Hidden Tulane Part V - MARI

SHOW ME THE MUMMIES!

Part five in our Hidden Tulane series and this one's a cool one! In case you missed our previous tours of those secret spots on campus you won't see on a traditional campus tour, go back and check out the glass blowing studio, the Cassatt Courtyard, Hillel and the Community Garden.

Today, we are heading to Dinwiddie Hall on the Academic Quad to check out the Middle American Research Institute, a.k.a. MARI, and the infamous Tulane mummies! Dinwiddie Hall just finished up a beautiful renovation last year and is now LEED Gold Certified. The building is gorgeous and is quite modern and contemporary but also has an older feel to it is well. It has managed to hold on to much of the antique feel to it (many of the materials from the original building were reused in the renovation- the original glass, cool rugged concrete floors, etc.) however, the hall also sets the standard for sustainability. Appropriate as it is home to our department of Anthropology. 

Here is an x-ray of the female mummy. They can't
figure out what that black speck is. Maybe I can
crack the case!

My coworker Rachel and I were lucky enough to get a tour of this incredible building given by Professor Verano from the Anthropology department. We chatted a lot about the great offerings in our Department of Anthropology  and then got straight into what I wanted to see the most- the mummies! That's right, Tulane is home to its very own collection of ancient Egyptian mummies. In fact, Professor Verano currently is teaching a class all about mummies (he even gives samples as to what mummies smell like. It's... rustic). Tulane has been in possession of two mummies since the early 1850s which were exhumed once again from underneath the old Tulane Stadium when the facility was demolished in the 1980s. They now make their home on the 2nd floor of Dinwiddie Hall, but they have toured various spots around the city, including the New Orleans Museum of Art. 

The mummies are said to be almost 3000 years old; the male and female duo can be traced back to 900 BC. The female mummy is an amazing sight as she is fully intact. She was mummified at around 16 years old and Professor Verano told us that part of the reason she is so well preserved was because of her high stature in a wealthy family who preserved her quite well when she passed away. The mummies are stored on the second floor of Dinwiddie in a state-of-the art storage room. It was pretty cool to see them, I gotta tell you.

We then ventured up to the 3rd floor to check out MARI, the Middle American Research Institute. MARI has an expansive collection of Central American artifacts ranging from masks to textiles to ancient tools. The collection is vast and contains all kinds of cool stuff from the region- everywhere from Mexico down to Panama. I was amazed about how huge the MARI collection is- in fact, the institute is home to the largest amount of Mayan artifacts anywhere outside of Central America. Tulane is world-renown for its programs in Latin American Studies, Central American Research and Middle American artifacts, and MARI, according to their website, "stewards an extensive collection of textiles and artifacts from not only Mexico and Central America, but also the US Southwest and South America. It also houses a large archive of letters, field notes, maps, and photographs from the scores of field projects it has sponsored," and has been a fixture on our campus since 1924. 

So many artifacts in storage!

Even more storage! 

Original windows in the new Dinwiddie 

Scenes from Dinwiddie Anthropology labs. 

Professor  Verano showing off a little piece of Egyptian history 

Rachel and the professor checkin out the female mummy. This was SO COOL. 

Hangin' out at MARI

If you have an interest in mummies, or in Middle America and archaeology anthropology, definitely check out all that MARI has to offer. The museum is beautiful, and you'll be shocked how large our collection is. Dinwiddie Hall houses some great hidden treasures of Tulane's campus, so have a gander next time you are here! 

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THE -ESS WORDS

There used to be an anecdote around the American Cambridge that, whether apocryphal or not, had wide currency. One of the Radcliffe College dorms being Bertram Hall, story has it that when a lady was introduced to a visiting French academician as the mistress of Bertram Hall, he apologized for not knowing who Bertram Hall was.

The man had to be a Frenchman, for in France a mistress, especially the maîtresse en titre to royalty, could be proud of and respected for being a mistress. Thus a Frenchman could feel apologetic for not knowing who Bertram Hall was. However, for other reasons, other designations for women ending in –ess are rejected in modern society. In America, being mistress to the equivalent of royalty, a movie star, even if widely known, is not to be uttered; but the same holds true even for far less controversial –esses. Yet when you think of it, a few centuries ago Mistress was the proper title preceding the family name for respectable women.

