Weirdness in Netflix suggestions...I've become a big fan of
Netflix (more about my particular
netflix uses later)
But...I'm trying to figure out how liking
Henry & June (the NC-17 film based on the unexpurgated diary of
Anaïs Nin),
Hedwig and the Angry Inch (the musical about the East German rock idol and victim of a botched sex
change operation) or the
Wilco documentary
I am Trying to Break Your Heart (where the band implodes following a conflict with their record label) leads to
Netflix suggesting the film based on the cool children's book
Where The Wild Things Are...any ideas?
Labels: film, Netflix
Method & Theory...A recent post from my colleague over at
Middle Savagery reminds me that for some of us...it physically makes us happy to read theory...I agree...Like Levi
Straussian myths, for me some theory is "good to think."
At the same time I am reminded by one of my current students who is taking a "Method and Theory in Archaeology" class that many of his colleagues in the program simply have not been exposed to, and are not comfortable talking about "theory."...many of these folks see theory as strange, alien, and "not useful."
I have encountered these two groups of people my whole academic career. At the University of Memphis and the University of Arkansas, I was the frustrated "theory guy" in heavily method-oriented programs...However, when I went to the University of Texas at Austin, although I was finally satisfied with the rich theoretical program there, I also began to realize the importance of the
connections between methods and theory...and I felt that some of my colleagues at UT may be very theoretically
sophisticated, but not very fluent in good archaeological methods.
I do not see these two entities as diametrically opposed opposites...I see them as inextricably connected...Obviously this should not be a radical idea (
praxis anyone?), but time and again one meets "theory" people and "dirt archaeologists." Close friends and colleagues even mistakenly stereotyped my long-time collaborator
James Davidson and myself--he was the method guy and I was the theorist...this woefully underestimates Davidson's theoretical savvy and (I think) my practical background.
I am a "dirt archaeologist"...I have years and years of contract archaeology underneath my belt (and over 20 "technical reports"), but I am also proud of my theoretical engagement...and I firmly believe that there is no such thing as "non-theoretical" archaeology...only archaeologists who do not acknowledge what theoretical interests they serve.
Part of the problem is a lack of great examples that connect archaeological methods and theories in a solid (and easily accessible) way...How many books have you read (especially in historical archaeology) that have an eloquent theoretical section weakly linked to the actual artifacts and excavated contexts...they read like two unrelated monographs. I long to see more work that is sound in both its methods and theories.
I'll close by pointing to one literary model I think we should look at...Check out
Larry McMurtry's book Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen...If the
rootsy, plain-spoken western writer can draw sophisticated connections between
Bejamin, storytelling and the West Texas community hub known as the Dairy Queen...theory can be accessible to anyone.
Labels: archaeology, Benjamin, McMurtry, method, theory
Henry Rollins for President...no...really.
That's probably the last thing I thought I'd say...and then I heard an interview with Henry yesterday on Air America's Ring of Fire.
Now...I'm a child of the 1970s and a teenager of the 1980s...So I've actually been a fan of Rollins for years...Of course, he was in one incarnation of the hardcore punk band Black Flag from 1981-1986, and I really got into The Rollins Band (thanks to friend and mentor Shawn Chapman) in college at Memphis State University ...I loved Rollins' all-or-nothing take on punk sensibility...Does anybody else remember the video to Liar off of the mid-1990s Weight album?
Then I lost track of Henry...I didn't really follow his books, spoken word stuff or even his film show on IFC (although I was aware that it existed)...hey, I was in graduate school...I was busy.
Then yesterday came...Mike Papantonio interviewed Rollins and he gave very smart answers with a post-punk attitude...he was angry, he was righteous....but he was also well reasoned, smart and not prone to the Ann Coulter/Rush Limbaugh/Sam Sedar/Randi Rhodes name-calling silliness (that's right...I'm calling out both righties and lefties)...he was swinging hard and swinging carefully. He was exactly the kind of person the left needs...I don't see Henry rolling over as the Democratic leadership has been doing in congress since they took the speakership...
