The Journal of Undergraduate Research at ECU
1
Volume 8, Issue 1 December 2020
The Lookout: A Journal of Undergraduate Research at East Carolina University Volume 8, Issue 1
Website: www.ecu.edu/lookout
Email: lookout@ecu.edu
Editor in Chief: Donna Kain kaind@ecu.edu
Preface This year has undoubtedly had plenty of challenges, and because of COVID-19, everyone has had to learn how to adjust to life in a new normal. The way we connect with one another has drastically changed, and the importance of coming together while being apart is most important now more than ever. Friends and families have had to learn how to celebrate their most significant milestones from a distance, businesses have had to change their whole routines, while schools became virtual. As a society, we have shown that we have learned to persevere through the impossible and pave a new way towards our future in dark times. With this great pleasure, we bring you the first issue of The Lookout entirely created online. Many zoom calls, emails, and hard work went into producing this issue in a world that is still finding its way through the chaos. We would like to thank all our contributors, every writer who sent in an article, and especially our readers!
The Lookout Team 2020 Management Team: • Caitlin Gaudet • Lauren Mason • Madelyn Combs • Onyx S.C. Bradley Design Team: • Ashley Mills • Jena Blizzard • Kayla Brown • Mint Achanaiyakul • Patrick Wiedman-Goldberg • Ryan Luck • Terrence Whidbee
3
Editorial Team: • Alex Webb • Chloe Adams • Christopher Sheets • Elizabeth Currin • Rosario Lilley Communications Team: • Autumn Spray • Deja Jackson • JaQuan Houser • Ronni Hopkins • Yasmine Davis
Table of Contents Psychedelic Psychotherapy – How GMOs and Magic Mushrooms Will Solve the Mental Health Crisis .................................................................................................. 1 Ship of the Dead: Insight into Anglo-Saxon Culture and Seafaring at Sutton Hoo ... 27 How Lack of Empathy Causes Bigotry ..................................................................... 41 Empathy in Change.................................................................................................. 47 The Fall of the Aztec Empire: The Spanish Conquest of Mesoamerica ..................... 53 A Comparison and Analysis of Different Tuning Systems and Temperaments and Their Use in the Baroque Period .............................................................................. 59 Ethical Concerns Related to Testing Human Subjects and Consent ......................... 73 Social Work and Violence Work ............................................................................... 79 Gertrude Weil, Embodiment of Womanhood and Progressive Activism .................. 93 Generational Perspectives of Feminism ................................................................. 101
5
The Lookout
Zachary Barnett
Psychedelic Psychotherapy – How GMOs and Magic Mushrooms Will Solve the Mental Health Crisis Zachary Barnett
ABSTRACT: Psilocybin and its metabolic derivative, psilocin, are psychoactive molecules that occur naturally in certain mushroom species. Recent research has shown psilocybin to be an effective means of treating several mental illnesses such as anxiety, depression, OCD, and addiction. However, current legislation and the specific environmental requirements for the cultivation of psilocybin-containing mushrooms prevents the mass use of this biopharmaceutical. Fortunately, through the application of bioprocess engineering, both Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae can be genetically modified to produce psilocybin in vivo, which addresses the environmental and financial limitations seen in mushrooms that inhibit mass production. This thesis paper will provide an argument for the cultivation of genetically modified organisms for the mass production of psilocybin for use as an innovative antidepressant based upon reduced production costs, a high degree of chemical safety, and effective treatment rates of various disorders. Introduction The United States is undergoing a mental health crisis. Approximately 40 million adults are affected by mental health disorders each year. Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S and
1
impact roughly one-fifth of the population [1]. Mental health has become a sensationalized issue in modern media, with terms like ‘anxiety,’ ‘depression,’ ‘OCD,’ and ‘addiction’ occupying a large degree of space in our headlines. Two studies published by the American Psychiatric Association involving thousands of
Zachary Barnett
children and college students show that “…anxiety has increased substantially since the 1950s”. Anxiety “…has increased so much that typical schoolchildren during the 1980's reported more anxiety than child psychiatric patients did during the 1950s” [2]. Even with multiple antidepressants being available on the market, there seems to be a continuing decline in mental health, with the same researchers suggesting that “…cases of depression will continue to increase in the coming decades, as anxiety tends to predispose people to depression”. As anxiety disorders continue to sink their roots into our society, researchers have turned to an unlikely organism for reprieve: psychoactive mushrooms. Despite their illegality both in the United States and around the world, psychoactive mushrooms that contain the prodrug psilocybin have been shown to have a phenomenally beneficial impact on mental health. This chemical has exhibited a substantially therapeutic effect on depression, anxiety, OCD, addiction, and an increase in general quality of life [3]. However, these fungi are not without issue. Several factors prevent psilocybin-containing mushrooms from revolutionizing how we treat mental health. From their illegality to difficulties with cultivation, these mushrooms themselves seem unlikely to become the next innovative drug production mechanism. Despite these factors, scientists have determined a
The Lookout
method to genetically engineer microorganisms to produce the primary psychoactive prodrug, psilocybin, found in magic mushrooms. This approach has been projected to be cheaper and more efficient than other existing options. Thus, the psilocybin produced via genetically modified organisms provides an alternative to organic synthesis, is more effective than conventional antidepressants, and more economical than mushroom cultivation.
Psilocybin Structure Psilocybin (4-phosphoryloxy-N, N-dimethyltryptamine) is the primary substituted tryptamine observed in various mushroom species and is unfamiliar to most Americans. All tryptamines possess a similar molecular structure, containing an indole ring joined to an amino group (NH2) via an ethyl side chain (Fig. 1). The term “substituted” refers to the replacement of any of the hydrogen atoms normally attached to the indole ring, sidechain, and/or amino group. Differences in pharmacodynamics occur via the substitution of these functional groups. In psilocybin, the R4 carbon is substituted with a phosphate group, and RN1 and RN2 are substituted with methyl groups (Fig. 2).
2
The Lookout
Figure 1. Molecular structure of tryptamine.
Zachary Barnett
Figure 2. Molecular structure of psilocybin.
Note: The indole ring is shown in blue, ethyl side chain in black, phosphate group in red, and methyl groups in green. Both compounds possess the same backbone (indole ring and ethyl chain connected to an amino group). However, only psilocybin has an additional phosphate group and two methyl groups attached to the amino group. Varied effects occur entirely based on these minute differences.
Psilocybin is a relatively durable molecule, with one study finding “… even after 30 years of storage, detectable quantities of psilocybin were still found [in mushroom samples]” [4]. The longevity of psilocybin is due in part to the phosphate group seen on the R4 carbon. The phosphate group increases the molecule’s stability relative to its metabolites by protecting the molecule from oxidative degradation [5]. Exposure “… to temperature[s] above 70°C leads to psilocybin dephosphorylation, particularly if the extraction is carried out at acidic pH conditions” [6]. Administered orally and metabolized by the human body, psilocybin is rapidly dephosphorylated in the stomach’s acidic environment or through enzymatic processes involving alkaline phosphatases and various nonspecific esterases [7] [8].
3
Role in Nature Psilocybin is found on every continent, excluding Antarctica, and across more than twelve mushroom genera, with the compound being found most widely in the species Psilocybe [9]. The exact evolutionary reasoning behind the presence of the compound in these mushrooms is unknown. However, some studies suggest psilocybin acts as a deterrent to insects that might damage the fleshy body of the mushroom. It is believed that psilocybin metabolism in insects yields a neurotransmitter analog that seems to alter the behavior of mycophagous and wood‐eating invertebrates [10]. This same neurotransmitter action is present in humans and is the source of the psychotherapeutic effects of psilocybin ingestion.
Zachary Barnett
Metabolism in Humans Dephosphorylation of psilocybin yields psilocin as a primary metabolite, with numerous secondary metabolites (Fig 3). Psilocin persists in the body for several hours before the chemical is eliminated via the kidneys through O-glucuronylation and via an
The Lookout
enzymatically catalyzed reaction involving monoamine oxidase isozyme A (MAO-A). MAO-A is an enzyme that normally oxidatively deaminates serotonin but is non-selective and therefore acts upon other biogenic and neuroactive amines, such as psilocin [11].
Figure 3. Metabolism of psilocybin. [7] Note: The structure of tryptamine is indicated in blue, the renal excretion path is in green, and enzymatic metabolism via monoamine oxidases is shown in red.
Following enzymatic metabolism, the primary psychoactive metabolite, psilocin, begins its journey to the brain. Psilocin crosses the blood-brain barrier more readily than psilocybin, where it begins to interact with various systems within the body [5]. Therefore, even though psilocybin
is the primary indole alkaloid found in ‘magic mushrooms,’ psilocybin actually acts as a prodrug requiring metabolism to become pharmacologically active. Thus “…whenever a reference is made to the in vivo effects of psilocybin, it is
4
The Lookout
Zachary Barnett
psilocin that is responsible for [said] effects” [7].
Psilocin Structure & Activity as a Serotonin Analog: Psilocin is structurally analogous to 5-hydroxytryptamine, a prominent endogenous neurotransmitter, more commonly known as serotonin (Fig. 4 and Fig. 5). This structural similarity allows psilocin to bind to serotonin (5-HT) receptors in the central nervous system with high affinity. Even though psilocin administration’s physiologic and psychotic effects result from its agonistic activity toward receptors
Figure 4. Molecular structure of psilocin
located within the central nervous system, there is no guarantee that equal concentrations of psilocin would produce equal treatment intensity in two different patients. A recent study found one area of the brain to be an accurate predictor of psilocybin experience [12]. Known as the rostral anterior cingulate, increases in the thickness of this region between patients correlated with an increase in scores measuring the experience of unity, spiritual experience, blissful state, and insightfulness. It is hypothesized that due to the density of 5-HT2A receptors in this region of the brain, increased thickness corresponds to increased 5-HT2A receptors, which are activated upon the binding of psilocin.
Figure 5. Molecular structure of serotonin (5hydroxytryptamine)
Note the remarkable similarity between these two chemicals. One is endogenous, occurring naturally in the human body (right), whereas the other (left) is not. A single carbon atom shift (R4 in psilocin vs. R5 in serotonin) of the hydroxyl group (-OH) and the addition of two methyl groups result in profound changes in functionality.
While psilocin acts primarily as a 5-HT1 and 5-HT2 agonist in the brain, it should be noted that research suggests psilocin partially binds to multiple receptors, with dopamine receptors being just one of those involved [8]. Agonists are chemicals that bind to a given receptor, activating it to produce a biological
5
response [13]. The activity of psilocin in receptors outside of the 5-HT group is supported by the discovery that under the effects of psilocin, “…the frontal cortex [is] metabolically two to three times more stimulated than the occipital cortex, despite…equal 5-HT2 densities” which is “[indicative of] regulatory mechanisms and/or other
Zachary Barnett
neurotransmitter systems [being] implicated” [14]. This suggests that psilocin is far more complex than a simple serotonin analog, and therefore is of far greater pharmacological significance in terms of research and pharmaceutical potential. Accompanying Compounds and the Entourage Effect: It should be noted that while psilocybin comprises most of the indole alkaloid content of psychoactive mushrooms, there are numerous other compounds present that are predicted to play a role in the overall therapeutic effect of the fungus. The collective effect of these low-concentration substituted tryptamines and various chemicals can be referred to as the “Entourage Effect” and is a topic of interest for researchers given a lack of knowledge surrounding the phenomenon [15]. The presence of other molecules is lost when pure psilocybin is extracted and used for treatment, leading to a need for the full chemical profile of psilocybincontaining mushrooms to be mapped. This would allow producers to create a pharmaceutical that reaps the comprehensive benefits of this natural source. One such class of molecules present in psilocybin-containing mushrooms is β‐carboline monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs). “As potent inhibitors of MAOs, MAOIs are neuroactive compounds that interfere with [psilocin] degradation” (see ‘red pathway’ in Fig. 3). Based on the findings of several German researchers (the Hoffmeister group), it is believed that “…MAO inhibitors generally increase the pharmacological effects of such bioactive amines” [11]. More importantly, their study found that the
The Lookout
β‐carboline profile of various mushroom species was both “…quantitatively and qualitatively inhomogeneous among species….” This leads to the basis for an argument that different species of mushrooms do indeed produce different effects and are more than the sum of their primary psychoactive compounds. The ability of at least five Psilocybe species to produce β‐carbolines was deemed “remarkable” in the light of synergistic pharmacology (i.e. the “Entourage Effect).
Efficacy of Psilocybin Treatment Because of its effect upon the serotonergic and related systems, psilocin has been examined from a medicinal point of view as a biopharmaceutical, and results are promising. Psilocin has exhibited potential in treating anxiety and depression, OCD, and addiction to alcohol and cigarettes. The modulatory nature of psilocin upon numerous 5HT receptors responsible for precisely these behaviors explains why this serotonin analog exhibits effectiveness at treating a diverse array of mental health disorders (See Table 1, Appendix). Anxiety Disorders: Of particular interest is psilocybin’s ability to act as an antidepressant to treat anxiety disorders. Millions of Americans are affected by anxiety and depression every day. Cancer patients represent a subset of that population, one that experiences particularly acute symptoms of anxiety and depression. Psilocybin has proven especially effective at guaranteeing a higher quality of life for late-stage cancer patients. 6
The Lookout
One randomized, double-blind, pseudo-placebo controlled study (n=17) by Johns Hopkins University reported that psilocybin administration “…produced large decreases in clinician and self-rated measures of depressed mood and anxiety, along with increases in quality of life, life meaning, and optimism, and decreases in death anxiety. At a 6month follow-up, these changes were sustained with 80% of participants continuing to show clinically significant decreases in depressed mood and anxiety”. All participants attributed their positive changes in mood to the psilocybin treatment [16]. A second double-blind, placebocontrolled pilot study (n=12) also analyzed the effects of psilocybin. The study found “…no clinically significant adverse events…a significant reduction in anxiety….and improvement of mood that reached significance at 6 months…” [17]. A third randomized, doubleblind, placebo-controlled study published by the New York University of Medicine (n=29) further confirms the conclusions that psilocybin produces sustained benefits in reducing anxiety and depression in cancer patients. The study found “…psilocybin produced immediate, substantial, and sustained improvements in anxiety and depression that led to decreases in cancer-related demoralization and hopelessness, improved spiritual wellbeing, and increased quality of life. At the 6.5-month follow up, psilocybin was associated with enduring…antidepressant effects” [18]. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD):
7
Zachary Barnett
In addition to the millions of Americans with anxiety disorders, approximately 8.25 million have OCD [19]. “OCD is a chronic and debilitating condition with a lifetime prevalence of 2% to 3%, which makes it the fourth most common psychiatric diagnosis” [20]. Interestingly, not only does psilocybin-treatment display significant effects upon reducing anxiety and depression, but it has also been examined as a potential treatment for OCD. A double-blind study (n=9) investigating the safety, tolerability, and clinical effects of psilocybin administration concluded that “In a controlled clinical environment, psilocybin was safely used in subjects with OCD and was associated with acute reductions in core OCD symptoms in several subjects” [20]. Certain forms of OCD are known to exhibit an inefficient response to current treatments, and thus psilocybin could act as a form of a breakthrough therapy. Tobacco and Alcohol Addiction: Due to the agonistic activity of psilocybin upon 5-HT receptors and their connection to addiction, psilocybin treatment has shown promise in treating common forms of substance use disorders such as tobacco and alcohol addiction. An estimated 5 million deaths per year are caused by tobacco use, and those numbers are projected to rise to more than 8 million per year by 2030, according to the WHO [21]. In an open-label pilot study (n=15) by Johns Hopkins University, otherwise healthy nicotine-dependent smokers who had a mean of six previous lifetime quit attempts were subjected to psilocybin therapy with the goal of completely stopping
Zachary Barnett
tobacco use. At a 6-month follow-up, 80% of participants showed seven-day point prevalence abstinence. Eleven of these 12 self-reported quitting smoking and demonstrated biologically verified smoking abstinence throughout the following ten weeks of treatment [21]. Alcohol addiction is equally as debilitating, affecting roughly 12% of the American population. “In a singlegroup, proof-of-concept study (n=10), volunteers with DSM-IV alcohol dependence received... [psilocybin treatment] …Participants’ responses to psilocybin were qualitatively similar to those described in other populations, although some of the participants had a relatively mild response to the doses used. Drinking did not decrease significantly in the first four weeks of treatment (when participants had not yet received psilocybin) but decreased significantly following psilocybin administration.” What’s more, these gains were maintained during a 36week follow-up. Based upon these results, a larger double-blind trial is currently underway [22]. Psilocybin Compared to Current Antidepressants Based on the volume of research and the efficiency exhibited therein, it can be argued that psilocybin is phenomenally effective at treating anxiety, depression, OCD, and assorted addictions. Psilocybin treatment could prove to be more effective than certain currently available antidepressants and smoking cessation methods. This effect is made more drastic upon the realization that when it comes to prescribing antidepressants, “It’s a best guess out of dozens on the market” [23]. When taking an antidepressant, it requires
The Lookout
time to take effect, sometimes on the order of months before symptom relief can be experienced. Furthermore, there is no guarantee that a given antidepressant will produce the desired effect after that duration of time. Even then, antidepressants can produce a variety of undesirable side effects. This means that even if a given antidepressant successfully works to relieve a patient’s symptoms, of which there is no guarantee, it is not certain that there will not beside effects that might force the patient to abandon the antidepressant (even if it works only to start the entire cycle over again). When compared to psilocybin, the differences are astonishing. The effects of psilocybin treatment are immediate and enduring, sometimes lasting for several months at a time following a single round of treatment. Furthermore, psilocybin exhibits little to no serious side effects. Of all the trials that have been conducted up to this point (approximately 2000 subjects having received psilocybin under controlled conditions by 2005), the only theorized at-risk populations are those such as individuals with hypertension, tachycardia, or personality predisposition. It should be noted that the “…prevalence of prolonged psychiatric symptoms after serotonergic hallucinogens in thousands of healthy subjects and psychiatric patients was 0.08%-0.09% and 0.18%, respectively. Attempts to commit suicide occurred in 0.12% of psychiatric patients with 0.04% succeeding” [8]. According to numerous studies, psilocybin has very low toxicity and is not neurotoxic. The ratio between the LD50 (lethal dosage in 50% of a given population) and the ED50 (effective dosage in 50% of a given population), 8
The Lookout
which serves as an accurate indicator of safety, is 641 for psilocybin (in comparison to 9637 for vitamin A, 4816 for LSD, 199 for aspirin, and 21 for nicotine) [8]. Using the LD50 of rats and mice (LD50 = 280 and 285mg (about the weight of ten grains of rice)/kg respectively) which has been documented to be lower than humans, it is predicted that a 60-kg (~132 lb.) person would need to ingest up to 1.7kg (~3.7 lb.) of fresh mushrooms, or consume “…approximately 19g of the pure drug…” to overdose [7] [8]. Finally, it has been stated that the risk of addiction to hallucinogens, including psilocybin, is very low. In one study, monkeys failed to seek psilocybin as a reward when offered. When human use is observed, psilocybin fails to cause craving or withdrawal, and it does not directly affect the dopaminergic pathway, thereby avoiding the reward system [7] [8]. Even more, due to differences in patient response to psilocybin treatment based upon 5-HT receptor density in the rostral anterior cingulate region, there is a potential for the implementation of patient brain mapping to determine patientdependent dosing. Coupled with the previously discussed entourage effect of various psychoactive alkaloids also present in mushrooms, this would result in the potential for a custom-
9
Zachary Barnett
tailored, individual-centric approach, yielding targeted symptom relief. The researcher even went as far as to say, “Biomarkers prospectively predicting effective treatment options could assist in individualized treatment planning, reducing time spent on ineffective treatments, shortening patient suffering, and reducing the overall cost burden of depression” [12]. This statement alone represents an almost complete 180° compared to the currently employed treatment method. This revolutionary approach was up until recently, still a pipe dream for psychiatrists who relied upon the best guess to address these often-lifethreatening illnesses. All of these factors have psilocybin poised to be one of the best candidates to revolutionize the subset of the multibillion-dollar pharmaceutical industry pertaining to mental health.
History & Legality of Psilocybin in Society Psilocybin originally enjoyed legal status during the 1960s after first being identified and isolated by renowned Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman in 1959. For a while, psilocybin was even sold as a licensed pharmaceutical by Sandoz under the name Indocybin (Fig. 6).
Zachary Barnett
The Lookout
Figure 6. Indocybin as marketed by Sandoz Note: Sandoz is a subsidiary of the pharmaceutical giant Novartis. This should serve as evidence of the previously perceived utility of psilocybin in the eyes of the pharmaceutical industry, which has disappeared following its regulation. Picture Source: [24]
Psilocybin was originally banned in 1970 by the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act, which was passed as a part of the War on Drugs by the United States Government [25]. While psilocybin for entheogenic purposes was allowed by select Native tribes, the general population began to view mushrooms and the chemicals they contained negatively due to misinformation and a lack of exposure. Today, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reported that the knowledge and use of mushrooms are “not at all common” [26]. Therefore, despite the benefits of psilocybin, many Americans remain in the dark regarding its benefits due to current legislation. Despite groundbreaking research that suggests psilocybin possesses obvious therapeutic applications and low addiction potential, it remains classified as a Schedule I substance. Under this classification, psilocybin
has no currently accepted medicinal use and a high potential for abuse. This designation is in stark contrast to the current studies available to the public. Thankfully, psilocybin research and anecdotal evidence from prominent experts has brought about a shift in public opinion that has resulted in substantial legislative changes. This legislative shift is akin to the shift seen regarding cannabis, another Schedule I substance. Just as Colorado pioneered cannabis decriminalization and legalization, so too did Denver, CO, become the first city to vote to decriminalize psilocybin-containing mushrooms in May of 2019 [27]. While far from legal, decriminalization is a step in the right direction if psilocybin will ever play a role in treating the millions of Americans affected by anxiety disorders, OCD, addiction, and other mental disorders whose interactions with psilocybin have yet to be studied. 10
The Lookout
Despite legislation saying otherwise, the FDA has begun to recognize psilocybin for the potential breakthrough compound that it is. A mental health care company by the name of COMPASS Pathways has entered phase 2b dose-ranging trials with 216 patients, earning the FDA’s "Breakthrough Therapy" designation for its program of psilocybin therapy for treatmentresistant depression [28]. COMPASS has even taken the initiative and patented the chemical production process of two specific polymorphs of psilocybin [29]. While it might seem as though COMPASS is laying claim to the projected capital of psilocybin in its entirety, they have only taken the crumbs of a much larger prize. These two different crystalline structures represent a subset of other potential polymorphs and fail to consider the polymorphs of other substituted tryptamines that have yet to be patented. At most, their patent is a guarantee that a small portion of a rapidly emerging multi-billion-dollar industry will be theirs. Instead of stifling innovation, the COMPASS Pathways patent motivates potential pioneers and sparks conversation. Experts in the field believe that psychedelic research will significantly increase within the next five to ten years. A team of Dutch researchers even go as far as to suggest that the recreational use of psychedelics in the United States has remained as high as 20% since the 1960s and therefore shows that psychedelics are alive and well in the Western world despite prohibitionist legislation. They, too, cite marijuana legalization as an indicator of a shift in society’s perception of these mind-altering substances [30]. This further 11
Zachary Barnett
strengthens the case for the eventual acceptance of psilocybin as a pharmaceutical and displays the international recognition it is garnering. Therefore, it would seem as though legality serves as the only reason behind psilocybin’s absence from the pharmacological industry, but this is not the case. Obtaining a means of mass-producing psilocybin remains elusive even outside of regards to the molecule’s legal status as a schedule I substance. As it stands, psilocybin can be synthesized, harvested via mushroom cultivation, or produced in vivo by genetically modified organisms.
Current Routes to Psilocybin Production Chemical Synthesis (Synthetic) As it stands, psilocybin is provided for research solely through chemical synthesis, absent of any living organism. However, synthetic psilocybin can cost scientists as much as $7,000 to $10,000 USD per gram [31]. These high prices not only stem from illegality and a lack of market competition but from difficulties in the chemical synthesis itself. Despite being first identified and isolated by Albert Hoffman in the 1960s, chemical psilocybin synthesis yields have only moderately improved over this time. Hoffman achieved final yields of 20%, but the difficulty of the last step requiring the phosphorylation of psilocin to psilocybin challenged Hoffman and modern chemists alike. This is only exaggerated by the difficulty of the stereospecific hydroxylation of the indole aromatic ring, which has been called “one of the most challenging fields in modern
Zachary Barnett
chemical synthesis” [32]. The highest yields of psilocybin from chemical synthesis were reported by COMPASS pathways, with overall yields of 75%. Hence the subsequent patent application. However, this route requires expensive precursors, meaning the high production costs might limit its impact. Mushroom Cultivation (Biosynthesis) Mushroom cultivation is an incredibly inefficient means of providing an entire branch of the pharmaceutical industry with a chemical in high demand. Mushrooms are the fungus’ fruiting body, with most of the biomass being found within the given substrate in the form of thin hair-like strands called hyphae that make up a network known as mycelium. The sole purpose of the fruiting body is to produce and disperse spores. Therefore. they possess only trace concentrations (0.2% to 1% dry weight) of psilocybin. making the mushrooms themselves an inefficient method of delivery [8]. This is especially true when considering domestic and international GMPs regarding the sale of a product that is uniform in concentration [8]. Because of mushroom’s nature, once all the available nutrients have been depleted, the fruiting body emerges to spread spores and decays shortly, thereafter, resulting in a brief lifespan and harvest period. Furthermore, mushrooms tend to fare well in moist environments rich in nutrients. Unfortunately, these same conditions are ripe for the proliferation of other decomposer organisms such as mold and bacteria. Without proper sterile procedures, mushroom cultivators are at risk of also farming pathogens such as
The Lookout
cobweb mold, black mold, and assorted bacteria. These contaminants either cause various ailments upon consumption, reduce crop yield, or excrete toxic compounds. However, it is these same destructive microorganisms that are proving to be psilocybin’s savior.
