Dr. Key's lecture ‘Joutel and the Hermaphrodite’
| Oct 11th, 2011 @ 7:00 pm | < Previous Page |
Dr. Key's lecture ‘Joutel and the Hermaphrodite’ Oct. 11
The Central Mississippi Valley Archeological Society will host the second lecture of the 2011-12 academic year on Tuesday, Oct. 11, at 7 p.m., in the ASU Museum, Room 157 (first floor). Dr. Joseph Key, associate professor of History at Arkansas State University, will present “Joutel and the Hermaphrodite.” The ASU Museum is located at 320 University Loop West Circle in Jonesboro. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. The lecture is free and open to the public, and refreshments will be served. In the summer of 1686, Henri Joutel and the other survivors of La Salle’s failed colonization effort traveled to Arkansas Post and the villages of the Quapaws. There, Joutel described meeting an Illinois “hermaphrodite” living among the Quapaws who volunteered to guide the Frenchmen to the Illinois country. The encounter was one of the numerous instances in which the French in the lower Mississippi valley confronted gender and sexual frontiers. Focusing on French explorers and their American Indian guides, this lecture examines the meaning of masculinity and femininity for the French and for the Indian peoples of the lower Mississippi valley and how in initial encounters conceptions of gender were the most difficult cultural terrain to cross. For details, contact Dr. Juliet E. Morrow, ASU station archaeologist for the Arkansas Archeological Survey and associate professor, University of Arkansas-Fayetteville, at (870) 972-2071.