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Welcome to Engage, I'm your host Ruth Todd. Thank you for joining me, 
as we tell the story of engaged learning here at Utah Valley University.
Engaged learning is the combination of traditional academic and hands on learning
and its a point of emphasis here at UVU.
for many UVU students that means earning a degree, while simultaneously, 
 building a resume in their chosen field of study.
On this program we spotlight examples of students who are learning by doing.
On today's episode we are taking a closer look  
at the works of UVU anthropology students are 
 doing with their Professor Dr. Hagen Klaus
South of the equator in Peru.
Where they are uncovering the remains of an ancient Andian Culture
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Very broadly anthropology is the study of people.
That is to say that is the study of people, in 
 all places and in all times, in all ways.
Anthropology is the most ambitious attempt,
that we human beings have ever embarked upon. 
to try and answer that question,
What does it mean to be human?
Out of the original five hundred formner sockets this is 
 one of a very few that have survived.
Anthropology because of it's scope and because of its approach towards time
and people and places and history.
I think has a very unique and very special potential,
to answer that kind of question.
here at the Palmec forest here at the site of Sucan 
and throughout the Lambayeque region and the north coast of Peru in general.
What we come in contact with,
on a daily basis, every day we go to work
is a part of the story of Humanity,
that has been lost, that we don't know very much about.
Its a part of history here that literally is buried,
and its also a part of history here that 
 without our work without our intervention 
without our attempt to understand,
the Sican people and this place.
This information would be gone forever, and it is critical to understand 
the totality of human history because if we don't understand that 
we have a very incomplete understanding of who we are today
and quite frankly I don't know that we would have a clue
as to the question, of where are we going in the future?
I love being outdoors and I love mystery.
Always been fascinated with people and and what makes their lives, 
come together in the particular ways that they do.
But it really is fascinating to imagine that there is a history,
of an entire culture and the individuals that make up that culture.
Somewhere in the ground, waiting to be discovered,
waiting to have the layers peeled back and then you have the mystery 
of trying to put the story together from the artifacts that you find.
So as what were interested in doing here 
in terms of the Lambayeque Valley Bio history project
One is that we are trying to further understand
the little Sican period and
also were trying to sketch out
and also were trying to sketch out
a an understanding of the population biology.
Patterns of health, physical activity
diet, genetic interaction patterns  
information such as this, because all of these are shaped by culture
but then the other principle focus of our research at this point
is to continue our our ongoing excavation at colonial sites 
and this is a brand new field
in a andio archaeology 
we've been doing uh lab work
studying human skeletal remains form our excavations
in the colonial cemetery of Etan, 
a at the southern end of that Lambayeque valley.
but we've  also been excavating at the Sican museum
and emergency rescue excavations that will 
at one of the pyramids in at the Palmec forest 
a called waca las ventanas.
Our project here with Dr. Kluas is specifically 
is to um to decide or make some inference about relationships
is to um to decide or make some inference about relationships 
of those we find buried.
I think its significant because this is a whole generation of people.
There was a whole culture 
several cultures that came and went.
Of their own accord way before they had contact with european influence.
We can't recognize the past culture without getting
somehow behind that time period 
and seeing what it was they ate and and
and did and and how they buried their dead.
did and and how they buried their dead.
um, before that influence came.
The north coast of Peru was the center
independent or autogenous culture development
there were no outside influences in this sense
and it was a center of culture development uh in Peru
which is to say quite a lot because when
we consider Peruvian pre-history we think the about the Incas
we think about a grand empires coming from the southern part of Peru.
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What you are seeing here is a hypothetical reconstruction of
the Sican capital which is also called Sican
the Sican capital which is also called Sican
in the original Muchief language of the people in this valley 
the term Sican, which was the original name
from what we understand from this part of the Pulmac forest
means the house or the temple of the moon
the site of sucan is something that when you first come here
you don't really appreciate the size of it 
and my students always keep on saying
is that you know we've seen this you know hundreds of pictures
of the site in class 
and we've never really realized just how big it was
This was a truly city of the dead it was a acropolis 
and each one of these stepped pyramids 
uh was a monument was a tombstone 
to an elite lignage 
with a the excavations and the study of ancient skeletons 
here at the site of Sican.
is essentially to shed light 
on a society that has been gone and forgotten 
a for more than a thousand years.
When we come back will see more of the engaged learning experience
That UVU anthropology students are getting by 
piecing together an ancient Peruvian History
almost entirely by their bones. 
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Welcome back to Engage
Today we're down in Ferrenafe Peru 
with UVU associate professor Hagen Klaus
and some of his anthropology students.
as they reconstruct the fascinating past of this ancient valley
by studying the skeletal remains of its people.
