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Historia vol.55 no.2 Durban Nov. 2010
Cherchez la femme!
Jean-Marie Dederen
C. Eller, The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory: Why an Invented Past won't give Women a Future
Beacon Press, Boston, 2000
288 pp
The Realm of the Great Goddess; The Reflowering of the Goddess; The Great Mother Earth; Mythology, the Matriarchy and Me; Motherpeace: A Way to the Goddess...
For those of you who are interested in a spiritual feminist window on life, an infinite number of titles avail themselves in your local bookstore. But before you rush into buying one, you might want to read Eller's critical monograph first. The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory combines a serious scrutiny of popular, as well as more academic writing on the presumed existence of a cult of the Goddess in ancient gynocentric societies. Even if after reading the monograph, you do not agree with the author's ideological position, you will certainly have widened, in the process, your scope of this particular field of study and of the literature relevant to its analysis.
Defining the myth of matriarchal prehistory
In the first three chapters, the author explores and explains her personal fascination with the subject. She also presents the central thesis underlying the myth, and she demonstrates the tremendous impact it has had on popular culture. Eller uses the label "matriarchal" to refer to this particular brand of feminism, though she readily admits that many of the authors whose publications she intends to debunk, prefer not to use the term. They do not want to encourage the common assumption that "matriarchal societies" simply represent a mirror opposite of the patriarchy. Women in prehistory, they contend, were not dominating men. They ruled on harmonious terms with men. Despite this, Eller insists on using the term "matriarchal" in her book, as an appropriate reference to a society where women's power was higher or equal to men, and where culture centred on values and life events described as feminine.
Such a society, she proposes, is mythical. No historical evidence has been found in support of its existence. Eller admits that the use of the term "myth" is not without problems either. Indeed, some of the "matriarchal feminists" have stated categorically that it isn't really important to them whether the era of the Goddess really existed or not...! They defend their theoretical vision as an agenda or a model for living, rather than as a historical truth. Perhaps it would be more scientific, Eller deliberated for some time, to call the concept of matriarchal prehistory a hypothesis or theory. However, she eventually decided the matriarchal window on prehistory could be called a myth, in that it constitutes a value-laden narrative, dense in imagery and rich in poetic language.
The myth, matriarchalists believe, offers women a new, improved self-concept. Its purpose is to redeem and revaluate the feminine. Many followers of the myth strongly feel that the feminist movement has failed. The myth is in essence a spiritualist movement in which the mystery of female biology features centrally, in combination with a revived version of an older paradigm know as "difference feminism". It has become part of the cultural mainstream in Europe and North America, through the mediation of textbooks, plays, poetry, movies, the tourism industry, and educational syllabi.
The matriarchal myth, Eller reports, isn't really new. In its original form, it can be traced back to classical Greek history. The anthropologists McLennan, Spencer, Tyler and Morgan rejuvenated the classical myth, and their evolutionist thinking inspired Freud, Marx and Engels, who constructed their own versions of matriarchal prehistory. With the exception of Hartland, Frazer and the Soviet scholars in this field, anthropologists rejected the myth at the beginning of the twentieth century, mainly on account of the fact that by then the era of "armchair research" had been replaced by ethnographic fieldwork. However, several archaeologists, art historians, classic historians and psychoanalysts (including Reich, Fromm and Neumann) continued their search for the matriarchal origins of society.
In the 1970s the myth re-emerged with a clear shift in emphasis. Previously, evolutionist thinking propagated the notion that a patriarchal revolution had replaced the matriarchy, and had pushed humankind forward in its long path of development towards modern civilisation. In contrast, the feminists who revived the myth depicted the prehistoric matriarchy as a superior society. They suggested that the era of the Goddess came to end when violent migrations established the patriarchy. Matriarchal feminist theory, Eller proposes, gained popularity in the 1980s because of three reasons. Feminist anthropologists like Shelly Ortner, prevented the myth from developing any roots within the discipline and in doing so encouraged popular writings. Also, the myth gained tremendously from converting to a spiritualist approach, involving women in magic and healing. Finally, Marija Gimbutas and her research on the prehistoric remains of Europe before the Indo-European migrations, provided the followers of the Goddess with ample material "evidence" for the existence of a Goddess.
Most matriarchalists locate the flourishing of the Goddess cult in the Neolithic, somewhere between 8 000 and 3 000 B.C. The most popular locations for its heartland are "Old Europe" (South-East Europe), the Mediterranean (Malta, Crete) and the archaeological Near East (more specifically the site of Catalhuyuck in Anatolia). The utopian, golden age of matriarchy is routinely defined by such features as: peace, prosperity, harmony with nature, appropriate use of technology, sexual freedom and gender equity. Agriculture is said to have been its greatest achievement. Sex was considered sacred, and its sacrality was expressed by and concentrated in the Goddess figurines. Kinship centred on matriliny and matrilocality. Women ruled, as religious functionaries, in a very benign way, and motherhood provided a "natural" model for leadership. Matriarchalist writing suggests that prehistoric men were not fully aware of their contribution to human reproduction, and that childbirth was a kind of mystery of which the womb was the only visual manifestation. The end of the matriarchy, it is generally proposed, coincided with the change from simple agriculture to pastoralism, or to a more technological kind of agriculture. Some believe that this transition was gradual and internal. Others suggest that invasions by pastoralist societies brutally ended the era of the Goddess. The Kurgans of the Russian steppes are often blamed for ending the era of the matriarchy.
Evaluating the evidence for the myth
Archaeology and anthropology have provided the matriarchalists with the data to support their vision of prehistoric society. Eller dedicates an entire chapter (chapter 5) to the exploration of the possibilities, as well as to the identification of the limitations of these two disciplines, before taking on 'The Case against Matriarchal Prehistories' (chapters 6 and 7), in the second half of the monograph.
The early anthropologists - the evolutionists - have based their reconstruction of the matriarchal past on the study of its assumed cultural remnants in subsequent historical periods. They referred to this data source as "living fossils" and "survivals". The arm-chair approach of the evolutionists, Eller suggests, has not generated very reliable evidence. Many matriarchalist researchers, on the other hand, use "ethnographic analogy" to animate the prehistoric remains of the past. They look for anthropological answers to archaeological questions. There is, in principle, nothing wrong with using living cultures for the interpretation of ancient remains, Eller reassures. Rather, it is anthropological fieldwork itself that should be treated with suspicion. Reconstructions of the social life of a people are almost unavoidably, generalising in nature. Further, what people say they do and what actually happens in real life, are often two very different things. Finally, she cautions the reader, anthropological fieldworkers cannot possibly be expected to observe the totality of a people's life. All of these arguments, incidentally, are pretty standard in the literature relating to a post-modern critique of anthropology.
On the other hand, the greatest problem with prehistoric artefacts is that they are few in supply and limited in terms of social meaning. Archaeological data acquisition goes through a double process of selection: only what has been preserved and recovered through excavation, avails itself for analysis. Prehistory, Eller suggests rather pessimistically, offers the researcher of ancient cultures a "scattershot affair of things". Also, gender issues have only recently entered prehistoric debates, and archaeologists are generally still unsure how, or even if, gender is detectable in the record. Feminist archaeologists, therefore, like their colleagues in anthropology, have steered away from the myth. They prefer gender categories that are variable, permeable, changeable and ambiguous, dynamic and historically specific. One could, of course, simply admit that the myth is of a subjective nature, as some matriarchalists have done. This would mean that the researcher allows for the fact that her interests, values, judgements, histories and life experiences have become part of the research process. Seemingly, this is not considered to be an authentic option by Eller, judging from the chapter ending in which she spells out in detail how to bring about rigour in anthropological research and the formulation of assumptions.
The case against matriarchal prehistory
In chapter 6, Eller critically weighs the anthropological "facts" that have been put forward in defence of the existence of a prehistoric matriarchy. She identifies four general areas for the borrowing of anthropological data: reproduction and kinship; the goddess worship; women and the division of labour; and interpersonal violence.
As far as reproduction and kinship are concerned, the matriarchalists have proposed that the matrilocal and matrilineal social arrangements of power were invented in societies that conceived of birth as a mystery or a miracle. In these particular societies the ignorance of paternity, it is proposed, has shaped the religious and symbolic importance of motherhood. Unfortunately, Eller maintains, the anthropological literature seems rather vague on the issue of matrilineal beliefs concerning human reproduction. She claims not to have found any society that has not granted some significance to biological paternity. In addition, the feminist anthropologist Ortner has suggested that in matrilineal societies motherhood has not really been rewarded by political prestige. Even those societies that practised couvade and womb-envy rituals did not award any prestige to their women. If prehistoric men envied women, it would most probably have worked to their detriment, not to their advantage.
The female goddesses in historical societies generally appear to have been creations of the male fantasy, rather than of female worshippers. The matriarchal Goddess, Eller proposes, is simply an imaginary construct. It is defined in terms of what male gods are not. The notion of the Goddess was conceived to provide rich possibilities for modern women's psychic and spiritual life. Also, many ancient goddesses of the historical societies (e.g. in Sumer and Canaan), were clearly linked to war. If Goddess worship ever existed, Eller concludes, it would probably have indicated a bad state of affairs for women.
It is doubtful that the invention of agriculture can be attributed to women. Judging from the anthropological literature, it is even more uncertain that women gained prestige from being more industrious or from contributing more to the economy. Anthropology shows that division of work did exist, but pre-modern societies generally display no uniformity in terms of deciding who does what. Foraging and horticultural societies show no evidence of women being recognised as economic pillars or as tribal mothers. Seemingly agriculture was never the preserve of women to the same degree as hunting was of men. At best, Eller concludes, it can be said that prehistoric women could have flourished in some societies, but would have been exploited in others. There certainly is no uniform picture.
Finally, the proposition that matriarchal societies were peaceful is probably the weakest of all hypotheses. Weapons occur in all prehistoric contexts, and based on our knowledge of living cultures, it is clear that weapons and fortifications do not necessarily leave objectively discernable material traces.
Which brings Eller to the discussion of the prehistoric evidence for the Goddess theory (in chapter7). The main problem of interpreting archaeological images (rock art, figurines etc.), we are told, is that they look invitingly familiar, and therefore inferences tend to be intuitive, empathic and imaginative, rather than objective. Archaeologists generally agree that art is a slippery interpretive terrain, but that has not stopped the matriarchalists from finding proof "in virtually every scrap of prehistoric art". The realm of the Franco-Cantabrian cave art is one of the favourite places for researchers to look for the symbolism of the Goddess. In doing so, matriarchalists followed in the footsteps of two pioneering experts in the field of French Palaeolithic art: the Abbé Breuil and André Leroi-Gourhan. Both archaeologists claimed to have found convincing evidence of a prehistoric sign system expressive of male and female sexuality. In their "vulva finding expedition", Eller sneers, the Goddess worshippers found proof for a universal symbolism of birth and fertility. Unfortunately, she adds, one can read into the signs whatever one likes. The same applies to the painted human figures, many of which lack clear sexual features. Eller concludes sarcastically that female has become the default sex of the anthropomorphic imagery from early prehistory. Worse still, images that combine the two sexes are sometimes declared female and are labelled "phallic goddess" by some supporters of the myth!
