Thursday, September 6, 2018

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Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018

IDS Indiana Daily Student | idsnews.com

Student arrested at hearing protest By Lilly St. Angelo lstangel@iu.edu | @lilly_st_ang

MATT BEGALA | IDS

Pictured is the view from Memorial Stadium on July 25 outside the new Tobias Nutrition Center located on the second floor of the south end of the stadium.

It’s coming home IU football set to open home play Saturday at Memorial Stadium against Virginia week. After an early interception, Perkins threw for 185 yards and two touchdowns while also carrying the ball 13 times for 108 yards and another two touchdowns. While his performance did come against an FCS opponent, it signaled Perkins' dual-threat ability at the position, which contrasts what IU saw last season from former Virginia quarterback Kurt Benkert. Perkins’ ability to escape the pass rush with his legs, as well as push the ball downfield with his arm, poses a real threat for a Hoosier defense that struggled to stop FIU from moving the ball at times last week. The Golden Panthers totaled 170 rushing yards against Coach Tom Allen's defense.

By Sean Mintert smintert@iu.edu | @Sean_mintert20

After last week’s 38-28 victory in Miami against Florida International University, IU’s toughest nonconference opponent awaits. Led by Coach Bronco Mendenhall, the Virginia Cavaliers are looking to improve upon last year’s 6-7 record, which ended with a loss to Navy in the Military Bowl presented by Northrop Grumman. Here are three things you need to know about the Hoosiers’ next opponent. New quarterback Bryce Perkins is a dual-threat playmaker. After spending last season at Arizona Western Community College, former Arizona State quarterback Bryce Perkins showed his ability to make plays with both his arms and his legs in Virginia’s 42-13 victory over Richmond last

TY VINSON | IDS

Then-sophomore defensive back Andre Brown Jr. defends against Purdue at the Old Oaken Bucket game in 2017 in West Lafayette, Indiana. IU lost to Purdue for the first time since 2012.

SEE VIRGINIA, PAGE 6

Fantasy coffins on display at Mathers By Clark Gudas ckgudas@iu.edu | @This_isnt_clark

Most airplanes fly. Some, like the airplane on display at the Mathers Museum of World Cultures, were built to be put in the ground. As part of the Animal/Human Themester at IU, Kristin Otto, Ph.D. candidate in anthropology, presented “Shapes of the Ancestors: Bodies, Animals, Art, and the Ghanaian Fantasy Coffins,” on Aug. 30 at the Mathers Museum. The fantasy coffin exhibit runs through Dec. 31. Fantasy coffins first arose in Ghana when British colonizers outlawed the Ga people's traditional burial practices. They turned to these fantasy coffins as a way to retain connection to and help the dead pass on to the afterlife. “They began building figurative coffins to make essential and very public connections between the dead and the living,” Otto said. Since then, fantasy coffins have become as much for museums and collectors as they are for the Ga people. Coffins are generally made of woods such as cedar, mahogany and wawa. Some of the fantasy coffins on display at the museum were animals. Others took the form of an airplane and a shoe. Otto said people can also purchase miniature coffins shaped as Coke and beer bottles. “Mostly, they’re a collectible form,” Otto said. One colorful coffin on display was a hen with chicks surrounding it. In Ghanaian culture, the hen is symbolic of a mother’s status as a leader, and the chicks surrounding the bottom represent the children. “They’re representative of individual identity and community identity,” Otto said. Coffin designs depend on the dead person’s “okadi,” or family and clan symbol, which could range from eagles to lions or other animals. Profession or personal interests also determine coffin styles. Not until the 1950s did fantasy coffins gain international popularity. Ghanaian coffin artist Kane

TRISTAN JACKSON | IDS

A hen coffin is on display Aug. 30 in the Mathers Museum of World Cultures as part of the Shapes of the Ancestors: Bodies, Animals, Art, and Ghanaian Fantasy Coffins exhibit. These fantasy coffins typically symbolize who a person was. This one represented the female head of the family.

