University Daily Kansan / Monday, February 8, 1988
Campus/Area
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Pageant tops celebration
By Kathleen Faddis
Kansan staff writer
Wayne Webb, KU's Mr. Ebony of 1988, is proud he is black.
"I represent a race that has endured 400 years of obstacles and progress; not only am I proud to be brave, I am privileged to be black," said Webb, Shawnee junior and president of the Black Student Union.
Webb was one of seven participants in the Black Student Union's sixth annual Mr. Ebony/Ms. Essence Pageant Saturday night. About 225 people attended the event.
Vonda Holmes, Kansas City, Kan., senior, was crowned Ms. Essence.
The pageant was part of "Pieces of a Dream," the opening weekend of KU's celebration of Black History Month. Also featured yesterday was the Black Student All-Star Game, which included a vengeance" that also included groups singing from Korea.
Black history has been celebrated nationally since 1926, said Vernell Spearman, director of minority affairs. The events have been observed at the University of Kansas for 12 years.
Del-Metri Bynum, Topeka senior and coordinator of the pageant, sdi BSU sponsored the pageant to promote cultural identity with the black students. That is especially important in a mostly white environment like KU, she said. Blacks compose about 3 percent of KU's student population.
Contestants told the audience why they liked being black and answered questions about black issues. The contest also included a talent competition.
Webb, who played piano selections from the movie musical "Fame", and Holmes, who did a dramatic reading from the black poet Langston Hughes, were also crowned Mr. and Ms. Congeniality.
Other participants in the event were: Traci Parker, Kansas City, Kan., freshman; Kimberly Davis, St. Louis junior; Angela Frey, Topeka senior; Sean Debardelaben, Chicago junior; and Keith Smith, Topeka junior.
Gladra Owens, a sophomore at Stephens College in Columbia, Mo., belts out a song during the Gospel Extravaganza. The musical event Sunday in the Kansas Union Ballroom was part of "Pieces of a Dream," a series sponsored by the Black Student Union to celebrate Black History Month.
'Pieces of a dream'
Weekend events promote black unity
By Kathleen Faddis
Kansan staff writer
Even in a predominantly white environment like the University of Kansas, blacks can emerge with strength if they are united and work together, a Kansas City radio talk show host said Friday night.
The talk show host, Carl Boyd, told about 25 people in Alderson Auditorium at the opening event of the "Pieces of a Dream" weekend that he loved being black.
Boyd hosts two discussion programs on KPRS radio in Kansas City is a director and founder of an art firm, forming firm, the Art of Positive Teaching.
Blacks are a communal people, Boyd said.
Black communities draw their strength from their collective and cooperative nature, he said. He distinguished them from European societies, which often emphasize independence.
Boyd described the Ida B. Wells housing project in Chicago, the community where he grew up in the 1950s. In those days, even the worst street-corner hoodlums would look out for the neighborhood kids, he said.
Boyd described seven principles found among African tribes which he said U.S. blacks could incorporate in their own communities. These principles of tribalism could be used in the effort toward upward mobility, he said.
The characteristics included unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative ecology, purpose, creativity and faith.
He compared them with today's
The strength of the black community comes from its extended families, churches and from the organizations that helped start the civil rights movement, says Carl Boyd, KPRS radio host.
projects where, he said, blacks sell drugs to younger black children.
He said the strength of the black community has come through its extended families, churches and black organizations, such as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Congress of Racial Equality. Those organizations began the freedom rides of the 1950s and 1960s, which was the start of the long struggle for civil rights, he said.
Boyd talked about the violence black men commit on one another.
Oppressed people often lash out at those closest to them, who also remind them of themselves, he said. But Boyd did not excuse black-on-black violence. He said he believed in taking responsibility instead of blaming others.
Lisa Rowe, Kansas City, Kan., senior, said, "My favorite color is black; it is a beautiful and mysterious color that makes a statement. Black can stand alone or complement another color, and these are the qualities I see in my race."
Before Boyd's speech, audience members who braved sub-zero temperatures to attend the event also said they loved being black.