Biotechnological Production of Psilocybin Up until July of 2018, there was little information on recombinantmicroorganism routes to psilocybin production. However, this was changed with the release of a landmark summative paper by the Hoffmeister group [33]. In two studies previously conducted by the same group, psilocybin was first enzymatically synthesized in a four-enzyme, one-pot reaction. Based upon their data, 20% of the supplied 4-hydroxyindole precursor was converted into psilocybin. In a second study, the team pressed further and genetically modified the Aspergillus nidulans mold to biosynthesize enzymes from a single transcription as a polycistron. Polycistrons contain the codons for more than one gene and therefore express more than one protein. This mRNA molecule was subsequently translated into discrete enzymes despite the genetic code being present on a single mRNA molecule. After growth in small-volume shake flasks and lacking further optimization, psilocybin was reported in minor concentrations of 0.1 g/L. Following in the footsteps of the Hoffmeister group, two equally groundbreaking studies emerged in early 2020. The first, from Miami University, was titled “In vivo production of psilocybin in E. coli” 12
The Lookout
[34]. Utilizing bioprocess engineering methods, E. coli was genetically modified to produce psilocybin in fedbatch bioreactor conditions in concentrations of ~11601160 mg (about the weight of a small paper clip) f psilocybin from 4-hydroxyindole precursor. The second study came up shortly thereafter from the Technical University of Denmark. It was titled “Metabolic Engineering of Saccharomyces cerevisiae for the de novo production of psilocybin and related tryptamine derivatives” [32]. Their study resulted in a strain of yeast capable of producing 627 ± 140 mg (about the weight of five grains of rice)/L of psilocybin and 580 ± 276 mg (about the weight of ten grains of rice)/L of psilocin. The results of both studies lay the groundwork for the biotechnological production of psilocybin in controlled environments for use as a novel pharmaceutical and even provide a starting point for the biotechnological production of similarly constructed tryptamine derivates that may also hold therapeutic relevance. In vivo production in E. coli The work completed by the Hoffmeister group was cited as being monumentally influential in the genetic modification of E. coli to produce psilocybin. Utilizing the gene sequences identified by the Hoffmeister group in the Psilocybe cubensis (P. cubensis) mushroom, the team from Miami University was able to encode the requisite enzymes for the biosynthesis pathway from 4hydroxyindole precursor in E. coli. The authors chose E. coli for the preexisting surplus of metabolic knowledge and genetic tools available to assist in the organism’s genetic 13
Zachary Barnett
engineering. The production of psilocybin was optimized via genetic testing, followed by the optimization of fermentation conditions. Their work has resulted in the highest psilocybin titer reported to date from a genetically modified host. To biosynthesize psilocybin in E. coli, a total of four enzymes are required. The first is an enzyme known as TrpAB and occurs naturally in E. coli. The following three enzymes are xenogeneic, originating from the genome of P. cubensis. They are denoted as PsiD, PsiK, and PsiM (see Fig. 7). The three foreign enzymes were expressed in E. coli via the T7-lac inducible promoter system. Upon absorbing the vector (plasmid), E. coli is genetically modified, such that the addition of isopropyl β-d-1thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG) induces the expression of the T7-lac operon. IPTG is similar in structure to lactose, the chemical that induces lac operon expression in unmodified E. coli. However, unlike lactose, IPTG cannot be broken down by the bacteria, which leads to constant gene expression. Therefore, induction with IPTG causes the expression of the genes immediately following the lac operon. In this case, these genes are related to the expression of PsiD, Psi M, and PsiK. TrpAB is an E. coli native tryptophan synthase that catalyzes the final two steps of tryptophan biosynthesis in plants, fungi, and bacteria [35]. In unmodified E. coli, TrpAB cleaves 1-(indole-3-yl)glycerol phosphate in the first half of the reaction via the α-subunit (the “A” in TrpAB) to release indole. This indole is subsequently used by the β-subunit (the “B” in TrpAB) to condense indole into tryptophan [33]. However, given
Zachary Barnett
that 4-hydroxyindole (see 1 in Fig. 7) is supplied, only the final step of the biosynthesis is required, allowing for just TrpB to be used. TrpB, therefore, performs the conversion of 4hydroxyindole into 4-hydroxy-Ltryptophan (see 2 in Fig. 7). This synthesis is completed via the affixation of serine (C3H7NO3) to the R2 position of 4-hydroxyindole. PsiD is a decarboxylase, an enzyme that acts to remove carboxyl groups. PsiD normally catalyzes the decarboxylation of L-tryptophan into tryptamine in mushrooms [33]. However, in E. coli, PsiD’s nonselective action allows it to readily convert 4-hydroxy-L-tryptophan to 4hydroxytryptamine (see 3 in Fig. 7). PsiK is a kinase, an enzyme that catalyzes the transfer of phosphate groups from donor molecules. In the E. coli pathway, PsiK catalyzes that phospho-transfer step, dephosphorylating adenosine
The Lookout
triphosphate (ATP) into adenosine diphosphate (ADP). The removal of this phosphate group allows for the conversion of 4-hydroxytryptamine into norbaeocystin (see 4 in Fig. 7). PsiM is a methyltransferase, an enzyme that moves methyl groups to a given location within a molecule. In the E. coli pathway, PsiM first converts norbaeocystin into baeocystin (see 5 in Fig. 7) and is utilized again to finally convert baeocystin into psilocybin (see 6 in Fig. 7). The repetition of the methyltransferase step makes sense when considering the presence of the two methyl groups found in psilocybin’s structure (Fig. 2). It should be noted that the “…specificity of PsiM is remarkable,” as PsiM seems to require a 4-O-phosphoryloxy group (read: phosphate group in the R4 position) for proper substrate recognition [33]. This has been further supported in subsequent studies [32].
Fig 7. Biosynthetic pathway to psilocybin in E. coli recombinant host Note: This pathway consists of three heterologous enzymes, PsiD, PsiK, PsiM, with amino acid supplements highlighted in yellow in the form of serine and methionine. [34]
A defined 27-member copy number library was created consisting of the three P. cubensis enzymes (Psi
D, Psi K, and Psi M). Each enzyme was applied to a low-copy number (pACM4-SDM2x), medium-copy
14
The Lookout
number (pCDM4-SDM2x), and highcopy number (pETM6-SDM2x) plasmids. By modifying the copy number, enzymes are expressed in low, medium, or high amounts corresponding to their low, medium, or high designation. At the conclusion of this phase of the optimization study, minor improvements over the “all high” copy number construct (2.19 ± 0.02 mg/L) of 4.0 ± 0.2 mg/L were
Zachary Barnett
observed (Fig. 8). One might argue that the high expression of each enzyme may increase the metabolic burden upon the organism by diverting necessary resources away from the production of psilocybin and towards the manufacture of enzymes. This would contribute to the increased efficiency seen in a medium, high, and low expression compared to an allhigh expression.
Fig 8. Bar graph of the defined copy number library psilocybin titers Note: Asterisks (*) denote the absence of detected psilocybin.
A pseudooperon library was then created, consisting of 125 members. This pseudooperon library had different mutant T7 promoters in front of each of the three enzymes encoding for PsiD, PsiK, and PsiM. A single terminator is present at the end of the operon. By using this configuration, researchers were able to cultivate an extremely variable transcriptional landscape. This method allowed for each T7 promoter
15
to transcribe a unique mRNA molecule capable of encoding for the translation of one, two, or all three of the enzymes. After screening a total of 231 random colonies, most variants demonstrated little (30%) to no production (65%) of psilocybin production. A small population (5%) of mutants exhibited massive increases in production relative to the defined copy number library screening (Fig. 9).
Zachary Barnett
The Lookout
Fig 9. Pseudooperon library screening Note: When compared to Fig. 8, a select few variants were able to synthesize psilocybin at approximately more than 5x that which was previously observed.
Finally, a three-gene pathway was expressed from a single high-copy plasmid under the control of a single T7 promoter and terminator, where each gene had an identical ribosomal binding site. The T7 promoter sequences were randomized to one of five mutant promoters. This resulted in a library with five potential promoter combinations. Significant enhancement of library performance was seen relative to the pseudo-operon library (Fig. 10). After screening, the top ten variants were re-cloned and
transformed to eliminate the chance of plasmid or strain mutations and confirm that psilocybin production was indeed intentional. Variants #13 and #15 were deemed false positives due to a significant reduction in psilocybin production; however, variant #16 was selected for further optimization based upon its yield (Fig. 11). The top mutants from the basic operon screen display a 17-fold improvement in titer over those in the defined copy number library study.
16
The Lookout
Fig 10. Basic operon library screening and reported psilocybin titers
Zachary Barnett
Fig 11. Additional screening of top mutants and reported psilocybin titers
Note: The highest titers (red) were reported for pPsilo16 (#16) as shown.
To further maximize psilocybin yield, fermentation conditions were optimized as well. Subsequent tests analyzed the impact of induction point, base media selection, carbon source identity, inducer concentration, and production temperature. Since these variables can all independently affect cellular growth and/or final product titers, each of them was evaluated according to a range relative to standard E. coli growth conditions. The time at which the T7 promoter system in E. coli is induced has been shown to have a significant impact on cell growth. However, based upon an evaluation of induction point sensitivity for pPsilo16, there seemed to be low sensitivity to induction point with a preference of induction at 3-4h after inoculation. The cellular growth rate was also examined in accordance with base media selection and carbon source identity. Based on data
17
collected, pPsilo16 seemed to be very sensitive to these two variables. “When production was attempted in…undefined media such as LB, a dark-colored insoluble product was observed along with low psilocybin production. Similarly, low production was also observed when grown on glycerol; however, no colored products were observed. pPsilo16 demonstrated moderate sensitivity to IPTG concentration, with higher final concentrations of 0.5- and 1.0-mM outperforming 0.1 mM…” [34]. Production temperatures of 30, 37, 40, and 42 °C were evaluated for their effect upon psilocybin production. All tests were initiated at 37 °C, and a significant preference was seen for maintaining an isothermal fermentation temperature of 37 °C. Furthermore, varying concentrations of supplemental reactants were provided in low,
Zachary Barnett
medium, and high concentrations. The amino acids required for biosynthesis (serine and methionine) were tested at 0, 1, and 5 g/L. Supplementation of methionine showed a significant increase in psilocybin production and ultimately high supplementation of amino acids (5 g/L) were deemed optimal. The 4-hydroxyindole precursor was provided at 150, 350, and 500 mg (about half the weight of a small paper clip)/L. At high concentrations of 4-hydroxyindole, cells demonstrated a noticeable growth decline, which was attributed to presumed cellular toxicity. For the final scale-up study that used all the optimization data collected, a bioreactor was filled with Andrew’s Magic Media (AMM), supplemented with 150 mg (about the weight of five grains of rice)/L 4hydroxyindole, 5 g/L of serine, and 5 g/L of methionine. Temperature was maintained at 37°C and pH was held at 6.5 via the automatic and periodic addition of 10 M NaOH. Dissolved oxygen was held at 20% saturation through impeller agitation that varied between 250 and 1000 rpm. The bioreactor was induced with 1 mM IPTG 4h post-inoculation. After the starting 20 g/L of glucose was metabolized, separate feed streams of 500 g (about twice the weight of a can of soup)/L glucose and 90 g/L (NH4)2HPO4 were supplied. At 12h post-inoculation, 4-hydroxyindole precursor was added according to the observed buildup of the 4hydroxytryptophan pathway intermediate. This study highlights the power of genetic and fermentation optimization in tandem to rapidly clarify the key parameters required to successfully scale-up recombinant E.
The Lookout
coli. This study resulted in the production of approximately 1.16 g/L of psilocybin, which represents a cumulative 528-fold improvement over the original unoptimized construct. Despite the attractiveness of these yields, 4-hydroxyindole remains an expensive precursor costing upwards of 288 USD/g [32]. This makes it difficult to compete with the price of chemical synthesis that utilizes the same precursor. Researchers from the Technical University of Denmark recently added their voice to the debate, further reducing the cost of biosynthesis by using S. cerevisiae to circumvent 4-hydroxyindole supplementation. In vivo production in S. cerevisiae Despite the increase in production seen in E. coli, S. cerevisiae may arguably be a better candidate for the mass production of psilocybin. S. cerevisiae, more commonly known as yeast, is a eukaryotic organism. It, therefore, possesses a nucleus, whereas the prokaryotic E. coli does not. This difference allows for a minute change: the addition of the PsiH enzyme to the biosynthetic equation. PsiH is a P450 monooxygenase, an enzyme that selectively hydroxylates (applies a hydroxyl group, i.e. an -OH) the R4 position of tryptamine to produce 4hydroxytryptamine. This enzyme requires a compatible P450 reductase enzyme as a redox partner in order to supply the PsiH enzyme with electrons [33]. E. coli, being prokaryotic, is unable to express the family of cytochrome P450 enzymes, hence the absence of PsiH in the previously mentioned biosynthesis. Therefore, “although E. coli can produce serine 18
The Lookout
and indole naturally, it lacks the ability to express the P450 hydroxylase…” and is unable to avoid 4-hydroxyindole supplementation [34]. S. cerevisiae does not share this problem, and therefore its use further reduces the cost of psilocybin biosynthesis. To begin, fermentation was carried out in a small-scale study at 30°C and pH was maintained at 5.0 via the addition of a 12% NH4OH solution. Upon observing an increase in O2 production and a decrease in CO2 production (indicating consumption of glucose), the fed-batch portion of the experiment was begun. The initial feed rate was 0.45 g/h and was exponentially increased by 0.02 h-1 to accommodate exponential yeast growth. The feed media was defined, consisting of “…30 g/L KH2PO4, 6.3 g/L MgSO4·7H2O, 50 g/L (NH4)2SO4, 0.35 g/L Na2SO4, 500 g (about twice the weight of a can of soup)/L glucose, 1 mL/L antifoam (Antifoam 204) and a 10-fold higher vitamin and trace element concentration”. Researchers discovered that higher psilocybin titers were observed when using Catharanthus roseus (C. roseus) tryptophan decarboxylase (as opposed to P. cubensis decarboxylase, i.e. PsiD). Original testing also showed a large accumulation of tryptamine, “…indicating a significant limitation in the conversion…[to] 4hydroxytryptamine. This is associated with PsiH, the enzyme that hydroxylates tryptamine. “While the detection of psilocybin indicated that the native S. cerevisiae P450 reductase enzyme could carry out this reduction…. [accumulation] suggested a sub-optimal interaction between…” the P450 reductase and PsiH. A substitute P. cubensis reductase was identified using genomic search 19
Zachary Barnett
techniques that resulted in the identification of a single proteincoding sequence with 42.2% homology to the original amino acid sequence. The expression of this P. cubensis reductase produced a significant increase in psilocybin titer. Not only did this exhibit the first functional expression of a P450 reductase from P. cubensis, but it also demonstrated how the expression of an adequate P450 reductase/monooxygenase pair was imperative to maximizing yields. This optimal S. cerevisiae strain (ST9482) was subjected to fed-batch bioreactor cultivation, which allowed for greater control over variables such as pH, oxygen supply, aeration, and glucose concentration, which resulted in even greater psilocybin titers. “The controlled fed-batch fermentation of ST9482 led to the production of 627 ± 140 mg (about the weight of five grains of rice)/L of psilocybin and 580 ± 276 mg (about the weight of ten grains of rice)/L of psilocin”. Interestingly, the controlled feeding of glucose at low rates prevented significant accumulation of ethanol, the byproduct of yeast fermentation that ultimately kills the microorganism in high concentrations. Biotechnological Summary With the impeding approval of psilocybin as a breakthrough pharmaceutical, the stable manufacture and supply of this chemical must be considered. “Psilocybin preparations for pharmaceutical and research use currently rely on chemical synthesis via a difficult and expensive process…,” leaving much to be wanted in terms of a reliable supply that will equal demand. The stereoselective introduction of hydroxyl groups has
Zachary Barnett
been described as “one of the most challenging fields in modern chemical synthesis” [32]. The biotechnological route to psilocybin avoids this difficulty through the beauty of previously evolved genes, the tried and true iterative genetic modification of organisms over millennia.
Conclusion A stigma-laden view of psilocybin-containing mushrooms as street drugs that threaten communities has gripped the nation. The legal scheduling of psilocybin and its metabolic derivatives as Schedule I controlled substances with no medicinal value has grossly impeded psilocybin research and stifled entrepreneurial innovation. Current legislation has wrongly relegated psilocybin to the role of a controlled substance despite trials showing lasting impacts upon anxiety, depression, and various forms of addiction. Low toxicity, high LD50/ED50, and low addiction potential further strengthen the portfolio of traits the substituted tryptamine possesses. Psilocybin has a high degree of utility as a novel antidepressant, which is well-timed given the current mental health crisis in the United States. Until recently, primary sources of psilocybin originated from inorganic synthesis or
The Lookout
collection of psilocybin-rich mushrooms. However, illegality, specific cultivation requirements, and difficult organic synthesis make mass production of the chemical difficult. Thankfully, biotechnological methods allow for the genetic engineering of E. coli and S. cerevisiae, workhorses of the biotechnological industry. Commonly occurring E. coli bacteria were manipulated to produce psilocybin at high concentrations, the first example of this molecule being produced by a prokaryotic organism. Despite massively progressing the path to commercial production, the biosynthesis of psilocybin in E. coli utilizes many of the same reagents as chemical synthesis. Standing on the shoulders of giants, further research has shown the potential of S. cerevisiae to yield comparably high concentrations of psilocybin while avoiding more expensive precursors used via the more efficient E. coli method. These studies verify the proof-of-concept for industrial-scale production, a key step if one hopes to see the revival of pharmaceuticals such as IndocybinTM that were arguably foregone far too early. As many experts and their writings suggest, psilocybin as a novel antidepressant can be expected to mushroom into a multibillion-dollar industry in under a decade, bringing with it a revolution in how society views psychotropic substances.
20
The Lookout
Zachary Barnett
Appendix: Table 1. List of psilocin-binding receptors and associated functions that are modulated by activation [36]
Receptor 5-HT2B
Function • • • • • •
5-HT1D
• • • •
D1* [37]
•
Anxiety Appetite Cardiovascular Function GI Motility Sleep Vasoconstriction Anxiety Auto receptor Locomotion Vasoconstriction Development and maintenance of addiction
5-HT1E 5-HT5A
--• • •
5-HT7
• • • • • • • •
5-HT6
• • • •
21
Auto receptor Locomotion Sleep Anxiety Auto receptor Memory Mood Respiration Sleep Thermoregulation Vasoconstriction Anxiety Cognition Learning Memory
Zachary Barnett
The Lookout
•
Mood
D3* [38]
•
Antidepressant
5-HT2C
•
Addiction Anxiety Appetite GI Motility Heteroreceptor for norepinephrine and dopamine Locomotion Mood Penile Erection Sexual Behavior Sleep Thermoregulation Vasoconstriction
• • • • • • • • • • •
5-HT1B
• • • • • • • • • •
5-HT2A
• • • • • • • • •
Addiction Aggression Anxiety Autoreceptor Learning Locomotion Memory Mood Penile Erection Sexual Behavior Vasoconstriction Addiction Anxiety Appetite Cognition Imagination Learning Memory Mood Perception
22
The Lookout
Zachary Barnett
• • • • *receptors are associated with dopaminergic system
23
Sexual Behavior Sleep Thermoregulation Vasoconstriction
Zachary Barnett
The Lookout
References [1] "NIMH » Mental Illness," National Institute of Mental Health, [Online]. Available: https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/mental-illness.shtml. [Accessed 16 January 2020]. Source [2] "Studies Show Normal Children Today Report More Anxiety than Child Psychiatric Patients in the 1950's," [Online]. Available: https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2000/12/anxiety. [Accessed 30 January 2020]. [3] F. L. O. J. A. S. C. J. R. A. W. Z. J. E. C. H. Rafael G. dos Santos, "Antidepressive, anxiolytic, and antiaddictive effects of ayahuasca, psilocybin, and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD): a systematic review of clinical trials published in the last 25 years," Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 193-213, 2016. [4] A. a. R. K. Christiansen, "Analysis of indole alkaloids in Norwegian Psilocybe semilanceata using high-performance liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry," Journal of Chromatography A, no. 244(2), pp. 357-364, 1982. [5] L. J. W. A. Horita, "The Enzymic Dephosphorylation and Oxidation of Psilocybin and Psilocin by Mammalian Tissue Homogenates," Biochemical Pharmacology, vol. 7, pp. 47-54, 1961. [6] K. Stebelska, "Fungal Hallucinogens Psilocin, Ibotenic Acid, and Muscimol," Therapeutic Drug Monitoring, vol. 35, no. 4, pp. 420-442, 2013. [7] R. J. Dinis-Oliveira, "Metabolism of psilocybin and psilocin: clinical and forensic toxicological relevance," Drug Metabolism Reviews, pp. 84-91, 2017. [8] T. P. J. H. Filip Tyls, "Psilocybin - Summary of knowledge and new perspectives," European Neuropsychopharmacology, no. 24, pp. 342-356, 2014. [9] "Psilocybin mushroom," Wikipedia, 9 March 2020. [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psilocybin_mushroom. [Accessed 6 April 2020]. [10] V. V. E. G.-T. H. K. P. M. a. J. S. H. Reynolds, "Horizontal gene cluster transfer increased hallucinogenic mushroom diversity," Evolution Letters, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 88-101, 2018. [11] S. D. J. F. F. B. F. T. A. K. F. M. C. H. D. H. Felix Blei, "Simultaneous Production of Psilocybin and a Cocktail of β-Carboline Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors in "Magic" Mushrooms," Chemistry: A European Journal, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 729734, 2020. [12] K. H. P. B. B. B. C. R. F. X. V. Candace R. Lewis, "Rostral Anterior Cingulate Thickness Predicts the Emotional Psilocybin Experience," Biomedicines, vol. 2, no. 8, 2020. [13] "Agonist," The Free Dictionary, [Online]. Available: https://medicaldictionary.thefreedictionary.com/agonist. [Accessed 9 April 2020].
