tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70049902626841532052024-03-12T20:34:52.931-07:00XcavationsTakin' it one level at a timePaul Wrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06609006306944829120noreply@blogger.comBlogger80125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7004990262684153205.post-87915664170044320192011-08-23T22:10:00.000-07:002011-08-23T22:11:51.118-07:00Graduation: check!<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5C7aCCKvNLPJ4mlWsJVCpImHGOMQrnboFlg2A2KpO6XkIBLQtH4BB6f42qIhyphenhyphene0jktuMV1Idzz73x_gLRPbfulF4W01uaBwnZ__aDqwaKSyCIq53Tg55F2RZb80Si-9tlMVsqGzS_SdSC/s1600/shesc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5C7aCCKvNLPJ4mlWsJVCpImHGOMQrnboFlg2A2KpO6XkIBLQtH4BB6f42qIhyphenhyphene0jktuMV1Idzz73x_gLRPbfulF4W01uaBwnZ__aDqwaKSyCIq53Tg55F2RZb80Si-9tlMVsqGzS_SdSC/s320/shesc.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">ASU School of Human Evolution and Social Change</span></td></tr>
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I didn't learn a bit of Spanish, but I still managed to get As in both of my community college courses. I sent the official transcripts to <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.asu.edu/">ASU</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, and I just learned that they conferred my B.A. in Anthropology on August 5th.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"></span>In spite of this successful milestone and my continued interest in Archaeology, I have decided to suspend my pursuit of graduate studies in the field. Instead, I am re-focusing on my current profession, i.e., embedded software design and development.<br />
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The cold, hard truth is that my financial commitments cannot be met with the pay I will find in the social sciences, but working as an aerospace engineer will pay the bills. I love archaeology, but I also love spaceflight and astronomy. I am attending the <a href="http://und.edu/">University of North Dakota</a> beginning this semester, working toward an <a href="http://space.edu/">M.S. in Space Studies</a>. I'm also encouraging my company (a relatively small engineering firm) to pursue work in the growing Commercial Space field, and hope to be a part of humanity's journey into the solar system.<br />
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If you want to keep up with me as I take a different path, you can follow me at my new Twitter account <a href="http://twitter.com/ElevenPointTwo">@ElevenPointTwo</a>, or on my new blog, <a href="http://elevenpoint2.blogspot.com/">ElevenPoint2</a>.<br />
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I'm not turning my back on Archaeology, just on a <i>career</i> in Archaeology. I plan to stay active in the <a href="http://openanthcoop.ning.com/">OAC</a>, read papers that interest me regarding the American Southwest and/or Ancient Urbanism, volunteer at local digs when I can, and attend a conference now and then. But it is definitely being re-classified as a hobby.<br />
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Paul Wrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06609006306944829120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7004990262684153205.post-6838453399531285552011-06-07T13:41:00.000-07:002011-06-07T13:41:50.271-07:00AnthropologiesI was honored to be invited to contribute to <a href="http://www.anthropologiesproject.org/">Anthropologies</a>, which focused on archaeology as a part of anthropology. My short essay <a href="http://www.anthropologiesproject.org/2011/05/archaeology-more-than-strata-and-sherds.html">More than Strata and Sherds</a> appears in the <a href="http://www.anthropologiesproject.org/2011/05/issue-3.html">May issue</a>.Paul Wrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06609006306944829120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7004990262684153205.post-4635134273762966062011-06-05T11:39:00.000-07:002011-06-07T10:23:59.981-07:00Finish the damn B.A.I've been away for a while.<br />
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My career as a "non-traditional" student ground to a halt after the Fall 2009 semester, when I seemed to be out of viable options. Back in September, I <a href="http://openanthcoop.ning.com/profiles/blogs/what-now-a-nontrad-anthro">blogged at the OAC</a> about abandoning my goal of a Ph.D. and instead finding other ways to work as an anthropologist/archaeologist (I included links to some excellent Applied Masters programs in the U.S.).<br />
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Even though I have not taken a course for some time, I have involved myself by attending a conference and a few lectures, continuing to read papers that interest me, and staying in touch with a couple of my professors.<br />
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I had the great fortune to observe my 50th birthday last month. The approach and arrival of this dubious celebration triggered a "last chance" attitude for me with regard to my continued involvement in anthropology, and I decided that any action was better than no action. Here are my current plans and options:<br />
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<ol><li><b>Finish the damn B.A.</b> No matter what I do, holding the degree is way better than trying to explain to a potential employer or graduate program that I have 30 or so credits hours in anthropology. My academic advisor at ASU informed me that I could take SPA 201 and 202 at the community college and then simply apply for graduation. I managed to find two four-week Spanish courses at <a href="http://www.pc.maricopa.edu/">Phoenix College</a> that are completely online via Blackboard, and I'm already two weeks into the first one. I should be able to graduate in August.</li>
</ol>Hmm... so what is number 2? Pursue a Masters of some sort? Get my hands dirty working for a local CRM firm part time, or volunteering with a group like <a href="http://www.southwestarchaeologyteam.org/">SWAT</a>? Ok, it turns out I don't have a plan yet beyond #1. No matter, finishing my first degree in Anthropology is a start. I have a couple of ideas cooking that may be options, but I'll address those in a later post.Paul Wrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06609006306944829120noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7004990262684153205.post-16492029329533216072011-03-16T21:15:00.000-07:002011-03-16T21:15:45.728-07:00Mimbres Lives and Landscapes<img border="0" src="http://sarweb.org/media/images/sar_press_mimbres_lives_and_landscapes_cover_flat/sar_press_mimbres_lives_and_landscapes_cover_flat_m.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 3px 4px;" width="175" />While attending the <a href="http://www.lonjul.net/mog2010/" target="_blank">2010 Mogollon Conference</a> last October, <a href="http://shesc.asu.edu/mnelson" target="_blank">Margaret Nelson</a> and <a href="http://shesc.asu.edu/hegmon" target="_blank">Michelle Hegmon</a> presented some of their recent work in the Mimbres area (see my summaries <a href="http://xcavations.blogspot.com/2010/10/mogollon-conference-day-2-mimbres-lives.html" target="_blank">here</a>). <br />
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These two professors from Arizona State University had recently edited a book dedicated to the Mimbres culture, but the hardcover version was a little too pricey for me. <a href="http://sarweb.org/index.php?sar_press_mimbres_lives_and_landscapes" target="_blank">Mimbres Lives and Landscapes</a> is a <a href="http://sarweb.org/index.php?sar_press_mimbres_lives_and_landscapes" target="_blank">SAR Press</a> publication, and they have <a href="http://sarweb.org/media/files/sar_press_mimbres_lives_and_landscapes_chapter_1.pdf" target="_blank">chapter one</a> available for download as a PDF.<br />
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Not sure how I missed it, but the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1934691240/lunchwithgeor-20" target="_blank">paperback version</a> has been available for a few months now. I ordered my copy tonight, so I'll try to write up a book review as soon as I can.Paul Wrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06609006306944829120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7004990262684153205.post-37627952912564130092010-10-31T18:32:00.000-07:002011-03-16T21:19:34.080-07:00Mogollon Conference - Day 2: Mimbres Lives and Landscapes<div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://shesc.asu.edu/hegmon">Michele Hegmon</a> of Arizona State University asked us to consider the Classic Mimbres society as "Another Way of Being," and to do so through the archaeological data. She began by contrasting the layouts of Mibres pueblos vs. contemporary structures at Mesa Verde.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
Mesa Verde unit pueblos are very uniform in their overall form, and in room size and shape: Room block, kiva, midden. This is suggestive of lower autonomy, greater hierarchy (because someone is dictating the apparent standards).</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Classic Mimbres: Less planning to pueblo layout, variation in arrangement and room size, and each household seems to be self-sufficient (every household shows evidence of processing areas and food preparation). In this type of community, social stability and progress depends on peer pressure to conform (example Classic Mimbres villages: Avilas Canyon, Flying Fish).</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
Hegmon also addressed conformity vs. standing apart. It has been fairly easy to establish a chronology of pottery styles for the Mimbres precisely because of a consistent conformity of style within each period, and then someone stretched the rules and moved to a new design. Mimbres pottery designs are a visual component of a shared culture, where conformity is the norm and is maintained through peer pressure, not hierarchical rule.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
Hegmon also notes that there is little or no evidence of hierarchy in Mimbres burials.<br />
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She closes by wondering: "Why should modern culture care about the Classic Mimbres?" To understand that there are other ways of being... not better or worse ways, just other ways.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.public.asu.edu/%7Ekgust/index.html">Karen Gust Schollmeyer</a> from Simon Frasier University and Arizona State University presented her findings regarding deer hunting by the Mimbres. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">She developed an excellent model for the deer population in the Mimbres area. She simulated hunting effects on the deer, and found that if hunting removed 18% or less of the deer each year, the deer population can remain steady. Middle Mimbres populations reached a demand level (222g, or 2 "deer burgers" per week per person) that exceeded 18%. If she runs the simulation with 26% hunting, the deer population crashes. Even if the hunting drops to 13% after 5 years, the deer never fully recover, instead continuing on a slower decline.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Do archaeological data support this? Dietary stress indicators are present in the record (in the form of evidence for breaking the deer bones to get marrow) that correlate with the same period when Mimbres populations were highest. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">An interesting side note: isotope analysis of deer bones from that period show that some of the deer were eating higher amounts of C4 plants (maize is a C4 plant) than deer from earlier times. Were they eating maize grown by the Mimbres?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
For more information about her ongoing research, take a look at her <a href="http://www.public.asu.edu/%7Ekgust/current%20projects.html">current projects page</a>.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://shesc.asu.edu/mnelson">Margaret Nelson</a> from Arizona State University (hmm... there's a trend here) gave a talk she titled Mibres Archaeology: Then and Now. Diversity was the theme.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><ul><li>Diversity of ceramics styles varies inversely with population size for Mimbres.</li>
</ul></div><div class="MsoNormal"><ul><li>When is diversity good or bad?</li>
</ul></div><div class="MsoNormal"><ul><li>She found in the southwest that with the exception of Zuni, ceramic style diversity varies inversely with relative population density. (Paper out for publication on this)</li>
</ul></div><div class="MsoNormal"><ul><li>Also: Low ceramic style diversity is associated with (actually, is seen immediately prior to) major cultural transformations.</li>
</ul></div><div class="MsoNormal"><ul><li>What are the contexts that promote homogeneity, and what are the consequences?</li>
</ul></div><div class="MsoNormal">In closing: The KIND of diversity we promote is as important as the simple valuing of diversity.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
Nelson and Hegmon are editors of a new book from the SAR Press: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1934691240/lunchwithgeor-20">Mimbres Lives and Landscapes</a>. You can read the <a href="https://www12.ssldomain.com/schoolofamericanresearch/sarpress/images/pdf/sarpress_134.pdf">opening chapter here.</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Paul Wrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06609006306944829120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7004990262684153205.post-77472726746613406652010-10-15T15:17:00.001-07:002011-03-16T21:24:39.840-07:00Mogollon Conference: Day 1 - Ritual SpacesAfter leaving Phoenix at 6:00 am and discovering somewhere along the way that New Mexico is currently in a different (i.e. later) time zone, I somehow still made it to the conference in Las Cruces just in time for the first presentation following the lunch break.<br />
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</div><div>Chuck Adams from the <a href="http://anthropology.arizona.edu/users/ecadams">UofA</a> kicked off a series of presentations on the use of space for rituals in the pueblos. Adams is the director of the Homol'ovi project in northern Arizona, and addressed the evolving use of communal space at Homol'ovi over time.</div><div><br />
</div><div>He points out that these "emergent" communities (as labeled by Kate Spielmann) in the Southwest in the 13th century were using Great Kivas and Plazas for the same reason: To integrate the community. Smaller settlements could use a Great Kiva to bring together the entire population at once, while larger communities needed to employ plazas for public sacred activities.</div><div><br />
</div><div>Just a side note: I was unaware that two of the Homol'ovi communities (Homol'ovi I and II) had more than 1100 rooms each.</div><div><br />
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</div><div>Darrell Creel from <a href="http://www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/anthropology/faculty/creeldg">UT-Austin</a> looked further at the relationship between Great Kivas and Plazas, and concludes the plazas were more than shared domestic spaces. At the Swarts ruin, the Great Kiva open onto the plaza. Not such a big deal, but here was the kicker: Of over a thousand total burials at Swarts, the vast majority were inhumations, with only a few cremations... and the cremations were exclusively buried in the plaza, while nearly all inhumations were in or around room blocks. </div><div><br />
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</div>Paul Wrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06609006306944829120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7004990262684153205.post-83321648174292503752010-10-14T07:43:00.000-07:002011-03-16T21:22:48.562-07:00I am attending the <a href="http://www.lonjul.net/mog2010/">2010 Mogollon Archaeology Conference</a> at New Mexico State University this weekend, starting with the Friday afternoon sessions.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi74gGWIO1XcBIVNMrJnsOMKuvXjWHLYTA_w8j-9dS9FaZUJzTQklu-FVD_2rcT9j6w0971bf1YEqZFJTcYAdeHHwQ-UgNCiHB_j_hQCU2c8roUiCr0vMJMUcjSB8lslpAaXFtpSEatMcuF/s1600/bowl1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi74gGWIO1XcBIVNMrJnsOMKuvXjWHLYTA_w8j-9dS9FaZUJzTQklu-FVD_2rcT9j6w0971bf1YEqZFJTcYAdeHHwQ-UgNCiHB_j_hQCU2c8roUiCr0vMJMUcjSB8lslpAaXFtpSEatMcuF/s320/bowl1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>16th Biennial Mogollon Archaeology Conference</b></span></div><br />
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I'm planning to blog here and at the <a href="http://openanthcoop.ning.com/group/southwestarchaeology">OAC </a>about the sessions, and you might even see a few <a href="http://twitter.com/paulwren">tweets</a>.Paul Wrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06609006306944829120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7004990262684153205.post-88230330857289248782009-06-16T21:16:00.000-07:002010-10-08T23:54:16.461-07:00Four Stone Hearth - 69th EditionWelcome to another edition of the Anthropology Blog Carnival known as the <a href="http://fourstonehearth.net/">Four Stone Hearth</a>. Named for the four fields of Anthropology, I plan to offer this edition's blog posts by those categories, which a bonus fifth category at the end.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sociocultural Anthropology</span></span><br /><br />We're pretty light on posts involving the observation of extant cultures, but Paddy K has done some informal ethnography at his work place: He wonders if the shared behavior he observed is universal in <a href="http://paddyk.wordpress.com/2009/05/17/the-milk-leavers/">The Milk Leavers.</a><br /><br />Here's another look at ordinary people: <a href="http://www.ethnography.com/2009/06/the-ordinary-people-project/">The Ordinary People Project</a> at Ethnography.com (found via Savage Minds). Mark Dawson says he is "taking a few months off to drive to Alaska and have conversations with the random people that I meet along the way." He has already posted videos of his first three interviews.<br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Archaeology</span></span><br /><br />I recently took a seminar on the ancient built environment, so I was immediately intrigued by <a href="http://structuralarchaeology.blogspot.com/2009/06/30-not-going-with-flow.html">Theoretical Structural Archaeology</a>. The sad part for me is that I didn't have time to even read post #30 before I pulled all of this together, let alone posts one through twenty-nine (which are all intended to be read in order). This is no fluffy blog with a few tidbits from Geoff Carter's work-- it IS his work. He is using his blog as the primary vehicle to further his research and share it with us.<br /><br />Tim Jones at <a href="http://remotecentral.blogspot.com/">Remote Central</a> takes us beneath the waters of Lake Huron where<a href="http://remotecentral.blogspot.com/2009/06/evidence-for-palaeoindian-hunters.html"> evidence of Paleoindian hunters has been found</a>. Tim not only summarizes the recent discoveries, he places them in the context of the very different environment that existed 10,000 years ago in the area of the Great Lakes (among other things, many parts were clearly above water!).<br /><br />Under another lake in Sweden (<span>Vänern, the country's largest), a 20-meter-long wreck was discovered and </span>almost immediately touted as the remains of a Viking ship. Martin Rundqvist (the coordinator of this fine blog carnival) was lucky enough to receive photos and x-rays of the Viking weapons recovered from the ship, and rains on the parade when he points out they are neither "Viking," nor "weapons." Read the whole story (and hear Martin's radio appearance on the subject) ar <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/aardvarchaeology/2009/06/vanern_wreck_probably_not_a_vi.php">Aardvarchaeology</a>.<br /><br />Greg Laden <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/06/new_theory_on_earths_magnetic.php">sets the record straight</a> on a recent paper proposing a new contributor to changes in the Earth's magnetic field (archaeometric dating is the loose tie-in for our purposes, and it's a good read).<br /><br />It's Summer time, and that means Field Work. Some arhcaeologists are using their blogs to chronicle their excavations (I'll bet you know of a lot more-- maybe we should compile a more complete list for next time).<br /><ul><li>Mark Henshaw, the <a href="http://archaeologydude.blogspot.com/2009/06/welcome.html">Archaeology Dude</a>, will be reporting on his season at the <a href="http://archaeologydude.blogspot.com/2009/06/angel-site.html">Father Angel Site</a> in Pennsylvania. He's posting videos, too.</li><li>Brian, at <a href="http://olddirt.wordpress.com/2009/06/15/back-from-rat-and-kiska">Old Dirt - New Thoughts</a>, reports on his already-completed field season in the Aleutian Islands.</li><li>Checkout <a href="http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/projArch/recap/index.cfm?CFID=2603722&CFTOKEN=13733231">RECAP</a>, sponsored by the Archaeology Data Service (ADS) in the UK, which will be publishing digital materials from completed projects over the last decade.<br /></li></ul><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Biological Anthropology / Human Evolution</span></span><br /><br />More secrets revealed from the waters: Tim Jones also has an excellent writeup on a <a href="http://anthropology.net/2009/06/15/first-neanderthal-fossil-dredged-from-north-sea">Neanderthal fossil dredged from the North Sea</a> over at Anthropology.net. This is the first time a find like this has been made.<br /><br />The news of <em>Darwinius masilae</em> set the press and the internet all atwitter (did I say that?), and Carl Zimmer reports that the online journal PLoS One will be publishing a corrected version of the article which formally announced the find. His post at The Loom is titled <a href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2009/06/10/darwinius-science-showbiz-and-conflicts-of-interest/">Darwinius: Science, Showbiz, and Conflicts of Interest </a><br /><br />Daniel Lende points us to a list of posts created by his students in his course "Alcohol and Drugs: The Anthropology of Substance Use and Abuse" at <a href="http://neuroanthropology.net/2009/06/04/culture-and-compulsion-student-posts-2009/">Neuroanthropology</a>. They were assigned to look into human compulsion, and wrote some compelling stuff, including this one on <a href="http://neuroanthropology.net/2009/05/28/caught-in-the-net-the-internet-compulsion/">Compulsive Internet Use</a>. Daniel also provides some details on how he structured the course and the assignments.<br /><br />Another post at Neuroanthropology provides links to <a href="http://neuroanthropology.net/2009/06/15/trance-captured-on-video/">Trances Captured on Video</a>, providing "film footage of trance states of various kinds–rituals, dance, shamanic, etc."<br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Linguistics</span></span><br /><br />Wanna be a Linguist? The Linguistic Aanthropology blog has a post listing <a href="http://linganth.blogspot.com/2009/06/universities-offering-graduate-programs.html">Universities Offering Graduate Programs in Linguisitics</a>.<br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Anthropology on the Internet (Bonus Topic)</span></span><br /><br />The internet is changing everything. Information comes to us in many new forms and avenues now that we have the internet, shunting aside not only printed news but even Television sources (for example, people have turned to Twitter to follow current events in Iran, and bashed CNN while they were at it). These posts address the way the internet is changing the way we do anthropology.<br /><br />John Hawks (what 4SH is complete without a post from him?) discusses a recent controversy about <a href="http://johnhawks.net/weblog/topics/meta/blogging-scientific-conferences-macarthur-2009.html">bloggers at scientific conferences</a>, although it doesn't seem to have hit the Anthropology field... yet.<br /><br />The proliferation of open access journals published online is considered a boon to the open sharing of research, but it looks like "Buyer Beware" still applies. Mike Smith (an Aztec archaeologist) alerts us to the story about a supposedly peer-reviewed Bentham <a href="http://publishingarchaeology.blogspot.com/2009/06/hoax-paper-accepted-by-benthan.html">OA Journal which accepted a hoax paper for publication</a>. The submitted paper was created by a very clever article-generating program which puts together very professional-looking articles with figures and tables, and every sentence is technical nonsense.<br /><br />It's amazing to believe that the Open Anthropology Cooperative already boasts over 900 members, and is about three weeks old. If you haven't heard about it, please visit <a href="http://www.antropologi.info/blog/anthropology/anthropology.php?title=the_open_anthropology_cooperative_a_worl&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1">anthropologie.info</a> for a great introduction. It is a marvelous use of the internet to provide greater access and interaction for anthropologists around the world.<br /><br />Lastly, Neuroanthropology has an<a href="http://neuroanthropology.net/2009/06/16/social-networking-and-anthropology-sites-to-cites/"> annotated list of various internet tools and resources</a> to help you integrate social networking into your anthropological practice. Anthropologists out there on the interwebs are using Twitter, Ning networks, Wikis, blogs, Livejournal, and more to keep in touch. To be honest, bythe time this blog carnival comes out every two weeks, the people who are really plugged in via these tools have probably already seen it all... are 4SH's days numbered?<br /><br /><br />Okay, that's it for this time. Be sure to keep your eyes open for the 70th Edition of the Four Stone Hearth in two weeks, hosted at the new home of <a href="http://afarensis99.wordpress.com/">Afarensis</a>.Paul Wrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06609006306944829120noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7004990262684153205.post-87033370703686355862009-06-03T10:51:00.000-07:002010-10-08T23:54:16.488-07:00Four Stone Hearth #68Jump on over to Remote Central to read the latest edition of the <a href="http://remotecentral.blogspot.com/2009/06/four-stone-hearth-68-smokers-delight.html">Four Stone Hearth Anthropology Blog Carnival</a>. This is a big one-- it took me several minutes just to scan it without clicking through!<br /><br />Oh, and if you like reading the Four Stone Hearth every two weeks, imagine how cool it must be to join the <a href="http://openanthcoop.ning.com">Open Anthropology Cooperative</a>!Paul Wrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06609006306944829120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7004990262684153205.post-50003311244076146322009-05-17T16:45:00.000-07:002010-10-08T23:54:16.513-07:00Evidence that Neanderthals were Eaten by Humans? Not Yet.Sometimes, the news media can't resist a sensational, yet false, headline. I caught a glimpse of the following headline:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Humans May Have Eaten Neanderthals</span><br /><br />Yep, I clicked through to the <a href="http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/us_world/Humans-Ate-Nanderthals.html">news story</a>, and it included these lines:<br /><blockquote style="font-style: italic;">Scientists and day-dreamers have long wondered, "What happened to the Neanderthals?" those ancient, distant cousins of modern day humans. Well, the answer may be, we ate them.</blockquote>The story cites a recently published study, and interviews the lead author. I decided to track down the original paper, and was surprised to see that the full article is available online from the Journal of Anthropological Sciences.<br /><br />I read the abstract, scanned the article, and searched for the word "cannibal." Here is the most relevant quote from the paper:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><blockquote><span style="font-weight: bold;">"In our case, however, contextual pieces of information needed to favour the cannibalistic interpretation are missing."<br /><br /></span></blockquote>Silly journalists! Well, the paper does seem to show that Homo sapien and Homo neanderthal remains were found in the same context, so it is interesting. Just not as dramatic as the news headline would have us believe.<br /><br />Here's the abstract from the journal article:<br /><blockquote><br />The view that Aurignacian technologies and their associated symbolic manifestations represent the archaeological proxy for the spread of Anatomically Modern Humans into Europe, is supported by few diagnostic human remains, including those from the Aurignacian site of Les Rois in south-western France. Here we reassess the taxonomic attribution of the human remains, their cultural affiliation, and provide five new radiocarbon dates for the site. Patterns of tooth growth along with the morphological and morphometric analysis of the human remains indicate that a juvenile mandible showing cutmarks presents some Neandertal features, whereas another mandible is attributed to Anatomically Modern Humans. Reappraisal of the archaeological sequence demonstrates that human remains derive from two layers dated to 28-30 kyr BP attributed to the Aurignacian, the only cultural tradition detected at the site. Three possible explanations may account for this unexpected evidence. The first one is that the Aurignacian was exclusively produced by AMH and that the child mandible from unit A2 represents evidence for consumption or, more likely, symbolic use of a Neandertal child by Aurignacian AMH. Th e second possible explanation is that Aurignacian technologies were produced at Les Rois by human groups bearing both AMH and Neandertal features. Human remains from Les Rois would be in this case the first evidence of a biological contact between the two human groups. The third possibility is that all human remains from Les Rois represent an AMH population with conserved plesiomorphic characters suggesting a larger variation in modern humans from the Upper Palaeolithic.</blockquote><br />The full paper is <a href="http://www.isita-org.com/jass/Contents/2009%20vol87/PDF/On-Line_bassa/JASs2009_06_RamirezRozi.pdf">here</a>.<br /><br />UPDATE: John Hawks <a href="http://johnhawks.net/node/1993">comments on the sensationalism</a> as well.Paul Wrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06609006306944829120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7004990262684153205.post-36218999739093672702009-05-01T08:47:00.000-07:002010-10-08T23:54:16.526-07:00Making Your Work Available (Open Access Anthropology Day)<a href="http://www.bloggersunite.org/event/open-access-anthropology-day"><img src="http://www.bloggersunite.org/image/resource/badge/911b127f6c81df358055b10ae9e70b07.jpg" align="right" /></a>When searching the literature for material to support my own research, <a href="http://scholar.google.com/">Google Scholar</a> is an indispensable tool. Still, there are many articles that look promising, but to which I do not have electronic access (even through my own <a href="http://lib.asu.edu/">institution's library</a>).<br /><br />Self-archiving is a great idea, but many authors do not make their work available in this way. Even if they do, it is often very difficult to find... the availability of the paper on a personal web site does not mean I am going to find a link to it in Google Scholar search results.<br /><br />One way around this is to self-archive your papers at <a href="http://works.bepress.com/">Selected Works</a>, from Berkeley Electronic Press. This commercial project offers free web pages to individual academics where they can post their own work, and the best part: Papers posted at Selected Works are indexed by Google Scholar.<br /><br />In preparing for this post, I was testing out whether I could find papers I knew were self-archived. Michal E. Smith, a Mesoamerican archaeologist who is a big proponent of self-archiving (and the creator of <a href="http://publishingarchaeology.blogspot.com/">Publishing Archaeology</a>), makes his papers available on his <a href="http://www.public.asu.edu/%7Emesmith9/Publications.html">own website</a>. I searched for some of these papers using Google Scholar, and found PDFs of them... not on his own page, but at <a href="http://works.bepress.com/michael_e_smith/">his Selected Works page</a>.<br /><br />Self-archiving on your own university website is fine (and everyone should do this), but with Selected Works, you get an easy, professional-looking way to make your downloadable publications <span style="font-weight: bold;">available </span>and <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">findable </span>via the internet.<br /><br /><br />Useful links:<br /><br /><a href="http://publishingarchaeology.blogspot.com/search/label/Self%20archiving">Financial viability of open access</a><br /><br /><a href="http://publishingarchaeology.blogspot.com/2008/07/you-should-self-archive-your.html">You should self-archive your publications</a><br /><br /><a href="http://works.bepress.com/">Selected Works</a>Paul Wrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06609006306944829120noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7004990262684153205.post-90240691579361828842009-04-28T20:22:00.000-07:002010-10-08T23:54:16.536-07:00Were Australopithecines Obligate Bipeds?In a <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0900270106">recent paper</a> published in the journal Nature, Jeremy DeSilva demonstrates that early hominins did not climb like chimpanzees.<br /><br />By studying the way chimpanzees climb, DeSilva was able to get a detailed understanding of the role their ankles play. While climbing a tree trunk, a chimpanzee's ankles flex and rotate in ways that would be impossible for a human to replicate.<br /><br />DeSilva compared the ankle anatomy of chimps and humans, and then compared these to fossil tibia and tali (the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibia">tibia</a> is the weight-bearing bone of the lower leg, and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talus_bone">talus</a> is the upper foot bone which, along with the tibia and fibula, forms the ankle joint) from over a dozen hominins from 4.12 to 1.53 million years ago.<br /><br />What he found is that the anatomy of early hominin ankles shows that they were as poorly adapted as humans to the kind of climbing done by chimps. <a href="http://johnhawks.net/weblog/reviews/early_hominids/anatomy/desilva-2009-chimpanzee-climbing-talus.html">John Hawks</a> has a really good summary on his website, and brings other recent papers and findings into the discussion-- you should <a href="http://johnhawks.net/weblog/reviews/early_hominids/anatomy/desilva-2009-chimpanzee-climbing-talus.html">read it</a>.<br /><br />Here's the rub for me: Was <span style="font-style: italic;">Astralopithecus afarensis</span> a facultative or obligate biped? The thinking up until now has been that they were climbers and facultative walkers. The problem here is that many of the adaptations present in the <span style="font-style: italic;">A. afarensis</span> post-cranial anatomy show that a life in the trees is likely far in their distant past (although clearly it it further in our past-- our body mass relative to arm length/strength is all wrong, and we do not exhibit curved finger bones as the australopithecines did).<br /><br />For climbing, they no longer have an opposable phallux to allow them to grasp branches with their feet, Their arms are not long enough to wrap around a tree trunk (being closer in proportion to humans than chimps), and DeSilva has shown their ankles are no longer adapted to climbing. Take a look at the figure below, which compares the skeletal anatomies of <span style="font-style: italic;">Homo sapiens </span><span>(<span style="font-weight: bold;">a</span>)</span><span style="font-style: italic;">, H. erectus </span><span>(<span style="font-weight: bold;">c</span>)</span><span style="font-style: italic;">, Pan troglodytes,</span><span> aka chimps</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> </span><span>(<span style="font-weight: bold;">b</span>)</span>, and <span style="font-style: italic;">A. afarensis </span><span>(<span style="font-weight: bold;">f</span>)</span> (from <span style="font-style: italic;">Endurance running and the evolution of Homo</span>).<br /><br />This leaves us with terrestrial locomotion. Their pelvis, knee, ankle, and big toe are all well-adapted to an upright, striding gait, and they could not have moved about as a quadruped, since their arms are simply not long enough. All of this seems to point to <span style="font-style: italic;">A. afarensis</span> being an obligate biped.<br /><br />I'm not a biological anthropologist, so don't take my word for it... but it's something to think about.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://pharyngula.org/images/hca_skel_mus.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 545px;" src="http://pharyngula.org/images/hca_skel_mus.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">References:</span><br /><br />2009 DeSilva JM. Functional morphology of the ankle and the likelihood of climbing in early hominins. Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 106:6567-6572.<br /><br />2004 Bramble DM, Lieberman DE Endurance running and the evolution of <i>Homo</i>. Nature 432:345-352.Paul Wrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06609006306944829120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7004990262684153205.post-90865445357491575802009-04-27T16:49:00.000-07:002010-10-08T23:54:16.547-07:00Another Casualty of the Bad EconomyI've always given my employer a lot of credit for being so supportive of my efforts to go back to school, even allowing me to take courses during the day and flexing my schedule to accommodate.<br /><br />Well, the good times are over here too, it seems. I was notified that full-time employees would no longer be allowed to take college courses during regular business hours. In these tough times, they want to get everything they can out of their existing workforce, and I get that.<br /><br />When I was taking lower division anthropology courses at the community colleges here in Phoenix, that was no big deal-- most were offered at night. Graduate courses are another issue entirely. This severely restricts what I can do, and certainly eliminates any possibility of attending NAU any time soon.<br /><br />Lots of thinking to be done...Paul Wrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06609006306944829120noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7004990262684153205.post-48645821947540603722009-04-14T20:58:00.000-07:002010-10-08T23:54:16.560-07:00Back to NAU?Sometimes a little thing can make a big difference.<br /><br />I've been feeling as though my educational plan was stalling-- I'm about to finish the last anthropology course of my B.A., and had no real prospects for next year. ASU won't accept me (since my BA is from there), and I wasn't excited by my UofA experience in Tucson.<br /><br />I had looked at the Fall 2009 schedule at NAU, but all of the graduate classes I would consider taking were at highly inconvenient times, with any one of them causing me to basically miss a day of work every week. Given the current job market, the last thing I need to do is draw attention to myself by asking for exceptional treatment.<br /><br />I have no idea why I did it, but I looked at NAU's online schedule for the Fall again... and noticed that Dr. Smiley's Lithic Analysis course had been moved to Tuesday afternoons at 4:00pm!<br /><br />I applied to NAU as a non-degree-seeking grad student, and e-mailed the professor to make sure he was OK with me taking the class. He replied almost immediately that I was welcome to take the class, so I guess I'm heading North next semester.<br /><br />How does this fit? Well, if I apply and get accepted into the NAU Masters program for Fall 2010, I can already have 6 graduate hours to apply to the program (plus 3 more transfer credits for the graduate seminar on the Preclassic Maya I took in Tucson).Paul Wrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06609006306944829120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7004990262684153205.post-19517058796117198002009-03-25T20:32:00.000-07:002010-10-08T23:54:16.573-07:00A Slow SemesterAfter two straight semesters of graduate seminar courses (which were a lot of work, but that I enjoyed immensely), I have an easy load this semester. I am only taking a single undergraduate course: ASM 246, Human Origins, taught by Donald Johanson (as I <a href="http://www.wannabe-anthropologist.com/2008/11/studying-human-origins.php">described back in November</a>).<br /><br />Johanson is an enjoyable lecturer: Always friendly, explains things clearly, and has great stories from his fieldwork in Africa. My only disappointment is how much of this material was already covered in ASM 104. This makes it more difficult to sit through the lectures, since there's so little "aha" information (at least for me).<br /><br />The light load has left me with a lot more time for my personal research projects, yet I find that I am squandering a great deal of the extra time and not making much headway. Why is it that the more time we have for something, the less efficient we are at getting things done?<br /><br />I read a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/03/business/03road.html">great story in the New York Times</a> about an author, Simon Sinek, who discovered he got a lot less writing done when he reduced his travel and had more time for writing. It seems that he did most of his writing on the plane, and the inevitable dead battery in his laptop provided a sense of urgency that motivated him to write quickly.<br /><br />Does this mean I need a greater workload to be more productive? Perhaps...Paul Wrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06609006306944829120noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7004990262684153205.post-8805076903795608602008-12-15T15:40:00.000-08:002010-10-08T23:54:16.582-07:00Time to Breathe, Time to Visit ParisThe semester is over. What a relief! I submitted my term paper on Thursday night about 11:15pm. No more drives to Tucson, I can now take a little time to breathe.<br /><br />Not too long, however... this Wednesday, my wife and I are leaving for Europe! We'll be spending 8 days in Paris. I've created a <a href="http://paris.kactuswren.com">separate blog</a> to document our adventures... I'm treating it like a notebook for my ethnographic observations of Parisians. I'll do my best to keep it up to date nightly and post as many interesting photos as I can.Paul Wrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06609006306944829120noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7004990262684153205.post-66165069099794859112008-11-24T11:14:00.000-08:002010-10-08T23:54:16.604-07:00Cheap Anthropology Booksas a part of my research project, I needed a chapter from the book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Settlement-Patterns-American-Research-Advanced/dp/0826305563/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1227555535&sr=1-1">Lowland Maya Settlement Patterns</a>. The copies at both ASU and U of A were checked out, so I headed to Amazon.com.<br /><br />Delightfully, there were seven or eight used copies available, ranging in price from $10 to $54. I snapped up the $10 copy, and it arrived just four days later. I wouldn't do this for every source I might need, but this looks like a book I would own, so I went for it.<br /><br />In Amazon's Marketplace (books sold by Amazon customers), one can find numerous out-of-print archaeology and anthropology books and reports, often for very reasonable prices. There are a surprising number of excavation reports available (e.g. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Archaeological-investigations-Arroyo-Hondo-site/dp/B0006YIJOY/ref=lunchwithgeor-20">Archaeological investigations at the Arroyo Hondo site: Third field report, 1972</a>).<br /><br />You can even browse Anthropology or Archaeology books by subtopic. Take a look at these starting points, and use the subtopics in the left-hand nav:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Archaeology-Social-Sciences-Nonfiction-Books/b/ref=bw_ab_75_1?ie=UTF8&node=11242&pf_rd_p=249350501&pf_rd_s=browse&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_i=75&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=08CGQ8MHA3NCH3MK9S3Z">Archaeology Books at Amazon</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/qid=1227555000/ref=sr_nr_n_0?ie=UTF8&rs=11232&bbn=11233&rnid=11232&rh=n%3A53%2Cn%3A11232%2Cn%3A11233">Anthropology Books at Amazon</a><br /><br />You can sort the results by price, customer rating, etc. I've also found several of my textbooks over the last few years on Amazon, usually paying significantly less than the used prices at the university bookstore.Paul Wrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06609006306944829120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7004990262684153205.post-43712591957349247382008-11-22T15:58:00.000-08:002010-10-08T23:54:16.615-07:00Why don't I want to do this?I have three weekends left to finish my research paper for ANTH 553 (Mesoamerican Archaeology). Why can't I make myself get it done? The task seems daunting, so I guess I'm avoiding it.<br /><br />25-40 pages, including bibliography. I have most of the sources, but I've read only a fraction of them. A little advice: Don't do it like this! I began collecting possible sources back in late September, thinking I had a great start. But now, my back is against the wall, and I may not be entirely successful.<br /><br />I think the #1 thing getting in my way is one big fact: My original idea for the research paper isn't going to work. I had hoped to find sufficient data on the Late Preclassic Maya Lowlands that would allow me to identify the way that neighborhoods were organized. Unfortunately, that information is buried several meters below Classic and Postclassic construction phases.<br /><br />So the big challenge is to read about the Late Preclassic sites and try to identify some other indication of changes in social organization, since floorplans of the communities will not be available.<br /><br />I wrote this hoping that admitting my anxiety and avoidance might help get me back on track. We'll see!Paul Wrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06609006306944829120noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7004990262684153205.post-16402241342872781762008-11-20T15:38:00.000-08:002010-10-08T23:54:16.624-07:00Not too early to think about Field School<img src="http://www.bvar.org/image010.jpg" align="right" />Most summer field schools begin accepting applications after the first of the year, and that is right around the corner. I'm starting my search now.<br /><br />Another student in the seminar I'm taking at the University of Arizona worked at Baking Pot last year, a large Classic capital in Belize. The <a href="http://www.bvar.org/fieldwork.htm">Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance</a> (BVAR) project is entering its 20th year, and there is still a lot of work to do there. I'm putting this one at the top of my list for several reasons:<br /><br /><ol><li>It's in Belize, where the official language is English;</li><li>Instead of living in tents, you get to stay in a modest hotel;</li><li>The amount of time you stay is flexible (minumum of 2 weeks).</li></ol><br />I also see that academic credit may be obtained for the course through Galen University/University of Indianapolis (But the additional costs for the classes are significant).<br /><br />If you are interested in attending a field school in the Maya area, this might be a good choice. As I continue my search, I'll compile a list of field schools and create a permanent link to a post which can just keep growing.Paul Wrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06609006306944829120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7004990262684153205.post-83523648573408115972008-11-20T11:27:00.000-08:002010-10-08T23:54:16.636-07:00Anthropology and WoWI've recently begun playing <a href="https://signup.worldofwarcraft.com/trial/overview.html">World of Warcraft</a> (I have four different characters hovering between level 15 and 20), and I've wondered about studying it as a culture.<br /><br />I'm not the first to think this way-- Anthropologist <a href="http://alex.golub.name/log/">Alex Golub</a> from the University of Hawai'i is doing just that. He has an op ed piece up at <a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2008/10/28/golub">Inside Higher Ed</a> where he compares guild raiding parties to classrooms, and believes that the good leadership traits which lead to success in WoW would also help achieve success in teaching.<br /><br />Take a look at <a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2008/10/28/golub">Fear and Humiliation as Legitimate Teaching Methods</a>.<br /><br />Dr. Golub isn't alone either. <a href="http://darrouzet-nardi.net/bonnie/">Bonnie Nardi</a> from UC Irvine has received a NSF $100,000 grant to study why Chinese players (numbering over 5 million) take a different approach to the game than their American counterparts. Here's <a href="http://sciencedude.freedomblogging.com/2008/09/11/uci-tackles-world-of-warcraft-mystery/">more on her work</a>.Paul Wrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06609006306944829120noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7004990262684153205.post-40834083985460527642008-11-19T20:25:00.000-08:002010-10-08T23:54:16.646-07:00More ethnographic work: Dog ShowI went back into the field again last weekend, spending three days among members of the AKC (<a href="http://www.akc.org/events/index.cfm?nav_area=events">American Kennel Club</a>). My wife has gotten pretty deeply involved in showing our 9-month old Dalmatian Charlie, and this time I went along.<br /><br /><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3185/3046339608_41bd0bbf0a.jpg" align="right" width="400" />As with most special interest groups, they are a quirky bunch who take what they are doing very seriously. I've seen similar patterns in a taekwondo community, a Star Trek fan club, an astronomy club, and an amateur archaeology club.<br /><br />Some observations:<br /><br />LANGUAGE<br />As in any culture, there are unique shared ideas and values. These are most readily identified by the special terms they use when speaking to one another. There are the official terms and phrases (e.g. major, best of opposite, reserve), and those that have evolved informally (e.g. stack, bait).<br /><br />RULES: WRITTEN VERSUS PRACTICED<br />There are standards and rules, but it all comes down to the various judge's highly subjective decisions. It is clear that participants believe that winners are not chosen solely on the basis of the dogs' characteristics, but that the reputation of the breeder or the handler (or whether the judge knows them personally) plays a significant part. It is also believed that judges from different regions of the country have significantly different standards by which they judge the dogs. Something besides the documented standards is certainly at work here... in each day of the three-day event there was a different judge, and there were different winners each day. A specific example: On the final day, a judge declared that she would award NO winner among the winners of the previous round since none of them were worthy... and one of these dogs had won a "major" only the day before with a different judge.<br /><br />SOCIAL INEQUALITY AND SEGMENTATION<br />There is a high level of segmentation within the dog show culture. The divisions are naturally drawn along breed lines-- I saw very little interaction across breed groups. There are several coexisting hierarchies:<br /><br /><ol><li>The official stratification of the show itself. This is structured with the show officials at the top, then the judges, and the breeders and handlers at the bottom.</li><li>I thought I also observed an informal hierarchy or pecking order, with dog owners (who do NOT show their own dogs) at the top. They are followed by the professional handlers (hired by these owners), breeders who show their own, and dog owners who show their own dogs at the bottom.</li></ol>COMPETITION<br />Unlike other groups I've observed, the dog show culture's competitive nature results in a broad range of emotions and strained relations between the members. There are, by definition, a lot more losers than winners, and the highly subjective manner in which the winners are chosen leads to continual controversy. In general, I saw a lot of unhappy people. I spoke with more than one individual who questioned whether they wanted to continue their participation.<br /><br /><br /><br />Note: The photo above shows four pups from the same litter. Charlie is the dog on the far left, and that's Teri (my wife) handling him.Paul Wrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06609006306944829120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7004990262684153205.post-36193011002075502272008-11-18T19:54:00.000-08:002010-10-08T23:54:16.655-07:00Out of town... lots of posts to make up!I've been out of town since last Thursday-- I spent four days in Tucson at an AKC-sponsored dog show (Charlie came home without earning any points toward being a Champion...), and this is now my last night of a three-day trip to Minneapolis on business.<br /><br />I've had little or no time on the internet, and very little to blog about. No excuses, though! I still need to create 30 posts by the 30th, and this one counts.Paul Wrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06609006306944829120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7004990262684153205.post-46674074998180710402008-11-12T11:54:00.000-08:002010-10-08T23:54:16.665-07:00Studying Human Origins<img src="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/tryit/evolution/images/lucy.jpeg" align="right" />The Spring 2009 semester is quickly approaching, and I just registered for my final undergraduate Anthropology course: Human Origins. The really great news (beyond the obvious fact that I'm nearly finished with my B.A.) is that this course is taught by <a href="http://shesc.asu.edu/johanson">Donald Johanson</a>.<br /><br />Yep, the famous paleoanthropologist who discovered Lucy teaches an undergraduate course on the subject every other semester right here at <a href="http://shesc.asu.edu/">ASU</a> (the home of his <a href="http://asu.edu/clas/iho/index.html">Institute of Human Origins</a>).<br /><br />Even though I'm planning to specialize in archaeology, I've always been fascinated by the mysteries involving the human family tree. I'm really looking forward to this opportunity.Paul Wrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06609006306944829120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7004990262684153205.post-79950165471066156042008-11-11T20:47:00.000-08:002010-10-08T23:54:16.674-07:00Understand University ProceduresI found myself in a bit of a predicament when I went to register for Spring classes.<br /><br />I'm taking a graduate seminar at the University of Arizona in Tucson this semester, so I am not currently enrolled at ASU. Before I did this I checked with my department, and I was told that I could take one semester off from ASU without any problems, but that if I took two or more off consecutively, I would need to re-apply and get admitted all over again.<br /><br />It turns out that the person in the anthropology department was misinformed, and when I chose not to enroll this semester, I was dropped from the university. When I called to find out why I could not register, I was told that:<br /><br /><ol><li>I would need to fill out an all-new application to the university ("Better start it right now, sir."). This includes listing my high school, all colleges I attended...<br /></li><li>Because of a high volume of applications, I should not expect an answer (i.e., am I accepted) for at least three weeks...</li><li>I would have to move to the latest catalog (i.e., my degree requirements might change)</li><li>I should have filed a Leave of Absence form to avoid the whole mess.</li></ol>The lesson here: Ask the right questions, at the right time, of the right people. Know the process at your university!<br /><br />I have worked it all out, and I will be able to register. All is well, but it was a wild ride.Paul Wrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06609006306944829120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7004990262684153205.post-39867699459682270072008-11-11T09:44:00.000-08:002010-10-08T23:54:16.695-07:00Us and ThemI attended Monday Night Football in person Monday night, and experienced life in the upper deck of a sold-out pro football stadium.<br /><br />It was an interesting experience from several angles. Television has spoiled me... I miss having the TV announcers and decent replays, and I frown at paying $6 for a cold, chewy order of french fries. Being in the upper deck meant the field was a good distance away, but the game was entirely watchable from there.<br /><br />The most interesting part was the crowd around us. I've been to quite a few professional baseball games (I'm a fan of the Arizona Diamondbacks), and I can tell you this was NOTHING like that. Here are a few quick observations, in no particular order:<br /><br /><ol><li>Nearly everyone was wearing a football jersey (myself excluded).</li><li>A majority of the people around me consumed multiple large cups of beer during the game.</li><li>A lot of the people around me yelled at each other as much as they did at the teams or the referees.</li><li>It appeared that a disproportionate number of people in the crowd were significantly overweight.</li></ol><br />When I titled this post, I was not referring to myself or "my group." I wanted to draw attention to the way people so easily form into two factions (from their point of view): "Us" and "Them." Even when so many of these people clearly have a lot in common, the fact that some were fans of the Cardinals and others were San Francisco supporters meant it was okay to draw the line. People who did not know each other had no trouble yelling unkind things back and forth over a short distance, and did so for most of the night.<br /><br />I can understand this kind of thing if you are contending for limited resources (e.g. food, water), but this was conflict for the sake of conflict. Is this the remnant of a survival adaptation? I doubt it is a genetic adaptation to hate people who are different, but I suspect it might be a social adaptation passed on through societal beliefs and behaviors (culture).<br /><br />More thoughts on this later.<br /><br /><img src="http://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-sf2p/v355/92/124/10031738/n10031738_42315907_6276.jpg" />Paul Wrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06609006306944829120noreply@blogger.com1