Summer Session
28 May 2005 - 6 August 2005

Application Deadline
1 March 2005

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Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies

To learn more about other Smithsonian internship opportunities, and their application procedures, visit the Smithsonian's Center for Education and Museum Studies web site: http://museumstudies.si.edu/

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  - - - application deadline: January, 15

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POST GRADUATES

• Research Assistance Programs

PROFESSIONALS

• Research Experiences for Teachers

• On-line: request form
• Phone: 202-633-4548
• Fax: 202-786-0153
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  sangreym@si.edu
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Research & Collections

NMNH

Smithsonian

SI Libraries

The handbook of North American Indians is a 20 volume encyclopedia summarizing knowledge about Indians north of Mesoamerica, including culture, languages, history, prehistory, and human biology. Those volumes in print are California (1978), Northeast (1978), Southwest: Pueblo (1979), Subarctic (1981), Southwest: Non-Pueblo (1983), Arctic (1984), Great Basin (1986), History of Indian-White Relations (1989), Northwest Coast (1990), Languages (1996), and Plateau (1998), Plains (2001). Research is currently underway for the Southeast volume and will be starting this summer on the Environment, Population and Origins volume.

My interests are in visual anthropology, historical photography and North American Indians ethnology. My current projects include the publication of a book on Benedicte Wrensted (see web site: http://www.nmnh.si.edu/anthro/wrensted); completion of a web site on a project called: The Public Faces of Sarah Winnemucca; publication of work by Alice C. Fletcher titled Life Among the Indians: Camping with the Sioux and Omaha, 1881-1882.

The intern will conduct research on individual photographs selected for the Environment, Origins and Populations volume including discovery of who, what, where and when of the image. Each image is a mini research project. Bringing the historical context back to images is challenging and exciting research. Research products of the intern could include a paper on the methods or procedures of illustrating an encyclopedia; finding aid or paper on photographers/artists of Native American subjects; biographical paper on unlimited number of Indian women or men or a catalog of repository sources rich in visual resources on Indian subjects.

A second possible topic includes archiving picture material used in the published volumes; content analysis of images for future volumes from photographs not selected for publication. This project would give the intern experience in the publishing field as well as the archival profession.

No courses or background required. Anthropology or American History with interest in Native Americans is desired.

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Rastafari Voices: From Yard to Nation

Name of Supervisor: Jake Homiak

Telephone Number: 301-238-6655

E-mail: homiak.jake@nmnh.si.edu

Anthropology Unit: Anthropology Collections & Archives Program, MSC

1. Please provide background information about your specific Anthropology unit or office:

The Anthropology Collections & Archives Program manages and makes accessible the ethnology, linguistic, archaeology, and physical anthropology collections of the Smithsonian’s Department of Anthropology. This includes the resources of the National Anthropological Archives and the Human Studies Film Archives.

2. Describe the nature of your own specific research interests or duties and current projects, especially as they relate to the internship project described below:

I am a cultural anthropologist who has worked with Rastafari communities in Jamaica, the Eastern Caribbean, Panama, South Africa, Ethiopia and the United States for the past 24 years. During the past 10 years my work has focused on the globalization of Rastafari lifeways as they have moved beyond the shores of the Caribbean. This process of globalization has included the development of Rastafari as a traveling culture disseminated by Elders and members of an emergent Rastafari intelligentsia. I studing this processs, I am interested in the intersections between the popular aspects of Rastafari culture (e.g., reggae music) and its varied, but more spiritually rooted traditions that evolved under conditions of colonial containment in Jamaica and other parts of the Caribbean.

3. Describe the proposed internship project or the nature of the appointment; including duties, topic and scope of the work, and the academic/research component of the project:

The intern will assist me in identifying and transcribing audiotape and videotape recordings that are part of my own archive of Rastafari materials. This work is part of the preparation for an exhibit entitled “From Yard to Nation: The Globalization of Rastafari” that is to be mounted in the National Museum of Natural History within the next 18 months. Work will include:

• Producing an inventory of over 100 hours of videotape materials and over 200 hours of audiotape materials.The intern, with my assistance, will also help to log clips from this video archive to be used in the exhibit.
• Transcribing selected portions from video recordings (some familiarity with Jamaican patois or vernacular speech in the English-speaking Caribbean will be very useful here, but not necessarily essential)
• Identifying popular culture materials from my own holdings and other sources that are appropriate for the exhibit.
• Logging Rastafar cultural artifacts (including archival materials) in a FileMaker Pro database.

During the course of the 10 week internship, the intern will have the opportunity to accompany me to a number of Rastafari community meetings in Washington, D.C. and engage with local community members if he/she so desires.

4. Please indicate any particular academic background, specific courses or reading needed as preparation to undertake this project:

It would be helpful to have a student interested generally in the anthropology of religion. An area course on the Caribbean would be helpful as would courses in the religions of the Caribbean, New World African religions, specific coursework on the Rastafari, studies of cultural resistance, pan-Africanism and/or popular culture. All would be helpful but need not be mandatory. Someone who has traveled in the Caribbean and has an interest in the local culture would also be a good fit. Enthusiasm and interest definitely count.