24
The Lookout
Zachary Barnett
[14] K. L. L. C. S. P. M. O. S. J. A. F. X. Vollenweider, "Positron Emission Tomography and Fluorodeoxyglucose Studies of Metabolic Hyperfrontality and Psychopathology in the Psilocybin Model of Psychosis," Neuropsychopharmacology, vol. 16, no. 5, pp. 357-372, 1997. [15] "Entourage Effect," Wikipedia, [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entourage_effect. [Accessed 19 March 2020]. [16] M. W. J. M. A. C. A. U. W. A. R. B. D. R. M. P. C. M. A. K. Roland R Griffiths, "Psilocybin produces substantial and sustained decreases in depression and anxiety in patients with life-threatening cancer: A randomized double-blind trial," Journal of Psychopharmacology, vol. 30, no. 12, pp. 1181-1197, 2016. [17] M. Charles S. Grob, M. Alicia L. Danforth, M. Gurpreet S. Chopra and R. B. M. Marycie Hagerty, "Pilot Study of Psilocybin Treatment for Anxiety in Patients With Advanced-Stage Cancer," Arch Gen Psychiatry, vol. 68, no. 1, pp. 71-78, 2010. [18] A. B. J. G. G. A.-L. T. M. B. C. S. E. M. A. B. K. K. J. B. Z. S. P. C. a. B. L. S. Stephen Ross, "Rapid and sustained symptom reduction following psilocybin treatment for anxiety and depression in patients with life-threatening cancer: a randomized controlled trial," Journal of Psychopharmacology, vol. 30, no. 12, pp. 1165-1180, 2016. [19] "Facts about Obsessive Compulsive Disorder," BeyondOCD, [Online]. Available: https://beyondocd.org/ocd-facts. [Accessed 19 February 2020]. [20] C. B. W. E. K. T. P. L. D. Francisco A. Moreno, "Safety, Tolerability, and Efficacy of Psilocybin in 9 Patients With Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder," Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, vol. 67, no. 11, pp. 1735-1740, 2006. [21] A. G.-R. M. P. C. R. R. G. Matthew W Johnson, "Pilot study of the 5-HT2AR agonist psilocybin in the treatment of tobacco addiction," Journal of Psychopharmacology, vol. 28, no. 11, pp. 983-992, 2014. [22] M. W. J. Michael P. Bogenschutz, "Classic hallucinogens in the treatment of addictions," Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry, vol. 64, pp. 250-258, 2016. [23] "First Top 10 List for Antidepressants," ABC, [Online]. Available: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/MindMoodNews/story?id=67523 17&page=1. [Accessed 29 February 2020]. [24] "Sandoz Indocybin (psilocybin)," [Online]. Available: http://herbmuseum.ca/content/sandoz-indocybin-psilocybin. [Accessed 18 March 2020]. [25] "Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970," Wikipedia, [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comprehensive_Drug_Abuse_Prev ention_and_Control_Act_of_1970. [Accessed 18 March 2020]. [26] "Psilocybin Mushroom Fact Sheet," Drug Policy Alliance, 2017. [Online]. Available: https://www.drugpolicy.org/sites/default/files/Psilocybin_Mushr ooms_Fact_Sheet.pdf. [Accessed 19 February 2020]. 25
Zachary Barnett
The Lookout
[27] "Denver Votes to Decriminalize Magic Mushrooms," [Online]. Available: https://www.citylab.com/life/2019/05/psilocybin-mushroomshallucinogens-medical-use-denver-ballot/587680/. [Accessed 18 March 2020]. [28] "COMPASS Pathways Granted Patent Covering Use of Its Psilocybin Formulation in Addressing Treatment-resistant Depression," PR Newswire, [Online]. Available: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/compasspathways-granted-patent-covering-use-of-its-psilocybin-formulation-inaddressing-treatment-resistant-depression-300985534.html. [Accessed 19 March 2020]. [29] C. B. J. S. N. G. M. H. K. P. Derek John Londesbrough, "Preparation of psilocybin, different polymorphic forms, intermediates, formulations and their use". United States of America Patent 2019/0119310, 9 10 2017. [30] A. F. A. S. M. M. V. J. R. H. Bas T.H. de Veen, "Psilocybin for treating substance use disorders?," Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 203212, 2017. [31] "Cost of Psilocybin," [Online]. Available: https://psilocybintechnology.com/cost-of-psilocybin/. [Accessed 11 July 2020]. [32] P. T. N. M. K. P. R. M. K. I. B. N. Milne, "Metabolic engineering of Saccharomyces cerevisiae for the de novo production of psilocybin and related tryptamine derivatives," Metabolic Engineering, vol. 60, pp. 25-36, 2019. [33] C. L. J. W. F. B. D. H. Janis Fricke, "Production Options for Psilocybin: Making of the Magic," Chemistry: A European Journal, vol. 25, no. 4, pp. 897-903, 2019. [34] N. A. K. Z. W. J. D. B. C. S. M. A. L. E. T. A. R. J. A. J. Alexandra M. Adams, "In vivo production of psilocybin in E. coli," Metabolic Engineering, vol. 56, pp. 111-119, 2019. [35] K. M. e. al., "Conservation of the structure and function of bacterial tryptophan synthases," International Union of Crystallography Journal, vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 649-664, 2019. [36] "5-HT receptor," Wikipedia, [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5-HT_receptor. [Accessed 13 February 2020]. [37] "Dopamine receptor D1," Wikipedia, [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dopamine_receptor_D1. [Accessed 13 February 2020]. [38] "Dopamine receptor D3," Wikipedia, [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dopamine_receptor_D3. [Accessed 13 February 2020].
26
The Lookout
Noah Edwards
Ship of the Dead: Insight into Anglo-Saxon Culture and Seafaring at Sutton Hoo Noah Edwards
Introduction In the east of England, on the River Deben, in the county of Suffolk, one of the United Kingdom’s most important archaeological sites was found in the year 1939. The name of the site is Sutton Hoo, which is derived from the Old English words sut and tun meaning “south farmstead or village” and the Old English word hoh which “describes a hill shaped like a heel spur” (Stanford University). Contained within the site were the remains of an Anglo-Saxon ship burial dating from the early AD 600s. There is no definite answer as to what important person was buried within the ship, only theories. Though little is known about the person entombed within, the artifacts that were left with them on their journey into the afterlife can help construct a better understanding of a time and place with few historical sources to help identify the deceased or understand their way of life. The artifacts provide tremendous insight into the culture of the Anglo-Saxons of the seventh century. Much of what was discovered, while still supplying a greater understanding of the society as a whole, is the stuff of kings. Despite receiving less attention, the ship that was found can help to put into greater context other artifacts discovered within the site. As people have come to realize the importance of the ship, 27
projects have been launched to build working models in an attempt to further understand Anglo-Saxon maritime transportation and how it may have linked them to the larger world.
Discovery and Excavation The process of excavation that led to the discoveries of what lay under the mounds at Sutton Hoo began with the curiosity of a woman by the name of Edith Pretty. Travels earlier in her life had sparked an interest in archaeology and after the death of her husband, Pretty began to develop an interest in the mounds that were dispersed around the estate on which she lived at Sutton Hoo. In 1938, Pretty took it upon herself to contact the curator of the Ipswich Corporation Museum in order to seek out someone to conduct a professional excavation of the mounds. The person that was recommended was the archaeologist Basil Brown (Nelson 2019). Basil began the excavation with the help of Pretty’s gardener and gamekeeper. Basil’s initial excavation revealed the indent left by the long rotted away wood of the ship, attracting the attention of authorities and other academics; one of these academics,
Noah Edwards
The Lookout
FIGURE 1: Site map of mound 1 at Sutton Hoo (Phillips 1940a:197).
Charles W. Phillips, would take over the excavation (Donahue 2006). The excavation was completed by Phillips on 26 August 1939. This was only a few days before the United Kingdom entered into World War II. This event greatly interfered with the study of the artifacts found at Sutton Hoo. Martin Carver (2004:23-24) provides insight into this time with writing by Dr. Rupert L. S. BruceMitford stating, [The artifacts] had hardly arrived in the building before they had to be packed up again for evacuation. Only first-line conservation was possible. The Sutton Hoo treasure went into wartime storage in a disused arm of the London Underground Railway system, along with … other especially valuable treasures from the British Museum
Dr. Bruce-Mitford worked at the British Museum but would be unable to examine the artifacts further until 1946, after a period in the army.
The Artifacts The artifacts found within the ship burial cover a wide range of wellmade objects and offer important insight into the Anglo-Saxons and their society. The period in which the ship and its occupant were interred was a time of change among the Anglo-Saxons, as a new religion was starting to take hold within the area and among some of the upper levels of society. Evidence of this can be found within the burial. Other artifacts found in the burial reveal the wealth and power of the person who had been buried at Sutton Hoo, and AngloSaxon connections to the world at large.
28
The Lookout
Among the other artifacts within the grave, two spoons were found that help shed light on the time and the person who may have been buried in the ship. Charles W. Phillips (1940b:16) described their discovery saying, a slight amorphous hummock showed by its purple stain that silver was present. Upon excavation this proved to have been a nest of nine shallow silver bowls placed upside down. Two long-handled silver spoons were placed with the bowls beneath them and the handles sticking out eastwards. … The two spoons were also in very fair condition. Upon further examination, the two spoons revealed a wealth of information. The spoons were “of Byzantine type” and had “inscriptions on them in niello reading +ΠAVΛΟC and +CAVΛOC respectively” (Phillips 1940a:166). The inscriptions on the spoons, done in niello with a black metal alloy inlayed in the engravings, are in Greek and when translated, read “SAULOS and PAULOS” (Kaske 1967:670). The SAULOS and PAULOS inscriptions link the spoons to Christianity through the Apostle Paul, who changed his name from Saul in the New Testament. Because of this link to Christianity, these spoons have been interpreted as having a ceremonial purpose as baptismal spoons. Historian Michael Wood states, “Baptismal spoons, of course are given at conversion and baptism … even though he converted back to paganism and was buried in a pagan graveyard …” (Donahue 2006). The 29
Noah Edwards
idea of an important person among the Anglo-Saxons who had converted to Christianity but had still not let go of the last vestiges of paganism has led to some theories as to the identity of the person buried at Sutton Hoo. Though it is not known, and may never be known, who exactly was buried at Sutton Hoo, the most common theory is King Raedwald of East Anglia. Raedwald was known to have converted to Christianity in the AngloSaxon kingdom of Kent, but still allowed the worship of traditional Anglo-Saxon gods when he returned to his own kingdom (Augustyn et al. 2007). FIGURE 2: Two Byzantine silver baptismal spoons inscribed with SAULOS and PAULOS (Image copyright: Trustees of the British Museum).
Other artifacts display the tremendous wealth and power of the person that was buried. The most famous of these artifacts is the helmet found within the burial. When it was discovered, the helmet was in very poor condition from hundreds of years of corrosion and the collapse of the ship’s roof. Charles W. Phillips’s (1940a:167) states, “The helmet appears to have been completely smashed when the roof fell and it is impossible to give any reliable idea of its appearance, but certain remarkable facts show that, when reconstructed, it will be one of the finest in the ancient Teutonic world.” The helmet has undergone two reconstructions since the end of World War II when the artifacts were finally able to be studied at the British Museum. These
Noah Edwards
reconstructions have indeed proved Phillips’s prediction, that the helmet would be quite remarkable, to be right. When it was placed in the grave in the early AD 600s, it would have been covered in bronze decorations displaying scenes including people dancing and fighting. The helmet is also covered in depictions of different animals. A description of the helmet upon its reconstruction states, The helmet was made of sheet-iron and consisted of a cap to which were attached, hanging below the level of the cap, a neck guard, two cheek guards, and a face mask. The iron of all these elements had been originally covered almost completely externally by sheets of bronze, parts of which had survived in very fragmentary form. These bronze sheets had carried decorative and symbolic subjects stamped into them by dies (BruceMitford 1972:121). FIGURE 3: The second reconstruction of the Sutton Hoo helmet (Image copyright: Trustees of the British Museum).
The Lookout
Such a richly decorated helmet was likely the property of a person that had large amounts of both wealth and power. Historian Michael Wood says that, at the time, crowns had not yet become the symbols of kings, but rather “it was the sword and the helmet which defined the monarchy” (Donahue 2006). Artifacts within the burial not only provide displays of the person’s status and beliefs within Anglo-Saxon society but also intimate details of how this person lived. No artifact displays this better than the sword found within the burial chamber. The sword, like the helmet, is intricately and richly decorated and was a symbol of wealth and power in the Anglo-Saxon world. Besides being a symbol of possible kingship, wear patterns on the sword and where it was positioned within the burial suggests that the person may have been left-handed. The pommels of Anglo-Saxon swords often had one side that was decorative and would face out from the body while the other less decorated side of the pommel would face in towards the body and receive most of the wear and tear from rubbing against clothing (The British Museum 2019). The sword at Sutton Hoo is no different. Phillips (1940a) very briefly describes the pommel saying, “… the pommel cap is encrusted with garnets and enriched with gold wire.” Since gold is a soft metal, wear patterns can be used to deduce what hand the person may have used to fight. By resting their hand on the pommel of the sword as it hung at their side, over time the person would have flattened the decorative goldwork, creating the aforementioned wear patterns. These revealed that unlike most people, who would have the sword on their left 30
The Lookout
side, the Sutton Hoo sword was likely positioned on the person’s right side. Sue Brunning (The British Museum 2019), curator of the European early medieval collections at the British Museum, explains that this theory is corroborated by the burial plan at Sutton Hoo saying, famously, no human remains were found in the Sutton Hoo ship burial, but what we do have is a sort of humansized void or gap inside the burial chamber with the grave goods laid out around it, and the Sutton Hoo sword is laid out in the position that we might expect to find a human body. If we imagine a human being back into that gap that I mentioned, then the sword is actually found on the right-hand side, the side of wearing if the person was left-handed. FIGURE 4: The pommel, hilt, and cross-guard of the Sutton Hoo sword (Image copyright: Trustees of the British Museum).
31
Noah Edwards
Though this small detail may not convey anything about larger AngloSaxon society, it still allows a small and interesting glimpse into the life of a person who will likely never be identified, with only educated guesses and theories as to who they may have been. FIGURE 5: The Sutton Hoo sword (Image copyright: Trustees of the British Museum).
The Ship The largest artifact within the burial mound at Sutton Hoo was the ship itself. After being underground for hundreds of years, none of the ship’s original wood survived because of acidic soil. The careful excavation of the site, conducted in 1939 by Basil Brown, was able to preserve the indent left by the ship in the soil, allowing it to still be studied in the present day. Recent attempts to understand the ship and how it functioned in the Anglo-Saxon period have leaned heavily on experimental archaeology. These experiments have relied on building down-scaled models to be tested in real life maritime scenarios, computer models to better understand the ship’s construction and properties such as flotation and stability, and recently there have been forays into making a full-sized model. Phillips (1940a:177) provides a description of the ship from the excavation stating, “The Sutton Hoo ship is a great open rowing-boat some 80 ft. long as traced in the ground. Its greatest beam is 14 ft. and its depth 5 ft., its prow rising to a height of at least
Noah Edwards
12 ½ ft. above the level of the keelplank amidships and it drew 2 ft. of water when light.” Upon initial excavation, the ship was believed to have been from the Viking Age. Further examination showed that the ship had fewer strakes, planks that run from the bow to the stern of the ship, than Viking ships and there was an absence of sailing tackle which is usually found within Viking ship burials (Phillips 1940a:178). It was found to be similar to ships made before the Viking Age, like the Nydam ship (Phillips 1940a:178). The ships had similar dimensions, shared relatively equal numbers of strakes and were both clinker-built, with their hull planks overlapping. Early descriptions and interpretations of the ship, though still detailed, were only provisional and were stated to be so by Phillips. The portion of the excavation concerning the ship was done by Lieutenant Commander J. K. D. Hutchison who resumed service in the Royal Navy at the start of World War II, impeding his ability to fully examine and describe the ship prior to publication (Phillips 1940b:21). While some of these early interpretations and FIGURE 6: An image of the 1939 excavation of the Sutton Hoo ship burial taken by Barbara Wagstaff (Image copyright: Trustees of the British Museum).
The Lookout
descriptions would later be corrected or expanded upon, Phillips, having worked at the site, had more intimate knowledge of the excavation than later scholars working on understanding the ship, lending great importance to his work. The Sutton Hoo ship was found with “no mast or other equipment for sailing” (Phillips 1940a:177). As stated, Phillips (1940a:177) believed the ship to be a “great open rowingboat.” Later work with the ship showed that even though no mast or other sailing equipment was found, the ship was likely built for both sailing and rowing. Some of the characteristics hinting towards it also being a sailing vessel include: the shape of the midship section, which would lend itself to speed when sailing and is not commonly associated with boats meant exclusively for rowing; a waterline shape that is good for generating resistance to leeway; a plan form with a shape more akin to a leaf rather than the nearly parallel sides that would be found on a rowing ship; the position of oar holes at the fore and aft of the ship, but none in the midship area; additional frames at the stern to deal with “the heavy rudder loads of sailing,” while a rowing ship would only need “a light steering oar and no special provisions”; large stem and sternposts that would help in resisting leeway; and “closely spaced gunwale-to-gunwale frames providing adequate strength to resist sailing forces” (Gifford and Gifford 1995:121). These ideas of the Sutton Hoo as a sailing ship were important in the construction of a half-scale working model of the ship. The construction of the downscaled model of the Sutton Hoo ship, named Sæ Wylfing, required 32
The Lookout
considerable planning to make sure it would function in proportional ways to the original ship. One of the first things to consider was the size of the model. It needed to be big enough to carry an adequate crew, to reproduce construction details that were going to be studied and tested, and to “correspond with the normally occurring sea state of the test area,” but also small enough to have a low building cost and be convenient to store and transport (Gifford and Gifford 1995:123). In the case of Sæ Wylfing, half-scale was determined to be the best option because it remained within those specifications and simplified much of the mathematics that would need to be used to both construct the ship and use its data to predict the functionality of the original ship. Construction of the model at half-scale resulted in a weight of 1.6 metric tons including the hull and gear, as well as ballast and crew (Gifford and Gifford 1995:125). The approximate weight of the full-scale ship can be determined using the displacement ratio of the ship to the model. According to Gifford and Gifford (1995:124), displacement of a ship is a function of length × beam × draft. Because of this, the displacement of the model is: ½ × ½ × ½ = 1/8 that of the original ship (Gifford and Gifford 1995:124). The displacement ratio of the ship to the model is eight to one. Eight multiplied by the 1.6metric ton weight of the model suggests an approximate weight of 12.8 metric tons for the original ship. The sea trials undergone by Sæ Wylfing also allow for other predictions about the original ship such as its speed. In trials, the model 33
Noah Edwards
reached, “speeds of 7 knots in 16/18 knot winds with full sail 23m2” (Gifford and Gifford 1995:126). The sail of the original ship can again be approximated using the displacement ratio of the ship to the model and the model’s sail area, providing an approximate sail area of 184m2. Froude’s Law must also be applied to approximate the speed of the original ship based on the speed of the model. Froude’s Law states, “At high speeds, … when two vessels of different sizes but of the same shape are propelled by forces in the ratio of their displacements, their speeds will be approximately in the ratio of the square root of their waterline lengths” (Gifford and Gifford 1995:124). Based on this law, the speed ratio is the square root of the length of the ship divided by the square root of the length of the model. This ultimately equals the square root of two or 1.4. Gifford and Gifford (1995:124) state, “if the ship is propelled by a force eight times that required to give the model a certain speed, then the speed of the ship will be about 1.4 times that model speed.” Using this principle and a sail size of approximately 184m2, the ship would travel at around 10 knots if in the same conditions as the model (Gifford and Gifford 1995:126). Gifford and Gifford (1995:126-127) predicted that on the original ship, the sails would have been slightly smaller at around 138m2 for convenience, meaning to reach the same 10-knot speed, the wind would have to have a speed of 19 knots. From the trials, Gifford and Gifford (1995:126) conveyed that Sæ Wylfing “gave the crew confidence in her seaworthiness” and “At no time has there been likelihood of a capsize.” The tests with the model allowed Gifford and Gifford
Noah Edwards
(1995:131) to conclude that “the Sutton Hoo ship was a first-class sailing vessel, fast and seaworthy, highly developed for voyaging from shallow rivers and creeks over sandbars and along coasts where emergency beach landing would be practical when caught in a storm on a lee shore.” FIGURE 7: Image of Sæ Wylfing sailing on the River Deben (Gifford and Gifford 1995:127).
Recently, further attempts to understand the Sutton Hoo ship have been undertaken through computer modeling and the beginning of construction on a full-scale model of the ship. The undertaking of this computer modeling and the initial steps towards ship construction started in 2016, with the establishment of the Sutton Hoo Ship’s Company. They began by developing computer models of the ship based on the archaeological record. The models were based on the location of iron rivets found during the original excavation of the site because they are the only remains of the ship besides its impression in the ground. The positions and orientations of every rivet were plotted in an established computer program used for digital ship reconstruction called Rhino 3D, giving a general idea of the original plank runs and hull form of the ship and allowing for the placement of
The Lookout
temporary strakes (Tanner et al. 2020:10). Temporary strakes allowed for further refinement of the positioning and orientation of the rivets. After this further level of refinement, the temporary strake was replaced with a revised provisional digital strake. This was lofted through the rivet positions following a smooth curve that aimed to pass through as many rivet locations as possible. The runs of the provisional strakes agreed with the majority of the rivet locations, although a number of anomalies and discrepancies in rivet locations were identified and corrected (Tanner et al. 2020:10). The anomalies and discrepancies mentioned were possibly the result of many factors including the excavation in 1939 and subsequent excavations, as well as natural site formation processes that the burial mound had been subjected to over hundreds of years. FIGURE 8: Plotted rivets from the Sutton Hoo ship in Rhino 3D (Tanner et al. 2020:11).
Beyond just learning about the construction of the Sutton Hoo ship, computer modeling can be used to understand different properties of its 34
The Lookout
functionality and to help guide expectations of what the ship will be able to do once completed. The hydrostatic analysis conducted on the computer model of the ship aimed to observe its flotation, capacity, stability, and speed potential. Tanner et al. (2020:17) used the Rhino 3D plugin, Orca 3D, a naval design software that has been used in the digital reconstruction of other archaeologically significant vessels, to test with their model and to measure these characteristics of the ship. The tests on flotation, stability, and capacity revealed that the ship was capable of carrying large amounts of cargo. In fact, the addition of large amounts of cargo further stabilized the ship which had a high center of gravity and was predicted to be somewhat unstable when only minimally loaded (Tanner et al. 2020:20). Given its use in the burial of a clearly important person within Anglo-Saxon society, the Sutton Hoo ship has long been theorized as a means of transporting high-status people, but this discovery could be useful in researching further uses the ship may have had, such as trade. For the analysis of speed potential, in contrast to the work of Gifford and Gifford (1995), the aim, in this case, was to focus on analyzing speed while rowing, rather than speed while sailing. The calculation of the speed potential of the ship involves finding the point at which the ship can no longer generate the power to overcome the wave resistance created by its bow and stern (Tanner et al. 2020:20). This can be calculated as “1.34 knots multiplied by the square root of the waterline length in feet” (Marchaj, 1964:297). This calculation of what is called the displacement trap 35
Noah Edwards
provides the ship’s theoretical maximum hull speed. Using the Sutton Hoo ship’s waterline length when minimally loaded, Tanner et al. (2020:20-21) state, “From 1.34√LWL [the length of the waterline in feet], … the Sutton Hoo ship, therefore, has a theoretical max hull speed of 1.34 × √55.7 = 10 knots.” Because this is theoretical, it is likely that the speed of 10 knots would not be achieved while rowing. While loaded, Tanner et al. (2020:21) predicted the ship could be comfortably rowed at around 5.5 knots over long periods and up to 8 knots in short sprints, and while minimally loaded, the ship could comfortably be rowed at around 6 knots with short sprints reaching around 9 knots. It was concluded through these tests that the ship was highly adaptable and able to function well in varying situations, including personnel transport and cargo transport. FIGURE 9: Completed computer models of the Sutton Hoo ship (Tanner et al. 2020:18)
With the computer modeling of the Sutton Hoo ship completed and published, construction on the ship
Noah Edwards
began in 2019. A lot has been learned about the ship through excavation, model construction, and computer modeling, with respect to the roles it may have served in the 7th century. Upon the completion of the full-scale replica of the ship and its sea trials, it is likely that even more will be discovered about its function. Even as more information is learned about the Sutton Hoo ship, it is important to remember that what has been constructed is a model based upon an archaeological record that can become distorted in many ways over time. As Tanner et al. (2020:23) stated, The nature of the data dictates that there is no single objective record, from which a single ‘true’ iteration of the early 7thcentury vessel can be reconstructed. There is instead a range of interpretations, varying in accordance with the perspective and personal experience of those involved; a statement that is itself perhaps true of any maritime archaeological reconstruction. Experimental archaeology, as with all archaeology, can be used to reconstruct the past to the best of its ability, but it can never fully replicate it.
Historical Importance Not much is known about the Anglo-Saxons before the widespread adoption of Christianity in Britain. What is known of them is based on
The Lookout
books like Bede’s The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, which was written around 100 years after the internment of the Sutton Hoo ship in its mound. Archaeology provides some of the best information available about Anglo-Saxon society during the time of paganism. Beyond just burial practices, the Sutton Hoo ship fits into the much larger narrative of trade in history. Based on finds within the burial, there is clear evidence of the Anglo-Saxons participating in trade with the wider world outside of the British Isles. Chemical analysis of bitumen samples found in the burial revealed they had isotopic signatures suggesting they were of Middle Eastern origin (Burger et al. 2016:15). Other important items providing evidence for trade include a Coptic bowl from North Africa, coins from across continental Europe, and the Byzantine baptismal spoons (Burger et al. 2016:14). Sonja Marzinik, a curator at the British Museum, also believes that the garnets used to decorate artifacts like the helmet “may have come from as far away as India or Sri Lanka” (Donahue 2006). The discovery, through computer modeling, of the ship’s ability to carry vast amounts of cargo lends itself to the belief that the ship may have been used for trade. Further testing of the finished replica ship will hopefully trade. Understanding the AngloSaxon’s place within the wider trade networks of early medieval Europe could be important to further understanding their culture pre-
36
The Lookout
Noah Edwards
Christianity assess the ship’s ability to have reached the European continent for .Christianity assess the ship’s ability to have reached the European continent for .
Conclusion Important work continues to be done to understand the Sutton Hoo
ship and the artifacts found within the burial. While some critical work has been done, especially in recent years, to understand the functionality of the ship, comparatively, much more work has focused on the artifacts found in the burial than on the ship. There may be many causes for this, one of the largest being the fact that only an imprint in the soil and several rivets
FIGURE 10: A map showing the distribution of artifacts found at Sutton Hoo around continental Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa (Burger et al. 2016:3).