The meaning of the so-called Palaeolithic "Venus figurines" is rather unceremoniously declared to be "irresolvable". These artefacts, she explains, are characterised by a limited spatio-temporal distribution and, therefore, can hardly represent a universal religious phenomenon. Also, Eller notes, they are not showing any convincing signs of representing fertility; they are not accompanied by children, are not involved in lactation, and appear to be fat rather than pregnant. The Neolithic figurine art, she admits, could perhaps generate more plausible interpretations, and is probably associated with the origins of agriculture, the alleged economic realm of the Goddess. Unfortunately, no ancient religion seems to assign agricultural fertility to a single female goddess. In addition, the ethnographic evidence reveals that figurines were used for a wide variety of functions. Unfortunately, few of these can be traced back unambiguously in the archaeological context. Female goddesses may be more visible than their male counterparts in many cultures, but many of these cultures are patriarchal. Even if a certain figurine type represented a female goddess, how would one determine its real meaning? And how did it relate to male gods? Finally, Eller cautions, it may be true, generally, that female figurines substantially outnumber their male counterparts in Neolithic sites. However, that does not absolve researchers from looking for the meaning of sexless and male figurines.
In the second half of the chapter on the prehistoric Goddess related data, Eller looks at the archaeological art of the three cultural areas most closely associated with the Goddess: Catalhuyuck, Malta and Crete. Mellaart, who first excavated a section of the Catalhuyuck site, is believed to have found references to a possible goddess cult. However, Ian Hodder who re-started the dig in 1993, corrected many of the initial findings. Mellaart had found stylised female figurines, moulded breast-shaped reliefs, a seated female figure (known as "the goddess with the leopards") and plaster relief sculptures of females with swollen bellies. Matriarchalists, obviously, have focused on this female imagery and conveniently ignored the masculine representations: cattle horns incorporated in plastered heads, depictions of hunting, and male figurines. Malta, on the other hand, has produced large stone statues which several matriarchalists have described as female goddesses. The lay-out of the famous megalithic tombs supposedly replicated the general shape of these female statues. Eller refutes this evidence as not convincing. The Minoan palaces of Crete are said to replicate the body of the Goddess too. In addition, the famous palace frescoes and the faience figurines with bare breasts holding snakes, the matriarchalists believe, represent an ancient world ruled by women. Eller reminds the reader, in response, that all the evidence for hunting and combat, which does not fit the myth, as well as the depictions of men in body postures similar to the goddesses, have conveniently been swept under the analytical carpet.
The end of the goddess
Chapter 8 explores the end of the era of the Goddess, which allegedly coincided with the invasion of patriarchal, nomadic, warlike tribes who had moved from their homeland (the Russian-Ukrainian steppes) into Europe. Three sources are commonly used in support of this hypothesis: linguistic evidence, artefacts and genetics. The spreading of Indo-European languages supports the dates proposed for the decline of the Goddess cult. And the attempts to reconstruct the "original" Indo-European mother tongue, does provide some support for the location of an "original" society in the steppes. Unfortunately, Eller reminds the reader, the movement of languages does not necessarily inform us about the peoples who spoke them. The same argument goes for the matching of artefacts with units of people.
Since its inception, archaeology has focused primarily on the identification and location of groups of artefacts in time and space. Prehistorians have traditionally created chronologies, and studied the movement or diffusion of artefacts. They have also loosely associated artefact types with cultures. Since the 1970s, however, the migration-diffusion paradigm has been seriously questioned by practitioners within the New Archaeology. The simple correlation between peoples and artefacts has been rejected too. The main critic of migration narratives has been Colin Renfrew, who has suggested that there was no real need for steppe peoples to migrate or invade their neighbours. Archaeologists do not need invasions from the East to account for cultural transformations in the West.
Genetic evidence is probably even more speculative. Some data can be used in support of the myth. Data that doesn't promote the myth is usually omitted. In the 1970s Cavalli-Sforza used genetic data to identify early migrations from the Near East, as well as later movements from the Ukraine and South Russia radiating into Europe. Unfortunately these cannot be dated very accurately. In short: the issue of migrations remains largely unresolved, and therefore Eller declares the link between migrations and a patriarchal invasion to be speculative.
The goddess in literary traditions
In the final chapter Eller briefly discusses the attempts made by some matriarchalists to link literate historical traditions with prehistory. Texts from Sumer are amazingly supportive of a woman-centred society... at least in the upper class stratum. The realm of ordinary citizens, in contrast, depicts patriarchal domination. The earliest written Cretan sources, which could perhaps support a female dominated Minoan society, are still awaiting the deciphering of the script in which they have been produced (linear A). Later texts, in linear B, depict the Mycenaean patriarchy. Homer's description of Greece in the Bronze Age, relates of a society with powerful aristocratic women. Classical Greece, on the other hand, describes a most unfavourable social set-up for women, a "reign of the phallus", as Eva Keuls has called it. Ancient mythology describes the replacement of female deities by male gods (e.g. Tiamat and Marduk; Persephone and Hades; the birth of Athena). Eller explains the narratives of a mythical age of female domination - with the help of Malinowski's functionalist theory of religion - as literary creations in which men provide a "social charter" justifying the existence of male dominance in the present. Phrased differently, gynocentric mythology could have been a tool, used by the patriarchy, to mystify inequities in the social order and to justify male control. They were didactical rather than historical.
"Why an invented past won't give women a future"
The author's main thesis is discussed somewhat prematurely in the first half of the book (in chapter 4). Eller has decided to devote an entire chapter exploring the theoretical underpinnings of the matriarchal myth. The focus is on the basic assumptions underlying the matriarchalist understanding of the nature of the "feminine" and the sexual determination of women's personality, preferences and values. The paradigm that best embodies these issues is known as "difference feminism". It defines female identity primarily in terms of childbirth and menstruation. It states that the biological qualities of womanhood are responsible for the development of female virtues like nurturance, compassion, intuitiveness and the love for an ethical, lawful and spiritual way of life. According to the same paradigm men are believed to display the opposite personality features: they are said to be aggressive, cold, rational, competitive and possessive. Some of the more moderate matriarchalists, however, also recognize positive male roles and they strive for a balance between masculinity and femininity. They invite men to embrace, or to allow for the feminine in themselves. The original matriarchal society is generally believed to be holistic, and the dualities that characterise modern society (nature-culture; male-female; mind-body) are habitually blamed on the patriarchal revolution.
Difference feminism, the author believes, is outdated and supportive of biological determinism. The valorisation of motherhood is a rightwing, conservative ideal type, and the reader is referred to writers such as Sherry Ortner and Simone de Beauvoir for its deconstruction. Reaching out for an archetypical female identity, Eller explains further, makes women less human and the division of human characteristics along gendered lines is tantamount to inviting sexism and supporting classism. The alternative Eller suggests is simple: women are to negotiate sex differences. Gender has been explained in terms of human nature, cultural learning or performance. The bottom line is that gender is as real as race and class. The discussion of gender differences, we are told, provides an excuse for male discrimination, just as debating the meaning of race fuels racism. The concept of gender differences supports the cultural mechanisms by which women are subordinated to men. Gender should not be reified; as a woman you should refuse to be included in a category. In the final analysis, Eller explains, the concept of femaleness relates to what one experiences when being perceived as a woman or being treated as one. In short, matriarchalist theories are not acceptable on critical feminist grounds, as the myth does not remedy male dominance. It may be ideologically strong and appear impressive, but it is essentially regressive in political terms.
Eller feels confident to conclude that prehistoric life was nasty, brutish, short, and male-dominated rather than blissful, peaceful, long and matriarchal. The concept of matriarchal prehistory is nothing more that a myth created by women who long for freedom, safety and equality. This myth is unacceptable to feminists, because myths are nostalgic and therefore escapist and dysfunctional. Even if such a kind of society did exist, it is not women's destiny to attempt and revive it. The past is not our destiny, biology is not our destiny. Women, Eller explains, do not need a history of sexism to tell them that sexism is bad, or that it should be opposed.
Much ado...
All in all, working through The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory was an interesting but somewhat frustrating experience. Halfway through the book, the negative and aggressive nature of Eller's critical exercise begins to irritate, if not wear down the reader. In the end, one is left with the distinct impression that she wanted not only to disprove the myth, by pointing out its factual and ideological weaknesses, but also intended to wipe it off the surface of the earth, once and for all!
I find Eller's approach, in addition to being overstretched, also ambiguous. She casually blends two distinct critical perspectives. On the one hand, as an academic and as a historian, the author denounces the myth's lack of scientific method and factual evidence. On the other hand, she has taken a clear political stance, when she attempts to dispose of the matriarchy on feminist grounds and when she declares this particular matriarchal theory to be harmful to the feminist cause. Eller states repeatedly that she cannot support "difference feminism". She has decided to oppose a female identity that is symbolic, timeless and archetypical. Women should have the freedom to choose their own personal identity, informed by political and moral preferences. Eller rejects the matriarchal myth on the basis of a political choice.
More significantly, her position on what constitutes the right form of feminism (far from being irrelevant), shapes her understanding of what is "scientific", and what is not. The "divide" which Eller observes between anthropological fieldworkers who describe a society's official ideology as against those who prefer to study behavioural variation, is clearly inspired by a notion of feminism that emphasises the subtleties, complexities, contradictions and ambiguities of gender relations. Again, I am not saying that her position is wrong. However, it does not constitute a scientific or empirical truth either. Rather, it is merely one of several positions within the feminist camp.
This methodological flaw is worsened by the fact that Eller is neither an archaeologist, nor an anthropologist. In my opinion, she simply lacks the expertise or the "flair" to write about these disciplines in terms of meta-theory. For a non-professional, the task of evaluating the factual evidence relating to the matriarchy constitutes enough of a challenge. A vast amount of fieldwork data avails itself in the literature. Eller not only weighs this data, she attempts to critique the anthropological discipline itself. Her remarks on the methodological weaknesses of prehistory are indicative of the same kind of bias.
