Applied Anthropology Profile: Danita Delimont, Climate Change Photographer and Photography Agent

 

Figure 1: Danita Delimont (from her own agency)

With over 30 years of experience photographer turned photographer agent Danita Delimont (Figure 1) has an extensive resume and diverse experience that has established her as one of the premiere Climate Change Photographers.  Delimont’s own photographs and those of her clients are vivid, colorful, and breathtaking, capturing the cultural and environmental diversity present globally, as well as acting as an illustrative record of how the environment is changing as a result of global warming, human interventions, and more. 

 

Delimont’s inspiration for these subjects actually comes in part from her early adventures traveling the globe with her family, a result of her father’s job with the Army Corps of Engineers, and her education in Cultural Anthropology through the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.  Through these duel endeavors she not only became familiar with other cultural groups but adept and skilled in maneuvering and communicating with assorted people.  Through cultural anthropology Delimont was also able to sustain another of her interests, photography, as photographing the people one studies is one aspects of ethnographic study.

 

Upon completing her Cultural Anthropology degree Delimont landed a job with a travel agency, where she was initially responsible for researching and writing about far away people and places.  The goal of these efforts was to entice travelers to visit those exotic locales and learn more about the people living there.  She later took on a role of assisting in Adventure Cruises, specifically along the Amazon River.  These cruises matched tourists with experts in biology and anthropology who would provide educational tours about the physical and cultural landscapes of the Amazonian Basin.  This allowed Delimont the opportunity to hone her skills and capture the living cultural histories through film, while also developing new skills that she later took with her in founding her latest enterprise, the Danita Delimont Stock Photography and Footage Agency. 

 

As the Founder and CEO of this company she and her staff advocate for select photographers in ensuring their photographic works reach the largest and most appropriate audiences.  Again, it is the combination of anthropological knowledge coupled with her photographic talents and business acumen that has led to this successful endeavor, which also benefits the public as these photographs are seen around the world through various media.  You can check out Delimont’s and her client’s work at this website.

 

References

Danan, Tammy. "Documenting Climate Change Through Nature Photography." 14 October 2020. Shutterstock Blog. Electronic. 7 December 2020.

Delimont, Herbig & Associates, LLC. Danita Delimont. 2020. Electronic. 7 December 2020.

 

Craptastic News: How Human Coprolites Confirmed Pre-Clovis Occupations in Oregon

Figure 1: Paisley Caves Site (Image Source: Don's Maps Website)

For many decades archaeologists were convinced that the earliest human occupation of the Western hemisphere was completed by the Clovis people, but over the years new evidence began to erode away this hypothesis.  The archaeological community has recently (and among some, begrudgingly) accepted the fact that there was Pre-Clovis settlement and occupation of the Western hemisphere, but it remained unclear when, where, and who began occupying these regions.  There were several sites that suggested Pre-Clovis settlement, but the evidence at each site was shaky and fraught with weaknesses, largely due to a lack of suitable methods to appropriately and precisely study the evidence.

 

This lack of suitable evidence is beginning to no longer be an issue, though.  In the summer of 2020 an international team of scholars, which included Lisa-Marie Shillito, Helen Welton, John Blong,  Dennis Jenkins, Thomas Connolly, and Ian Bull, published an article that not only confirmed a Pre-Clovis human occupation at the site of Paisley Caves in Oregon (Figure 1) but also detailed a new study that could more precisely examine ancient DNA from coprolite evidence.  Their study built off of previous work that proved that human feces (coprolites) were present within the caves, but the conclusions that these coprolites were from a Pre-Clovis occupation of the cave were called into question.  Critics claimed that their coprolite evidence could have been contaminated as a result of natural erosive processes that moved the coprolites from their original deposit areas.  The scholars responsible for the earlier studies could not account for whether or not this happened, leading to their original conclusions being appropriately doubted.  Shillito et al.’s work, however, examines ancient DNA in aspects of the coprolites that are more difficult to travel once released from the human body, which lends strength to their conclusions that the coprolites do indeed demonstrate an early human occupation of the Paisley Caves, dating to 14,200 years ago.

