Volume 122 · No. 26
Wednesday, September 28, 2016
EST. 1887
lsunow.com
@lsureveille
thedailyreveille
dailyreveille LARYSSA BONACQUISTI / The Daily Reveille
STUDENT LIFE
LSU to hold event on tragic summer
BY CJ CARVER @CWCarver_
TO THE GRAVE Mobile app helps families track down lost coffins BY LARYSSA BONACQUISTI @Bonacquisti2
A macabre aspect of Louisiana culture, many residents of the Pelican State bury their loved ones above ground. Unfortunately, floating coffins amid a storm are a common sight, and it can be difficult to find loved ones after the fact. Researchers have worked on a solution to this problem for years. Now, Louisiana Department of Health senior official Henry Yennie and many others, including cemetery recovery consultant Arbie Goings, created a mobile app to identify the caskets and the location
The University will host “Moment or Movement: A National Dialogue on Identity, Empowerment, and Justice for All” on Oct. 3-4. The two-day symposium will recount the summer of 2016, focusing on the tragic events that took place in Baton Rouge and across the nation. The symposium will feature two keynote speeches: “A Moment,” a speech by CNN host and Baton Rouge native Don Lemon, and “A Movement,” an address from Civil Rights legend and former Xavier University President Norman Francis. “[Moment or Movement] will provide an examination of ... the ability to engage in our American democratic process has on society,” said University President F. King Alexander in a statement. “Meant to leverage our faculty expertise with community input and participation, it will also underscore our role as a university in these challenging
see COFFINS, page 2
FRANCIS
LEMON
see SYMPOSIUM, page 2 RESEARCH
University course replicates hominid scavenging processes BY KATIE GAGLIANO @katie_gagliano University students are taking learning — and fresh animal bones — into their own hands. On Sept. 21, students in assistant anthropology professor Juliet Brophy’s paleoecology and taphonomy course used found rocks to break open bovine long bones outside the Howe-Russell Geoscience Complex. In the course, students study the processes that affect bones following an animal’s death, Brophy said. The actualistic study replicated the marrow gathering
processes used by hominids in the Stone Age. Students used fresh bones donated by the AgCenter and aged bones from an area farm for the study, striking the rocks with stones until the bones fractured and marrow could be extracted, Brophy said. Early hominids relied heavily on scavenged meat and marrow’s high caloric value for nutrition, and increased meat and marrow consumption often coincides with the enlargement of the human brain. Studying how the bones were broken apart and what processes were used to extract marrow provides
great insight into hominid lifestyles, Brophy said. The idea for the interactive assignment struck Brophy while she was pursuing her master’s degree at the University of Tennessee. Brophy was studying bone accumulation in South African caves when she realized she needed a method to differentiate the varied fractures and markings on the bones, she said. Brophy decided to reenact the markings herself. She acquired fresh long bones and used stones to break, crush and
see BONES, page 2
courtesy of JULIET BROPHY
Students in Juliet Brophy’s paleoncology and taphonomy course break open bovine long bones on Sept. 21.