Secondary Refuse

a whole new class: environmental anthropology

2012-01-12T13:01:00.000-06:00

Before tenure, one should never re-prep an entire class. But, of course, I did. I've taught an environmental anthropology class twice before, but was never happy with it. I tried a couple different textbooks and readers, and nothing worked for me. They didn't cover the topics I wanted to cover with the perspectives I wanted to include.

So, I've totally re-done the class, using journal articles instead of a textbook, and focusing on those topics I find most interesting. Half the class is dedicated to archaeology, mostly landscape impacts of prehistoric human societies. That portion of the class is divided up into "types" of societies (hunter/gatherers, subsistence agriculturalists, states). The second half of the class is human ecology, specifically sections on disease, diet, and reproduction.

I think it will be a lot of fun! If anyone wants to share resources (syllabi, reading lists, etc.), I'm always happy to do so.

writing a statement of purpose for graduate school

2011-12-22T11:50:00.001-06:00

It's the most wonderful time of the year...when I write about 3,000 letters of recommendation. Most are for students applying for graduate school. I ask students to give me a copy of their CV and their statement of purpose, to help me focus the letter on their strengths and interests. Over the last few years, I've learned that many students - even very good students! - are horrible at writing a statement of purpose. So, I'd like to present a short guide to writing graduate school statements for anthropology/archaeology students (but applicable to many other fields).*

Your statement of purpose should fulfill three main goals:
1) convince the graduate admissions committee you can write coherently, concisely, and well.
2) give the committee some indication of your personality.
3) tell the committee what topics or approaches you're most interested in pursuing in graduate school, including information about what you've already done in the field.

Most students understand goal #1, and write as well as they can. My students tend to focus their efforts on goal #2, because most of them are traditional students (meaning young and relatively inexperienced), and therefore feel a discussion of their personal background and character traits is easier/safer than a more professional discourse. Although your statement of purpose should indicate that you are collegial and hard-working, a focus on goal #2 is a mistake. Goal #3 is by far the most important, and should be the focus of your statement.

So how do you write about your professional background and interests, when you feel muddled, insecure, or uncertain about your future? Even if you're not sure exactly what you want to study in graduate school, your statement of purpose should be as specific as you can make it. Do not tell the committee you're interested in archaeology (or anthropology, or museumology, or Egyptology, etc.). They already know that. That's why you're applying to the archaeology program. Instead, focus on your particular interests. If you've wanted to be an archaeologist since childhood (as far too many statements of purpose claim), what was it that held your interest all these years? Can you name one region (or even two or three) that you find most interesting? When you say you'd like to study the Maya, what aspects in particular most appeal to you? Tombs and the elite? The hoi polloi? Inscriptions? Pottery and artifacts? Human remains? Do you consider yourself to have more of a scientific or humanistic approach to the subject? When brainstorming your statement of purpose, create a short list of regions, time periods, and methods/approaches that you find most compelling.

Now for the next, critical step: keep in mind that your statement of purpose is being evaluated, not for the excellence of the research topic/project discussed per se, but for how well your interests fit those of the faculty in the department to which you are applying. (I highly recommend you read this post about the graduate admissions process from the perspective of a faculty member.) Usually, a student is admitted because they expresses an interest in a particular geographic region and/or method (say, Paleolithic Europe, or ground-stone analysis), and the faculty member in the department who best fits that research interest agrees to take on that student. Depending on the program, agreeing to take on a graduate student is a big step for a faculty member. It means agreeing to work with that student in the field, or creating research opportunities for that student, or funding them through grants. Therefore, your statement of purpose should be tailored to a relatively specific faculty member, or subset of faculty members.

Once you've narrowed down your interests, talk to your undergraduate mentors, or do some looking on-line, and figure out what programs and faculty members fit those interests. Look at the research the graduate faculty list on their webpages. Read some of their publications. Then tailor your statement to make it clear how your interests intersect with theirs. This requires research, not a vague discussion of your interests. If you come from a big university, you may have had the opportunity to take in-depth classes in the methods or regions of your interest, but my students, who are limited to our small number of archaeology courses, don't have the background from classwork alone to write a truly excellent statement of purpose. It is necessary to research the topic (not exhaustively - that's for grad school!) to the point where you can write two or three knowledgeable paragraphs.

Many of my students reject this advice because they don't know exactly what they want to study in graduate school, and they don't want to commit themselves to only one topic. I have two comments on this: 1) if you can't come up with any specific research topics that hold your interests through a one-page statement of purpose, you shouldn't go to graduate school. That is the sign of someone who is just continuing their education because they don't know what else to do with their lives; and 2) Writing the statement of purpose does not stick you with a particular adviser or topic forever. Many students enter graduate school with an expressed interest in studying, say, faunal analysis of the Great Plains, but they take an inspiring class their first year, or are offered an unexpected research opportunity, and end up writing their master's thesis on the lithic analysis of a Neolithic site in the Middle East. Your statement of purpose is a statement of your current interests. It shows you are capable of articulating a research interest and that you have the background to do so well. But it's not a legally binding document. You can always find another faculty mentor and change to a different topic. If you are very undecided about your interests, I personally recommend that you pick one and focus on that for your statement of purpose. Writing about all of them, or too generally, will hamper your admission to graduate school. However, when choosing which program you want to attend, give consideration to the largest program with the greatest diversity of faculty interests, since that will give you more options for changing your mind.

Some common problems in statements of purpose:

Mentioning your childhood. Students love to start statements of purpose with "Since I was a child, I've wanted to be an archaeologist." This is followed by descriptions of formative trips to a museum, or excavations of the backyard sandbox. Imagine a committee member reading a hundred statements of purpose, all of which begin "Since I was a child...". Personally, I think you should leave your childhood out of it. Many of my students, being relatively young and inexperienced, think their childhood is all they can talk about. But your childhood stories do not make you sound older or more experienced. In fact, the opposite is true. If you want to share personal anecdotes to liven up your narrative, share something from your lab or field experience, even if that is quite minimal. This blog has some good advice about adding personality to your statement of purpose, without sounding stupid or cliched. The advice is meant for English majors, but the general guidelines are useful.

Fear of repetition. Some students fear to repeat information from their CV or other application materials in their statement of purpose. Don't be. If you have done anything pertinent (a research project, a graduate class, a publication), make sure to mention it in the statement, and not assume the committee will pull it out of your CV and transcript. Faculty members read a lot of paper every day. We read scholarly articles, memos, job applications, class assignments, etc.. Nobody is going to comb over your application and note, with horror, that you've repeated pieces of information. Instead, faculty members will be happy to see the most pertinent parts of your CV and transcript repeated, for their convenience, in narrative form.

Modesty. Don't sell yourself too hard - you'll come across as unfoundedly arrogant - but don't sell yourself short, either. Most of my students err on the side of modesty. As I said in the last paragraph, don't be afraid to repeat your accomplishments. At the same time, don't feel a need to apologize for any minor or common problems. If there is something glaringly unusual in your record, you should address it (for example, if you failed all of your Freshmen classes, or you had to take medical leave from school and there are two missing years on your transcript). Even better, ask one of your letter writers to address the topic for you, since they can do so from an outsider's perspective, and their words are likely to have more weight with the committee. Do not feel a need to apologize for every B, or your lack of research experience, however. You're only calling attention to the problems, and you're not alone in being inexperienced or having the occasional imperfect grade.

Don't sell yourself short on your research experience and classroom work. Especially if you're a traditional student (relatively young and inexperienced), you should fill in the details of your background, not leave them bare. I'm not suggesting you pad your CV, or exaggerate your research experience. I'm saying, don't leave your one and only field experience as a single line on your CV: "Student, Archaeological Fieldschool. July 2010". Instead, expand and explain: "Student, Archaeological Fieldschool (Anthro 330), Dr. I. Jones, July 2010. Excavation of medieval church site in St. Kildeen, Ireland, and pedestrian survey of medieval landscape in surrounding countryside." Don't be afraid to discuss exactly what you learned, and its impact on your academic development, in your statement of purpose. You're not going to sound arrogant or inexperienced (any more than you are!), and you're providing the kind of information the committee wants to know. Similarly, you can include more information about the specific classes you took that were relevant to your field, including foreign language courses or courses in other fields that the committee would not necessarily think relevant, but were.

Writing a statement of purpose is nerve-wracking, and many students find it hard to write the best possible statement because they are uncertain of protocols, the role of the statement in graduate admissions, and what they're allowed or expected to say. I hope this guide will help. Good luck with your applications!

_____
*Warning: I've never served on a graduate admissions committee, and every department/faculty member has different ideas about what constitutes an "ideal" statement of purpose, so take this advice with a grain of salt.

cave lion diet breadth

2011-12-22T10:25:00.000-06:00

This article summarizes a Quaternary International publication about cave lion diets in the European Paleolithic. (Once again, I can't get access to the original publication, only this summary.) The authors analyzed collagen to look, not only at the diet of the cave lions themselves, but at the diet of the diet. That is to say, they were able to tell not just that the cave lions ate meat (no big shock, since felines are obligate carnivores), but that the animals they ate primarily subsisted on lichen. Therefore, the researchers suggest that the cave lions fed mostly on reindeer.

The stable-isotope analysis sounds fantastic. I'll look forward to reading more about a technique this detailed. But, the lines that really struck me from the article are these:

The cave lion diet, Bocherens says, appears to have been much more finicky than that of today’s lions, which eat just about anything they can catch.

The results may provide new insights into why cave lions died out. When Europe’s climate began to warm about 19,000 years ago, the landscape gradually changed from chilly, open steppes to denser forests. That would have made an inhospitable habitat for reindeer and for the cave lions that depended on them for food.

We often underestimate the behavioral plasticity of non-human animals. Yes, humans are particularly known for their ability to change their social organization or diet in order to fit their environment. But lots of other animals do this, too. Fallow deer can follow a herd- or harem-type social organization, depending on the population density in their region. A similar density-dependent effect on social organization has been identified in barn cats.

Why should we assume, then, that cave lions had a biologically-determined more narrow diet than modern savanna lions (a narrow dietary adaptation that led to their extinction), when instead we could argue that cave lions had a narrower diet breadth for the same reason that Pleistocene humans appear to have had a narrower diet breadth than later human groups in the same region: the abundance of highly-ranked prey. There were lots of reindeer, and reindeer, due to their size, herd instincts, etc., were the top-ranked prey species for cave lions. Therefore, cave lions mostly ate reindeer.

We don't know if cave lions had the behavioral plasticity of modern savanna lions and could have diversified their diet, under favorable circumstances. When the reindeer went extinct, so did most of the other major prey species, and/or the species that remained, like elk or deer, were far less abundant and did not travel in large herds. Perhaps, if climate change had taken a different form (one in which some open habitat survived, and large groups of antelope had roamed the plains of Europe), cave lions could have also survived by diversifying their diet. The stable isotopes show that cave lions were reindeer "specialists", but that does not mean that they were biologically adapted to reindeer hunting, and therefore went extinct along with Dasher, Dancer, Prancer and Vixen.

academic career suicide: the third child

2011-12-12T11:52:00.000-06:00

Am I crazy, or just happy?

Dr. Mr. Palimpsest and I are expecting our third child in May. This is neither wholly unexpected (we'd discussed the possibility), nor fully planned (I didn't expect to get pregnant when I did), but the timing works well. I'm due the first day of finals week.

My graduate adviser once told me that "everybody" understands if an academic woman wants to have one child, and two children is "normal", since that's culturally-defined as a "standard" family size. But more than that, she told me, would make it very hard to pursue an academic career. Indeed, I know only a small number of women who have managed it. (Men, particularly those with non-academic stay-at-home spouses, are another story.)

I believe the idea that "three is too many" comes partly from cultural values, particularly among middle- and upper-class white Americans, who make up the majority of academia, and who sometimes equate small family size with high moral standing. That said, I'll admit there are true challenges we face with three. Travel (to the field, to conferences, to museums, etc.) will be difficult and (possibly) prohibitively expensive. Most critically, my publication productivity takes a hit for at least one year, even two, after each baby. This is my own choice, since I spend as much time at home with a new baby as I can, but it means my ability to get tenure at a research-focused university takes a hit. I'll get tenure here, but if I moved to an R1, I would have to increase my productivity just at the time when I'm most invested in family. So, I've decided not to apply for new jobs this year. I'll stay where I am, at least for a couple years, and raise a baby.

The long and short of it: the third baby is not academic career suicide (I hope!), but probably is the death of my plans to leave the liberal arts and move toward a research position, at least for the foreseeable future. It's a trade-off I'm willing to make, especially since Dr. Mr. Palimpsest's job opportunities here are looking up, but it doesn't make me blind to the fact that it's a trade-off many academics (cough, cough - most men - cough, cough) don't need to make.

job interview stories

2011-12-08T09:40:00.000-06:00

Check out this post by Michael Smith on "War stories from academic job interviews." Interesting stuff, and may give some hope to those of you on the market!

He categorizes his job interviews as "successful", "in good faith", and "in bad faith". The "bad faith" interviews are those where someone else was chosen for the job before you arrived.

I've had six on-campus interviews (seven if you count a short-list interview that was conducted via Skype). Only one was "successful", and I don't believe any were "in bad faith", although I knew within the first couple of hours at the last interview that I wouldn't get the job. I don't think they had someone else already lined up, per se, but it was clear they weren't interested in me. Still, they were polite and I enjoyed the experience.

As for war stories: Two of the interviews went poorly. My first interview was at a large research institution, and the department put me up in the home of the search committee chair. Exhausting! I never had a break, until she got stomach flu and ended up in the bathroom for the last 12 hours of my visit. Still, I enjoyed meeting the faculty, and overall it was a good first experience.

The other regrettable interview was at a small, poorly-ranked undergraduate school. The committee created all kinds of problems, everything from keeping me up until 1am the day I arrived (I had left my home at 5am the morning to make it to the airport on time), to changing the venue of my research talk only hours before I gave it ("Hey, why don't you give your talk to our Into to Archaeology class? I'm sure they'd love it! Can you pitch it to first-year, under-prepared undergrads?"), to forgetting to schedule lunch. When you add in the horrors of the location itself (although I was assured by the faculty that their town wasn't the meth capital of the state, that was a town down the road), I left that interview fully intending to turn down the job if offered. In fact, none of the candidates on the short list were offered/took the job, and the department hired someone much more suitable to their needs by bringing in someone who had worked in CRM in the region for decades.

I'm not on the job market this year. For reasons I'll discuss more in a later post, I just can't face the prospect of moving this summer. Plus, things are looking up for Dr. Mr. Palimpsest's employment prospects here at Tiny U. Hopefully, more on this soon!

are e-textbooks a publisher bait-and-switch?

2011-11-26T09:54:00.000-06:00

Never change textbooks. Changing books hardly ever significantly improves your class, so pre-tenure, it just doesn't make sense to invest that level of time in something that won't pay off.

That said, last year I switched textbooks in Intro to Biological Anthropology. I had inherited the previous textbook, and I had never liked it. It was full of facts, but poor on interpretation. The book did little to help frame the class within an evolutionary paradigm, or to explain why all of the facts they threw at the students were relevant.

Despite these drawbacks, I wouldn't have changed textbooks (after all, I provide the framework in my lectures), if I hadn't wanted to save my students a lot of money. The new book came in a $35 e-text version. All of the other textbooks are at least $100.

So, last year I put the work into converting my class to the next text. This year, when it came time to order my textbook, I found that the publisher had a new edition out, and this edition does not (yet?) have an e-version. The price tag for the new edition? $130!

I don't know if this is a deliberate bait-and-switch on the publisher's part. Perhaps they will create an e-version for this textbook next year, to which my students will have access until they update again. (And gee, nothing ever happens in Bio Anth to make them want to update, right?!) Perhaps it does take more time to get an e-version on-line than to get the physical book to press, but I doubt it. The e-version was little more than PDFs of the physical book, and surely the publisher has those!

I don't have time to make any changes for next semester, especially since I'm teaching a new prep in the Spring, and re-doing the third class significantly, but after this, I'm switching to Open Source resources.

Does anyone have any suggestions where I can find good Open Source readings for Intro to Bio Anth?

perils of anthropological parenting (aka: my poor kids)

2011-11-16T17:36:00.000-06:00

Me: Please keep your pajamas on.

Pumpkin (2 years old): Why?

Me: Because you'll get cold.

Pumpkin: Why?

Me: Because you don't have fur.

Pumpkin: Why?

Me: Because our species is adapted to a tropical climate.

Pumpkin: Why?

Me: Because we're descended from apes.

Pumpkin: Why?

Me: Because apes are restricted to tropical environments.

Pumpkin: Why?

Me: [pause] Biogeographical accident

Pumpkin: Oh.

turns out, toucans can't be trademarked!

2011-11-16T12:33:00.000-06:00

I blogged previously about Kellogg's (of Fruit Loops cereal fame) suing the Maya Archaeology Initiative because MAI uses a toucan in their logo.

I don't know if Kellogg got better legal advise, or if the publicity over this poorly thought-out lawsuit changed their minds. But, Kellogg has not only backed away from the lawsuit, they're donating $100k to MAI to build a cultural center in the Peten, and they're going to feature major Maya accomplishments on their Fruit Loops boxes next year.

Wow, what a win!

Pat Shipman has a new blog

2011-11-14T11:19:00.002-06:00

Pat Shipman has a new blog about human/animal relationships. Check it out.

painful truths about grad school

2011-11-13T21:38:00.000-06:00

This post about grad school in history has been making the rounds. It basically says the same thing most of us have been saying: there are no academic jobs, current academic lottery winners won't tell you the truth, the opportunity costs are too high, etc. Still, it's a nice re-statement of the problem.

Although I believe everything stated in this blog post, I'll admit I find it hard to quash the dewy-eyed dreamers that come to my office, seeking advice about graduate school. It's hard to tell them "no", without it coming out as either "you're not good enough" (no matter how often I say that's not the case), or "it's only anthropology that's this f#@ked up" (especially since students who are given a pessimistic view of the future by me often find a more optimistic faculty member in another field, and assume that they're better off in history or sociology).

How much reality do you inflict on undergrads?

Madonna Moss' new book

2011-11-12T18:27:00.000-06:00

I ran across a nice article about Madonna Moss' new books. I haven't read them yet, but hope to soon. I'll be covering the Northwest Coast in my North American class next semester, which gives me the perfect opportunity. I'm particularly intrigued by references to fish resource management. Has anyone read it yet?

Buttlurch U

2011-11-12T17:23:00.000-06:00

Did you see the fake job posted to the jobs wiki?

Buttlurch State University

The Department of Anthropology, Sociology, and Criminal Science at Buttlurch State University invites applications for a non tenure-track faculty appointment in the archaeology of science, global warming, and interdisciplinarity. There is a preference for archaeology of the world, but all areas will be considered. We seek a candidate from a top-ranked graduate program (preferably Ivy League), regardless of publication record or teaching experience. The successful applicant will both complement and duplicate the research interests of the current faculty. Thus, applicants specializing in the archaeology of the past, the prehistory of Delaware, ancient DNA or stable isotopes, and dolphin-human interaction are of particular interest.

The appointee will have a 4-4 teaching load and will be expected to teach the same courses every semester: Complex Societies of Delaware (online), Primatology Lab, Pirates & Globalization, and a freshman writing seminar on the Archaeology of Cetaceans. Buttlurch University places a strong emphasis on teaching, with a 150-1 student teacher ratio and the expectation that faculty will pass everyone who pays tuition. The successful candidate is expected to hold an ethnographic field school every summer, run Buttlurch University’s CRM program, conduct NAGPRA compliance, and serve as the department chair after completing their first year (4 year appointment).

We strongly encourage applications from women and members of minority groups (heterosexuals preferred), even though we’re pretty much old white guys and don’t have room for more. Applicants will need to upload the following to our on-line jobsite: cover letter, CV, research statement, dissertation précis, teaching philosophy, plans for publications over the next 7 years, graduate and undergraduate transcripts, student evaluations, course syllabi, and 8 to 10 writing samples. You will also need to upload four letters of recommendation (these may not be sent directly by letter writers). For full consideration, all materials must be postmarked by yesterday. Preliminary Skype interviews will be conducted, followed by interviews at the Annual Meetings of the Archeaology Society of Delaware.

Please note that applicants will receive no verification that their application has been received, but in about eight months, all but one of you may get a snarky email indicating that “one of the other applicants was a better fit.” You were actually the lucky ones.

This is REALLY, REALLY funny. If you are editing the wiki, please leave it here? Us poor, unemployed suckers who are looking for jobs in this economy can really use the free entertainment-- and a little levity never killed a wiki. Plus, I don't think anyone will mistake it for a real posting.

There is a VAP currently in this position.
11/12 contacted for additional references and asked for high school transcripts
11/12 - request for urinalysis received.

That bit about the "VAP currently in this position" sent me over the edge.

horses were spotted before domestication

2011-11-10T13:10:00.000-06:00

Ancient DNA studies shows that "leopard spotting" was one of the phenotypes of Paleolithic horses in Europe, as shown in some cave paintings.

I don't much care what this says about the painters, but I think it's interesting commentary on the pre-domestication phenotypes of horses. We generally think of coat colors and patterns as being more variable in domesticated animals than non-domesticated, since animals may be bred for a certain look, or they may react to the relaxation of natural selection against brightly colored or patterned animals who were too easily spotted by predators. Had I thought about the issue, I would have assumed leopard spotting was an example of coat variation that occurred after domestication, like spots on dogs. Well, I would have been wrong.

progress in gaining life balance

2011-11-07T09:37:00.000-06:00

I posted a week ago about picking life priorities, in an attempt to gain more work/life balance. I'm proud to report that I've made some progress in achieving one of my priorities: spending more down-time with my spouse.

I talked to three other young families at Tiny U, and we're going to share daycare so that we can have a date-night with our SOs once a week. Each family will take turns hosting all of the kids (there are 7) at their house every 4th week, and the other 3 weeks can just drop their kids off at someone else's house for a couple of hours. (And then all three of the free couples will head to the only decent restaurant in town. Maybe we should just carpool.)

is there a niche for anthropology as the "interesting science"?

2011-11-06T21:29:00.000-06:00

This article from the New York Times got a lot of circulation this week: "Why Science Majors Change their Minds (It's Just so Darn Hard)"

The article is poorly titled. Yes, there is some indication that science majors switch to the social sciences and humanities because the grading is easier in those fields. But the article suggests that the real problem is that the natural sciences, math, and engineering just aren't that interesting. Or, more accurately, that the way they are taught at most universities, as huge lecture classes involving no real-world applications, is not nearly as interesting to students as the more discussion-based courses in more applied fields.

An illustrating anecdote from the article:

MATTHEW MONIZ bailed out of engineering at Notre Dame in the fall of his sophomore year. He had been the kind of recruit most engineering departments dream about. He had scored an 800 in math on the SAT and in the 700s in both reading and writing. He also had taken Calculus BC and five other Advanced Placement courses at a prep school in Washington, D.C., and had long planned to major in engineering.

But as Mr. Moniz sat in his mechanics class in 2009, he realized he had already had enough. “I was trying to memorize equations, and engineering’s all about the application, which they really didn’t teach too well,” he says. “It was just like, ‘Do these practice problems, then you’re on your own.’ ” And as he looked ahead at the curriculum, he did not see much relief on the horizon.

So Mr. Moniz, a 21-year-old who likes poetry and had enjoyed introductory psychology, switched to a double major in psychology and English, where the classes are “a lot more discussion based.” He will graduate in May and plans to be a clinical psychologist. Of his four freshman buddies at Notre Dame, one switched to business, another to music. One of the two who is still in engineering plans to work in finance after graduation.

Mr. Moniz’s experience illustrates how some of the best-prepared students find engineering education too narrow and lacking the passion of other fields.

This article reminds me of an article I read a few years ago (which of course I can't find a link to now! Can anyone help?) that suggested many women leave science careers because they don't find them very interesting. Women with top SAT math scores are more likely than men with top SAT scores to also have top scores on the verbal component of the exam. In other words, women with highly developed math skills are more likely (for whatever nature/nurture reason) to also be excellent students in other fields. There are fewer men for whom this is true. Therefore, women who started in math, science, and engineering fields often found they were more interested in the social sciences or humanities, and they also had the skill-based to thrive in those fields. So they switched. Men were less likely to switch, as they were more likely to lack the skills needed.

Anecdotally, I had many undergraduate friends who started out in math, science or engineering (my then-boyfriend was a computer engineer). Those who also had strong analytical and verbal skills (a group that did not include said then-boyfriend), did indeed switch to the humanities/social sciences or double-major. Most of these friends were male, not female. Dr. Mr. Palimpsest also fits this pattern, starting out as a physics major and deciding that anthropology was just more interesting.

Anthropology seems an ideal destination for smart, motivated, but dissatisfied science students. We straddle the divide between the natural and social sciences. A student with highly developed math and science skills can put them to use here, analyzing DNA, running stable isotope analyses, or building computer models. Yet, our research is clearly applied, hands-on, and critical to our comprehension of all that it means to be human. How much more interesting can it get?

So what can we do to bring in the dissatisfied math, science, and engineering students? I have two suggestions:

1) We shouldn't hide the scientific or technical aspects of our field. Here at Tiny U, my biological anthropology class is often used as "non-sciencey" option for students trying to get their general education science credits. They're often appalled when they find out how much real science (and gasp! even some math!) is involved. But I've had math and computer science majors tell me they've learned more in my class than in any other natural science class they've taken. We should revel in our science, and not have it a secret discovered only by those who happen to take the class to fill a gen ed requirement.

2) We must make students aware of the applications of anthropology. I've had a number of students tell me they like anthropology, but they're majoring in psychology or sociology because anthro is "all research and no practical application". We need to make it clear that anthropology is not just the study of the exotic or the distant past, with no current applications. Anthropology gains if we clarify that it is hands-on and practical for our modern world.

"Break yourself of linear manuscript writing"

2011-11-04T09:56:00.000-05:00

I frequently re-write my articles because the "main point" of the conclusions doesn't match the "main point" of the introduction. While writing up the results, my ideas about the purpose of the paper change, so I have to go back and re-structure the initial argument.

Apparently, I'm not the only one to have this problem, based on the post "Always Write the Results First" by Dr. Isis. She recommends that we put together articles in the following order:

1) data figures and tables
2) outline the argument
3) gather supporting citations [I never do this, but I can see the appeal]
4) write results and discussion
5) write methods
6) write intro and abstract

I'm embarrassed this never occurred to me before.

black rat commensalism

2011-11-03T14:59:00.000-05:00

PLoS ONE has an interesting article by Aplin et al. on the history of commensalism in black rats. The team studied mtDNA in rats and found three lineages that relate to prehistoric and historic periods of human population and trade expansion. So, commensalism occurred independently multiple times, and is clearly important for understanding black rat adpatation and biogeography today, as well as the importance of rat-carried pathogens in human history.

can you pick only 3 life priorities?

2011-10-31T12:28:00.000-05:00

Although I swore never to read Mommy blogs again, I ran across a link to this one, entitled "The Myth of Everything" and a comment on the first, "Rejecting the Supermom Ideal".

The blog posts rehash some old ground, but I think we can all agree with their basic point: It's not possible for one person to do it all. We can't expect ourselves to do cutting-edge research, be full-time parents, teach 20 credits, keep our houses clean, run field projects, provide only home-grown and preservative-free food for our families, knit our own clothes from organic yak hair (preferably self-picked), etc., etc.

Fine, so we can't do it all. The "Myth of Everything" post suggests that we pick three priorities, and only engage in activities if they fit those priorities. (Does anyone else find it odd that the blogger doesn't name her priorities? I suppose it's very personal, but..) The "Rejecting the Supermom Ideal" post gives an example of three priorities. In her case: family, health, and writing.

I like the idea, but find the logistics difficult. Very vague priorities ("family") could mean almost anything. Activities related to "family" include everything from cleaning the house (so your family has a comfortable, safe space to live) to cooking healthy meals, to spending fun time with your kids. With priorities that vague, they would never serve to guide my decisions.

These kinds of priorities probably work better for someone who is not working, also, or whose work is freelance, or who works 40 hours a week and doesn't bring any work home. No matter what I feel about, say, teaching, my class prep and grading take up a huge amount of my time. To pretend it won't be a priority in terms of the time I spend (rather than in terms of my interests) would be to deny reality.

Still, I find the "three priorities" concept a useful thought exercise, but I want to add a twist. First, I'll list my top three priorities. Then, I'll list the top three things that take up too much of my time and discuss how I can minimize their impact on my life. Here goes:

Priority #1: Have some fun with my kids. This means arts and crafts, running around at the park, board games, cooking together, spending time that is enjoyable to all of us. We spend a lot of time together, but too much of it occurs while I'm keeping one eye on the kids and one on my computer. Too many of their requests for my time and attention are met with "Can you play with your brother/sister? I'm trying to get something done here."

Priority #2: More publications and external grants. Tiny U, like any liberal arts college, sucks most of my time into teaching and service. I need to prioritize that which will advance my career, whether here or at another institution.

Priority #3: More down-time, at least some of which is spent with my spouse. All work and no play... well, you know. I've struggled with depression for the last few years, and I think a lot of the problem comes from being too over-committed, and not having enough time to do what I want. When I do have time to do things for myself, I often feel guilty because of all the work piling up. Down-time, and my adult relationship, must be a higher priority.

Now, on to my plans to minimize the activities/needs that take up way too much of my time:

Time-Suck #1: Cleaning house. This includes laundry, dishes, and other tasks that much be performed daily or we're living in squalor. This does not include things I consider optional, like washing the windows or weeding the garden, which frankly can be ignored for years without greatly impacting my quality of life. My plan here is to minimize the amount of crap we have around the house. Our wardrobes, toy collection, kitsch, kitchen utensils, etc., should all exist in manageable amounts. My husband and I also dream of down-sizing our house (and cleanable space). Avoiding this time suck also, ironically, includes making clean-up a daily priority, rather than letting things fester until the weekends. We're also trying to more evenly spread the tasks, and insist that the kids help, even if it's just a little.

Time-Suck #2: Grading. Class prep can take a lot of time, but I generally enjoy it, and most of my classes are prepped already. What really sucks in my time is grading. One way I can minimize my grading is by continuing a trend I've already started, which is to create intro classes that have a strong on-line component, where all the on-line activities are computer graded. The other thing I can do, which I've really resisted up to this point, is to drop certain requirements. For example, every year I teach a 60-person Intro to Biological Anthropology class. In previous years, I've required two 5-page papers from each student. This year, I'm going to switch to only one. I don't have TAs who can grade those papers, and I find that grading 600 pages of undergraduate writing takes more time than it is worth, especially if I'm also grading the essays on their exams, their lab write-ups, weekly quizzes, etc.

Time-Suck #3: The Inter-tubez. OK, I admit, I have a problem. Twitter, Facebook, political blogs, cooking blogs, mommy blogs, anthropology blogs, random surfing...I have to get off-line more. There are a lot of good things about the internet. It helps me feel connected to the wider world, even from the middle of nowhere. It's also easy to surf while my husband and I spend our evenings sitting in silence in the dark dining room, while our kids sleep in the living room. (Long story short: we have no bedrooms due to on-going home improvement.) But time spent on-line can take away from true down-time - where I can do creative projects or talk to my husband - as well as research time. I've started limiting the blogs I can read, but I think the next step is to schedule more time away from the dark, silent dining room. My husband and I need a date night. (Not only does that help with Time-suck #3, but it helps with Priority #3! Double-score!) We need to create a space where we can spend our evenings while enjoying the benefits of light and sound. (This just requires bringing some comfortable chairs down to the kitchen.)

What are your priorities and time-sucks? How do you want to change your time budget?

care and feeding of your undergraduate research minions

2011-10-28T12:00:00.001-05:00

In my previous posts on this topic (http://secondaryrefuse.blogspot.com/2011/08/undergraduate-research-structuring-work.html, and here), I talked about structuring research with undergraduates, and choosing good undergraduate RAs. This post is about keeping your research team running smoothly, once you've assembled them.

First, I should mention something that I left out of my post on choosing undergraduate RAs. I wrote that I announced the RA positions in my classes and had students fill out applications. But I didn't just "announce" the positions, I gave a short presentation in each class where I explained exactly what would be expected (hours per week, weekly meetings, readings, writing or independent research, etc.), and exactly what tasks I foresaw being part of the RAship (washing bones, initial sorting of bones, data entry into Excel, helping to format bibliographies in Word, library research on assigned topics, creating figures in Illustrator or Photoshop, etc.). I asked the students I chose for the positions to think about which of these activities they would find more interesting. Some students really want to work with their hands, others really prefer to crunch numbers, and others just want you to point them in the direction of basic tasks. Matching your RAs with their interests will make life easier on everyone.

Second, I insist that everyone on the research team attend a weekly meeting. It can take some doing to find a time when everyone is available, but it's too easy for over-stressed and over-committed students to just disappear for a week or two or ten. A weekly meeting greatly cuts down on the number of AWOL RAs, and improved team communication. At the meeting, we tell each other what we've done on the project during the past week, and I discuss and assign tasks for the coming week. My RAs have the opportunity to ask why we're undertaking certain tasks, and to get clarification on our ultimate goals. Often, the conversations turn to fieldwork opportunities, graduate school plans, academic problems, etc. These are smart, committed students, and they have lots of questions about how academia works, what career options there are in archaeology, and what the best course schedule would be for the next semester. I really enjoy these conversations, they're essential to the advising part of my job, and they add an aspect of mentoring to the RAship that wouldn't necessarily occur without those weekly meetings.

Finally, I try to push my RAs to get more out of the experience, so that it is as beneficial to them as possible, while at the same time keeping them tied tightly to my own research needs. An example of pushing my RAs: Not all of my RAs end up doing independent research. Depending on the type of RAship, they may just do the tasks I set them, and never really think about the context and purpose of those tasks. However, Tiny U has a number of fellowships/grants to support undergraduate research, so I strongly encourage my RAs to identify aspects of my research that they find most interesting and to pursue those as independent research projects in future semesters. I even come up with a list of appropriate topics, with some indication of the data that would be needed to test the hypotheses and the methods that would need to be employed. I help RAS to craft proposals for the fellowship applications, work through the research itself, and oversee the subsequent write-up (including co-authored papers or conference presentations).

At the same time, though, I find it critical to tie student's research very tightly with my own. Some of my RAs express an interest in doing something well outside my research interests, such as working in a different region, or with plant remains. I am very firm in saying "no" to their requests to take on directed studies or in any other way getting intimately involved with that type of independent research. I just don't have the time to walk them through the process if it means learning new literature and methods myself. If they want my help, they must work on materials I have in my lab, or on some side issue with the data that I've collected. I will work with them on other topics, but only if it relates so directly to my research that there is potentially a publication down the road (for example, the research may produce some useful comparative data to my own), or at least their literature review will help fill in holes in my own knowledge (for example, if the student wants to research stable isotopes, a topic I need to learn more about myself.)

Restricting my undergraduate RAs to my research has been incredibly important. I'm grateful that I'm allowed to do so. Some of my Tiny U colleagues in other departments are not so lucky. Many departments require students to do a senior research project, chosen by the student, and supervised by a faculty member. The faculty members cannot dictate or limit the students' choice, and frequently end up supervising research on topics very far from their own interests, sucking up a great deal of time and energy. If you're in a program like that, you have all of my sympathy.

gathering your (undergraduate research) minions

2011-10-27T09:57:00.000-05:00

In a previous post, I talked about including undergraduates in your research. Mentoring and providing research opportunities is an important part of my job at a liberal arts college, and something the tenure committee will look at closely. On the other hand, supervising undergraduate assistants can suck a lot of your energy and time away from your own research, unless you manage it wisely. My last post was on the structure of undergraduate research as it integrates with your own. This post is on how to gather your undergraduate research team.

I find it hard to recruit good undergraduate research assistants. It's not that they aren't out there, it's just that I don't always know what characteristics will make the best RA. At first, I chose students who showed a great deal of enthusiasm in my classes, even if they hadn't been the top grade-earners. This turned out to be a mistake. They were pleasant and fun, but they didn't get top grades because they weren't consistent workers. They couldn't be trusted to show up on time, or to put that last bit of effort in to do the task right.

After that, I only chose students who were at the top of my classes. In general, this worked better, but I ended up with a student with unusual interpersonal skills (I assume she fits somewhere on the autism spectrum), which caused very severe communication problems for which I was not prepared. This also can lead to RAs who had overcommitted to other research or extracurricular activities and aren't willing to do as much for your research as you could hope.

My current approach has worked better. Last Spring, I announced the upcoming RA positions in all of my classes (and Dr. Mr. Palimpsest's archaeology class). I asked students to fill in a statement of interested that asked for their:
planned time of graduation
majors and minors
overall GPA and GPA in anthropology
classes taken in anthropology or archaeology
previous research experience
other jobs/commitments expected during the RA period
name of one reference

Most of the students who applied were already known to me, so I could judge their pleasantness, commitment to their work, eye for detail, etc., from personal experience. The information about how well they did in school in general, as well as how over-committed they plan to be, was extremely useful.

This semester, I have a cracking research team. Partly this is luck, but partly this reflects changes in the characteristics I value in an RA. YMMV, of course, but here's what I look for now:

pleasant personality, but not necessarily a social butterfly. I'm a complete introvert, but I have nothing against extroverts. I did learn the hard way, though, that enthusiasm for archaeology sometimes just reflects the student's extroversion, not their true commitment to the field. On the other hand, extremely quiet students may not just be "reserved", their quietness may mask an inability to effectively communicate with others.

attention to detail and pride in doing things right. These traits often separate the A students from the B students, but not all A students have them, and not all B students lack them. I can often see these traits in how well students write, and whether or not they go the "extra mile" in class assignments.

first- or second-year students. I find these students to be less over-committed, better able to balance the RA-ship and classes, and, ideally, willing to continue working with you for years to come.

about inside candidates

2011-10-26T17:43:00.000-05:00

Are you reading the archaeology jobs wiki? I recommend it, if you're on the academic market. We archaeologist seem a bit reticent about sharing too many details. Personally, I don't have a problem with saying who is on the short-list for a particular job. After all, they're giving public presentations! But, I understand the wish for privacy.

There are many comments on the wiki about inside candidates. Many potential applicants are concerned by visiting scholars or adjuncts already affiliated with the hiring department. In some cases, these concerns are particularly strong because the supposed inside candidate is a spouse of an existing faculty member, or the person was hired for the visiting position the year before under almost the same job description.

I think we over-estimate the "problem" of inside candidates. I've applied for a lot of jobs, heard about the inside machinations of job searches at many other institutions, and participated in search committees myself. Here are some of the actual situations I've seen (or heard about from credible sources):

1) The adjunct spouse appears to fit the job description, but there was never any intention of hiring him/her. The thought had never occurred to the search committee, or the spouse in question has some other part-time job that they wish to keep.

2) The visiting scholar who was hired last year (under basically the same job description) was hired out of an applicant pool of 12. The tenure-track job attracts an applicant pool of 120.

3) The visiting scholar received a job offer from another institution before their current institution can offer them a tenure-track job.

4) The visiting scholar managed to piss off the whole department within the first two weeks of her new job. She fits the job description, but wouldn't be hired in a million years.

5) The visiting scholar was hired because he was the protegee of the department chair. But, the department chair is hated by the rest of the department, so when it comes to a formal search for a tenure-track job, with a search committee and vote by the whole faculty, the visiting scholar doesn't stand a snowball's chance in hell. Everyone will vote against the department chair's choice, just out of spite.

6) The committee that hired the visiting scholar had one member with a strong interest in hiring a faculty member who could teach in the Environmental Sciences program. That person is on sabbatical the next year, and when the tenure-track search committee is formed, he is replaced by someone who is passionate about hiring a faculty member who can teach in the Asian Studies program. The visiting scholar works in the Amazon, and is therefore screwed.

7) The department would never hire an adjunct from their own program. They think all the good candidates should be able to get tenure-track jobs right out of graduate school, and they're not interested in anyone else.

8) The department would never hire a faculty member's spouse. They think that any good archaeologists should have been able to get his or her own job, and if that person was unwilling to live 2,000 miles away from their 3 kids, that just shows they lack serious interest in their career.

I could go on, but you get the point. For heaven's sake, apply for the job, regardless of whether you think there's an inside candidate!

becoming a "radical scholar" at a liberal arts college

2011-10-19T12:00:00.000-05:00

Earlier this month, I wrote about Kate Clancy's call for women (especially parents) to become "radical scholars".

Here's what Clancy says about becoming radical:

But those of us who insist on playing with our toys in the academic sandbox need to be radicals. And I do think a lot of the ways we need to be radical involves how we perform our job: we need to set boundaries so that we aren’t always doing the service work no one wants, we need to make our passions our scholarly interests in the face of some who would invalidate it, we need to perform our confidence in front of people who might undermine us. We need to get tenure.

But I think it also means reflecting critically on what it takes to get tenure, and whether the way it’s done is the way it should be done. There are two problems with the current criteria for tenure: they don’t reflect modern, interdisciplinary scholarship, and they don’t include metrics to evaluate influence and perspective beyond peer-reviewed publications.

She goes on to discuss the importance of new methods of publishing and service to the field (like blogs), and developing new ways of counting interdisciplinary scholarship toward tenure.

Clancy's article is from the perspective of an R1 faculty member. But what about those of us at liberal arts colleges (LACs)? I don't know if women and mothers at LACs get tenure at lower rates than men and non-mothers, but we still face many of the same balance issues. How do we become radical scholars?

Here are a few ideas from my own experience:

1) Teaching counts for more in tenure decisions at a LAC, so include time-saving technology, child-focused research, and other mother-friendly activities in your teaching and sell them as pedagogical innovation. Seriously. I teach intro courses in cultural, biological, and archaeology. In those courses, I include a substantial on-line component, where students use their home computer to take exams, quizzes, do weekly assignments, on-line prelabs, participate in discussions, etc. In my tenure file, I call this "innovative use of technology" that "continues the opportunities for collaborative and interactive learning outside the classroom." But do you know the major reason I do it? Because most of those on-line activities are automatically graded by the computer, and the grades automatically added to the on-line grading system. When a question requires human attention, I can grade at my own convenience, on my own computer, without having to haul around stacks of paper, or deal with 75 different examples of illegible handwriting.

Another example: I'm obsessive about breast-feeding (Pumpkin is sleeping and nursing in my lap as I type). I've done a lot of research on it. I'm also interested in other aspects of pregnancy and reproduction. So, I've made that the topic of one week of my ecological anthropology class. It's not my field, but it's an interest of mine, and it allows me to apply research that's important for the care of my own children to my teaching.

2) Service may count more at a LAC than at an R1 school (depending on the LAC and the R1, of course). Here at Tiny U, community-service based class activities are considered particularly impressive in a tenure application. I'm focusing my community service activities around young children, so my mothering experience and interests will complement my professional service. This year, my North American Archaeology class will be putting together a presentation on archaeology and site stewardship, as well as local culture history, for the preschoolers and kindergarteners in town. Yup, I'm taking my "big kids" to my own Bunny's kindergarten class. I get double bonus points for volunteering in my child's classroom and doing professional community service!

3) Although LACs put more focus on teaching than R1s, at many colleges, research will also be rewarded. Here at Tiny U, a mediocre teaching record and a stellar research record will get you tenure, but a bad research record will not necessarily be balanced by even the highest teaching honors. At Tiny U, only a small percentage of the faculty do significant research, but we have little pots of money to encourage faculty to do more. I've never been turned down for any money I've applied for, including grants in the $5,000-20,000 range! If you're one of the few here who do research, you can have a significant advantage when it comes to available seed money.

Obviously, the reason so few of us do research is because our teaching and advising loads are so high. This is where it becomes important to say "no", and to refuse typically "mothering" roles that both administrators and students may wish you to fulfill. I don't listen to students' personal problems. I'm happy to serve as their academic adviser, but they need to come to me with coherent questions and plans, I won't spend an hour discussing their vague dreams for the future. I'm not their mother. I'm not rude when I refuse this role, I'm just professional and distant, and I refuse to take any conversational opening that invites more "sharing". Every once in a while, a student is unable to read the conversational cues that say "I'm not your personal counselor, I'm your professor, let's keep this professional", but in general, I find my more "hands-off" role easy to maintain. (I should mention that I'm neither young, pretty, short, nor particularly feminine in appearance, advantages that help maintain some distance and respect.)

4) Public outreach is a category of service that is also highly prized at some LACs. I often have great ideas for public outreach (I'll give a series of lectures on human evolution! I'll put together an archaeology day!). I've decided to avoid these as much as possible, unless I can "double-dip", for example, by having one of my classes put together the archaeology day as a community-service based component of their classroom experience.

That brings me to the topic of this blog. One of the original purposes of this blog was to create a forum where I could vent, which is one of the reasons I made it anonymous. (The other reason is that I am concerned my colleagues in anthropology would see this blog as wasted time that could be spent on teaching or publishing.) I have used this space to vent in the past, but I've since regretted making this blog anonymous. In general, I like my job and my colleagues, and I don't have that much to complain about that I can't openly acknowledge. I wonder, if I was more open about my identity, could I foster more dialog on the topics of zooarchaeology, teaching methods, and family/work balance which are the main focus of this blog? I never intended for this blog to influence the field, or impress anybody, but it would be nice to have more interaction with other archaeologists interested in the same topics. Obviously, the few people who comment on this blog already know who I am. I'm not really keeping my identity secret, especially from other zooarchaeologists, but I do regret that I didn't begin this blog openly. I feel it would be too difficult to change now.

As a final note, I planned to write this post 10 days ago, but I was delayed by the same sorts of life events that make motherhood and academia hard to merge. Pumpkin had minor surgery, and my parents were here for a week to help. Between the surgery, a day at home for Pumpkin, and a volunteer responsibility at Bunny's school, I lost most of last week. This week, Bunny doesn't have school Thursday and Friday, and Pumpkin has been sick at home the last two days. If I'm lucky, he'll be well enough to go to daycare tomorrow, so I'll have one day this week to work. I had a Wenner-Gren grant proposal 80% done on the 7th, and I've barely touched it since. (Hmm, maybe I should be doing that instead of writing this blog.)

the anthropology job market

2011-10-18T12:00:00.001-05:00

It's the academic job market time again! In honor of the season opening, I want to remind you all of the classic "archaeology academic job draft" post by Archaeonumeracy. Now, onto the job market joy!

These two links came across my radar yesterday:

The first article talks about how horrible the anthropology job market is, at least in academia. I'll admit, there are times when I wonder if I made a mistake going into anthropology. I love it, but would I have been just as happy as a paleontologist? Or a wildlife biologist? Would my job prospects have been much better in those fields?

The second article predicts strong growth in the anthropology/archaeology job market, mostly in CRM and government jobs ("government" as in Department of Defense). I've told my students that graduate school in anthropology can be a good choice, but if being a university professor is the only acceptable outcome for them, they need to find another field. On the other hand, even students who are interested in applied fields can have trouble finding the right training, as many graduate programs continue to give short shrift to the practicalities of the job market.

This past week, I sent out my first job applications of the season. I'm being picky about my applications. I already have a job and I can afford to wait until something I really want shows up*. On the other hand, this looks like a (relatively) good year on the job market. I've already seen five jobs I'm willing to apply for, and there will probably be more. Who else is on the job market this year? Are you feeling more optimistic than in previous years?

__________
*I'm still debating whether or not to apply for the job at Stanford, which is clearly the faunal job of the year. Why or why do all the faunal jobs have to be in coastal California where nobody can afford to live?!? Does anybody else wonder if it's worth taking a great job, but in a place where your quality of living would be low?

chicken domestication in China

2011-10-17T09:11:00.003-05:00

8,000 year old chicken bones have been uncovered at the Cishan site, in the northern province of Hebei, China. The archaeologists argue they are domestic fowl because they are somewhat larger than wild jungle fowl, but still smaller than modern chickens.

It's not clear how many chicken bones were recovered. I get the impression that there weren't very many. Given the sample, I don't want to make too much of the find. Still, I was struck by this quote:

Several bone fragments were identified to be from domesticated chickens, said Qiao Dengyun, head of the Handan Municipal Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology...Qiao said the bone fossils date back to 6,000 BC, earlier than the oldest domesticated chicken previously discovered in India that dated back 4,000 years.

"Most of the bones were from cocks, indicating that ancient residents used the practice of killing cocks for their meat and raising hens for their eggs," said Qiao.

If a site was occupied for a long time, then hens should still be found, even if their average life is much longer than that of cocks. If we find a strong sex bias in the chicken remains from many early Neolithic sites, we may want to re-think the original purpose of chicken domestication, or at least of chicken capturing. Sex biases could reflect a variety of cultural processes and values. For example, there is a bias toward male macaws in the Southwest that is thought to represent macaw breeding monopolies in sites to the south (southern traders kept the females and only traded out the males). Perhaps a male bias in chickens suggests they were first kept for fighting purposes, rather than food. Or perhaps they were display/ritual animals, or kept for their feathers, like red-tail hawks (again, in the Southwest.) This could account for the larger size, but not through selection, rather through the focused capture of larger wild males.

Lots of food for thought here. It will be nice to see more data.

taphonomy as art

2011-10-16T21:08:00.002-05:00

Check out this video (made with animated cut paper) of the stages of decay in a whale carcass. Even I, a zooarchaeologist, find it strange that this video is so beautiful.

another Pat Shipman article on people and animals

2011-10-12T12:00:00.000-05:00

I would be remiss if I didn't link to this Guardian article covering Pat Shipman's work on the critical importance of human/animal relationships. Shipman's book, The Animal Connection, is on my Amazon wish-list (it even comes in a Kindle edition! Yipee!) I'll try to review it as soon as, you know, I can afford to buy it.

"a letter to my daughter"

2011-10-11T12:37:00.002-05:00

I came across this nice blog post by a PhD-mom-trailing spouse, nicely illustrating some of the anger and depression and resentment and frustration that can come from academic two-body problems.

talking to little kids about Columbus Day

2011-10-10T12:00:00.001-05:00

My kindergartner came home last week full of exciting tales about Columbus. Needless to say, none of those tales included genocide.

I've only begun the process of talking to my kids about the hard truths behind our national myths. Last year, we tackled Thanksgiving, after Bunny's preschool fed her the whole Pilgrims and Indians story. This year, it's Columbus Day.

Here's what I told Bunny about Columbus. I'm interested in how others have faced this challenge, so please leave a comment!

First, I told Bunny that there were lots of people living in the Americans, and they built great cities, made beautiful art and music, and did all the things that we do today (i.e., made food, spent time with their families, worked, etc.)

Then, I told her that Columbus was sailing a ship from Europe and just happened to reach the Americas. I said that Columbus was a person just like all other people, he had both good traits and bad traits. I told her Columbus did some very good things: he was brave and smart to sail all that way, he tried to trade with the people he met, bringing them things from Europe that they didn't have, and taking thing from the Americas that the Europeans didn't have. (Bunny wanted to know what things. I told her "corn". Dr. Mr. Palimpsest suggested "syphilis", but luckily Bunny didn't pick up on that.)

But, I added, Columbus did some bad things. I told her that Columbus stole things from the people he met. We have talked about slavery before, so I told her that he took some of the people as slaves. Finally, I told her that Columbus and his crew were carrying bad diseases, and they spread these diseases to the people in the Americas, so many, many people died.

This last point took a lot of explaining, and was difficult to keep on a kindergarten level. Bunny wanted to know why the people in the Americas died from the diseases when the Europeans did not (epidemiology on a preschool level, anyone?!) She was also a little scared by this information, so her father and I were very careful to explain that this was a long time ago, and these diseases can now be treated by doctors. She was interested to learn that the shots she's forced to endure are vaccinations to ensure she doesn't get sick like the people Columbus met.

We summed up the whole thing by saying that some people celebrate Columbus Day because Columbus was brave and smart, but not everyone likes to celebrate because of the bad things he did.

How do you handle these issues?

early domestic dogs: brains punctured and fed mammoth

2011-10-09T14:23:00.004-05:00

Check out this story on early domestic dogs. The skulls were punctured, perhaps to release the dogs' spirit, and one of the skulls was found with a mammoth bone in its mouth, perhaps "food for the journey".

I can't get to the original JAS article, so I don't know the date/location of these finds, but they represent 1) another piece of evidence for very early dog domestication (I'm assuming); and 2) another example of the unique relationships we have with other species.

UPDATE: I was able to get to the original article. Here's the citation:
Mietje Germonpré, Martina Lázničková-Galetová, Mikhail V. Sablin, in press, Palaeolithic dog skulls at the Gravettian Předmostí site, the Czech Republic, JAS.

The finds come from the Předmostí site in the Czech Republic, and date to 26-27,000 y BP. What I find interesting about this assemblage is the high number of canid remains, some of which are identified as dog, and others identified as wolf. The authors mention over 1000 mammoths (MNI), and over 4000 canid specimens (NISP), for a MNI of over 100. Since carnivores are not usually such a high percentage of archaeological assemblages, I would be predisposed to consider the site a wolf den. Unfortunately, the skulls come from early excavations that were not well documented, and therefore the context of the skulls identified as dogs, not wolves, are unclear.

bringing our whole selves to our careers

2011-10-08T15:07:00.001-05:00

In my last post, I directed you toward Kate Clancy's blog, and her post "Three things I learned at the Purdue Conference for Pre-Tenure Women: On being a radical scholar".

I was particularly struck by this:

Dr. Turner encouraged us to push against a job that forces us to “constantly abstract ourselves,” that we should bring our whole selves to the table because of what we offer but also because it makes us whole.

How many of us publicly admit the side of us that yearns for more childcare, but not also the side of us that yearns to turn off our computers and snuggle our kids for an afternoon? How many academics hide who they love, or what they love, for fear of not fitting in or not seeming serious?

...

So no more. I’m bringing everything that I am to my job. This isn’t just about loving my kid, or being an athlete, or writing a blog, though it’s a start to fully embrace these things. This is about wanting to push the boundaries of how anthropologists and doctors think about female reproductive physiology. This is about the intersection of feminism and evolutionary biology. And this means that I need to more explicitly make this passion my primary scholarly interest.

Two thoughts:

1) Even here, at Tiny U, where my research expectations are low, I hide the degree to which my family comes first. My colleagues don't realize how much time I spend with my kids, or that I want a larger family. Yes, you read that right: I have two kids, but I still want another one! This is such academic heresy that I'm afraid to tell most of my colleagues, especially as I near my tenure deadline. And yet, should this truly be something I hide? All I'm really saying is that I, like the average American woman, want more than two kids. We all know successful academic men with more than two kids, why should it be shameful for a woman to want three?

2) Unlike Clancy, issues of reproduction are not my primary scholarly interest. But that shouldn't stop me from integrating my career and my motherhood/wifehood/womanhood. I teach the biological anthropology classes at Tiny U - how often do I bring up issues of reproduction? When I teach intro to cultural, do I bring up issues of women's labor and gender roles as they relate to children? I have advocated for families when I serve on university committees, why not focus my mandatory service requirements on family issues?

More on this later, particularly on Clancy's contention that we should become "radical scholars".

article on tenure for women and mothers

2011-10-07T10:27:00.002-05:00

Academic women, mothers, advocates for women and mothers: Read This.

Enough said.

9kyo domestic horse?

2011-10-03T14:28:00.000-05:00

Better late than never: This BBC article highlights claims of 9k year old domestic horses in Saudi Arabia.

When I teach about animal domestication, I make a distinction between different types of domesticates:

commensals: These are mice and pigeons, but also pigs, guinea pigs, cats, and other, more acceptable, animal companions. These animals are domesticated largely through their attraction to human-created environments.

herd animals: sheep, goats, cattle, etc. These animals were domesticated from hunted populations, largely through substituting humans for the leadership positions within the herd structure. The original purpose of domestication was for the primary products (meat, blood), but secondary products (wool, milk, traction) could become important later.

transport animals: elephants, horses, llamas, camels, etc. These animals are often difficult domesticates, in that their social structure isn't as easily dominated by humans, or they cannot be allowed to stay in their normal wild social organization, because the males will fight, etc.

I usually tell my students that most transport animals were domesticated far later than the other kinds of domesticates, because they are more difficult to control, and because the domestication of animals for their secondary products alone (transportation, traction) is seen as unlikely before fully domestic economies had already formed.

This article on early horse domestication suggests that horses were originally domesticated for the meat, not the transport. If that's the case, it's not as surprising to find horses were domesticated just as early as sheep, goats, and cattle. Horses fill a different ecological niche than those other herd animals, and may have been a useful way to exploit some parts of the desert environment.

lessons from cave art: kids are part of the family, too

2011-10-01T13:04:00.001-05:00

There's an interesting article in the Guardian about the participation of young children in creating cave art.

The article is a wonderful example of the archaeology of childhood and children. We often claim children are invisible in the archaeological record, but of course that isn't true. I think we overlook the significance of indirect evidence for children, but here is some very direct evidence.

I'll admit, though, that when I read the article, I wondered if the journalist or the archaeologists were parents. Some of the statements were a bit odd, as if the authors were surprised to find that children were a part of their family's day-to-day lifestyle.

The research shows us that children were everywhere, even in the deepest, darkest, caves, furthest from the entrance. They were so involved in the art you really begin to question how heavily they were involved in everyday life.

"To be honest, I think there were probably very few restrictions on what children were allowed to do, and where they were allowed to go, and who they were allowed to go with.

"The art shows us this is not an activity where children were running amok. It shows collaboration between children and adults, and adults encouraging children to make these marks. This was a communal activity."

I'm not sure why this would be a surprise. What else would kids do while the parents made art/made dinner/cleaned the cave/gathered food/etc? Do we expect all families, past and present, to have the same kind of disconnect we do in the industrial world, where children are sent to daycare/school, while their parents pursue separate adult lives? If you've ever tried to take on any task with young children in the house (you know, like making a snack, or peeing?), you know that young kids want to be with you all the time. My five-year old daughter wouldn't, and couldn't, be left behind on the talus slope while I wandered into the deepest chambers to mold some clay.

Industrial societies tend to separate work from family, religion from daily life, children from adults. Most of us segregate children in schools while we work, keep them in church daycare while we worship, and consider art a subject in school, or the focus of a nursery project, not an integrated aspect of family life. But our attitudes are not descriptive of the majority of people, past and present, and we should be aware of that.

Another quote that caught my attention:

The majority of the drawings are flutings covering the walls and roofs of the many galleries and passages in the complex. One chamber is so rich in flutings by children it is believed to be an area set aside for them. The marks of four children, estimated to be aged between two and seven, have been identified there.

"It suggests it was a special place for children. Adults were there, but the vast majority of artwork is by children," said Jess Cooney, a PhD student at the university's archaeology department."It's speculation, but I think in this particular chamber children were encouraged to make more art than adults. It could have been a playroom where the children gathered or a room for practice where they were encouraged to make these marks in order that they could grow into artists and make the beautiful paintings and engravings we find throughout the cave, and throughout France and Spain. Or it could have been a room used for a ritual for particular children, perhaps an initiation of sorts."

This is very interesting. Yes, it could be a specific ritual place for children. At the same time, it could just be a place where people hung out. (There's no information in this short article about where this chamber is relative to the outside, or what evidence it produced for daily living.) By the end of the day, my children's imprint on our house is certainly far more visible than that of the adults. That's why we have an evening clean-up session, and I keep the permanent markers out of little hands. I'll be interested in learning more about the context of this chamber, and what makes the archaeologists believe it is a ritual area.

AAUP statement on partner accommodation

2011-09-30T12:57:00.002-05:00

I saw a link to this interesting AAUP statement on partner accommodation (aka spousal hire). As I've mentioned before, this is a topic near and dear to my heart. There's a lot of good stuff in there, but not much new. I was particularly struck by this statement:

Such policies should be developed by appropriate faculty bodies or committees, not by the administration in the absence of meaningful faculty participation. The process for developing such procedures is arguably as important as the procedures themselves, and must take into account local conditions and institutional particularities.

I served on a committee that was charged with discussing appropriate partner accommodation policies. The fundamental problem we faced is the same problem faced by most faculty governance: we don't control the damn money. No matter how much the faculty support spousal hires, no matter how much we need them for faculty recruitment and retention, if the administration isn't willing to pony up the money, then what's the point of the policy?

muskrat...er, guinea pig love

2011-09-21T20:38:00.003-05:00

From the annals of interesting human/non-human animal relations, here's a unique way in which people are interacting with pets: as match-makers for grieving and lonely rodents.

Seriously, I couldn't make this stuff up.

It turns out that Switzerland has a law requiring guinea pig owners to keep more than one guinea pig, since these are social creatures and shouldn't be lonely. When one animal dies, however, some owners don't want to replace it with a younger animal, lest they be trapped in a never-ending spiral of rodent replacement. So, they "rent" guinea pigs from a woman who loans them out for that purpose.

No, really.

automatic tenure clock stoppage: family friendly?

2011-09-16T12:41:00.000-05:00

Tiny U just implemented a policy that automatically stops your tenure clock when you have a child. The policy applies equally to men and women, and to "natural" and adopted children.

In general, I support such policies and find them family friendly. But they make more sense at a research-heavy institution, where the "publish or perish" culture is stronger. Here, if one manages to teach one's classes, and maybe get a small article out in the year after your baby is born, you've done enough, and your tenure case won't be hurt (assuming is was strong before.)

I was asked by our Sainted Department Chair to stop my tenure clock when my son was born. She didn't think I needed to do so from a professional perspective, but no social scientist at Tiny U had ever stopped their tenure clock to have a child. She wanted someone to break the barrier, and she preferred it be someone whose tenure case was very strong. I ended up not doing so because I want to go up for early tenure.

And that's my problem with the policy. The only way to get a raise around here is to get promoted, since we've had frozen or cut wages almost every year since I arrived. Therefore, I would like to go up for tenure one year early (next year). I will have to petition the dean and department to allow me to shave one year off my required service period. I have reason to believe the department will grant my petition, but some people do have a negative reaction to junior faculty who ask for promotion when they don't seem to have "done their time."

If the new policy had been in effect two years ago, and my clock had been automatically stopped when my son was born, I would now have to petition to have two years (in effect) taken off of my required service. Hopefully, the faculty would understand that one of those years wasn't a "real" year off. Six weeks of maternity leave does not equal a year off of teaching! But it still could be a problem/annoyance to some young faculty members who are hoping to go up for tenure early.

modernity and fish

2011-09-15T10:42:00.003-05:00

An interesting article on the use of shellfish by Neandertals, this time 150kya in Spain. It's not too surprising, since Neandertals used shellfish there, and in other parts of the Mediterranean, in later periods, but this puts Neandertal use of shellfish almost as far back as the Pinnacle Peak finds in South Africa.

This brings up the issue of fishing and shellfishing as signs of modernity, as well as issues of diet breadth among premodern peoples. I'm not surprised to find Neandertals had the behavioral plasticity to use marine resources. I've always assumed that the use of fish, shellfish, and small game is a reflection of environmental/economic/demographic circumstances, rather than of inherent ability. Perhaps this find will strengthen that interpretation.

YouTube's Hohokam Archaeology Channel

2011-09-06T13:15:00.002-05:00

YouTube has a new Hohokam Archaeology channel. It's mostly peopled with silver-backs right now, but I hope to see more diversity soon. Sure, most Hohokam archaeologists are older white men, but we could include a few older white women, too, right? Maybe even branch out into younger scholars? I also hope to see some diversity of topics (not just generalist/ceramicist archaeology, but also fauna, p-bot, lithics sourcing, stable isotope analysis, etc.) I assume production costs are relatively low, so this would be a nice opportunity to integrate some of the diversity of approaches and people that work in the region.

undergraduate research: the basics

2011-08-30T22:22:00.000-05:00

Many institutions - with or without graduate programs - value undergraduate research opportunities. Faculty may be under pressure to provide such opportunities, or may wish to take advantage of funding for undergraduate research to further their own research agenda. My personal experience is that undergraduate research is usually more valuable to the student (as a means of deepening their education, preparing them for grad school, etc.) than it is to the professor (in terms of providing material aid in their research). In fact, providing research opportunities for undergraduates can take a great deal of a professor's time and energy, for very little "pay off" in terms of substantive contributions to the research.

I take it as a given that we all wish to improve our students' education by giving them opportunities for independent and/or supervised research. But how do we make these undergraduate research opportunities work for us, and not against us, when it comes to our research productivity? I don't pretend to have all the answers, but my current research involves several undergraduates, so I've planned a series of posts on how to approach the issue. This first post will focus on the different ways one can structure undergraduate research opportunities, and the pluses and pitfalls of each.

1) Have some class. One of my undergraduate minions is working on my research through an independent study. Essentially, we created a class where much of the work is hands-on research. Tiny U requires that all independent studies have a written contract, which spells out in detail what is required of the student. Because this is an academic class, the contract must include readings, tests/papers or other evaluation techniques, learning outcomes, etc. If your university doesn't require such a contract, I highly recommend you create one, just to avoid confusion and misunderstandings.

The pluses of this approach lie in the academic requirements of the class. My student is not only working with data, she will be required to read about the archaeology of the region, and basic zooarchaeology. She will have a much better understanding of what we are doing, and why, than students who come to the research through a different channel. Additionally, the class structure requires a research paper, and I have outlined a series of small research projects that are the right length and difficulty for a single-semester paper. My student may choose to do something else, but if she chooses one of the projects outlined, I will get part of my research project written up through her classwork. If she does a good job, I can co-author a paper with her. If she does a lousy job and I have to totally re-do the work, at least she's found some of the essential references for me and summarized the data.

The major pitfall of the independent study is that it takes some work on my part. I need to provide her with the readings, make sure she's making progress on her research paper, and generally spend some portion of the time I would have to spend were this a normal classroom course. It's easy to fall behind on discussions of the readings, or in evaluating outlines of the research project, with the result that the class is not as academically engaging as it should be.

2) Be Practical. Many universities, including Tiny U, offer credits of "research practicum". Other universities may use a different name, but basically the student signs up for 1-4 credits or practicum, and they spend that time doing whatever tasks you assign them, as long as it is related to your research. There is no expectation that this represents an academic class, so it is not required that the professor and student have a contract, required readings, or evaluation opportunities.

The pros of this approach: 1) It's easier and more approachable for the student; they don't have to commit to a major research paper or readings. 2) It's easier for the professor. Obviously, the more background and context you give your minions, the better job they can do, but the research practicum is less work to set up and maintain than an independent study. 3) It's a good way to "try out" a new minion, to see if he/she will make a good long-term part of your research team, and to ease him/her into a more active role. One of my students this semester is taking this route, and I hope to continue working with her in the future, perhaps moving her into a directed study.

The pitfalls of this approach: The only real pitfall is that you can't require your minions to do background reading, and whether or not they will engage in a semi-independent research project depends on individual negotiations with that student.

3) Work 'em hard. Federal or university work-study money can pay for undergraduate research assistants. At Tiny U, we can only use federal work study, since we have no money of our own. RAs are paid at a much higher rate than TAs here at Tiny U, but the total amount of money they are able to make over the course of the semester is the same. In other words, RAs who work the same number of hours as TAs during the week will not be able to work the whole semester.

The pros of this approach are similar to those of the research practicum, with the added benefit of supporting a student in need of extra income. Unlike many of the jobs students use to support themselves, this job will enrich their education and experience.

The major pitfall at Tiny U is the limited number of students who are both work-study eligible and qualified and interested. I have one student working for me through the federal work-study program, and she is the least qualified and least engaged of my minions. But, they are all exceptionally bright young women, so that's not saying much.

4) Road trip! This summer, I took two students to Old Graduate Town to work in the museum with me. One of the students signed up for an independent study, while the other came just for the experience. I paid for their expenses while they were working with me, but they had to pay their own way to the museum.

pros: the students were thrilled to be in a cool, new city, with opportunities to explore in the evening and on weekends. They were enthusiastic about the work, and they were at my disposal, day in day out, for weeks. They did a lot of the data entry and metrics, while I identified the bones. If you have a project with a chunk of "grunt work", having a student with you in the lab can greatly contribute to your productivity. This summer was the only experience I've had with undergraduate research where the benefits to my productivity greatly outweighed the costs.

pitfalls: depending on what you're doing, students may not learn very much from the experience. My students this summer learned their bones very well, and probably have van den Dreisch memorized (poor things), but they didn't learn how to identify the different species, and they didn't get as much background on the reasons for the project as I would have hoped.

5) Seminar. I've never done this, but I know people organized entire seminars around their research. They use student projects (annotated bibliographies, class papers, etc.) to cut down on their own workload. This isn't possible at Tiny U, where we only teach three archaeology classes. Even a topic as general as "zooarchaeology" is too specific to attract sufficient students. But, depending on your institution, there may be ways to make this work.

pros: Like I said, I've never done it, but I imagine the pros are the same as those for an independent study.

pitfalls: Prepping a new class, teaching, and grading is a huge amount of work. On the other hand, if you were going to have to prep, teach, and grade that number of credits, anyway, then you're robbing your teaching time to pay for your research. Sweet.

Next post: the care and feeding of your minions.

landscape politics

2011-08-25T13:48:00.002-05:00

If you, like me, are an avid fan of Ta-Nehisi Coates, you've probably followed his on-going debate with Matt Yglesias on whether or not the Civil War was "tragic". To summarize a complex and nuanced argument in one sentence, Coates argues the Civil War was not tragic because it is the last, blood-soaked, but ultimately triumphant chapter of a book that had been tragic up to that point: the story of African-American slavery in the U.S.

Coates' recent post features a quote from Mark Twain making a related point about the French Revolution (a.k.a "The Terror"). In his view, the real terror was the way the common people lived under the yoke of the aristocracy. Why should we mourn the vanished power of the usual reign, indeed?

As an archaeologist of landscapes, what struck me were Coates' ending lines:

This really sums up the dilemma for me. For the Civil War we have official cemeteries where presidents lay flowers. For our Long War we have nameless burial sites which people who want to build office parks routinely stumble over. For our Long War we have the Atlantic Ocean.

I've written before about the importance of archaeological landscapes to contemporary people, a well as the importance of protecting sacred places to African-American communities. Coates' article brings into stark relief how significant our choices of landscape and site preservation can be to our presentation and interpretation of our national history, and our commemoration of what is important to our national, community, and individual identities.

Cemeteries without markers and the Long Passage are neither impossible to commemorate, nor to popularize. Cathedrals can be built over the resting places of nameless martyrs. Tombs of the unknown can take pride of place in the national cemetery. The anonymity of the slaves is not the problem, the problem lies in their invisibility to most white Americans. As archaeologists, more of us need to prioritize the creation of archaeological landscapes that make every community's past visible, in all of its terrible beauty.

toucans can be trademarked?

2011-08-24T12:55:00.005-05:00

Kellogg is suing the Maya Archaeology Initiative because they use a toucan in their logo, and this might be confusing to children who associate toucans with Fruit Loops cereal.

In my Environmental Anthropology class, we spend a fair amount of time talking about bioprospecting, and the patent laws as applied to naturally occurring phenomenon (like human genomes, and "wild" plants). This strikes me as a similar problem. The toucans in question don't look much alike, so Kellogg wants a trademark on all toucans.

druid repatriation case revisited

2011-08-23T10:36:00.002-05:00

I blogged before about British druids suing for the quick reburial of remains found at Stonehenge. A new BBC story covers the end of that trial. The court found for the Ministry of Justice, which had allowed the archaeologists extra time to study the remains.

i'm back

2011-08-21T21:31:00.003-05:00

Dr. Mr. Palimpsest and I are back from "vacation", if that is the correct term for a week spent driving two fussy kids across the country. I had a great summer, and filled three notebooks with data. Our house needs some work over the next week or so, but once everything is more or less settled, I'll be back to blogging on my regular semester schedule.

I hope you all had a good summer!

repatriation of faunal remains

2011-08-11T22:44:00.002-05:00

I have a friend who works in the Hohokam area of southern Arizona. She is the faunal analyst with a long-term project whose PI recently made a deal with the local tribal representatives to repatriate all dog burials. My friend was concerned about this, as it prevents her from doing DNA studies, and future zooarchaeologists will not be able to re-study the remains as methods advance.

As I've mentioned before, I have very strong views about NAGPRA and repatriation. But I'm concerned about the repatriation of non-funereal faunal remains, and not because the world may lose critical information about dead dogs.

The argument for repatriating dog remains stems from their ritual disposal, and the meaning the animals held for those who buried them. But fauna is an underappreciated source of information about the ritual, emotional, and social lives of past people. For example, dogs are not the only animal burials found in the Hohokam area. Raptors, particularly red-tailed hawks, and wild carnivores are also found at many sites. There are also deposits of what appear to be ritual paraphernalia made of animal parts, such as deer antlers that were part of headdresses.

Taking a step back from clearly ritualized deposits, animals that were eaten also played a critical role in ancient rituals and belief systems. In Hohokam sites, it is quite common to find that the vast majority of ungulate remains come from only one or two features, frequently on platform mounds or in plazas. Their unusual distribution suggests they were part of communal feasts and rites, rather than obtained and consumed by individual households.

Taking another step back, we need to recognize that food is intimately tied into all belief systems. The meaning of a particular type of food can depend on who is eating it, when, and where. We can think of many examples within our own cultural context. How much meaning is tied up in the simple line, "A jug of wine, a loaf of bread, and thou"? And yet, that same wine and bread, when consumed in the context of the Catholic mass, has a vastly different, if just as profound, meaning.

What constitutes the sacred in "our daily bread"? Most of us would recognize that eucharistic bread has a legitimate claim for respect, even if we don't believe it to be the body of Christ. Out of respect for other people's beliefs, we would refrain from treating eucharistic bread as if it were trash. (OK, with the notable exception of PZ Myers.) But the Wonderbread on a sandwich is not worthy of special treatment. Or is it? Surely, if one is part of a belief system that sees some bread as sacred, then even Wonderbread has that potential, or at least is linked in one's mind with that which is sacred. Bread takes on a special meaning, one that equates bread with all of the food we eat, as a stand-in for all the bounty gained through the blessings of God.

My point is not that Wonderbread should be repatriated (or dogs, or ungulates), but that all food, and animals in general, are intimately wound into belief systems. To determine which animal remains should be repatriated on the basis of their close emotional or social ties to ancient peoples would require drawing an arbitrary line. I feel the tribal representatives should be the ones to draw that line. But using the arguments that were made to justify the repatriation of dogs, one could extend repatriation to a large number of faunal remains, and to many other artifacts, as well.

wild mustangs and the fallacy of environmental baselines

2011-08-10T21:19:00.000-05:00

The always fascinating Sociological Images has an article about wild mustangs that reminds me of some on-going debates between environmental archaeologists and environmental policy makers. Early conservation in the U.S. was all about protecting so-called "virgin" landscapes, or, alternatively, restoring non-virgin (promiscuous?) landscapes by keeping exotic plants/animals out, or reintroducing plants/animals that had gone extinct.

There is nothing inherently wrong with excluding exotics, or reintroducing native species. But these decisions are too often made through a baseline perspective on landscapes. That is, a perspective that assumes all landscapes have a single "natural" baseline state. In this view, human activity disrupts the "natural", and it must be restored by returning the plants and animals to the original baseline.

We now know that the landscape of North America wasn't "virgin" at the time of European contact. (Loewen's line in Lies my Teacher Told Me is something like "it wasn't virgin, it was recently widowed.") Declaring any time period after the initial peopling of the Americas to be the environmental baseline would be arbitrary. Such thinking also ignores the human/environment dialectic, even though people are part of the ecosystem and we play our own part in creating and maintaining it.

Baseline views of landscapes are also misleading and fail to meet our environmental policy needs. Asking what the "baseline" environment should be is like asking which molecules of water are in a river. One could flash-freeze a river and measure each individual water molecule, but the dynamic and flow of the moving water is far more important for understanding how the river functions. So, when conservationists or wildlife managers make policy decisions that lead to some animals or plants being introduced or removed from particular landscapes, sometimes they're making the best decision for the health of the ecosystem, and sometimes they are not. But often their stated purpose is, to extend the metaphor, to restore the exact molecules of water that once flowed in the river, rather than to ensure that the river's overall dynamics are healthy.

Which brings us back to the feral mustangs of the West. There are plenty of arguments for getting rid of the mustangs from a "baseline" landscape perspective. After all, they are exotic animals, introduced originally by the Spanish. There are also arguments for keeping them. Social/cultural factors are influencing our policy decisions. Unlike many exotic species, such as zebra mussels or emerald ash borers, mustangs are charasmatic megafauna: easy to love, and to build a PR campaign around. The mustangs are a tourist attraction, and a symbol of the West. Their relationships with humans, symbolic or physical, are critical to understanding our current policies toward the species.

From an historical ecology perspective, the arguments surrounding wild mustangs are complex. The horse is an exotic animal, but at the same time it is native. Horses were part of the North American landscape during the Pleistocene, and were only extinct in the West for some 10,000 years, a blink of the eye, evolutionarily speaking. The Western grasslands coevolved with ruminant species, many of which are now extinct, but their Old World cousins, in the form of domestic horses and cattle, are filling in the ecological niches those ruminants once filled. Horses became a critical part of the cultural landscape, as well, fulfilling many different social, ritual, and economic roles for many different cultural groups.

The question is not whether exotic species belong on the Western plains, or to what "baseline" environment we should restore our "wild" places. The questions are: are the grasslands healthy? What constitutes health? What policies (for fire, hunting, provisioning of mustangs, reintroduction of wolves, etc.) will ensure a healthy, dynamic, resilient ecosystem, despite, and because of, the constant changes that have occurred in North American environments over the last 500 years?

unexpected benefits of standing up

2011-08-09T13:00:00.000-05:00

Via: Medical Billing And Coding

Have you seen this public service announcement about the dangers of sitting at work all day? This summer, while doing lab work, I've tried to stand for at least 4 hours of my workday. It turns out to have some unexpected benefits:

1) I work faster. I'm working in a lab with a wonderful comparative collection, but if I'm sitting down, then I constantly have to jump up and run to the correct drawer. I'm faster standing in the middle of the room, with my work on a box on top of a table, and just taking a step to one side or the other when I need a particular skeleton.

2) If I need a drink/walk/stretch in order to regain my concentration back, I don't have to fight inertia. I find that I can only do a few hours of lab work before my eyes start to cross. If I take a short break, walk outside, get a drink, then I am ready to start again, fresh. But, if I'm sitting with my work around me, I find it hard to get motivated to stand up and walk out of the room, even though I know it will make me feel better. When I'm already standing, I can do a little stretching, walk around the room, and find it easier to concentrate.

3) It's far easier to supervise students/volunteers if you're lurking over their shoulder - even while working - than when you're sitting at a different table in the same room.

4) I feel like I've earned my lunch. Desert? Sure, why not?

bison=tires, who knew?

2011-08-08T10:51:00.003-05:00

There's an interesting story out of the University of Arizona about the use of old tires to simulate bison at jump sites. Actually, I remain unconvinced that tires are a very good stand-in for bison, but I'm not sure it matters. What's more interesting about the story is the work being done on fire history in the region, and how fires to drive bison and to clean the hunting site may have impacted the local environment. I'll be looking forward to the publications.

13th Southwest Symposium

2011-08-05T23:59:00.003-05:00

The theme of the 13th Southwest Symposium (University of New Mexico, January 14-15, 2012), is "Demography, Movement, and Historical Ecology". The Historical Ecology session, in particular, sounds fascinating (of course). I'd love to go, but will have to see what my travel funds look like for the year.

commensals in the making

2011-08-05T12:40:00.003-05:00

An interesting story about hyraxes and their invasion of villages in the Galilee. They have become major garden pests, but it turns out they aren't attracted to the gardens, per se, but to the piles of boulders that are left over from excavating house foundations. Those boulders create underground caverns similar to those the hyraxes inhabit in the rocky cliffs.

I'm surprised this issue didn't come up before. Natufian pithouses probably created boulder piles, too. But perhaps those boulders were incorporated into the homes, and therefore weren't as likely to attract these animals. On the other hand, I did document a significant increase in hyrax remains in the latest, and most intensive, period of occupation at at PPNB site in the Jordanian desert. I argued that small game was part of a risk-management strategy, but perhaps it was commensalism all along.

are we meant for a savanna landscape?

2011-08-04T12:00:00.000-05:00

An article in this week's Nature, by Cerling et al., discusses the use of chemical isotopes in soil to to determine a 'paleo-shade' measure for ancient environments. They suggest that the early hominin sites were primarily in savanna environments (defined as having less than 40% tree cover). This has some interesting implications for landscape use among early hominins.

I can't get access to the actual article, so I'm relying on this NSF summary. The summary raises two questions that I hope will be answered in the article:

1) Are there changes through time in the landscapes where we find hominin remains? Other indicators of local environments (microfauna, paleobotanical remains, etc.) suggest that many of the earliest fossil sites were in forested environments. Does this analysis suggest otherwise? What accounts for the discrepancy?

2) Is the concentration of hominin remains in savanna environments a reflection of landscape use, or do we have a taphonomic problem? Tropical forest environments are among the least likely environments to produce fossils, due to the rapid decay of organic material. How do we know hominins weren't using the forest, but in death only found in less humid environments? Will future alien archaeologists say of us "They lived in open or lightly wooded meadows, in long rows of boxes, buried six feet deep."?

doggies of Siberia

2011-08-03T23:33:00.003-05:00

This PLoS ONE publication by Ovodov et al. discusses a 33kya domestic dog from the site of Razboinichya Cave in Siberia. The evidence is pretty strong that the individual represents an early domesticate. The analyses included length of the snout, teeth crowding, tooth size, and various cranial metrics.

I'm not terribly surprised to see an early domestic dog in Siberia. We've long had evidence that dogs were domesticated in east and central Asia from at least 20kya. What I find interesting is the authors' acknowledgement that dog domestication in pre-Late Glacial Maximum contexts is controversial. There has been a tendency for archaeologists in general, and zooarchaeologists in particular, to ignore the evidence for early domestication in eastern Asia and to focus on the evidence for dog domestication in the Middle East, although that is much, much later. Why?

1- More English-speaking and/or Western archaeologists work in southwest Asian than in eastern Asia. Therefore, the literature on Middle Eastern domestication is more available in the West. Also, I do believe there is a tendency by some archaeologists to trust the literature produced by Western archaeologists more than the literature produced by non-Western archaeologists. These biases are blinding, and the lack of a common language is limiting.

2- A 12kyo Middle Eastern origin for dogs fits better with the narrative many textbooks and Intro to Archaeology professors are selling to their students. This narrative tends to be smoothly progressive (unlike the reality of dog domestication, which the Ovodov article suggests took place 33kya in Siberia, and then was abandoned, only to be taken up again much later.) The narrative also tends to be heavily focused on the Middle East as the cradle of domestication and "civilization", which in these texts is synonymous with Western civilization, regardless of the data. (This can lead to massive confusion among undergrads. I used a textbook for Intro to Archaeology that presented a standard narrative about southwest Asia as the earliest center of domestication, but in a table gave dates for domestication in East Asia that were earlier than those for southwest Asia. My students had no idea what to believe. I explained the "Middle East First" narrative was traditional. Like including a section about Lamark in a biology textbook.)

3- Even within zooarchaeology, only specialists in domestication spend much time thinking about the different ways that animals can be domesticated. We focus too much on the "neolithic package", the whole suite of interrelated plants and animals from a particular region. We do see developments of "neolithic packages" in some parts of the world. The Middle East is a good example, as is the Andean region. But dogs aren't part of that neolithic package. Their relationship to humans is significantly different from that of goats or llamas. The concept of the "neolithic package" can be useful if you're interested in the development of particular types of herding/farming economies, and the spread of those economies into new regions. But we shouldn't expect all plants and animals to be part of a package. Animals were domesticated for food, transportation, companionship, trash disposal, and reasons of commensality, among others. I hope the doggies of Siberia will help move us toward a more nuanced view of domestication, and a recognition of its spatial dispersion in its earliest stages.

Reference:
Ovodov, Nikolai, et al.
2011 A 33,000-Year-Old Incipient Dog from the Altai Mountains of Siberia: Evidence of the Earliest Domestication Disrupted by the Last Glacial Maximum. PLoS ONE

balance pt. 11: summer

2011-08-02T23:10:00.002-05:00

Many of my Tiny U colleagues complain bitterly that they are only paid for 9 months of the year, yet they are required to do research in the summer. This is not a complaint I share. In my mind, a summer to do research is a perk of an academic job. Plus, I may be one of the lowest-paid faculty members at one of the lowest-paying universities in the lowest-paying region of the country, but my salary is still pretty damn good, whether you consider it to represent 9 months or 12 months. Sure beats McDonalds.

That said, summer is a time when everyone needs to find some balance, parents in particular. Our wonderful daycare provider takes every Friday off during the summer. (All of her families are teachers, so she knows we can handle this.) She's very wise. The "family Friday" ensures a slower pace, and more together time, when it can be too easy to forget that you're on "vacation".

This summer, I'm in Old Graduate School Town, so I'm not using that daycare provider. I do have the kids in daycare all week, but I've made an absolute commitment to cut my workday short and pick the kids up in the mid-afternoon. I've cut back on all non-essential professional activities (like this blog). I refuse to think about class preparation. I've given myself some time for leisure and relaxation. It's helped that I have great friends here in Old Graduate School Town, and it's been wonderful to revisit all my old haunts and explore the area through my children's eyes. It also helps that I'm doing museum work this summer. Fieldwork is a whole 'nuther kettle of fish, and probably a good topic for its own post. (That post will be entitled: "fieldwork with kids: or how I learned to stop worrying and love white rooms with rubber walls.")

I won't lie. If I were here alone, I would probably get a lot more data collected. But I'd also be a lot more stressed out and unhappy. Sometimes, children give you the push you need to find balance in your life. Non-parents may have different needs, but we all have jobs that are vocations. We don't leave them behind at 5pm. They pervade our thoughts, invade our weekends and evenings, and permeate all aspects of our lives. Usually, that's because we love what we do.* But we all need to find some time to let go, slow down, and enjoy the summer.

What do you do to crate balance in the summer?

_____
*Yes, I am fully aware that an archaeologist's all-pervading love of dead things is less than attractive to normal members of society. But identifying the bones in one's Thanksgiving turkey is not a busman's holiday, it's a joy.

an anthropologist gets a lesson from fiction writers

2011-07-03T12:24:00.002-05:00

I've enjoyed reading Patricia Wrede's blog about writing. Yes, she's talking about fiction writing, but some of her posts (how to keep organized, get over periods of ennui, etc.) can be useful to academic writers, as well. Her most recent post was one that shook me out of my complacency. She talks about people who write multiple manuscripts at once, particularly those of us (*cough* myself *cough*) who have a tendency to start in on fun, new projects, reach the first major hurdle, get bogged down, and decide to start something new. After all, we tell ourselves, as long as we're writing something, we're being productive, right? The problem is, we end up with more abandoned manuscripts than finished ones. Serious problem.

Wrede doesn't offer a solution, other than "cut it out!", but that's pretty much the advice I needed.

an anthropologist explains descent to fiction writers

2011-07-02T09:59:00.003-05:00

I've been reading a lot of young-adult fiction this summer, looking for things to read to Bunny at bedtime, and also scoping out her options for books with positive social messages (gender roles, diversity, etc.) when she is old enough to read herself. Ancestry, and the talents/privileges/burdens that come with ancestry, are frequently a theme in these books. Fantasy is particular prone to this - all those poor orphan boys with their hidden destiny to take their "rightful" place on their great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather's throne.

The last two books I've read happen to fall into this category. Rick Riordan's The Kane Chronicles, follows two young siblings who are the most powerful magicians born in millenia, because they are born from two separate lines of Egyptian pharaohs; their father was a descendant of Narmur, while their mother was a descendant of Ramses the Great. They've inherited their predecessors' magical powers, and hey! the boy even looks like the portrait of Narmur on the famous palette!

Now, let's see, Narmur lived about 5,000 years ago, which is about 250 human generations. If none of their ancestors married other descendants of Narmur (more on that later), then Narmur contributed about 1/1.8x10^77 of the child's genome. Wow, them's some powerful genes!*

My second case in point can also be attributed to Mr. Riordan. Scholastic printed ten books in the 39 Clues series, all written by different authors, but Riordan was the author of the first book, and created the overall story arc. In this series, two young siblings are members of a powerful family that have contributed most of the important historical personages of the last 500 years. There are four branches of the family, from four original siblings, and the branches have distinct talents and personalities. Descendants of Jane, for example, are artistic geniuses (Mozart, Charlie Chaplin, etc.), while descendants of Luke are brilliant strategists (Napoleon, etc.).

Ignoring the improbability of a deep, yet meaningful, family connection between such diverse people as Benjamin Franklin and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, let's think about the logic of four separate branches of the family lasting 500 years. Around 25 human generations have passed in those 500 years. A person living today would have around 2^25 ancestors that were alive 500 years ago, or 33,554,432 people. The current world population is estimated at 6.9 billion. So, if everyone alive today had separate ancestors, there would have had to have been 2.3x10^25 people 500 years ago. Obviously, that's not the case. Estimates put world population 500 years ago at only 500 million. So any two people likely share a large percentage of their ancestry, whether they know it or not. This is particularly true for people of European descent, as is (of course!) the fictional family. Today, the population of Latin America, North America, Europe, and Australia is largely European, but Europe had a population of only 50 million or so in 1500. In other words, even if you accept the idea that each sibling of a certain family had personality traits and talents that they passed on to all of their descendants, those descendants would be so heavily mixed by now that every descendant of one sibling is probably a descendant of them all.

You know how every U.S. president is eventually found to have a European king in his background? That's not because kings' distant offspring are more likely to be presidents (although they might, for various reproductive and economic reasons), but rather because everyone likely has a king in their background. Almost all Europeans are probably related to Charlemagne. There just aren't enough medieval Europeans to account for our ancestry, otherwise.
_____
*That number is not realistic for a variety of reasons, but you get my point.

5 things I love about summer

2011-06-27T00:03:00.003-05:00

1 - Research time!
It's like being back in grad school, without the stress and grinding poverty. Love it!

2 - Fresh fruit
I've kept a bowl filled with cut-up melons, strawberries, pineapple, berries, etc. I just pull it out with every meal. So good, and I can convince myself it's healthy.

3 - Flowers
I've been stopping at Trader Joe's every 10 days or so to buy a $4 bouquet of whatever's pretty. (Oh, and the frozen chicken taquitos which my kids think rock the world. Nice quick dinner, when needed.)

4 - Time to think
It's not just that I can get more research done, it's that the lack of teaching and service means I'm not constantly interrupted or asked to do "just one little thing". You know, those "little things" that combine to cut up your whole day into tiny shreds of time during which nothing can get done? I find I'm actually making it to the end of my to-do list, and I'm not distracted or derailed by the need to answer "critical" e-mails or deal with a student crisis!

5 - Sunshine
Sometimes I wonder if I have a SADs problem. Life is just better with sunshine.

highland horse burial

2011-06-04T23:34:00.003-05:00

Another interesting example of human/non-human animal relationships: The BBC is reporting on a horse burial found in the Scottish highlands, dating to the 1750s. Nothing is known about why this horse was buried in this place or in this way. It does not appear to have been butchered or used to make glue.

Someone's beloved pet? An honorable war veteran? Hidden evidence of a crime? Intriguing, indeed.

some landscape articles

2011-05-26T19:22:00.000-05:00

JAS has the corrected proofs up for two articles about landscape use. This one is about the impact of the Baltic crusade on the landscape of northern Poland. Specifically, they're looking at the palynology of an area around a Teutonic Order castle. There's nothing terribly shocking there, unless you, like me, had never heard of the Baltic crusades. Or if you, like me, tend to visualize small, fluffy dogs when you hear the word "Pomeranian".

This article is a bit more interesting. It discusses the evidence for forest management by 1st to 6th century Korean states. The chestnut tree was an important source of fuel, food, and building material, and appears to have been encouraged, at the expense of oak. This is similar to forest management practices in the Eastern Woodlands, the American South, and the North American West Coast. Neat stuff.

Bibliography:
Kim, Minkoo. 2011. Woodland Management in the Ancient Mahan Statelets of Korea: An Examination of Carbonized and Waterlogged Wood. Journal of Archaeological Science (corrected proof).

Brown, Alex, and Aleks Pluskowski. 2011. Detecting the environmental impact of the Baltic Crusades on a late-medieval (13th–15th century) frontier landscape: palynological analysis from Malbork Castle and hinterland, Northern Poland. Journal of Archaeological Science (corrected proof).

memorializing a 19th century African-American burial ground

2011-05-25T19:38:00.003-05:00

This is an interesting story about an historic African-American burial ground under a parking lot in Virginia, and the fight to create a memorial honoring the people buried there, and their descendants. African-Americans, Latinos, and other minority groups in the U.S. do not get enough "air time" when it comes to issues of repatriation, respect for sacred/meaningful places on the landscape, and preservation of the past. With a few exceptions, such as Mark Leone's work, this issue is too often ignored.

Two things struck me about the article:
1) It's not at all clear that the parking lot in question is the true location of the cemetery. It is probably close, but the archaeologists are cited as saying they aren't sure and would need to test to confirm the location. Nobody else seemed to care, and there are no plans to conduct the testing. Clearly, this isn't about the actual treatment of actual bodies, but about memorializing the dead and their legacy.

2) All politics is local, as is clearly the case here. Reading both the story and the commentary suggests a deeply divided community, and this memorial was either a reason for those divisions or has become a symbol of existing problems. Another example of how important the past is in modern political contexts.

Rowley-Conwy 2011

2011-05-19T14:55:00.002-05:00

Rowley-Conwy, Peter
2011 Westward Ho! The Spread of Agriculture from Central Europe to the Atlantic. Current Anthropology 52:no page numbers yet assigned. (Can be found on-line, but is not yet published.)

I usually stick to environmentally- or zooarch-themed articles in this blog, but I was so excited by the new Rowley-Conwy article on the spread of agriculture in Europe, that I wanted to share.

Rowley-Conwy compares the Cardial Neolithic (Southern Europe), the LBK (Central Europe), the TRB (Northern Europe), and the Neolithic of Britain and Ireland, and comes to two conclusions: a) the spread of agriculture occurred largely through immigration by agriculturalists, rather than through "idea diffusion" across an existing forager population; and b) said immigration is better characterized as "lurches of advance" (nice phrase!) rather than a "wave of advance".

I work on early agricultural societies in two very different parts of the world, and the shift in perception about the spread of agricultural that Rowley-Conwy describes here has been very noticeable over the last decade. When I started working on these issues, there were debates about indigenous development of agriculture vs. immigration of farmers, but at this point, immigration is the consensus interpretation in both regions.

The strength of Rowley-Conwy's argument lies in its scale and comparative approach. OK, so I'm a sucker for any good regional-level analysis, but the leapfroging process of agricultural immigration is not visible on an individual-site level, or along a few kilometers of coast. A wide brush is needed to paint this picture.

The comparative aspect is equally critical, not so much the comparison between the different parts of Europe, but the comparison between Europe and the Middle East, where we know agriculture was an indigenous development. Many of us who have studied the earliest agricultural societies of the Middle East have been puzzled by arguments for indigenous development of agriculture in other parts of the world that show none of the hallmarks of indigenous development that characterize the Levant, such as significant pre-agricultural sedentism, and a long history of intensive use of local resources. That is not to say that indigenous adoption of agriculture could not have occurred in different ways in different places, but arguments for indigenous adoption of agriculture in the absence of any clear predisposition toward an agricultural way of life, and without any posited explanation other than "people like agriculture", are not convincing.

Rowley-Conwy's article moves the debate about early European agriculture forward in two very useful ways. The first is his argument that dairying was an important component of the Early Neolithic in Europe. That's been difficult to prove where I work because we don't have large enough samples of cattle, sheep, or goats to look at age profiles. (There were some interesting arguments over a case of pleurosis that left its mark on a human skeleton, though. There are many causes of pleurosis, but in historic times, one of the most common was drinking contaminated milk.) It would be nice if Rowley-Conwy influenced more zooarchaeologists to report age profiles and evidence for dairying from Neolithic sites.

Secondly, the article shifts focus from "foragers in transition" toward "foragers in contact." If farmers immigrated into and across Europe, they came into contact with preexisting societies, and the genetic evidence suggests a fair amount of intermarriage. In some places, such as Portugal and Denmark, we see co-existing farmer and forager societies long after the introduction of agriculture. The dynamics of these interactions are far more interesting to me than attempting to explain why foragers might adopt agriculture in general.

fun with the liberal arts

2011-05-17T21:15:00.003-05:00

I teach a regional overview course where each student does substantial research on a separate culture within that region. They give weekly reports on their research, and at the end of the semester, they write a term paper. For many of them, this paper is just their weekly reports put together. They have the option, though, of writing a short story set in their culture. The story must show mastery of the archaeological record, and give the reader a good idea of what daily life was like at that time and place.

This semester, about half of my students chose the fiction option, and their papers were fun to read. They ran the gamut from fictionalized accounts of documented archaeological events, to science-fiction stories involving time travel, to magical realism involving an invader and his pet mouse.

I really like this assignment because it represents the best of the liberal arts: forging links between scientific and humanistic disciplines, fostering creativity, and encouraging self-expression. If you're interested in doing something similar, I have two recommendations:

1) make sure students know they will be graded on the academic content of their story, not (or not solely) on plot, character development, etc. Make them include footnotes or an annotated bibliography for their sources.

2) include a significant amount of traditional academic writing/research in the class, in addition to the fiction component. This activity works for my class because my students have done a huge amount of research and writing on their culture before they turn to fiction. By the time they get to the final project, they've written nine short (1-3 page) papers on their culture's subsistence system, architecture, mortuary customs, etc., etc. In other words, we can have fun with a fictional account of their culture because they've proven without a doubt that they've mastered the material.

neandertals maligned

2011-05-16T13:32:00.002-05:00

I had my students read Gifford-Gonzalez (1998) and write a short reflective essay on the role of popular culture in shaping our ideas about early human ancestors. I asked them if they had ever seen a museum display, cartoon, or film about human evolution, and how they felt this affected their perspective on our ancestors. My favorite answer started with these lines:

I can only assume you are referring to the documentary series "Jersey Shore" that portrays an early Neandertal community in its quest for food, shelter, and whatever the hell "smoosh-smoosh" is. (I'm not an anthropologist.)

Funny, but perhaps I need to make them read Speth 2004, too.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Gifford-Gonzalez, Diane
1998 The Real Flinstones? What Are Artists' Depictions of Human Ancestors Telling Us? In Selig, Ruth Osterweis and Marilyn R. London, Anthropology Explored: The Best of Smithsonian AnthroNotes, p.74-82. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC.

Speth, John D.
2004 News Flash: Negative evidence convicts Neandertals of gross mental incompetence. World Archaeology 36:519-526.

worthwhile extra credit

2011-05-14T08:00:00.000-05:00

I wrote the title for this post, and then hit "publish", accidentally posting it without any content. I thought about leaving it that way, since it neatly sums up my view of the topic!

OK, that's not true. "Typical" extra credit at Tiny U consists of giving students points for a short reflection paper on a presentation/lecture/movie viewing/concert/etc that is related to the class subject. This type of extra credit has two positive outcomes: 1) it encourages students to take advantage of cultural opportunities around campus, which is particularly useful at a liberal arts college; and 2) it makes students happier, since they think they're improving their grade, even if the points involved are minuscule. (My students tend to be bad at math, and even worse at assessing their risk of doing poorly in the class, whatever "poorly" means to then.)

Note I didn't include "helps students fully understand and apply class concepts" as one of the positive outcomes. In my experience, this type of extra credit very seldom does so.

I've moved away from that model of extra credit, and now, in most of my classes, I have a limited number of pre-fabricated extra credit activities. They are worksheets, self-testing quizzes, fill-in-the-blank study guides, and other material that is useful for studying for the exams. For example, for the primate section of my physical anthropology class, the extra credit activity was to fill in a chart with information about the physical and social adaptations of all the major primate groups. The activities are available on the class webpage from the beginning of the semester, and they are due on the same day as the exam to which they relate. I frequently take exam questions from those extra credit assignments. In other words, the extra credit helps them study for the exam.

Not only does the extra credit directly relate to class concepts, and sometimes help students apply those concepts to previously unfamiliar case studies, I get a lot fewer questions about extra credit opportunities. Students know up-front how many opportunities there are and when they are due, since they are listed directly in the syllabus. I don't have students constantly asking me "will there be more extra credit opportunities coming up?", especially at the very end of the semester when the poorest students suddenly realize that skipping class has left them with gaping holes in their grade and poor test scores.

I've been very happy with this type of extra credit. It's the only kind I'll use from now on.

never again, again

2011-05-06T22:38:00.003-05:00

At the end of this crazy semester, I find myself saying "Well, that was tough, but I'll never do that again."

I'm not sure what part of "that" I'm planning to avoid in the future. I've run out of grandparents, so there won't be more last-minute trips across country for a funeral (God willing!). And it's not like the opportunity to take on a massive teaching overload is something I could foresee. But this feeling of "never again" is all too familiar. I've been down this road before.

Last year, it was the pregnancy (during fieldwork and lab work and an intensive summer class), followed by the baby (back to work a week later, for the last few days of the semester), followed by another crazy semester (teaching 8 credits while trying to stay at home with a newborn as much as possible). A year ago, I thought "Well, that was tough, but I'll never do that again."

And I haven't, at least not in the same way. This year I didn't over-commit myself while pregnant and caring for a newborn. Instead, I over-committed myself while caring for a toddler, and decided to heap coals on the fire by changing the format for all of my classes, changing books in two of them, and making things needlessly harder.

So I'm learning a more general lesson here. Young children are a big job. Teaching is a big job (especially when your regular load is 20 credits). Research is a big job. Life is a big job. Don't take on too many big jobs.

Limit what can be reasonably limited, such as revamping classes or adding to the grading pile. Don't volunteer to make the new brochure for your kid's preschool (yep, guilty on that one!). Don't volunteer for a new committee, just because it sounds "interesting". Sleep sounds interesting, too. As does playing with your kids, or getting tenure.

"I'll never do that again" is not about the specific idiocy of a specific semester. It's about the general tendency to heap far more on a plate than it is possible to finish. Knock it off!

people as wilderness

2011-05-04T17:28:00.002-05:00

Inappropriate or offensive references to Native Americans have been in the news recently. Many people objected to the use of the code word "Geronimo" in the Bin Laden killing.

I just got back from a trip on the "Empire Builder", the Amtrak route from Portland/Seattle to Chicago. It provided the easiest and cheapest way to get the whole family to my grandmother's funeral. On the train, I read the brochure [available here], giving colorful details of the route for bored passengers. Here's an excerpt from the first page:

A few generations ago, this route was pure wilderness, roamed by Native Americans and buffalo. Following early traders and gold miners came the merchants, timber men, farmers and – dramatically – railroaders. In the northern plains, the greatest of these was James J. Hill, a freewheeling, big-dealing tycoon who linked St. Paul and Seattle with his Great Northern Railway. He acquired the land, built the tracks, and encouraged homesteading along the route. On the way, this “Empire Builder” Hill came to govern the fate and fortune of a large part of this powerfully beautiful area.

Three comments:
1) According to Amtrak, Native Americans are part of the wilderness, like buffalo. (Never mind this area wasn't "wilderness" in the sense of "untouched by human hands".)

2) Believe it or not, Amtrak, most people don't find the robber barons of the 19th century all that endearing as cultural heroes. James J. Hill was the man Eugene V. Debs most famously worked against in unionizing the rainroad workers. (OK, I'll admit, my background biases me against robber barons. I grew up in one of the most heavily unionized regions of the country, and in the public schools we sang union songs and learned about people like Jimmy Hoffa and Eugene Debs.)

3) I teach a section on colonialism in my intro to cultural anthropology class, and in my experience, students dislike any portrayal of the U.S. as an imperial power. The railway route that Amtrak calls the "Empire Builder" takes its name from James J. Hill. Partly, he got this name from building his railroad empire, but the name has a more sinister meanings. Hill "acquired the land" by helping push bills through congress that allowed him to build across supposedly sovereign Indian lands. He also encouraged European settlers to settle on those lands, building his consumer base while eroding Native American land holdings.

All in all, a very sensitive brochure. Nice work, Amtrak. (Sigh.)

day of archaeology project

2011-04-28T12:00:00.000-05:00

I just said I wouldn't blog much for the next few weeks, but here's a quick link to an interesting project "Day of Archaeology". The project will post reports from archaeologists around the world on July 29, 2011. If you're interested in participating, check out the webpage.

life post

2011-04-27T10:16:00.002-05:00

I may not blog much for the next few weeks. My grandmother died, so I'm heading home for the funeral. She was a second mother to me, so her loss is hard. But, as a friend said, one of the only good things about Alzheimer's is that your loved-one's death is a blessing, by the time it happens.

I'm leaving for Europe two days after I return from the funeral, then I have five days to grade everything from the semester and turn in final grades. I leave a few days later for 2.5 months at my favorite museum, having fun with big game and enjoying my old grad-school haunts.

I hope to be blogging once I'm settled in Old Grad Town, but I may not blog much before that. I hope you all have a good end to your semester!

weekly accountability: April 24-30

2011-04-24T20:05:00.002-05:00

I have survived taking on that extra class! My colleague has returned and will be in the classroom this week. I'm so happy she's back (for her own sake!), and thrilled to be handing over that burden.

I didn't get much done this week, except planning some of the logistics for my research trips this summer. I hope to have more time to focus on research this week.

Goals for this week: I need to finish the review of a manuscript by Wednesday, and organize my European trip.

anthropological merchandizing

2011-04-21T16:54:00.004-05:00

In light of Zahi Hawass' decision to market his own line of men's clothing (see comment here), today's post features other branding attempts by famous anthropologists:

Margaret Mead - The famous cultural anthropologist capitalized on her fame to sell a line of sex aids under the "My Samoan Sweetheart" brand. After her death, the material was rebranded as the "Troubled Teen" line.

Clifford Geertz ran a successful sports equipment business, selling many items of his own design, including Masculine Ideal(TM) brand sports padding, and Sometimes-a-stick-is-just-a-stick (TM) hockey equipment.

Brian Fagan - Arguably the most widely-known archaeologist (as opposed to Jared Diamond, who is the most widely known person thought to be an archaeologist), Fagan has lent his name to a line of mass-produced replicas of archaeological kitch.

Sidney Mintz - Teacups

Betty Meggers marketed a line of jigsaw puzzles for children. Some of her puzzles have been described as too complex for children, but Meggers denies this, saying that 1,000-piece puzzles are just the result of 6-piece puzzles breaking apart during importation from Japan.

Ian Hodder - Hodder's popular line of reading glasses come with two possible lens types: clearly biased, and pre-printed with jargon. There has been talk of expanding the line, but Hodder recently fired his merchandising team, so his future direction is unclear.

Milford Wolpoff - The famous perfume company, Lancome, created a line of seven different scents for the famous paleoanthropologist. But Dr. Wolpoff feels the scents aren't sufficiently different to warrant unique names, so he has lumped them together under one. He calls the scent "Dimorphism".

I thought of a good one for Binford, but it's too soon.

landscape vs. environment

2011-04-18T12:00:00.000-05:00

Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, by Caspar David Friedrich (1818)

A well-known historical ecologist once commented on a paper of mine, essentially, "if you just replaced the word 'environment' with 'landscape', you'd be an historical ecologist. Try it, it's easy!"*

He was (kind of) kidding, but he brought up a good point. Does an environment by any other name have the same analytical usefulness?

"Landscape" and "environment" have profoundly different connotations in English, ones that mirror the different foci of historical ecology vs., say, behavioral ecology, or other "environmentally" focused theoretical perspectives. We, as American or European archaeologists, are steeped in the Western binary worldview that separates "nature" from "culture", the "raw" from the "cooked". Even though we are often aware of the ways in which this worldview is incomplete or misleading, we still fall into fallacies based on this perspective. The word "environment" has long had connotations of "nature", in opposition to "culture". While we now discuss "urban environments", and we recognize that "environmental influences" includes more than climate and vegetation regimes, the binary thinking is still present, unless very explicitly combated.

"Landscape", on the other hand, includes connotations of the embeddedness of people within their physical and social world, and the on-going dialectic between people and their surroundings, just as classic landscape paintings included "natural" and "cultural" elements, if only because the painter's eye brought the image to canvas and interpreted it for the audience. "Landscapes" can be heavily anthropic, or lightly modified; they can be vast or minute; they can be imbued with symbolism or meaningless backdrops to daily life. As such, I argue, they represent a more significant and useful analytical tool than environments.

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*I tried it. It was easy. I now consider myself an historical ecologist (but not just for that reason!)

weekly accountability: April 17-23

2011-04-17T17:21:00.002-05:00

Good news! The colleague whose class I've taken over will probably be back in the classroom within two weeks. I'm happy to have been able to help her, but I'm also looking forward to dropping down to only 12 credits of teaching. I calculated the other day that I have over 10% of Tiny U's student body in my classes at the moment. Ack!

More good news! The last of our snow has melted (and then we got another couple of inches Friday, but it melted too.) Sure, there's snow in the forecast all week, but winter is (mostly) finished, and with it the threat of school cancellations and the worst of the cold and flu season. We have gone a couple of weeks now without any illness. (I don't count Pumpkin's runny nose, since he seems fine, otherwise.)

I got a little done on the logistics of my research trip this summer, and managed to finish some grading. The count-down to summer has begun, and I expect a lot more progress when I'm done with this semester. Can't wait!

my new song

2011-04-15T12:00:00.001-05:00

A few years ago, when I was first on the job market, there was a funny thread on the Chronicle Forums where job applicants were picking their academic job market theme song. (I thought the funniest was "16 tons, what do you get, another day older and deeper in debt.")