37
Noah Edwards
The Lookout
comprise the entirety of the remains of the ship. This lack of study poses some difficulties in focusing on Anglo-Saxon ships and how that relates to the wider world of early medieval Europe. While sparse, there are ongoing studies into the Sutton Hoo ship that are revealing important information using experimental archaeology. With the Sutton Hoo ship’s functionality starting to be uncovered and the continued study of the artifacts found within the burial, a new direction of study could include an examination of the cross-cultural implications of the Sutton Hoo burial. New discoveries lend themselves to further study of the Sutton Hoo ship as an adaptable vessel that may not only have transported people, but also have actively
participated in trade. This is important because trade allows for the dispersal of both goods and ideas. Ship burials are not uncommon throughout northern Europe, with some of the most famous being Viking burials that came nearly 200 years after the Sutton Hoo burial. With the growing understanding of Anglo-Saxon trade, gained from the research done on the burial, new questions can now be asked. How might the Sutton Hoo burial have influenced other cultures or have been influenced by other cultures? This could be an important consideration in future studies as Sutton Hoo reveals more and more about the culture of the Anglo-Saxons and their connection to the world around them.
References Augustyn, Adam, Patricia Bauer, Brian Duignan, Alison Eldridge, Erik Gregersen, Amy McKenna, Melissa Petruzzello, John P. Rafferty, Michael Ray, Kara Rogers, Amy Tikkanen, Jeff Wallenfeldt, Adam Zeidan, and Alicja Zelazko, 2017, Raewald. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., July 3. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Raedwald Bruce-Mitford, Rupert, 1972, The Sutton Hoo Helmet: A New Reconstruction. The British Museum Quarterly 36(3/4):120–130 Burger, Pauline, Rebecca J. Stacey, Stephen A. Bowden, Marei Hacke, and John Parnell, 2016, Identification, Geochemical Characterisation and Significance of Bitumen among the Grave Goods of the 7th Century Mound 1 Ship-Burial at Sutton Hoo (Suffolk, UK). PLoS ONE 11(12). December 1:1–19 Carver, Martin, 2004, VOLUME 2 OF THE FIELD REPORTS FIELDWORK BEFORE 1983. University of York. https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/suttonhoo_var_2004/p ublications.cfm?CFID=4a6a44cc-03be-48e0-a85c032f09801166&CFTOKEN=0 Gifford, Edwin, and Joyce Gifford, 1995, The Sailing Characteristics of Saxon Ships as Derived from Half-Scale Working Models with Special Reference to the Sutton Hoo Ship. The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 24(2). May:121–131 Gifford, Edwin, and Joyce Gifford, 2019, Hands on with the Sutton Hoo Sword. YouTube. The British Museum, August 5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb9vTu73xmE 38
The Lookout
Noah Edwards
Kaske, Robert E, 1967, The Silver Spoons of Sutton Hoo. Speculum 42(4). October:670–672 Marchaj, Czesław A., 1964, Sailing Theory and Practice. London Nelson, Verity 2019 Edith Pretty. The British Museum. The British Museum, October 24. https://www.britishmuseum.org/about-us/british-museumstory/people-behind-collection/edith-pretty Phillips, Charles W., 1940, The Excavation of the Sutton Hoo Ship-Burial. The Antiquaries Journal 20(2). April:149–202 Phillips, Charles W., 1940, The Sutton Hoo Ship-Burial. I. The Excavation. Antiquity 14(53). March:6–27 Sutton Hoo., Lost in the Myths of Time. Stanford University. https://web.stanford.edu/group/texttechnologies/cgibin/stanfordnottingham/places/?suttonhoo Tanner, Pat, Julian Whitewright, and Joe Startin ,2020, The Digital Reconstruction of the Sutton Hoo Ship. The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 49(1). March 12:5–28 2006, The Sutton Hoo Helmet. BBC. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZaK78BWeO0
39
Noah Edwards
The Lookout
40
The Lookout
Kelley Gilmore
How Lack of Empathy Causes Bigotry Kelley T. Gilmore
The social injustices of the world can be due to the bigotry of certain individuals. If people thought in more perspectives than their own, then there would be a mutual understanding amongst them. If empathy were utilized, then people in the world would be better off. This is because bigotry would be absent within the presence of empathy. From injustices within the US political system to genocide abroad, societies would be civilized if empathy were chosen. How Lack of Empathy Causes Bigotry The revulsion for bigotry fuels the desire for new ideologies to arise that differ from the conservative values and traditions of the past that are still enforced in today’s society. Thinking with an open mind aids in this desire, as doing so allows for the provision of numerous perspectives that permit individuals to alter the way they view others. Empathy is the ability to understand, and therefore, is the driving force in individuals caring for one another and feeling sympathetic for others as well. The lack of empathy can “create a psychological starvation that can cause people to act in extremely destructive ways,” which can be seen throughout history ("Lack of empathy: Disorders, signs & causes," n.d.). The absence of empathy could be a likely reason why bigotry is prevalent in areas such as the United States (U.S.) politics and world history. As the prevalence of bigotry arises in the U.S.,
41
communicate, and empathize with one another for society to progress positively and not crumble back into the state of Germany during World War Two (WWII). With the current state of the world, especially in the U.S., empathy could the social injustices that occur within societies. Bigotry in the U.S. government can be due to the progression of enmity between political parties. Political parties began to form due to the struggle over the ratification of the federal Constitution of 1787. at the time, ^ were the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists ("Formation of political parties - Creating the United States. Exhibitions - Library of Congress," 2008). Today, there of factions associated with the U.S. government, including the most common, Democratic and Republican parties. The two parties are very distinctive as Democrats believe more in liberal idealism Republicans, ^ believe in conservative values. These epithets were established to describe economic and political views and affiliations (“Conservative vs. liberal -
Kelley Gilmore
Difference and comparison. Diffen," n.d.). As time progressed, the two parties have viewed each other as adversaries in the fight for government control. The book, The War for Kindness, by Jamil Zaki, provides an example of this from two different decades as in 1960, Americans were asked how they would feel if their child married someone from the opposite political party. The results showed that four percent of Democrats and five percent of Republicans said they would be displeased. By 2010, the percentage expanded to a third of Democrats and a half of Republicans (Zaki, 2019, p. 55 and 56). This is a prime example of how bigotry is exerted in America. The growing opposition between the two parties due to contrast in deals, making members of each party become discriminative towards each other. ^lack of interest in the other perspectives is another reason. This can be seen in a recent study where both parties paid money to not listen to the other side’s opinions (Zaki, 2019, p. 56). If empathy were present, Democrats would be able to think like Republicans, and Republicans would think like Democrats. This would allow for an understatement of the contrasting views held by both parties. Branching further into the U.S. government, one can realize that bigotry exists even within presidential administrations, more specifically, the Trump administration, which is composed of Republicans. One example of this was back in 2016 when President Donald Trump strongly advocated for a wall to be built on the southern border to keep migrants and illegal immigrants out of the U.S. His claim for this was that a wall would decrease terrorist groups, human and
The Lookout
drug trafficking, and jobs taken by those who anticipate coming to the U.S. In a tweet posted on 26 November 2018, Trump promoted this idea by proposing Mexico to “…move the flag waving Migrants, many of whom are stone cold criminals, back to their countries… Do it by plane, do it by bus, do it any way you want, but they are NOT coming into the U.S.A.” (Trump, 2018). These words came furiously from a man who cares for the country he governs and resides in. These words come from a man who does not want what he does not perceive to be “high quality” individuals to come in and wreak havoc on the U.S. and take away opportunities from those who are actual citizens (“Christie: Trump has ‘found himself saddled with riffraff’,” 2019). With Trump being a conservative and nationalist, his statements and beliefs about migrants and immigrants understandable when thought about his perspective. However, when thinking a different perspective, one can argue that his policies on aliens are unjust. In May of 2018, the Trump administration implemented its “zero tolerance” policy, dictating that all migrants who cross the southern border without permission be referred for prosecution. This did not exclude parents arriving with young children. The children were taken away, and parents were unable to reunite with or track their children because the government failed to create a system to facilitate reunification ("Family separation under the Trump administration – a timeline," 2020). To deny migrants who try to escape the hardships brought upon by events in their own countries, a better life takes a great deal of a lack of empathy. With the president that his great 42
The Lookout
grandfather, Friedrich Trump, was an immigrant and an illegal one, ^ makes his claims about migrants and immigrants rather biased. The sole reason for President Trump’s success is mere because of his ancestor migrating to the U.S. from his home country of Germany to “seek his fortune in America during the Gold Rush” (Jones, 2018). Trump’s success was made possible in the U.S. because his great grandparents were rejected by their homeland due to great grandfather Trump not participating in Germany’s compulsory military service when he was younger. This affected his citizenship as a German as it was revoked. Therefore, the two reluctant expatriates were deported back to the U.S., thus, creating the Trump family fortune (Jones, 2018). This situation is quite similar to President Trump and the Mexican migrants. Trump knows his wealth is due to the events brought upon his family in the past, yet he hid this truth to further his campaign back in 2016. Comparing this situation to his great grandparents’, it can be argued that the president has empathy, though he chooses not to use it. This allows his bigotry to be expressed. Taking from the previous situation, Trump can be compared to Germany, and his great grandparents can be compared to the Mexicans. Trump and Germany both rejected individuals who were trying to come into a country. The great grandparents and the Mexicans were those individuals trying to into a country. The only difference here is that the great grandparents become citizens of the U.S. and become wealthy, while the Mexican migrants were detained. If Trump empathized with the Mexicans and thought the 43
Kelley Gilmore
perspective of his great grandfather and grandmother, he would be able to understand what the Mexicans were going through, and they possibly could have enjoyed wealth just as the president’s ancestors did. Instead, he thought in his perspective what appears to exist a leaning towards apathy, or perhaps disdain toward races and racial issues. Another example of where lack of empathy caused social injustices to arise due to bigotry occurred abroad from the U.S. and into Europe. It began during the Second World War (WWII) and is called the Holocaust. The Holocaust was characterized by the systematic persecution and murder of European Jews, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, German political opponents, and many more the Nazi regime ("Learn about the Holocaust, antisemitism, and genocide," n.d.). This oppression was dictated by Adolf Hitler, who led the Nazi Party after rising to power in the 1930s ("Learn about the Holocaust, antisemitism, and genocide," n.d.). This antisemitic genocide occurred in concentration camps, such as Auschwitz, Dachau, and Treblinka, where victims were placed, put to work and left to die in privation ("Learn about the Holocaust, antisemitism, and genocide," n.d.). Antisemitism played a role in Hitler’s thinking and the Nazi ideology. It is important to note that Hitler did not invent the antipathy of Jews. European Jews had been victims of persecution and discrimination since the Middle Ages, generally for religious reasons. In the nineteenth century, religion became less significant. It was replaced by theories about the divergence between races and peoples. The concept that Jews
Kelley Gilmore
belonged to different people than the Germans caught on ("Why did Hitler hate the Jews?" 2020). The origin of Hitler's detestation of Jews is not apparent. In his autobiographical manifesto titled Mein Kampf, he described his development into an anti-Semite as the result of a long, personal struggle. Allegedly, his aversion to Jews came to fruition when he lived and worked as an unsuccessful painter in Vienna, Austria, which is ironic, as his most loyal customer was Jewish ("Why did Hitler hate the Jews?," 2020). This shows how Hitler’s bigotry prevailed over empathy. His aversion intensified when he discovered two Austrian politicians who would become strong influences on his thinking. Georg Ritter von Schönerer (1842-1921) was a German nationalist. He believed that the German-speaking regions of AustriaHungary should be integrated with the German empire. He also that Jews could never be fully qualified as German citizens. The other influence, Viennese mayor Karl Lueger (18441910), inadvertently taught Hitler how social reforms and antisemitism could be successful. In Mein Kampf, Hitler praised Lueger as 'the greatest German mayor of all times'. When Hitler came to power in 1933, he put similar ideas into effect ("Why did Hitler hate the Jews?," 2020). Amidst the atrocity of revolution and violence, Hitler's antisemitism became increasingly radical. “He argued for an ‘antisemitism of the mind'. It had to be legal and would ultimately lead to the “removal' of the Jews” ("Why did Hitler hate the Jews?," 2020). He often compared the Jews to germs and stated that “diseases cannot be controlled unless you destroy their
The Lookout
causes. The influence of the Jews would never disappear without removing its cause, the Jew, from our midst” ("Why did Hitler hate the Jews?" 2020). His radical idealisms paved the way for the mass murder of the Jews, amongst others, in the 1940s. With Hitler being a radical and a nationalist, it is understandable why he took the path he did. The influences in his life aid in the understanding, as without them, he would not be notoriously remembered for who he was and what he did today. The Nazi belief in racial superiority is a reason for his fruition of genocide. When something is believed to a profound extent, it becomes the basis of one's life. This is what happened with Hitler. By of how he acquired his anti-Semitic views and what he did to enforce them, it can be argued that his bigotry is an offshoot of his lack of empathy. If Hitler were empathetic towards the Jewish populace instead of conspiring against them, he would have how they felt during their time under oppression. However, he did not, due to his incapability to tolerate the opposing views held by the Jews. Having Republican idealisms can be compared to having radical idealisms. It can be seen with President Trump and his administration that using an overexertion of power “will only reinforce his belief that he can get away with just about anything.” (Walt, 2020). Hitler’s radical idealisms led him to become the dictator of NaziGermany. Trump’s claim that the Constitution gives him “the right to do whatever” he wants aids in the belief that he is turning the U.S. presidency into a dictatorship (Coleman, 2020). If Trump continues to over assert his 44
The Lookout
Kelley Gilmore
executive power, “…it will have historical consequences…” for the nation as “he would end our democracy based on the rule of law and replace it with an unaccountable dictatorial king” (Coleman, 2020). the U.S. government to not convert to a dictatorship, Republicans need to view life in an alternate perspective: Democratic, and vice versa. For this to occur, Democrats and Republicans must collaborate rather than antagonize each other. Members from both parties must leave their bigotry aside to communicate together. Through contact, members of both parties can empathize with each other as the opposing perspectives are shared. The provision of insight will allow them to understand how and why their separate political views arose, and perhaps, positive relationships will emerge from communication. Their collaboration can establish bipartisanship, and by
working together, issues within the U.S. could be resolved and not further disrupted by a corrupt political system. Taking from the experiences of Trump and the Mexicans and Hitler and the Jews, it is understood that bigotry is a serious issue and has been prevalent for a long time. Even with an eight-decade, bigotry has remained, although it has subsided. Trump’s and Hitler’s lack of empathy caused much trauma upon their victims as well. It is noteworthy that both men were a part of events that took families apart and separated them, leaving them to reunite on their own, if family members even survived. Their absence of empathy caused them to act in destructive ways that ruined opportunities for the individuals who were wronged by them. The social injustices executed could have been avoided if only empathy were chosen; thus, abandoning bigotry and allowing for a more civilized world.
References Christie: Trump has 'found himself saddled with riffraff'. (2019, January 21). CNN. https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/01/21/politics/chris-christie-donaldtrump/index.html Coleman, T. (2020, May 8). How Trump is turning the American presidency into a dictatorship. thefulcrum. https://thefulcrum.us/amp/donald-trump-dictator2645945876 Conservative vs liberal - Difference and comparison. Diffen. https://www.diffen.com/difference/Conservative_vs_Liberal Family separation under the Trump administration – a timeline. (2020, June 17). (n.d.). Southern Poverty Law Center. https://www.splcenter.org/news/2020/06/17/family-separationunder-trump-administration-timeline Formation of political parties - Creating the United States. Exhibitions - Library of Congress. (2008, April 12). Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/creating-the-unitedstates/formation-of-political-parties.html Jones, D. (2018, January 17). How Trump’s grandparents became reluctant Americans. HISTORY. https://www.history.com/news/trumps-grandparents 45
Kelley Gilmore
The Lookout
Lack of empathy: Disorders, signs & causes. (n.d.). Study.com. https://study.com/academy/lesson/lack-of-empathy-disorderssigns-causes.html Learn about the Holocaust, antisemitism, and genocide. (n.d.). United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. https://www.ushmm.org/learn Trump, D. [@RealDonaldTrump]. (2018, November 26), move the flag waving Migrants, many of whom are stone cold criminals, back to their countries… Do it by plane, do it by bus, do it anyway you want, but they are NOT coming into the U.S. [Tweet]. Twitter. http://twitter.com/TheRealDonalTrump/status/106745615456465465655?? s=22 Walt, S. M. (2020, September 8). 10 ways Trump is becoming a dictator, election edition. Foreign Policy. https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/09/08/10-waystrump-is-becoming-a-dictator-election-edition/ Why did Hitler hate the Jews? (2020, June 8). Anne Frank Website. https://www.annefrank.org/en/anne-frank/go-in-depth/why-didhitler-hate-jews/ Zaki, J. (2019). The war for kindness: Building empathy in a fractured world. Broadway Books
46
The Lookout
Molly King
Empathy in Change Molly King Many people have this idea of the “American dream.” From a young age, children are shown movies and television shows about princes and princesses, what high school is like, and teen romance. Unfortunately, these entertainment platforms are unrealistic. Most kids will not grow up as a high school’s star athlete in a small town with a white picket fence and both parents in the home, but that is okay. Kids are much more likely to grow up in a low to middle workingclass family that may or may not have two parents in the household. In this scenario, these children need to experience and be shown empathy. In the book The War for Kindness, author Jamil Zaki introduces us to his life as a child of divorced parents. Zaki and I grew up in similar situations, just as so many other children do. When our parents got married, they decided to move to the suburbs, though that did not last very long. Jamil and I were both young when our parents decided to divorce; I was five years old and he was eight. We shared the experiences of watching our parents’ distance themselves, “As my parents receded from each other, they scorched the earth between them” (Zaki 2). This statement is especially hard to read because I know exactly what he means. In many instances, parents will blame the other for the divorce. Understandably, no one wants to take responsibility for splitting the family apart. Unfortunately, if the parental fighting continues after the divorce, it can affect the child’s wellbeing. Hal Arkowitz and Scott O. 47
Lilienfeld, authors of the article “Is Divorce Bad For Children?” write, “Researchers have consistently found that high levels of parental conflict during and after a divorce are associated with poorer adjustment in children.” Similarly, Amy Morin, author of “The Psychological Effects of Divorce on Children,” observes, “Intense conflict between parents has been shown to increase children’s distress.” While it is never good for parents to fight in front of children, the divorce period is hard enough as it is. Parents should try their best to make this new process as easy and less hurtful as possible. Empathy at the beginning of a divorce could set the tone for the future of the family. Parents could show empathy in many ways: being okay with the fact that the child may want to confide in someone else, expressing that they don’t know what the child is thinking or feeling, being proactive in starting conversations about the divorce, and seeking an outlet for themselves as well. During the divorce process, the child can become very confused and may not know how to feel. My parents divorced thirteen years ago and there are still moments when I do not know how to feel. Sometimes, I will talk to my parents about what I am feeling, but most likely I will go to my siblings, friends, or a few trusted adults. This is not because I don’t love or trust my parents, but it is to keep them from feeling sad or guilty. From personal experience, I always want to protect my parents from emotional burdens.
Molly King
Talking to other people about the problems my parents caused helps because it gives me an outlet while not causing any more emotional angst than is already there. It also helps to talk to an outside source who can be unbiased. As a child of divorce, being shown empathy from others who are not involved in the situation helps a lot because they can give unemotionally charged feedback while also caring about me. While talking through things can help, a lot of the time children of divorce will become very confused, angry, and sad. There will also be many times when the child may not even know what they are feeling, they just know they’re upset. When I was younger, I would become very emotional when my parents would fight, because most of the time, I felt that it had something to do with me; this is common. Amy Morin writes, “children may worry that the divorce is their fault. They may fear they misbehaved, or they may assume they did something wrong” (“Psychological Effect”). While all these things are rolling through the child’s mind, they also must find their new “normal” and a lot of times, only the child can do that. As many children of divorce know, there will be scheduled days of the week where you will spend your time. This can be a hard situation, because a lot of times, kids will have to pack what they will need for the time being and if they forget something, they might be out of luck. Each divorce is unique, not all children of divorce will react the same way to certain things. Therefore, parents need to understand that they may not know what their child is thinking or feeling. It is key for the child to be shown empathy because they are trying to
The Lookout
figure out what their life will look like while feeling anxious, confused, angry, and so many other emotions about the situation. Throughout the divorce, and for however many years after, children of divorce need to be shown empathy because it is not their fault their parents divorced; they just need to be reminded of that. Open communication and proactivity of starting conversations can be especially important throughout this process. In many cases, the divorcing parents do not have the same parenting styles. Personally, I have one authoritative parent and another who is more laid back. These different parenting styles can cause issues in the child’s behavior. Something that may be allowed at one house might not be allowed at the other. Similarly, Zaki wrote, “I shuttled back and forth between their houses but might as well have been moving between parallel universes-each defined by its own priorities, fears, and grievances,” (2). It is great that Zaki touched on different parenting styles and the importance of co-parenting. Compromise, led by communication, is imperative to the child’s development of their new “normal.” The psychologist Deborah Serani suggests, “Co-parenting requires empathy, patience, and open communication for success.” When parents have open communication with the child, they can figure out what will and will not work for their unique situation. When empathy is shown in this way, it is helpful to the child by making transitions, holidays, and all-around life better. Not only does empathy improve a child’s wellbeing, but it can provide a smoother and healthier transition for the parents. 48
The Lookout
Without a healthy transition, one or both parents may have a hard time emotionally, therefore not providing the support their child may need. Zaki notices his mom’s difficulty in dealing with the divorce: “She lost herself in anxiety over how the divorce would affect me, picking out signs that I was in pain and tallying those in a mental ledger of the damage my father had done” (2). Similarly, Arkowitz and Lilienfeld observe, “Divorce frequently contributes to depression, anxiety or substance abuse in one or both parents and may bring about difficulties in balancing work and child-rearing. These problems can impair a parent's ability to offer children stability and love when they are most in need.” My mom had a similar outcome; she was depressed and very confused. She was sometimes unable to express her emotions, so she would hold them all in until there was no more space to do so. To this day, she still cries and says that she feels “extremely guilty” about the divorce, even though there was nothing she could do. Although I love my parents and always want them to be honest with me, sometimes they share too much information with me. In these scenarios, it can make the child feel helpless. Instead, Amy Morin has these suggestions for parents: “Reducing your stress level can be instrumental in helping your child. Practice self-care and consider talk therapy or other resources to help you adjust to the changes in your family” (“Psychological Effect”). Having a trusted companion to talk to can improve the parent-child relationship. Morin continues to say, “A healthy parent-child relationship has been shown to help kids develop higher selfesteem and better academic performance following divorce” 49
Molly King
(“Psychological Effect”). This also shows that the parents involved in the divorce need to be shown empathy as well. It is a big change for them, so having a companion to talk to would provide the support and understanding from others that the parent(s) may be searching for. Another good reason for parents to have someone to confide in is to reduce the possibility of talking or fighting through the child. Zaki writes, “As they fought through me, I fought to hold on to both. Rather than picking a side, I tried to understand these two good people who were trying to do right by me despite the pain they were in,” (3). In many instances, parents will not only share their emotions with the child, but they will also share their opinions of the other parent with the child. This can cause many moments of hatred, confusion, and sadness for the child. Morin writes, “Kids who find themselves caught in the middle are more likely to experience depression and anxiety” (“Psychological Effect”). Similarly, Serani notes, “Research shows that putting children in the middle of your adult issues promotes feelings of helplessness and insecurity, causing children to question their own strengths and abilities.” Coming from personal experiences, I had a very hard time in school when my parents would be going through a fighting period. I would put pressure on myself to be amazing at everything, including school. In the article, “Consequences Kids May Experience If You’re a HighPressure Parent,” Morin writes, “Kids who feel constant pressure to do well in school may stay up late studying and as a result, they may struggle to get enough sleep.” I would end up feeling bad about myself due to the lack of sleep and the fear that I would
Molly King
The Lookout
be hearing what was bad about my parents, which makes sense. Logically, when someone is hearing negative things about the people who you have come from, you would think badly about yourself. Empathy is an extremely powerful tool in this world. “Empathy actually refers to several different ways we respond to each other. These include identifying what others feel (cognitive empathy), sharing their emotions (emotional empathy), and wishing to improve their experience (empathetic concern)” (Zaki 2). When it comes to children of divorce, I do not believe that one type of empathy is better than another. If people just put in an effort to see and acknowledge the situation and feelings children of divorce go through, it can help. If you do not know what to say or how to help, listen to Zaki; he asserts, “Through practice, we can grow our empathy and become kinder as a result,” (15). Now, I understand it could be an awkward conversation, and the child might not even want to open up, but if they see someone cares, it will make a world of difference. If parents show empathy through being okay with the fact that the child may want to confide in someone else, expressing that they don’t know exactly what the child is thinking or feeling, being proactive in starting conversations about the divorce, and seeking an outlet for themselves, something good will come of it. Zaki said it best, “Empathy’s most important role, though, is to inspire kindness: our tendency to help each other, even at a cost to ourselves,” (4).
50
The Lookout
Molly King
References Amy Morin, LCSW. “The Psychological Effects of Divorce on Children.” Verywell Family, 6 Aug. 2019, www.verywellfamily.com/psychological-effects-of-divorce-on-kids-4140170. Arkowitz, Hal. “Is Divorce Bad for Children?” Scientific American, Scientific American, 1 Mar. 2013, www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-divorce-badfor-children/. Accessed 18 September 2020 Morin, Amy. “Consequences Kids May Experience If You're a High-Pressure Parent.” Verywell Family, 28 July 2019, www.verywellfamily.com/thedangers-of-putting-too-much-pressure-on-kids-1094823. Serani, Deborah. “The Do's and Don'ts of Co-Parenting Well.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 28 Mar. 2012, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/twotakes-depression/201203/the-dos-and-donts-co-parenting-well. Zaki, Jamil. The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World. Crown, 2019.