Today, however, such terms as actress, poetess, airplane stewardess, among others, have become objectionable and discarded thanks to political correctness (let alone such things as Negress and Jewess). And yet, isn’t it a respectful recognition of femininity to call someone an actress or poetess?

Well, political correctness has pronounced it condescending to stress the female sex of a person. The argument usually runs that the –ess ending brackets you with animals, such as lioness and tigress. But isn’t that royalty of a kind? After all, there is no such thing as rabbitess or mousess.

There may be no glory in being a waitress, laundress or seamstress, but neither is there anything shameful about it. Granted that even “waiter” has become undesirable, so that we get server (as if it were tennis) or waitperson, which is ludicrous. Can you imagine a diner in a restaurant calling for the waitperson?

I would say that it is downright helpful that some words have feminine forms, as when a Frenchman or a German speaks of his amie or Freundin, thereby indicating that the relationship is heterosexual—not that that makes it better, merely different. It is actually confusing to use a circumlocution such as “female friend,” which can as easily mean friend girl as girlfriend.

I cannot help feeling uneasy when a beautiful actress refers to herself as an actor. Doesn’t it somehow imply that the feminine ending is less dignified, patronizing, or even ghettoizing? Not so for the divas of the past: in nobody’s parlance were Sarah Bernhardt or Eleonora Duse actors. Even much more recently, Helen Hayes and Ruth Gordon, Katharine Hepburn and Ingrid Bergman were styled actresses.

The distinction is even more intense in poetry. “Poetess,” nowadays, implies one of those three-named women who publish verse at the bottom of newspaper columns and revel in such dated things as meter and rhyme. No one today would dare to refer to Sylvia Plath or someone even more recent as a poetess. And if the person in question were a tough lesbian like Adrienne Rich, calling her a poetess might have got you a punch in the kisser.

But again, go back into the past and it is perfectly respectable to be a poetess. Sappho was a Greek poetess and Louise Labé a French one. It is not until, I would guess, Emily Dickinson that “poet” becomes desiderated. And yet how confusing for today’s nonspecialist to read about H. D. without knowing that it was a woman, Hilda Doolittle. And who can tell about foreign names such as Turkish ones whether they are male or female? Or even about such Anglo ones as Leslie, Evelyn and sundry others.

There were female prose writers who deliberately wanted to be thought male, such as those Georges, Eliot and Sand. Admittedly “authoress,” before it became obsolete, might already have sounded funny. As a matter of euphony? Not when “prioress” was in good order. Then perhaps because of its rarity, and especially so today, when even Episcopal “priests” can be women.

How then about such most vehemently repudiated terms as Jewess or Negress? Quite some years ago, the critic Robert Brustein got criticized for referring to a female thespian as a “powerful negress.” It wasn’t just the lower-case “n,” but, even more, that –ess. You might suppose that the epithet “powerful” could have created a positive aura. All the more so as “black” or “black woman” would definitely not have passed muster, though today the opposite is true. Well might you ask where the logic is in such matters.

But “Jewess,” even with the capital letter, is unacceptable, as T. S. Eliot has been rightly reprimanded for a lower-case “jew” in a poem, which, however, he never changed. The feminine form, though, was unexceptionable to Sir Walter Scott, whose Rebecca in Ivanhoe is a valiant Jewess. Here I am reminded of Jonathan Miller, speaking about himself in the hit show Beyond the Fringe, as being not a Jew, merely Jewish. This by way of analogy with, say, “bluish” as being less blue than “blue.”

Also, more important, on the anti-Semitic notion that the less Jewish, the better.

The argument against “Jewess” is also that there is no such thing as Christianess and Protestantess. Therefore –ess must be derogatory. And if, for whatever reason, “Jewess” is scarce  and generally avoided, it turns excessive and deliberate, and thus in bad odor, even as such a recherché synonym as “Israelite” becomes an elucubrated edulcoration, and thus distasteful.

Certainly there are no longer stewardesses on airplanes, not even hostesses, as they were briefly known, inconsistently with their services. But the settled-on flight attendants has it downside too, sounding prissily excogitated and perhaps even servile. Isn’t a female servicing a public toilet called an attendant? Words matter, even where they shouldn’t.

