Student Anthropology Workshop

I know that we've floated this idea around in the past, but I thought I should post it here to see what the response is like. I think it could be a great experience for us if we got together and formally presented some of our research to each other. I thought that we could either do it as a reading group where we share our papers before hand and discusses them in a open format with the author, or we can do it in a informal conference format where a person presents for 10 minutes and then the group discusses for 10-15 minutes. This could be really helpful experience for a lot of students who could use the feedback and practice presenting their ideas. I for one, love to hear feed back and critiques of my research. It is the most effective way for it to improve. I thought we could probably make it a formal day event at UVU. It's pretty late in the semester, but I bet we could find good support from the department and the school in organizing the workshop. Is anyone interested in participating in something like this? What kind of format would you prefer? Would you be interested in presenting or just discussing? For how long should the workshop last? What days and times would work for you? If we did lunch in between sessions, before, or after where would you like to go? Let me know what you think. Thanks.

Activist Anthropology

I may be an idealist but I don't care. Here is another side of anthropology expressed in this short mediocre written article by a hipster-blogster. If you are interested in more academic papers on the subject ask me and I can lend you some printed articles. -Erik

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Article:

Instead of attempting to foster some sense of objectivity, an activist anthropologist goes into a project both embracing and confronting her own biases and political agenda. The practice of activist anthropology, according to Christopher Hale of the University of Texas at Austin,

“asks us to identify our deepest ethical-political convictions, and to let them drive the formulation of our research objectives.”

Rather than attempting to suppress those convictions,

“activist research endorses the contrasting tack of making our politics explicit and up-front, reflecting honestly and systematically on how they have shaped our understanding the porblem at hand, and putting them to the service of our analytical endeavor.”

The researcher utilizes personal convictions as a strength, incorporating it into her methodology. Part of activist anthropology involves developing the research questions and project while working with informants, allowing them to participate in the production of knowledge which will contribute to understanding the issues they face and how to resolve them.

“The goal is to carry out the research such that a specified group of people can actively participate, thereby learning research skills themselves, contributing to the data collection, taking an active role in the process of knowledge creation.”

I think that Hale is right that people will provide much better data if they are involved in the data-production process, and that activist anthropology can be a very useful approach when you’re working with activists, or with a population that is experiencing the effects of economic and other kinds of oppression, or that is dealing with ethnic conflicts, etc. Most of the time I think that it is crucial to fully address, and even to embrace one’s own personal-political stance and account for how it directs and affects the research process — in any project. However, I imagine that some kinds of research endeavors require some attempt at distancing oneself — suppressing the subjective, as it were, to some degree. For example, what if the researcher is working with populations that oppose each other, and her own bias gets in the way of generating data, while an appearance of neutrality might grant her more insight into the big picture? What if she’s working with a population whose ethics and politics contradict her own? In other words, how feasible is activist anthropology if the anthropologist is trying to study an “elite” population and doesn’t already sympathize with their concerns? Isn’t there some value to the traditional “outsider” and constructivist “mock-objective” approach in situations like these?

Hale asks some similar questions in the paper, but doesn’t address them there. I wonder what others think …

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-Da End

Students Dig Up Ancient History in Peru

The winter 2010 issue of UVU Magazine published by the Utah Valley University Alumni Association features an article about Dr. Haagen Klaus and the work students did this past sumer in Peru. The article features one of my photos, lower-right, of Joe Luce (wearing blue gloves).

Click the photo above to view the entire magazine and read the article.

Update:

I Spoke with the people at the Krishna Temple today. They are looking forward to us coming on the 13th. Time is roughly what I said, although it may be adjusted slightly. Good news though if we would like to show up a little early they would like to give us a tour and some food as a token of appreciation.

Real Beauty Day

Hello club friends,

This is Ariana and I am doing my senior capstone project for anthropology this semester with Joylin as my faculty advisor. For those of you who do know me, you probably know that almost all of my research has been on women's issues, most recently working with beauty pageant contestants (i know right). Out of this research, I had the idea of having a "Real Beauty" day on campus (Friday, April 2nd) dedicated to raising awareness of the exploitation of female beauty. Some things we are doing:

- Implementing No Makeup Day on campus on April 2nd (yeah!)
- Hanging up a lot of banners with messages such as "Beauty can't be bought or sold"
- Open mic space for people to share ideas about what real beauty is
- One or two hands on activities
- Filming 30 second segments for the TV screens at UVU
- Designing flyers to pass out and T-shirts to wear on April 2nd
- Setting up recycling bins to recycle beauty magazines (we wanted to do a bonfire but decided against it. You're welcome, environment.)

I am looking for help in ANY of these areas, and if you feel interested at all, leave a comment or email me at ariana.bentz@gmail.com. I am really hoping to make a statement and would definitely appreciate any help!

Thanks,
Ariana

Club Service Project

We are trying to organize a service project at the Krishna temple in Spanish Fork. They would like to have a general head count and they will work with us on a time. We are hoping for March 13th about 9 a.m. till 1 p.m.. They may adapt it to their needs but they are pretty open on receiving us when we say we'll be ready. We would be doing work to help them prepare for the Festival of Colors. So if you have an interest and would like to participate please email uvuanth@gmail.com. Notate if you have an interest and would like more info or if you are pretty sure you would be able to attend. The sooner you can get back the better.

Thanks,
Zac


Any one else that is interested in coming is welcome to come as well.

An email we recieved

Dear UVU Anthropology,

I wanted to let you know of an exciting student opportunity to participate on an archaeological project working on the compelling rock-art sites of South-Central California. This is an University of California accredited archaeological field school that is working on painted prehistoric sites on the spectacular Wind Wolves Preserve in the San Emigdio Hills at the southern extent of the San Joaquin Valley, north of Los Angeles and adjacent to the Grapevine/I-5. It focusses on a landscape rich in Native American rock-art and is famous as a refuge during the Mission Period. We have found evidence of Historical occupation of rock-art sites in our excavations with Spanish and Mexican influences plus American settler activity occurring at the sites or nearby. This also is an international collaborative project with collaborations between United Kingdom and UCLA, so the students will meet other staff and students from around the globe. Attached is an announcement and a colour pdf of a magazine article on the project. Funding assistance is available but students will need to apply fairly soon. If you could please forward this to any potential students and/or post in your department, I would be very grateful indeed!

Best regards,

Dr. David Robinson

Excavating Rock Art in California

David Robinson (University of Central Lancashire), Fraser Sturt (University of Southampton), Julienne Bernard (UCLA/Cotsen Institute of Archaeology)

The Enculturating Environments Project is a field school based on the Wind Wolves Preserve in South-Central California. As the largest private preserve in the American West, it is rich in wildlife and dedicated to the protection and restoration of the native environment. It is a beautiful landscape with sandstone mountain peaks, open oak woodlands, grassland potreros, beguiling rock formations and some of the most spectacular rock paintings found anywhere in North America.

These fragile, often multicoloured pictographs are found on sandstone surfaces; as irreplaceable works of art, it is essential that they are properly recorded and researched in controlled and careful circumstances. Our work aims to educate the need to conserve these vital expressions of the native artistry. Found close to these paintings are complex archaeological sites with evidence of a range of associated activities.

Our international collaborative project includes rock-art specialists, historical archaeologists, and environmental archaeologists. We are investigating the past context of these enigmatic works of Native art through digital survey techniques, excavation, and geo-archaeology. The prehistory of this landscape is only now beginning to be explored; excavations focus on pigment quarry sites and middens containing abundant material culture such as lithics (i.e. arrow heads and other chert tools and manufacturing debris), ground stone (i.e. mortars, pestles, manos, metates), cooking waste (small mammal, deer, river muscle), and importantly beads (both prehistoric shell and historical trade beads). As an historical landscape, the region itself is famous for Native resistance to Spanish and Mexican incursions, as a refuge for Mission Indians after the coastal revolt of 1824, and later, for its ranchero operations, even as a hideout for outlaw gangs such as the infamous Joaquin Murietta, the 'Mexican Robin Hood' of the 1850s.

Students are invited to apply for places, which are limited. As a six week field school, we will teach you rock-art recording, digital survey, field excavation, geoarchaeological investigation, and laboratory analysis while you learn about environmental conservation and the wildlife of this spectacular habitat.

You also will learn regional archaeological sequences and the historical development of Western landscapes, including the American and Modern periods, with the development of 'big business' agriculture, water manipulation and oil extraction, in one of the most intensely transformed environments ever to be attributed to human impact.

Equally, you will be part of an international expedition, with students and staff from many universities both local and distant, including University of California Los Angeles, Southampton (England), University of Central Lancashire (England), and others. You also will meet and learn from local professional archaeologists, rock-art conservators, preserve personnel, and biologists.
As part of the UCLA Archaeology Field Program, this is an accredited fieldschool with a full summer quarter's allocation of credit. 

For further information, see the new on-line free access Project Page just published on the international journal Antiquity:

http://antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/robinson323/

To sign up for the field school, go to:

http://www.archaeology.ucla.edu/programs/north-america/u.s.-california-windwolves-connecting-rock-art-and-environment

For inquiries, contact Dr. David Robinson (dwrobinson@uclan.ac.uk).http://www.uclan.ac.uk/scitech/forensic_investigative/files/sci_fz_doc_enculturatinglandscapes.pdf

For further information on the Preserve, visit:http://www.wildlandsconservancy.org/twc_preserve_wind_wolves.html

____________________________

David W. Robinson

Lecturer in Archaeology
School of Forensic & Investigative Sciences
University of Central Lancashire
Preston

United Kingdom
PR1 2HE

Phone (+44) 01772 893756

MB 238B