At times, Eller is far too keen and quick to denounce the value or the meaningfulness of those facts and artefacts that she has selected for "discussion" (read annihilation). It is true that the concepts of "survivals and fossil ideas" (evolutionism) and the migration paradigm (diffusionism) have been the subject of intense critique, both within archaeology and anthropology. They have not been totally discarded however. In fact migration models are being revived in some archaeological circles and social Darwinism has made a re-appearance in a much more reasonable form. I think it is immature to assume that older approaches within a discipline have become irrelevant to modern day practice. It is an accepted truism in anthropology that all stages or schools are essential to the intellectual and methodological growth of the discipline. Anthropological growth should not be carried forward by theoretical substitution or replacement. The same, of course, applies to archaeology, and any intellectual field of study for that matter, as Kuhn has demonstrated long ago.
This is not to say that Eller is not fully entitled to her opinion. But her exclusion of essential and important contributions to the study of the relationships between gender, culture and personality (e.g. by Margaret Mead), creates the wrongful impression that this particular aspect of women's studies should be struck off the research agenda of any serious and responsible academic. Eller unintentionally conveys the notion that many anthropologists, and prehistorians, and worse still, the pre-modern or non-Western societies which they study, have nothing of interest to contribute on the subject of gender opposition, or at least nothing that isn't going to be denounced stante pede as classist and racist.
Sadly, Eller's anthropological overview of what is known of matrilineal societies is plain shallow. No convincing attempt was made by the author to objectively evaluate existing ethnographic data. The fact that much of this data is interpreted by some matriarchalists in a simplistic or a naive fashion, does not reduce its relevance to the debate. In short: her critical review of relevant anthropological and archaeological facts is generally biased and often incomplete. These essential flaws are disguised by Eller's general statements on the perceived limitations of anthropological and archaeological methodologies: "material relics can easily be misinterpreted"; "anthropology is selective and subjective by nature", etc...
Symbolic femininity: An authentic subject
It is one thing to oppose the matriarchal myth, but another to try and disprove the existence of any form of gynocentrism in society. Eller is well on her way to do just that. If we were to follow her advice and reject any data related to the "difference paradigm", there certainly wouldn't be much left to research, for those with an interest in gender relations in pre-modern societies. Thinking in terms of gender differences may be old hat in certain feminist circles, or it may constitute a poor strategy for the liberation of women in contemporary society, as Eller has suggested. More importantly, however, it has been (and continues to be) an integral part of the strategies women have used in traditional or rural communities to build female identities and to validate themselves in opposition to men.
In the process of differentiating themselves from men, women, naturally, have turned to the life-giving powers in the cosmos, when creating metaphors for the expression of female identities. Women have mystified these powers and created female ideologies, mythologies, rites, ceremonies and deities around them. The fact that this is not to Eller's liking does not make symbolic expressions of femininity less "real" or authentic. The symbolic discourse of procreation explored obvious analogies with the key elements of agricultural subsistence: the earth, the soil, vegetation, rain and the occurrence of seasonal changes. In fact, I believe, the intersection between agriculture and religion is a perfect place to look for instances of female symbolic thought.
Traditional Zulu religion provides us with an interesting case study of how gynocentric energies or tendencies in society were expressed in the form of a religious ideal-type, in this particular case known as "the Heavenly Princess". Nomkhubulwana or iNkosazana yeZulu was believed to be the daughter of the supreme Sky deities iNkosikazi yeZulu and iNkosi. She was the object of a fertility cult. She was closely associated with young unmarried girls. Only children and girls were permitted to look at her; men would be struck by blindness or a serious illness when laying their eyes on her. She appeared dressed only in a string of white beads, a white garment or a very colourful gown that evoked colourful visions of a rainbow, the forest, pastures, a bed of reeds and cultivated fields. She always made her shy and quiet appearance on misty days and was believed to plead with her father, on behalf of humans, for steady and frequent rains.1 The following is an account of the festival or celebration organised in her honour:
The girls participating in the celebrations were to be married soon after the festival. Young unmarried mothers were strictly prohibited from joining the festival. The participants waited for the first mist in spring to secretly prepare uNomdede beer from the individual portions of millet contributed by the girls. The millet was not bought in a store; only left-over seeds from the previous harvest could be used. The Princess always descended from a particular section of the nearby mountain, visiting rivulets running through dense vegetation. Men avoided those parts of the mountain in early spring. The girls dressed in the attire of their lovers and also carried their dancing shields and sticks. They collected some of the cows belonging to the herds of their fathers. In the past the whole herd (excluding bulls and oxen) were taken to the mountain. Amongst the animals gathered should be heifers and milk-producing cows. The animals were left at a specific grazing ground. The girls then proceeded to climb the mountain, carrying their beer calabashes, some beans and maize, millet and pumpkin seeds. The beer and seeds were placed on a large rock and the girls invited the Princess with a song: "Come our Sister! (...)". The girls spent the day on the mountain, occasionally consuming some of the beer. They discussed their lovers and marriage plans. They danced around a fire and composed songs for their marriage. They quietly returned to the village with the cattle and sneaked in their homes unseen. The seeds were brought back to the individual homesteads to be mixed with the seeds for planting.2
The ritual visit of the Princess to the mountain, it was said, would produce good rains, promote the health status of livestock and create an abundant harvest. In addition, the belief complex of the Princess was meant to promote female identity. The heifers symbolised the girls themselves. Bulls were excluded from the ritual, and so were men. The Princess was said to appear as a rainbow near pools; women who failed to give birth would visit these pools for help. Men would avoid the pools fearing for their health. The Princess was also believed to teach girls good behaviour and give them advice on motherhood, the choice of a suitable partner, and the proper ways of food preparation and field cultivation.
Of equal interest is the following account on the preparation of the seeds, immediately before the start of the agricultural season. Rituals like this were of course not restricted to Zululand. They were common throughout Africa, and illustrate the close symbolic affinity that once existed between agriculture and womanhood:
On a Saturday morning, shortly after a rain shower in early spring, an elderly woman decided to "doctor" some of the maize seeds she wanted to plant in her field. She was assisted by her firstborn son who would plough the field. The woman dug a small hole in a portion of the field nearby the river and... created a small container, approximately 15cm wide and deep. The lid of a billy-can was then filled with water from the river. She took some of the water in her mouth and placed the lid with the remaining water in the hole. She sent a boy to fetch a bored stone from her yard and placed the stone on the lid in the hole. Seeds were taken from a basket and placed inside the hole of the bored stone. The seeds fell through the hole into the lid. She took some medicine in her mouth, and after mixing it with the water in her mouth the medicine was blown through the bored stone. This procedure was repeated three times, and as a result the seeds had now accumulated up to the rim of the stone. The stone and lid were removed and care was taken to remove all the medicated seeds into the basket, in order to be mixed with the untreated millet. The stone, which the woman claimed had been treated with blood, was kept under the storage hut; its hole was plugged from both sides with maize cobs.3
Berglund was told by the old woman, and by other people who were present, that the ritual was meant to ensure the fertility of the seeds. During a follow-up discussion with one of his key informants, a diviner, he was told that the ritual could only be performed by an old woman. The cavity in the ground was explained as a metaphor for the womb. The field was said to be "the mother from whom we eat" and the water from the river, the water from the womb, was explained as "the water of the children", because children were said to come from the water.4
The realm of storytelling, I discovered recently, is another very productive realm for the exploration of female symbolism and, in addition, of the qualitative features of women's opposition to patriarchal ideologies. Folklore, I learnt in the process of my research, provided rural women with a subtle and symbolic stratagem by means of which they could taunt, challenge, ridicule and critique masculinity. The following Xitsonga narrative, recorded in 2001, clearly exemplifies the subtle nature of the voice of feminity:
The Woman who Killed the Big Snake
There once was a man by the name of Mkhacani. He left home in order to hunt in the nearby mountains. He loved game hunting for the taste of the meat, especially lion's meat. There he ran into Ximemene, a Snake that had killed many. It enjoyed hiding in a tree to attack people from above. It grabbed its victim by the head and crushed the skull in order to get to the brain. The fight between the Snake and Mkhacani ended in the death of the hunter. The Snake killed the hunter in its usual way. The wife reported Mkhacani's death to the chief, who called a meeting. Strong men were sent into the mountain. They walked while singing: "Mee, Mee, Mee, Mee, Sombelisa (...)". The huge Snake scared the men back to the village. The wife was angry and made a plan. She prepared a pot of soft porridge. She walked to the mountain while balancing the pot on her head, singing the song: "Mee, Mee, Mee, Mee, Sombelisa...". The Snake prepared for the attack and the woman continued walking and singing: "Mee, Mee...". The Snake tried to bite her head but landed in the hot porridge and died. The woman was honoured by the chief and the villagers.
The narrator of this narrative insisted that the song was meaningless. The words were neither Xitsonga nor isiZulu (many Tsonga stories display loanwords from related languages). The presence of the ambiguous vocabulary does not weaken the story. It deepens the mystery surrounding the Snake and enhances the feelings of excitement amongst the young listeners. It draws them closer to the action, as do the body movement, intonation and other dramatic tools in the toolkit of the narrator (which are, of course, excluded from this simplified version). "Mee... Mee...", most probably is an abbreviation of the snake's name (Ximemene), used by the brave men and the wife of the lion hunter to call the monstrous Snake.
The folk tale basically suggests that a woman can succeed where men have failed. It gnaws at the very foundations of man's assumed superiority: his virility. Mkhacani was not just a hunter. He loved hunting the most ferocious of beasts: the lion. The king did not send ordinary men to fight the Monster. He sent the strongest of the district. However, they did not attempt to fight the Snake; they ran back to the village. Mkhacani's wife decided to face her husband's murderer without the help of anybody else. She used the men's song lines to challenge the Snake. The woman did not run away when finding her adversary. She continued singing instead. She showed no fear. She did not use a spear or a battle axe, but a simple kitchen utensil (and her mind) to kill the Monster. So much for the brave hunter and the warrior! So much for the might of men and their virility!
Folklore, of course, is only one of many means used by women to create a symbolic space for themselves, in opposition to men. In Eller's understanding, ethnographic data of this kind is irrelevant for the furtherance of a socially engaged form of women's studies. I would like to suggest, in contrast, that this space was a proud, dignified and procreative entity, and that its study remains worthwhile even in the context of contemporary society.
1. A. Berglund, Zulu Thought-Patterns and Symbolism (David Philip, Cape Town, 1976) pp 64-65. [ Links ]
2. Adapted from Berglund, Zulu Thought-Patterns and Symbolism, pp 66-68.
3. Adapted from Berglund, Zulu Thought-Patterns and Symbolism, pp 357-358.
4. Adapted from Berglund, Zulu Thought-Patterns and Symbolism, p 359.