Take a very tall woman. Would it be insulting to refer to her as a giantess? Or would it be preferable, as in the case of the actor-actress dichotomy, to call her a giant? Surely less desirable. I think the problem is that in English there aren’t enough examples of –ess endings, as, say, in German, where any noun can also have a female form ending in –in. In English, several of those that do exist are unpleasant, such as traitress, adulteress, procuress.

Of course, there are also respectable ones: sculptress, patroness, proprietress, millionairess, prophetess, baroness, countess, marchioness and duchess. But especially now, with the glass ceiling almost abolished, there ought to be many more. Why not, for instance, painteress and lawyeress? Then even my wife might call herself an ex-actress rather than an ex-actor.

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MURDER OF INNOCENTS

What about the horrific tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School?  Of course there should be stricter gun laws and there should be no NRA. Of course there should be greater attention paid to troubled youngsters (and even oldsters) with a seriously antisocial attitude. But what there shouldn’t be—if only one could control it—is a mother like Nancy Lanza.

Da liegt der Hund begraben, as the German adage has it: there lies the buried dog, or, in the English equivalent, there’s the rub. In all this understandable uproar, there hasn’t been enough barking up the right tree (the dog image again!) at mother Nancy Lanza.

What exactly shooter Adam Lanza’s motive may have been we’ll never know for sure, but we could look more closely at Adam’s mother, without whom there would have been no Adam. She is the Eve who, however inadvertently, fed this Adam the apple, which in this case was the assault weapon AR-15.

Let us look at her more closely. What kind of woman keeps a deadly arsenal at home, a semiautomatic rifle and four handguns? Is this for the self-defense of a woman living alone, or with one unbalanced son, which proves more precarious? Either way, one handgun should be sufficient, unless perhaps the locale is Syria, Mexico or the Sudan, although even there more might be less useful. What good is even an armed innocent against a heavily armed killer with murder in his soul? But in peaceable, small-town Connecticut, a Texas congressman’s idea to turn high-school principals into gun-toting cowboys would seem—and be—absurd.

Yet not only did Nancy have such an arsenal, she was also proudly boasting about it in the bar where she was—suspiciously—a regular.  A barfly in the ointment, indeed. And she used her weaponry at the shooting galleries she frequented, taking her troubled son along. Such establishments should provide clients with one relatively harmless gun, and legally ban all others.

In any case, why bring Adam with her? Did she think that that’s the way to make a nerd macho? As far as I can gather, Adam did little or no shooting there. But watching his mother at it must have given him some notions. He must have learned all too well how to use guns.

That Adam was weird was apparent to any number of youngsters and probably not-so-youngsters at school and elsewhere. It may have been made clear by his older brother’s not visiting for the last two years. Also by the father’s having divorced Nancy and subsequently staying away from any contact. What does it mean that the 28 killings elicited only such scant, routine condolences from him?

Significantly, the first person Adam killed with several shots in the face was his mother. Was it only because she happened to be there, blocking his path? He could easily have sneaked out of the house when she was not watching him. Adam, after all, was twenty, and not some kid under close parental surveillance. And that, too, is peculiar. Why, given his acknowledged smartness, was he not in college?

He did, to be sure, speak of moving to the West Coast for some higher education. But why so far away, making it an idea as inchoate, as unreal, as our death is to most of us? More interesting yet is the fact that Nancy declared her willingness, if Adam chose California, to pick up stakes and make a home for him there. Could he have felt smothered by excessive coddling?

But those grade-schoolers—surely they were not suffocating him with some unwelcome and draining dependency. Rather, I think, they represented to Adam the larger enemy, humanity. Moreover, he himself had gone to that school years ago, and maybe harbored unhappy memories. Ultimately, though, it was a place where he knew his way around, and where a sizable chunk of humanity was conveniently gathered nearby into an exposed target. A vulnerable kind of infant humanity, unlikely to fight back. The same for some women teachers, no obviously formidable adversaries. Still, if, say, a factory, or some other adult assemblage, had existed a few miles away, there is no telling that he wouldn’t have hatched the same plan.  