51
Molly King
The Lookout
52
The Lookout
Eduardo Marin-Diaz
The Fall of the Aztec Empire: The Spanish Conquest of Mesoamerica Eduardo Marin-Diaz
ABSTRACT: The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire is typically attributed to technological superiority and even racial superiority. These, however, are myths that spread after the conquest which do not reflect the truth of the Spanish conquest. The fall of the Aztecs was in fact the result of Spanish alliances with the enemies of the Aztecs who had grown tired of the Aztecs’ tyrannical rule. When Hernan Cortez landed in Mexico in 1519, the Aztecs ruled over a mighty empire that enforced dominion and control over other Mesoamerican peoples. Yet, the Aztecs ultimately fell to the Spanish despite being at the peak of their power and highly formidable. The fall of the Aztecs did not come as a result of any superiority on the part of the Spanish, but rather as a result of exploiting the collective hatred of the subjugated peoples under the Aztecs dominions. The victory over the Aztecs is popularly attributed to the technological superiority of the Spanish and the brilliance of Cortes’s leadership. In truth however, these are largely myths created by later generations writing on the conquest. It is true that the technology of the Spanish had a slight advantage but would not amount to much in the long run, as the Aztec warriors would eventually adapt to it. Additionally, Cortes had only 500 soldiers with him which would not have been enough to
subdue an empire as mighty as the Aztec. According to Bernal Diaz del Castillo’s memoirs, the Spanish had 20,000 allies they assembled from Chalco, Tezcuco, Huexotzinco, Tlascalla, and other townships. 1 The Aztecs had risen to prominence around two centuries before the arrival of the Spanish. The capital of the Aztec Empire was Tenochtitlan located on an island in Lake Texcoco. Competing with several other prominent city-states in Lake Texcoco, the Aztecs reportedly offered their services as mercenaries while subjecting smaller tribes into paying tribute. Tenochtitlan would eventually emerge as the supreme power in the region by overthrowing its most threatening competitor, Azcapotzalco. 2 In 1519, the population of Tenochtitlan is estimated to have been around 100,000, with an estimated 15 million people total in central Mexico at the time. 3 The size of this population, as well as the size of the city itself, was as great or perhaps even
Diaz del Castillo, The Memoirs of Bernal Diaz del Castillo Vol. II, Chapter CXLIV pg. 34.
2
1
53
3
Restall, “5: Native American Empires,” 72-74. Restall, “5: Native American Empire,” 77.
Edwardo Marin-Diaz
The Lookout
greater than the largest cities in Europe at the time. The largest factor contributing to Cortes’s victory was the alliances he forged with the native rivals of the Aztecs and the peoples oppressed by the Aztecs. According to Diaz del Castillo’s account, when Cortes met with Xicotencatl: Moctezuma, said Xicotencatl, had such a vast army, that when he intended to conquer any large township, or of falling into any province, he invariably ordered 100,000 warriors into the field. They, the Tlascallans, had often experienced this in the many wars which they had waged with the Mexicans for upwards of 100 years. 4 Tenochtitlan had made its fair share of enemies during its time primarily as a result of their tributary demands for their conquered enemies, often in the form of human sacrifices. Ritual sacrifice was a common practice throughout Mesoamerica. It was not exclusively practiced by Aztecs, but also by other Nahuatl-speaking peoples of central Mexico.5 In his first letter to the King of Spain, Cortes reported these sacrificial practices:
that their petition may be more acceptable, they take many boys or girls, and even grown men and women, and in the presence of those idols they open their breasts, while they are alive, and take out the hearts and entrails, and burn the said entrails and hearts before the idols, offering that smoke in sacrifice to them… So frequently, and so often do these Indians do this, according to our information, and partly by what we have seen in the short time we are in this country, that no year passes in which they do not kill and sacrifice fifty souls in each mosque;6 Taking advantage of the competition with the Aztecs, Cortes managed to form alliances with some of their competitors such as the Tlaxcalans, who became one of the key Spanish allies after being defeated, along with other tribes: besides these succors, the inhabitants of the city of Suchimilco, situated on the lake, and certain villages of the Utumies, (Otomites,) a mountain race, more numerous than those of Suchimilco, and slaves of the lord of Tenochtitlan, came to offer themselves as vassals of your Majesty, begging me to pardon their dilatoriness. 7
They have another custom, horrible, and abominable, and deserving punishment, and which we have never before seen in any other place, and it is this, that, as often as they have anything to ask of their idols, in order 4 Diaz del Castillo, The Memoirs of Bernal Diaz del Castillo Vol. I, Chapter LXXVIII pg. 183. 5 Restall, “5: Native American Empire,” 77. 6 Cortes, The Spaniards Describe Indigenous Religion.
Cortes, Cortes Wins New Indian Allies and Strategizes How Best to Deploy the Brigantines.
7
54
The Lookout
In his memoirs, Bernal Diego del Castillo notes in several passages the presence of native allies in both the conquest of Tenochtitlan and the process leading up to it in which Cortes allied with smaller tribes. The best source for La Malinche also comes from Diaz del Castillo’s memoir, he speaks in length about La Malinche and even praises her for her role in the conquistadors’ success. Not only was her work as an interpreter an invaluable asset, but she is also stated to have served as a confidant with an active role. Diaz del Castillo dedicates an entire section on La Malinche, in which he speaks of her origins along with the value and respect he held for her, concluding the section with this:
Eduardo Marin-Diaz
growing number of native allies which, when used alongside cunning and treachery, helped the Spanish win. 9 The role of the interpreters, primarily La Malinche (who became a reviled figure during the later independence movements as she represented Spanish cooperation) helped the conquistadors communicate with their allies and made the entire process a reality. It was not in the end the supremacy of Cortes and his conquistadors which brought them victory, but rather the combination of scheming and local collaboration.
This woman was a valuable instrument to us in the conquest of New Spain. It was, through her only, under the protection of the Almighty, that many things were accomplished by us: without her we never should have understood the Mexican language, and, upon the whole, have been unable to surmount many difficulties. Let this suffice respecting Doña Marina;8 The city of Tenochtitlan and by extension, the Aztec Empire would ultimately fall in 1521 to the combined might of the Spanish and their estimated 20,000 native allies. Though relations eventually broke down with some of these groups such as the Tlaxcalans, they were one of the most decisive factors. Restall attributes two factors to the survival of the Spanish: the advantage of steel weapons and the 8 Diaz del Castillo, The Memoirs of Bernal Diaz del Castillo Vol. I, Chapter XXXVIII, pg. 85.
55
9
Restall, “6: Chain of Conquest,” 95.
Eduardo Marin-Diaz
The Lookout
References Cortes, Hernan. Cortes Wins New Indian Allies and Strategizes How Best to Deploy the Brigantines | AHA. [online] Historians.org. Available at: <https://www.historians.org/teaching-and-learning/teaching-resources-forhistorians/teaching-and-learning-in-the-digital-age/the-history-of-theamericas/the-conquest-of-mexico/letters-from-hernan-cortes/cortes-winsnew-indian-allies-and-strategizes-how-best-to-deploy-the-brigantines>. Cortes, Hernan. The Spaniards Describe Indigenous Religion | AHA. [online] Historians.org. Available at: <https://www.historians.org/teaching-andlearning/teaching-resources-for-historians/teaching-and-learning-in-thedigital-age/the-history-of-the-americas/the-conquest-of-mexico/lettersfrom-hernan-cortes/the-spaniards-describe-indigenous-religion> [Accessed 24 September 2020]. Diaz del Castillo, Bernal, translated by John Ingram Lockhart. The Memoirs of The Conquistador Bernal Diaz Del Castillo Vol. 1. [online] Gutenberg.org. Available at: <https://www.gutenberg.org/files/32474/32474-h/32474h.htm>. Diaz del Castillo, Bernal, translated by John Ingram Lockhart. The Memoirs of The Conquistador Bernal Diaz Del Castillo Vol. II. [online] Gutenberg.org. Available at: <https://www.gutenberg.org/files/32475/32475-h/32475h.htm>. Restall, Matthew, and Kris E. Lane. “5: Native American Empires.” Latin America in Colonial Times, 71–87. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. Restall, Matthew, and Kris E. Lane. “6: Chain of Conquest.” Latin America in Colonial Times, 71–87. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018.
57
The Lookout
Evan Martschenko
A Comparison and Analysis of Different Tuning Systems and Temperaments and Their Use in the Baroque Period Evan Martschenko Over the centuries, the world of western music has used many different tuning systems, mathematical organizations of notes within an octave. Each system has the capability to drastically change the music that they are being used in through expressive differences in color and feeling that varied scales can bring about. Thus, tuning systems have become topics of debate for musicologists and performers for centuries and were under constant reassessment and modification until the early 20th century (Duffin, 2007, p. 112). An edited tuning system is known as a temperament — it is important to note that the terms “tuning system” 10 and “temperament”11 are not interchangeable, though often they are incorrectly used as synonyms (Barbour, 2004, p. 5). These everinteresting topics dominate the modern performance of older music today, certainly not excluding Baroque music. This paper will serve as an analysis and introduction to the commonly used tuning systems and temperaments, and their pertinence to Baroque music. This paper will be written with the expectation that the reader understands basic musical terminology but is entirely new to tuning. Early on, a few crucial topics and terms will be explained that the
reader must understand before reading the remainder of the paper. Every term will be defined when it is first used in the paper, as well as in a glossary on page 18 for ease of reference. For the sake of relevance to the reader, the tuning systems will all be compared to equal temperament, as it is most familiar to the modern ear. Therefore, equal temperament will quickly be explained first before the other tunings and revisited later on in more depth. A brief timeline of tunings and their use will be provided for each tuning alongside the scientific and sonic aspect of each system. A chart with important intervals will accompany the tuning systems and temperaments examined in the paper, and an appendix on page 18 will have a large amalgamation of each smaller chart. Additionally, each system and temperament will be explained in its relevance to period instruments, particularly keyboard instruments, and its effect on Baroque history and the modern practice of Baroque music.
10 Tuning System — A mathematical organization of notes within an octave.
11 Temperament — An edit to a pre-existing tuning system, slightly adjusting an established system.
59
On the Issue of Tuning While the true origin of the musical scale and musical intervals is unknown, it is clearly linked to what is known as the harmonic series. This is a natural phenomenon in which a wavelength halves itself over and over
Evan Martschenko
The Lookout
to form higher frequencies, often called overtones or partials based on the initial fundamental pitch. Each partial diminishes by half of the previous partial; for example, if the original wavelength were 100 units, the first partial would be 50 units, the second partial 25, 12.5, 6.25, and so on, decreasing in size forever. These sizes are usually expressed in ratios instead of specific lengths or complex fractions. The pitches produced by the first five partials follow the ratios and values shown below in Figure 1. Fig. 1: Partial ratios and cent values. 12
Interval (above Fundamental)
Ratio
Cent Value 13
Perfect Octave
2:1
1200
Perfect Fifth
3:2
702
Perfect Fourth
4:3
498
Major Third
5:4
386
Minor Third
6:5
316
These naturally occurring intervals came to be known as “just intervals,” sometimes called “pure.” Just intervals are generally considered to be the most desirable and pleasing to the ear due to their occurrence in nature and started out being the standard for what an “in-tune” interval would sound as. The issue arrives when one attempts to use all of these intervals across multiple octaves. David Dolata uses an effective analogy in comparing pitches within an octave to inches in a foot (2016, p. 71). Imagine having to fit 13 standard inches into one foot. Without changing the definition of an inch, it is 12 Thomas Donahue, A Guide to Musical Temperament (Lanham, Maryland. Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2005) p. 5.
impossible to fit all 13. The inches could all be shortened equally, or some shortened more than others, or most of the inches can be left as true inches while some are reduced greatly. This is very applicable to the concept of fitting twelve pitches into a scale. As will be explained below, the octave cannot consist of only justly tuned pitches and, like the inches, some pitches must be compromised. A superparticular ratio is any tempered, or compromised, ratio that lies between any two adjacent partials in the harmonic series, and therefore is a term used often in temperaments (Donahue, 2005, p. 6). For simplicity, the modern term of a cent can be used, which was coined by Alexander Ellis in the early 20th century. His system divides an octave into 1200 cents, and therefore leaves 100 in a semitone (Rasch, 2002, p. 210). Starting on one pitch and moving through the entire circle of fifths using pure fifths should theoretically bring back the same beginning pitch seven octaves higher after twelve perfect fifths. In essence, twelve perfect fifths should equal seven octaves, or 8400 cents. However, when multiplying 12 perfect fifths by the pure value of 702 cents each, we end up with 8424 cents. This difference of 24 cents is referred to as a “ditonic comma,” sometimes a “Pythagorean comma,” a correlation that will be explored when talking about Pythagoras (Donahue, 2005, p. 7). Additionally, a major third can be found by taking four perfect fifths and then moving down two octaves: for example, C-G-D-A-E. When using 13 Explained just below, and also defined in the glossary.
60
The Lookout
just perfect fifths, we can multiply 4 by 702 cents to get 2808 cents, subtracted by two octaves (2400 cents) to end up with a major third of 408 cents. This is 22 cents higher than a just major third (386 cents), a difference called a “syntonic comma” (Donahue, 2005, p. 8). The 22 cents difference has the superparticular ratio of 80:81 and is roughly equal to one-fifth of a semitone, enough of a difference to make even someone completely untrained in music say a note is “out of tune.” These discrepancies make it clear that the vastly common intervals of fifths and major thirds cause issues immediately when attempting to tune with their just tunings. Just like it is impossible to fit thirteen inches into a foot, it is mathematically impossible to tune all seven diatonic pitches to their just value without compromising the octave, something that cannot be done for obvious reasons (Blackwood, 1985, p. 67). Across the world, every culture ubiquitously recognizes that two pitches an octave apart are the same pitch class, regardless of the tuning system used within the octave. This could be due to not only the octave being the first partial in the harmonic series, but also men, women, and children singing folk tunes in unison separated by octaves. So, while the octave is inflexible, the smaller intervals can be altered, and thus starts the history of tuning systems. Before continuing to talk about varied tuning systems, it is important to have a frame of reference with which to understand the differences in each of these systems and temperaments. The entire western world has been using equal 14
5.
Donahue, A Guide to Musical Temperament, p.
61
Evan Martschenko
temperament for over a hundred years and is what most people now refer to as “in tune,” no longer the just intervals from the harmonic series. Modern ears are accustomed to equally tempered intervals, and thus much of this paper will be a comparison to equal temperament. The temperament as we know it today did not truly come into place until the early 20th century, when William Braid used new mathematical principles such as logarithms to perfect the equal temperament that had been attempted by many tuners before him (Rasch, 2002, p.210). In 1917, John Ellis took Braid’s work and gave it the unit of a cent, which was explained above. Fig. 2: Naturally just intervals.
Intervals
Just Cent Value14
Equally Tempered Cent Value
Minor Third
316
300
Major Third
386
400
Perfect Fifth
702
700
In short, equal temperament features 12 semitones of exact same value. This results in narrow minor thirds, wide major thirds, and slightly flat perfect fifths. The advantage of equal temperament is that everything is evenly out of tune as compared to just intervals; nothing is great, but nothing is worse than anything else. This is beneficial to highly chromatic music such as jazz or post-tonal music and is a necessity for both, though it does hinder many stylistic and expressive possibilities that other
Evan Martschenko
The Lookout
tuning systems excel in (Helmholtz, 1877, p. 327).
Historically Important Tuning Systems and Temperaments Pythagorean Tuning It is no mystery that the Pythagorean tuning system comes from the famous Greek mathematician. True to the rest of his work, Pythagoras developed this tuning system by means of mathematics. Two hundred years later, Aristoxenus critiqued Pythagoras for his blending of mathematics and music, claiming that musicians should use their ears and leave math to itself (Barbour, 2004, p. 2). As the next couple of millennia would be filled with mathematical debate over musical tuning, it is obvious that Aristoxenus’ opinion did not last. Pythagoras paved the way for such conversations, and his own tuning system stayed in practice for many hundreds of years following. Fig. 3: Pythagorean intervals.
Interva l
Pythagorea n Cent Value 15
Equal Temperame nt Cent Value
Just Cent Valu e
Minor Second Minor Third Major Third Perfect Fifth
90
100
112
294
300
316
408
400
386
702
700
702
octaves and perfect fifths just. He used a method of ascending by a just perfect fifth and then removing octaves, the exact same method used for the ditonic comma, hence its nickname being the Pythagorean comma. In short, Pythagorean tuning is based solely on the just perfect fifth, and every other interval is tuned consequently from the perfect fifths. Therefore, the major thirds suffer, being a syntonic comma too wide. This leaves the Pythagorean major third 8 cents higher than an equally tempered major third. Additionally, the minor thirds are approximately a syntonic comma too narrow, leaving them around 7 cents smaller than an equal minor third (Rasch, 2002, p. 196). However, for Pythagoras and musicians for centuries after him, these horribly out of tune thirds do not pose a huge issue. Music of the antiquity and medieval periods is heavily based on fifths. Church music for many centuries was based on monophony and eventually organum at the fifth. Pythagorean tuning served plainchant well with its small melodic semitones and its pure perfect fifths.16 But as music progressed, a need for acceptable thirds and sixths arose, which brought about new and differing tuning systems. Just Intonation
This tuning system is based off of rather simple mathematics, as Pythagoras only attempted to keep the
Toward the end of the fifteenth century, the next important tuning system started to gather the interest of theorists. Composers wanted the sweet sound of just perfect fifths to be retained in the increasingly popular thirds. Therefore, many different theorists attempted to keep the octave,
Helmholtz, 1877, p. 313. It is important to clarify that tuning a perfect fifth justly will result in a just perfect fourth — likewise,
a wide major third will yield a narrow minor sixth. Intervallic inversions remain true when dealing with tuning.
15 16
62
The Lookout
Evan Martschenko
fifth, and major third pure. While often attributed to the Spanish theorist Ramos de Pareja, the theoretical discovery of the third is more accurately credited to the Oxford mathematician, Walter Odington, around 1480 (Riemann, 1962, p. 280). In a time largely ruled by Pythagorean tuning, Odington’s proposal was certainly a brave one. However, the idea of just intonation may have been a bit too optimistic, and technically impossible for fixed pitch instruments, like keyboards. On a keyboard, the black key between D and E can be tuned to a just major third above B, or a major third below G, but not both. This brings about the technical impossibility for keyboards to play in just intonation. There would need to be two black keys in this instance, with one tuned to D# and one to Eb. While some intervals may be tuned very well in just intonation, others are far from pure. Many fifths end up being off by a syntonic comma and some major thirds end up being sharp by as much as 35 cents (Rasch, 2002, p. 200). These huge differences are obviously an issue, particularly to keyboard players. Therefore, it was always known that just intonation, while great in theory, could never actually be used in practice, as no one could tolerate such a gross mistreatment of so many intervals in the scale. However, many theorists believe that the idea of just intonation should not be thrown away completely. In the 16th century, theorist Gioseffo Zarlino said that vocalists, fretless violins, and
trombones/sackbuts should do their best to play in just intonation when possible (Barbour, 2004, p. 197). This opinion is shared by some modern musicologists as well, such as Ross W. Duffin. 17 Nevertheless, there are counterarguments to this. J. Murray Barbour argues that this is an unrealistic request because of other things relating to performance, such as vibrato, sliding/portamento, and in the case of singers, an exceptionally good ear is required, as well as the ability to sing a difference as small as 7-10 cents (2004, p. 198). Regardless of this debate, just intonation was incapable of fixing the errors of Pythagorean tuning.
Contemporary musicians, often jazz musicians, claim to use just intonation in an attempt to change the color of certain chords, namely and recently Jacob Collier, though John Adams has fallen victim to the same fallacy. While they may tune the third
of the chord justly, it is not accurate to claim that it is “just intonation,” as every pitch would have to be altered, especially in such chromatic music. Rather, they are using equal temperament, unafraid of occasionally altering specific tunings.
17
63
Meantone Temperament Music up until the late 14th century heavily favored the perfect fifth over the third, but as modal and eventually triadic harmony found its way to the western world, this preference had to shift. Meantone temperament is the first instance of a system where certain keys are strongly favored over others. A tuner could tune a harpsichord to be wonderfully in tune in C, and the closely surrounding keys would be similarly pleasant. However, the farther away one travels from that key, the worse the distant keys will sound. This fact was known, and composers would use more distant keys and chords for expressive effect. The first recorded instance of a meantone temperament comes from Giovanni Maria Lanfranco in 1533, who said that the fifths should be so flat that “the ear is not well
Evan Martschenko
The Lookout
pleased,” and the thirds “as sharp as can be endured,” in a treatise on the newly arising meantone temperaments (Barbour, 2004, p. 45). This was written in a time dominated by Pythagorean tuning, which leads musicologists to believe that meantone temperament was intended to be a temperament of the Pythagorean system. This theory is backed by mathematics, as meantone temperament is obtained by a similar method to Pythagorean tuning. Fig. 4: 1/4-c meantone intervals.
Interv al
1/4-c
Minor Secon d Minor Third Major Third Perfec t Fifth
Equal Temperam ent Cent Value
Just Cent Value
Diatonic117 Chromatic77 310
100
See append ix
300
316
386
400
386
696
700
702
Meantone Temperam ent Cent Value 18
Just as Pythagoras did, the meantone temperaments stack perfect fifths around the circle of fifths to find other intervals. However, the fifths are no longer just. To keep the thirds pure, the fifth had to be sacrificed. This is achieved by flattening the fifth by anywhere between 1/5 (4.4 cents) to 1/3 (7.3 cents) of a syntonic comma. The most common amount is 1/4 (5.5 cents), which is referred to as “quartercomma meantone,” and is exemplified in the chart above. This results in great major thirds (identical to just major thirds), rather good minor thirds, but unfortunately flat perfect fifths. 1/4-c 18
meantone also has semitones which are not truly half a tone, which requires some further tempering. Therefore, the concept of diatonic and chromatic semitones had to be introduced. A diatonic semitone (E-F) was larger and more pleasant, usually 117 cents. The chromatic semitone (CC#) was horribly small, about 77 cents, and was typically avoided (Rasch, 2002, p. 204). Additionally, meantone tuning actually worsened a problem that both Pythagorean tuning and just intonation also suffered from. Successions of perfect fifths, just or tempered, cause the issue of the ditonic comma mentioned above; the final fifth is far too wide. This fifth came to be known as the “wolf fifth,” its name coming from the howling sound it makes. Pythagorean and just tuning both had wolf fifths, but neither was used in a time period where such modulations were viable, whereas meantone temperament was. The wolf fifth (technically a diminished sixth) could be placed anywhere that the tuner deemed it least likely to be used, which was most commonly between G# and Eb. The two issues of chromatic semitones and wolf fifths meant that the “black keys” of a keyboard could not be made to serve as enharmonics, as a modern musician is used to on a piano. Usually, the pitches chosen for the black keys were C#, Eb (occasionally D#), F#, G#, and Bb (Rasch, 2002, p. 204). This only affects keyboard players, as they could not freely adjust the tuning of their black keys. This effectively rules out a chord like F minor, as the G# is not the same as an Ab, and therefore is not in tune with the F or C.
Rasch, 2002, p. 204.