If I'd know about this song, it would have been my choice:

Maybe I'll be the special one who doesn't get burned!

Binford's legacy

2011-04-14T09:02:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, I mentioned the impact of Binford's publications. But surely his greatest legacy is through his students. He was influential in the careers of a great many archaeologists, who were themselves very influential.

I had hoped to put together an academic geneaology, mapping out the Binford patriline. Unfortunately, it is very hard to find information about his students on-line, and my personal knowledge is patchy (and highly incriminating of my identity, not that most of you don't know that already!). I was able to find the following list of Binford's students at the University of New Mexico, which represents the bulk of his career.

P.R. Schultz
Robert Vierra
Alan Osborn (Nebraska State Museum)
R.F Schalk (Cascadia Archaeology)
W.H.G. Morgan
Richard Chapman (New Mexico Office of Contract Archaeology)
Rosalind Hunter-Anderson
Robin Torrence (Australia Museum)
Robert Hitchcock (Michigan State University)
Larry Todd (Colorado State)
EL Camille
James Ebert
Galen Burgett
Robert Hard (UT San Antonio)
Mark Stiger (Western State University, CO)
Michael Smyth (Rollins College)
Martha Graham
SL Larraide
Ronald Kneebone
David Rapson
Mary Stiner (Arizona)
Steven Kuhn (Arizona)
James Enloe (Iowa)
Alexandra Roberts
Neale Draper
R. Wojcik
Dan Amick (Loyola)
Anna Backer
D. Oswald (Prescott College)
Matthew Schmader
RP Mauldin (UT San Antonio)
Wiliam Doleman
Mark Lycett (University of Chicago)
C. Carrillo
Russell Greaves

My apologies to those whose affiliation I do not list, or if I have it incorrect. Many of Binford's students are working in CRM or government jobs, and have been very influential through their publications and interactions with other scholars. I didn't include those affiliations here, just because my original intent was to put together an academic pedigree chart, so I was interested in Binford's students' students. That turned out to be impossible, but just from this partial list of his students, it's clear he's left a significant legacy.

If I remember correctly, Bob Whalen (University of Michigan), Jim Brown (Northwestern), and Stuart Streuver (Northwestern), were also students of Binford's at Chicago. I don't know any of his students from SMU. Clearly, the list above is just the tip of the iceberg.

blogging Binford

2011-04-13T10:12:00.002-05:00

In wake of Lewis Binford's death, I've been thinking about his legacy. What were his most important publications? I believe Constructing Frames of Reference will be seen as his magnum opus, but his co-edited (with Sally Binford) volume New Perspectives in Archaeology, probably had more impact on the direction of the field as a whole.

In my work, I most frequently cited his "Post-Pleistocene Adaptations" (1968) article, or "Willow Smoke and Dogs' Tails" (1980). The work that was most influential to me, though, was Bones: Ancient Men and Modern Myths, not for the actual data, which doesn't do much for a neolithicist, but for his approach to data and myth-busting.

Not everyone felt or appreciated the legacy of Lewis Binford. One of my graduate professors excoriated him in class on a regular basis, because "those utility indices as stuff are just worthless." (I'm sure they are, to someone whose primary research is on Southwestern pottery.) But for those of us in the environmentally-focused branches of the field, he had a profound influence, whether or not you follow in his theoretical footprints.

Bibliography:
1968 New Perspectives in Archaeology. Co-edited with S.R. Binford, Aldine Publishing Company, Chicago.

1968 Post-Pleistocene Adaptations. In New Perspectives in Archaeology. Co-edited with S.R. Binford, pp. 313-341. Aldine Publishing Company, Chicago.

1978 Nunamiut Ethnoarchaeology. Academic Press, New York.

1980 Willow Smoke and Dogs' Tails: Hunter-Gatherer Settlement Systems and Archaeological Site Formation. American Antiquity 45:4-20.

1981 Bones: Ancient Men & Modern Myths. Academic Press, London.

mourning Binford

2011-04-12T11:51:00.002-05:00

Last SAAs he was looking frail. This SAAs, he was conspicuously absent. Now word comes that he has died. Through the rules of academic fictive kinship, he was my grandfather (my advisor's advisor). Whether you agreed with him or not (and he certainly had his personal flaws), he had a great influence on the field. I lectured this morning on his impact on the study of human evolution.

RIP

a whine

2011-04-11T16:23:00.003-05:00

Last night, I considered putting this as my Facebook status:

Which of these should I give up?
a. parenting
b. teaching
c. research
d. my health and sanity

Then I decided, who the hell am I kidding? The answer is so obvious! So I finished the carton of ice cream in the freezer.

Only 26 days until I get the f$%k out of Dodge.

weekly accountability: April 10-17

2011-04-10T16:57:00.002-05:00

Teaching is going to take over (even more of) my life this week. I have two exams to finish grading, and two more to write for Friday. My exams are a mix of multiple choice, fill in the blank, and a short essay. In the class I took over for a colleague, however, the exams are 8 essay questions. Students typically fill an entire blue book answering them. There are 60 students in the class. The exams are scheduled for every 3 weeks. I don't know how she manages!*

I did submit an internal grant application last week, and I worked out some logistics for my research this summer. Otherwise, I graded and worked on class prep.

This coming week, I'll write exams, grade exams, and curse exams.
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*OK, she manages because she doesn't have two preschoolers, and she isn't teaching two even bigger introductory classes at the same time.

teachable moment (or thanks for the educational opportunity, "gay caveman")

2011-04-08T19:07:00.004-05:00

We just finished gender in my cultural anthropology class, so the story about the "gay caveman" was well timed. In class today, we covered the facts, briefly. The individual was neither a "caveman" nor demonstrably "gay". Discuss. We talked about what it means to be "gay", what is "third gender", the difference between "gender role", "sex", and "sexual orientation". This was all good review.

But the best discussion centered on why this story made headlines around the world. After all, we know there are gay men in the modern U.S., why should we be shocked to find there were gay men in the ancient Czech Republic (whether or not this burial represents such an individual)? We talked about what the term "caveman" represents in our society, and agreed the term is used as either a reflection of our mythical "natural" state, or of the "nasty, brutish" side of our species (or both). So what would it mean if we discovered gay cavemen? I pointed out that it's not exactly a newsflash that sexual orientation has both biological and social components, but my students argued that the this story reflects fundamental concerns with whether homosexuality is "natural". My students were reassuringly savvy consumers of the media message, and clearly picked up on the modern political currents swirling around this archaeological find.

story-telling

2011-04-07T20:33:00.002-05:00

If you've never searched for your own name on Facebook, I recommend it. I found a comment that a former student wrote about me on a current student's page. She was complimentary, saying she'd like to take more classes with me, because I'm "a great storyteller."

I never consciously decided to make story-telling one of my primary methods of teaching. That comes out of my own interest in stories. Before college, I wanted to be a history major. Most of my high school classmates viewed history as a boring collection of dates and facts, but to me it was a collection of stories. People's lives are endlessly fascinating, and real life is more unique, idiosyncratic, and fun than fiction, if only, as Twain said, because fiction has to make sense.

Embedding the perfect story into your lecture does three things for your students: 1) it wakes them up, by interrupting the normal rhythm of the lecture; 2) it engages them with the material, since story-telling is more intimate than "just the facts" lectures; and 3) it helps them remember concepts through applied examples. Add a story to your lecture, and I guarantee you will find that story repeated in half the essays on the next exam.

Usually the stories I tell are true (or true enough), but I've experimented with students telling fictional stories as a pedagogical technique. For the final project in my Latin American archaeology class, students have the option of writing a standard term paper or creating a short, fictionalized account of a prehistoric context, one that brings the archaeological record to life in a way that no research paper ever could.

continuing family friendly culture

2011-04-06T12:00:00.001-05:00

I've mentioned before that Tiny U has a family-friendly culture, but not family-friendly policies. Under the circumstances, one person in a key administrative position can make a big difference.

Our department chair is wonderful, and has gone to the mat for families time and time again. She is leaving for greener pastures, so we're choosing the next chair. The Dean formed a committee, and last week they asked faculty to submit criteria that the chair should fulfill. I immediately wrote an e-mail asking that the next chair be aware of - and an advocate for - family needs, in order to make this a more inclusive university.

I'm not surprised that the committee did not include my suggestion among the criteria they will use to chose the next chair. But, I hope my e-mail will keep the topic in their minds when they make their selection.
__________
UPDATE: The committee announced the final candidates for department chair, and it turns out there's only one person stupid enough, er, that is, willing to serve. She's a wonderful person who will do an exemplary job, and is very supportive of our family-friendly culture. Yay!

back from Sacramento

2011-04-05T19:44:00.002-05:00

I had a wonderful SAAs. I am inspired, and reminded of why I love this field in the first place. (Hint: it's not the huge pile of grading on my desk!)

The zooarchaeological highlights of the meeting were the sessions in honor of John Speth, who is retiring (mostly to avoid his own pile of grading), and Lee Lyman, who was honored with the Fryxell award. Not all of the Spethtacular papers were on fauna, but it was impressive to see the range of research that he had affected. I believe that fauna can speak to any aspect of society, and Speth's career, to some extent, shows that to be true.

On a personal note: remember the colleague in a related discipline whose class I'm covering while she's on maternity leave? Due to complications, she's not going to be back next week as planned, so I'm keeping on with the higher load. I am not complaining. I'd much rather be in my shoes than hers, even if I have to finish the semester with this class. I do worry about the students, who wanted a specialist in the other field, and are stuck with an anthropologist.

teaching gender

2011-03-28T12:00:00.000-05:00

There are lots of ways to show students that gender is a culturally created category, not a biological imperative. One way is to discuss the different agents that enculturate us into our gender roles. If gender is so natural, then why do we have to be taught, from birth, by our families, peers, media, schools, etc., how we are supposed to think/act/be?

After talking about these agents of socialization, I like to show a series of videos that show people playing with gender roles. When students see these unexpected messages coming from the usual media sources, it makes it very obvious that normally we are bombarded by the same message, day after day.

Here are some interesting options:

Girls on Film has re-makes of movie scenes where women play male characters. The Star Trek scene is pretty good. The scene from The Town makes the point better, I think, but is too raunchy for my students' ears. (I'm still trying to live down the great whitewashed willie debacle). What we really need, though, are Boys on Film. Imagine re-making movie scenes where men play female characters. I think it would make it very clear that women, increasingly, can stretch gender roles, but men cannot.

Kaltura's gendered advertising remixer allows you to play the video from a boy or girl's toy ad, while playing the audio from an ad aimed at the other gender. The contrast is pretty striking.

There are a couple wonderful YouTube videos that create gendered messages through music in a way unintended by the original artist. I love the all-female Cornell a capella students group version of Dr. Dre's "Bitches ain't shit." (I've never heard the original of that song, but let me tell you, the title is one of the least offensive lines.) Watching young, affluent women, dressed in country-club style (with tennis rackets), singing a song like that is both hilarious and a fascinating play on gender. Unfortunately, I've never had the guts to show it to a class, because the lyrics are so horrific.

A cuter, and much more class-safe option is the gay remix of Taylor Swift's You Belong with Me. In this video, the "tomboy" girl is a man, in love with his neighbor. It's a very sweet little song/story. But, it still gets the point across, and makes you think about the lyrics and gender roles portrayed in a different way.

weekly accountability: March 27-April 2

2011-03-27T10:13:00.002-05:00

My goal last week was to survive. I'm not dead yet, so success!

I finished a poster for the SAAs, and I got part of my paper done. I also dealt with the flood of advising that comes through my office at this time of the semester. That's a separate post.

This week, I'll be in Sacramento, and I'm really looking forward to the break! Hope to see you all there!

another family friendly victory

2011-03-25T10:37:00.002-05:00

Tiny U is on a roll!!

I'd never heard the term "fill fund", but that's what we call money to replace faculty members who take leave. When a colleague takes maternity or paternity leave, or invokes family or medical leave of any sort, the university policy states that the department must find a way to fulfill their duties. In practice, this means a colleague taking on one or more extra courses, sometimes for most of the semester. Since we're a small university, and far from the madding crowd (read: middle of freakin' nowhere), we don't have graduate students or redundancy in our faculty. In most cases, there isn't anyone in the department who can take on another faculty member's classes with ease. For example, if Crazy Colleague were to be institutionalized, I'd have to take over her upper-division classes on ethnographic fieldwork and women in East Asian society. Uh, sure.

In the past, this has led to resentment, even under the best of circumstances. Nobody wants to teach 16 credits at one time (says the woman teaching 16 credits at one time). Since women who take maternity leave are often untenured, there is always the concern that their colleagues will still feel resentful when the tenure case comes up for a vote.

Enter our Dean, whose name will always be spoken with reverence in my household. She created the "fill fund", which will pay people to take over their colleague's classes. In some cases, we may even be able to pay a grad student from some other university to drive three hours to Tiny U and teach the course. This is a huge victory! Alas, our Dean is joining our sainted Department Chair, and leaving Tiny U for greener pastures.

I'm sending out more job applications.

One last note: this is another example of how family-friendly culture trumps family-unfriendly policy. The fill fund is entirely within the discretion of the Dean's budget. Without changing one letter of U policy, she made a huge improvement in our maternity/paternity/family/medical leave practice. Good on her!

getting my Irish on, again

2011-03-24T12:00:00.000-05:00

One last Irish post. In previous years, my Cultural Anthropology class was covering the topic of religion around St. Patrick's day. There is a traditional prayer attributed to St. Patrick (called St. Patrick's breastplate, or the Lorica, or the deer prayer) that is a wonderful example of syncretism. The prayer is in the form of a traditional druidic incantation for protection, but with overt Christian symbolism. The modern versions are translations, obviously, but they include clear references to pagan magic, and the invocation (literally) of God as a protector: "I bind unto myself today, the strong name of the Trinity, by invocation of the same, the Three in One, the One in Three."

In fact, the legend of the prayer is that St. Patrick used it to turn himself and his companions into deer, so they would not be killed by the druids who were seeking them out. Honestly, men who become deer through invocation of the power of the moon, stars, sun, ocean, and rocks? How much more pagan can you get? Except it's not.

I like to use this example of syncretism, because textbook examples often portray this process as something "primitive". Students get the idea that somehow only very ignorant or religiously backward people engage in syncretism. (Yes, I know, the very idea is non-anthropological, but not all students recognize that.) This example from the early church resonates more with students, and makes it clear that this is a wide-spread phenomenon.

the great whitewashed willie debacle

2011-03-23T09:58:00.004-05:00

I grew up (more or less) in this region of the country. I know my people, and we're prudes.

But, I grew up, gained wisdom (or maybe just got jaded), and, frankly, reached an age where nekkid bodies in a non-erotic context just aren't all that, well, erotic.

My students, not so much.

My first inkling of the problem was when I showed the classic movie Onka's Big Moka. Apparently, several of the young women in the class were mortified by visible male genitalia, and complained (to another professor) that they couldn't "ignore" it because the subtitles were right at crotch level. I went back and watched parts of the video again, since I hadn't noticed full frontal nudity. It's there, but with dark lighting, it wasn't noticeable (to me).

I edited a couple of lesson plans to avoid offending anyone, but this week I showed another classic movie, Masai Women. I love this movie, which is a perfect example of the intersection of gender, kinship, marriage patterns, and aging. But, I'd forgotten that the last part of the movie focuses on a warrior initiation ceremony, where young men are dancing, covered in a slurry of white chalk, and naked below the waist. In other words, there was a whole wall of whitewashed willies bouncing up and down for a good five minutes.

Oops.

I expect the complaints to begin immediately.

teaching with the Irish

2011-03-22T12:00:00.002-05:00

After my St. Patrick's day post, I was thinking about how frequently I use Irish examples in my classes.

In my Cultural Anthropology class, I talk about Irish immigration to the U.S. during the last half of the 19th century. I show students some contemporary images that portrayed the Irish as inferior (like these), and I read quotes from leaders of American society that portray this influx of new people as the end of American civilization.

First, we talk about parallels between the portrayal of immigration in the 19th century, and the portrayal of immigration in the 21st (and why). Then, we talk about how the Irish were seen as a separate race, with significant physical differences from the Anglo-Saxons who dominated U.S. culture at the time. I show them that the Irish were considered intellectually unsuited to most professional pursuits, but they were thought to be naturally talented athletes and entertainers. Many vaudeville acts were Irish, and the Irish dominated certain competitive sports, like boxing (hence Notre Dame's Fighting Irish mascot, with his hands raised for a match.) I help my students make the connection between these ideas about the Irish, and similar ideas about other ethnic groups, and how the lack of access to higher education and wealth can create this self-fulfilling stereotype.

At the end, I return to the quotes that predicted an end to U.S. culture if we allow the Irish to immigrate in such large numbers. The major point I make to my students is that, although these quotes sound ridiculous to us, the writers were right. That is to say,if we could disinter those distinguished gentlemen and show them the modern U.S., they would be appalled by some of the changes that have occurred, largely as a result of Irish immigration. Catholicism is the largest single denomination in the country. Irish ancestry is more common than any other, except German. We celebrate St. Patrick's day, for heaven's sake! From the perspective of the Victorian WASP, U.S. culture did "degenerate". We don't see it that way, though, because we're the decedents of those immigrants, and we know that the changes that occurred in this country have led to the powerful, rich, and free nation that we know and love.

I end the lecture by predicting that our grandchild will have similar attitudes toward today's immigrants. They'll read our vitriolic rants about immigration, and say "hey, they were crazy back then." Then, they'll head out to celebrate Chinese New Year with the traditional mariachi band.

archaeology with a bang

2011-03-21T12:00:00.000-05:00

OK, so there's no significant academic content to this post, but there's something oddly cathartic about watching archaeologists blow things up.

weekly accountability: March 20-26

2011-03-20T10:45:00.002-05:00

Spring Break is over. I am in mourning.

I'm mostly caught up with my grading, just one more exam and some extra credit to go. I'm making progress on the SAA papers. I might just make it through this semester with sanity intact. (or not.) Except for one mysterious midnight fever episode (possibly related to whatever they fed Pumpkin at daycare, which came out as a giant neon-green diaper blowout), the kids were healthy, and I was able to go to work each day.

This week, I'm just keepin' on keepin' on. How about you?

leprechaun invasion (or, we're all Irish now)

2011-03-18T12:00:00.000-05:00

This post started as a rant over at our family blog (where we post cute kid pictures and stories for the grandparents), but acquired some (minimal) anthropological content, so I decided to post it here. Sorry for the digression from my normal topics.