So when a student comes here and works as part of this project.
and is living and working here in the Lambayeque valley
Our students excavate archeological sites
Our students take those remains
a back to the lab, and it's within the 
 laboratory setting that they analyze the finds 
whether they be skeletons or metal objects or ceramics 
we are also involved in the conservation of the objects
so once something is excavated 
that's not the end of your relationship scientifically with the object
you have to take care of it.
when students are here in Peru they get to experience 
very intense cultural and linguistic immersion. 
When students participate in the work here 
in the Pulmac forest what their also helping to do is 
to protect this critically endangered environment.
of which there is nothing else like this here on the planet Earth.
The type of research that we do is absolutely fundamentally designed to incorporate students.
we do research through teaching and teaching through research.
They become junior colleagues with whatever that we are doing so if were excavating
they become really quite responsible and they take on
a after sort of shall we say a week or two of 
 a very close sort of a apprenticeship   
with myself or another archeologist 
a they will begin doing their excavations rather independently. 
So what we basically do here is when we first arrive 
I had taken classes on anatomy skeletal anatomy 
and when we showed up Hagen instantly trusted us and was 
 like all right here is your first burial 
your going to work on these start collecting data on these.
Dr Klaus arranged for me to have um 
my own exclusive access to a
a sample of a several individuals who had been excavated from a 
another site and I was allowed to go 
 through and do the data collection. 
I don't know if that is percussion or that's the sign 
 of child birth for instance a is it bilateral.
What we have come to focus on principally are human remains 
instead of ceramics or art styles or architecture for 
 instance as being our principle focus. 
Human remains quite likely do indeed represent the most 
 information rich part of the archeological record.
In many cases a very indelible record 
of behavior within patterns of health. If you gave me 
 the teeth of a group of people 
I'd be able to reconstruct the economic history of an entire civilization.
This is a curvical vertebra 
What I kinda can start seeing on this vertebral body
is a little bit of marginal lipping around the sides
Which is indicative of degenerative joint disease 
We had the opportunity to work in the laboratory 
with some skeletal remains of individuals who 
where apparent sacrifice victims.
Here at the Museo Brüning of the city of Lambayeque  
Which of one of our other principle museums that we work with.
A behind me are a series of boxes.
Thirty two boxes from the past field season 
Each one contains a victim of human sacrifice.
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But a very important perspective on the Chamu 
 occupation in the Lambayeque valley comes from
the study of the human sacrifices that that were discovered by my 
 colleagues at the Bruden Museum in 2008 and 2009 
and then study by my students and myself in 2009 and 2010.
So I think that when we look at the form of ritual sacrifice 
 and we see the way that how the bodies were buried. 
In a very traditional form of Muchic burial ritual 
it really comes across I think there is a 
 message I think it can be read
a from those archeological traces.
 
That indicates that the people who were doing the sacrifices
at a major Chamu political center, were not Chamu
They were Muchic part of the local population. 
What this means is that this shows us how 
 the Chamu ran a communal holding 
or imperial holding and this shows us how
or imperial holding they were interested probably only in managing  
the local political structures but they weren't after so to speak hearts and minds.
So I think that is shows us a brand new perspective
on human sacrifice and the history of human sacrifice
is starting to come into view. Where were understanding  
a exactly how sacrifice changes,
under which sorts of political and social circumstances
that the religious ritual evolves.
and a it's with the work of our students from UVU
That this completely brand new understanding is just beginning now to emerge 
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So one of the bigger questions that we are trying to address 
 here through our study of the skeletal remains  
of the sacrifice victims here at Wacanorte in Chotuna
Has to do with why the people were sacrificed.
Since water comes from mountains for instance
a the offering of a child's body in blood 
 may have a lot to do with 
concepts of fertility and the idea of 
these interchangeable metaphors between blood and between water
is being the two vital fluids that circulate from 
 this world and the world of the ancestors.
We think that we have a basic idea of what the people 
 where thinking and why they were carrying out these sacrifices. 
The hard shriveled up dried up body of a dead individual  
in this case a sacrifice victim.
Was often likened in Indian traditions to that of a seed. 
You can take a seed even though it's cold it's dry it's lifeless 
You can take a seed plant it into the ground water it 
and from this lifeless thing new life somehow sprouts.
and so these mummies I think were considered to be seeds
they were sources of fertility. They buried them in a Waca a pyramid 
Which was a metaphor for mountain it's the source of water.
So their feeding this living creature this living being and their
cosmology this is not a pile of bricks this is a living creature
the idea is that everything that is going on in this pyramid 
and everything that is taking place in this Waca is to make 
 sure that the world and the universe and life continues.
