Campus, News

CSULB celebrates World Anthropology Day

The Anthropology Department organized an interactive event in a cross-disciplinary celebration of the human experience to commemorate World Anthropology Day Thursday.

“The official theme of today’s event is a celebration of anthropology as a discipline,”  Scott Wilson, an anthropology professor, said. “Another way of looking at the theme is diversity. Human diversity is what we look at the most in the current climate. Diversity is under attack from a lot of different angles right now, so it’s perfect time we are doing this.”

Anthropology is the study of human societies and cultures as well as their development.

The event included student research posters, study abroad and internship resource tables, virtual reality, student-led games, a keynote speaker session, ethnographic film screenings and networking between students and faculty.

Chair of the Anthropology Professors from the American Indian Studies, American Sign Language in Deaf Cultures, International Studies and Human Development departments all collaborated on the event and brought their students together, Karen Quintiliani, chair of the Anthropology Department, said.

“It’s an exceptional event because it’s really beautiful to see people from all disciplines walking through and being introduced to anthropology, learning about the research and getting to participate,” undergraduate anthropology student Tian Walker said.

Many students volunteered for their respective associations at interactive booths or information tables.

There was a soundbooth station called “World Views” that was used to demonstrate how to make small podcasts. Students made three-minute recordings where they could share their stories, goals for the new year and political rants and heard their voices played back.

Professor of anthropology Ronald Loewe, who wrote the book, “Of Sacred Lands and Strip Malls: The Battle for Puvungna,” was the keynote speaker at the event.

“I’ve done research recently on the sacred site on the campus. ‘Puvungna’ looks at the struggle between the Tongva Gabrielino people and the university administration in the 1990s about the front 22 acres of the campus – where the university wanted to build a west village center … on what’s considered to be scared Gabrieliono land,” Loewe said.

Students of cultural anthropology showed aspects of the study of human sustenance when they demonstrated how to make “seed bombs” with compost. The students used compost, clay and seeds to create a tiny environment for the seeds to grow.

Student-led games included the “hunting and gathering,” test for the students, where many got the right answers. Part of the study of anthropology is seeing how different civilizations have collected food.

“Anthropology is concerned with everything that has to do with humanity, and we also are concerned with the cross-cultural versions of everything that has to do with humanity,” said Denise Cucurny, a professor of Anthropology.

The event showcased the students’ work and showed screenings of ethnographic films that have been in film festivals around the world, according to Steven Rousso-Schindler, an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology.

At one of the tables, Caitlin Fouratt, an assistant professor of international studies, talked to students about a summer study abroad class in Costa Rica that she is running. Attendees also learned about new minors available to them, like Global Migration Studies.

“World Anthropology Day raises not only awareness about the multiculturalism of this country, but also the global nature of cultures and their diversity,” Namika Raby, a professor of anthropology, said. “I came from South Asia, which has a population over a billion people, and it’s incredibly diverse and complex. This event also raises awareness of cultural diversity and the resilience of the culture.”

One Comment

  1. Avatar
    Ravi Wadhwani

    Excellent!

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published.

Daily 49er newsletter

Instagram