Science Foundations Arctic Social
Sciences programto conduct emergency excavations
on a Viking Age site deep within Icelands Surtshellir
lava cave. The work done in August 2013 resulted
in the recovery of a unique and informative assem-
blage of Viking Age objects and produced new
radiocarbon dates. More information on this project
appears on page 15.
Collections Management Systems
Being Revamped
With support from the Office of the Provost,
the Haffenreffer Museum is preparing to migrate
its database systemfromArgus to Zetcoms
MuseumPlus Collections Management System.
The move to MuseumPlus will allow the museum
to manage the collections more efficiently and
make themavailable online to faculty, students, and
the public. More on this migration can be found on
page 19.
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Our fall season kicked off with Christopher Steiner
(Connecticut College) joining us as the Jane Powell
Dwyer Lecturer. In his talk, The Invention of African
Art, he discussed African art exhibitions and their
roles in encouraging newforms of reproduction,
tourist art, and copies.
We sponsored a series of programs during Browns
Family weekend that also fell on the Archaeological
Institute of Americas International Archaeology Day.
Our programs included a talk by director Robert
Preucel, who discussed his research in New
Perspectives on the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. Museum
Proctor Jen Thum, a graduate student in the
Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient
World, demonstrated her work using RTI analysis
to transcribe an Egyptian tomb relief in Digital Magic
in Ancient Egypt. To cap off the day, Museum
Curator Thierry Gentis gave a curators tour of
The Spirit of the Thing Given.
Praveena Gullapalli (Rhode Island College) engaged
us with her presentation What Happens in a
Museum? Exhibits, Display Strategies and Visitor
Engagements. Dr. Gullapalli discussed interactions
between museums attempts to speak to audiences
through museumdisplays and visitors preconcep-
tions that dont always interact with exhibits in ways
expected or designed by their curators.
In conjunction with the Love Medicine exhibit, we
hosted a Roundtable Discussion of Louise Erdrichs
Love Medicine in collaboration with the Native
Heritage Series at Brown and sponsored by the
Tomaquag Museum. Dawn Dove, Narragansett elder,
oral historian, author, and educator led the panel,
which included Dr. Maria Lawrence, Ramapaugh, and
Rhode Island College Professor of Education; Lorn
Spears, Narragansett, Executive Director of the
Tomaquag Museum, educator, artist, and author;
Dr. Elizabeth Hoover, Mohawk/Mikmaq, Professor
of American Studies at Brown; and Paulla Jennings,
Niantic/Narragansett, elder and oral historian.
Panelists discussed key themes in Love Medicine
and their relevance to their communities.
WilliamYellowRobe, Jr. (Assiniboine, University
of Maine) discussed his work as a Native playwright
for the Barbara Greenwald Memorial Arts Program.
In a dynamic talk entitled Native American Tribal
Theatre, he spoke about the trials of establishing
himself as a Native author and working with various
Native communities to use theatre for individual
and community healing.
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Guests at Sergei Kan's lecture examine the Museums Chilkat blanket
with deputy director Kevin Smith (left) and director Robert Preucel
(second fromright).
Undergraduate and graduate
students chat about research
with Sergei Kan at one of the
Museums Pizza Roundtable
discussions for Brown University
students and faculty.
Geralyn Ducady
Curator for Programs and Education
Fall 2013
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Our spring programming started with events linked
to our newexhibit In Deo Speramus: The Symbols
and Ceremonies of Brown University and Browns
250th Anniversary opening weekend. We hosted a
programfor middle school students spending a day
at Brown in which they had a chance to learn how
to look at, analyze, and handle objects in CultureLab.
We served cookies and cocoa during a late night,
University-wide celebration open to the public. The
following morning, WilliamSimmons, Professor of
Anthropology, led a curators tour of the newexhibit.
In further celebration of Browns sesquicentennial,
the Haffenreffer MuseumStudent Group hosted
a scavenger hunt of Brown Universitys Signs and
Symbols for the Brown community, coordinated by
Student Group members Abby Muller and Laura
Berman, and we hosted a talk, Inventing Tradition,
by Jane Lancaster (Brown University) on the origins
of some of Browns traditions, the invention of
tradition, and howtraditions create community.
In Stealing the Past: Collectors and Museums of
the 21st Century, Richard M. Leventhal (University
of Pennsylvania) discussed controversial aspects
of museumand private collecting practices that lead
to the looting of archaeological sites. He called for
museums to set up global systems for long-term
loans rather than using covert methods to acquire
objects of international cultural heritage.
Sergei Kan (Dartmouth College) was 2014s Shepard
Krech III Lecturer and spoke of An Old Art Formfor
NewOccasions: Tlingit TotemPoles at the Dawn of
the NewMillennium. Dr. Kan shared many decades
of work with Tlingit families in Southeast Alaska,
discussing howmodern carvers have re-interpreted
the traditional totempole to honor community
members and as symbols of healing.
For the Barbara A. and Edward G. Hail Lecture,
artist Mateo Romero spoke about his work as a
contemporary Pueblo painter whose work draws
on family connections at Cochiti Pueblo and his
experiences among the Rio Grande pueblos. His
wife, Melissa Talachy, a ceramic artist, gave a
demonstration and workshop for student members
of Native Americans at Brown.
This spring we also collaborated with student
volunteers fromBrown Green Events. You may have
seen the volunteers at our receptions dutifully
helping you sort your trash, recyclables, and
compost. We earned a Gold Event Certificate for
the In Deo Speramus exhibit opening reception
by diverting 99.6% of our waste from the landfill
and a Silver Event Certificate for Stealing the
Pasts reception.
Mateo Romero shares insights
on his work with the audience
attending the annual Barbara A.
and Edward G. Hail Lecture.
Richard M. Leventhal (University of Pennsylvania)
chats with Museumguests at a reception in Manning Hall
following his talk, Stealing the Past.
Spring 2014
We finished our fifth year of the Think Like an
Archaeologist programin 2014, partnering with the
Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient
World, the RISD Museumof Art, Providence Public
Schools, and Nathan Bishop Middle School. This
year, we also worked with teachers at Nathanael
Greene and Roger Williams Middle Schools. To date,
we have worked with seven teachers/librarians and
more than 1,700 students, including nearly 475
students this year. Think Like an Archaeologist
includes four classroomsessions and one off-site
focal session at the Haffenreffer Museumof Anthro-
pology and the RISD Museumof Art that introduce
sixth grade social studies students to the processes
of archaeology from recording a survey to
understanding stratigraphy, recording, mapping, and
interpreting an excavation site, and analyzing its
artifacts. Faculty, staff, and graduate students from
Brown and RISD lead each hands-on session.
