IN PRAISE ROBERT HUMPHREY

inthroNotes Volume 23 No. 2 Fall2002

IN PRAISE OF ROBERT

^L.

HUMPHREY

October7, 1939 ^-

November

15.

2002

One

_ofthe most important attributes that differentiates our speciesfrom ^{the rest} of ^the animal kingdom is our ability to laugh, and ^even more important, our ability to laugh at ourselves.

—

^{Robert L.}

Humphrey

"Thebest thingaboutAnthroNotesare the cartoons,"

said Dennis Stanford, directorof the Smithsonian's Paleoindian Program.

Our

AnthroNotes readers en- thusiastically agreed

and

often wrote praising the publication'sarticles

and

cartoons.

Bob Humphrey

died unexpectedlythis past

November

(from

com-

plications following a cerebral aneurysm),

and

we,

likehundredsofothers, losta friend, colleague,

and

mentor,aswellasan

admired

artist, cartoonist,

and

humorist.

A

serious artist with a large portfolio of ex- hibited

works

in multiple media,

Bob

also enjoyed doodling

on

theclassroom blackboard

and

drawing cartoons for his syllabi.

He had

cartoonedsincethe 1950s,but^itisprobablyfairtosaythat hiscartooning career

changed

in1978

when

he

drew

abrochure il-

lustrationannouncinga new,National Science Foun- dation-funded

George Washington

University/

Smithsonian Institution

Anthropology

for Teachers Program. This cartoon

used

in

many

contexts since,

was redrawn

in 1998replacingacityscapewith the Smithsonian "castle,"

making

it aperfect frontispiece for the Smithsonian Institution Press anthology, Anthropology Explored: The Best of Smithsonian AnthroNotes (Ruth Selig

and

Marilyn London, eds.),

illustrated

by

over40

Humphrey

cartoons.

In 1980,

two

years after AnthroNotesbegan,

we

received a hand-writtenletter

from

SolTax, the distinguished editor of CurrentAnthropology, con- gratulating us

on

our

new

publication. "It

seems

to

me

always

good and

getting better!"

he

wrote.

Tax

continued,

"And

Robert

Humphrey

^is not just an

artist

— ^he

^isthebestanthropologicalcartoonistIcan

recall."

Trainedinarthistory

and

anthropology, hold- inga Ph.D. in anthropology

and

archaeology

from

the University of

New

Mexico,

Bob came

to

George Washington

University

(GWU)

as

an

assistant pro- fessorin 1967.

He

already

had

distinguishedhimself

by

finding

and

describing in Sciencea possible link

between

ancient Siberianspear points

and

those of the Paleo-Indians.

The

evidencehedescribed

had been found

during fieldwork in north Alaska alongside fellow

New Mexico graduate

student

Dennis

Stanford.

From

the beginning ofhis teaching career, Bob's interests ranged

beyond

archaeology to the

whole

areaof

how

cultureis

communicated

through objects

and

visual images.

He

put together

an

inter- disciplinaryarchaeology majorat

GWU and

encour-

aged one

ofhis fineststudents,Carolyn Rose, tode- velopthe

new

fieldofethnographicconservation. In cooperation withtheSmithsonianInstitution,

GWU

students

were

trained to study, preserve

and

stabilize objects ratherthanrestore

them

totheiroriginal state asartconservatorsare trained to do.

Bob

taught coursesinarchaeology,cultures of theArctic, culture

and

the environment, art

and

anthropology,

and museum

anthropology. Atthe

end

ofhisfirstyearteaching, thedepartmentchairwrote

inBob's annual report:

"He

givesevery evidenceof

developing

into a truly outstanding teacher....

Humphrey

^is anintellectual

and

very

warm

person

who

lacks entirely those irritating idiosyncracies popularlyattributed tothegifted."

Page 12

AnthroNotes Volume 23 No. 2 Fall

2002

Bob

^directed

programs

in

Mesoamerican

ar- chaeology, ecology,

and

history

and

established the

Museum

Studies Program, serving as its first direc- tor.

He was

his department's chair for 12years

and

createdexhibitionspaceinthedepartment'soffices.

After his retirement

from GWU

ⁱⁿ 1998,

Bob

con- tinued to cartoon for AnthroNotes.

We were

editing thiscurrent issue

when

hedied.

