Surprising new looks at classical subjects also will be provided in “The Ancients in Action.” Walter Johnson, Professor Emeritus in Classical Languages & Literatures and the College, will present a description of the distinctions between ancient spectators of gladiator shows and modern audiences who attend movies about gladiators in his talk titled “What Russell Crowe Forgot to Tell Us About Gladiators.”

As part of “Women in Literature and History,” Christopher Faraone, Professor in Classical Languages & Literatures and the College, will discuss “Anger and Gender in Ancient Greece.” He will explore how (male) ancient Greek writers criticize anger as a sign of a loss of control, the triumph of passion over reason. They also paint women as more prone to anger than men. Yet in reality, a series of magical binding spells from antiquity suggest that the opposite was true: men were more likely to become inflamed with anger and that this was seen as natural, since anger and passion were thought central to maleness. Yet we find that women often used magical spells to curtail the anger of their husbands––an anger perceived by them as pathological.

Norman Golb, the Ludwig Rosenberger Professor in Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations and the College, will provide a window on the life of a converted Jew during the Crusades. Illuminating one of the most important sources of early Jewish music, The Memoirs of Obadiah the Proselyte and His Music will detail Obadiah’s fragmentary memoirs, describing events in the First Crusade and others of great historical interest, which were discovered piecemeal among the manuscripts of the Cairo Genizah. Golb will describe how, in 1965, he identified some musical fragments in the handwriting of Obadiah. These fragments will be played during the lecture.

William Wimsatt, Professor in Philosophy and the College, will present “Evo-Devo for Cultural Evolution: Why Memes Won’t Do.” He will criticize the popular view among advocates of cultural evolution that ëmemes,’ or bits of culture, are like genes because both self-replicate. He will show that the analogies fail: No ëmemetics’ correspond to genetics, and the search for “minimal” memes (inspired by the history of genetics) is a serious mistake. Instead, he suggests that theories of cultural evolution pay more attention to the structure of ideas and cultural practices as studied by humanists, historians and anthropologists, and in ways that show the importance of intentionality, institutions, history and contingency. These can provide some of the structure of a missing genetics and point to an alternative way to construct an evolutionary theory for culture, which parallels the latest trends in the fusion of evolutionary and developmental concerns in biology.

Additionally, two “how-to” presentations will be offered––attendees will learn how to pretend to be themselves, and then how to steam a bear. Wendy Doniger, the Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor in the Divinity School and the College, will speak on “The Mythology of Self-Imitation: How to Masquerade as Yourself.” “In many myths, a double masquerade results in a moment when a person pretends to be himself: a man pretending to be a woman pretending to be a man, or a god pretending to be a human pretending to be a god,” she explained. Her presentation will then ask what these stories reveal about how individuals’ selves are built up of layers that can be put on and peeled off.

Donald Harper, Professor in East Asian Languages & Civilizations and the College, and Bruce Cost, manager of Big Bowl Restaurants, will present “How to Steam a Bear: Recipes from a Medieval Chinese Cookbook.” This presentation will feature a cooking demonstration of the gastronomic refinement and culinary techniques of ancient and medieval China as preserved in a sixth-century guide to agriculture. Composed by the gentleman farmer Jia Sixie, Qimin yaoshu (Everyman’s Essential Arts) balances exact instructions for the preparation of food with perceptive observations on the aesthetics of food.

Among the surprises in this medieval “cookbook” are the world’s oldest recipe for mustard sauce, the condiment of choice for delicate slices of raw fish (the antecedent to Sashimi); a range of charcuterie, including blood sausage; recipes for cheese, pasta and breads; and exact instructions for steaming whole bear (alongside steamed or roasted suckling pig).

Finally, a special session called “After Words: Reflections on Sept. 11” will begin at 4:30 p.m. This culminating, roundtable discussion will be moderated by Janel Mueller, Dean of the Humanities Division.

Presentations are in three sessions: 9:30 to 10:30 a.m., 1:30 to 2:30 p.m., and 3 to 4 p.m., with the keynote address from 11 a.m. to noon and the roundtable discussion from 4:30 to 6 p.m. All events are free and open to the public, but registration, which is available on the Internet at http://humanities.uchicago.edu/openhouse, is required. Those without Internet access may call the Humanities Open House office at (773) 702-4847 to receive a program and a mail-in registration package.