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The City of Healdsburg launched Sonoma County's first bike-share program in January 2018 to provide community members, Healdsburg workers, and the public a convenient, healthy, and affordable way to get around town. More info on bike-share program.
The City is partnering with the Northern California Power Agency to install floating solar arrays on the City's recycled water ponds.The solar arrays will protect the ponds, which could hold up to 25 million gallons of water, from algae growth and generate 2 megawatts of solar power. More info on the City's recycled water program.

subset: commoncrawl


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Blumenthal wants background checks for ammo
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said Tuesday he will introduce legislation to require instant background checks for purchasers of gun ammunition.
"Ammunition sales should be subject to the same legal requirements as firearm sales -- instant background checks using the FBI's database. There is no rational reason why a person can walk into a store, fill their shopping cart with hundreds of rounds of ammo, pay up, and walk out without so much as giving their name," Blumenthal said, adding that his proposal would "close this ludicrous loophole."
Blumenthal said that after the Sandy Hook massacre, "People in Newtown and across Connecticut have told me again and again: Please do something about gun violence. This legislation is one of several forthcoming proposals I will introduce to keep faith with them."
The National Shooting Sports Foundation, based in Newtown, did not return a call for comment late Tuesday afternoon. The National Rifle Association also did not respond to a request for comment.
Blumenthal said he has discussed the proposal with Vice President Joe Biden and others on the task force that President Barack Obama set up under Biden's supervision to study the issue of gun violence. Blumenthal said he views this as one part of a comprehensive strategy to reduce firearms-related deaths.
"One of the reasons I feel so strongly about this proposal is that whatever is done to ban assault weapons and to broaden background checks for the purchase of firearms, there will already be huge numbers of weapons on the streets and in neighborhoods, including 3 million assault weapons,'' Blumenthal said. "This measure deals with the fuel that drives firearms violence. It's the oxygen supply."
Most background checks, Blumenthal said, typically take "less than 30 seconds" and "are about as unintrusive as you could get."
While there have been noted failures in the background-check system, he pointed out that of the 100 million background checks that have been done in the past 10 years, some 700,000 purchases were blocked.
Blumenthal said it shows that less than one percent of the checks resulted in a "no" but the ones that did kept guns out of the hands of felons, those with mental illness, domestic abusers, drug addicts and others disqualified under federal law.
Blumenthal's proposal would require ammunition sellers to keep records so they could potentially help police solve gun crimes.
It would also require dealers to report purchases or thefts of more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition. Such record-keeping was previously required, before being abolished in 1986.
The bill would also ban Teflon-coated bullets and incendiary ammunition, both of which can defeat body armor of the kind worn by law enforcement.
He said anyone with a hunter's license or a pistol permit that requires a background check would not have to go through an additional one.
Blumenthal stressed that many other things must be done as part of a comprehensive response: A ban on assault weapons, prohibition of high-capacity magazines, closing the gun-show loophole, strengthening gaps in the federal background check database, and better treatment, diagnosis, and intervention in mental-health cases.
Blumenthal said he has discussed the ammunition issue with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who has asked Blumenthal to co-sponsor an assault-weapons ban with her. He also said Vice President Biden was "very encouraging" to him.
"He knows my background in this area as an attorney general (of Connecticut) and he has said he wants me to be involved in this issue," Blumenthal said.
Blumenthal said he expects to introduce the legislation toward the end of January, and that in the meantime, he is seeking co-sponsors.


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|System: PS3*, Xbox 360
|Dev: EA Tiburon
|Pub: EA
|Release: March 26, 2013
|Players: 1-4
|Screen Resolution: 480p-1080p
by Josh Engen
There probably isn't much debate about which audience of gamers has been most neglected by developers over the past few years. Though, no one has actually studied the phenomenon, so we'll just have to assume that the distinction belongs to sports game devotees. In the 90s, games like Tecmo Super Bowl, NHL 94, and Madden would instantly increase the social status of any standoffish sports nerd. And the industrial revolution of sports gaming really peaked in the early 2000s when franchises like Tiger Woods, NHL, and MVP Baseball finally got their mechanics squared away. But recently it seems like developers are going through some kind of self-induced sports game recession.
Even when a title actually finds its way onto the market, it almost always misses the point. It's like publishers have completely forgotten what type of person wants to play a baseball, football, or basketball game. The titles certainly aren't designed for people who love sports; most games have become far too technical and esoteric for that crowd. But they're also not designed for people who love video games; if they were, they wouldn't be about sports. Publishers seem content to keep blindly churning out more repetitive garbage than Coldplay, and this year's collection isn't any different (especially if your name is 2K Sports).
So, in a universe where sports titles represent the very worst form of developer apathy, it's nice to see that EA isn't completely disregarding the Tiger Woods franchise this year. But that wasn't always the case.
For a several years following Tiger's infidelity scandal, it started to look like EA was trying to phase Tiger out of his own franchise. In 2011, the publisher started distancing the series from its figurehead by adding a second golfer, Rory Mcllory, to the cover, and Tiger was entirely absent the following year. Though, to be fair, these years also correspond with a heavy slump in Tiger's tournament performance, so it wasn't entirely surprising when he made his way back onto the cover, accompanied by Rickie Fowler, for the 13th edition.
But Tiger's scandal faded from the front page a long time ago, and he's back at the top of the PGA standings, which means that EA has once again plastered his moneymaking mug on the front of this year's edition of Tiger Woods PGA Tour. And, just like Tiger, the game itself is in rare form.
Now, I'm sure that there are a handful of Tiger obsessives out there who would probably say that the 2012 edition of Tiger Woods PGA Tour was among the best in the franchise. And even though it certainly had its share of fans, it never really felt like it was meant for golf lovers. In fact, it felt like it was actually produced for a weird collection of dexterous video game loving accountants. Until last year, the controls in Tiger titles played like some kind of rote memorization game for your fingers. Often referred to as the three-click method, the franchise's swing mechanic was based on a strength meter that was clicked when a quickly moving bar would cross the desired meter point. Obviously, this has nothing to do with golf, but for some reason this WarioWare-style mini-game was the standard for swing mechanics until 2012.
It's probably not surprising, then, that many golfers were so disconnected from the franchise. After all this power-meter mechanic is more adapted to those mathematical whiz kids that are constantly beating Super Mario Bros. 3 in ten minutes or less. It never quite captured the minutia of an actual golf swing. It was about technical wizardry.
But last year, EA devised a thumbstick-based mechanic that measured the subtleties of one's swing. The update drew a much-needed physical connection between the sport and the video game, and they've heavily refined the system for this year's release.
However, even though the swing mechanic itself is a huge improvement for the series, it's not without its drawbacks. I can't help but feel like there's a collection of randomized problems that are rotating like a slot machine whenever I pull the thumbstick down. Often, even if my swing is perfect, and the weathervane is quiet, the ball will overshoot or undershoot the target for no apparent reason. The clubs themselves obviously play a role in the ball's placement, and as you level up you can unlock more accurate clubs, but it's not unusual for this slot machine of bogeys to add several strokes to the end of your game. And it can be frustrating to play a perfect round of golf and lose due to random chance. If I wanted to do that, I'd play Mario party.
This year's interface is undeniably influenced by last year's edition of Tiger Woods PGA Tour. In fact, the entire game is more of a refinement than a redesign. The stance meter allows you to fade or draw the ball depending on your placement preferences, but the shot's accuracy isn't so heavily tied to the action of your thumb. EA has also added more depth to the swing mechanic by including a collection of customization options to the character setup system. Now, for example, if you're the type of player who prefers to draw the ball, your character can specialize in the appropriate stance. This will allow you to draw the ball with more accuracy, but will make fading more difficult. Plus, players who have a penchant for power have the ability to sacrifice their character's control and vice versa.
However, the controls aren't the only thing being refined. This year, the franchise has moved away from the Tiger-centric hero worship that's been going on in the franchise since it was introduced in 1998 (aside from those two scandalous years, obviously). Tiger himself has been downplayed in favor of a small collection of historic players and courses.
When you fire up the game's Legends of the Majors mode, you'll take control of players like Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus or check out some of history's more infamous courses. EA's advertising insists that this is an homage to "golf's rich history," but it feels more like a video diary of history's poorest fashion choices. Either way, it's fun.
For all of its clever perks, though, Tiger 14 certainly isn't the polished product that EA would like us to believe it is. The audio on my copy, for instance, never worked correctly. Color commentators and the background music continuously stuttered throughout my experience. And even though I'm willing to wager that this isn't some kind of systemic problem, I'd imagine that I'm not the only person with an issue.
Plus, the graphics are a little embarrassing from time to time. They often have the type of polygonal tearing issues that were commonplace on the PlayStation 2, but have no excuse on this generation of consoles. It often feels like EA took one step backward in the visuals before taking two steps forward with the gameplay.
Now, I'm a huge proponent of gameplay over graphics, so this kind of problem is normally pretty easy for me to ignore. But considering how close we are to the end of this console generation it's difficult to avoid critiquing the title based on its placement in video game history. This will undoubtedly be the last PGA title whose primary platform is the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. And since it's acting as the punctuation mark for such a popular series, it feels a little unfinished—more like a semicolon than an exclamation point.