64
The Lookout
These may seem like unmanageable or unnegotiable compromises to the modern musician, but meantone temperament was actually the first widely successful system for its repertoire since Pythagorean tuning. Meantone temperament was popular in the late renaissance through the early Baroque period, a time marked by modal and hexachordal harmony, not traditional triadic harmony used by composers like Bach and beyond. Hexachordal harmony is instead based on fifths, and triads then built off of those fifths. For instance, the natural hexachord consists of the chords FM, CM, GM, Dm/DM, Am/AM, Em/EM, which only calls for an F#, G#, and C#, all of which are accounted for and in tune with a meantone temperament based around C (Huener, 2015, p. 1). As successful as these temperaments were for their music, it could not last for very long, as tertian harmony eventually exposed the limitations of these “single-use black keys,” and yet another temperament had to be produced. Well and Equal Temperaments In 1722, J.S. Bach finished writing his “Well Tempered Clavier,” a collection of pieces for keyboard in which all 24 keys are used. If the name does not give it away, such a work would be impossible in meantone temperament due to the use of the entire circle of fifths, not to mention the intense chromatic harmony that Bach uses. By the time the prelude in Ab Major starts, the wolf fifth of meantone temperament would have been far too noticeable. Bach did not invent well temperament, but his music is a great example of the necessary push to such a system. An 65
Evan Martschenko
organist named Andreas Werckmeister is considered the father of well temperament (Rasch, 2002, p. 215), though technically the earliest welltempered tuning can be traced all the way back to Aristoxenus in his critique of Pythagoras (Barbour, 2004, p. 2). Werckmeister drew up his own well temperament in the late 17th century in which he tempered certain “central” fifths (C-G, G-D, D-A, B-F#) by 1/4 of a syntonic comma—the same temperament as the most common meantone temperament, the difference being that these were the only fifths tempered as such (Rasch, 2002, p. 215). The result is a temperament in which every key, chord, and interval is acceptable to the ear, but even more importantly each is different from each other. The key of D major had a distinctly different color than A major, the chord C minor rang out unlike F minor, and the minor second between G and A♭ pulled up dissimilar to E and F. Werckmeister tuned his organ to this temperament as a means of being able to explore farther reaches of the circle of fifths. This specific temperament was decently successful, though most theorists borrowed Werckmeister’s principle of tempering central fifths, rather than the precise measurements of his temperament. Well temperaments used a wide variety of syntonic comma fractions to take off of specific fifths, namely 1/2, 1/4, 1/5, 1/6, 1/7, 1/8, and 1/12 (Rasch, 2002, p. 215). The biggest difference between well and meantone temperaments is that while meantone temperaments coincidentally produce very good keys and chords due to an even tempering of each fifth, the placement of good and bad keys is intentional in well temperament, because tuners would decide where
Evan Martschenko
and how much to temper fifths. Tuners were no longer sacrificing F# major so they could have a great C major, but instead purposefully thinking about which keys they wanted to be good and which they did not, as well as thinking about how good or bad either extreme could be. Fig. 5: Bach-Lehman Well Temperament. 19
In his 2005 article, Bradley Lehman claims to have uncovered a hidden secret on the title page of Bach’s “Well Tempered Clavier” manuscript, a wildly famous work in which there is a prelude and fugue for all twenty-four keys, moving chromatically upward (C major, C minor, C# Major, etc.) (p. 3). Lehman believes that what appears to be a simple drawing is actually a key for the specific temperament that Johann Sebastian was asking for. Whether or not this is actually what Bach intended is irrelevant, as the temperament proposed by Lehman is sound and typical of the time period, nonetheless. It features five fifths from F to E all lowered by 1/6 comma (3.6 cents), three pure fifths from E to C#, three fifths from C# to A# lowered by 1/12 comma (1.8 cents), and one fifth, A# to F, raised by 1/12 comma. This
The Lookout
temperament removes any wolf intervals, and while there are four different kinds of fifths, each is acceptable to the ear. Well temperaments also rid the system of chromatic semitones, which allows a performer to play the C# major prelude and fugue immediately after the one in C minor (Rasch, 2002, p. 206). Until the late 16th century, theories of tuning were always found by means of simple arithmetic and produced on an ancient single string instrument called a monochord. The next two hundred years were aided by the new mathematical practice of root extraction, a method with which to simplify irrational equations by squaring both sides of an equation, left with two linear equations. This allowed mathematicians and tuners to produce even more accurate figures for tuning. The process was refined yet again in the mid-18th century with the invention of logarithms (Rasch, 2002, p. 193, 206). In 1753, C.P.E. Bach published “On the true art of playing the clavier,” in which he called particularly for “equal” temperament. This equal temperament is a precursor to the modern standard tuning, though it would remain “incorrect” to a modern ear for more than a century. To C.P.E. Bach and musicians after him, equal tuning simply meant a well temperament in which every interval is equal to intervals of the same type. This started as a well tempering of the fifths by 1/12 of a syntonic comma, though this was crude and difficult to reproduce. Nonetheless, the idea of equal temperament fascinated theorists, and before the year 1800 meantone temperament had become
Duffin, How Equal Temperament Ruined Harmony, p. 37.
19
66
The Lookout
Evan Martschenko
obsolete (except within the community of organists) (Rasch, 2002, p. 208). That is not to say that equal temperament had been agreed upon as the superior tuning. In 1806, important theorists were seemingly divided on the acceptance of equal temperament (Jorgensen, 1991, p. 293). This argument may be due to the fact that true equal temperament had not been produced by anyone yet. Simon Stevin was a relatively successful scientist of the early 17th century who also studied the humanities extensively. Stevin published a paper where he rejected the inequality of semitones. In his writings is found an equal temperament using the ratio of the twelfth root of two to find an equal division of the octave into 12 equal semitones, the same method that is used today (Rasch, 2002, p. 206). However, Stevin was reckless with the rounding of decimals, so it was not until the late 19th century, when Hermann Helmholtz and John Ellis revisited the math proposed by Stevin nearly three centuries earlier, that equal temperament truly became effective. Even still, the math is rather complicated, and tuners had little guidance on how to tune to this temperament, especially because one cannot count the beats 20 of an equally tempered interval, as they all use complicated superparticular ratios; for example, a perfect fifth is 31:12. In 1917, William Braid published a book on tuning to equal temperament that finally perfected the system. At the same time, Alexander Ellis coined the term “cent,” further helping tuners
with the difficult equal temperament and finally providing a means of measurement for tuning that did not include lengths of monochord strings (Duffin, 2007, p. 113-115). Unfortunately, with universally accepted mathematical principles came the end of an era. Tuning was once an art form with endless possibilities for variation, differing greatly from one tuner to the next, and giving composers much more to think about in terms of expressivity.
20 “Counting beats” is a practice of tuning in which a tuner will listen to the oscillations between two pitches to hear how well the higher pitch is tuned. The number of beats is derived from the ratio of the
two pitches; for example, a just perfect fifth with the ration 2:1 would beat twice on the higher pitch for every once on the lower.
67
Practical Manifestations of Tuning and Conclusions Timeline of Tuning and Temperament Before explaining the relevance of each of these tuning systems during the Baroque period, a quick summary of the timeline given above is helpful. The earliest form of tuning that musicologists can identify and recreate is Pythagorean tuning, which survived virtually untouched for nearly a millennium and a half. Its success is due largely to the fact that the music it served used primarily perfect fifths, which is the interval that Pythagorean tuning is based on. However, as music progressed and the interval of a third came to be desired, new tuning systems had to be made. Just intonation maintained a similar principal as its predecessor in that it wanted to keep both the fifths and the thirds pure, but such an ideal is not mathematically possible. In the early 16th century, tuners started to compromise the long-preserved fifth
Evan Martschenko
in order to obtain the highly soughtafter third, thus introducing meantone temperament. This was the first truly successful system since Pythagorean tuning, and served the repertoire of its time exceptionally well with its sweetly tuned thirds and expressive reaches of the circle of fifths. However, meantone temperament had a limit that late 17th century composers and theorists wanted to push. If meantone temperament was brought about in an attempt to introduce the use of the third, well temperaments were brought about in an attempt to use more thirds; that is, in an effort to make more thirds usable around the circle of fifths. In essence, well temperament allowed composers to access farther keys than before thought acceptable, while still maintaining the expressive differences in keys. As time moved on and music became even more chromatic, particularly for the keyboard, early mid-19th century composers and theorists became increasingly interested in the idea of equal temperament, so much so that meantone temperament became obsolete. Through the mathematical efforts of many theorists and scholars, equal temperament was perfected by 1917 and now dominates the world of western music. Tuning Systems Used in the Baroque Era The history of tuning and temperament, then, is chiefly the history of its adoption upon keyboard instruments (Barbour, 2004, p. 6). Pythagorean tuning was not used at all in the Baroque era. Just intonation was certainly an ideal on
The Lookout
the minds of Baroque theorists, but such a system has never been successful in practice. Vincenzo Galilei pointed out that fretted string instruments were incapable of anything other than equal temperament, as the octaves would have been out of tune across different strings (Barbour, 2004, p. 8). For a mild example, the twelfth fret on a lute G string and the seventh fret on a C string would both produce a G, though the former would be tuned as a just octave above G, and the latter a just fifth above C; a difference of four cents. Yet at the same time, keyboard instruments would not be pushed toward equal temperament for another two hundred years. This clash of differing temperament types would likely have brought about equal tuning much sooner were it not for the everrising popularity of fretless string instruments in the early Baroque era. Such an instrument had freedom to play in even the unusable just intonation and may have distracted baroque musicians from the viability of equal temperament. This is not to say equal temperament was unknown to Baroque theorists and performers. It was just simply another option, particularly to fretted string players. In the early Baroque world of hexachords, meantone temperament was exceedingly useful and clearly superior to well temperaments, just as highly chromatic and triadic music of the late Baroque required more inventive well temperaments. Meantone temperaments could no longer account for tonal music, which allows historians to clearly mark the difference is uses of meantone and well temperaments right in the middle of the Baroque period. And still, even with the popularity of well 68
The Lookout
Evan Martschenko
temperament in the early tonal world, equal temperament was on the mind of theorists and composers, though it was not widely accepted until well into the classical period, and not perfected until the 20th century.
Conclusions The only real test is the sound . . . I think it worthwhile, however, to use our ears as best we can, and hope for a well-informed consensus to confirm our perceptions or improve upon them (Lehman, 2005, p. 211). For over 2000 years, tuning has been an integral part of the performance and enjoyment of western music. It has fascinated musicians, mathematicians, and scientists alike. Much like the invention and innovation of instruments, harmony, form, and style have evolved to match the musical desires of different periods, so has tuning. The baroque period is a crucial point in the story of western tuning, as it coincided with the shift toward functional tertian harmony, which closed a few doors in relation to tuning, but opened up countless more regarding new and individualized temperaments. That same individuality may have been halted with the standardization of equal temperament in the 20th century, but it was undoubtedly a necessary misfortune to accommodate the styles of jazz and post-tonal practices. Nonetheless, tuning and temperament is by no means a lost art. There remains much research to be done on not only the past of tuning, but also the present and future.
69
Evan Martschenko
The Lookout
References Barbour, J. Murray. Tuning and Temperament; A Historical Survey. Mineola, New York. Dover Publications, Inc., 2004. Blackwood, Easley. The Structure of Recognizable Diatonic Tunings. Princeton, New Jersey. Princeton University Press, 1985. Dolata, David. Meantone Temperaments on Lutes and Viols. Indiana. Indiana University Press, 2016. Donahue, Thomas. A Guide to Musical Temperament. Lanham, Maryland. Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2005. Duffin, Ross W. How Equal Temperament Ruined Harmony (and Why You Should Care). New York, New York. W.W. Norton & Company, 2007. Helmholtz, Hermann L. F. On the Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music. New York. Dover Publications, Inc., 1877. Huener, Thomas J. A Mid-17th-Century Post-Modal Pitchscape. Greenville, 2015. Jorgensen, Owen H. Tuning. East Lansing, Michigan. Michigan State University Press, 1991. Lehman, Bradley. “Bach’s Extraordinary temperament: our Rosetta Stone — 1,” Early Music vol. 33/1 (2005). pp. 3-23. Lehman, Bradley. “Bach’s Extraordinary temperament: our Rosetta Stone — 2,” Early Music vol. 33/2 (2005). pp. 211-231. Rasch, Rudolf. “Tuning and Temperament,” The Cambridge History of Western Music. Thomas Christensen. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002, pp. 193-222. Riemann, Hugo. History of Music Theory Books I and II. Raymond H. Haggh. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1962.
Appendix and Glossary Interval
Pythagorean Tuning
Just Intonation
1/4 -Comma
Meantone
Bach-Lehman Well Temperament
Modern Equal Temperament
Naturally Pure Interval
Minor Second
90
112
D*-117
94-110
100
N/A
Minor Third
294
316
310
294-306
300
316
Major Third
408
386
386
392-406
400
386
Perfect Fifth
702
702
696
698-704
700
702
C*-76
70
Evan Martschenko
The Lookout
Intervals chosen are based on their relevance to this paper. Given in modern cent values. Lehman-Bach Well Temperament uses ranges as each interval is unique. The harmonic series has widely varied semitones, hence the unavailable semitone here. *D-Diatonic Semitone, C-Chromatic Semitone. Cent- A measurement of pitch variance; 1200 cents in one octave. Chromatic Semitone- A semitone stepping outside of a diatonic scale; i.e. C-C#, 77 cents. Ditonic Comma- The difference between 12 just fifths and 7 just octaves; 24 cents. Diatonic Semitone- A semitone within a diatonic scale; i.e. E-F, 117 cents. Equal Temperament- A well temperament based on equal semitones in which everything is equally out of tune; the modern standard. Harmonic Series- The naturally occurring order of pitches based on a fundamental/sounding pitch. Just Intervals- The tuning of a pitch as it occurs in the harmonic series; sometimes called pure. Just Intonation- A tuning system that attempted to maintain just fifths and thirds; impractical. Meantone Temperament- A temperament of Pythagorean tuning that is based on narrow fifths; perfect for hexachordal and modal music of the renaissance and early baroque. Pythagorean Tuning- A tuning system based on pure fifths; very fitting for music of the antiquity to organum. Superparticular Ratio- Any ratio that lies between two adjacent partials in the harmonic series. Syntonic Comma- The difference between 4 just fifths (subtracted by two octaves) and a just major third; 22 cents. Temperament- An edit to a pre-existing tuning system; slightly adjusting an established system. Tuning System- A mathematical organization of notes within an octave. Well Temperament- A temperament based on fifths of varying sizes; well suited for chromatic music of the late baroque period. Wolf Fifth- The result of the ditonic comma; horribly out of tune twelfth fifth.
71
Evan Martschenko
The Lookout
72
The Lookout
Alia Palmer
Ethical Concerns Related to Testing Human Subjects and Consent Alia Palmer
The current regulations for research that involves human subjects are based on a complicated history of ethics and studies that went wrong. This article will present the history of the current regulations which include the Nuremberg Code, the Declaration of Helsinki, and the Belmont Report. In addition to the regulations, the article will highlight the horrific studies that were done with no ethics. These studies will include the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, HeLa cells and Henrietta Lacks, and the Stanford Prison Experiment. This article will also highlight the importance of consent within these research studies and the direct impact on the testing subjects.
Throughout the history of ethics, there have been many definitions of what ethics should be defined as perspectives of how the term is defined. Ethics is derived from the Greek word of “ethos”, which means character, spirit, or custom. The current regulations for research are based on the history of studies that went wrong as well as the idea of ethical thought. Human research is conducted for or about people to contribute to the greater good. Research that involves human subjects can face the possibility of risks and things to go wrong. Even with the best planning in a study, there is still a chance that things can go in the wrong direction. This may include small technical errors, ethical concerns, or 73
neglect. Throughout the history of human subject research, it began with the violation of human beings because no ethics were applied. In the early 1900s, there were no regulations nor laws that included ethics in human subjects in research. Now, ethical thought has helped shape regulations in research. These regulations in research can help researchers accomplish their goals and tasks.
Regulations and Principles The Nuremberg Code The Nuremberg Code has served as the crucial foundation for ethics in research since its creation 73 years ago. The Nuremberg Code was the first international document that included the idea of ethics and informed consent (Shuster, 1998). In the article,
Alia Palmer
“The Nuremberg Code – A Critique”, Ravindra B. Ghooi highlights that this document developed, “in response to the horrors of human experimentation done by Nazi physicians” (2011). The document was a direct response to when the American military conducted criminal proceedings against German physicians and doctors who participated in crimes with no ethics involved. These horrific medical experiments were conducted on thousands upon thousands of concentration camp prisoners without their consent (Ghooi, 2011). Most of the human subjects involved in the experiments died or were permanently disabled as a result. After the terrible things that happened and were brought to light, the Nuremberg Code was established in 1948. The document includes a very important statement, “The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential.” (Mitscherlich, 2003). The Nuremberg Code created a framework for all future research and experiments.
The Declaration of Helsinki The Declaration of Helsinki is currently the “living” document that is constantly evolving in research. In the article, "Ethics in Human Research”, the authors state that the World Medical Association established this document in 1964 “after constant concerns from medical doctors in research involving human subjects” (Mandal et al., 2011). The Declaration of Helsinki defines research ethics and rules internationally for research practices. The major issues that the document highlights are: “Research protocols should be reviewed by an independent committee prior to
The Lookout
initiation”; “Informed consent from research participants is necessary”; “Research should be conducted by medically/ scientifically qualified individuals” (Mandal et al., 2011). The document has been revised multiple times and serves as the basis of ethical practices in research today.
The Belmont Report In 1979, the Belmont Report was published to summarize ethical principles. The document is another fundamental piece in research, it provides guidelines that help with establishing ethics with human subjects (Perlman, 2004). Three basic principles are established within the document are • Respect for person Incorporates the idea that human subjects are entitled to protection and that the subjects enter the research study voluntarily • Beneficence Emphasizes that human subjects should not be harmed, and the research should minimize any possible harm to the subjects • Justice Explains that the benefits and risks of the study/research must be distributed fairly. All three ethical principles are the cornerstones of current regulations in research today.
Research Abuses Tuskegee Syphilis Study One of the major turning points in the development of ethics in research was the Tuskegee Syphilis Study (19321972) that was conducted by the US Public Health Service (Daram, 2016). 74
The Lookout
This study highlighted the tragic effects of what can go wrong in research if little to no ethics are involved. From the beginning of the study, 400 out of the six hundred lowincome, Black males, were infected with syphilis (Mandal et al., 2011). They were “monitored” for the next 40 years and received free medical exams, but they were not told about the disease that they had nor the possible side effects. In the article, “Ethical Issues in Sociological Research”, K. Daram explains that after the introduction of a proven cure of penicillin in the 1950s, the study kept going until 1972 (2016). The study was supposedly supposed to last about six months, but the researchers insisted to continue (Mandal et al., 2011). The study continued and the participants in the study were denied treatment to receive penicillin. The study became unethical because the researchers did not offer the subjects the cure – penicillin. Some of the subjects tried to get other medical doctor’s help, but the researchers intervened and prevented treatment; as a result of lack of treatment for the subjects, many women and children contracted syphilis from them (Daram, 2016). In 1973, word got out publicly and exposed the wrongdoings that were going on in the study and the government immediately closed it. After the creation of the publicity surrounding the study, the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research was formed and drafted the foundation of the Belmont Report (Mandal et al., 2011).
The Creation of HeLa Cells
75
Alia Palmer
The story of Henrietta Lacks and the creation of HeLa cells have been an example as a catalyst for change for ethics in research. Henrietta Lacks was a 30-year-old African American woman and a mother of five kids. Dr. Laura Beskow, the author of the article "Lessons from HeLa Cells: The Ethics and Policy of Biospecimens”, states that in 1951, Lacks was “diagnosed with a never seen type of cervical cancer” (2016). Without her knowledge nor consent, “tissue samples were taken during her diagnosis and treatment, and... were passed along to a researcher” (Beskow, 2016). Although this was a very common practice during that time, this is highly unethical. Researchers conducted hundreds of tests and found out that her cells (“HeLa cells”) could grow and survive outside the body which, was the first time in history that they were able to accomplish this. (Beskow, 2016). Lacks soon died from aggressive cancer, but her cells were still used, and some are still “living” today. Although the HeLa cells have been used in numerous experiments around the world for the future of biomedical research, the Lacks family has received no financial benefits. (Beskow, 2016) The majority of the Lacks family line has continued to live in poverty with no access to health care. The story of Henrietta Lacks created national attention on the importance of informed consent and ethics for human subject research. Henrietta lacks serves as an example of the importance of respecting every human subject in any type of research. Although the HeLa cells provided a breakthrough for medical research, there were no ethics involved and the researchers looked at Henrietta and
Alia Palmer
her family as specimens for a cure, not humans.
Stanford Prison Experiment The Stanford Prison experiment of 1971 is one of the most controversial studies in the history of modern psychology. The experiment was supposed to last 14 days but ended just after six days (Mcleod, 2017). The creator of the experiment, Professor Philip Zimbardo, was interested in finding out if the brutality reported among guards in the prison system was due to their personalities or the prison environment (Zimbardo, 2007). In the experiment, the students were randomly divided into “prisoners” and “guards” in a simulated prison environment in the basement of the Stanford University Psychology building. At the beginning of the experiment, the guards immediately began to harass the prisoners and used physical punishment over petty orders (Konnikova & Lemann, 2015). Push – ups were used as a punishment to dehumanize the prisoners; guards would step or sit on their backs during the exercise (Mcleod, 2017). One prisoner was immediately released after 36 hours because of uncontrollable crying. The prisoners had numerous mental breakdowns and conducted a hunger strike, and Zimbardo didn’t do anything nor tell the guards to back off (Konnikova & Lemann, 2015). After the prisoners began to show extreme signs of stress and anxiety, Zimbardo’s colleagues advised him to end the experiment early. As the prisoners did not give their informed consent on the harsh conditions they would experience, this is a form of deception. Also, the study
The Lookout
did not immediately stop when the participants were experiencing psychological and physical harm. More in-depth ethical guidelines were developed as a result of the Stanford Prison experiment, which took into consideration the potential psychological harm of the human subjects (Zimbardo, 2007). This experiment is a prime example of what can go wrong when ethics are not applied for human subject research.
Conclusion Throughout the history of ethics, there have been many interesting definitions and theories about what ethics are. This article examined a small portion of the history of ethics in research. The theories used provide an outlook on what researchers need to do. Any research conducted on human subjects should have ethics applied throughout the entire experiment. The research should be conducted should not compromise the well-being of the subjects. It is important to adhere to all the ethical principles to protect the rights of the human subjects involved in the research. Any research involving humans should be reviewed by an ethics committee and board to make sure that all the standards are being conducted correctly.
76
The Lookout
Alia Palmer
References Beskow, L. M. (2016, August 31). Lessons from HeLa Cells: The Ethics and Policy of Biospecimens. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5072843/. Daram, K. (2016, April 8). 2.4 Ethical Issues in Sociological Research. Sociology. https://open.lib.umn.edu/sociology/chapter/2-4-ethical-issues-insociological-research/. Ghooi, R. B. (2011, April). The Nuremberg Code-A critique. Perspectives in clinical research. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3121268/. Konnikova, M., & Lemann, N. (2015, June 15). The Real Lesson of the Stanford Prison Experiment. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/the-real-lesson-of-thestanford-prison-experiment. Mandal, J., Acharya, S., & Parija, S. C. (2011, January). Ethics in human research. Tropical parasitology. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3593469/. Mcleod, S. (2017). The Stanford Prison Experiment. Stanford Prison Experiment | Simply Psychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/zimbardo.html. Mitscherlich, M. (2003). The Nuremberg Code. The Nuremberg Code. http://www.cirp.org/library/ethics/nuremberg/. Perlman, D. (2004). Ethics in Clinical Research. A History of Subject Protections and Practical Implementation of Ethical Standards, 37–41. Shuster, E. (1998, April 2). Fifty Years Later: The Significance of the Nuremberg Code: NEJM. New England Journal of Medicine. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199711133372006. Zimbardo, P. (2007). Ethics of Intervention Stanford Prison Experiment. Stanford Prison Experiment - Spotlight at Stanford. https://exhibits.stanford.edu/spe/catalog/kn241td5439.
77
Alia Palmer
The Lookout
78
The Lookout
El Perry
Social Work and Violence Work El Perry
ABSTRACT: This paper is an exploration of the role of social work in the problems posed by modern policing. Centering its narrative around the George Floyd protests of summer 2020, the author identifies the United States as a police state. They address the ways in which popular perceptions of policing do not match its realities and give historical context for the deep corruption and harmful ideological bent of the institution. The theory of the Professional Managerial Class is used to compare and contrast the social work profession to law enforcement, and the conclusion is reached that social workers must engage in an uphill battle to both defund the police and rescind neoliberal policies to truly fulfill their ethical responsibilities to their clients and themselves. Keywords: social work, police state, defund the police, Black Lives Matter, professional managerial class Social Work and Violence Work The architects of United States government policy have been deceiving their population since (for the purposes of this paper) 1979. Neoliberalism, which emerged that year as the dominant mode, is an ideology positing that broad freedom and prosperity can be accomplished via the deregulation and privatization of government and industry, yet in reality, the narrow scope of who exactly receives these benefits is clear. Under this ideology, wages have remained stagnant while debt and living costs have gone up for ordinary people, and economic inequality is higher than it’s ever been. Trickledown economics never actually trickled down, but it did achieve its true goal. As Harvey (2007, p. 19) 79
asserts, “we can … interpret neoliberalism as either a utopian project to realize a theoretical design for the reorganization of international capitalism or as a political project … to restore the power of economic elites.” He concludes in favor of the latter, though the theoretical aspects of neoliberalism are also essential, especially in regard to how it has been marketed. The promulgation of the false dilemma between “big government” and “small government” has been one of the most effective pieces of misdirection in service of neoliberal ideology. Many Americans have been conditioned to be wary of the former as a matter of principle, without examining what exactly it means in practice, issue by issue. Yet, as the Gravel Institute (2020) counters, there
El Perry
doesn’t seem to be any direct correlation between the sheer size of government and its measured freedoms and prosperities. They go on to offer a fundamentally different critique, that “the problem isn’t the size of government, it’s who controls the government” (The Gravel Institute, 2020, 2:14). But this understanding alone isn’t quite adequate in dismantling misconceptions, given that -- both ironically and not coincidentally -- dogmatic prescriptions against big government tend to be selective with regard to what they decry. Namely, the harshest critics of big government in terms of education, healthcare, and other social services rarely direct their concerns towards police and military power. Yet police are the very essence of government, encapsulated through their use of violence to maintain the function and legitimacy of the state, and it is for this reason that Seigel (2018) bluntly describes them as violent workers. The state maintains a monopoly on violence, predicated on the expectation that it will use this monopoly to protect its citizenry from the violence of others, and that the use will be fair and legitimate as per the rule of law (Vaughn, 2018). Yet the state’s end of this bargain often goes unfulfilled, and George Floyd’s murder by police in May 2020 -- an incident that sparked mass protests across the US (and the world) -- is but one highprofile example. The circumstances surrounding Floyd’s murder perhaps best encapsulate the realities of neoliberalism. Significantly, it occurred amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, a crisis which the government was unequipped and unwilling to effectively respond to. Here was a working-class black man,
The Lookout
who, like many others, had been given the freedom to struggle with job insecurity and life-threatening illness, and who was attempting to overcome both, just be killed by government officials in the street over an alleged counterfeit $20 bill. In the resulting outcry, more and more people are expressing dissatisfaction with the current modes of freedom being offered to them. Reexaminations of police power and accountability have been brought to the forefront and calls to “defund the police” have garnered more attention. The basic idea is that -- given their systemic issues of misconduct and corruption -- maybe some of the generous resources allocated to police stations across the country could be better utilized on other, less violent, social services, including social workers and mental health professionals to take over some of the responsibilities unduly placed upon the police. But although the author maintains that this would be an improvement on the status quo, the premise of swapping out law enforcement officials for social workers as an endpoint for said besieged communities is worth examination. When examining the country in its neoliberal political context, it becomes obvious that policing is not an isolated ill or even a fundamental one, rather a symptom of a system that degrades other professional institutions as well. Just as the nature of modern policing must be questioned to upend convenient presumptions, a questioning of the social work profession must follow close behind. Social workers have a responsibility to support the movement for police accountability, but we also have a responsibility to 80
The Lookout
examine our role in state violence and prioritize changing all aspects of a system built on unjust hierarchies.