The programenhances the social studies curriculum
by helping students understand howresearchers
learn about the past and develop critical, integrative
thinking skills. We encourage students to practice
writing, collaborative problemsolving, group work,
and public speaking, while introducing themto key
archaeological concepts such as stratigraphy,
mapping, and dating. Through these approaches,
we help students learn to synthesize different
sources of interdisciplinary information, at different
scales, and provide opportunities for students
to work with real archaeologists, anthropologists,
and museum educators. Teacher partners help
ensure that the lessons fulfill state and Common
Core standards.
Rachel Shipps and Molly Kerker, our education
interns and students in Browns Public Humanities
program, worked with me on this project during
the academic year, along with our partners from
the RISD museumand the Joukowsky Institute. Our
teams success was shared at The Massachusetts
Archaeological Education Consortiums (MAECON)
first workshop last summer and I presented
a team-authored paper, Museum Education and
Archaeology: Using Objects and Methodology to
Teach 21st-century Skills in Middle School at the
Society for American Archaeologys annual meeting
this April. The papers co-authors are Mariani
Lefas-Tetenes (RISD Museum), Sarah Sharpe
(Joukowsky Institute), and Christopher Audette
(Nathan Bishop Middle School).
Thinking Like
an Archaeologist
Geralyn Ducady
Curator for Programs
and Education
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Exhibiting Animals with the Brown/Fox Point
Early Childhood Education Center
We are in our second full year of collabo-
rations with the principal and teachers
at the Brown/Fox Point Early Childhood
Education Center, Inc. Piloted in the
spring of 2012 by Public Humanities
student Alexandra Goodman with the
Centers four-year-olds, the program
has expanded to include three-year-olds
as well. Throughout the year, education
intern Rachel Shipps and I visited
each classroom three to four times,
the four-year-olds have come to the
museumtwice, while the three-year-
olds are gearing up for their first visit
this spring. Students learn about object
handling, howto describe objects, and
proper museumbehavior. For the second
year, the four-year-olds are working
with the Museums staff to put together
an exhibit with carefully selected objects
fromthe Haffenreffers collections.
This years exhibit, Animal Faces and
Figures will be installed in Providences
Rochambeau Library.
Jennifer Stampe
Postdoctoral Fellow
in MuseumAnthropology
I ama cultural anthropologist in my second year
as a Postdoctoral Fellowin MuseumAnthropology
at Brown and the Haffenreffer. I have previously
taught Museum Studies at New York University
and Anthropology at the University of Minnesota,
where I earned my PhD.
My teaching and research interests center on the
cultural politics of indigeneity, focusing on Native
American self-representation and sovereignty. I
have conducted ethnographic fieldwork in residence
at the Mille Lacs Ojibwe Reservation in Minnesota.
FocusingontheMilleLacs IndianMuseumandTrading
Post State Historic Site, I examine the priorities and
experiences of Indigenous peoples in representing
themselves as well as the responses of non-Native
people to new, unexpected, representations. I have
published articles fromthis research in the journals
Tourist Studies and Settler Colonial Studies, and
amworking on a book tentatively entitled You Will
Learn about Our Past: Representing Ojibwe Culture
in the Treaty Rights Era.
At the Haffenreffer, I coordinate our newFaculty
Fellows Programand teach Anthropology in/of the
Museum[ANTH1901], a course that develops an
anthropological approach to anthropology museums,
understanding themas social spheres in their own
right. The course introduces students to object,
visitor, and archival research in museums, using
the Haffenreffers collections and facilities. Last fall,
I curated an exhibit of Ojibwe and other Woodlands
Indian material to support the 2013-2014 Big Read
in Rhode Island sponsored by the Tomaquag
Museum. Most recently, I assisted Bill Simmons
with his work on In Deo Speramus: The Symbols
and Ceremonies of Brown University.
Sean Gantt
Postdoctoral Fellow
in Native American Studies
I joined the Haffenreffer Museumthis year as the
Museums Postdoctoral Fellowin Native American
Studies. In the course of the year I have strengthened
my engagement with national and international
Native American and Indigenous scholarship by
actively participating and presenting my research
through the Native American and Indigenous Studies
Association (NAISA), the Society for Applied
Anthropology (SfAA), and Association of Indigenous
Anthropologists (AIA) section within the American
Anthropological Association (AAA). I taught
Introduction to American Indian Studies (ETHN1890),
a cross-listed course in Ethnic Studies and Anthro-
pology during the spring semester. I have also been
actively involved in developing the Native American
and Indigenous Studies at Brown (NAISAB) interdis-
ciplinary working group by helping to put on its
lecture series, organize the Spring ThawPowwow,
and present my research at Brown and Roger
Williams University.
I amexpanding my involvement in academia while
maintaining my relationships in Mississippi and with
Native American students and faculty at both the
University of NewMexico and Brown University. I am
strongly invested in working with undergraduate
Native American students and student organizations,
and have been mentoring and advising student
members of Native Americans at Brown (NAB).
Much of my focus this past year has been working
with students and organizations interested in Native
American/Indigenous Studies here at Brown
University and serving as a liaison between these
groups and programs, the Anthropology Department,
and the Haffenreffer Museum. I have also partici-
pated in the Haffenreffers events and contributed
to the In Deo Speramus: The Symbols and
Ceremonies of Brown University exhibit through
digital video editing.
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This year the Haffenreffer Museuminaugurated a
Faculty Fellows Programto encourage tenure-track
faculty at Brown University to develop courses or
course components using the museums collections
and facilities. The programformalizes and expands
the Haffenreffers longstanding commitment to
working with faculty and others interested in teaching
with museumobjects by granting a stipend to
support Fellows research and course development.
At the same time, it promotes object-based teaching
across the University by reaching out to faculty
who may not yet have thought of using museum
collections in their teaching.
This year, after an open campus-wide call for
proposals, we selected six faculty members: Elizabeth
Hoover fromAmerican Studies; Paja Faudree,
Stephen Houston, and AndrewScherer fromAnthro-
pology; Ariella Azoulay fromModern Culture and
Media; and Peter van Dommelen fromAnthropology
and the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and
the Ancient World. They used objects and images
fromour collections to teach about issues as diverse
as human-environment interactions, the ways
language and material culture operate as complex
symbol systems, methods in anthropological
archaeology, the material quality of colonial and
imperial relations, and the circulation of images
and idioms of revolution and reform.
Over the year, Haffenreffer staff members introduced
Fellows to the museums resources and assisted
themin identifying appropriate objects fromthe
collection, finding useful research materials, and
developing object-based pedagogies. Course projects
included sessions in CultureLab and classrooms
around campus examining objects and archives,
assignments fromresearch papers to exhibit
proposals, and innovative student projects including,
in one case, making a reproduction of a headhunters
axe in the Haffenreffers collection in order to under-
stand howmaterials inspire human innovation.
