Department of Sociology and Anthropology

George Mason researcher debunks popular narrative about ancient human ancestors

Colleen Rich — Mon, 29 Jul 2024 19:46:53 +0000

George Mason researcher debunks popular narrative about ancient human ancestors Colleen Rich Mon, 07/29/2024 - 15:46

Did Homo naledi bury their dead? A Netflix documentary says yes, but new research published by ��AV anthropology professor Kimberly Foecke says no.

Kimberly Foecke. Photo provided

In 2023, researchers working in South Africa on new finds regarding the hominin Homo naledi reported what they claimed to be evidence for deliberate burials by the small-brained species. They conducted extensive media engagement presenting this claim to the public, including a popular Netflix documentary Unknown: Cave of Bones that further amplified the claims. But Foecke, an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, and fellow researchers have found that the research did not stand up to scientific scrutiny.

Foecke’s paper “No Sedimentological Evidence for Deliberate Burial by Homo naledi—A Case Study Highlighting the Need for Best Practices in Geochemical Studies Within Archaeology and Paleoanthropology,” which is open access in the journal PaleoAnthropology, describes methodological missteps leading to the original conclusion and shows that there is in fact no evidence that Homo naledi buried their dead.

Foecke set out to provide a scientific critique of a specific body of research and to illustrate the need for adherence to methodological and reporting best practices when utilizing geochemical sedimentological techniques. She explained that she attempted to replicate the findings in the original research, which sought to use differences in soil chemistry to identify a burial pit, but she discovered a vast web of errors.

From poor research design through misapplication of simple statistics, the problems continued to multiply. Foecke and her team, which included Alain Queffelec of the Université Bordeaux in France and Robyn Pickering at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, re-analyzed the original data and discovered that none of the soil differences indicating a burial were actually present in the data.

From there, Foecke decided that a broader paper was needed. In addition to correcting the narrative about Homo naledi, she wanted to provide a resource outlining for researchers the correct procedure for using these types of methods to analyze archaeological sites.

“I hope that this work is able to instill some skepticism in the public when it comes to archaeological research in the public eye,” said Foecke, who is also an archaeometry specialist in the Human Origins Program at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. “We see so often flashy shows with charismatic archaeologists presenting huge claims about the past, but we must hold scientists who communicate with the public accountable to the science itself and ensure that we as a field are doing good work.”

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Outstanding Graduating Student: Amanda Magpiong

rstaffo2 — Fri, 17 May 2024 16:59:59 +0000

Outstanding Graduating Student: Amanda Magpiong rstaffo2 Fri, 05/17/2024 - 12:59

Each semester, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at ��AV recognizes some of their most outstanding graduating students. Honors College Spring 2024 graduate Amanda Magpiong was nominated by the Department of Sociology and Anthropology for her academic achievements and contributions.

What was the most impactful class you took in your major?

Intro to Biological Anthropology with Dr. Rick Smith, it changed my life. Dr. Smith has been the best mentor and been in my corner since that class. He has coached me through research, 2 conference presentations, and helped me land internships and jobs even outside of anthropology.

What activities were you involved in during your time at Mason that impacted you?

Clubs: President of Patriot PIRG helped launch Generation Action, President of Club Softball. Research: anthropology research for two years, with funding help through OSCAR. Internships: Africa Unite (Cape Town, South Africa, through Mason living abroad for two months) and with a Congressman from Philadelphia on Capitol Hill. They have all been amazing and my time abroad was life changing.

What is your most memorable “Mason moment?”

The feeling of rebuilding a group of girls into a real softball team watching them all become friends and play as one.

As you are reflecting on your time at Mason, what is one piece of advice you would give a student who is just starting off on their Mason journey?

Take EVERY opportunity that you can, you won't regret it.

What is your next step after graduation? What are your future plans?

Possibly to work in politics in D.C. or a PhD program.

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A ghostly education: Living and learning folklore through Mason's legends and lore

Sarah Holland — Thu, 26 Oct 2023 19:38:44 +0000

A ghostly education: Living and learning folklore through Mason's legends and lore Sarah Holland Thu, 10/26/2023 - 15:38

It was a dark and stormy night. Students gathered beneath the golden streetlamps of Mason Pond, the ground littered with leaves.

Students decorate the George Mason IV statue. Photo by Sarah Holland/Office of University Branding.

"They say the ghost of the dead will beckon you into the pond," says the storyteller, as the crowd "oohs" in excitement.