Proof of cannibalism found
Researcher describes discovery of prehistoric bones in ca
By Brenda Finnell
Kansan staff writer
Cuts and scratches on the prehistoric human bones were nearly identical to the marks butchering tools left on animal bones.
Scientists who found the bones in a cave in southeastern France believed they had made a unique discovery.
"It was quite clear to us we were dealing with a case of cannibalism," said Paola Villa, one of the researchers.
Villa worked on the Fontbregne cave project from 1983 until research results were published in 1964. A team of French, Italian and U.S. scientists began initial work at the cave in 1971.
Villa, a research associate with the anthropology department and museum at the University of Colorado-Boulder, spoke to about 60 people Friday at an anthropology lecture and graduate colloquium in the Kansas Union's Jayhawk Room. She also showed slides of the cannibalism research.
Cannibalism is a controversial subject because it's difficult to
collect definite evidence, Villa said.
"There is a lot of literature about it in human society, but most of what we know are anecdotal in nature," she said.
Scientists had to prove that the marks on the bones were manmade and that the flesh had been eaten and not just removed as part of a burial process. Villa said.
After examining the bones, which date to 4000 B.C., she and her colleagues were able to prove a definite case of Stone Age cannibalism, Villa said.
Researchers found three areas of the cave containing human bones. They also found numerous pits with bones of animals such as sheep and wild bears. Villa said the best cluster of human bones was in a 80-centimeter-by40-centimeter, basin-shaped pit.
That pit contained partial remains of six humans. Their bones were discarded after the flesh had been removed, Villa said.
"We were looking at little garbage dumps," she said.
By using a scanning electron
microscope, the researchers could see that cuts on both the human and animal bones were identical, indicating that man-made tools were used on both types of bones, Villa said.
Villa said the researchers knew that the cuts were not left by animal teeth because grooves in the bones would have been smooth, rather than rough. Grooves seen on the bones with the aid of the microscope were rough, she said.
The marks were not caused by trampling either. Villa said, Trampling caused similar marks to butchering, but would have scattered the bones, she said.
Although the researchers are certain that cannibalism was practiced at the site, they are unsure why it happened.
Anthropologists such as William Arens, author of "The Man-eating Myth," have written that cannibalism never occurred, except when groups of people faced starvation, Villa said.
Villa said that it was difficult to determine what caused the Font-bregoua cannibalism case but that
*Paola Villa*, research associate at the University of Colorado, uses a classroom skeleton to show where marks were cut on prehistoric human bones. Villa spoke on cannibalism Friday in the Kansas Union.
starvation could probably be ruled out. The area had ample food supplies and a Mediterranean climate, she said.
"It's not like being in the middle of nowhere," she said.
Villa speculated that the cannibalism was caused by intergroup
hostility, but said that researchers needed to discover other cannibalism sites to make a definite determination.
Residence halls organize committees to discourage vandals
By Kim Lightle
Kansan staff writer
Residents at McCollum, Oliver and Ellsworth residence halls have formed an organization called Residents Against Area Damage to prevent vandalism in their halls.
Hanson said the group tried to make residents aware of vandalism and get them to respect their living area.
group at McColm Hall, helped start the program in Januarv 1987.
after hearing about McCollum's program.
"There was no great rise in vandalism," Reid said. "I just thought it would be a nice addition to Oliver."
Laura Reid, a resident assistant at Oliver Hall, decided to start a group
last semester and was still getting organized.
Eric Hanson, student adviser to the
Reid, who is the Oliver group's student adviser, said that the 15-member group formed at the end of
Jim Malench, Ellsworth Hall president, said that Ellsworth started its program last semester because of increasing vandalism. People also were taking furniture from the lobies, he said.
Ellsworth's five-member committee recently decided to fine people who removed furniture and revoke their hall privileges until the fine was paid.
Kendra Martin, chairman of the McCollum Hall improvement committee, said that there was a lot of
"There was trash and food in the stairwells," she said. "People were throwing stuff out of their windows."
Martin said the group offered rewards to anyone who turned in vandals.
vandalism in the hall last year.