The Faculty Fellows found the use of museum
objects to be extremely helpful in their educational
objectives. Peter van Dommelen stated that Without
the rich variety of the Haffenreffers collections,
my freshman seminar (Postcolonial Matters: Material
Culture between Colonialismand Globalization -
ANTH0066) would have been much more abstract.
That would have been a shame. Studying material
culture is by nature hands-on: having real objects
at hand is crucial. Paja Faudree explained that,
The Faculty Fellows Programmade an enormous
difference to me and my students this term. It
helped me make clear to the students, using new
materials and newapproaches, some of the funda-
mental insights of the course (Sounds and Symbols
- ANTH0800). First, that the ways we talk about things,
and the ways we use language, have numerous
material effects and manifestations. And second,
that anthropologys central ideas about language
can easily be applied to other semiotic systems,
including those embedded in material objects. In
short, the Faculty Fellows Programhelped me
transformthe course and push it in rewarding and
innovative directions.
We encourage faculty fromall disciplines to
consider adding a material culture component to
their teaching. Contact the museumto learn more.
Students examine African objects of communication
fromthe Museums collections with curator Thierry Gentis (left)
and Paja Faudree (right) in her class, Sounds and Symbols.
The Haffenreffer MuseumWelcomes
its First Faculty Fellows
Jennifer Stampe
Postdoctoral Fellowin MuseumStudies
The Haffenreffer Museums two Black Forest bears,
recalling Brown Universitys mascot, stand before
the universitys iconic Van Wickle Gates at the entrance
to In Deo Speramus: The Symbols and Ceremonies
of Brown University.
Symbolizing Brown:
In Deo Speramus Kicks Off
Brown Universitys Sesquicentennial
WilliamSimmons
Professor of Anthropology
Symbols underpin all human social
and cultural life. They can be objects,
words, or social practices that communi-
cate shared meanings and ideas. They
create a sense of solidarity and inspire
identification with something beyond
the self, distinguish groups fromone
another, and orient action. They encode
precedents and principles that serve
as guidelines for initiating, resisting,
and incorporating change.
While symbols may seemto be stable and eternal
expressions of enduring truths, they are surprisingly
dynamic and easily adapted to newmeanings and
uses. Brown Universitys symbols and ceremonies
have changed since its founding 250 years ago, yet
they provide a unifying sense of purpose, enshrining
a version of the Universitys past that burnishes
even its newest traditions and serves to guides us
in imagining the future.
On the occasion of the Universitys 250th anniversary,
we assembled Browns central symbols for our
exhibit In Deo Speramus: The Symbols and Cere-
monies of Brown, which opened in Manning Hall
on Friday, March 7, 2014 as the first public event
in Browns 250th Anniversary celebration. In this
exhibit, we integrated objects, images, and actions
that illustrate three dimensions of Brown Universitys
symbolic life the material icons of Browns long
history, Browns unique sense of place, and the
rejuvenating purpose of its academic processions.
Browns key symbol the design on the Corporations
seal has been through three transformations as
the university, itself, evolved. The first, of 1764, bore
the profiles of Englands King George III and Queen
Charlotte of England and was replaced after the
American Revolution with one that depicted a temple
of learning inscribed with the names of the seven
liberal arts. Todays In Deo Speramus seal with its
radiant sun replaced the second when the College
of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations changed
its name to Brown University. Other key symbols
Brown Universitys president, Christina Paxson,
opens In Deo Speramus, on March 5, 2014,
for Browns 250th anniversary.
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include logos and coats of arms, our bear mascot,
the Alma Mater, the Presidents and Chancellors
chains of office and academic gowns, and Browns
ceremonial mace. All of these are assembled in
In Deo Speramus, with the Haffenreffer Museums
hand carved Black Forest bears welcoming
visitors to the exhibit.
Colleges and universities, through their architecture
and their placements, are among the most symbolic
sites in our culture. Browns founders selected
for its location an eight-acre tract that already had
strong communal, theological, and ethical meanings
that seeped into the college they planted and that
exists today. Through maps, interactive displays, and
a student-generated scavenger hunt for Browns
symbols, we examine some of the continuities of past
and present that give meaning to Browns location.
Browns most symbolic gatherings are occasions on
which the universitys dispersed community gathers
to renewfriendships, display its symbols, and, at
commencement, invest graduates with their personal
imprint of the seal on their diplomas. Through film
footage, maps, and audio components we encourage
visitors to consider howsinging the alma mater,
performing in contemporary a cappella groups, and
marching in a traditional order strengthens and
renews Brown itself through bonds forged between
symbols, place, and the living community.
Jennifer Stampe, Postdoctoral Fellowin Museum
Studies, provided extraordinary guidance to the project
fromthe beginning. She and Nathan Arndt, HMA
Assistant Curator, transformed the academic plan
into an exhibit true to the tone that I hoped it could
convey. Our undergraduate research apprentice,
Emma Funk, was truly a gift to the project. Jennifer
Betts, University Archivist, went the extra mile time
after time, as did her staff. Kirsten Hammerstrom
and J.D. Kay generously helped with materials from
the Rhode Island Historical Societys collections, as
did Kate Wells and Jordan Goffin with the Providence
Public Library. Martha and Artemis
Joukowsky, Catherine Pincince,
Rob Emlen, Mitchell Sibley,
Tobias Lederberg, Russell Carey,
Janet Cooper-Nelson, Mike Cohea,
Steve Maiorisi, Jo-Ann Conklin,
Michael Thorp, and Amalia Davis
all contributed valuable expertise.
Clockwise, fromtop: Brown Universitys
presidential gown and chain of office;
the top of Brown's ceremonial mace;
and the auditory artifacts corner
of In Deo Speramus, where sounds from
Brown's ceremonies, past and present,
can be enjoyed.
Teaching with the Museum, a newexhibit in our
satellite space at the Stephen Roberts 62 Campus
Center showcases the Haffenreffer Museums new
Faculty Fellows programand our commitment to
object-based teaching. It also aims to inspire faculty
members and others to consider using museum
objects in their teaching.
There is an increasing appreciation in the academy
for the power and efficacy of object-based teaching.
Teaching with objects makes abstract concepts
material in ways that engage the senses. It provides
hands-on experience and a formof knowledge that
students might not otherwise acquire. Objects also
inspire discussion, teamwork, and lateral thinking,
all of which are essential skills in higher education
and in the workplace.