The hosts are members of Mason’s Folklore Roundtable—a student-run organization for folklore students and enthusiasts--and this was their second annual Campus Legends and Lore Walking Tour on Halloween Eve.

"I love ghost tours, because they let you explore an area and get to know its history," said Sarah Thompson, history major and Honors College student. Thompson was one of 40 participants for this year's event. "I'm excited to get to do this one at Mason."

The tour started at The Hub and took a winding route around the Fairfax Campus to hear about local and Mason-specific folklore. The bridge through the forests between The Hub and the Aquatic and Fitness Center leads to a discussion of the infamous Bunnyman Bridge of Clifton, Virginia; a visit to the Johnson Center parlays into the telling of the folktale of Old Man Johnson—a ghost said to follow Mason’s rowing team.

As the tour highlighted, Mason boasts multiple traditions and folk beliefs, such as annual bench painting and the supposed haunting of Mason Pond. The statue of George Mason IV has its own veritable library of folkloric associations: rubbing the toes for good luck, taking a photo with George at graduation, or avoiding stepping on the plaque for fear of not graduating.

At one of the most diverse public universities in the nation, these traditions help bring the campus community together with a shared sense of Mason identity.

“Part of folklore’s function is to connect people to space and place,” said Ang DiNardo, the current president of the Folklore Roundtable and a graduate student in the folklore program. “Mason folklore allows students to feel connected to the campus and part of the community. You see someone rubbing George’s toe for luck, and it makes you feel connected to that person, even if you don’t know them.”

The tour is also a unique opportunity for Mason students to learn about folklore as an academic discipline. Along the tour, folklore students explain basic terminology used in the field and discuss theories of folklore development and its impact. Tour guests walk away knowing the difference between a “legend” and a “myth,” while also being a little more wary of nighttime excursions to Mason Pond for fear of vengeful spirits.

Mason's Department of English in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences offers the only master’s level folklore program in the Mid-Atlantic region and is home to the Journal of American Folklore, the flagship journal of the American Folklore Society.

"Everyone has folklore, even if they don't know that's what it is," said Alice Christensen, anthropology major and member of Folklore Roundtable's leadership team. "It's valuable to have a name to put to what you do in your daily life."

Partway through the 2023 tour, participants got to participate in one of Mason’s many traditions: decorating George himself on Wilkins Plaza. To gather together and engage with folklore is to keep the traditions and practices alive, and to help the community thrive. “It’s folklore in action,” said DiNardo.

George, draped in a ghostly sheet and decorated with the tales and traditions described on the tour, will hopefully be the only ghost we see this Halloween.

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Mason researcher looks at the new Chinese way of death

Colleen Rich — Wed, 21 Jun 2023 14:49:33 +0000

Mason researcher looks at the new Chinese way of death Colleen Rich Wed, 06/21/2023 - 10:49

In her new book, Governing Death, Making Persons: The New Chinese Way of Death (Cornell University Press, January 2023), Mason anthropology professor Huwy-min Lucia Liu writes about how economic reforms and changes in the management of death in China have affected the governance of persons.

Huwy-min Lucia Liu. Photo by Office of University Branding

What inspired you to write this book?

Before I started my fieldwork, I had assumed that I would be going to witness the rise of new death rituals. Ones that emphasized individuality. Almost paradoxically, I had also assumed that I would see the re-emergence of religious funerals. I had these assumptions because scholars studying the People’s Republic of China have long argued that introducing a market economy has brought about the rise of individuals and religious revival.

I was intrigued to explore the interplay between these two trends in terms of death rites. Whether the revival of religious funerals indicated a rise of individualism or, instead, of forms of community was an additional separate issue to look at. Of course, when I got there, I found things were very different from what my readings of other areas of social life had led me to assume.

Death in urban China had undergone drastic changes under the Chinese Communist Party since 1949 and then again since the beginning of the reform period in the 1980s. We know that the Chinese state nationalized funeral industries (along with all the other industries) and repressed traditional death rituals heavily in the post-1949 period before China adopted the market economy. Beyond this, however, scholars knew very little about death in urban China. Exploring the new Chinese way of death was a way for me to understand the intended and intended consequences of constructing citizenship and subjectivity in contemporary China.

Was there anything that surprised you in the research of this book?

