Friends of Iziko South African Museum - February 2016

FRIENDS OF IZIKO SOUTH AFRICAN

MUSEUM Non-Profit Organisation 052-511-NPO Postal address: P O Box 61 Cape Town 8000 South Africa Physical address: 25 Queen Victoria Street Cape Town SA Phone: 021 481 3913 Fax: 021 481 3993 Cell: 072 225 6893 E-mail: samfriends@iziko.org.za Website http://www.iziko.org.za/; http://www.iziko.org.za/ static/page/friends-of-the-south-african-museum

NEWSLETTER – FEBRUARY 2016 The holiday season has passed and the Friends programme for 2016 is about to commence. Members are in for a treat with interesting lectures and some exciting new outings are being planned. Suggestions from members for lectures and outings are most welcome, please do keep us informed.

2016 MEMBERSHIP

Your 2015 membership expired on 31 December. If you have not already done so, please remember to renew your membership. It is helpful to complete and return the membership renewal form to assist in record keeping. Some deposits have been made without a reference being given which means we have been unable to identify who made the payment.

If you have paid and not yet received your 2016 sticker, please email proof of payment to arrange for your renewal to be processed.

See the Iziko website to download the membership form: http://www.iziko.org.za/static/page/friends-ofthe-south-african-museum

LECTURE PROGRAMME 2016 Lectures are held in the TH Barry Lecture Theatre at 18:00, unless otherwise advertised. Entrance is free to members on presentation of a valid 2016 membership card. Visitors are asked for a donation of R30 per lecture.

Tuesday 23 February 2016 Speaker: Norman Larsen Title: Spiders and the myths about spider bites Arachnid authority, Norman Larsen, will discuss the life history of spiders and the myth of spider bites. His talk will give interesting insight into spiders as well as providing information regarding spider bites. The lecture will be followed by a night field walk in Newlands Forest on Saturday 12 March at 20:00 for a spider-spotting safari.

Norman is the author and photographer of the Museum’s bioweb page on spiders, scorpions and solifuges and has published several articles as well as revised two field guides to assist in the identification of spiders in Southern Africa.

Tuesday 29 March Speaker: Dr Samantha Masters – Department of Ancient Studies, University of Stellenbosch Title: Pottery (and poetry) from the ancient Greek symposium Iziko Museums of South Africa own several delicately painted pieces of fine Attic pottery. Such items would, in antiquity, have mainly been used in the context of the famous ancient Greek symposium (‘drinking party’) for the storage, preparation, pouring and drinking of wine.

This lecture will present 5 key pieces from the collection and investigate the stories that they can tell us. We will explore their manufacture and uses in antiquity, as well as their more recent stories of museum acquisition and display.

Tuesday 26 April Speaker: Associate Professor Mike Picker – Department of Zoology, University of Cape Town Title: Namibian fairy circles – still mysterious?

The Namibian fairy circles are such dramatic landscape features that one would assume that their origin and nature would by now, be resolved.

NEW MEMBERS

Welcome to the following new members: Wendy Gaisford Hugh and Urszula Perry Albert-Henri van Zyl Peter Winterbottom

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Instead, the debate about their causes and why they live for decades has intensified. The two main competing theories are the plant self-organisation model, and the Sand termite model. The evidence for both models is presented, together with future work that is being conducted to support the Sand termite model. The talk will include comparisons with other dramatic patterns in landscapes that have biological origins.

Tuesday 31 May Speaker: Dr Jill Weintroub Title: Colonial Adventurer or Loyal Follower?

Re-visiting the life and scholarship of Dorothea Bleek How has history treated Dorothea Bleek? Was she a scholar in her own right, or did she merely follow in the footsteps of her famous father, and her aunt and mentor Lucy Lloyd? In much of current scholarship on the Bleek-Lloyd research project Dorothea’s oeuvre rarely warrants close attention.

But a close reading of her field notebooks, personal correspondence and published and unpublished work reveals a complex character whose scholarship and research is complicated by idiosyncratic personal and intellectual agendas. The written record of Dorothea’s fieldwork shows her engaging with the landscape and the people in a myriad of complex and contradictory ways.

This presentation looks at Dorothea’s biography, her childhood in Mowbray, her schooling and tertiary education in Europe, and her fieldwork in southern Africa, and evaluates her research and scholarship in light of these.

Tuesday 28 June Speaker: TBA Tuesday 26 July Speaker: Professor Mike Burton Title: The life and death of the dodo The dodo is known to most people as a bird that was designed to go extinct. But what is the truth about this remarkable bird? Where did it originate? How did it get to Mauritius? What kind of bird was it?

What did it look like? How did it breed and feed?

Also, why is the Dodo so well known to us whereas many other birds that have gone extinct have disappeared from our memory? Most importantly, why did the Dodo (and many other large island birds) die out, and what lessons does its extinction teach us? These and many other questions will be answered and discussed in this fascinating illustrated talk.

Professor Mike Bruton is an Honorary Research Associate of the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity and a Life Time Achievement Award winner with the National Science & Technology Forum. He now runs a museum design company (Mike Bruton Imagineering) in Cape Town and recently published his autobiography, ‘When I was a Fish. Tales of an Ichthyologist’ (Jacana Media). He has a passionate interest in fishes, birds, lizards, fossils, evolution, extinction, islands, bicycles, edutainment, Alice in Wonderland and unexplained phenomena, and likes to share his passion with o thers.

Above: Dodo and skeleton of dodo in London Natural History Museum

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OUTINGS 2016 Booking and advance payment to secure your booking is essential for all outings.

Thursday 3 March 10:30 including lunch A guided tour of the Hotel Verde, the award winning eco-friendly hotel which will be followed by lunch.

Saturday 12 March 20:00 – 22:00 Norman Larsen leads a night field walk in Newlands Forest for a spider-spotting safari. The outing will take place on an easy path, so is suitable for those who are reasonably fit.

Please bring torches/headlight, FRESH BATTERIES are essential.

Meeting time 19:45 to start at 20:00 at the helicopter pad in Newlands forest, park in the parking area.

Fee: Members: R50 Non-members: R60 To secure your booking, please respond by email including proof of payment.

Charlotte Honiball Friends of Iziko South African Museum

Bank details below.

ABSA Heerengracht Account no: 404 033 1827 Branch code: 632 005 Name of account: Friends of the South African Museum Reference: SPIDERS + your name E-mail proof of payment to: samfriends@iziko.org.za Please do not deposit cash or a cheque into this account because the Friends will be debited with the bank charges incurred. An EFT is the only way the avoid such charges.

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