Bob

nevertookhimselftooseriously,

and

in hiscartoonworld he

pokes

funathimself,butalsoat

anthropology, anthropologists, cartoonists,

and

cartooning. For example,

one

cartoon illustration

shows

a long line at the registration table for the

American

Anthropological Association's

annual

meeting, with various anthropologists waitingtoreg- ister, along withrepresentativesof thesocietiesthey study, including a

member

ofourclosest relatives, thechimpanzees.

Bob's cartoons often gain their

humor from

his abilityto visually exaggerate

an

idea or subject

combined

with a literal interpretation of words.

Reading anarticle

on

surviving

on

the bareessentials led

him

to

wonder

just

what

are a bear'sessentials.

LANGUAGE VBESEKMATIOH PROJECT

lEaiSllHran^Si

An

articleaboutlanguagepreservation

among

the

Mayan

Indians

found Bob drawing

a "preserva- tion"scene,withlinguists "bottling"phrasesthat

had been spoken

into"bubbles,"then "preserved" incan- ningjars

up on

shelves,

much

likepicklesorjam.

Bob

created

an

entire visual

world

withhis cartoons; the

themes and

inhabitants ofthis

world

reappear over

and

over: clovispoints,

mammoths, and

elephants; cave

men and women,

apes,

and

archae- ologists.

The humans and

animals are often inter- changeable,reflectingtheanthropological perspective thatthe

human

speciesisananimalspecies similar to othersinthenaturalworld.

Hence

aViking

man

ar- rives

on

America'sshore

and

meetshis counterpart, the

musk

ox;butlo

and

behold,theViking

and musk ox

lookalike.

Along

similarlines,

Bob

lovedto intermix ancient

and modern

times. In

one

illustration, a cave

man

^is

shown

"playinggolf witha golfclub

made from

astick

and

stonetool,whilehiswife

"files hernails" witha clovis point, herhair

up

ⁱⁿ

curlers

made

of animal bones.

Page

13

inthroNotes Volume 23 No. 2 Fall

2002

FEMALE AMt> MAuE O'CFtRSHCES INTOOLuse..."

Invention (and ^its close cousin artistic cre- ation)isa deeply

human

characteristic,

and

thesub-

jectof

many Humphrey

^cartoons. Forexample,alight

bulbgoesoffina

woman's head

asshewatches her

husband

falltotheground, hischindragged through the earth

by

thebison

he has

been

hunting, givinghertheideaofa plow.

Bob

^loved to take a familiar

image and

put it into a sur- prise context.

One

of hiscartoons

shows

the familiar

"Wheel

of Fortune," with

Vanna White

turning blocks of letters spelling out

"Noam Chomsky."

Threecontestantssitat

the table with

name

plateslabeled Pan,Pongo,

and

Gorilla.

THETRANSITIONFROM HATINGAuDCiAWRlMGTODOMESTICATION

Finally, Bob's cartoons speakto issuessuch as repatriation,

gender

discrimination, culturalrela- tivism

and

thequestion ofuniversal

human

rights [see

page

9 ofthis issue].

As

hesaid,

If

we

can learn to laugh at ourselves, it

becomes

veryeasytoseethroughracism, sex- ism, fundamentalism,

and

alltheother nasty 'isms'thatourspeciesistoo oftenpreyto.

In2002

Bob

proudlyaccepted, along withthe AnthroNotes editors, the Society for

American

Ar- chaeology

Award

for Excellence in Education for

"presenting archaeological

and

anthropological re- searchtothe publicinanengaging

and

accessiblestyle,

and

forencouragingthestudy of thesedisciplinesin classrooms across thenation."

In hisessay, "TheAitofAnthropology,"(An-

thropology Explored),

Bob

describes

what

cartooning

meant

to him:

"The

ability to

make

andunderstandcartoons represents

some

of the

most complex

symbolic thought, expression,

and

self-reflectionof

which humans

arecapable....As ananthropologist,Ipar- ticularly enjoy

drawing

for

AnthroNotes

be- causeI

am

^ableto

work

as

an

artist

and

anthro- pologist simulta- neously."

We

^{will miss you,} Bob.

On

behalf ofallthe AnthroNotesreaders

who have

enjoyed

your

artistry

and humor

thesepast24years,

we

expressourheart- feltthanksforall

you

didto create a

world

of irony

and humor,

^levity

and

^insight,

which

enrichedours

and

others' lives inimmeasurable ways. Neither

we

nor ourreaderswill everforgetyou.

by Ruth O. Selig with the other AnthroNotes editors,

Alison S. Brooks,

Ann

^Kaupp, and_Jo

Anne

~Lanouette.

Page 14