The objects on display were used this year by Brown
faculty in their teaching. They include mukluks once
owned by Inupiat dancer and author Aknik (Paul)
Green of Kotzebue Sound, Alaska. Elizabeth Hoover
used these in her course Native American
Environmental Health Movements to emphasize the
inventiveness of indigenous peoples in relationship
to their environment, and the threat environmental
I curated a special exhibit Reading Love Medicine:
Beads, Bark, and Books fromOjibwe Country
in connection with the 2013-2014 Big
Read programin Rhode Island,
a year-long series of events
hosted by the Tomaquag
Indian Memorial Museum.
The programselected Louise
Erdrichs novel, Love
Medicine, a story of several
generations in two Ojibwe
families set in a fictional
North Dakota community.
We installed Reading Love
Medicine in a newlocation
for us, the Finn Roomof
Brown Universitys John D.
Rockefeller, Jr. Library,
where it was on display from
September 27 through
October 24, 2013.
Our exhibit juxtaposed objects, such as beaded
bandolier bags and birchbark baskets fromOjibwe
country, the Upper Great Lakes region of the US
and Canada, with relevant books, many authored
by Native American scholars. Ojibwe people (also
known as Chippewa and Anishinaabe) have long
shared this territory with other American Indian
groups, including the Dakota, Ho-Chunk, and
Potawatomi, and with Euro-American immigrants.
The exhibit included objects that addressed this
multi-ethnic landscape. In keeping with the themes
of Love Medicine, it examined stories that can be
told by following the ways people have used things
as gifts, commodities, and mementoes to forge
connections across generations of Ojibwe people,
among tribes in the Woodland regions of North
America, and between American Indian and non-
Indian communities.
With its focus on books and stories, the exhibit
provided an opportunity to collaborate not only with
the Tomaquag Museum but also with Browns
Rockefeller Library, whose Finn Roomdisplay space
gave us a forumfor addressing a newaudience.
The library contributed to the exhibit by displaying
books on Ojibwe culture and history from
its collection, and highlighting those by Native
American scholars.
The Big Read is a program of the National
Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Arts
Midwest. The 2013-2014 Big Read in Rhode Island
was hosted by the Tomaquag Indian Memorial
Museum, the states only Native-operated museum,
with support from Brown Universitys Haffenreffer
Museum of Anthropology, its Third World Center,
Native American and Indigenous Studies at Brown
(NAISAB), and Native Americans at Brown (NAB).
Cap-
tion
Reading Love Medicine: Beads, Bark,
and Books fromOjibwe Country
Jennifer Stampe
Post-Doctoral Fellowin MuseumStudies
Teaching with the Museum
10
continued on page 11
11
Exhibiting ALiving Collection: Images
of Power and Connection
Laura Berman (Brown 14) and
Kevin P. Smith, Deputy Director/Chief Curator
Images of Power: Rulership in the Grasslands of
Cameroon opened in the museums Manning Hall
gallery on November 15, 2013. The Haffenreffers
Student Group curated this exhibition under the
leadership of Laura Berman (Brown 14), with objects
drawn fromthe museums vast African collections.
Images of Power examines ways in which
Cameroonian Grasslands kings, or fons, have used
images and symbols of power drawn fromindige-
nous concepts of authority to legitimize their offices
and their rights to rule despite, and at times in
association with, potentially disrupting forces of
globalization and colonialism. By choosing objects
for this exhibition that were produced over the
course of the late 19th through early 21st century,
the exhibition challenges the notion of a divide
between the traditional and the contemporary,
querying instead the role of tradition within the
politics of contemporary life.
The theme of the exhibit solidified after conversa-
tions with a delegation of nobles and leaders from
Cameroons Bangwa (Lebialem) community in
America. The delegation visited the Haffenreffer in
the summer of 2013 to see the museums collection
of Bangwa masks collected by Robert Brain, an
anthropologist who worked in the Bangwa capital of
Fumban during the late 1960s. Mbe Tazi, the leader
of this group, remembered Brains visits fromthe
time he was a child and recognized several of the
masks in the museums collection as pieces carved
by his father. Their visit gave the group a new
perspective on the enduring political and personal
significance of these objects in Cameroonian society.
Through these conversations and their research,
the student groups exhibition also brings together
contemporary and traditional museumperspectives
on the voices that informvisitors understanding
of a living collection.
Teaching, continued frompage 10
contamination poses to the health of individuals,
communities, and places. For Peter van Dommelens
freshman seminar Postcolonial Matters, student
SamHill-Cristol, wrote a proposal for an exhibit
comparing Moro, Japanese, and Filipino weapons,
understood as tools of colonial domination,
appropriation, and resistance. Part of his proposal
Teaching, continued frompage 10
appears as an exhibit-within-this-exhibit. An Ogoni
spirit mask fromNigeria and a Baule linguists staff
finial fromGhana, which illustrate subtle intercon-
nections between abstract language and more
tangible material culture, were among the objects
that students studied during Paja Faudrees course
Sounds and Symbols.
12
Collaborating with the Haffenreffer Museum
contributed significantly to the success of Brown
Universitys first Mellon Sawyer Seminar, Animal
Magnetism: The Emotional Ecology of Animals
and Humans, and to my teaching at Brown.
For Animal Magnetism, an interdisciplinary project
organized by Browns Programin Early Cultures,
I curated, with anthropology graduate student Alyce
de Cartaret, two displays using objects fromthe
Haffenreffers collections to engage the theme
of human/animal interactions. Our first installation
contrasted archaeological objects frompre-Columbian
Peru, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic that
represented non-human animals more-or-less
representationally although with less directly
representational meanings with others, ethno-
graphic and archaeological, made expressly from
animal parts. This exhibition contributed to our
workshop, Menageries and the Giving and Costly
Pet. Our Graduate Fellows, Alyce de Carteret,
Michiel vanVeldhuizen, andCliveVella eachdiscussed
an object from the exhibit during one of the work-
shops receptions, exposing our guests to the
collection and adding a valuable material culture
element to our seminar.
This, and our second installation, which focused on
the theme of hybridity, also contributed significantly
to my teaching at Brown. I assigned each of the
students in my class, Animals in the Ancient City:
Interdependence in the Urban Environment, to look,
study, and describe their experience of understanding
one object fromthe first exhibit. Then, they were
asked to examine the second exhibit and brainstorm
the significance of the hybrid features of each object
and speculate on its meaning in its culture of origin.
During our most recent workshop, The Pushmi-
Pullyu of Consocial Life, the Animal Magnetism
seminar benefited fromyet another collaboration:
that between the Haffenreffer and Public Humanities
Jenks Society for Lost Museums. The Jenks Society
gave a very well received presentation at our
opening reception and, so, we benefited yet again
fromHaffenreffer collaborations!
