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\ / NEWS / THURSDAY, APRIL 8, 2010 / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / KANSAN.COM
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John Hoopes, associate professor of anthropology, and director of the Global Indigenous Nations Program, is one of the world's leading experts of the Costa Rican stone sphere.
Decoding great stones of mystery
Archeologist works to put Costa Rican spheres on UN list
BY JENNY TERRELL jterrell@kansan.com
John Hoopes often receives e-mails from people predicting what the several stone spheres scattered throughout Costa Rica actually are.
Out of the e-mails he's opened over the years, he said one person theorized that they were mileage markers along a race route that the Shamans ran from Mexico to Peru.
And another said they might have been stones from UFOs during a battle for the Earth.
Hoopes, associate professor of anthropology and director of the Global Indigenous Nations Studies Program, returned March 13 from his third trip to Costa Rica, where he researched the origins and purposes of these 300 stone spheres.
Hoopes went
Hoopewent on this trip as an expert to evaluate the spheres, and he plans to submit a report recommending that the United Nations give them World Heritage status. There are 890 sites currently listed around the world, including the
Hoopes became interested in the spheres when he arrived at the University in 1990 and went on a trip to Golfito, Costa Rica.
"I have a hunch that these stone spheres represented something along the lines of a man's commitment to the woman's house and family."
Hoopes said his theory of the stones' origin is as a symbol of a social structure of the indigenous groups that lived in the area, a structure that centered on women.
Knowing what is built around them can spark ideas as to what they were used for. Hoopes said. However, he said, more archeological research needs to be done, and at this point conclusions cannot be made. He said the two main things people needed to understand about the stones were that they are sculp-
The balls were discovered in the 1940s, when the United Fruit Co. was clearing land to plant bananas.
He said archaeologists studying the spheres thought the groups were "matri-local," meaning that the women and their families owned the land. When a partnership was formed between a man and a woman, the man would live in the woman's house with her family.
Hoopes said the company found the spheres partially buried. Most of the stones discovered since then were half buried as well, covered by silt and mud in a river delta.
Pyramids of Giza and the Statue of Liberty.
"I have a hunch that these stone spheres represented something along the lines of a man's commitment to the woman's house and family." Hoopes said. "When he set up his big spheres in front of the house, that signaled a commitment."
Archeologist Fransisco Corrales, who received his doctorate from the University in 2000, has done field research with Hoopes. He is currently excavating the stones in Costa Rica and said they range from an inch to more than 8 feet and weigh anywhere from a few pounds to 15 tons.
Hoopes said to qualify as a World Heritage site, the site had to have an outstanding universal value to
JOHN HOOPES
Associate professor of anthropology
humanity with the idea that the monumental spherical stone is a basic geometrical shape that everyone experiences in nature. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization will make the decision.
Hoopes said the organization
had not yet made a final recommendation. The nomination process is lengthy and can take anywhere from two to 10 years.
Hoopes' fascination with the stone spheres has had an influence on his teaching.
Anne Egitt, a graduate student from Cleveland, said her sphere research and Hoopes' expertise on the subject were what brought her to the University.
She said she enjoyed Hoopes as a professor because he thought of his students as junior colleagues and let them have their own ideas and challenge each other.
"Dr. Hoopes is one of the leading authorities on Costa Rican archeology." Egatto said.
In the fall, he will teach a course on archeological myths and realities, which will discuss extraterrestrials and controversial theories of Native American origins.
Edited by Jesse Ranqel
CAMPUS
Nobel Prize winner discusses student activism
BY ZACH GETZ
zgetz@kansan.com
Jody Williams, a 1997 Nobel Peace Prize winner for her work on the international ban of land-mines, spoke at the Kansas Union last night. She was the keynote speaker for Into the Streets Week, which began Monday and will conclude Sunday.
Williams talked about her own experience as an activist and the importance of activism in our community. The Kansan had a chance to sit down and talk with Williams before her lecture.
Q: What are the positives about activism?
A: I think it's a negative not to be in activism. I believe citizenship requires action.I don't believe citizenship is just having the privilege of living in the United States or European Democracy and voting every four years, then sitting back and exclaiming the government should be taking care of all the issues.It's my job as a citizen to try and get them to do what they said they were going to do when they campaigned, not what they're trying to do when in power.I believe citizenship is a lost art here in the United States."
Q2: Do you think activism has risen, declined, or just changed over the years?
Q: Iraq is a very unpopular war, but what made people more vocal about Vietnam?
A: "The circumstances are just different. I think there are young people a lot more involved in ways that I never had or knew about. So when people say that young people don't care, I don't see that."
A: "I think part of the reason there's not the activism is because there's not a draft. I think if middle class families had to worry about their children going to war, there would be a lot more discussion. I am a firm believer in the reinstatement of the draft ... I think it would be way better if every young person at the age of 18 had to do something for society. I would like to see high school graduates have to give two years, whether it be to the military or some other social service. Then they get credits for college, or whatever training they wanted after that."
A: "I think I'd be dizzy with the options I'd have, I'm impressed with the range of volunteer opportunities that there are here through the school, programs
Q: What can you people do to get involved this day in age?
Q&A with Jody Williams
that they can do during summer vacation and other vacations through the school year.I don't think there is an excuse for not being involved other than they don't want to, they don't care, or they're lazy. There are organizations that are working on any issue that one could care about. If there aren't, I heard here on campus it only takes two people to make a student group.I certainly think I could find one other person who believed what I believed. That's how I started. One other person and me, and we grew to 13,000 and changed the world. It's not magic; it's getting off your butt and taking the first step."
Q: What is one thing you would like to tell the student body?
A: "We always worry about our rights, but we also have responsibilities.I believe that living in a place like the United States, and studying at a place like the University of Kansas, you have a responsibility to give back in some way.There is not anyone on this campus that could not volunteer one hour a month. Imagine if everyone who really believed that the world could be a better place volunteered one hour a month-the world would be an amazing place"
Tanner Grubbs/KANSAN
Edited by Ashley Montgomery
Jody Williams, winner of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for her work banning and clearing anti-personnel mines across the globe, speaks to a crowd inside the Kansas Union. Williams began her life as an activist when a pamphlet led her to a discussion on a war in El Salvador.
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