When we come back we will learn more from 
 Dr. klaus and the UVU team in Peru
and find out what they are discovering though 
 Bio 
archeology about this ancient people 
Whose level of society and culture was on par with the Incas and Aztecs.
and we'll speak with Dr. Klaus right here in 
 studio about the project and it's future. 
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Welcome back to engage, we wrap up this episode by talking with
the students about their hands on graduate level anthropology experiences
in Peru, both at the excavation site and in the lab.
Using biological evidence the students are helping to unlock some 
 of the secrets, about these ancient Peruvian societies.
What I'm doing here is I'm, doing a basic 
 inventory on the dentition of this burial. 
so right know what I'm going to first do is I'm going 
 to clean all the teeth pretty thoroughly.   
So the first thing that we do is we dump out the bones
So that we can examine them.
In this case I have a whole bag of vertebrae 
This is our last burial that we have.
We have already documented 232 burials 
and this will be number 233
Inventory is the first part of it so we just sort 
 of take an inventory of what's present and what's not
in the skeletal components, so in this case I'd go through bone by bone
and record what's present and what's not present.
I put them in kind of anatomical order 
 I start with the head up hear
and work my way down to the rest of the body.
Things that we like to look at in 
 terms of what we are studying 
we like to look find evidence see if 
 there is evidence of childhood metabolic stress
often thats in the form of what we call Periodic Hyperostosis   
Which we find on the exterior of the cranial vault.
When it comes to our students, my intention is to 
 be able to provide for them  
an exemplary engaged learning experience 
But within the philosophy of engaged learning and the way of teaching
in that sort of approach and philosophy 
but more over to be able to have students also
contribute to what we could call real world science.
 
When students come here they usually have about two 
 years of training with me  
in the classroom and the lab, spanning course work in a ancient archeology
and archeological field methods in human anatomy. 
We have an opportunity to actually be involved in excavation  
and literally be present as the context is first encountered 
and see how these individuals were in the ground and situer 
see the associated materials, cultural remains, ceramics 
How they were placed around the burials 
You could even have it described to you by someone 
 who was there or in a book 
But it wouldn't be the same as actually being there.
I believe when you can say that you've been in a country
I believe when you can say you've been in a country
you've been hands on involved in a powerfully reputable project
I think that is going to be a great help
The pictures are great, here is even better, this is 
 enormous, this is detailed so beautiful and 
none of those things I would be able to understand 
if I was just looking at them in class 
 or even looking at these burials 
Like Carlos has said and Hagen has always says, context is everything.
Right now we are on top of Waca Lera con lech
In the Bosque de Pomac, which is on the north coast of Peru
Behind me we have two other archeological sites
and whats really amazing about this opportunity is just walking up here
and looking at everything that we see around us.
We stumbled across a sacrifice victim, that had just eroded out of the Waca.
and that's defiantly not something you would never 
 encounter in the class room for sure.
When we approach bio archeology from a contextual point of view 
We have to get the students literally and 
 fully and deeply and completely engaged. 
With every other aspect of the archeology here.
So that means learning excavation techniques, that means learning Geo archeology, 
that means understanding the physical and chemical properties of what's 
 behind making a ceramic vessel or a metal smelter.
Out of that I think comes a new approach in bio archeology 
and one that very important to continue in the future.
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One period of time that we don't know anything about 
is a time of unparalleled social disruption, cultural collapse, cultural change and violence.
and that's the period of time the Spanish arrived 
 here on the coast of Lumbayeque in 1532.
Right now were standing at a part of the site of Etan.
this is the remains of a chapel behind us 
 that date back to the colonial occupation
as well as all around us there are the remains of the town.
we'll have five UVU students excavating here at the chapel 
 and also at the ruins at the colonial town.
The remains of the chapel itself probably contains an 
 intact  cemetery, form the late colonial period.
and this is also a brand new possibility to study burials 
 of the decedents of the people who survived conquest.
 
So truly well have students involved in all aspects of the archeological research
the mapping, the analysis of the materials after it's excavated
and also the presentation of our data at a various academic conferences 
and in book chapters and books and in top ranked peer reviewed journals.
Compared to what I expected this has supper seeded all expectations 
I expected it would be a great professional experience, educational experience. 
but again the friendships that we've made the connections we've made
are wonderful were now affiliated with a museum, several museums. 
Peru has been a pretty amazing experience in a lot 
 of different ways, as a person, as a student.
you know um having this opportunity to a use knowledge in the classroom
in a situation were its actually research and it's actually being 
 recorded and counting has been really fulfilling to me. 