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This one hurts. For me personally, this one hurts especially bad. The Lakers have always been my least favorite franchise in the NBA, for various reasons. More importantly, this loss hurts for the Knicks. After the magical start to this season, the Knicks have come crashing back down to earth. In their last five games, New York is just 2-3. The offense has not performed well as of late, led by the struggling Raymond Felton. Defensively, the Knicks have yet to patch up the problems that have plagued them throughout the season. These problems all came to fruition on this Christmas day in Los Angeles. Carmelo Anthony's gritty 34 point performance wasn't enough on this day. Nursing a one point lead through three periods, the usually strong 4th quarter Knicks faltered down the stretch. Riding a disgusting amount of Raymond Felton wasted possessions, the Knicks scored just 16 fourth quarter points and were unable to stop the Lakers down the stretch when they needed to.
Here are my notes from the game:
- Ronnie Brewer is borderline unplayable. He played only 8 minutes today, but missed all three of his field goal attempts. In the month of December, 13 games played, Brewer is shooting just 27.3% and 18.2% from three point territory. He has missed his last 10 three point attempts. At this point, the Knicks cannot afford to keep playing Brewer and we've already seen Mike Woodson cut his minutes back. Brewer played 22.7 minutes a game in November, but that number has dropped to 19.1 in December. In the past five games, Brewer has played 20, 15, 10, 13 and 8 minutes. I think it is time for Mike Woodson to play Brewer as few minutes as possible because he is absolutely killing them on offense. The Lakers continued a recent and intelligent trend by opposing teams to not defend Brewer on offense. He has had wide open look after wide open look and has failed to hurt opposing defenses. New York has been much better recently with Brewer off the court than on it. Here are numbers from the past eight games.
- The regression of Raymond Felton is in full effect and it is ugly. Remember Dennis Green's "the Bears are who we thought they were" speech, that's how I feel about Felton right about now. Felton's early season magic has worn off and, while I don't believe he is as bad as he is playing, he is absolutely killing the Knicks right now. In December, Felton is shooting jut 38.6%. Today might have been Felton's worst game of the season. He shot just 5/19 and had an atrocious second half. Felton shot just 2/10 in the second half. Throughout the game, Felton threw up gross runner after gross runner after gross runner. In the 4th quarter, the Knicks were completely unable to get Carmelo Anthony the ball. Whether this falls on the blame of Woodson for Felton, I'm not completely sure. What I do know is that Felton having the ball in his hands was a complete disaster. He also injured his finger in the game (and may not play tomorrow because of it) which may have affected his shot late in the game. Injury or not, the ball should not have been in his hands. So what should we make of Felton's dramatic regression? I'm not completely sure. He does deserve some slack for toughing out multiple hand injuries. However, this is not an excuse for the shear volume of shots he takes. Felton needs to stop shooting, or at least take better shots. On the season, Felton's FG% is now down to 40.1%, similar to his 40.7% from last season. He has missed his last 15 three pointers and this month he is down almost a full assist per game from his November averages. He is shooting more and passing less. Felton is a great complimentary point guard, but he cannot be the focal point of an offense or a number two scorer. If the Knicks wanted that from a point guard, they should've resigned Jeremy Lin.
- Wanna see something gross? Check out Felton's shot chart from today's game:
- Carmelo Anthony was great on offense today. Defensively, I thought he was very average. He was lazy on his help defense and picked up some foolish fouls. However, he was the Knick offense for the game. He scored 34 points on an efficient 13/23 shooting. Melo scored 17 huge third quarter points and really took over the game. However in the 4th, the Knicks were completely unable to get him the ball. Ironic, given that he posts one of the highest usage rates in the league. He scored just 7 points on 2/3 shooting while Felton and JR Smith shot the Knicks out of the game. Anthony should have been touching the ball on every possession at the very least and he should have gotten 5-8 shots in the quarter. He has been the Knicks closer all year and I don't know why they went away from him today.
- I thought Mike Woodson coached a very poor game. His accountability spiel looked like a fat sham today as we continually had to watch Raymond Felton shoot a ridiculous amount of bad shots. He drew up a terrible out of bounds play with 32 seconds left in the game. Down three, Woodson drew up a cross screen that got JR Smith a contested three point look that he of course missed. Rather than go for the three, the Knicks should've taken a quick two and then fouled. If the Knicks were to take the three, it should've been Melo shooting the ball. For some reason, Pablo Prigoni played just five minutes tonight. Woodson doesn't trust Prigioni, which baffles me. Prigioni does have a reluctance to shoot the ball at times, but he is far better defensively than Felton and his game emphasizes ball movement. The Knicks could have used at least another 5-7 minutes of Prigioni and probably more. I blame Woodson.
- JR Smith was a team low -18 in +/- tonight. I find that odd because I thought he played a pretty solid game.
- Jason Kidd made a horrible defensive mistake on Gasol's game-sealing dunk. With Gasol out at the three point line, Kidd ran out at a horrible angle and way too hard. He should have known that Gasol is a 23% three point shooter. He should have taken a flatter angle, cutting off Gasol's path to the paint and forcing him to shoot the three.
- Tyson Chandler was horrible today. He looked slow, unassertive and he was ineffective all day. I wonder if he is fatigued at all from the Olympic games over the summer. He just doesn't have the same energy on the floor that he usually does. Chandler still plays with emotion, but he hasn't been the help defense monster he was last season and he certainly wasn't that today. The Lakers made their money today in the paint, as shown by their shot chart from the game:
On to Phoenix! Also, that Steve Nash guy. He's pretty good.
More New York vs Los Angeles Information:
NY Knicks 1969 Team Shot
NY Knicks vs LA Lakers 1970
Los Angeles Lakers Information
Los Angeles DUI attorney
Attorney Admission FAQ
Follow Taylor on Twitter @tarmosino


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China's anti-corruption push targets highest-ranking official yet
China's Communist Party has placed under investigation the highest-ranking official yet to be ensnared in its corruption crackdown, Zhou Yongkang, former security chief and oil czar.
The investigation of Zhou had been rumored for months, but was officially confirmed Tuesday by Xinhua, China's state-run news agency. Xinhua reported that the party's central committee had decided to probe Zhou for suspected "serious disciplinary violation," code words for corruption charges.
The Xinhua report didn't detail the accusations against the 71-year-old Zhou, but it's well known that he accumulated substantial wealth while rising through the party's Politburo, leading the China National Petroleum Corp. and serving as the nation's security chief. He retired from the Politburo in late 2012.
No higher-level leader in China has been investigated on suspicion of bribery and other misdeeds, a further sign that President Xi Jinping is serious about going after "tigers." That's his name for corrupt officials, whom he pledged to go after upon becoming party secretary in late 2012 and assuming the presidency in early 2013.
Even before the investigation of Zhou was announced, many in China were still marveling at the fact that authorities had announced last month an investigation of Xu Caihou, a former vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, on suspicion of selling military positions. In a commentary July 17, top researchers at the Brookings Institution declared that Xi's anti-corruption campaign "is the boldest and most serious that China has ever experienced."
Since Xi came to power, more than 182,000 party officials at various levels have been investigated, with authorities taking action against 32 leaders at the level of vice minister or above, including five who are members of the 18th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.
Despite those numbers, there remains some skepticism in China about the staying power of Xi's anti-corruption push and whether it will broadly uproot the systematic corruption that's deeply entrenched in government and business transactions.
The government has jailed several activists who've called for top officials to disclose their wealth. Even on Tuesday, there was no opportunity for citizens to immediately discuss the official purging of Zhou. The government had blocked his name and related postings on Weibo, China's version of Twitter.
Zhou's prosecution adds to the perception that Xi is directing his campaign mainly at a rival faction within the Communist Party, allies of former President Jiang Zemin. Xi rose to power under a different faction, and the most prominent "tigers" he's prosecuted _ Bo Xilai, Liu Zhijun, Xu and now Zhou _ have been part of the Jiang camp.
The investigations have also elevated the stature of one of Xi's top lieutenants, Wang Qishan, who heads the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, which is investigating former Gen. Xu and Zhou. Some China watcher think Xi is grooming Wang to become president one day, but Wang might be making so many enemies that his rise may be blocked or he may find himself the focus of a future purge.
In their July 17 commentary, researchers Cheng Li and Ryan McElveen of Brookings said Xi must go beyond high-profile purges and institute real reforms in China to win back public trust.
"In the next few years, Xi should implement important measures like official income disclosure, property registration, conflict of interest regulations and judicial independence," they wrote. "Otherwise, a new wave of official corruption will inevitably reoccur."