Yet how come that Nancy was blind to the threat Adam represented? Well, is there anything blinder than blind mother love? Only stupidity, of which, too, Nancy may have had a healthy—or, rather, unhealthy—share. Little children, moreover, so dear to their parents, might have been a double target for Adam, a smart, and therefore unsuspected, lunatic, surely the most dangerous kind. His act was clearly excogitated rather than spontaneous. And doesn’t the Bible warn us about the danger to little children ever since Herod’s time?

I repeat, arming teachers won’t do. Perhaps better arm all politicians who support guns for everyone, and have a go at them. Is the danger that the pols are underarmed, hence the murder of our consul in Benghazi, a highly well-meaning diplomat? No, the danger is both inadequate mental health and gun laws (if those aren’t just one and the same problem). And don’t think for a moment that either Bloomberg or Obama or 28 dead can seriously change the situation.

No doubt our Constitution must bear some inadvertent blame. What is that business about the right to bear arms? Protection against whom? Indians? Brits? Hardly threats any more. But certainly not against the Adam Lanzas, who always shoot first, unexpectedly and lethally.

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Jeff's Things to do Around NOLA - Part VI - The Bywater

Bootys! (photo courtesy of Eater.com)

Welcome back to one of my favorite blog topics- my city guide to the great neighborhoods of New Orleans.  In previous blogs, we've seen Oak Street, Freret Street, Magazine Street, Frenchman Street, and Mid City. Today, we journey across town to check out New Orleans' most up-and-coming neighborhood, the Bywater.

The Bywater is a very unique place. It is eclectic, bohemian, hipster-y, diverse, blue collar, beautiful and funky. It's definitely not a typical tourist neighborhood, but in recent months has pretty quickly become one of the fastest-growing parts of town with all kinds of new restaurants and bars opening. If you are looking for a more off-the-beaten-path adventure, check out the Marigny. For even more off the beaten path, check out the Bywater. For a geographic sense, when heading downtown from Tulane along the river, you'll hit the French Quarter first, past that is the Marigny, then finally past that you'll hit the Bywater. If you were to continue on, you'd be in the 9th ward.

Once you're in the Bywater, here are my hot spots to check out:

Dr. Bobs- If you've ever been to New Orleans before, you've most definitely seen Dr. Bob's art. His stuff is all over the place- think bright colors, bottle caps and his infamous "Be Nice or Leave" slogan. Dr. Bob's warehouse is a collection of his various forms of art, all available for purchase. The good doctor is always there to strike up a conversation and help with your purchases. He's a hoot.

St. Claude Arts District- The Bywater is an artist's haven. All kinds of great galleries, shops, printmaking studios, pottery depots and theaters dot the area around the St. Claude Arts District. The SCAD describes itself as "one of the fastest growing underground arts scenes in the country" and is now home to over 30 venues. On the 2nd Saturday of each month, many of these galleries will open for group showings. You may recall I took my NOLA track there.

Vaughn's- This is one of those real classic New Orleans music halls. One of NOLA's most famous musicians, Kermit Ruffins, plays here every Thursday night. I love this place and you may too, but keep in mind it definitely lives up to it's name as a dive bar.

The Great War Memorial- Did you know New Orleans is home to the first WWI memorial to ever be constructed? Well we are. And it's in the Bywater.

Now, for where to eat. The Bywater has always had a few staple restaurants on it's list (see: Elizabeth's, The Joint, Bacchanal) but there are a few new ones that have joined the scene over the last year that are definitely worth checking out.

Booty's- This place is brand new and is going to be one of your new favorite hangout spots once you check it out. Co-founders Nick and Kevin describe their food as international tapas-style street food and the plates are small and satisfying. Booty's also serves up great creative cocktails and the space is beautiful- all kinds of reclaimed wood and Eidson bulbs and whatnot. Definitely check this place out if you are in the neighborhood.

Maurepas Foods- Maurepas is on pretty much everyone's "best new restaurants in NOLA" list and for good reason. I came here with my parents a few weeks ago and we loved it. It's hard to describe the food- it's definitely local but with a global flair too. It's also totally affordable.

The front porch at the Country Club

The Joint- Hands down my favorite BBQ restaurant in New Orleans. Killer pulled pork and amazing baked beans.

The Country Club- First off, a disclaimer about the Country Club. There are two parts to this place, one is the front restaurant where the food is amazing. I highly recommend their brunch- the food is great and you can sit outside on the beautiful front porch which has a distinctively Key West feel to it. Okay, so the second part of the Country Club is the back yard, which is a beautiful, lush, pool. A beautiful, lush, clothing-optional pool. You've been warned. (didn't you see above where I called the Bywater "funky?")

Elizabeth's- Also a perfect spot for a weekend brunch. Elizabeth's is most famous for their praline bacon. It's exactly what it sounds like- strips of bacon with crunchy pieces of praline on top. It's about as good as it gets on the bacon front.

MMMMM praline bacon!

Bacchanal- The pop up restaurant and food truck scene have emerged in great gusto here in NOLA. Bacchanal has a great little pop up restaurant around back in their courtyard, where live music is played most nights a week. If you are looking for something to do on a warm spring evening, this is the place to be. The music is always great, and the food is perfect to accompany it. New Orleans is one of those towns where you can eat a phenomenal glazed pork chop off a paper plate listening to some great jazz in a palm-laden secret courtyard, which is something I have done many times at this spot.

The courtyard at Bacchanal (photo courtesy of their web site)

Our NOLA track getting a lesson about the SCAD

The Great War Memorial 

So there you have it. Keep in mind when you visit the Bywater, it's not a typical tourist neighborhood. So go with a group- it's not unsafe by any means, it's just not as crowded. The neighborhood has a very laid back feel to it, so don't expect a lot of places to take reservations or cater to huge parties  And if you read this blog, don't tell TOO many of your friends about the Bywater. It's seriously local, and folks want to keep it that way.

Enjoy!

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Photo Contest Time

Happy New Year all. Hope you enjoyed a great holiday and had a wonderful New Year's. While the rest of America is starting to settle down into the post-holiday season, we are just gearing up! Twelfth Night (the 12th day after Christmas) officially begins the Mardi Gras season here in NOLA. And with Gras, the Super Bowl and an event bigger than those both combined (a.k.a. my 30th birthday party) NOLA will surely be bumpin' for the coming few weeks. 

My amazing team of Social Media Interns from over at TruTU have created two really cool contests for you all coming up. Check them both out, the prizes are sure to please!

For current and former Tulane students: Study Abroad Photo Contest! 

New Orleans is such a unique city that going to school at Tulane is like studying abroad for four years.  However, for those of you who managed to part with this awesome city for a while and study abroad, we want to see pictures of your adventures!  E-mail your coolest, strangest, weirdest, funniest, or scariest picture from your international escapades to our social media intern by January 20th to be entered into our Tulane Admissions Study Abroad Photo Contest. All the photos will be posted in an album on our Tulane Admissions Facebook page by January 21st and the picture that receives the most likes by February 21st will receive a $100 Superior Grill gift card! 

For those admitted to the class of 2017 (congrats, by the way!): Admit Letter Photo Contest! 

You know that admission letter your parents have been proudly whipping out and showing to everyone who will stand still long enough?  Well now it's time to put that letter to good use!  Take a creative picture of yourself holding your admission letter and send it over to our social media intern. We'll post all the picture on our Tulane Admissions Facebook page by April 14 and the owner of picture that receives the most likes will win a $100 Visa gift card and get to have dinner with our President, Scott Cowen, at his beautiful house.  The earlier you send in your picture the more time you have to garner likes so get snapping!

In the spirit of the contest, I'll leave you with some of my best shots from when I studied abroad at Tulane through the Semester at Sea program.

This is in Nara, Japan during the lantern festival. They light the entire city up with lanterns! It is magical. 

This is the Petropavlovsk-Kamchatka peninsula on the east coast of Russia. They have this incredible volcanic range that we sailed into. Even cooler? This photo was taken at midnight on the summer solstice! We were so far north that when the sun would set, it would just barely dip to the horizon line, and then come right back up. 

Here's me on the Great Wall of China. Talk about a sight to see.

Good luck everyone! And check us out on Storify.

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