Kwei first got into the fantasy coffin industry when he allegedly built a boat coffin for his dying uncle, a fisherman. His nephew, Paa Joe, later broke off from Kwei's practice to create his own successful coffin company. Despite the colorful, festive nature of fantasy coffins, Ga funerals are emotional experiences, Otto said. An overnight wake is kept by the family, then the deceased person is placed in the coffin and paraded around to his or her favorite places. Oftentimes, fantasy coffins are broken as they are placed in the ground. Otto said this is done to discourage looters, but also to facilitate the deceased person’s ascendance into the afterlife. “There are complex intersections between individual people and their families and the community surrounding them,” Otto said. Though Paa Joe, Kane Kwei and other coffin builders create coffins

for burial, much of their business comes from international sources. Some fantasy coffins have taken the form of an octopus, clam shell, basketball, chameleon and an ear of corn.

“I thought it’d be more about people and animal relations. But it took a really cool twist.” Charlotte McBride, sophomore

Sophomores Charlotte McBride attended as part of N110: Introduction to Studio Art for Nonmajors. “I thought it’d be more about people and animal relations,” McBride said. “But it really took a cool twist.” One coffin Otto presented was a pink uterus, made for a gynecologist — fallopian tubes and ovaries extended over the coffin. “It’s kind of famous in fantasy coffin lore,” Otto said.

Fantasy coffins intended for burial can cost up to $7,000 and beyond. Ga funerals are funded by the family and its community, Otto said. “The entire cost can cost up to two years wages for an average town person,” Otto said. These fantasy coffins and funerals foster as much competition among families as they do community togetherness, Otto said. One family might spend a certain amount of money on a funeral, only for another family to spend even more at their funeral. “These competitions for the most elaborate and successful funeral remind us the funerals are as much for the living as for the dead,” Otto said. Sophomore Sarah Welsh also attended the lecture for Intro to Studio Art for Nonmajors. “The uterus was cool,” Welsh said. “One-hundred percent.” At 1:30 on Sept. 16, Paa Joe will be at the exhibit for questions, followed by a presentation of the documentary “Paa Joe and the Lion” at the IU Cinema.

IU student and political organizer Stanley Njuguna was arrested Wednesday for protesting at the hearing for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Njuguna sat in the hearing watching his fellow protesters get up one by one to speak and be roughly escorted out of room. The urgency of the situation pulled him to his feet. “He will not protect the Constitution,” Njuguna said as he stood in the hearing room. “He will serve corporations and his backwards worldview. The American people have no faith in you.” Njuguna was photographed while being escorted out of the hearing and was featured in a Washington Post article about the Kavanaugh hearing protesters. In Bloomington, Njuguna has led protests against the purchase of a Lenco Bearcat armored vehicle, spoke about racism on campus at a Black Student Union sit-in and has been active with IU Students for a Democratic Society. He was one of many who were escorted out of the Senate confirmation hearing after voicing their opinions against Kavanaugh. “I think that Brett Kavanaugh does not have the national interests in mind,” Njuguna said in an interview. “He’s not there to defend constitutional freedoms, he’s there to serve the interests of Trump and corporations and the far right.” Njuguna, a senior studying law and public policy, is currently interning in Washington, D.C. for the Center for Popular Democracy, a nonprofit advocacy group. He said many of the people he worked with were also escorted out of the hearing and arrested. Those arrested were charged a fee of $35 and released. “Sitting in a room full of national politicians like that was very daunting,” Njuguna said. “But we’re not in a time of political norms. We’re not just going to sit back and let these people with incredibly bad moral judgment rule our country.”

Students protest SCOTUS nominee By Jesse Naranjo jlnaranj@iu.edu | @jesselnaranjo

IU sophomore Annie King spent part of her birthday in handcuffs. The environmental management major, who turned 19 on Tuesday, was one of a handful of Hoosiers arrested outside of the office Washington of Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Indiana while protesting the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh. Donnelly voted to confirm President Trump’s first nominee, Neil Gorsuch, but hasn’t said whether he’ll vote in favor of confirming Kavanaugh. The group of Hoosiers in Washington was made up of activists from groups including Hoosier Action, Campus Action for Democracy and Women’s March–Indiana. Not every activist was arrested during the demonstration, but all were present during the sit-in, including a legal observer who studies law at IU. “We don’t support anything SEE KAVANAUGH, PAGE 6


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Thursday, September 6, 2018 by Indiana Daily Student - idsnews - Issuu