Anthropology Club hosts alumni for guest lectures

The Anthropology Club at the University of South Alabama has brought many interesting guest speakers to the University over the past few years, but this is the first year two USA alumni are to speak at the University. Dr. Jason Heaton, assistant professor in the department of biological and environmental sciences at Samford University, and Dr. Ashley Dumas, now at South Alabama, return to USA to speak on their exciting anthropological research. "This is a great opportunity for our undergraduate students to see that you can start at USA and go on to do great and wonderful things, such as earning an advanced degree and conducting cutting-edge research," Dr. Philip Carr, associate professor in anthropology, said. Dr. Heaton's presented his lecture, "In the Valley of Ape-Men: Evolution in the Cradle of Humankind," in March in the Library Auditorium to an enthusiastic crowd. His presentation detailed the process of hominid evolution as viewed from several sites he has excavated in southern Africa. Dr. Heaton graduated from South Alabama with a Bachelor of Arts degree in anthropology and a Bachelor of Science degree in biology and recently completed his Ph.D. at Indiana University. "My current research focuses on a collection of bone tools," Heaton said. "At Swartkrans, bone tools appear approximately 1.7 million year ago, representing the first time that objects other than stone can be documented as tools. My main focus is to determine the level of technical skill and specialization in fossil hominid tools found during this period." Heaton will return to sites in Africa again this summer and promised to wear the USA Anthropology Club T-shirt presented to him after his lecture. Dr. Ashley Dumas, who earned a B.A. in anthropology and French from South Alabama in 1996, will be speaking in the Library Auditorium on April 15 at 7 p.m. on salt production in prehistoric Southwest Alabama. This presentation is based on her recently completed dissertation research at the University of Alabama. "Salt springs along the Tombigbee River in Southwest Alabama were the scenes of concentrated Indian occupation from about A.D. 800 to the 18th century," Dumas said. "Recent archaeology at one of the salines focused on the pottery vessels in which salt was made. These vessels reflect several changes in salt-making technology over several hundred years. The use of salt by prehistoric people in south Alabama offers us insight into the importance of this mineral in traditional societies throughout the world." Dumas is continuing to work on prehistoric and historic archaeological sites in the area as a new employee of the USA Center for Archaeological Studies. If you have an interest in paleoanthropology, archaeology, cultural anthropology or forensic anthropology, you can learn more by visiting http://www.usouthal.edu/syansw/anthropology/anthropology or visiting USA's Center for Archaeological Studies' Web site at http://www.southalabama.edu/archaeology.