Non-fiction: Down With It Down With It By Bobby Oerzen The excavation of a California hippie commune is an example of the archaeology of now. Breck Parkman digs what the hippies were into back in the 1960s. He digs it quite literally. Parkman has spent the past 30 years collecting the charred remains from the Burdell mansion the White House of Hippiedom. The 22-room estate located south of San Francisco burned to the ground on Feb. 2, 1969. Broken plates, long-playing records (LPs), Monopoly pieces, and melted sneakers are some of the things Parkman has recovered from the site. Such items would be junk to most people. But Parkman is an archaeologist, a scientist who studies human development through excavation and examination of artifacts. Parkman s work may be one of the most unusual, if not the grooviest, archaeological projects in the country. It s a very unique time capsule, he says of the collection of materials he s recovered. California Dreamin The hippie era dates to the mid-1960s. Parkman was in his teens then, living near Atlanta. There were hippies in my area at the time, but their number was small, and I didn t really know any of them, he says. When I moved to San Francisco in 1971, that s when I met a number of hippies. Hippies were primarily young people who embraced countercultural values. Those values included tolerance and acceptance, nudity, Eastern spirituality, health food, and the use of psychotropic (mood-and mind-altering) drugs. By 1967, an estimated 300,000 Americans were hippies. Many others were part-time hippies, practicing the lifestyle for a night or two each weekend. The rise of the hippie subculture was one development in a very turbulent era of major social change, war, riots, and assassinations. The late 60s were an emotional time a traumatic time, says Parkman. Article: Copyright 2009 Weekly Reader Corporation. All rights reserved. Weekly Reader is a registered trademark of Weekly Reader Corporation. Used by permission. 1
Non-fiction: Down With It Everyday People Much of what we know about hippies comes from written sources. In 1967, for example, Time magazine published a story titled, The Hippies: Philosophy of a Subculture. The article begins by proposing that hippies are candidates for a sound spanking from their parents. It then describes many facets of hippie culture: a strict vegetarian diet, a strong opposition to the Vietnam War (1957 1975), and an almost childish fascination in beads, blossoms and bells, blinding strobe lights and ear-shattering music. Parkman is discovering that Time s portrait isn t entirely true. Take music, for example. According to the Time piece, Across the nation pulses the turned-on sound of psychedelic-rock groups: the Jefferson Airplane, The Doors, Dow Jones and the Industrials, Moby Grape. Some rock groups, such as the Grateful Dead, actually performed at the Burdell mansion. However, many of the LPs that Parkman found in the mansion were recorded by performers from earlier generations Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland. Parkman also discovered that four of the six men who lived in the mansion were veterans of American wars. This is the exact opposite of what you d expect, he says. Not all hippies were pacifists and draft dodgers, apparently. Draft dodgers were people who illegally avoided compulsory enrollment in the U.S. military. Not all were vegetarians, either. Parkman has collected about 30 pieces of bone from butchered cows and pigs from the mansion. Both Sides Now The Burdell mansion is one of two sites where archaeologists are sifting through the remains of a hippie commune (colony). The second site is the New Buffalo commune in Arroyo Hondo, N.M. By examining what people ate, bought, built, and threw away, we are building a much richer picture of 1960s countercultural movements, says Severin Fowles, an archaeologist from Columbia University who directs the project. Both Fowles and Parkman hope their projects will cause people to reexamine their view of history. There s a temptation to sensationalize things, Parkman says. It s unfortunate the media stereotypes hippies a certain way. Article: Copyright 2009 Weekly Reader Corporation. All rights reserved. Weekly Reader is a registered trademark of Weekly Reader Corporation. Used by permission. 2
Non-fiction: Down With It The hippie movement of the 1960s involved people from different walks of life. The only thing that truly united them was a deep belief that the mainstream culture was really messed up. Now Generation The work of Parkman and Fowles also challenges the popular image of archaeology. Most archaeologists are depicted studying ancient civilizations and working in exotic locations the tomb of King Tut in Egypt, for example. Many archaeologists do excavate in such locations. The one characteristic that unifies all archaeologists, however, is the study of human development through artifacts material remains. Historians, by contrast, tend to study written records letters, diaries, newspapers, and the like. To Fowles, the hippie commune excavations represent the archaeology of now. In the past few decades, he says, archaeologists have begun paying more attention to the recent past and the present. For example, an English archaeologist recently examined a mobile home to find out what the artifacts revealed about its former occupants. We need not only historians, emphasizes Fowles, but also archaeologists to help us think about a time period and its legacy. [The Burdell excavation] is a superb example of how our understanding of archaeology is changing and making space for the study of more recent time periods. Article: Copyright 2009 Weekly Reader Corporation. All rights reserved. Weekly Reader is a registered trademark of Weekly Reader Corporation. Used by permission. 3
