We are a culture obsessed with weight, barraged with
messages to thin down and images of the fit and trim. But
fat did not always mean flawed. The painful bustles and
corsets of 19th century gowns were designed to stress ample bosoms and bottoms. Women were supposed to be voluptuous. And those who weren't - like American suffragette Susan B. Anthony - were criticized for their gauntness. Peter Stearns (GMU) is a cultural historian and the author of the book Fat History: Bodies and Beauty in the Modern West. He traces the transformation of the full figure from a sign of health and well being to one of moral and psychological weakness.

A survivor for more than 350 million years, the horseshoe crab now faces an uncertain future. Commercial fishing is reducing the pre-historic creature's numbers. But also contributing to the decline is the crab's usefulness to science. Since the 1970s, horseshoe crabs have been caughtand bled to obtain a clotting agent used to detect dangerous toxins in drugs and implant devices. Biologist Jim Berkson (VaTech) discusses current measures to restore the horseshoe. Also featured: The Clinch River in southwestern Virginia is considered the number one hotspot in the United States for imperiled aquatic species. Among those threatened are 31 varieties of mussels. Biologist Dick Neves (VaTech), considered one of the foremost experts on freshwater mussels, is developing techniques to raise these endangered mollusks outside their river environment. Biologist Tim Stewart (Longwood) discusses the threat these rare species face from the more plentiful zebra mussel.

They followed a circuitous route in their 150-year travels from places with such names as Dumfries and Ayr to other locales called Donegal and Tyrone. Finally, they settled in a territory with names vaguely reminiscent of their homeland, names like Buchanan and Fincastle. They were the Scots-Irish of the 1600 and 1700s. People who made their way from Scotland to Ireland to Pennsylvania and finally to the mountains of Appalachia. On their migration they carried with them the ballads, airs and reels taught them by those who had come before. Appalachian studies instructor Ricky Cox (Radford) and ethnomusicologist Stevan Jackson (Radford) lead the way on this musical journey.

As the air turns frigid, we offer the perfect reason to sit by the fire. Our tales of winters past in the Old Dominion may make you wonder whether it is, indeed, cold outside. Virginians of old witnessed a frozen Chesapeake Bay, snow in June and blizzards with 10-foot drifts. Anthropologist Jim Jordan (Longwood) describes the winters for some of the state's oldest inhabitants, the Native Americans who inhabited these lands 10,000 years ago. Archeologist Dennis Blanton (W&M) describes efforts to better understand Virginia's long-term climate patterns by looking at diaries and newspapers from the 18th and 19th centuries.

Fourth Week (Dec. 30 - Jan. 5)
Race: Does it Exist?

In 1998, a group of American anthropologists garnered attention by questioning the meaning of "race." These scholars, from a discipline that long supported the concept of race, announced they no longer believed that humans could be categorized into clearly distinct biological groups. Their statement echoed a sentiment increasingly expressed by academics in a variety of disciplines. Scholars today suggest that "race," as it is understood in the U.S., was invented in the 18th century by English colonists to separate themselves from the Native Americans and Africans also living in colonial America. And, they say, the errant belief in race led to such atrocities as slavery in the South and the Holocaust in Europe. Anthropologist Audrey Smedley (VCU), author of the 1998 American Anthropological Association Statement on Race and the award-winning book Race in North America, joins with historian Dirk Philipsen (VSU) in a discussion of the development of race as a concept and how race led to racism.