Rollins is a patriot....not the status qou, conforming kind of patriot that politicians and media anchors have been talking about since 9/11...Rolllins is a patriot in the mold of Patrick Henry or Samuel Adams...passionate, smart, eloquent and thinking outside the box while breathing fire at the opposition.
Henry Rollins for President…Oi!
--
Labels: black flag, patriot, politics, president, radio, rollins
The Future of Our Discipline?
Hester Davis just sent me this pic to ID (I assume for publication in an upcoming
Field Notes)...I LOVE THIS PIC...me & Arkansas Archeological Society members Brianne and Harrison Dover at 3HS195 screening in the mud after a evening thunderstorm...at this June's AAS dig near Malvern, AR.
Labels: aas, archeology history, dig, Dover, kids, mud
Not Our Fault? orBlame the Invisible Hand of the MarketThe near-
extinction of the buffalo (or bison as the
sciencey-types call it) has long been laid at the feet of mass
hunting (sometimes actually perpetrated by US
soldiers) aimed at 1) reducing what had become a vital food resource for Plains Indian groups in order to force them off the plains an onto reservations and bording schools and 2) making the Great Plains safe for innocent railroad engines who might find themselves on a
collision course with a menacing stamped of buffalo (or maybe just the occasional loan cow).
Piles of bison skulls on the Great Plains ca. 1870.
But a recent study by University of Calgary environmental economist M. Scott Taylor says that we can now blame Europe's technological innovation and market forces for the buffalo death toll. "The story of the buffalo slaughter is surprisingly not, at bottom, an American one," Taylor said. According to Taylor, the bison killings were a result of an expertise in tanning heavy hides into leather developed in Europe and not practiced in the United States at the time...This sustained Europe's high demand for bison hides (for use mostly as industrial leather)...the study cited about 30 million bison hides were exported from 1871 to 1883 (12 years).
"These market forces overwhelmed the ability of a young and still expanding nation, just out of a bloody civil war, to carefully steward its natural resources," Taylor said...and an the United States Government did not regulate the market in anyway...
On one hand, I find this much more plausible than some recent archeological studies which suggest that the Native Americans themselves were responsible for the die out (see Wade, 2006 in World Archeology)...on the other...I think shifting blame to the so-called "invisible hand" of the market seems like a scape-goat...or at least a cop-out...
I do like how complicated this analysis makes the issue, however...there are social factors (the desired removal of the bison and Native Americans and the desire to make money through international trade), technological factors (leather innovations, the need for industrial leather than drove...the literally belt-driven Industrial Revolution), economic factors (lack of regulation) resulting in dramatic environmental and social consequences for the Great Plains and the Plains Indians....gotta love social histories...even when they are economic.
---
Check out:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20181774/from/ET/
http://www.innovations-report.de/html/berichte/wirtschaft_finanzen/bericht-88259.html
Labels: archeology history, bison, buffalo, Calgary, environment, europe, technology
Does this look like me?This is my "
simpsonized" likeness...I haven't decided if it looks enough like me for me to declare that the thing "works" (I mean besides the many code errors on the application)...at any rate, it certainly
thinned me down!
Try it yourself & wallow in the giant marketing
Juggernaut that is the
Simpsons at:
http://simpsonizeme.com/#
Labels: marketing, simpsonize, Simpsons
The Future of Arkansas History...In 1989 historian Francis
Fukuyama published his contraversial and influential article entitled "The End of History?"
Fukuyama's argument was a theoretical one, but in Arkansas we are facing a much more concrete "end of history"...or at least Arkansas history.
Last year, a 34-member education committee recommended some substantial changes in the history and social studies curriculum here in Arkansas as a part of a overall
curriculum review. The committee, which stated that it wanted to strengthen the teaching of Arkansas history, felt that it was necessary to move it into the social studies curriculum because it felt that as a separate subject Arkansas history often was not being taught in elementary school.