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Seniors Cameron Richard (pictured), Annisha Domenech and Rebekah Jenkins concluded their Liberty careers on Thursday.
The Liberty women's tennis team saw its bid to reach the Big South Championship title match for the first time in program history fall short on Thursday afternoon as the No. 3 seed Lady Flames fell to No. 2 seed Winthrop, 4-0.
"I think that we really played well today, but we just faced a better team," commented Liberty head coach Jeff Maren. "Our heart and our effort was there and we put everything we had into this match. Winthrop just outplayed us today and there is nothing to hang our heads about. We all competed all the way and that is all you can ask for as a coach. I think the future is bright for our program and I am looking forward to what next year holds for us."
With the loss, Liberty concludes its season at 15-9, tying the program's single-season record for victories. The Lady Flames have now posted a double-digit win total for the fourth consecutive season, which is the longest streak in Liberty history. The Eagles improve to 17-4 on the season and advance to tomorrow's title match against top seed Charleston Southern. Winthrop, winners of six consecutive conference titles, will be making its 13th consecutive appearance in the conference championship match.
Winthrop escaped with the doubles point after pulling out hard-fought wins in the No. 1 and No. 3 positions. At No. 1 Alice and Andressa Garcia held off Liberty's Rebekah Jenkins and Maria Khval, 8-6, before Tijana Uzelac and Beth Williamson outlasted the Lady Flames' Cameron Richard and Valerie Thong, 8-6, in the No. 3 spot.
The No. 2 contest featuring Liberty's Brittany Yang and Belen Rivera and Winthrop's Caitlin Cridland and Ekin Gunaysu was ruled unfinished with the Eagles on top, 7-5.
The Eagles opened singles competition with victories in the top two positions. At No. 2, Alice Garcia bested Jenkins in straight sets, 6-3, 6-0. In the No. 1 spot, Andressa Garcia dealt Rivera her first loss of the season as the top player, 6-1, 7-5, putting Winthrop ahead, 3-0.
Winthrop closed out the contest when Monica Aguado knocked off Liberty's Nicola Wellman, 6-3, 6-0, in the No. 6 position.
The final three contests, featuring Khval at No. 3, Yang at No. 4 and Hassey at No. 5, were ruled unfinished.
The match served as the final contest for Liberty seniors Annisha Domenech, Rebekah Jenkins and Cameron Richard.
Winthrop 4, Liberty 0 DOUBLES 1. Alice Garcia/Andressa Garcia (WU) def. Rebekah Jenkins/Maria Khval (LU), 8-6 2. Brittany Yang/Belen Rivera (LU) vs. Caitlin Cridland/Ekin Gunaysu (WU), 5-7 unfinished 3. Tijana Uzelac/Beth Williamson (WU) def. Cameron Richard/Valerie Thong (LU), 8-6
SINGLES 1. Andressa Garcia (WU) def. Belen Rivera (LU), 6-1, 7-5 2. Alice Garcia (WU) def. Rebekah Jenkins (LU), 6-3, 6-0 3. Maria Khval (LU) vs. Caitlin Cridland (WU), 6-7 (7-9), 2-1 unfinished 4. Brittany Yang (LU) vs. Tijana Uzelac (WU), 6-3, 3-6, 3-1 unfinished 5. Mariely Hassey (LU) vs. Ekin Gunaysu (WU), 3-6, 5-6 unfinished 6. Monica Aguado (WU) def. Nicola Wellman (LU), 6-3, 6-0


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File storage and I/O
There are 5 main user file spaces available on Genepool/Phoebe (soon to be 4 once House is retired on December 20, 2013).
Your home directory on Genepool mounted across all NERSC systems. You should refer to this home directory as $HOME where ever possible. If you had an old home directory at JGI, on /house or on the netapps we recommend you refer to this old home directory as $OLD_HOME. You should not change the environment variable $HOME. For more details on quotas, dotfile initialization and back ups, please see our global homes page.
projectb is a 2.7PB GPFS based file system for the JGI's active projects. There are two distinct user spaces in the projectb filesystem: projectb/sandbox and projectb/scratch. The projectb filesystem is available on genepool, hopper and carver. The projectb filesystem is only mounted on NERSC computer systems.
|projectb Scratch
|projectb Sandbox
|20TB, 5M inodes by default; 40TB upon request
|Defined by agreement with the JGI Management
|Not backed up
|Not backed up
|File Purging
|Files not accessed for 90 days are automatically deleted
|Files are not automatically purged
projectb "Scratch" and "Sandbox" space is intended for staging and running JGI calculations on the NERSC systems, including genepool, hopper, and carver. On genepool, the projectb scratch space is the recommended filesystem for performing file IO during all your calculations. If you have access to the genepool resource, you should have space on projectb scratch. If you don't, please file a ticket at http://help.nersc.gov. The Sandbox areas were allocated by program. If you have questions about your program's space, please see your group lead.
DnA (Data n' Archive)
DnA is a 1PB GPFS based file system for the JGI's archive, shared databases and project directories.
|DnA Projects
|DnA Shared
|DnA DM Archive
|5TB default
|Defined by agreement with the JGI Management
|Defined by agreement with the JGI Management
|Daily, only for projectdirs with quota <= 5TB
|Backed up by JAMO
|Backed up by JAMO
|Files are not automatically purged
|Files are not automatically purged
|Purge policy set by users of the JAMO system
|Files are not automatically purged
The intention of the DnA "Project" and "Shared" space is to be a place for data that is needed by multiple people collaborating on a project to allow for easy access for data sharing. The "Project" space is owned and managed by the JGI. The "Shared" space is a collaborative effort between the JGI and NERSC.
If you would like a project directory, please use the Project Directory Request Form.
The "DM Archive" is a data repository maintained by the JAMO system. Files are stored here when migrated using the JAMO system. The files can remain in this space for as long as the user specifies. Any file that is in the "DM Archive" has also been placed in the HPSS tape archive. This section of the file system is owned by the JGI data management team.
Each user has a "scratch" directory. Scratch directories are NOT backed up and file are purged if they have not been accessed for 90 days. Access your scratch directory with the environment variable "$SCRATCH" for example:
cd $SCRATCH
Scratch environment variables:
|Environment Variable
|NERSC Systems
|Best-connected file system
|All NERSC computational systems
|genepool, hopper, carver
|All NERSC computational systems
$GSCRATCH points to your Global scratch space, and $BSCRATCH points to your projectb scratch space if you have a BSCRATCH allocation. $SCRATCH will always point to the best-connected scratch space available for the NERSC machine you are accessing. For example, on genepool $SCRATCH will point to $BSCRATCH, whereas on carver $SCRATCH will point to $GSCRATCH.
The intention of scratch space is for staging, running, and completing your calculations on NERSC systems. Thus these filesystems are designed to allow wide-scale file reading and writing from many compute nodes. The scratch filesystems are not intended for long-term file storage or archival, and thus data is not backed-up, and files not accessed for 90 days will be automatically purged.
Other file systems
Other file systems are also be mounted on Genepool:
- SeqFS - file system used exclusively by the Illumina sequencers, SDM and Instrumentation groups at the JGI.
- /usr/common (/global/common/genepool) - is a file system where NERSC staff build software for user applications. This is the principal site for the modular software installations.
- /global/scratch - is a GPFS based file system that is accessible on almost all of NERSC's other compute systems used by all the other NERSC users. The scratch/sandbox portions of projectb should be favored by JGI users instead of /global/scratch.
- /global/project - is a GPFS based file system that is accessible on almost all of NERSC's other compute systems used by all the other NERSC users. The projectdir portion of projectb should be favored by JGI users instead of /global/project.


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DCIS: To radiate or not to radiate?
Dear OncoLink "Ask The Experts,"
I have had the removal of a 1/2 centimeter, stage 0, DCIS (ductal carcinoma in situ) from my left breast. The second biopsy was clear of cancer in the surrounding area.
Is radiation necessary, or can I take a chemo drug like tamoxifen for 5 years instead and be considered quite safe from a return of cancer?
I am 60 years old and in excellent health. I would appreciate your advice.
Lawrence J. Solin, MD, FACR, Professor of Radiation Oncology at the University of Pennsylvania, responds:
Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is a form of non-invasive breast disease in which cancer-like cells are present within the ductal system of the breast, but do not invade through the ducts. DCIS is often discovered in the asymptomatic patient on routine screening mammography.
The management of DCIS continues to be a matter of some controversy. Randomized trials have demonstrated that the addition of radiation after so-called lumpectomy reduces the rate of local recurrence by about one-half, including a reduction in the risk of invasive local recurrence. Trying to identify low- risk patients for whom radiation can be omitted remains a subject of great interest. The risk of local recurrence is generally defined based on the size of the lesion, margins of resection, age of the patient, and pathologic features of the DCIS lesion. Prospective research trials are currently attempting to identify patients for whom radiation can be omitted.
Tamoxifen may also reduce the risk of recurrence, not only in the treated breast but also in the contralateral breast. However, no study has yet demonstrated that tamoxifen can be used as a substitute for radiation treatment.
Given the many issues involved, most patients with DCIS benefit from discussion of the potential management options with a surgeon, radiation oncologist, and medical oncologist.