Two things surprised me the most. First, most people living in Shanghai preferred to commemorate the dead with a particular style of funeral called “memorial meetings.” This ritual is a secular civil ritual that uniformly commemorated the dead as model socialist citizens. This finding was surprising because after the introduction of the market economy in the 1980s, the Chinese Communist Party actively discouraged people from performing this ritual. Part of the reason for this is that this ritual was popularized in Shanghai as a postmortem rehabilitation ritual during the Cultural Revolution. As such, publicly commemorating the dead as socialist citizens could be seen as pointing out the state’s mistakes.

What’s even more surprising was that the most common death ritual in Shanghai were “religious versions of this secular socialist civil funeral.” How could it be possible to have a ritual that both denies and recognizes spirits and the afterlife at the same time? In my book, I unpack these puzzles by explaining how ritualized acts created moments of reflexivity to question the taken-for-granted reality, how social conventional acts actually provide the possibility for pluralism, and how the pursuit of sincerity and authenticity diminish people’s capacity to live with difference.

What are you working on now?

I am working on two new projects. Both projects are about governing “nature,” its impact on people, and how such changes in governing nature can tell us something about constructing sovereignty and citizenship. The first project tackles how and why the Chinese government developed an “American national park system with Chinese characteristics.” Our University Libraries’ Fenwick Fellowship is currently supporting my work on parts of this project. The second project explores how Taiwan (Formosan) black bears were transformed from a not-so-well-known subject of conservation activism for biodiversity to a national totem representing Taiwan internally and externally.

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Laying the Foundation for our Future in the Next System Fellows Program

Wasiq Muhammad Muhammad Ali — Fri, 04 Nov 2022 17:30:18 +0000

Laying the Foundation for our Future in the Next System Fellows Program Wasiq Muhammad… Fri, 11/04/2022 - 13:30

Amid the complex challenges facing our world, now is a crucial time for young people to apply their talents toward building the future. As a leader in research innovation and civic engagement, ��AV prepares students to explore actionable solutions to political, economic, environmental, and more global challenges. The Next System Fellows Program is an inquiry-based, experiential learning opportunity for students eager to build a more just and sustainable global order for the future.

The Next Systems Fellows Program introduces Mason students to the emerging field of Next System Studies, connecting them with community changemakers working right now on alternative systems. Next System Studies is an interdisciplinary academic field that brings together scholars and practitioners committed to reconstructing our economy, legal system, politics, and culture at local and global scales. In seeking a more just social order, the field prioritizes empowerment of marginalized communities and democratization of decision-making processes.

Dr. Ben Manski, faculty lead for the Next System Fellows Program and Assistant Professor of Sociology, emphasizes the importance of bringing Next System Studies to Mason students: “We connect students with transformative community initiatives to both aid the initiatives directly through engaged research and the labor power of students as workers, but also to better equip students to move on to become leaders in building Next System initiatives.”

Through the program, students will spend the Spring semester asking questions, learning theories, applying methods, and closely examining real-life cases, while contributing to local efforts. The program prepares participants for future careers leading change in their respective fields. In fact, Next System fellows are among some of the first around the world to be actively exploring the area, a testimony to Mason’s ranking among the top 10 universities nationally for innovation. Living in a center of the global political economy like the D.C. metropolitan area, Manski explains, fellows are well positioned to apply knowledge and skills for building our futures.

The program follows the cohort model of all Arlington Fellows Programs: a cohort of 15 to 25 students will enroll in four courses totaling 15 credits. These courses orient students to Next System Studies, probing system designs, system change, and systemic movements, all in a small seminar environment where peer fellows build close relationships.

Fellows will pursue an internship with a partner engaged in Next System work, bolstering their professional development with hands-on collaborative learning. Partners are drawn from a variety of different nonprofits, NGOs, and advocacy groups, including national organizations CODEPINK, Public Citizen, local organizations like the Virginia Solidarity Economy Network, and Next System’s very own Democratizing NOVA.

Spring 2022 Next System alum and Honors College student, James Condo, found this dimension of the program especially rewarding. “During my college career,” he recounts, “I had this deep-seated conviction that the system that we live in is not sustainable, and I wanted to do something about it, but a lot of the humanity’s problems felt completely insurmountable.”

Learning about the Next System Fellows Program, then, was an answer to his urge to take action. “I saw Next System Studies as a much more hopeful field. I wanted to see if there was an alternative to our system, what that would practically look like, and what the practical implementation of a next system would actually be.”

As a fellow, Condo interned with Democratizing NOVA (DNOVA), an original community-engaged research project of Next System Studies at Mason that connects multiple pro-democracy initiatives in the region. In addition to a group project creating a database of Northern Virginian democratization–with over 150 initiatives identified so far–Condo developed an individual research project on cooperatives in Northern Virginia. Through the internship and the research project, Condo was exposed to many organizations effecting change locally, an experience that has since shaped his academic and career interests. Condo has continued beyond the program serving as the Next Systems Communications Specialist, which involves managing their social media and a newsletter that reaches Next System scholars and practitioners around the world.

“For those who are from here, or who intend to stay here, they can think about the Next Systems Fellows Program as a route to creating a new identity and purpose for this region–being involved in setting the future for Northern Virginia, instead of having it set for you. They can become part of building their own future and the world they are going to inhabit,” Manski says.

From community collaborations to organizing workshops, plenty exciting opportunities are in store for the Spring 2023 cohort. Those interested in the field should also look out for a Next System minor, available in the near future. Apply to be a fellow today!

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Popular Zombies class digs up history of the living dead

Colleen Rich — Fri, 30 Oct 2020 14:12:47 +0000

Popular Zombies class digs up history of the living dead Colleen Rich Fri, 10/30/2020 - 10:12

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For one group of ��AV students, the week leading up to Halloween has involved reading up on horror filmmaker George Romero and discussing zombies in the cinema. This isn’t just a spooky break from the regular curriculum—these students have spent the semester studying the undead in the course ANTH 314 Zombies.

More than 140 students are enrolled in the online anthropology class that “looks at the cultures where zombies and related folklore about the undead come from, and examines zombies from an ethnohistorical, medical anthropology, and anthropology of religion perspectives,” according to the syllabus.

This is the first time Cultural Studies doctoral student Terilee Edwards-Hewitt has taught the course, and she feels like it is the perfect fit for her background.

“The topic ties in with my interest in popular culture,” said Edwards-Hewitt, who has been teaching in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area for 15 years. “A big part of my current research is about popular culture in the United States, specifically fan cultures.”

Edwards-Hewitt worked on two different medical anthropology research projects while she was a research assistant at Howard University, and she has also taught the anthropology of religion at the University of Maryland. She believes both contribute to understanding zombies.

“Zombies touches on aspects of medical anthropology and anthropology of religion,” said Edwards-Hewitt. “To understand zombies, we need to look at how cultures define health, illness, life, and death.”

The class has also read about how enslaved people are involved in the zombie origins. The people who were enslaved who came West Africa had a cultural belief that was similar to zombies, but it involved someone capturing another’s spirit, said Edwards-Hewitt.

Among the enslaved people in Haiti and the Caribbean that idea moves closer to what we now recognize as a zombie.

“It later became that they—usually a bad sorcerer in the folktales—would control your body, so you have no agency,” said Edwards-Hewitt, who also devotes some of her time to Alexandria Archaeology Museum in Alexandria, Virginia.

The class also discusses zombies in popular culture and even has a week that focuses on the television show and graphic novel “The Walking Dead.” For a class project, students are expected to do a cultural analysis of two zombie movies from a list Edwards-Hewitt has compiled.

“I want the students to look at these films critically and discuss what it is saying about the culture,” she said.

When asked if she has any favorites in the zombie genre, Edwards-Hewitt mentions “Warm Bodies,” “28 Days Later,” and “Shaun of the Dead.”

“’Shaun of the Dead’ is a particularly good one,” she said. “There are so many cultural references in that movie, including references to consumer culture and terrorism. Something that is really interesting about zombies is how what they represent in U.S. culture has changed since they first entered the popular culture in the 1930s.”

“It would be so awesome to teach this class face to face [one day] because I would more easily show relevant clips from television and film to illustrate the points,” she said.

“Zombies are everywhere is popular culture, which makes sense since they help us to understand so many elements of the modern human condition,” said Amy L. Best, chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. “Students across disciplines are fascinated by the walking dead and what they represent, which is why we offer a course. If the zombie apocalypse is coming, I take heart in knowing at least our students will be well prepared for it.”

Department of Sociology and Anthropology

George Mason researcher debunks popular narrative about ancient human ancestors

Dig into societies new and old with Sociology and Anthropology

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Outstanding Graduating Student: Amanda Magpiong

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A ghostly education: Living and learning folklore through Mason's legends and lore

Study the tales and traditions of Mason and more

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Mason researcher looks at the new Chinese way of death

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Laying the Foundation for our Future in the Next System Fellows Program

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Popular Zombies class digs up history of the living dead

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