'Asian things' expert Mair featured on TV

A little more than 30 years ago, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Professor Victor Mair was at Dartmouth College studying Chaucer and captaining the varsity basketball team. He only became interested in what he jokingly refers to as "Asian things" when he joined the Peace Corps in Nepal shortly thereafter. Now Mair's credits include the Columbia Anthology of Chinese Literature and, most recently, an appearance on the TV series Nova, which follows his latest work in the excavations and studies of Caucasian mummies found in Central Asia. "China's Mysterious Mummies" aired January 20 on Public Broadcasting Service stations. The show -- which featured Mair, 54, as well as several other archaeological and anthropological specialists -- explored the mummies, their history and the region where they were found. Mair, who teaches Chinese Language and Literature, first saw the mummies 10 years ago in a museum in the northwestern Chinese autonomous region of Xinjiang. At first, he was "thunderstruck" by the discovery. "They looked as though they had just fallen over and died a week ago," Mair said. He said he thought that genetic testing on these mummies would help determine precisely who they were. After deciding to pursue the project in 1991, it took Mair two years to organize the first expedition. Several more years of genetic testing found markers in the mummies that were compatible with European DNA. Mair returned to China every year from 1993 to 1997, doing research that proved the mummies were Caucasian and probably ancestors of a people that spoke a dialect which developed into several European languages. The mummies' clothing and tools -- some very well-preserved -- provide information about the contact between the East and West in the ancient world, filling what Mair calls "a huge gap in East-West communication." A 1994 article in Discover magazine about his work prompted more than 30 film-production companies to approach Mair about a possible movie. But the Chinese government was not as enthusiastic about the idea. Finally, in January 1997, Howard Reid, a director from Union Pictures of London, got permission from the government to make the film for Nova. Mair had to cancel many commitments in order to film the program in May and June of 1997, a process that involved long days -- often lasting into the night -- with barely any breaks for lunch. "We survived on granola bars," he said. Mair said it was convenient that he is in good shape and likes to exercise -- running and playing basketball -- since he had to climb up and around caves numerous times during the filming. Now that the program has aired, Mair hopes that it will spark more interest in the mummies. He added that the research will change the way people look at the development of civilization in Eurasia. Chinese Professor Paul Rakita Goldin said Mair has "made it clear that whoever [the mummies] were, their mere existence forces us to reconsider the pre-history of Asia." Mair added that he will be involved in making more films, including another for Nova. But he wants to "pull back somewhat" and let other researchers take over. Instead, Mair will spend time working on a few related projects. He is in the midst of editing 47 papers from a conference on the mummies held at the University Museum in April 1996 and is writing a book on the mummies with Irish scholar J.P. Mallory. Mair is also writing a Chinese dictionary of medieval vernacular. But despite his thorough knowledge of language and literature, Mair claims to be "opposed to disciplinary boundaries." For instance, Mair stressed the importance of working with a group of scholars from all disciplines -- including physical anthropologists, geneticists, textile specialists and religious historians -- when studying the mummies, in order to more thoroughly examine the ancient people's lives. "If we just focus on one aspect, we will have a skewed and imperfect understanding of who they were and what they represented," Mair said of the ancient culture. College senior David Austin, one of Mair's students, finds his dexterity with anthropological and archaeological sources "fascinating." Fifth-year Asian and Middle Eastern Studies graduate student Ken Holloway added that learning from Mair has been a "great experience," since his theories "challenge many traditional conceptions in the field."