Kenai Fjords Oral History and Archaeology Project

Name of Supervisor (s): Dr. Aron L. Crowell

Telephone Number: 907-343-6162

E-mail: acrowell@alaska.net

Anthropology Unit/Office: Arctic Studies Center

1. Please provide background information about your specific Anthropology unit or office:

The Anchorage office of the Arctic Studies Center is responsible for Smithsonian research and educational programs throughout Alaska. We emphasize collaborative projects (e.g. exhibits, archaeology, museum studies) that involve coordination with Alaska Native communities, museums, and cultural organizations.

2. Describe the nature of your own specific research interests or duties and current projects, especially as they relate to the internship project described below:

I am the project director of the Kenai Fjords Oral History and Archaeology Project, an interdisciplinary program with a focus on reconstructing the human and environmental history of the Kenai Peninsula on the southern Alaska coast. This mountainous, heavily glaciated area is an ancestral homeland of the Alutiiq people. Historic and prehistoric Alutiiq village sites on the coast are being investigated through a combination of excavation, oral history, and indigenous knowledge of the environment (see http://www.mnh.si.edu/arctic/html/alaska_kenai.html). Animal and fish remains from archaeological sites are providing clues to environmental and climate change over the last 1000 years. Partners in the project include the Native villages of Nanwalek, Port Graham, and Seldovia, the National Park Service, the University of Alaska, and several local museums and tribal cultural centers. Indigenous Alutiiq participation in the project has included oral history documentation with elders and archaeological fieldwork with students and adults. We will be undertaking a third season of excavations in July/August 2005. The field team will include 2 – 5 undergraduate and graduate students in addition to Native residents.

3. Describe the proposed internship project or the nature of the appointment; including duties, topic and scope of the work, and the academic/research component of the project:

The intern will participate in six weeks of archaeological fieldwork in a coastal wilderness setting in Kenai Fjords National Park. Depending on length of appointment, he/she may also be involved in advance preparation for the work and/or follow-up lab work and analysis. Field duties include supervised excavation, mapping, and recording of archaeological features. The intern will learn field equipment and techniques including surveying, mapping, and interpretation of archaeological stratigraphy. Informal learning opportunities include cultural interaction with Alaska Native participants and wilderness camping, travel and appreciation. Students are assigned a wide range of background reading and are expected to gain adequate knowledge about the cultural and environmental context to inform their work. Although not set up as a formal field school, most students in the past have arranged for academic credit through their universities on an individual study basis involving either special analytical projects (e.g. computer mapping) or a term paper addressing some aspect of the research methodology or results.

4. Please indicate any particular academic background, specific courses or reading needed as preparation to undertake this project:

Students should have taken introductory classes in archaeology and cultural anthropology and have previous experience in archaeological fieldwork and/or wilderness living. General background on the culture and archaeology of the area is in Looking Both Ways: Heritage and Identity of the Alutiiq People, edited by Aron Crowell, Amy Steffian, and Gordon Pullar, University of Alaska Press, 2001. Other advance readings and research papers will be assigned. Students are advised that the fieldwork requires considerable physical work in a remote setting; housing is in tents; there is a very strong emphasis on safety with excellent communications and logistical support but inherent risk factors including small boat travel; the camp is strictly drug/alcohol free; commitment is to the full six weeks of continuous fieldwork.

Museum Sculptures of Native Americans

Name of Supervisor (s): William Billeck and David Hunt

Telephone Number: 202 633-8993 (Billeck) 202 786-2501 (Hunt)

Anthropology Unit/Office: Repatriation (Billeck), Collection Management (Hunt)

1. Please provide background information about your specific Anthropology unit or office:

The Repatriation Office was established in 1991 at the National Museum of Natural History to implement the repatriation requirements in the National Museum of the American Indian Act (Public Law 101-185) passed in 1989 and amended in 1996. The central mission of the Repatriation Office is the inventory, documentation, and assessment of cultural affiliation of NMNH collections impacted by the legislation. The Repatriation Office works primarily with Native Americans and Native Hawaiians to provide information about the collections and to respond to requests for repatriation of human remains and cultural objects.

The Physical Anthropology Division Collections Management curates over 30,000 human remains, anatomical specimens and non-skeletal materials such as busts, molds and paper records.

2. Describe the nature of your own specific research interests or duties and current projects, especially as they relate to the internship project described below:

Our work focuses on the Anthropology collections and their historical context.

3. Describe the proposed internship project or the nature of the appointment; including duties, topic and scope of the work, and the academic/research component of the project:

From the late nineteenth century through the early twentieth century, hundreds of facial casts were taken of living individuals of different ethnic groups and these casts were used to make life-sized busts or sculptures for the museum. This project will focus on the sculptures of Native American individuals from the Plains region of North American. Archival and museum records will be used to assemble information on the names and histories of the individuals who were cast and to ascertain the historical context in which the casts were made.

4. Please indicate any particular academic background, specific courses or reading needed as preparation to undertake this project:

Intern should review the Handbook of North American Indians, Plains Volume, to familiarize themselves with the tribes, tribal areas, and histories of Plains populations.

Project Title

Name of Supervisor (s):

Telephone:

E-mail:

Anthropology Unit/Office:


1. Please provide background information about your specific Anthropology unit or office:




2. Describe the nature of your own specific research interests or duties and current projects, especially as they relate to the internship project described below:




3. Describe the proposed internship project or the nature of the appointment; including duties, topic and scope of the work, and the academic/research component of the project:

4. Please indicate any particular academic background, specific courses or reading needed as preparation to undertake this project: