Come join us for our first-ever virtual colloquium presented by Dr. W. Warner Wood on September 18th at 3:00 PM via Zoom!

“Hearst Ginda Verde: Following a Textile Pattern, Unraveling a Global Mimetic Meshwork” 

This talk traces a textile pattern’s appearance in blankets currently being sold through Pendleton Wool Mills as “Hearst Ginda Verde.” Wood unravels the meandering story of this pattern from its origins in the late 1800s, to its reproduction by the business Santa Fe Interiors in the 1990s, and on to its more recent sale through Pendleton. The name of the pattern used in Pendleton marketing points to the well-known Navajo textile collection of William Randolph Hearst. Approaching the pattern ethnographically affords an exploration of the ways that indigenous weavers and others become entangled in global articulations and practices. Unraveling the story of the production, marketing, and sale of several textiles featuring this pattern points toward what Michael Taussig and Homi Bhabha have characterized as the disruptive capacities of mimetic practices and products and toward an emergent global mimetic “meshwork” of weavers, dealers, and consumers.

This talk is cosponsored with the UWM Center for 21^st Century Studies

Bill Wood is an associate professor in Anthropology at UWM. He was a C21 Faculty Fellow for the 2019-20 academic year. His research is focused on the cultural politics of heritage in global context. He is the author of Made in Mexico: Zapotec Weavers and the Global Ethnic Art Market (Indiana U. Press, 2008), an ethnographic account that follows weavers, designs, wool, and finished textiles primarily between Oaxaca, Mexico and the American Southwest.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/3103017900?pwd=TURnd1E4Z0s3bUhFUW5oQkVzOThVZz09

Meeting ID: 310 301 7900
Passcode: 9516145
One tap mobile
+13017158592,,3103017900#,,,,,,0#,,9516145# US (Germantown)
+13126266799,,3103017900#,,,,,,0#,,9516145# US (Chicago)

Dial by your location
+1 301 715 8592 US (Germantown)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 929 205 6099 US (New York)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
Meeting ID: 310 301 7900
Passcode: 9516145
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kbUEqcWZ6f

Sunday, February 9, 2020, 3:00pm
Pedar Foss, Professor, Classical Studies, DePauw University, Indiana
Title: When Did Vesuvius Explode?

It has long been held, on the basis of a letter of Pliny the Younger, that Mt. Vesuvius erupted on 24 August, AD 79. But after excavators began to work at the sites of Herculaneum at Pompeii, some scholars expressed doubts, suggesting a date later in the autumn of that year. Debate has increased with recent paleo-environmental research and the find of an inscription last year. Scholars have divided over a topic that might appear trivial—after all, most archaeological sites never enjoy such a precise date. But it is an excellent case study for testing our methods of historical and archaeological research, and I will lift the lid on those methods.

As part of a book project (Pliny and the Destruction of Vesuvius, Routledge 2021), I have collated, for the first time, every manuscript and printed edition of Pliny’s Letters 6.16 and 6.20, in order to track and analyze the literary tradition of the date through its surviving evidence. I have also compiled a reconstruction of the pre-eruption landscape and coastline, and collected all recent volcanological and archaeological research about the event. Having made a multidisciplinary reconstruction of what happened over the two terrifying days of the eruption, I can now offer an answer to the question of when Vesuvius exploded.

Pedar W. Foss is Professor of Classical Studies at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, where he has worked since 1999. As a teacher, he conducts courses in Latin, ancient history and literature, and art and archaeology. He received his B.A. in Chemistry and Classics from Gustavus Adolphus College, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Classical Art and Archaeology from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor; he subsequently taught at the University of Cincinnati and at Stanford. His research concerns domestic life at Pompeii, landscape archaeology, and Geographic Information Systems. He has edited for the Journal of Roman Archaeology and was co-editor of the book reviews for the American Journal of Archaeology from 2008-2011. He has lived, studied, and worked for extended periods in Greece, Italy, Tunisia, Turkey, and England. He is a fanatical follower of football/futbol/soccer.

https://aia-milwaukee.uwm.edu/lectures/

This Saturday, December 7th is the next lecture in the AIA series. In this lecture Dr. Landau addresses the questions of how political leaders come to power and why others choose to follow. This talk examines the dynamics of political integration between the neighborhood of San Lucas and the central government of Copán, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Honduras. The ancient city of Copán is unique for its 200 years of intensive research on temples and tombs, and the decipherment of Maya hieroglyphic writing. This extraordinary work has revealed a wealth of information about the history and politics of Maya royalty. However, archaeologists understand much less about everyday life for the majority of people living outside of the city center. Mapping and excavation in the urban neighborhood of San Lucas reveals how ancient residents actively negotiated with the top-down power strategies of Copan elites. This bottom-up approach has also inspired grassroots collaboration with an indigenous high school to teach a year-long introductory anthropology course; which highlights how major anthropological questions are relevant for past and contemporary people.

Kristin Landau (PhD, Northwestern University) is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Alma College. Since 2005 she has conducted community-based archaeology at the ancient city of Copán, Honduras, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Specifically, she investigates the dynamic relationship between centralized power and everyday life within Copán’s urban neighborhoods, providing a bottom-up perspective to questions of state formation. She also works collaboratively with local indigenous leaders to promote science and heritage education. By linking past and present, she highlights how archaeology is relevant for contemporary people.