 

While this information that confirms Pre-Clovis settlement in Oregon is monumental and incredibly important the methods employed by Shillito et al. are also groundbreaking.  Genetic studies are very significant in investigating early human occupations of the Western hemisphere, but there exists legitimate ethical and legal concerns of studying and working with human remains.  Therefore, new ways of extracting and studying ancient DNA is needed, and coprolite evidence allows for those genetic studies to continue.  As new advances in how we study coprolite evidence continues more information about our human past can and will be discovered, enriching our understanding of our human history.

 

Bibliography

AIA. (2020, July 16). 14,000-Year-Old Fossilized Feces Retested. Retrieved from Archaeology Magazine: https://www.archaeology.org/news/8859-200716-oregon-human-coprolites?fbclid=IwAR265Wws-WH-sDKc6iLwRENpfX7J_IHC03Ecey_nanih2-081OmjqaFW9Mk

Newcastle University. (2020, July 16). Archaeologists date earliest known occupation of North America. Retrieved from Phys.org: https://phys.org/news/2020-07-archaeologists-date-earliest-occupation-north.html

Shillito, L.-M., Whelton, H. L., Blong, J. C., Jenkins, D. L., Connolly, T. J., & Bull, I. D. (2020). Pre-Clovis occupation of the Americas identified by human fecal biomarkers incoprolites from Paisley Caves, Oregon. Science Advances, 1-8.

Strommer, K. (2020, August 7). Paisley Caves study uncovers a new scoop on ancient poop. Retrieved from Around the O, University of Oregon: https://around.uoregon.edu/content/paisley-caves-study-uncovers-new-scoop-ancient-poop

 

Name Calling: Names of Cultural Groups that You Should No Longer Use

The problem with ignorance is that one does not know something, leading them to be ignorant, but ignorance can be resolved through the acquisition of new knowledge.  The purpose of this blog post is to provide you, the reader, with information to help you resolve some of your ignorance, specifically when it comes to the common names used for minority ethnic groups.  These names may seem benign and non-harmful, but the reality is that they are steeped in racist origins and have been continually requested to be discontinued in our everyday language.  This post will discuss the terms, “Gypsy”, “Eskimo”, and “Berdache”, addressing the origins, meanings, and reasons why these terms should no longer be used.

 

Gypsy

The term gypsy has grown in meaning in recent years, particularly in American, Canadian, and Western cultures.  It is commonly used to represent someone with a carefree spirit, a love for travel, an affinity toward nature and the arts, and more, but the reality is that this term also conjures up very negative ideas and stereotypes, including individuals who are thieves, mystics, seducers, and liars.  This term is also commonly used to refer to the ethnic minority group known as the Roma or Romani.  This ethnic group has faced centuries of persecution, enslavement, forced assimilation, and genocide, and unfortunately, their troubles persist as they continued to be discriminated against in health care, housing, employment, education, and more. 

 

A large part of the reason why their troubles because the idea of being a “gypsy” suggests there is a personal choice in these behaviors: people choose to be thieves, sexual deviants, to lie, practice magic, etc.  The reality is that the Roma and their culture are anything but these ideas.  Yes, there are a few individuals who opt to participate in these activities (as they exist in any group), but the Roma culture is not one characterized on these deviant acts.  The association with the term “gypsy” and these acts, however, are not easily divorced, and whenever someone is identified as being Roma or Romani and in essence a “gypsy” they are treated negatively and unfairly.    

 

The more recent rebranding of the term “gypsy” to one of carefree individuals into the arts, nature, music, etc. is equally problematic.  This rebranding actually negates and erases the long history of persecution and genocides execute against the Roma or Romani over the centuries.  It also serves as a way of ignoring the current abuses against them that continue throughout the world.  These are several of the reasons why the Roma or Romani request that the term “gypsy” no longer be used and it be as taboo as other ethnic and racial slurs, instead of normalized and adopted as another appropriate word.

 

Eskimo

The term “Eskimo” has recently drawn attention as various products no longer use this term.  Pies, mascots, and even gestures have been criticized for the use of this offensive term, which is an ethnic slur against Indigenous populations of Alaska and the Canadian, Siberian, and Greenland Arctic.  The specific origin of the term “Eskimo” is imprecisely known, although it is clear that it is not a term derived from the native languages of these indigenous populations.  Some linguists believe the term came from Ojibwa, an indigenous language spoken by groups along the Canadian-US border.  Other linguists cite a French origin, claiming the term refers to “snow shoe netter” based on the shoes worn by these groups.  Other linguists cite the word means “Ex-Communicated” and was meant to point out the non-Christian identity of the Indigenous people.  Still others claim that the term refers to cannibals.  Regardless of the origins and original meanings of the term Indigenous populations of Alaska and the Canadian, Siberian, and Greenland Arctic identify the term as being a colonial name and prefer to be called “Inuit” or “Yupik”, based on their respective tribal names that come from their own indigenous languages.

