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[starr103]

Sometimes anthropology makes me want to bang my head against a wall. It makes me feel so intelligent and so ignorant all at the same time. Some of the things we are studying (mainly in Cultural) are so... misrepresented, I guess would be the word. One of the articles I am reading basically implies that Europe had no contact with Asia until about

Comments

[frolicswllamas]

I SO totally agree with you, and I think Dr. Ethridge is crazy on this point. I think she's just...consumed with ethnohistory right now. She's not thinking straight or something. I just acknowledge the fact that she's one professor, she's only a professor, and I don't agree with all that she says. She's only human. I can choose to have a different opinion (and even an entirely different theoretical background, if I find it valuable). So just keep that in mind. I think the main point is that she wants us to realize that we have to start integrating sometime, in order to understand the place and importance of interconnection. That we (you and I) both understand, so we're fine. If we want to bind first then interconnect later, I see no problem with that. As long as we don't *ignore* interconnections, there's no problem. I agree with your assessment.

[starr103]

You're completely right, she is just one professor, and she is only human. She does seem completely obsessed with the idea, though. I think the part that got me the most was when you tried to point out that wouldn't it actually be beneficial to bind first (something I completely agree with you on), and she cut you off and emphatically decreed that we shouldn't do it at all.

I do think you're right, though. So long as we see the interconnections and acknowledge them, we can bind first.

[jopasm]

I'm finding myself getting sucked more and more into cultrual aspects. It just seems like there are too many archaeologists of the "dig it, clean it, label it, store it" variety. It's hard to explain, and I'm probably too sleepy to do so.

I've been looking for grad schools a little. It's hard to find a program where I think I'll "fit".

[libertyanne]

Hmm...no, I don't want to be one of those either. I think that's why I'm so drawn to studying a place and time where cultures "collided" and a change is seen. People are not static and in order to grasp the purpose of an item and its place in the past culture one must strive to understand that culture in all its dynamic edges.

good luck!

[starr103]

I really agree with you on that point. I think to really understand the material evidence that we find we must understand the culture, I think it's completely necessary. Which I suppose is why I'm drawn to pretty much the same areas of study as you are, I want to study places and times where the culture contact and change is so evident. Peter Wells, he studies mainly Celtic stuff, but he has a lot of great books about this type of stuff, like cultures colliding and the identity of people within their culture and timeframe and how look at those things.

[starr103]

That is one of the problems with archaeology and I think that is definitely one of the things that sets us apart. I, personally, want to look at archaeological evidence from an almost ethnohistorical point of view. I don't want to just "dig it, clean it, label it, store it, lets go dig some more!" I want to learn about ancient societies and figure out how they would have fit into the world at the time in which they really existed. It's something like cultural anthropology, just with cultures that don't necessarily exist anymore and so we use the material remains to learn about how they live. Basically, I don't just want to dig, I want to do quite a bit of research along with it and try to fit the pieces together

[libertyanne]

I agree with you Beth on all counts! I just read the Oxford Illustrated History of Prehistoric Europe. You want to talk about fluid boundaries!!! The people in Europe today are not the people there in the mesolithic, not without lots and lots of influences from the Near East, Eastern Europe (steppe, central Asia, etc). That article is bogus. I mean, Indo-European language did not move in until late in the Mesolithic. Ok, I'll stop this rant.

Yes, the cultural class is very frustrating right now but I think Yukleyen is doing a good job finally standing his ground and really taking the floor. I'm only sorry the people were too ignorant for him to design the class as a discussion. I really think he's a good professor.

Ethridge...yeah...at least she's not sleeping with students =)

[frolicswllamas]

Uh, oh; heard more gossip?

[libertyanne]

Just kindle for the Dr. W / JJ affair. Blowing kisses in the hall of the department building. Tell me, why would a professor do that?

Not much other gossip to be had yet. Dr. W continues to be excellent in 304 and very unprofessional in 607. Dr. Ethridge...well, the usual issues including the otherizing thing. She's unique.

[starr103]

I really like Yukleyen, I think he's a great professor and I think now that he's gotten his footing he's doing a very good job, especially with putting up with some of the people in our class (like Luke and the guy that sits in front of me). Talking with him today, he seemed really more confused by the fact that a lot of the people in there have not taken 101. He was asking what the differences were and I told him that most of what we're studying so far in his class was covered in 101 (in my class at least), and he actually apologized for having to cover material that, I think, he thought we should already know. It's probably a little bit different for you because you're a big, bad grad student and all that :)

But, no, I think he really is doing a good job and it's definitely nice to actually have someone that does cultural anthropology teaching this class.

... and I want to be filled in on the gossip, too!