Bunny is in preschool this year, so I've been exposed to the public school party-line for the first time since my own childhood. I was struck by this year's St. Patrick's day celebration, or, as every preschooler I've met this year calls it, "Leprechaun Day". Last month, the kids were making hearts and valentines and lists of people they love. This month, Bunny brought home a string of leprechauns and shamrocks. When asked if she knew who St. Patrick was, she hazarded, "a leprechaun?"

In case you, too, were taught to celebrate "Leprechaun Day" in school, the original Feast of St. Patrick is in honor of the apostle to the Irish, a 5th century bishop who is credited with converting most of the island and kicking out the pagans. He is associated with the shamrock, which he used as a symbol to teach about the trinity (the three in one, the one in three). There are no leprechauns in his hagiography, however. In Ireland, St. Patrick is celebrated as one of the two patron saints of the country, and his feast day is largely a religious holiday.

When large numbers of Irish came to the United States (along with many of my ancestors), St. Patrick's feast day was transformed into an expression of Irish (and Irish-American) culture and pride. Parades, "Oh, Danny Boy", the wearing of the green, and other manifestations of the St. Patrick's day that we know and love are Irish-American inventions. They stem from wide-spread anger among Irish-Americans about being forced from their country of origin, and at the treatment they received here. While many Irish-Americans assimilated quickly, and others were haunted by the horrors of the past (think A Long Day's Journey Into Night, and, well, just about anything else Eugene O'Neill ever wrote), many Irish-Americans held tight to their ethnic and religious pride.

I grew up in a time and place where St. Patrick's day mattered. People knew and cared about whether they should wear green or orange on St. Patrick's day. But the patterns of celebration have changed, both with the generations and with geography. When I was in college, St. Patrick's day still had a strong current of Irish-Catholic pride (not surprising, given the region had a strong Irish-Catholic population), but was opening to others. I remember a particular St. Patrick's day that I spent with my Irish-Catholic friends, and our good friend from Hawaii, of 100% Japanese descent. (We declared her to be Hawai'irish for the day.)*

From what I see now, St. Patrick's day has been, not so much secularized as popularized, or perhaps democratized. My daughter is being taught about "Leprechaun Day", but the words "Patrick" and "Ireland" are not mentioned at all. What has caused the change? Fewer people are Catholic these days, and more American Catholics are Latino or from another ethnic background that has no particular tie to St. Patrick. Furthermore, my experience with teaching Cultural Anthropology suggests most college-age white Americans have little attachment to Old World ethnic identities. Most of my students self-report their ethnicity as "American", suggesting most Euro-Americans are no longer tied to Irish, Polish, Italian, etc., classifications. We're not located in one of the mixed mega-cities of the West, but rather in an area where there still are ethnically-focused neighborhoods and towns, so I suspect this trend is widespread in the U.S.

But if Irish ethnic identification and Catholic religious observance are both falling, then why is St. Patrick's day bigger than ever? One factor is obvious: if Valentine's day is a "Hallmark holiday", then St. Patrick's day is a "Budweiser holiday". With fewer associations to only one religious and ethnic group, it can be marketed as a major drinking opportunity for people throughout the country. Market forces can drive major alcohol manufacturers to push the holiday, but why should elementary schools jump on that bandwagon?

The schools are using St. Patrick's day (and other secularized religious holidays, like St. Valentine's Day and Halloween) in place of the official religious celebrations that most countries celebrate. I teach my cultural anthropology students that religious celebrations help to forge group identity and create social cohesion by creating a shared symbolism (shamrocks, valentine's hearts, etc.), as well as shared mythology and stories (all the damn leprechaun books). Religious celebrations create a liturgical calendar to help a society organize and make meaning of time. Since we are, technically, a nation that separated church and state**, we cannot celebrate "real" religious holidays, so our children are given these secularized, democratized versions instead. I find it a fascination example of the ways religious observation can be changed to fit the needs of the society.

________
*As a total aside: That was the one and only time I ever saw a John Wayne movie, (The Quiet Man, in honor of the day.) I have since wondered if the movie was really as funny as I remember it, or if it was just our state of inebriation.

**I recognize that all of these "secularized" holidays are from the Christian tradition. Even with the overtly Christian spiritual elements removed, I'm not sure how "non-religious" it is celebrate saints' days and high feasts of the Catholic church, often in ways that hark back to the European pagan antecedents of these holidays. That just goes to show how impossible it is to treat religion as a completely separate social institution.

elephants among us

2011-03-17T12:00:00.000-05:00

Another interesting example of human/animal relationships:

Archaeologists are to dig up the garden of a Ceredigion pub in the search for a legendary Victorian circus elephant.

The Tregaron Elephant has long had its place in local folklore - a beast that died while on tour rumoured to be buried behind the town's Talbot Hotel....
The elephant was said to have fallen ill after drinking contaminated water in the town in 1848.

Dr Jemma Bezant of the School of Archaeology, History and Anthropology is heading it up. She said: "This story belongs to the community of Tregaron and the project will involve local people in gathering local evidence and histories as well as providing the opportunity to engage in some pilot archaeological excavation.

John Watkin, part-owner of The Talbot, said the legend was "very important" to local people....Local poet Iorwerth Glyndwr is said to have written an "englyn" - a short Welsh poem - on the death, which read: "Oh vain man, neither you nor I can avoid death. The grave is the end of us all."

I'm most interested in the relationship people in Ceredigion had with the elephant after it died. It's celebrated in local history (and traditional poetry), and becomes part of the identity of the town. 160 years later, they're still talking about "the time the elephant died at the hotel."

more on race

2011-03-16T12:00:00.001-05:00

Here's some more detail on one of the activities I use to teach race. It's called "Race is in the cards", and it comes from Strategies in Teaching Anthropology (Graber 2000).

I made "decks" of cards, four cards to a deck. On each card, I drew a stick figure. In each deck, two of the figures are short, and two are tall. In each deck, two of the figures have curly hair, and two have straight. In each deck, two of the figures are drawn with an orange crayon (technically, the crayon was named "mac n' cheese"), and two are drawn in purple ("purple mountain majesty").

Here's the difference: In one deck (marked "c", for concordant), the traits are correlated. That is, the curly-haired figures are all short and orange, while the straight-haired figures are all tall and purple. In the other deck (marked "d" for discordant), the traits are not correlated. So, there is one figure with curly hair and a short, orange body, while another figure with curly hair is purple and tall, etc., etc. The students are given the two decks, and asked to create "races" from them. In one case, this is easy. In the other, it's hard, because any choice they make will be arbitrary. The idea is to convince students that dividing discordant physical variation is arbitrary, and based on social rules, not biological ones.

This exercise only works for about half the students, even though we talk through it in great detail. The other half write the damnedest things when asked to reflect on the exercise. I get some truly bizarre answers (like, "this exercise shows the racial prejudices of our country." Yes, that's so true. When, oh when, will we ever see a mac n' cheese colored president?!) Most of the students who "go wrong", though, seem to have gotten caught up by the color issue. They assume that color is the only way to divide figures into races (that's what we do, right?), and therefore, they don't really get what I'm trying to say, other than "gee, the different races are more diverse in deck "d" than in deck "c"."

I've decided to change this exercise next year, and use plain black stick figures on a white background. The third variable be something unrelated to color, like squiggly bellies, or something. I hope that will help get the point across more effectively.

another year, another race failure

2011-03-15T12:00:00.002-05:00

Every year, I spend a significant amount of time talking about race in my introductory classes (both BioAnth and Cultural). The focus is different in each, but I get up in front of the class and do a song and dance. I have them read multiple articles and the textbook, and I do a couple in-class activities where they look at human biodiversity in a hands-on manner. The major point I try to get across is that any division of human diversity into racial categories is arbitrary. Since different cultures make different arbitrary choices about the physical characteristics that define racial groups, clearly race is a socially-defined characteristic.

It's such a simple concept, but every year I fail to get this point across to at least half the class. It's not that they disagree with me. I would be disappointed, but not a failure, if half the students said "Yeah, whatever. You can say it's arbitrary, but look how skin color correlates with certain facial features and hair texture, etc., so no matter what you say, I'm going to believe there are significant physical differences between the races, and those are scientifically viable."

What students actually say is whatever their kindergarten teacher taught them along the lines of "we're all the same under the skin", or (cringe-worthy) "I don't see color and physical differences." But when asked "why do anthropologists say race is a socially defined characteristic?" half of the students give answers that show they have absolutely no understanding of my argument, whatsoever. They say things like "because we base racial categories on language, customs, dress, and other social traits." (Uh, we do? What country are you living in?) Or they repeat their elementary school lessons about égalité and fraternité in such a way that shows they have no comprehension of the biological differences or similarities between populations. Clearly, they think that's what I want to hear,a chorus of Kumbaya around the anthropological campfire.

I believe this to be one of the most critical topics that anthropologists can teach to the world, but I'm utterly failing to get through. Any ideas? Anyone else finding a way to teach this concept?

(Obviously, I'm in the middle of grading assignments about race. Depressing.)

stamps

2011-03-14T10:59:00.006-05:00

Here's a funny list of the rubber stamps every professor needs while grading freshmen comp papers. I thought of a few I'd like for intro to anthro classes:

You keep using this word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Yes, I'm sure living in a tribal society sounds lovely and idyllic to a pampered, white, middle-class child of 21st century America, but I prefer to have dentists and avoid marriage at 15, thanks.

Please look up the definition of "cultural naïveté".

The vast majority of undergraduate essays are improved by removing the first sentence.

Why would I have asked the question, if the answer were that simple?

Yes, I'm grading right now. Why do you ask?

weekly accountability: March 6-12

2011-03-13T10:14:00.002-05:00

Pumpkin was home with croup at the beginning of the week, after being sick all weekend. Monday we could handle it, although the hand-off between Dr. Mr. Palimpsest's 9:15-10:20 class, and my 10:30-11:35 class was a bit tight. Tuesday I teach from 8-2, and I had office hours I could not cancel that afternoon, since I was giving an exam Thursday. So, I did what any bad mother would do, and loaded Pumpkin up with ibuprofen and sent him to daycare, praying we wouldn't get a call because his fever came back. He was fussy and overtired all week, but he was able to stay in daycare. (guilt, guilt)

I made a dent in my grading pile this week, and I taught all my classes, and I have declared victory.

But now it's Spring Break, baby! I haven't been this excited about spring break since I was an undergrad. I'm going to get completely caught up with my (embarrassingly large piles of) grading. I'm going to write both of my SAA papers. I'm going to write a couple small grant proposals. And, I'm going to have some honest-to-God downtime. I am going to take a long hot bath some afternoon while the kids are at daycare (assuming the croup-y cough that Bunny has developed doesn't keep her home.) I'm going to enjoy some creative hobbies. I'm going to have fun!

Yay, Spring Break!!!!!

Torres Straights repatriation

2011-03-11T20:59:00.000-06:00

I thought this was an interesting story about the repatriation of Torres Straights remains from the London Museum of Natural History. It seems a remarkably positive solution for both sides:

The institution said that, after 18 months of discussion with the [Torres Straight Islander] community and the Australian Government, a compromise route had been found.

All will work together to agree how responsibility for the remains will be transferred and how they will be cared for and accessed for future study on their return.

"I would like to think we can grow this relationship with the Natural History Museum," said [Torres Straight islander spokesman] Mr David.

"Without making any commitments, what I can say is that in the process of dealing with repatriation I have learnt that there may well be developments in the scientific field that will assist all of us - perhaps, more so my people than anyone else."

To strengthen ties and build confidence, the London institution has offered a placement to a Torres Strait Islander to help it understand better the culture of indigenous peoples and to share with them the insights and benefits that come from the study of ancient remains.

Of course, as Dr. Mr. Palimpsest pointed out, negotiations may have been easier between the Torres Straight islanders and the museum in London, than they would have been between the islanders and the Australian government. I don't know enough about the history of colonial contact on the Torres Islands, but proximity probably counts for something, and not necessarily positively.

update on family friendly policies

2011-03-10T12:00:00.000-06:00

I mentioned in an earlier post that Tiny U implemented a new policy to keep families from accompanying faculty who are teaching Summer Programs off campus (like Study Abroad, fieldschools, etc.) I wrote a memo of (respectful) protest, and got most of the faculty who had led summer programs in the last decade to sign it.

The response was both good and...less good. On the good side: family members can now accompany faculty on summer programs, as long as a) their presence is disclosed; b) they don't cost the university any money; c) they sign a legal waiver; and d)there are contingency plans in place for any personal problems that may crop up.

Mission Accomplished!!

Before I put on the flight suit and bound across the flight deck to declare victory, however, I want to mention the less good aspects of the situation.

I had a meeting with the Academic Vice President (AVP), and her responses to this issue makes it clear that she's willing to work with us (yay!) but she doesn't really "get it". For example, she expressed concern that if an accompanying child was hospitalized, then the faculty member may not be willing to move on to the next leg of a study abroad trip. I responded that it wouldn't matter if my children accompanied me to the field or not; if one of my kids was hospitalized, even back in Tiny Town, I'd be on the next flight home. Her response? "I'm nervous about letting you take our students abroad, if you tell me that your first priority would be to your own kids, and you'd just abandon the students and run straight home."

Here's the thing: My students are a great responsibility, and I take that seriously, but my children are my life. They will always come first. If that's a problem, then I shouldn't be teaching at all, end of story. In fact, no parent should be teaching, and particularly no mothers without stay-at-home spouses. Are we honestly saying that no woman with kids should be allowed in the workplace? I didn't think so!

There were some additional tidbits during the conversation that concerned me. For example, the AVP expressing some concern that faculty would have to choose between the health and welfare of their own children and of the students. It's an argument against parents, made by someone who has never been a parent. First of all, there's nothing to choose. Of course I would pick my children, if I had to make some kind of Sophie's Choice on a study abroad trip (at which point, we would all have a lot more things to worry about than whether or not an unpaid spouse is in tow!) But that idea is ludicrous. Short of landing in the middle of complete chaos, there are backup plans and safety nets for all of our study abroad programs. Nobody expresses concern that the faculty member would have to make a difficult choice between her own health and welfare and those of her students. Why would a parent's choice be so much more problematic?

Annoyances aside, this was a substantial victory for family-friendly policy at Tiny U. I'm thrilled.

call and response lectures

2011-03-09T19:51:00.002-06:00

I've mentioned before that my own education was entirely at large, state schools. Here at Tiny U, a premium is put on small classes and lots of student-teacher interaction. At first, I didn't know how to teach except by lecturing. I still feel more comfortable with structured discussions than with free-ranging talks in my upper-division seminars. In intro courses with 60-70 people, I try to include a lot of in-class activities, but I still need to lecture. (Actually, one of my colleagues teaches such courses without ever lecturing, and I have no idea how she manages it. I'll have to sit in on one of her courses some day.)

In an attempt to make my classes more interactive, I've moved toward a style of lecture that I (inaccurately) name "call and response". This type of lecture works well for me, because it has a great deal of structure (so I feel comfortable, and know that I'll cover the material), but it allows students more of a role in the class. Here's an example from one of my recent Intro to Cultural Anth classes:

Me: This week's topic is gender. First, can someone tell me what is the difference between sex and gender? [I write "sex" and "gender" on the board]

Student 1: Um, sex is what you're born with, and gender is your self-identification?

Me: OK, sex is what you're born with. [I write "born with" on the board next to "sex"] In what way? Could someone expand on that?

You get the idea. I extract a definition that I'm happy with, then go on to define some more complex vocabulary, and to discuss gender roles, giving examples that are not from their books. After that, I open it up again:

Me: How do we learn what gender roles our culture expects of us?

Student 1: From our parents? [I write "parents" on the board]

Student 2: From schools? [ditto]

etc., etc.

Me: What about in other cultures? In the ethnographies we've read, Nisa and Guests of the Sheik, how were children and adults taught about their appropriate gender roles?

I like to finish each section of lecture with a more open-ended question, one that isn't merely students providing examples or definitions in support of my lecture goals. For example, when we talked about sexuality, I asked them what they thought about the relative importance of genetics and environment for determining sexual orientation. We had a good discussion, and one that brought in a lot of the examples from their textbook and from lecture.

This lecture style keeps more of the students more involved. On the other hand, it decreases the amount of material I can cover. If I wasn't under significant pressure to move away from a lecture format, I probably wouldn't make this change. I'm not sure it improves the learning, or if so it only affects some of the students. Given the requirements of this university, though, it seems like a nice compromise with which I'm very comfortable.

cuba libre, anyone?

2011-03-07T12:00:00.001-06:00

I may be working in the wrong region.

Seriously, though, this article raised a lot of ethical questions. Who is running and funding this excavation, and where are the artifacts going? Why does a liquor company believe they are getting the cannons from this ship, and what role should advertising deals play in archaeology?

On the other hand, at this point in winter, I'd be willing to sell my professional soul for a trip to the Caribbean. No more than two more months of snow to go... bleh

weekly accountability: March 6-12

2011-03-06T13:46:00.002-06:00

Only one preschool late start this week, and nobody was ill, so I managed to make a dent in my pile of grading, despite taking on a new class this week. I'm still behind, but I see the end of the tunnel.

Unfortunately, Pumpkin has croup, or something croup-like. Hopefully, it will be mild, and this isn't the beginning of another wave of illness to sweep through our family. My students were giving presentations on various regions of Latin America this week, and all I could think was "let's go!" I am so over winter.

2 weeks to spring break. If nothing else, I can get my SAA paper done!

drives

2011-03-04T12:00:00.001-06:00

This article discusses on-going research on prehistoric caribou hunting in the Great Lakes area. I'll admit to some skepticism that we can learn more from the "virtual caribou" than we would from a good topographic map and common sense. (Aren't they just looking for natural bottlenecks and drive points?) But, I was struck by the mention of rock piles and other features that mark formal drives. I'm familiar with drive features on the Great Plains, or the "desert kites" of the eastern deserts of the Levant. I associated these features with wide open environments, and assumed they were most effective there. Now it appears that association may just be a preservation/recognition bias. Drive features are more visible in open landscapes with few people, and are less likely to have been destroyed. Now, as researchers look at the preserved landscapes under Lake Huron, they're finding drive features there, as well.

It made me wonder where else we should expect drive features. What about the area around Cahokia, for example? There are pits at Cahokia with huge numbers of deer, all apparently hunted at more or less the same time. Were there drives along the Mississippi? Can deer be driven in that way? What about woodland bison? Unfortunately, a few rock cairns are unlikely to be recognized beneath modern St. Louis, if they survived at all.

Where else might we expect drives?