 

Berdache

If you have an interest in art, queer studies, human sexuality, or anthropology then you probably have come across the term “Berdache”.  This term has long been known for its problematic nature when in 1993 a group of anthropologists and Indigenous groups came together and formally coined a new term, Two-Spirit, meant to replace it.  The term “Berdache” has always been an offensive term, and it was one imposed upon Indigenous populations as a term of judgement against them.  The term comes from either French or Persian and ultimately means “boy slave” or “male prostitute”, neither of which were meant to uplift but instead demean individuals who are held in great esteem among various Indigenous groups. 

 

Works Cited

Alaers, Jill. " Two-Spirited People and Social Work Practice." Critical Social Work (2010). Electronic.

Hersher, Rebecca. "Why You Probably Shouldn't Say 'Eskimo'." 24 April 2016. NPR. Electronic. 8 December 2020.

Kaplan, Lawrence. "Inuit or Eskimo: Which name to use?" n.d. Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska-Fairbanks. Electronic. 8 December 2020.

Naomi P. "The “G” Word Isn’t for You: How “Gypsy” Erases Romani Women." 2 October 2017. National Organization of Women. Electronic. 8 December 2020.

Reidy, Jessica. "The Harmful History of “Gypsy”." 11 August 2017. Bitch Media. Electronic. 8 December 2020.

Smith, Gwendolyn. "This historical painting shows a celebration of gender diversity. The title is a slur." 27 October 2018. LGBTQ Nation. Electronic. 8 December 2020.

 

Apes vs. Monkeys: How to Tell the Difference

 

Students of mine will hopefully remember some important lessons from my classes, including one of my biggest pet peeves: when people confuse monkeys (example pictured left) and apes (example pictured right).  This is a sore subject that comes up not only in my physical/biological anthropology classes but also in my introductory anthropology courses.  I often go into the appropriate amount of detail explaining this (depending on the primary subject matter of the course), but ultimately it is this lesson that inspired this blog post, in which you will learn all about the differences between monkeys and apes.

 

First, it is important to recognize that monkeys and apes all fall within the taxonomic order known as primates, which is reviewed here.  These is a great deal of species variety within the Primate Order, including but not limited to Tana River Mangabey to the various species of orangutans.  There are common biological characteristics that link all primates into the order, but there are distinctive biological differences formed from years of evolutionary change that help differentiate monkeys and apes.  These include the following:

·         Presence or Absence of a Tail:  Typically, monkeys have tails, whereas apes do not.  Apes will have the anatomical components for a tail, but these typically end as part of the sacral vertebrae (or butt area).  If you see a primate with a tail chances are it is a monkey, not an ape.

·         Overall Body Size: Apes are typically much larger than monkeys.  They are wider, taller, and heavier than monkeys, despite often residing in the same or similar environments.

·         Overall Brain Size: Apes also typically have larger brains.  This does not mean that monkeys are less intelligent, although monkeys have not yet been able to demonstrate an ability to learn sign language as apes have been.

·         Locomotion Differences: Monkeys and apes move differently.  Monkeys tend to run through the trees quadrupedal walkers, whereas apes tend to swing through the trees, typically being identified as brachiators or knuckle walkers.

·         Genetic Relationships to Humans: Believe it or not, but humans are considered apes, meaning that all of the ape species are more closely related to each other genetically than they are to monkeys.

 

There you have it: the knitty gritty (or most of it) that covers the differences between primates known as monkeys versus apes.  Hopefully you will not continue to make that mistake when you happen to see a primate (such as at the zoo; if you are so lucky, on vacation where nonhuman primates exist; or are in my presence.)  😉

 

 References

Robert Jurmaine, Lynn Kilgore, Wanda Trevathan, Eric Bartelink.  Essentials of Physical Anthropology.  Cengage.