Mutual Attractions:
Animal Magnetismand
MuseumCollections
Susan Curry
Postdoctoral Fellow, Joukowsky Institute
for Archaeology and the Ancient World
As Assistant Curator at the Haffenreffer Museum,
I have been looking for ways to introduce new
technologies and digital media into our exhibits
not only to give patrons improved experiences,
but also to maintain secure and stable conditions
for our collections.
This year I worked with a number of groups within
Brown to expand our use of digital technologies.
Our goal was to enhance the objects on display by
providing access to a larger selection of objects
through digital media. The introduction of Browns
Touch Art Gallery (TAG) database into the In Deo
Speramus exhibit was a key element in making this
possible. We added hundreds of photographs
and additional details into a database that can be
searched by those interacting with the exhibit.
As we move into phase two of the exhibit, we plan
on making this programavailable online.
We also partnered with Ken DeBlois at CIS to design
a customwebsite that would later become a digital
radio dial allowing an auditory history to be included
in the In Deo Speramus exhibit. While we have
included soundscapes before, this was the first time
that we have given museumvisitors the chance
to customize their experience.
Not all of the innovations made at the museumwere
visible to visitors, but they all played an important
role in moving us into the future. The use of LED
NewTricks
Nathan Arndt, Assistant Curator
NewTricks, contined on p. 16
Hybrid devils mask
by the artist Juan Horta,
of Michoacan, Mexico.
In 1680 the Pueblo Indian people of NewMexico and
Arizona successfully asserted their sovereignty in
the famous Pueblo Revolt and lived free of Spanish
rule for 12 years. The period immediately following
the revolt, however, was an especially turbulent time
in the northern Rio Grande region. It was character-
ized by multiple population movements involving
individuals, families, clans, and even whole villages
in response to the anticipated return of the Spaniards.
This high degree of mobility was facilitated by
an intricate social network grounded in kinship
relations and political alliances.
One of the most distinctive features of this period
is the shift in settlements frommission pueblos
located along the Rio Grande to mesa villages located
on high, defensible promontories. In the Keres,
Jemez, and Tewa districts, about ten newmesa
villages were established (Table 1). Many of these
were multi-ethnic, composed of groups of people
fromseveral different mission pueblos. Most were
inhabited during Diego de Vargass peaceable
reconquest in 1692 and they posed a real threat
to his authority. In 1694, Vargas mounted a major
campaign against themand with the help
of his Indian allies successfully subdued them,
one by one.
Since 1995, I have been working with Cochiti Pueblo
to research their mesatop village known as Hanat
Kotyiti (Cochiti above) located in the Santa Fe National
Forest. The central goals of our project are to iden-
tify the social processes surrounding the founding
and occupation of Hanat
Koytiti and to understand the
meaning and significance of
the village and mesa to the
Cochiti people today. The
project involved archaeologi-
cal survey and mapping,
an oral history project, and
an internship programme
for Cochiti youth.
My colleagues, Matthew
Liebmann(AssociateProfessor
at Harvard) and Joseph
Aguilar (fromSan Ildefonso
Pueblo and a doctoral
candidate at the University
of Pennsylvania), have
extended this research into the Jemez and Tewa
districts. Our research is revealing newinsights
into the cultural revitalization ideology of the Post
Revolt period. For example, Popay, one of the key
leaders of the revolt, instructed his followers that
if they would live in accordance with the laws of
their ancestors, they would have a bountiful harvest
and could erect their houses and enjoy abundant
healthandleisure. This cultural revitalizationdiscourse
was made material in the architectural layout of
some of the mesa villages.
We have discovered that three mesa villages- Hanat
Kotyiti, Patokwa, and Boletsakwa- were constructed
as double plaza pueblos. This architectural form
reproduces the communitys dual division social
structure that, among the Keres and Jemez people,
is expressed by the Turquoise and the Pumpkin
moieties. The villages may have even been built in
the image of the ancestral village known as White
House, the first village that people inhabited after
they emerged fromthe underworld.
We are currently attempting to identify the flows
of people that circulated between some of these
mesatop villages and the mission pueblos by means
of social network analysis. Our analysis is made
possible because of the Vargas journals that record
the movements of the Pueblo people and even
mention some individuals by name. It is also facili-
tated by means of the ceramics that Pueblo women
produced, used, and discarded at these villages.
Here historical archaeology can provide valuable
newinsights into this poorly understood period.
13
Post Revolt Mesa Villages
of the Northern Rio Grande
Robert W. Preucel, Director and Professor of Anthropology
Table 1.
Post Revolt Mesa Villages
of the Rio Grande Region
Hanat Kotyiti Keres District
Canjilon Keres District
Old San Felipe Keres District
Patokwa Jemez District
Astialakwa Jemez District
Boletsakwa Jemez District
Cerro Colorado Jemez District
Tunyo Tewa District
Embudo Tewa District
San Juan Mesa Tewa District
R
e
s
e
a
r
c
h
Weaving Islands:
Archaeological Textiles and Gender
in the North Atlantic, AD800-1800
Michle Hayeur Smith
MuseumResearch Associate
In July 2013, I received a three-year, $605,000,
researchgrant fromthe National Science Foundations
Arctic Social Sciences programto initiate a project
entitled Weaving Islands of Cloth: Gender, Textiles,
and Trade Across the North Atlantic fromthe Viking
Age to the Early Modern Period. This archaeological,
collections-based project will expand on the scope
of my previous NSF-funded, 3-year (2010-2013)
project, Rags to Riches An Archaeological Study
of Textiles and Gender in Iceland AD 874 -1800,
and my previous archaeological research on gender,
dress, and adornment in medieval Iceland.
In Rags to Riches, I analyzed archaeological textile
assemblages from31 Icelandic archaeological sites
that spanned 1,000 years and was able to generate
newinformation on the roles of men and women
in Icelandic society, changing approaches to textile
production through time, the role of Icelandic textiles
and women in international trade and Icelands
economy, creative approaches that Icelands women
developed as sustainable responses to climate change
during the Little Ice Age, and changes through time
in Icelandic dress. Critically, I found material evidence
in the formof increasingly standardized textile
production that women were pivotal in making
Icelands cloth currency during the medieval period.
Further, I was able to use these funds to obtain
radiocarbon dates on textile samples frommost
of these sites, enabling me to directly date critical
changes in textile production strategies and
provide much needed dating for many of the sites
I investigated.
Weaving Islands of Cloth will allowme to take the
knowledge I gained and the lessons I learned from
Rags to Riches to the next logical level: a comparative,
millennium-scale examinationof textiles as evidence
for womens labor and roles in all of the colonies that
Norse settlers established across the North Atlantic
in the 9th century ADand that developed, over the
following centuries, into the modern nations of
Scotland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and Greenland.
This international collaborative project will integrate
comparative analyses of existing collections in six
national museums with a pilot project to assess the
potential for using isotopic and trace element analyses
to monitor howcloth moved in trade across this
region. Through these analyses, I hope to gain new
insights into the ways these island nations developed,
while exploring womens roles in creating the
foundations of international trade, developing national
identities through the transformation of cloth into
clothing, and adapting to climate change.
Both of these grants are providing newinsights into
North Atlantic archaeology and womens roles in the
development of northern societies and economies.
They are also expanding the range of the Haffenreffer
Museums international partnerships and collabora-
tions, with work underway in museums in, and with
colleagues from, Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden,
Germany, Scotland, the Faroes Islands, Greenland,
and Canada.
Icelands North Atlantic landscapes provided
perfect grazing for the sheep whose wool forms the basis
of Michle Hayeur Smiths current research. 14
15
In August 2013, I received funding fromthe National
Science Foundations Arctic Social Sciences Program
to excavate an endangered Viking Age site deep
inside western Icelands Surtshellir Cave. Surtshellir
(Surts Cave) formed inside lava that flowed at the
start of the 10th century over six newly settled Viking
Age farms, filled two upland valleys and covered
242 km
2
of grazing land.
For settlers just arriving fromScandinavia and the
British Isles, this first experience of volcanic activity
must have been terrifying. They named this largest
cave within the newly formed lava field for Surt, the
elemental being they believed was present at the
worlds creation and would eventually bring about its
destruction and the gods death. Over succeeding
centuries, Surtshellir became associated with stories
about chieftains seeking to placate Surt, outlaws
ravaging the surrounding region, acts of cruelty meted
out by chieftains on their rivals, ghosts and evil spirits.
Surtshellir may well have been the most dreaded
place in Iceland; but in 1750 two Icelandic naturalists
entered Surtshellir, dispelling these beliefs,
describing a roofless house and piles of bones deep
within the cave they believed was an outlaw
bands lair.
In 2001, colleagues fromthe National Museumof
Iceland and I documented this enclosure, its bone
pile, and a massive stone wall sealing the cave for
the first time, dating themto Icelands Viking Age
(ca. 870-1000 AD). In 2012, we returned with
Mehrdad Kiani (Brown 15) to document those
remains in greater detail. In doing so, we discovered
that the enclosures delicate floor deposits, long
assumed to be sterile, contained Viking Age artifacts
that were being actively damaged by tourists
exploring the cave.
Last summer, we excavated these floor deposits and
recovered an unexpectedly informative suite of Viking
Age artifacts that includes calibrated lead weights for
weighing silver, a large assemblage of glass beads
including several that were probably produced in the
Middle East, and fragments of orpiment an arsenic
ore fromthe Mediterranean used as pigment, poison,
and medicine. All of these are materials associated
with Viking Age chieftains rather than outlaws.
In addition, scores of jasper and flint fire-starter
fragments and 3-5 newareas where fragmented
bones of domestic animals had been piled or
cremated document intense, focused activities
undertaken over the course of a century in the total
darkness of this caves interior. However, we found
no areas with residues fromoccupation, undermining
the outlawoccupation hypothesis. My colleagues
and I are nowworking on this material to unravel
Surtshellirs subterranean secrets. Although we
have much to do, we now suspect that Surtshellir
was a sacrificial site where offerings were made,
quite possibly by Icelands Viking Age elites to placate
Surtur and forestall the end of the world.
Deputy director Kevin Smith stands
inside the Viking Age structure within
Surtshellir Cave.
Below: four lead scale weights
fromthe floor of the cave.
Photograph by var Brynjlfsson,
National Museumof Iceland.
Documenting a Den of Thieves
or the Temple of Doom?
Kevin P. Smith
Deputy Director and Chief Curator
16
In early 2011, I received funds fromthe National
Science Foundations Arctic Social Sciences program
to investigate the origins of northern Alaskas enig-
matic Old Whaling Culture, first documented in 1958
by WilliamSimmons (then a Brown undergraduate,
nowProfessor of Anthropology) and J. Louis Giddings
(the Haffenreffer Museums first director). Old
Whaling, perhaps the earliest arctic whale hunting
culture, is still known in Alaska froma single site
Giddings and Simmons initial discovery on Cape
Krusenstern and on the Siberian side by two possibly
related sites. Since its discovery, the Old Whaling
site and the origins of its occupants have been
scrutinized several times with ambiguous results.
It has been suggested, for example, both that the
Old Whalers came to Cape Krusenstern from
Siberia or that they were Indians from Alaskas
interior; that the Old Whaling site was a short term
encampment or that it has underlying layers
suggesting a longer occupation or the presence of
earlier residents; and that its different house types
represent summer and winter villages of a single
group or different occupations entirely.
My field research at the Old Whaling site sought
to investigate whether earlier occupations did exist
there and to assess whether they could indicate
historical connections between the Old Whalers
and other documented cultures in the Bering Strait
Region. To that end, we returned, with NSF funding,
to assess the sites stratigraphy through geophysical
surveys and test excavations. While that investigation
did not reveal evidence of preceding occupations,
we learned a great deal about the sites taphonomy
and the effects of contemporary climate change
in the region and on its archaeological resources.
In 2013, we pooled the remaining NSF funds with
money contributed fromthe Haffenreffer Museum
and fromMichele Hayeur Smiths Rags to Riches
grant to purchase a Bruker Tracer III-SX portable
X-ray fluorescence device that we are nowusing to
analyze the lithic assemblage fromthe site so that
we can assess and compare stone tool use and
curation across cultures. In particular, we are looking
for any similarities in rawmaterial procurement
and production strategies between the Old Whalers
and near-contemporaneous cultures in the region
that could help us to assess possible historical
relationships and provide clues to the Old Whaling
Cultures origins. This ongoing research has provided
training and employment for Brown University and
Plattsburgh State University undergraduate students.
Further studies will include both microscopic and
macroscopic analyses of the various artifacts from
the site curated at the Circumpolar Laboratory of
the Haffenreffer Museum.
Seeking the Origins
of the Old Whaling Culture
Christopher Wolff
MuseumResearch Associate/Assistant Professor
of Anthropology, SUNY-Plattsburgh
technology has given the museumgreater light
control while minimizing the risk of UV damage to
our collections. This technology has been in use
in the past, but we have recently begun an initiative
to change our exhibit and work spaces to these light
sources to provide better care for our collections.
While these changes seemsmall, they allowus
to bring the collections to a wider audience and will
create safer exhibits with the ability change regularly,
giving our visitors a newand shared experience
every time they walk through our doors.
NewTricks, contined fromp. 12
17
Seeking Old Whalers
Connor Hilton (Brown 15), Student Research Assistant
An Old KingdomEgyptian Relief
Revealed through RTI:
Jennifer Thum
Haffenreffer/Joukowsky Institute Proctor
X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) can be a powerful tool
for measuring the elemental profiles of geological,
archaeological, and ethnographic objects. At the
Haffenreffer Museum, I amcurrently assisting Kevin
Smith and Chris Wolff in analyzing scrapers, projec-
tile points, and knives fromthe Old Whaling Site in
Alaska, using the Museums newly acquired portable
XRF set-up. While many chert or chalcedony objects
look similar, XRF analysis allows us to differentiate
themat the elemental level. We are seeking linkages
between objects fromdifferent parts of Old Whaling
Site, comparisons with the types of stone that earlier
and later occupants of Cape Krusenstern used
for making tools, and similarities with rawmaterial
fromknown sources of chert, chalcedony, and obsid-
ian in Alaska. This will hopefully provide insights into
the mobility and origins of the Old Whalers and
their knowledge of the regions resources. Common
markers that we see include Barium, Strontium,
Zirconium, and Yttrium, which are not present in all
of the tools or in the same ratios. Comparing the
presence and relative intensities of elements such
as these will hopefully result in distinct groupings
of rawmaterial and, fromthese, insights into the
communities that used them.
I ama doctoral candidate studying Egyptology in the
Archaeology and Ancient World Programat the
Joukowsky Institute. This fall I held a proctorship at
the Haffenreffer Museum, and to my surprise found
that the museumhad in its collection a raised-relief
limestone block fromthe wall of a private tomb of
Egypts Old Kingdom, 5th or 6th Dynasty (ca. 2494-
2181 BCE), that had never been displayed due to its
poor condition.
In order to read the images and hieroglyphic
inscriptions on the block, I used a technique called
Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI). RTI uses
a series of photographs to create a composite digital
image of an object, enhanced with ideal lighting.
As part of this process, I ran a public demonstration
in CultureLab, letting visitors shine the light source
at the block fromdifferent angles.
We can nowread the inscriptions on the two regis-
ters on the block. The top shows six offering bearers
bringing goods in the direction of the burial. The
bottom, although only partially preserved, is clearly
a butchering scene, where the butchers talk in
colloquial speech: one says to the other, Give me
that! The other replies, I will do! This cartoon-
style captioning is typical of Old Kingdomprivate
tomb decoration, where scenes fromdaily life
ensured that the deceased would have provisions
in the afterlife.
The RTI software and equipment used for this
analysis are nowa part of the Museums analytical
toolkit, promising other insights to be gained from
its collections.
NewAcquisitions
Thierry Gentis
A sampling of newacquisitions (l. to r., top to bottom): Stone amulet, Taino, Dominican Republic, AD 1200-1500; Dog vessel, Colima, Mexico,
100 BC-AD 250; Strawberry basket, made by Carrie Hill, Mohawk; Stone vessel, Olmec, Xochipala, Mexico, 1500-900 BC; Canoe ornament,
Trobriand Islands, early 20th century; Stool, Duala, Cameroon, early 20th century; Ship cloth, Paminggir, Sumatra; Ivory seal-shaped toggle,
Alaskan Eskimo, 19th century; Canoe model, Tlingit, southeastern Alaska, late 19th century; Polychrome jar, Hopi, Polaca, Arizona, early
20th century; Harp, Fang, collected in Gabon in 1963-65.
Collections are the lifes blood of any museum. Their care,
examination, exhibition, investigation, and use underlie all
other aspects of a museums activities. The Haffenreffer
Museumseeks to acquire archaeological and ethnographic
objects that serve to illustrate and document human
cultures and societies worldwide; that enhance the educa-
tional, cultural, or research value of the collection; that
are sources of artistic inspiration; and that can be properly
stored, conserved, and preserved. The Museumwill not
knowingly acquire materials that have been illegally
excavated, nor will it support, inany way, markets inillegally
trafficked antiquities. We acquire objects only when we
have determined to the best of our ability that they have
been collected, exported, and imported in full compliance
with the laws and regulations of the country or countries
of origin, of the federal government of the United States,
and of the pertinent individual states within the
United States.
This year sawremarkable growth in the museums
collection with newobjects fromall parts of the globe
Greenland to NewGuinea, Nepal to Peru with
ethnographic objects, stunning images, archaeological
specimens, and contemporary art represented. Some
highlights of this years acquisitions include 3000-year old
Olmec figures and a stone bowl fromGuerrero, Mexico;
a 2000-year old stone figure also fromGuerrero; and a
collection of 31 superb Taino objects fromthe Dominican
Republic. These objects were vetted by the museums
Collection Committee as having been in the United States
prior to 1970, the year of UNESCOs Convention on the
Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import,
Export, and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property.
The museumwas the recipient of 50 objects fromWest
Africa donated through the generous continuing support
of WilliamC. Mithoefer and Renee-Paule Moyencourt. The
collection includes many examples of traditional furniture
including the impressive Bamileke chair fromCameroon
currently on viewin the exhibition Images of Power
in Manning hall. Mr. Michael B. Tuckers gift of 67 objects
fromGabon is an important addition froman area previ-
ously not well represented in the museums holdings from
Africa. Collected mostly fromFang and Punu peoples,
the objects were acquired as gifts and purchases in Gabon
by Michael Tucker when he was working as a Peace
Corps volunteer from1963 to 1965.
19
This year we decided, with generous support from
the Office of the Provost, to convert our collections
management systemfromARGUS, our current
Database, to Zetcoms MuseumPlus system. ARGUS
has served the museumvery well over the years
and with it we have been able to catalog more than
90 percent of our collections into its database. The
last several years have also seen the incorporation
of thousands of images, which nowcover nearly 50
percent of our collections. This work, done by our
staff and by students training with us as interns, has
allowed faculty and students visiting the museum
to acquire information and printouts to aid in their
research. It also helps us in managing loans of our
objects to other institutions for research or exhibits,
such as those this year to the Muse du Quai Branly
(Paris), the Autry National Center (Los Angeles),
and the NewBedford Whaling Museum(New
Bedford, MA).
MuseumPlus will allow us to take this work to the
next level and offer all of our collections online for
the first time. When the conversion and online
systems are complete, anyone will be able to access
the Haffenreffers collections, download photo-
graphs, request loans, or create object lists from
our collections. Our goal is to open up our collec-
tions to the general public and to give students,
faculty, and staff at Brown a clearer understanding
of what we curate and can offer them.
Our shift to MuseumPlus came after years of
research and consideration of databases currently
available, and visits to other local institutions,
including RISD, to assess and experiment with their
databases to gain an understanding of what would
work best for the HMA collections. We are impressed
with MuseumPluss capabilities and flexibility. For
the first time, we will be able to include data from
our archives and track our collections in ways that
were never possible before. We will start this project
in the next fewmonths and we plan to have it
complete by the end of the year.
Managing the Collections
Nathan Arndt
Assistant Curator
The Haffenreffer Museumregularly loans objects
for exhibitions around the world: on the left, Lakota artist
Claire Ann Packards Waterbirds star quilt, on loan
to Paris's Muse du Quai Branly; on the right, a Greenlandic
Inuit childs outfit, on loan to the NewBedford
Whaling Museum.
C
o
l
l
e
c
t
i
o
n
s
Over the past year, we have been working to identify
interesting and historically significant archival
collections held by the museum. These archival
collections represent much of our vast
collections history and include a wide
variety of documents, images, notes,
and occasionally films or record-
ings donated by collectors and
researchers that complement and
contextualize our ethnographic
and archaeological collections.
Working together, we have begun to
select archival collections, both large and
small, that are ideal candidates for which to
build finding aids. Finding aids are the fundamental
organizational tool that archivists use to inventory,
organize, and describe collections in a standardized
format that allows museums to document their
archival collections and make them available to
researchers in the outside world. This year the
Haffenreffer Museumjoined RIAMCO, the Rhode
Island Archival and Manuscript Collections Online,
a virtual consortiumof cultural repositories
throughout the state that will assist us in highlighting
our extensive but poorly known archival collections.
Currently, two of the museums archival collections
representing past Rhode Island residents are
published on RIAMCO: one supports the collections
built by Emma ShawColcleugh, a late 19th and early
20th century journalist and collector; the other
represents the work of Gino E. Conti, an artist whose
collections from the American Southwest are
curated at the Haffenreffer. Later this spring, we will
make the archival collection of the museums first
director and first anthropology professor at Brown,
J. Louis Giddings, accessible through RIAMCO.
To learn more about RIAMCO, and the museums
Finding Aids go to http://www.riamco.org.
20
Haffenreffer Museumbecomes
Participating Institution of Rhode Island Manuscript
and Archival Collections Online. (RIAMCO)
Anthony Belz, Guard/Greeter and
Rip Gerry, Photographic Archivist/Exhibition Preparator
Tlingit feast
bowl from
Sitka, Alaska,
collected by
Emma Shaw
Colcleugh,
whose archives
were listed
with RIAMCO.
Working with Things
Arianna Riva (Brown 16),
Student Collections Intern
Working at the Haffenreffer Collections Center has
been one of the great joys of my time at Brown.
Not only have I been introduced to a broad range of
tasks and procedures within the museumsphere,
but Ive been encouraged to pursue projects relating
to my own interests. One of the most satisfying
moments of my work here was completing the initial
survey, photography, data entry, and organization
of the museums extensive pottery collection from
the American Southwest. Now, when I come across
mentions of Zuni or Cochiti pottery, or images of
these pots, I cant help but smile: the hands-on work
I did with these pieces has made my sense of connec-
tion to themmuch stronger. In addition, following
through with the entire project and being able
to see the pots shelved and lined up was extremely
satisfying and was a wonderful way of visualizing
the accomplishments we had achieved. I have also
undertaken projects as varied as archival slide
scanning to cleaning, cataloguing and photographing
collections of Indonesian and South American
textiles. As I continue to work at the Museum, I hope
to involve myself in its Student Group in order to
engage with my peers more about aspects of the
museums work.
Friends Board
Jeffrey Schreck
President
Susan Hardy
Vice President
Diana Johnson
Treasurer
Elizabeth Johnson
Secretary
Susan Alcock
Peter Allen
Edith Andrews
Laura Berman
Gina Borromeo
Kristine M. Bovy
David Haffenreffer
Rudolf F. Haffenreffer
Barbara Hail
Sylvia Moubayed
Robert W. Preucel
ex Officio
Mark Schlissel
Provost
Daniel Smith
Chair, Department
of Anthropology
Kevin Smith
ex Officio
MuseumStaff
Robert W. Preucel
Director and Professor
of Anthropology
Douglas Anderson
Director, Circumpolar
Laboratory and Professor
of Anthropology
Kevin P. Smith
Deputy Director/Chief
Curator and Editor,
Contexts
Curators
Barbara A. Hail
Curator Emerita
Thierry Gentis
Curator
Nathan Arndt
Assistant Curator
Rip Gerry
Exhibits Preparator/
Photographic Archivist
Carol Dutton
Office Manager
Anthony M. Belz
MuseumGuard/Greeter
Programs and Education
Geralyn Ducady
Curator for Programs
and Education
Kathy Silvia
Outreach Coordinator
Grace Cleary
Education ProgramIntern
Molly Kerker
Outreach Intern
Rachel Shipps
Outreach Intern
Postdoctoral Fellows
Sean Gantt
Postdoctoral Fellow
in Native American Studies
Jennifer Stampe
Postdoctoral Fellow
in MuseumStudies
MuseumResearch
Associates
Michle Hayeur Smith
MuseumResearch Associate
in Circumpolar Studies
Christopher Wolff
MuseumResearch Associate
in Circumpolar Studies
Student Assistants
Pinar Durgun
Proctor
Jennifer Thum
Proctor
Connor Hilton
Student Research Assistant
Arianna Riva
Student Collections Intern
Mge Durusu
CultureLab Assistant
Ximena Carranza Risco
Photographer
Assistant guard/greeters
Morayo Akande
Laura Berman
Aisha Cannon
Christina DiFabio
Aida Haile-Mariam
Nora Hakizmana
Connor Hilton
Caroline Seyler
Destin Sisemore
Sara Tropp
Daphne Xu
On the back cover (clockwise fromupper left): A detail of the Chain of Office worn by Brown Universitys President, on exhibit for Browns 250th anniversary;
a Maya woman in the marketplace, froman ethnographic image collection gifted to the Museum; a 19th century Ojibwe vest on exhibit for The Big Read;
contemporary ledger art by Lakota artist Quinton Maldonado and beaded moccasins made by Ojibwe artist Cheryl Minnema, both purchased by the Museum.
Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology
Brown University
Box 1965
Providence, RI 02912
brown.edu/Haffenreffer
Non-Profit
Organization
US Postage
PAID
Permit No. 202
Providence, RI