Field School at Elden Pueblo

I just today finished a week-long archaeological field school at Elden Pueblo, just North of Flagstaff, Arizona.

This was my second full week at the Arizona Archaeological Society field school, directed by Peter Pilles. He is the staff archaeologist for the Coconino National Forest, and is the director of the Elden Pueblo Archaeological Project.

Elden Pueblo is a 65-room pueblo with trash mounds, smaller pueblos, kiva, a large community room, and numerous pit houses that both pre-date and are contemporaneous with the main pueblo. It is the type site for the Elden Phase of the Northern Sinagua tradition (A.D. 1150-1250).

I spent the entire week finishing off work on Pithouse 8, a masonry-lined, rectangular pithouse which had been abandoned , burned, and filled. Later, an above-ground pueblo was constructed on top of the filled pithouse.

Our objectives were to clean out fill which had accumulated since last season, attempt to excavate in search of the South pithouse wall, and expose a bit more of the profile on the East side of the 8-foot deep excavation.

We were able to clarify the stratigraphy of the East side of the pit, but never located the South wall. We found hundreds of large pottery sherds, a few pieces of worked obsidian, and some animal bone.

It was a great experience. Due to the importance of identifying and analyzing all the levels in the pithouse, Peter Pilles spent several hours in our unit, guiding us through the identification of the strata. He can see things I would never have found on my own, yet were obvious once he pointed them out.

The Semester Ended Well

That's because my grade report finally came in for ASB 311: I got an "A"! The take-home final was not that easy, and I was a little afraid that I might end up with a B+.

I'm already registered for next Fall. I'll be taking another class from Dr. Martin (Indians of the Southwest), as well as an introductory course in physical anthropology from Mesa Community College (Stones, Bones, and Human Evolution).

I glad it's Summer, but it's gonna be over soon!

Additional Graduation Requirements

I had an appointment recently with an advisor from ASU's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) where we discussed how many of the classes from my first B.S. would apply toward the new B.A. in Anthropology.

It looks like the requirements are stiffer than when I originally attended in the mid 1980s. In addition to all of the courses required for my major, I will also need to take courses which meet the following requirements. Many of them could count toward my major:

ASU General Studies
"L" Classes - "Literacy and Critical Inquiry" (6 hours needed, so pick two)

"C" Courses - "Cultural Diversity" (3 hours needed, pick one)

"H" Courses - "Historical" (3 hours needed, pick one)


CLAS - College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
"HU" Courses - "Humanities and Fine Arts" (3 hours needed, pick one)

"Bridge" Course (3 hours needed, pick one)

This totals up to 18 hours of additional requirements, although I can definitely take 9 of these hours as part of my major. Still, that's three additional courses whicch I did not expect to take.

For details on these new courses, see my updated plan.

Back to Work

The Spring semester has begun, and I'm finally attending class at Arizona State University.

I'm taking ASB 311, Principles of Social Anthropology, from Dr. John Martin. It was pretty cool to be back on the ASU campus after all these years! I was amazed at how much looked exactly the same as when I attended there in the early 1980s. I felt a bit out of place in the classroom with 40 other students, all of them appearing to be less than 22 years old.

We're going to begin by studying the Dobe Ju/'Hoansi, and follow that with in depth looks at three other cultures.

Another Paper Posted

I just posted to the site a research paper which I wrote for ASB 214 (my comparative religion course). I was inspired by reading the DaVinci Code, and decided to dig deeper into one of the claims made in the book.

Please read The Council of Nicea: Promoting Jesus from Man to God? ...but only if you're interested. There's also a PDF version.

Read any good books lately?

I did. Actually, I listened to it as an audio book, but that did not diminish The DaVinci Code. I really enjoyed the story, and found the ideas he presented to be very interesting.

I've posted a book report that I wrote for ASB 214, but don't read it if you have not read the book. It is full of spoilers!

the Importance of Perspective

We had our second exam tonight, and I think it went pretty well... considering that when the weekend began, I had 14 academic papers to read (so much for changing my "cramming" ways).

One of the 12 essay questions dealt with a paper we read in the section on rituals, a paper which every Anthropology student reads, sooner or later:

Body Ritual among the Nacirema, by Horace Miner, originally published in 1956.

Here's the abstract:

Most cultures exhibit a particular configuration or style. A single value or pattern of perceiving the world often leaves its stamp on several institutions in the society. Examples are "machismo" in Spanish-influenced cultures, "face" in Japanese culture, and "pollution by females" in some highland New Guinea cultures. Here Horace Miner demonstrates that "attitudes about the body" have a pervasive influence on many institutions in Nacirema society.

It's not very long (about 1100 words), but is an excellent study of the peculiar rituals that can be found in a society. I strongly recommend that you read it! Please feel free to add comments to this posting afterwards.