East Carolina University : Research and Creative Achievement Week 2012
The Qero Half Full: The Value of Water and Liquids in Ancient Andean Life, Heather M. Bowen, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27858 Ancient Andean cultures relied on one very powerful life force. They understood its power to give life, and its power to take it away. This element determined their survival and the survival of the landscape around them. Without the fuel of life, they would be sure to perish. Without water, anyone would be sure to perish. The ocean, rivers, and lakes played a vital role in the shaping of the landscape that played host to the many centuries of Andean settlements. Water also came down from the sky and made the people and the crops fertile and healthy. Water was the starting point for most living things in the eyes of Andean people, and it was seen as the catalyst for other liquids which were made important in Andean societies, like blood, semen, and especially maize beer. These liquids were seen as the flow of life itself; they were worshiped and used in many different ceremonies. They were representations of life and renewal among most Andean societies and the cities and ceremonial sites were often established or organized in accordance to their relation to the water sources. In this paper, I would like to explore the role of liquids, mainly water and chicha maize beer, in the lives of ancient Andean societies. Focusing on sources which refer to the Incas, I will discuss how liquids played a crucial role in rituals, ceremonies, religion, and the life cycle of the native peoples. The origins and importance of ritual qero vessels as part of these liquid-based beliefs will also be discussed. The connections this relationship with sacred liquids made between the people and their surrounding landscapes is also a subject explored in this paper, as well as how these ancient qero rituals have survived to still have important roles in Andean societies today.
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The House of Connelly, Michael Avery, Margret Bauer, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27858 The House of Connelly is a 2-act/6-scene play that has a provocative, disturbing, and controversial original ending in which two black women in the play kill the female (poor white) lead, an ending Green was asked to change for its Broadway production. Paul Green is famously known as the author of America's longest running outdoor drama (The Lost Colony), but The House of Connelly is, according to my mentor, one of his best plays. A reprint of this largely unknown (and out of print) play will not only reintroduce the remarkable story that is The House of Connelly but also give further recognition to Paul Green, North Carolina's most famous playwright, who has been neglected in recent years. This reprint will not only serve the reading public, it would also be a superb teaching tool in literature classes. The URCA award has allowed me to do exactly as I intended which is look at different published and unpublished versions of the play and to compare the screenplay to the film in order to provide editorial notes to accompany their reprinting. I will also prepare the play (with both endings) and the screenplay for reprinting. In addition to the previously stated I have also looked extensively at the film Carolina that closely resembles the play and looked at the original movie script.
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