Questions: Down With It Name: Date: 1. According to the passage, Breck Parkman s archaeological dig is unusual for all of these reasons EXCEPT that A he is studying America s hippie movement B he is digging up things from only 50 years ago C he is collecting artifacts D he has found popular music records 2. How does the author tell us about these two digs? A He argues that this kind of now archaeology is better than the regular kind. B He goes step by step through every event in each dig. C He talks about the digs problem, then explains how both of the archaeologists found solutions. D He provides background, then discusses the digs discoveries and meaning. 3. Read the following sentence from the passage: Both Fowles and Parkman hope their projects will cause people to reexamine their view of history. What might you conclude from that sentence? A that both archaeologists think their findings uncovered new information B that both archaeologists believe that hippies were much more important than historians do C that both archaeologists do not like history D that both archaeologists think the present is much more interesting than the past 4. Read the following sentence: It then describes many facets of hippie culture: a strict vegetarian diet, a strong opposition to the Vietnam War (1957 1975), and an almost childish fascination in beads, blossoms and bells, blinding strobe lights and earshattering music. In this sentence, the word facets means A stories B sides C issues D photographs 1
Questions: Down With It 5. The author s purpose in writing this passage was to A explain the hippie movement B compare and contrast the music of different periods C discuss the Burdell mansion D describe the findings of an unusual kind of archaeological dig 6. What items did Parkman discover at the mansion dig that did not fit with some written reports about hippies? 7. The passage says that Much of what we know about the hippie movement of the 1960s comes from written sources rather than artifacts. Why might that be? 8. The question below is an incomplete sentence. Choose the word that best completes the sentence. The archaeologists are digging for artifacts from the 1960s and the hippie movement they believe that sometimes artifacts can help us understand the recent past in ways that written documents cannot. A despite B because C finally D however 2
Questions: Down With It 9. Answer the following questions based on the sentence below. During his excavations, Parkman discovered that four of the six men who lived in the mansion were veterans of American wars. Who? Parkman (did) What? When? 10. Vocabulary Word: vocabulary: definition. Use the vocabulary word in a sentence: 3
Teacher Guide & Answers: Down With It Passage Reading Level: Lexile 1020 Teacher Guide and Answers Featured Text Structure: Descriptive the writer explains, defines, or illustrates a concept or topic Passage Summary: Down With It describes two archaeological digs exploring recent American history. The digs are uncovering artifacts of the 1960s hippie movement at sites in northern California and New Mexico. The passage gives background about the American hippie movement, reviews some of the archaeologists discoveries, and discusses the unique nature of the archaeology of now. 1. According to the passage, Breck Parkman s archaeological dig is unusual for all of these reasons EXCEPT that A he is studying America s hippie movement B he is digging up things from only 50 years ago C he is collecting artifacts D he has found popular music records 2. How does the author tell us about these two digs? A He argues that this kind of now archaeology is better than the regular kind. B He goes step by step through every event in each dig. C He talks about the digs problem, then explains how both of the archaeologists found solutions. D He provides background, then discusses the digs discoveries and meaning. 3. Read the following sentence from the passage: Both Fowles and Parkman hope their projects will cause people to reexamine their view of history. What might you conclude from that sentence? A that both archaeologists think their findings uncovered new information B that both archaeologists believe that hippies were much more important than historians do C that both archaeologists do not like history D that both archaeologists think the present is much more interesting than the past 4. Read the following sentence: It then describes many facets of hippie culture: a strict vegetarian diet, a strong opposition to the Vietnam War (1957 1975), and an almost childish fascination in beads, blossoms and bells, blinding strobe lights and ear-shattering music. In this sentence, the word facets means A stories B sides C issues D photographs 5. The author s purpose in writing this passage was to A explain the hippie movement B compare and contrast the music of different periods C discuss the Burdell mansion D describe the findings of an unusual kind of archaeological dig 1
Teacher Guide & Answers: Down With It 6. What items did Parkman discover at the mansion dig that did not fit with some written reports about hippies? Suggested answer: Parkman found records of softer-sounding musicians such as Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, and pieces of bone from butchered cows and pigs. Those items did not fit that well with a Time magazine article that seemed to say that hippies were all about ear-shattering, turned-on rock music and a strict vegetarian diet. 7. The passage says that Much of what we know about the hippie movement of the 1960s comes from written sources rather than artifacts. Why might that be? Suggested answer: We might know more about the hippie movement from written sources because a lot of writing exists about recent events including magazines, books, and newspapers. In addition, artifacts from recent years have not been studied as much as artifacts from the long-ago past. 8. The question below is an incomplete sentence. Choose the word that best completes the sentence. The archaeologists are digging for artifacts from the 1960s and the hippie movement they believe that sometimes artifacts can help us understand the recent past in ways that written documents cannot. A despite B because C finally D however 9. Answer the following questions based on the sentence below. During his excavations, Parkman discovered that four of the six men who lived in the mansion were veterans of American wars. Who? Parkman (did) What? discovered that four of the six men who lived in the mansion were veterans of American wars When? during his excavations 10. Vocabulary Word: compulsory: required. Use the vocabulary word in a sentence: answers may vary. 2