Being able to come here and travel I also 
 got to experience the culture and 
This person that I'm working on right know their posterity is still living here
and that's just been, I've really got to know the culture 
 now the culture then and it's been fascinating 
As a UVU student an undergraduate, being involved in 
not just classwork your not just listening to a lecture 
or doing really well in a class but being at the forefront, 
 were the research is happening, were discoveries are being made.
the idea of that being the case as a UVU student, it's unrelated 
I mean it's so exciting that we have this opportunity 
to be doing that and that UVU is a 
 part of that I think it's really cool.
Were here with Professor Klaus, and Hagen how are you?
Very tired, we just returned yesterday 
from our seven month excursion to Peru
It's been an exhausting seven months but also one that's been very rewarding
extremely productive in terms of how much research 
 and teaching we were able to accomplish.
You know I don't think anybody would argue the fact that 
 what you are doing down there is so fascinating. 
But beyond fascinating it's really important tell us why
studying these ancient Peruvian cultures is so significant?
I think it's significant on a number of different levels.
It's significant scientifically because when 
it comes to the telling the story of humanity and the human civilization.
what we encounter in Peru is a unique chapter in that history.
and I think it's something that on a scientific and cultural level
it is something that enriches all of us who 
 are alive today and our decedents 
but also, this is sort of a philosophical point of 
 view but I think it's also very real.
for all us because when we learn about the past, what 
 we are able to is understand about our future.
You know so many people when they think about 
 archeology, if they have no background whatsoever
which is probably most people,
they think of Indiana Jones, so of course that's hollywood's version but 
just for fun treat me like one of your students and 
and tell me what it is like when you unearth find someone 
or something that is really a treasure.
Well in many cases I will always have to say this that
when we encounter human remains they are much more valuable then gold for instance.
or a gold artifact, I firmly believe that,
while of course you can get lots of information about 
 a culture and other art styles and beliefs 
from the things that are encoded, in say a golden artifact 
from the things that are encoded, in let's say a gold artifact 
a it's really human remains for us that represent the greatest 
 and most powerful windows a on an ancient society.
Because what your able to do is your able to really reconstruct 
the people from the culture from a the many 
 different people that you actually do study
so it really requires many different many hundreds of 
 burials and thousands of skeletons to study
But when you first find a person, the remains of a person more properly.
whose been dead for a thousand years or even a 
 couple hundred years in some of our cases
a it is a very powerful experience, it is a very personal experience.
a while we of course are always endeavor to 
 be scientific and dispassionate with what we do.
you can never get away from the fact that this is 
 a human being or at least what's left of one
and if you had a time machine and if 
 you could go back in time 
to know this person, there could be little doubt that you would be friends
that you would be able to understand this person
and to know them and in this sense, 
 really what it boils down to 
is that when you work with the skeletal 
 remains in excavation or in the lab
a they tell you about themselves, in this respect the dead become our teachers.
Well I think you hear that from the students, 
 these aren't skeletal remains these are people
and so it has to have a lingering and continuing 
 effect on these students as they go 
as they go out in the world and continue 
 their studies, how does that help them.
On very practical terms there are an immensity 
of ways that they can apply the skills that they have 
 learned, and not just in terms of academic anthropology 
so for instance if students are interested in forensic anthropology 
the techniques and tools and the types of analysis that we use here
are exactly those that we use in forensics as well  
except that our question and time period are different.
Well obviously all of the students that you have 
 in your classes here at UVU 
can't follow you down to Peru, not everyone gets that opportunity.
I wish they could. Of course, of course and that would be optimum.
But for those that don't get to go do 
 they still benefit how do they 
they have to benefit from what you do because it's just second hand
it's only second hand and that's not to bad 
 so tell me how they benefit. 
Well the field work and the field research that we do here 
as part of my project is really designed to be able to 
a to marry research and teaching together
because that's really what, at least in my opinion, my 
 perspective and the way I do engaged learning 
that's one of the best way's to do engage learning
and for our students when they come to Peru 
it's wonderful and a singular experience I hope for 
 them, but for the students here on campus.
We try to bring Peru to them, and so many different 
 varieties of classes that I teach here   
whether they range from forensic anthropology or biological 
 anthropology or courses on Indian pre history
a the work that I do in Peru comes right back to the classroom
they become part of my lectures and they become parts of the 
 broader curriculum that I teach here in the classrooms as well.
Well congratulations for what you are doing with them, and 
 thank you for helping them with engaged learning.
I'm very proud of our students, I'm very very proud of them.
Wow lucky to have you for sure, thank 
 you so much for taking some time
I know you're so busy but you stepped over to the studio 
 and we really appreciate it, it was absolutely fascinating 
It's wonderful to be here so thank you. 
hey and thank you so much, and thank you at home for watching engaged.
Join us next time for more stories about 
 UVU students who are learning by doing.
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