Luther College Anthropology Lab

07/02/2026

Professor Emeritus of Anthropology Lori Stanley '80 and Professor of Environmental Studies Jon Jensen '89 serve as president and treasurer of the nonprofit organization Natopiwo Partners, whose board also includes Jon Lund, Laura Wangsness Willemsen '97, and Rachel Hodapp '13.

Natopiwo Partners supports the Tanzanian NGO Natopiwo established by Musa Kamaika, a Maasai elder who since 2010 has served as a cultural guide for Luther January Term programs. Following a 2017 visit to Luther and Decorah, where he visited local schools, Kamaika returned home inspired to establish a preschool in order to ensure that Maasai children were prepared to enter and succeed in primary school. Natopiwo Partners supports the preschool; women's literacy, health, and skills training; and environmental restoration projects.

Natopiwo 'Lifted Up' is a Tanzanian registered nonprofit, non-governmental organization dedicated to supporting Maasai communities in the Arusha Region of Northern Tanzania through education, conservation, and women's empowerment. 

12/04/2025

KCRG Highlights Luther Archaeological Research
Colin Betts was interviewed by KCRG TV-9 on his recent student-assisted remote sensing research on effigy mounds at Effigy Mounds National Monument.

Questions linger about northeast Iowa's Effigy Mounds National Monument. A Luther College researches shares what he's learned about the mounds using remote sensing technology.

10/10/2025

https://www.sapiens.org/culture/ukraine-war-volunteers-weaving-camouflage-frontlines/

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, Ukrainian volunteers have been gathering to create camouflage nets for fighters on the frontlines.

09/07/2025

Luther College anthropology professor Colin Betts, joined by three student researchers, spent the summer visiting historical cemeteries. See link below ⬇️ bit.ly/3JNPZFO

09/05/2025

Research at Effigy Mounds National Monument and several other northeast Iowa sites continues to shed light on the surprising interior makeup of linear mounds.

Colin Betts, a professor of anthropology at Luther College who conducted the research with help from his students, spoke about the process and what he learned during a presentation at the Effigy Mounds Visitor Center last month.

Park Superintendent Susan Snow said it’s through work like this that Effigy Mounds “can start to understand more about [the mounds] and more about the people that lived and worked in this area without having to use invasive techniques.”

The article has more info.

📰: https://times-register.com/articles/2025/09/03/look-beneath-surface-research-reveals-details-about-interior-linear-mounds

08/28/2025

A Luther College professor partnered with students over the summer to identify unmarked graves in Winneshiek County. Read more here: https://www.kcrg.com/2025/08/28/students-use-technology-find-unmarked-graves-winneshiek-co-cemeteries/

04/29/2025

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University of South Florida

04/10/2025

Close up of bandolier bag, circa the early 20th century, unknown Ojibwe maker.

04/01/2025

02/11/2025

Archaeologists have unearthed inscribed sandstone fragments recovered from several different burials in Norway’s Svingerud grave field that were originally part of a single stone engraved with a mixture of runes and other markings carved between 50 B.C. and A.D. 275.

archaeology.org/news/2025/02/04/early-runestone-unearthed-in-norway

(Kristel Zilmer)