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Middle Easterners assert their own unique identity
Editor's Note: This article first appeared in The Blade on Sunday, March 16, 2014.
One in an occasional series
Manira Saide-Sallock, 74, remembers when her father, Mohammed Saide, and Shadid Ya'qub, the father of the late actor Danny Thomas, would sit in their backyard in Toledo's Vistula neighborhood and sing the Aataba, a melancholy, improvised ode sung in Arabic.
Her father played the rababa, a wooden stringed instrument, while he and Mr. Ya'qub exchanged songs.
The streets of what was known as Little Syria, in the 1940s, were lined with families from the Middle East. The Sodds. The Warrs. The Haddads.
Today, little is left of the Arab-American community that called the North Toledo neighborhood home.
With affluence came assimilation. The Arabs moved out, and into the white and Jewish neighborhoods, Mrs. Saide-Sallock said. Living adjacent to one's own countrymen, and those first and second generation Americans with similar roots, was no longer necessary.
"You want to go where the affluent areas are," said Mrs. Saide-Sallock, whose family moved to Oregon in the 1960s.
For the early Middle Eastern community, life in the United States was about blending in to survive and fighting for distinction as whites, as a way to set the foundation for their children and relatives yet to immigrate to the states.
Today, the narrative has shifted. Many Arabs, Middle Easterners, and North Africans are now making the argument for the exact opposite distinction. That is, they are not white, and that race is not an accurate classifier for them.
Maya Berry, executive director of the Washington-based Arab American Institute, said she has seen a rise in identification with the Arab world among Arab-Americans who came of age post-9/11. Many in this generation might not have ever lived in or visited the Arab world, but view themselves as Arabs, Mrs. Berry said.
"Some of them see themselves as Arab nationalists," she said. "It's partly an experience of feeling your identity is being treated as less or as suspect, and you cling and defend."
BE COUNTED: Take The Blade's anonymous Mideast in the Midwest survey
MORE STORIES: An oral history of the Toledo area's Middle Eastern population
What to check?
For Shayan Parsai, 23, viewing himself as white is out of the question. The Ottawa Hills resident said he sees himself as Persian- American when he's with whites or other Persians, and Middle Eastern-American when he's with non-Persian friends from other parts of the Middle East.
Yet Mr. Parsai said he still checks off "white" when asked to identify his race on government documents. It's the most accurate answer he can provide, he said, because the race and ethnic classifications don't account for Persians and Middle Easterners. Mr. Parsai said he doesn't feel assimilated into white society, and that he'd be more comfortable checking a box for a "Middle Eastern" category, instead.
"I think it would be good to make the differentiation because that differentiation exists on a daily basis," Mr. Parsai said.
Some of those differences include culture, religion, food, and a shared immigrant experience, Mr. Parsai said.
Mr. Parsai is not alone. Arabs, North Africans, Persians, Turks, and other ethnic groups from the Middle East and North Africa find it difficult deciding what to check on the U.S. Census and other government documents. The Office of Budget and Management's 1997 standards on race classifications state that people of European, Middle Eastern, and North African descent are considered white.
Hassan Jaber, executive director of Dearborn, Mich.-based ACCESS, has been part of a national advisory group for the Census Bureau as it designs the 2020 Census. He said most of the discussion regarding race and ethnicity has been focused on the Hispanic and Latino category, but that the Middle Eastern and North African community should see some changes by the 2020 Census. He was not specific on what those changes would entail.
Mr. Jaber said the lack of a category for Americans of Middle Eastern and North African origin has caused a significant loss in the count of these groups because there is no box for them to identify who they are.
"The question of race, the sharpness of this question, the white-black race issue left many outside the debate on race, including Arab- Americans," he said. "We're really missing on the diversity."
A racial history
Amer Zahr, 36, a comedian and writer based in Dearborn, Mich. said most non-Arabs and non-Middle Easterners he's spoken to while filming his documentary We're Not White have been surprised to learn that people of Arab descent are not counted in their own category and, furthermore, that the government classifies them as white.
Part of Mr. Zahr's documentary, which is scheduled for release in April, includes man-on-the-street interviews, in which he asks ordinary people a series of questions, including whether they think Arabs are white. Invariably, he said, both Arabs and non-Arabs answered "no."
"What I realized when I was talking to people, especially white people, is that white people don't think that we're white," said Mr. Zahr, who is of Palestinian descent. "So if there was ever a test of whiteness, white people don't think we're white."
So how did Arabs, North Africans, and Middle Easterners come to be legally considered white?
The simple answer: They lobbied the government and went to court to prove their whiteness.
Middle Easterners began arriving in the United States in large waves at the beginning of the 20th century, a time when the Ottoman Empire, based in modern-day Turkey, still ruled much of the region.
Between 1900 and 1929, close to 330,000 people immigrated to the United States from a region including much of the modern-day Middle East.
These newly arrived emigrants found themselves in a country with opportunities but limitations based on race. Federal naturalization laws from the 1870s to the 1920s were aimed at limiting Asian immigration to the United States, according to Helen Samhan, in her book Arabs in America: Building a New Future, which was excerpted by the Arab American Institute.
According to a different set of immigration categories established in 1899, Syrians and Palestinians were considered white, but the courts were still interpreting race based on the 1870 standards, according to Ms. Samhan, who is a former executive director of the institute.
In order to ensure they could become citizens and that they could reunite with their family from overseas, emigrants from the Middle East and the Arab world had to prove they were white.
"I think they were very practical people," Mrs. Berry said. "Making the claim that we're white meant we could not be banned. And as a result, they did what they had to do."
Beginning with a landmark federal case in 1909 in Georgia, the Arab community fought the court system and lobbied to be classified as white, a designation that eventually stuck.
Judge William T. Newman, the Northern District judge presiding over the case of Mount Lebanon-native Costa George Najour, said fair or dark complexion of skin should not dictate whether a person belongs to a certain race, and that race is based on certain characteristics. Judge Newman cited The World's People, a book by A. H. Keane, which divides the world's races into three: Negro or black, Mongol or yellow, and Caucasian. The Caucasians included North Africa, Europe, Iran, India, Western Asia, and Polynesia.
Therefore, Mr. Najour, whose Mount Lebanon home sat in Western Asia, was considered white.
Mr. Zahr sees paradox and irony in today's debate about how to classify the group.
The early immigrants fought so hard to be white, and the generation today is fighting to reverse that classification, at a time when being Arab or Middle Eastern comes with social stigma.
"It's not like we're Greeks who don't have a box, or Italians who don't have a box," Mr. Zahr said.
"We're this group of people who everybody talks about, everybody writes about, but we are legally invisible."
Contact Hasan Dudar at: firstname.lastname@example.com or 419-724-6082.


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iPhone 4. Nexus S. There's probably more to say about the differences than the similarities. Different operating systems? Check. Don't work with 3G on the same networks? Check. Different screen sizes? Check. Different philosophy and methodology towards multitasking? Check. Different video conferencing solutions (insofar as few to none work yet on the Nexus S)? Check.
The list goes on, but we're sort of guessing that for most the choice between the Nexus S and the iPhone 4 will be determined by carrier choice and OS preference more than whether Android's latest can go head-to-head with Steve Jobs' glass-encased wonderphone.
All that shouldn't stop you from hitting us after the break for a photo fight between the iPhone 4 and the Nexus S - with some extra attention paid to how the iPhone still has the best music player around while Android's just-released Google Maps 5.0 makes iOS's version look a little lacking.
Want more? Be sure to hit up our frenemies at Android Central for all the latest on the Nexus S.
[gallery link="file" columns="2"]


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Hack forces Flash onto iPad
Comex moons Cupertino
Software hobbyists have defied Steve Jobs by creating a hack that allows Flash to run on iPads, albeit with limitations.
Comex - the hacker responsible for the iPad "Spirit" jailbreak - has circumvented Apple's iPad Flash ban by coding an iPad port of Adobe's Flash runtime for Android, TGDaily reports.
The so-called Frash is reportedly capable of rendering most Flash-based programs in Safari. Comex plans to apply the same approach to iPhone and other mobile devices over time.
The technology uses features similar to those found in Chrome to make sure a device keeps running even if the application crashes. Frash is however limited by lack of video and keyboard input support.
Comex is confident of adding keyboard support, but video input is a far trickier proposition that is likely to require reverse engineering, according to the developer.
A demo of Frash in action can be found on YouTube (below). ®


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A square sterling silver bead, engraved with the initial 'H'. Charmed Memories offer a wide range of charm beads for bespoke jewellery, ideal for a gift or personal treat. This bead is the perfect gift for anyone whose name begins with H, or as a lovely personal reminder of somebody who matters to you.
- Brand
- Charmed Memories
- Material
- Silver
- Height
- 0.8 cm
- Width
- 0.8 cm
Delivery & Returns
At H.Samuel we offer a range of delivery options to suit you:
- Free Standard Delivery available on orders of £49 or more
- Free Express Delivery available on orders of £500 or more
- Free Click & Collect to over 300 H.Samuel stores in the UK
For more Delivery Information click here
Returns policy: you can return items to us by post or in store within 30 days for a full refund or exchange.*
*We cannot refund or exchange pierced jewellery, e.g. earrings, if they have been removed from the original sealed packaging due to hygiene reasons.
For our full returns policy click here.
Help Centre
For assistance with your purchase, visit our help centre for advice & tips so you can buy confidently with H.Samuel.


