Sidney
as Undergraduate Teacher
From
the time I arrived at Hopkins in 1977, Sid was always the one to teach Intro to
Anthropology for Hopkins undergrads. I always taught whatever I wanted
to; I never “had” to teach Intro. But I assumed I would have to at some
point, so one semester I decided to sit in on some of Sid’s lectures to see how
he did it.
The
first one I went to was something about human evolution, and it took only a few
minutes for me to realize that I would never be able to teach that class
like Sid. Expectably, he had jokes and anecdotes to fill out the story of
the descent of Man, but then suddenly (he must have sensed lagging interest) he
dropped down into a squat and did a perfect imitation of a chimpanzee, body
language and noises and all. I understand that at Yale (and maybe Hopkins
too), when he taught his course on Caribbean Ethnography he would sing calypso
to get people into the spirit of things. I think he was such a memorable
teacher because he was absolutely shameless in the pursuit of communication.
Vastly
more self-conscious, I never did teach Intro, having seen him do it.
One
of my favorite dishes from my fieldwork in Romania is called “Polenta with
Cheese and Cream” (Mămăligă cu Brînză şi Smîntîna). The
ingredients are hard to duplicate in the U.S., not because they are rare but
because their U.S. equivalents are much less tasty, but here’s the idea—very
simple. This dish is for those whose cholesterol level is low; the dish
will raise it well above acceptable maxima!
1)
Cook up a bunch of coarse-ground corn meal (the usual ratio is about 3 cups of
water per cup of corn meal).
2)
Get some farmer’s cheese and crumble it up, or, failing that, small-curd
cottage cheese will do. Pour some heavy cream into it and mix it up until
the mixture is slightly runny but still thick.
3)
You can either spoon out the polenta and put some of the mixture on it, then
eat, or else layer the polenta with the cheese-cream mixture in an oven-proof
pot, put a bunch of butter on it, and stick it in the oven at 350 for a bit,
until it’s hot.