The Police State If Past is Prologue The American criminal justice system serves as one of the most salient examples of institutional racism in this country (Kovera, 2019), and when one incorporates a historical understanding, it’s difficult to imagine that it could have been anything but discriminatory by nature. One of the main predecessors of law enforcement today emerged from the roots of American racial politics: chattel slavery. The earliest police officers in the US South were slave patrollers, who had the goal of catching escaped slaves and -- when the opportunity presented -- free blacks, as well as generally keeping the slave population subservient and atomized. In the postbellum period, they transitioned seamlessly into enforcing Jim Crow laws up until the final firehose was turned on Civil Rights protestors (Vitale, 2017). Additionally, on the Western frontier, proto police existed in the form of vigilante forces dedicated to furthering white interests against those of Mexican and Indigenous populations (Vitale, 2017). Of course, somewhat similarly to how Americans incorrectly consider themselves immune from the atrocities their government commits in other nations or against those of other nationalities, attempts to narrowly center the problem with domestic 81
El Perry
police as one of racism belie the impact they have on Americans writlarge. The other predecessor of law enforcement today emerged from a system that would come to encompass racial politics along with every other aspect of peoples’ lives: capitalism. Coinciding with its rise, the first police force emerged in the 19th century in Great Britain, in response to the need for a more permanent solution to the social unrest caused by industrialization. Rather than calling in the militia to crush every protest or riot, the government opted for a group of professionals specifically dedicated to putting down such disturbances and protecting property. In other words, the government could have a few dead citizens, as a treat. The permanent presence of police inside of communities also granted them a legitimacy not afforded by the army, which in turn increased their capacity for undercover work and other forms of infiltration (Vitale, 2017). This was the export that made its way to the northern US as the region was dealing with its own issues of industrialization and undesirable (in relation to both their demographic characteristics and desire to be granted human decency, but not in their capability for profit) workers. Even from their earliest days, American law enforcement was characterized by two things: its lawlessness and its inherent hostility towards the working class. Openly accepting bribes from business owners and taking cuts from the gamblers and bootleggers they were ostensibly apprehending, the police acted more like an organized crime operation than
El Perry
noble civil servants. In other instances, they acted like an occupying army, as many of early policing strategies and tactics were taken directly from military operations in countries the United States was occupying. A major use of police was to spy on and infiltrate worker’s movements, from unions to strikes. Eventually, much of the more blatant aspects of their lawbreaking were curtailed during the progressive era of the early 20th century in a push for more professionalization, but the latter characteristic of the cops, their explicit alignment with the capitalist class, was never nearly as easy to combat (Vitale, 2017). Neoconservatism is an outgrowth of neoliberalism that has two distinguishing factors: an emphasis on maintaining social order and enforcement of conservative morality as a means of achieving order (Harvey, 2007). This authoritarian bent fits in nicely as the dominant ideological impulse behind policing today (Vitale, 2017). In many ways, the authoritarianism and corruption of modern law enforcement are more insidious than previous iterations. Increased professionalization has justified increased resource allocation and budgetary freedom. Technological advancement means the scope of police oversight on civilians has been increased. Legitimacy -- which has increased not necessarily in a moral or just sense but in the sense of selfperpetuating power -- appears to mean that the ways in which police violate the citizenry are now explicitly sanctioned by the courts. According to Whitehead (2013),
The Lookout
a police state is characterized by bureaucracy, secrecy, perpetual wars, a nation of suspects, militarization, surveillance, widespread police presence, and a citizenry with little recourse against police actions. In this regard, the signs of an emerging police state are all around us. (para. 4). As a nation, these characteristics become more relevant every day, as the US government does to its citizens what it condemns with regard to developing governments around the world (Yousif, 2020). The hypocrisy of political leaders is not a particularly unique or surprising concept. But the acquiescence of large swathes of the citizenry, those who tacitly give the state its legitimacy, is perhaps more baffling. That is until one considers just how deeply ingrained the state’s justifying mythologies are.
Pure Ideology The mythology of the police as the “thin blue line” between order and chaos has been highly effective in justifying their power and presence, even if it does not bear out in the relevant data (Wall, 2020; Seigel, 2020). In a country where the crime rate has significantly been decreasing for decades the police population has increased along with their funding, yet of the crimes that are reported, the number of cases actually investigated and successfully closed by the police are shockingly low (Badger & Bui, 2020) (Gramlich, 2019). The amount of chaos that police must contend with is vastly overstated; because it’s so rare for police to make arrests -- and even 82
The Lookout
rarer for those arrests to lead to convictions -- the majority of a uniformed law enforcement official’s day is spent on patrol (Vitale 2017; Seigel, 2018). It is also useful to examine what is meant by “order” in the context of law enforcement, as there is a wellestablished disparity in response based on which types of crimes are committed and by whom. The US has a two-tiered justice system in which lowlevel crimes committed by people living in the poor and working-class neighborhoods most likely to be patrolled are publicized and pursued relentlessly. Simple assault, robbery, and even non-violent drug charges landing people in prison for decades, the likelihood of harsh sentencing increasing with a defendant’s inability to afford court fees and attorneys, whereas financial crimes and even immediately violent acts committed by the wealthy are only reluctantly pursued, at best (Vitale, 2017; Waters, 2015). By all accounts, the order that police establish in society seems to be that in which a man who robbed a convenience store will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law (assuming the local police can manage to capture him, rather than simply use his existence as leverage to secure more funding), whereas a man who headed a bank that specializes in rigging currency exchange markets and contributed to a nationwide financial crash will be given a golden parachute and yet another lofty corporate position down the line. The rule of law does not exist in practice, nor do our rights to due process or protections against cruel and unusual punishment (Whitehead, 2013). Most ironic is the fact that the institution of law enforcement, of 83
El Perry
course, ostensibly dedicated to law and order, is the most actively hostile to the idea of enforcing the law amongst themselves. In a culture known as the “blue wall of silence”, most any instance of officer misconduct or lawlessness is denied or defended by fellow officers -- under the threat of retaliation on whistleblowers (Koepke, 2000). Police unions -- which, not coincidentally, are far more organized and powerful than almost any working-class union (Levin, 2020) -militantly shield any of the members in question from any consequences of their actions. This collusion extends throughout the criminal justice system. Prosecutors are reluctant to bring charges against officers, placing electoral concerns and professional cohesion above integrity in carrying out the law (Vitale, 2017; Levine, 2016). The word of law enforcement is given special status -- in court proceedings that come down to contradictory accounts from an officer and a citizen, the officer will be given automatic credence. Treating the police and prosecutors as neutral, inherently trustworthy authority figures only concerned with the facts and evidence without any concomitant regulation and oversight is of course an invitation for further corruption. Instances of police committing perjury against defendants to secure convictions and perhaps protect themselves are so prominent as to warrant the neologism of “testilying” (Moran, 2018). Rather than act as a check on executive powers of police, or even just simply fulfill their assigned duty of interpreting the Constitution, the Supreme Court of the United States took it upon themselves to invent a doctrine, known as qualified
El Perry
immunity, that preemptively exempts police officers and other public officials from facing lawsuits for violating the civil liberties of citizens (Reinhardt, 2015). The reasoning given is that if law enforcement had to worry about being held accountable for breaking the law or overstepping their boundaries as government officials, they would be hindered in their ability to do their jobs. Under a government ostensibly committed to protecting citizens from the excesses of itself, it would seem that any corruption and abuse of power from state agents would warrant greater cause for concern -and policy response -- than any actions of private citizens. Yet many pundits and politicians decry the violence of protestors while downplaying and ignoring the violence of trained, militarized state-sanctioned agents, in service of handing more power to the latter group. Conversely, even those who defend the protests are rarely willing to do anything to materially limit police power, such as challenge qualified immunity or police unions. Overall, the expectations for the conduct of government officials are not only lower than those for the conduct of the people they serve, in many cases, they are nonexistent if the tendency of the courts is any metric. The message is clear: Police are not public servants; they have no duty or responsibility to protect citizens and residents. They are here to protect themselves and their economic interests as well as the economic interests of the classes equipped to fund them. This speaks to an inherently antagonist relationship with the working class. Much like an occupying army, under “warrior mentality,” the police adopt an us vs.
The Lookout
them attitude towards the public they serve (Wall, 2020). It is through this lens, that the justification for the constant unregulated violence and increasing levels of militarization they employ on the public becomes evident. The existence of motivations beyond commitment to public safety and enhanced quality of life is perhaps most evident in a few of the more outwardly anti-libertarian aspects of policing. Drug prohibition and the criminalization of sex work, for all their resource allocation and media attention, are abject failures from a perspective of decreasing either behavior or protecting potential victims (Vitale, 2017). In addition to the clear conservative moralism in which the policies in question are rooted, it’s difficult to see the persistent refusal to reevaluate said policies in the face of their public health and safety failures as much other than pure ideological motivation; a continuation of policies that only serve to perpetuate state authority and power. Of course, it is not a bad thing to have an ideology that informs your policy advocacy. As Thorn (2017, 0:43) puts it, ideologies do not inherently hinder capability for more objective analysis, they simply “determine what facts are important and what actions are acceptable”, a process necessary for everyone, consciously or not. But underneath every ideology is a set of moral principles that one must accept to be benefited from the outcome. And because the neoconservative ideology behind law enforcement is not often presented as a subjective value set but a prescribed truth, people do not often get a chance to question it as a subjective ideology. This is of course one of the victories of liberalism, to 84
The Lookout
create an atmosphere in which people do not even consider an alternative. (Thorn, 2017).
The Multiracial Moderate Dubbed as the “noble profession”, social work is a field committed to a broad range of social justice and advocacy in every facet of a client’s life, often for low pay and in a larger environment hostile to its cause. Yet it is equally important to acknowledge that explicitly stated good intentions do not automatically lead to good practices. As professionals dedicated to working with those who are marginalized or at low points in their life, social workers exist in positions of power, and as has been made clear above, powerful people are not exactly beholden to the interests of the less so. There is, of course, a long history in social work of racism and other prejudices levied at the marginalized, and of gestures to ethical principles without followthrough (Foster, 2020). But on a deeper level, it’s worth examining if the shortcomings of the profession are not simply oversights that can be fixed with better education and more progressive social workers, but something inherent to the profession itself as an institution. In other words, the idea that social workers are as much agents of the hostile environment as they are opponents. By the late 1800s, the capitalist class structure that begets modern policing less than a century earlier had become more complex, making it necessary that the police are not the only buffer between capitalists and workers (Ehrenreich, 1979). The classical Marxist analysis consisting of a few capitalists who own the means of 85
El Perry
production and a large, nearly allencompassing working class that labored to produce for them was becoming insufficient. The reality was that alongside the working class, another distinct group began to emerge, though it went without name or analysis as such until the 1970s, when Barbara & John Ehrenreich (1979, p. 12) first described the Professional-Managerial Class (PMC), defining it as “consisting of salaried mental workers who do not own the means of production and whose major function in the social division of labor may be described broadly as the reproduction of capitalist culture and capitalist class relations.” This large, heterogeneous group composed of professionals ranging from nurses and caseworkers to corporate managers, exists separately from members of the traditional working-class because despite not being capitalists, they still have opposing interests from workers. Besides their material status, however, a major differentiating factor between the PMC and capitalists was the former’s commitment to rationality and other enlightenment principles rather than solely to profit. Of course, this had to do with their self-interest as well, as demonstrated by the mass professionalization during the 1920s that served to justify their existence to the capitalist class and erect a barrier against the working class. In other words, the lengthy qualifications, ethical codes, and generally insular nature of each profession “are aimed at ensuring that the relationship between the individual professional and his or her “client” is one of benign domination” (Ehrenreichs, 1979, p. 26). For social work, this seems to be the default state that is maintained given the conflict
El Perry
The Lookout
between ethical imperatives and other, more self-preserving aspects of professionalism. For example, despite their stated commitment to the individual dignity and worth of every human, social workers did not even begin addressing American racism head-on until the widespread period of social unrest of the 60s, and even then, their efficacy was mitigated due to the ensuing hand wringing over the professionalism of radical tactics (Reisch, 2018). The reality is that oftentimes the profession’s class status and proximity with other institutions of power influences social workers to side with the powerful over the powerless. Despite the acknowledgment of institutional injustice throughout US history, we seem to be disappointingly eager to accept the premises of law and order advocacy in the modern-day, as if the struggle for justice is over and there is no more distinction to be made between just and unjust laws (King, 1968). Currently, lulled into complacency by our comparatively racially progressive and diverse profession, many of us fail to see how the fundamental principles that figures like Martin Luther King, Jr. can be relevant today, even beyond the racial framework of his time: I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the white citizen’s council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more
devoted to “order” than to “justice”; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice. (2963) When describing the multiple different roles they are expected to play in communities, from performing wellness checks to counseling students inside of schools, law enforcement often refer to themselves as amateur social workers of sorts. Yet when one absorbs the implications of this -- that the normal crime and punishmentoriented police switch roles to become gentler, more humanitarian social workers -- it seems that, in practice, the opposite is true. Social workers are susceptible to similar institutional forces as the ones that facilitate police corruption, and we should be wary of perspectives that present the profession as an inherently mitigating factor. Yet just because social workers and other members of the PMC sought out capitalist approval in a system designed by capitalist does not mean that they did not have their own will. Beyond stability of working-class and capitalist relations, the post-WWⅡ economy facilitated an unprecedented level of growth and power for the professional-managerial class (Heffernan, 2000) (Ehrenreichs, 1979) and it was at the peak of this security that a New Left emerged, led by college students and adult members of the PMC. Guided by the high ideals of rationality and public service, these radicals went to war with the older guard of their class, incorporating new social movements such as feminism, black liberation, and anti-war activism. But despite their growing interactions with and guilt-laden 86
The Lookout
consciousness of the working class, the PMC maintained their vision of a world where they themselves led, “of technocratic socialism, of a society in which the bourgeoisie has been replaced by bureaucrats, planners and experts of various sorts” (Ehrenreich, 1979, p. 42). The continued antiworking-class nature of the movement contributed to the failure to foster solidarity and set both classes up to be further divided in the coming years. In their 2013 revisitation of their seminal theory, the Ehrenreichs catalog the fall of the professionalmanagerial class. The wave of privatization and deregulation that came with the rise of neoliberalism has devastated PMC power and autonomy, and the slashing of social services has limited both the capacity and financial security and social workers and other helping professionals. Of course, the working class has always borne the brunt of societal misery, but the biggest tipping point has been the increasingly bleak prospects for the PMC alongside these workers. The class served not only as a practical buffer between capitalists and workers but also as an almost propagandistic image, a testimony to upward mobility and the American dream. Yet Ehmsen and Scharenberg (2012, p. 1) counter with the modern reality, a bleak picture in which, “saddled with tens of thousands of dollars of debt, unemployed or working part-time for not much more than minimum wage: the struggling recent college graduate has … become a new iconic figure on the American cultural landscape”. In this context, it becomes more clear that the sheer size of the current uprisings against police brutality and racism are not just spurred by the direct victims of either injustice, rather 87
El Perry
the discontent and insecurity of entire generations of people who have been failed by the American system, of which law enforcement is but one aspect. There are lessons for social workers to internalize going forward, and so the Ehrenreichs (2013) layout some options. The PMC dream of a technocratic rule is simply no longer viable, so, to put it bluntly, we must pick a side. Either by committing ourselves to defend the legitimacy of a rotted system or by organizing against it, this time as but a part of a movement led by client communities.
Guerrilla Warfare There can be no attempt to defund the police or otherwise limit their power that does not come alongside addressing the issues that law enforcement was developed to keep under control. The first step for social workers here is to be able to properly understand and combat the ideology that drives this system. As Vitale (2017) points out, many law enforcement advocates will justify their presence by asserting that oftentimes people who live in heavily policed neighborhoods call for the police presence to provide a sense of security. This is true, but what is omitted here is that those same people are also oftentimes the same ones who call for better schools and other social programs, yet are ignored. Philosophically, it seems that these justifications can be boiled down to one’s conception of freedom. Because neoliberalism reigns supreme, most people are convinced that narrow
El Perry
neoliberal ideas of freedom, known as negative freedoms, are the only kind there are. We cling to the ideals of freedom from violence and other violations of our persons, and even if they remain unfulfilled in practice, we still have those ideals and the police to support our perceptions. Contrasted with positive freedoms, the freedom to an education, to healthcare, and to financial security and good job benefits, which are treated as ridiculous, pie-in-the-sky fantasies, and, perversely, perhaps even a violation of our freedom (Harvey, 2007). The cheeky, inflammatory slogan All Cops Are Bastards (ACAB), widely repeated by protestors, leftists, and libertarians of all persuasions, speaks to the unique threat of the police. It isn’t simply meant to upset law enforcement officials and individualists, though it may sometimes be levied in such a way. It has a deeper meaning; it points to a very real systemic role that cops fulfill that leaves them incapable of being anything but -- for the purposes of bluntness -- bastards. A position of near-absolute, unaccountable power over citizens and residents combined with their monopoly on violence does not change because an individual law enforcement official is a pleasant or well-intentioned person, or even if they choose to not act on their power in a given instance. It is this material reality that undergirds the behavior that leads many people who have been victimized by police to be automatically wary and resentful of them all, just as any civilian would view soldiers from hostile occupying armies. By contrast, the feelings that
The Lookout
social workers evoke in clients and communities they serve are also based on negative experiences, but those experiences do not have the same power structure behind them. While they -- empowered by their positions in the PMC -- use often their power to neglect or harm clients, social workers are not violent workers. The difference between them and their clients, while certainly great, is more nebulous and culturally relative to the difference between law enforcement officials and their clients. A social worker does not have the power to brutalize or intimidate a client physically, nor do they have a categorical exemption from the rule of law. Rather than being naturally positioned as totally antagonistic to workers, the relationship of the PMC to workers is more complex and partially dependent upon the ideological choices of the former. Specifically relevant to the purposes of this paper, much of the harm that social workers enact on their clients would not be possible without the police and their alliance with the institution. Essentially, despite being complicit in many of the abuses of police, social workers have the ability to redeem themselves. Of course, as much as our ethical responsibility to recognize and effectively combat injustices such as those of the deeply rotted institution of policing, our collective inaction must be contextualized with real-world obstacles. Neoconservative ideas about policing and criminal justice are ingrained in the public consciousness. Ideas about the police as a necessity that we require in forms of everincreasing power and resources and people who commit (or are suspected of committing) crimes as subhumans who must be punished by any and with 88
The Lookout
any means desired not only to fly in the face of both the spirit and letter of the Constitution but also directly contradict criminological data are accepted without question. Liberals who recognize the unacceptable nature of some of the worst excesses of the police are still unable to imagine a world without the popular but warped version of law and order. And those with leftist and libertarian tendencies who have robust critiques of policing are often hesitant to advocate for policies to curb police authority and corruption, partially because of the social consequences of appearing radical and partially because of the material reality of concentrated police power that resulted from the reigning ideology invites a sense of hopelessness. People have been conditioned to stop expecting or even asking for better. Social workers must educate and empower them to do so and stand alongside them. As for those people in the streets who are demanding change -either chaotically or strategically, violent or nonviolent -- comparisons to the civil rights movement are fascinating in the moral superiority displayed by their liberal and conservative detractors. For this multiracial group of moderates in their shallow cooptation of Martin Luther King’s values, outbreaks of violence on the side of protestors -- those without institutional power -- automatically delegitimize the validity of the protests. Never mind that King, rather than condemning contemporaneous riots, referred to them as the language of the unheard. In other words, one does not have to support violence to 89
El Perry
recognize that when a powerless group responds in kind to the violence of a powerful counterpart, it is not the latter who should be called upon to change to achieve peace. Never mind that nonviolence -- beyond its moral influence -- is a strategy, one that depends on broader societal support in response to the state brutalization of nonviolent citizens. In other words, “change happens when people are willing to bleed for it” (Dankin, 2020, 3:20). The state and the police will always be perpetrators of violence, it is in their nature; the question is whether citizens respond in kind. And if they do, those that condemn them without first and primarily condemning the state “are not wishing for nonviolence; they are stating a preference for whom the violence should happen to” (Dankin, 2020, 3:58). Social workers truly committed to justice for the marginalized people do not necessarily have to encourage or support violence from that population, but at the very least they have to be willing to speak truth to power before speaking down to the routinely violated. As Hearn (1982, p. 20) acknowledges, “it is never easy to be radical; ‘to seize things by the root.’” This does not simply apply to the mental and social difficulty of first internalizing and then advocating for highly subversive ideas, but also the conflict that can arise with one’s basic security. Despite his justifiable critiques of the profession in the mid20th-century, Reisch (2018) also
El Perry
The Lookout
provides the necessary historical context of the extent to which the Red Scare had ravaged the field. Fast forward to the days of late capitalism, in which social workers certainly don’t enjoy militant unions along with their reliable job security and guaranteed pensions. Our high levels of actual accountability -- often at the whims of our employers and host institutions -do much to align us more with workers than with law enforcement and also solidify our weak tactical position against them. The Rosenbergs (2006) point out in their call for increased social work unionization, the history of social work’s relationship with collective bargaining is as complex as their history with the working class. There’s a deep irony in the ability of the police and the ruling class to show solidarity with each other, and they disseminate individualist messaging to the general population to maintain discord. But as the Ehrenreichs (2013) mentioned, there is a perverse hope in the collective bleakness of the situations of the working class and the PMC, in which the possibility is set for the latter to finally embrace solidarity. And so becomes more plausible the obvious first step to building effective mechanisms for pushback against the police state and the neoliberal dystopia it maintains are to beat our opponents at their own game: organize, this time with all workers in mind.
90
The Lookout
El Perry
References Badger, E. & Bui, Q. (2020, June 12). Cities Grew Safer. Police Budgets Kept Growing. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/06/12/upshot/cities-grew-saferpolice-budgets-kept-growing.html. Bennet, R. R., & Schmitt, E. L. (2002). The effect of work environment on levels of police cynicism. Police Quarterly, 5(4), 493-522. Danskin, I. (2020, June 22). CO-VIDs: the gandhi trap [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BB0Q1qHpAw&t=35s. Ehrenreich, B., & Ehrenreich, J. (2013). Death of a Yuppie Dream. Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung. Ehrenreich, B. & Ehrenreich, J. (1979). The Professional-Managerial Class. In Pat Walker (Eds.), Between Labor and Capital (pp. 5-48). South End Press. Ehmsen, S. & Scharenburg, A. (2012). Class analysis for the 21st century. In Death of a yuppie dream (p. 1). Gramlich, J. (2019, October 17). 5 Facts About Crime in the US. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/10/17/facts-aboutcrime-in-the-u-s/. Harvey, D. (2007). A brief history of neoliberalism. Oxford University Press, Incorporated. Hearn, J. (1982). Radical Social Work- Contradictions, Limitations and Political Possibilities. Critical Social Policy, 2(4), 19-32. Foster, K. N. (2020, June 21). No, the police cannot be reformed. w/ Profesor Alex Vitale [Video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBazDnubwwA&t=2289s. King, M. L. (1968). “Letter from a Birmingham jail.” Atlanta, GA: Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change. Koepke, J. E. (2000). The failure to breach the blue wall of silence: The circling of wagons to protect police perjury. Washburn Law Journal, 39(2), 211-242. Kovera, M. B. (2019). Racial disparities in the criminal justice system: Prevalence, causes, and a search for solutions. Journal of Social Issues, 75(4), 1139-1164. Levin, B. (2020). What’s wrong with police unions? 120(5), 1333-1402. Levine, K. (2016). Who shouldn’t prosecute the police. Iowa Law Review, 101(4), 1447-1496. Moran, R. (2018). Contesting police credibility. Washington Law Review, 93(3), 1339-1396. Reinhardt, S. R. (2015). The demise of habeas corpus and the rise of qualified immunity: The court’s ever increasing limitations on the development and enforcement of constitutional rights and some particularly unfortunate consequences. Michigan Law Review, 113(7), 1219-1254. Reisch, M. (2018). The Year 1968: The Turning Point when US social work failed to turn. Critical and Radical Social Work, 6(1). 7-20. 91
El Perry
The Lookout
Rosenberg, J., & Rosenberg, S. (2006). Do unions matter? An examination of the historical and contemporary role of labor unions in the social work profession. Social Work, 51(4), 295-302. Rushin, S. (2017). Police union contracts, 66(6), 1191-1266. Seigel, M. (2018). Introduction: Policing and state power. In Violence work: State power and the limits of police (pp. 1-24). The Gravel Institute. (2020, September 28). Is “Big Government” Really the Problem? [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTou0ViHOXM. Thorn, O. [Philosophy Tube]. (2017, September 22). What Was Liberalism? #1 Ideology & Violence | Philosophy Tube [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlLgvSduugI. Vaughn, P. (2018). A multi-level theory of the state’s monopoly on violence: Explaining the effect of the police on violence. In M. Deflem (Eds.), Homicide and Violent Crime (pp. 159-176). Vitaly, A. S. (2017). The End of Policing. Verso. Wall, T. (2019). The police invention of humanity: Notes on the “thin blue line”. Crime, Media, Culture, 16(3), 319-336. Waters, M. (2015). Big banks and America’s broken, two-tiered justice system. The American Banker, 180(94). Whitehead, J. W. (2013). I am afraid. In A government of wolves: The emerging American police state. SelectBooks, Incorporated. Yousif, E. (2020, June 26). Is America becoming a police state? The Hill. https://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/504703-the-american-police-state.
92
The Lookout
Madison Stamper
Gertrude Weil, Embodiment of Womanhood and Progressive Activism Madison Stamper A relatively small town now, tucked in between the capital city of Raleigh and the Atlantic Ocean, Goldsboro, North Carolina was once home to a booming railroad system and a woman named Gertrude Weil. Though Weil died almost forty-nine years ago, her legacy remembers her as a woman of persistence and determination, no matter the cost. Living through Reconstruction, the Jim Crow era, and the Civil Rights Movement, as well as both world wars as a Jew, and dedicating her life to fight for women’s and worker’s rights, Gertrude Weil’s life experiences and activism is unparalleled and unreplicated.21 Fortunate enough to have the ability to do nothing and yet bold enough to sacrifice a life of no worries in exchange for the betterment of others, Weil is largely unexplored outside of North Carolina and yet, is a character in history that once known, is not easily forgotten. Utilizing her natural charisma and influential status for good, Gertrude Weil revolutionized the process and inspired women to fight for what she believed was a natural right, women’s suffrage, on the largely ignored local and state level. Being a Jew in the small-town south during the nineteenth century is seemingly unheard of due to their citizens’ tight-knit and mutual practice of and belief in the Christian faith. Despite this, Gertrude Weil’s family,
specifically her father and uncle, built an incredibly successful business in the railroad hub of eastern North Carolina.22 Their wealth and philanthropy paved the way for Gertrude to live the life of her choosing. Her choosing turned out to be very unconventional as she never married or had any children. Instead, Weil dedicated her life to causes. This is not to say that family was unimportant to Weil, in fact, quite the contrary is evidenced by the relationships she maintained, and the volume of correspondence Weil exchanged with family and close friends throughout her lifetime.23 Descending from German immigrants, Weil was proud of her heritage. Though she lived nearly her entire life in the rural American south, Gertrude Weil was a proud GermanAmerican Jew, and as Leonard Rogoff classifies her, a “cosmopolitan Jew.” 24 Rogoff’s assertion that Weil was cosmopolitan is based on differences between her and the average southern woman. Because her family was wealthy, Weil was educated at Smith College in the north. Gertrude’s mother, Mina, was reluctant to send Gertrude hundreds of miles away for months at a time, but while living in the south during this time certainly had benefits, high-quality education
Leonard Rogoff, Gertrude Weil: Jewish Progressive in the New South. (University of North Carolina Press, 2017), preface vii-xi.
22 Anne Firor Scott, “Not Forgotten: Gertrude Weil and Her Times,” (Southern Cultures), 89-90. 23 Ibid. 24 Rogoff, Gertrude Weil, 1.
21
93
Madison Stamper
The Lookout
for women was scarce. 25 While at Smith College, Weil enjoyed a highclass education that both enlightened and challenged her, studying a wide range of topics including philosophy and psychology. 26 Further, Weil was well-traveled. This was an accomplishment difficult for most Americans, not just southerners or women, as traveling was (and remains today) expensive. These trips, all around the United States and abroad, cultured and further educated Gertrude in ways her peers lacked. This ability to travel was enhanced by Miss Weil’s choice to not marry or have children. Thus, “cosmopolitan” is an apt description of Miss Weil, who despite her good fortune, chose to fight for causes considered unworthy by society of her attention, money, and time. Gertrude Weil is perhaps most well-known for her work in the women’s rights movement. Goldsboro, though it was a major railroad hub, was still dominated by a rural-based, plantation-style economy. 27 Weil, progressive and college-educated, was in the clear minority when she attempted to move Goldsboro into the fight for ratifying the Nineteenth Amendment in North Carolina. 28 Weil even struggled to gather the support of her fellow women, the very people to benefit from ratification. The opposition Weil faced from different types of women was for distinct reasons. For Weil’s fellow rich, Caucasian women, the fight for suffrage was unorthodox and a job woman were discouraged to take up. While there were exceptions, of course,
women, especially the upper-class, were encouraged to continue their traditional role of an unworking wife and mother. 29 African American women faced a dilemma much larger than their Caucasian counterparts. Fighting for suffrage while already viewed as the lowest class of citizens was dangerous, as there were major, pre-existing consequences for African Americans without blatantly fighting against the wishes of the rich, Caucasian opponents of women’s suffrage. 30 Thus, Weil’s objective of gaining support in Goldsboro was a challenge on every level. Only twentyone women joined Goldsboro’s Equal Suffrage League, of which Weil founded and was elected President in 1914. 31 A strong leader in Goldsboro, Weil worked her way through the entire state, eventually serving as President of the Equal Suffrage Association of North Carolina. However, Weil is known for much of her service through local Women’s Clubs, common in the south during this time period, though the concept is nearly extinct today. Unfortunately, as discussed previously, many women were extremely reluctant to fight for the right to vote. Weil, though she fought valiantly, was not successful in convincing the North Carolina Federation of Women’s Clubs to adopt suffragism after the national counterpart organization did, in 191.32 Four years later, after the close of World War I, Weil did cast a vote in favor of women’s suffrage at the North Carolina Federation of Women’s Clubs Annual Convention. The resolution
25
Rogoff, Gertrude Weil, 32 Rogoff, Gertrude Weil, 42. 27 Rogoff, Gertrude Weil, 107. 28 Ibid.
29
26
30
Ibid. Ibid. 31 Rogoff, Gertrude Weil, 109. 32 Rogoff, Gertrude Weil, 108.
94
The Lookout
Madison Stamper
passed overwhelmingly; however, it was not reflective of Weil’s commitment to the cause. Instead of supporting women’s suffrage on an equal rights level, the North Carolina Federation adopted the measure in the name of supporting female teachers, who became more numerous during World War I and wished to be able to serve as school superintendents. 333 While the suffragettes on the national level, like Carrie Chapman Catt, Susan B. Anthony, Alice Paul, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton are easily remembered, the fight for women’s suffrage was strongly aided by women like Gertrude Weil. Through manifestations of localism and a lot of grueling and underappreciated work, Weil was effective as a state leader. Weil was particularly close with Carrie Chapman Catt, choosing to align her strategy on the state level to Catt’s strategy on the national level. This strategy is one of peaceful talking and meticulous organization, not of civil disobedience, though both strategies certainly deserve credit for winning the women’s suffrage battle in the United States.344 In the 1914 annual Presidential report for the Equal Suffrage Association of North Carolina, the president wrote of her deep entanglement within the organization writing: “It has been impossible to get an executive meeting, and it has been necessary therefore to assume the responsibility personally, in order to
carry on the work.”355 While this quote, on its own, seems as though only one person can take credit for the accomplishments of the organization as a whole, this could not be further from the truth. Women across the state are duly credited and thanked for their work in starting and running local chapters, but it is clear that most of the state operations at this time were not fully developed.366 Weil joined the organization soon after, alongside many other women. By 1917, Weil was an officer within the organization, serving first on the Finance committee before becoming chairwoman. Additionally, Weil served as the third Vice President of the organization and eventually President in 1919.377 This is deeply significant as Weil was President of the organization when women across the United States all gained the right to vote. In the same report from 1914, the president briefly discusses the strategy she and many of her fellow suffragettes embraced in North Carolina in the few years before the Nineteenth Amendment was passed in 1919 and ratified in 1920. The organization was founded to help the cause, not disadvantage it; “The chief work of the year has been the effort to arouse interest in the work without arousing opposition.” 388 This proved to be a difficult task, but one that Weil was expertly suited for and as such, devoted much of her time and resources to get the message out
Rogoff, Gertrude Weil, 114. Rogoff, Gertrude Weil, 113. 35 Annual Reports: Equal Suffrage Association of North Carolina from 1914-1920. 1914, 1919-1920. Available through: North Carolina Digital Collections- Women in North Carolina 20th Century History. https://digital.ncdcr.gov/digital/collection/p16062 coll19/id/545. Image 001.
36 Annual Reports: Equal Suffrage Association of North Carolina, Image 001. 37 Proceedings of the Second [i.e., Third] Annual Convention of the North Carolina Equal Suffrage League. 1917. Available through: East Carolina University Digital Collections. http://digital.lib.ecu.edu/10364. 38 Annual Reports: Equal Suffrage Association of North Carolina, Image 001.
33 34
95
Madison Stamper
The Lookout
tastefully. Through delivering personal speeches to local chapters all around North Carolina and writing many letters to both ordinary people and those involved in government, Weil provided a great example of the strategy she championed. By keeping her advocacy personal, Weil prevented mass public opposition and allowed the organization and suffragettes across the state to operate consistently, without pauses to quell opposition that stops the momentum during her tenure with the organization. Weil appealed to many across the state of North Carolina, one of which was Collier Cobb, originally from Goldsboro like Miss Weil and a Professor of Geology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 1920, Collier wrote to Weil in excitement voicing his support for women gaining their right to vote as a matter of “simple justice and of sound statesmanship.399 Going further, Cobb extended his comments to suggest that government without women would ultimately fail, as “[If] it is a true democracy, in which mother plays an equal part, it moves forward as a living organism, functioning for the good of all concerned.”40 This letter Weil received speaks of her ability to encourage education and gather support for women to finally be allowed to take their rightful place in government. Further, it highlights the importance of getting men involved in the effort. Women, though they could create massive public campaigns and garner public support, did not have
seats in the legislatures to actually grant the right they believed was inherent. In another letter addressed to Miss Weil, an attorney from Elizabeth City, North Carolina thanked Weil for writing to him and asking for his position on women’s suffrage. The attorney, J.C.B. Ehringhaus, wrote on August 2, 1920: “I am convinced that to postpone ratification of the Federal Amendment and await the slow process of action by the individual states would work an injustice in this instance.” 41 Weil did not win the fight alone, she won women’s suffrage alongside the work of thousands, but that does not mean that there is no doubt that Weil was among the most dedicated. Writing and appealing to so many, Weil was able to convince others of the merits of women’s suffrage so well that they believed in the cause and began to spread it to others as well, instead of remaining silent. Though North Carolina was nearly the last state needed to ratify the right for women to vote in the Constitution; Tennessee ultimately took that title. Receiving a telegram from A. W. McLean, an influential player in North Carolina politics, on August 4, 1920, Gertrude Weil was reassured that her work in North Carolina could not be wiped out because of ratification in Tennessee.42 McLean predicted that the electoral vote in North Carolina wouldn’t be jeopardized by Tennessee simply ratifying faster. Unfortunately, McLean was wrong in this assumption
39 Correspondence: Gertrude Weil, National American Suffrage Association. 1900-1929. Available through: North Carolina Digital Collections- Women in North Carolina 20th Century History.
https://digital.ncdcr.gov/digital/collection/p16062 coll19/id/521/rec/1. Image 004. 40 Correspondence: Gertrude Weil, Image 004. 41 Correspondence: Gertrude Weil, Image 007. 42 Correspondence: Gertrude Weil, Image 10.
96
The Lookout
Madison Stamper
and the North Carolina Legislature did not ratify the Nineteenth Amendment guaranteeing the right to vote for women until 1971, half a century after Weil and her fellow women began voting and just two weeks before her death. 433 Weil’s hard work in North Carolina was not in vain as the payout was still instant, the fight was won in spite of the opponents of women’s suffrage dragging their feet in Raleigh’s General Assembly. After years of advocating for women to be granted the right to vote, Weil likely could have retired from advocacy work and still be remembered in eastern North Carolina for her work. This was not the path she took. Instead, Weil continued her tireless work for a multitude of causes, from advocating for Zionism to labor rights. Still interested and invested in women voting, Weil continued her work in the field by founding and serving as the first President of the League of Women Voters in North Carolina.444 The national organization was founded by Carrie Chapman Catt, a friend of Gertrude Weil, in 1920. Weil followed suit and sought to educate women in North Carolina about having a vote and the issues and candidates they would find on their ballots. A fierce advocate for protecting the vote, Weil was supremely interested in securing private, secret voting. In 1922, Gertrude Weil reported to her Goldsboro precinct to
cast her vote and was given a premarked ballot. Furious that after years of fighting, her right to cast her own vote was being taken away, Weil ripped the ballot. Further, Weil found a stack of ballots being marked by a man for the democratic candidates and she ripped those as well.455 Those in the voting station in Goldsboro were scandalized and soon, the news went national. This set-in motion the rumors that Weil was soon planning a political office career.466 This was far from the truth as Weil never pursued political offices outside of the service organizations she prided herself on. Gertrude Weil was an excellent grassroots volunteer and worker. Time after time, Weil sacrificed her time, money, and energy for causes of all kinds, but especially for the women’s suffrage movement. Utilizing her organizational skills to revolutionize how to reach women and men across rural North Carolina to educate and persuade supporters of women being granted the right to vote is quite the feat. The landscape of the state and opposition Weil and her counterparts faced was immense and the number of speeches, letters, and advertisements to bring the state into the national debate was quite the feat. Through her work in both the Goldsboro Women’s Club and the North Carolina Federation of Women’s Clubs, as well as the Equal Suffrage Association and League of Women Voters in North
43 Jewish Women’s Archive, Women of Valor: Gertrude Weil, https://jwa.org/womenofvalor/weil 44 Jewish Women’s Archive, Gertrude Weil.
45
97
46
Rogoff, Gertrude Weil, 152-153. Rogoff, Gertrude Weil, 152-153.
Madison Stamper
The Lookout
Carolina, Weil brought a much-needed message of equality and kindness to the people, and specifically the women, of the traditional south. Weil’s life is a testament to the turbulence of the political and social world she lived in. The work Gertrude Weil achieved in improving the lives of others was admiringly humble and often of no benefit to her beyond normalizing her philosophy of human decency.
98
The Lookout
Madison Stamper
References Annual Reports: Equal Suffrage Association of North Carolina from 1914-1920. 1914,1919-1920. Available through: North Carolina Digital CollectionsWomen in North Carolina 20th Century History. https://digital.ncdcr.gov/digital/collection/p16062coll19/id/545. Correspondence: Gertrude Weil, National American Suffrage Association. 19001929. Available through: North Carolina Digital Collections- Women in North Carolina 20th Century History. https://digital.ncdcr.gov/digital/collection/p16062coll19/id/521/rec/1. Firor Scott, Anne. “Not Forgotten: Gertrude Weil and Her Times.” Southern Cultures 13 (1): Spring 2007. 87–102. “Gertrude Weil.” Women of Valor. Jewish Women's Archive. Accessed April 20, 2020. https://jwa.org/womenofvalor/weil. Proceedings of the Second [i.e., Third] Annual Convention of the North Carolina Equal Suffrage League. 1917. Available through: East Carolina University Digital Collections. http://digital.lib.ecu.edu/10364. Rogoff, Leonard, Gertrude Weil: Jewish Progressive in the New South. University of North Carolina Press, 2017. Wilson, Emily. “Gertrude Weil: Forever Young.” In North Carolina Women: Their Lives and Times, 12–31. University of Georgia Press, 2015.
99
Madison Stamper
The Lookout
100
The Lookout
Ashley Woolard
Generational Perspectives of Feminism Ashley Woolard Perspective is a unique concept. Each person has their own opinion about a situation, but it is one’s perspective that determines their opinions. James Deacon said, “What you see depends not only on what you look at but also, where you look from” (1). For this paper, I decided to interview my mom and grandmother, and the information I gathered from these interviews surprised me greatly. In fact, their opinions and thoughts about feminism seemed entirely backward to me. Initially, I assumed that my grandmother would have very traditional and stereotypical thoughts and views. However, this was certainly not the case. Through research, lots of self-analyzing, and deductions made from my interviews, I have defined feminism as the idea that women should have the same social and political standings as men, have equal opportunities and be treated in the same regard as men in all matters. The feminist movement has a long history that spans the globe. One of the earliest accounts of women’s rights activists includes Plato in his classic Republic, advocating that women possess all the “natural capacities” to govern and defend Ancient Greece equally to men (2). Despite Plato’s progressive beliefs, many did not agree with him. Women in most ancient Greek city-states had very few rights and were under the control of men their whole lives. Centuries later, in the 15th century, French poet and author Christine de Pizan protested prejudices against 101
women and their roles in the Middle Ages in her book The Book of the City of Ladies. During the Enlightenment, people such as Margaret Cavendish and Mary Wollstonecraft fought vigorously for women’s rights and equality. However, anything even close to equality for women would not come for several more centuries. People in the United States are stereotypically defined based on which generation they were born in. Those generations include but are not limited to Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials, and Generation Z. I am apart of Generation Z, born in 2002, just a few months after 9/11. My generation has been impacted by the War on Terror in the Middle East, the Market Crash, 9/11, and now a global pandemic. However, through all this, my generation continuously comes together and stands up for things they believe in. This is also a social media age that revolves around the internet and technology (3). Due to this internet world, I have much more access to diverse opinions, current news, and resources than my grandmother or my mom did when they were growing up, and my perspective on feminism and women’s rights reflects that. My grandmother, Judy Berry, born December 4, 1952, is considered a ‘baby boomer.’ Currently, we consider people from this generation to be extremely traditional and stereotypical in views of women’s roles. A few weeks ago, the term “okay boomer” was viral on all social media
Ashley Woolard
platforms. However, my grandmother does not fit that mold in her views on feminism. She defined feminism as “Equality between sexes. That means a woman is treated equally to a man in all ways, including pay and respect” (4). I asked her in-depth about her experiences growing up as a young woman in a small town in rural North Carolina and how all those experiences affected her perspective, and she said, “Growing up, women were not treated equally to men. Women were treated as if they were beneath men and were not valued the same at all. There were certain female roles that we were expected to do, and those were to stay home, raise babies, clean, and cook. I remember my mother not being allowed to handle the financials. It was a man’s role, so my father did it even though my mother probably would have been better at it” (4). She continued to mention how, as a young woman, she wanted more out of life than her small hometown, Oriental, NC, would have allowed her. She moved to Washington, NC, where she worked in the Beaufort County Courthouse, as a Community Service Coordinator and went to school at Beaufort Technical College during the night. She wanted so badly to attend law school but could not afford it, and as a woman, she did not have many options available to her. “In my time, women either stayed home or worked secretarial jobs. Women did not have the same job opportunities as men. Even if I had gotten a law degree, I’d bet that I would have struggled to find a position over a man” (4). Her life experiences as a young woman growing up in a rural small town and then as a working woman and mother, have shaped how she feels about women’s rights.
The Lookout
My mother, Janet Woolard, is considered a member of Generation X. She was born on January 5th, 1974. She defined feminism simply as equal rights regardless of sex. When I started her interview, I was very surprised to see that her views are much more traditional than my grandmother's. In our interview, she said, “As a female, I believed my role was to take care of the household and kids. Make sure everything within the house was within order, food and proper nutrition available for everyone in the family, bills taken care of, appointments arranged, and more. Being a wife and mom was a priority for me” (5). She continued on to say, “I enjoy being the caregiver and managing my household. I like being the person the family looks to for direction and guidance … I feel that women want more equality now and see their roles differently. A lot of females don’t know how to cook or manage a household, nor do they want to. They want to work for equal wages and have totally equal responsibilities at home. I think it is great that women are doing more traditional male work roles, but I still believe the wife/mom should be the primary caregiver and manage the household. In cases where the female is the dominant breadwinner, then yes, the roles have to shift to compensate. I couldn’t imagine not taking my child to the doctor or going to school meetings” (5). Despite my mothers’ traditional views on women’s roles, she fully supports equality in the workplace. She was the Vice President of human resources at First South Bank for 18 years and oversaw 17 regional branches. To my amazement, she even wrote the human resources handbook the year she started. However, she told 102
The Lookout
me that it always bothered her that her male counterparts were paid more than her, and she knew exactly how much everyone got paid because she did payroll every week, but that it was most important to her that her opinion be respected. When it came down to pay or respect for her and her opinion, she would take the respect any day. As the head of human resources, she worked extremely close with the bank President, Mr. Tom Vann. “I feel that Mr. Tom Vann had a tremendous impact on my life professionally. Even though my pay could have been higher, he gave me a lot of respect and seemed to always value my opinion. He had placed several women in authority positions, including myself, and always treated us with respect. The males made more money, but he listened to the female’s opinions more and allowed me to believe I could do anything I wanted to in my profession” (5). My mother loves her children and loves being a mother to her children. To her, that is the most important thing in life. However, she also loved being a businesswoman, but she found a compromise and made it all work. I am extremely close to both my mom and my grandmother. They have both influenced my life, and I am grateful for all the lessons they have taught me. However, I have always believed that each person needs to have their own opinions, whether it is about politics, women’s rights, or which weather station to use. Women’s rights are not something that I take for granted. As a history major, I have studied how women have been treated and discriminated against in the past, and I am so thankful for all the hard work people like Alice Paul and Harriot Stanton Blanch have done to help get us where we are today. 103
Ashley Woolard
Although this is not the finish line, we are only just beginning. When I was in the 6th grade, I had an incredibly sexist male science teacher. He had received a grant to build a greenhouse at the school, and my class was the class helping him. One day, a friend of mine, Athena, was hammering some nails, and this man took her hammer away and said something along the lines of “Oh no, you’re going to hurt yourself. Let one of the boys do that”. At this point, I was livid, and as any strong-minded 11-year-old does, I marched right up to him and said, “Mr. Bateman, girls can do anything guys can do except pee standing up, but it doesn’t really seem that hard.” To this day, this is one of the proudest moments of my life, and I remember it so well because this was the first time that I truly realized that women were not treated equally to men. From that day on, I have lived from this philosophy, and I do not let anyone tell me that I cannot do something just because I am a girl, and I try to empower other women to push themselves too. From my interviews, I have learned where I get my strong will and mindset from, and that is most certainly my grandmother, however, my mother reminds me that I can do anything I set my mind to and will be successful no matter what. Feminism is not something that people should be afraid to talk about. We should empower people to explore what it means. I really like this quote from Jane Fonda, “Feminism is not just about women; it’s about letting all people lead fuller lives” (6). Feminism should be about lifting each other to our full potentials and give equal opportunities to all.
Ashley Woolard
The Lookout
References James Deacon. (n.d.). Retrieved August 25, 2020, from https://www.selfgrowth.com/experts/james_deaconSource History.com Editors. (2019, February 28). Feminism. Retrieved August 25, 2020, from https://www.history.com/topics/womens-history/feminism-womenshistory Generation Z: Latest Gen Z News, Research, Facts & Strategies. (n.d.). Retrieved August 31, 2020, from https://www.businessinsider.com/generation-z Judy Berry, August 22, 2020, 302 Brick Kiln Rd. Washington, NC 27889 – Oral Interview Janet Woolard, August 24, 2020, 1011 W 3rd St. Washington, NC 27889 – Oral Interview Juma, N., & Power., E. (2020, August 01). 60 Feminism Quotes About Empowerment and Equality for Women. Retrieved August 31, 2020, from https://everydaypower.com/feminism-quotes/
104
The Lookout
105
Ashley Woolard
Management Team
Communications Team
106
The Lookout
Ashley Woolard
Design Team
107
Editorial Team