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Because we all experience abdominal discomfort or pain at some time or other, deciding whether or not to see a doctor for these symptoms can be perplexing. If the symptoms are intermittent and not present during a physical exam, they may also be difficult to describe. Fortunately, there are some general guidance can be helpful.
When You Should Seek a Professional Opinion
You're in pain. Maybe you ate too much. Or maybe you have food poisoning.
You should see a doctor if you are experiencing abdominal symptoms AND any of the following:
- Pain that is steady, severe in intensity, located in a specific area, or recurring
- Persistent pain that is sharp or burning
- Inability to perform routine activities
- Weight loss or loss of appetite
- Persistent nausea and vomiting (with or without bleeding)
- Rectal bleeding—can occur with blood that moves through the gastrointestinal tract quickly
- Vaginal bleeding in females
- Fever
- Changes in bowel habits, including constipation, or blood in your stool or black, tarry stools
- Difficulty in swallowing
- Nighttime awakening due to pain
- A previous history of stomach disorders or intestinal surgery
- A medical condition which requires the use of aspirin or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)
- Breathing problems
- Severe sore throat
Single episodes of mild pain that go away within 24-48 hours may not warrant further medical treatment. However, if you are ever concerned, make sure you call or see your doctor.
The Exam: What to Expect
First your doctor will review your history in detail. They will be especially interested in any previous gastrointestinal problems or heart problems, as certain symptoms can overlap. Be prepared to tell your doctor about any medications you are taking, particularly NSAIDs, such as ibuprofen. It is also important to be candid with them about any herbal remedies you may be taking, as some herbal medications can affect the liver and the gastrointestinal tract. You will be asked whether you have been treated before for the same symptoms, or if the pain is new. Be sure to let your doctor know if there is a history of gastrointestinal disease in your family.
To determine whether symptoms in women may be gynecological in nature, your doctor will most likely ask whether you are sexually active, what type of birth control you use, the regularity of your cycle, and if there is any possibility you may be pregnant.
You'll then be asked about the nature of your pain such as:
- Is it constant?
- Does it come and go, and is it crampy?
- How long does it last?
- What time of day does it occur, is it random, or does it occur after meals, etc.?
- Where is the pain located?
- Are there any measures that cause the pain or that relieve it?
- Are you experiencing any other symptoms?
Do the best you can to describe it in detail and in your own words. It is often helpful to write down what you've experienced before seeing the doctor, as you may leave out important details if you get nervous during the examination.
Next, your doctor will perform a general examination, including an abdominal exam. The exam will include listening for bowel sounds, looking at the overall appearance of your abdomen, and performing different maneuvers to examine for the location and type of pain. Your doctor may perform a rectal exam, or order blood or imaging tests. In women, a pelvic exam may also be performed. In some cases, especially if abdominal pain is high up, or related to exertion, your doctor may perform tests to check on the health of your heart and lungs.
What's Next?
Most gastrointestinal disorders can be readily treated by your primary care doctor. Some recurring or more serious problems may require the care of a gastroenterologist who has been specially trained to treat such disorders.
- Reviewer: Michael Woods, MD
- Review Date: 07/2014 -
- Update Date: 07/17/2014 -


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10 iPhone apps that will drive you into Steve Jobs's clutches
Apple's new, faster 3G iPhones go on sale in the U.S. tomorrow, but a new store where Apple will sell third-party iPhone applications opened for business today. (Something to do with when the iPhone 3G went on sale in New Zealand. Those international date lines are so confusing!) The apps mostly range from free to costing $10, and you buy them on iTunes like you would an album or a TV show. Here are ten that will crush your last remaining resistance to Apple CEO Steve Jobs's demands.
Sure, my Sanyo phone has an AOL Instant Messanger app. But it takes two and half minutes to send a message and then another two and a half to see if I got one back. Here's a new version for the iPhone, which could put an end to expensive text messaging. An alternative: Facebook's new iPhone app integrates the site's new chat feature.
Remember radio? That place where you could listen to and discover music without paying for it? It's back.
FileMagnet lets you load and view PDFs and Office documents from you desktop. Such a nice convenient way to keep you working all the time.
This app, a guitar tuner that uses the iPhone's microphone, obviously targets a niche audience. We're betting the Edge asked Jobs for it
This Major League Baseball app would be better if it streamed MLB.tv straight to your iPhone. It doesn't. But it does show game highlights not too long after they actually happen — which won't be a bad way to get through graduations, weddings and PowerPoint presentations.
DutchTab takes the pain out of splitting a tab so you don't have to ask the server to do it. Only problem: greasy fingers on your iPhone.
After using DutchTab to figure out how much you owe, send your friend the cash via PayPal. Seriously, in 2000, the folks at PayPal thought this was how people would use the service rather than to settle eBay auctions. The future is here!
Always be closing, right? Keeping your leads' contact info in your pocket at all times will at least get you the steak knives.
Muxtape founder Justin Ouellette showed us what can go wrong when you have to email blog posts from your iPhone instead of being able to use an app like TypePad. (If you upload the wrong file, you still might end up blogging your deal memos by mistake, though.)
The oversharing generation's perfect app. Opt in and your friends will know where you are at all times.


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A Sydney woman is accused of swindling millions of dollars from older men she met through singles message boards, in what detectives say is the first arrest for "romance fraud" in NSW and possibly Australia.
The 39-year-old single mother-of-four from south-west Sydney allegedly tricked four men into giving her more than $2 million, which she spent on plastic surgery, cars, designer handbags and holidays.
Police will allege she started relationships with the men, two aged in their 60s and two in their 70s, after meeting them through the dating services Lavalife and Meeting Point.
The relationships were formed between August 2008 and February 2014 and during that time she only met one of the men in person, police say.
The woman, who was receiving fortnightly welfare benefits of $1500, allegedly conned them into depositing money in her account by claiming she needed to pay for medical care for a sick relative or funeral arrangements for a deceased one.
In one instance, police say she claimed she needed the money to pay bank fees so she could access funds given to her by an overseas family member.
One of the men allegedly paid the woman $1.9 million over the course of their relationship while the other three men allegedly paid her $190,000, $58,000 and $12,000 respectively.
Police allege the woman, whose children are aged between two and 16, bought and sold cars to launder some of the money.
She was arrested on Thursday morning after police raided two properties in Miller and seized a number of items including a Mazda CX7, a Toyota Prado and a Toyota Corolla.
Detectives also froze more than $1 million worth of cash and assets associated with the woman.
The woman was charged with four counts of fraud and one count of money laundering and was granted conditional bail to appear in Liverpool Local Court in June.
Police say they are unsure if other men have been duped into giving her money and they have called on anybody who believes they are a victim of a dating scam to contact them.
"If you suspect you have been deceived and someone has defrauded you, please contact police immediately," commander of the Fraud and Cybercrime Squad, Detective Superintendent Arthur Katsogiannis said.
"Some people feel too embarrassed to report fraud matters to police, or they think there's no need to alert us because their financial institution will reimburse them for their losses.
"In fact, it's very important that we are made aware of all fraud cases. That way, we can make the necessary inquiries and reduce the chances of the perpetrator defrauding others."
Detectives believe the woman is the first person in NSW and possibly Australia to be charged over romance fraud, with schemes of a similar nature more commonly associated with Nigerian conmen.


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Barney Google and Snuffy Smith is one of the longest-running comic strips in history. Created by Billy DeBeck in 1919, it stars the cigar-smoking, sports-loving, poker-playing, girl-chasing ne'er-do-well Barney. In 1934, Snuffy Smith, a gruff, lazy mountain man joined him and the strip has evolved into a national classic. It has added several phrases to the American vernacular, including "bodacious," "sweet mama," "horsefeathers," "heebie-jeebies" and "hotsie-totsie." In 1942, Barney Google was inherited by DeBeck's long-time assistant, Fred Lasswell, who continued to draw the strip until his death in March 2001. John Rose, who inked the strip for Lasswell, continues the tradition today.
See what the Royal Membership is all about.


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- VIC FIRTH PLAYALONG TRACK Single Stroke Roll: Open-Close-Open 2:14
- Single Stroke Roll: Bronze 2:15
- Single Stroke Roll: Silver 1:52
- Single Stroke Roll: Gold 1:33
- Single Stroke Roll: Platinum 1:22
- Single Stroke Roll: Diamond 1:12
Practice with the best tools in the world!
SD1 General
Round tip. Ideal for orchestral work, rock and band. A legendary practice stick.
- Diameter: .635" [1.61cm]
- Length: 163/8" [41.59cm]
- Taper: Short
Like the MS1, but with extra length for more leverage and power.
- Diameter: .695" [1.77cm]
- Length: 17" [43.18cm]
- Taper: Short
5B Chop-Out
Rubber tipped stick with an elongated taper to simulate the balance of the 5B.
- Diameter: .595" [1.51cm]
- Length: 161/4" [41.28cm]
- Taper: Long
Rudiment Application Exercise
- Single Stroke Roll Application: Bronze 2:40
- Single Stroke Roll Application: Silver 2:07
- Single Stroke Roll Application: Gold 1:52
- Single Stroke Roll Application: Platinum 1:41
- Single Stroke Roll Application: Diamond 1:32
Dr. John Wooton is the director of percussion studies at The University of Southern Mississippi. He is well versed in many percussion instruments but has specialized in rudimental snare drum, drum set, marimba, vibraphone and steel pans. Dr. Wooton directs the Percussion Ensemble, Steel Pan Orchestra, Graduate Percussion Ensemble and the Samba Band. He also performs regularly on steel pans as a soloist or with his band, KAISO!, and plays vibes for the USM Jazz Quintet.
From 1988 to 1992, he served as percussion coordinator/pep band director for the University of Iowa bands. As an instructor and performer, Dr. Wooton has been associated with five P.A.S.I.C. Marching Percussion Forum champions. He marched snare drum for four years with the Phantom Regiment Drum and Bugle Corps of Rockford, Ill. (1981-84). During those years, Dr. Wooton held the Drum Corps Midwest Individual Snare Drum title and the Percussive Arts Society Snare Drum Individual title. From 1987 to 1989, he served as the percussion caption head for the Phantom Regiment Drum and Bugle Corps. For the 1990-91 drum corps seasons, he served as program coordinator/percussion arranger for "Nite Express" Drum and Bugle Corps of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Since joining the faculty at Southern Miss, Dr. Wooton, along with establishing a strong percussion studio, has introduced the USM Steel Band, Pop Percussion Ensemble, Samba Band and Salsa Band. He has served as the president of the Percussion Arts Society, Mississippi Chapter, and is presently a member of the Percussive Arts Society Marching Committee. Dr. Wooton gives clinics around the world representing Pearl Drums, SABIAN Cymbals, Vic Firth Sticks., Remo Drum Heads and Row Loff Productions Publications.
Check out John's books mentioned in these lessons!
The Drummer's Rudimental Reference Book
This book is packed full of lessons and exercises. Neatly organized into 41 different sections, this book covers rudiments, one-handed exercises, stick control, timing, relaxation, odd-groupings, back sticking, & tenor drumming. A must for the private instructor and band director!
Dr. Throwdown's Rudimental Remedies
A fantastic compilation of rudimental exercises written and collected throughout the years by Dr. John Wooton. Included is an accompanying DVD of Dr. Wooton performing many of the exercises and etudes. An enormous amount of downloadable play-along tracks are included on the DVD as well as insightful philosophies from Dr.Throwdown, himself!
You can find out more information on Dr. Wooton's books on his Web site: