Goodbye Archeology of Death

It's been a good run, but it is coming to an end.

I am glad I took this class, it opened my eyes up quite a bit to the world of archeology. I even used some of the stuff I learned already in my Art History classes (how exciting right?). I enjoyed Erin's teaching style immensely and felt that it was one of the reasons that I enjoyed the class so much. So thank you Erin for not making this class boring and too disturbing.

I loved my group and I enjoyed the projects we completed together. They alone taught me a wealth of Anthropology vocabulary. I tried to teach them some Art History but they were just having none of it.

The readings for this class were engaging and not too dense that I didn't understand what was going on. I did share with some of my friends some information about ancient burial practices and even some more modern ones. They mostly had my reaction: interest with a side of disgusted.

All in all I am glad I took a chance and registered for this course. I learned things that I would have never known otherwise. Even though an Anthropology is definitely not for me I had a lot of fun talking to the people it is perfect for and learning from them. 

Deviant Burial Group: A Love Story

THE HORROR

I have never, ever, I mean since primary school had a positive experience with a group project. There is always someone who does not do their work and slacks off or someone who produces work that they really didn't put effort into and now you have to go back a re-do the project. So you can imagine that when Erin assigned a huge group project worth a considerable chunk of our marks my face was reminiscent of Harry Potter when Dobby dies.

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_loc3cm1Nz01qdgryh.gif

Our first meeting as a group was the awkward "hey guys, we are going to be working together for the next few months. Hope everyone is going to pull their weight...haha". Fair enough every group has that not so enjoyable first encounter. After we did get to know each other a bit love was in the air and we started to become one big happy family. It all started with the burial park, really our first date. Surrounded by the deceased and looking at young men who had given their lives for their country we all started to realize that this was going to be good.

Our weekly meeting turned into something that was looked forward to, we could hear about each other's week. Usually the discussion turned into the subject of Anthro classes since 3/4 of the group major in the field. Once the discussion turned down that road I kind of just sat there and (for the most part) was pommeled with disturbing facts like the existence of "Body Farms". It was all in good fun though.

We had our last meeting a week ago Tuesday. At the end Rachel stood up and exclaimed how happy she was our project was finished then quickly added that she would miss us and in a softer voice added we can all still hang out. I AM HOLDING YOU TO THE RACHEL!

To sum it up this was the best group experience I have ever had in my life. We worked well together, everyone brought different strengths to the group and we all did our work well and on time. I could not have asked for better people to work with and would do a project with them again in a heart beat.

The Art of Taxidermy

While I was looking at my classmates blogs I stumbled across an interesting post by Ethan. The post was about a video that posed the question why don't we taxidermy humans?

First off I should give a little back story: I'm not an Anthropology major, not even an Anthropology minor. I took this class on a suggestion of one of my History in Art professors. When my group realized that I was no akin to the world of dead humans they began to find merriment in finding new ways to gross me out every time we met. I don't know if they like the faces of horror I make or giggle at my complete lack of knowledge that there are places that actually take dead people and stick them in something called a body farm. I swear this shit is straight outta "Bones".. The point is that Ethan is in my group and he has once again completely put me out of my element by posting that video

When I watched it my toes were a bit curled I won't lie. My initial reaction was gross, why would I want my dead Grandma in the living room, I might as well be the creepy guy that keeps his dead mom from "Psycho". Then I remembered that probably the biggest thing I have learned during my time in the Anthropology department is to have an open mind and give things a chance before I make a judgement.

With that in mind I still don't want Grams sitting on the couch with me but I can appreciate the video and I do find it interesting.

Monument Analysis

This is our map:
https://maps.google.ca/maps/ms?msid=209428623316053634853.0004d57c2d27f4aab765b&msa=0&ll=48.505474,-123.382344&spn=0.006511,0.012617

We were told it was a bit too detailed, but hey it was a confusing and large park. I'm proud of our obscene amount of lines!

To the Royal Oak Burial Park I Go

This was my first experience going to a functioning burial park and I'm not going to lie I was a bit nervous about doing so. I was the first one there out of my group so I had a chance to get out and explore the entrance a little bit. May I just say that the huge looming wrought iron gates did absolutely nothing to calm my nerves?

The rest of my group members arrived shortly after me and we started the trek out to go record some graves. When we got to the section we were going to look at we kinda just stood on the road for a few minutes almost daring each other to go first. We finally made our way out and really once I got my feet on the grass and kept myself from remembering there were bodies under me it was totally fine!

We finished recording and then clambered into one car and took a drive around the entire park which is HUGE, I mean like amusement park big. Once we were all done taking pictures and collecting data we left the park just in time for sunset.

Later one of our group members informed the rest of us that upon further digging there was a collection of footstone and headstone burials, meaning I stepped on quite a few graves. After some shuddering I was fine and appreciated the time I spent there.

I will say there was something almost magical about reading the grave markers, it was strange to think that the person below me had a life so different than mine. Since we were recording military burials a lot of the men I was looking at were around the same age as me. It was a little sad to think they died so young and now so much time has passed their descendants probably don't even know where they are buried let alone visit them.

The experience left me with a new understanding of modern burial places, they are more interesting to me now than they are scary.

Emma VS. The Database

Myself and databases have a love-hate, mostly hate relationship.

When I was 17 I had a summer internship at a PR firm in Vancouver. My job consisted of all the other jobs that nobody else wanted to do. This meant that my time was mostly spent doing one of two things: transcribing hours of video or data entry. I hated HATED transcribing video. I loathed the database more.

We would get into starring contests for hours waiting for someone to make the first move, it was usually me and I lost 90% of the time. It would smack talk me, sending me little pop-up messages taunting me. I hit it once but apparently one should not abuse office equipment not matter how much of a little shit it's being... We never reconciled our relationship, I left the firm when summer ended and we did not see each other for years. Not until our data assignment.

I will leave it at we are still not friends and I think it is hopeless. We can be civil, agree to disagree, but we will never in a million years like or even respect each other.

Not a Clue

This blog seems to be dedicated to me figuring out plans for my own death..

When it comes to what I want to have done to my body I will admit I was stumped. 

Having watched far too many episodes of Bones I found myself intrigued by the idea of a Sky Burial (Bones tells Booth that is how she wants to go). Upon further consideration I decided that no, I do not want someone to cut me up into little bits, mix me with goats milk then have animals feast on my remains. I am very happy for the baby vultures that are fed as a result of this practice and I appreciate the tradition behind it, but in my westernized view of the world the only people that cut people apart on a regular basis are Dexter and other serial killers on TV. 

So once again stumped.

I then went paroozing around my fellow classmates blogs, Ethan Littler (http://thetalkingdeadanth397.blogspot.ca/) wrote about becoming a diamond. Which I also found initially intriguing until I thought of the following scenario (which I shared with a friend who laughed at me and proceded to tell me I over think things.) 

...My future daughter is walking down the street after I die and have chosen to become a diamond necklace for her. A stranger stops her and says: "That is a beautiful necklace!" she replies with "Thanks it's made out of my dead mom". All the sudden the police get involved and my daughters day has simply been ruined and she doesn't want to wear dear old mom around her neck again.

Really, I have no idea how I want to go. Apparently I over think things to the point where I no longer find them a good option anymore. Good to know my flaws.

http://www.lifegem.com/ <--company that turns you into a diamond

When I die...

Thank you for making me consider my impending mortality Dr. McGuire!

Just kidding, kind of

I read this prompt, looked around my room and realized my mother lets me bring nothing of actual worth to university.
1. depressing (thanks mom)
2. I now miss my cool stuff.

Off the topic of unknowingly lacking my defining possessions for the past three years (very, very sneaky mom)

My funerary goods woud be: Art, Art Supplies, Shoes and Perfume.

Don't judge, I like when my feet look pretty. If I could be buried in a coffin made of shoes that would make me about as happy as Matt Smith finding Clara Oswald again.

http://doctorwhogifs.tumblr.com/

The works of art would be the important things though, if there  were an overwhelming amount in my favorite styles I think that would tell archeologist quite a bit about me and my tastes. What I love about art history (yup I brought it back to art history again) is that each piece is an imprint of a moment in time. To have a collection surrounding my body that had a piece imprinting a related event during my life would give an archeologists as clear a view as possible of who I was and what I loved.

My mom (same woman who kidnapped my stuff) would pick the same stuff to put with me, my sister would probably pick some of my favorite music to put in because that is what she identifies as being a defining attribute of a person's identity, my brother would put copies of my online footprint in (he understands computers like nobody I have ever met, the wizard) and my dad would put pictures of my past pets. He is a firm believer in equating a personality to the breed of dog a person chooses. I have an English Bulldog, I feel like an archeologist could have a field day with some pictures of my little Suzy-Q laying next to my bones.

Grave goods are going to differ depending on what the person choosing them finds important. My family would all choose things that would reflect me and not them, but they would still be different objects than I would choose.

Megaliths and Stonehenge

My very first paper in my very first university class could have been the most traumatizing experience of my entire life. I made some wild claims, didn't back my argument up with evidence, used wikipedia (the horror) and the worst part of all was that I was trying to relate a 16th century mural to a piece done by Jackson Pollock. It's ok you can laugh, my professor did. My entire argument was based around the color palette both artists were using and how that related to their state of mind, blah, blah, blah. When I got the paper back my professor had written "Well that was a stretch and a half" in rather large soul crushing letters.

My point is that I got excited about a subject I was passionate about and tried to relate things that didn't necessarily go together, but I forced it because I wanted them to. 

I feel like Ramilisonina is kind of pulling a first-year-got-a-little-too-excited in his argument. 

Yes, I understand that it is exciting that wood equates life and stone death in both cultures. Though I also feel like this isn't so much a connection as it is a happy coincidence, much like Pollock using the same palette as 16th century french painter. Not backing his argument with some concrete evidence makes it hard to understand how he can say these two things are connected with such bravado. 

All of us get excited when we see a connection in our head, but sometimes that is where it should stay instead of being presented. Sometimes it is best to just have a private moment in your own head and smile to yourself about a connection you made. 

Then there are those times you can say screw it and let the crazy out because who ever made discoveries playing it safe? 

You go Radilisonina, make your claims! If nothing else they are fun to read about.

Hello! My name is Emma and I'm an Art History major at UVic.

My intrest in Art History lies in ancient middle eastern art, after taking a few classes in my faculty on the subject it was clear that most of the art from that time period was found in graves. Most of my papers and research focused on graves and I imagine that going forward I am going to run into the same thing. With all of this considered, taking a class on how to understand the dead in archaeological terms seemed like a good idea.

So far this class has been better that I expected, reading Funeral of a Rus' was interesting and perplexing. If the rest of the class is as good as the first week I'm extremely excited for the rest of the term.