Benton County students taking part in the Van Winkle's Mill history program sponsored by the Rogers Historical Musuem (helped out by Arkansas State Parks and the Arkansas Archeological Survey).
Gov. Mike Beebe has said he supports the department and the new curriculum, but members of the Arkansas History Education Coalition, including former U.S. Sen. David Pryor, met with Commissioner Ken James yesterday to discuss the group's opposition.
The coalition and many other historians are upset with what they expect will be a "watering down" (the words used in most press coverage) of the teaching of Arkansas history in public schools. They are seeking a one-year moratorium on new teaching guidelines that are to go into effect this fall.
Additionally, the coalition believes that the new curriculum may be a violation of Act 786 of 1997 (which required Arkansas history be taught as a subject). Interestingly, Arkansas history is not the only subject being "spread about"...geography is also being dismantled as a subject in order to place it throughout the social science
curriculum.
I do not think that the policy is necessarily bad in theory and I might not be against the "
decompartmentalization" of our school
curriculum if I had faith in the Arkansas educational system as a whole....but remember, Arkansas's education system has been ruled "
unconstitutional" by our state Supreme Court which agreed that the State of Arkansas "is not providing a general, suitable, and efficient system of public education that is good enough and fair enough for our children."
Of course, I can't help but think that if we get rid of enough of the subjects at which we are not doing well, we'll have our education system looking great in no time (he siad sarcastically).
---Related news articles:http://www.nwaonline.net/articles/2007/07/15/news/071507ararkhist.txthttp://www.arkansasnews.com/archive/2007/07/14/News/342753.htmlhttp://www.arkansasnews.com/archive/2007/07/20/News/342805.html---Labels: arkansas, education, history
In the Field, Round 2:
Malvern, Arkansas and Novaculite Trade
I have just returned from my second round of fieldwork this summer...as you know from my previous post, my first round was working on the mission San Juan
del Puerto near Jacksonville, Florida...round two was the two week Arkansas
Archeological Society Summer
Archeological Training Program (AKA "the summer dig")...I love this dig as it gives professionals two weeks to work alongside many regular folks who are
intensely interested in archeology...it (along with Arkansas Archeology Month) is probably one of our biggest outreach events of the year.
This year it was hosted by Dr. Mary Beth Trubitt and my sister station to the north (Henderson State University)...we were excavating on two Archaic-period (6,000 old) sites near Malvern, Arkansas...these sites are very deep (2 meters of deposits or more) and FULL of novaculite flakes and stone tool debris...
What's novaculite you ask? Well novaculite is a sedimentary rock composed mostly of microcrystalline quartz...it is a recrystallized variety of chert....chert reformed under the intense pressure and heat formed during the formation of the Ouachita Mountains. It is dense, hard, white to grayish-black in color, translucent on thin edges, and has a dull to waxy luster.
The word
novaculite is derived from the Latin word
novacula, meaning "razor stone" which is appropriate as it is famous as a whetstones used in sharpening knives, scalpels and wood-working tools....
novaculite puts the "Arkansas" in "Arkansas Stone" (another word often used for these whetstones) because
novaculite only occurs within about 50 mile
radius of Hot Springs, Arkansas.
This distribution is what we're studying at these Archaic sites...it novaculite is famous for sharpening stones today, it was famous as a material to make stone tools in the Archaic period...we find traded stone all over the mid-continent...Dr. Trubitt is beginning to excavate these site by asking the question...how did this trade take place? Did travellers come to the Ouachita Mountains and quarry the materials "buffet style"? Or did local Archaic peoples set up shop as quarrymen and traders?....the latter would be extremely interesting as it runs against our previous picture of Archaic life as consting of small bands of people (20-30 family-related folks) wandering in a semi-nomadic season pattern worrying mostly about their own subsistence...
This year we have only scratched the surface...literally....we did not get to the bottom of the deposits at either sites...but we have excavated a great deal of material which might help answer some of our many questions.
Labels: aas, Archaic, archeology, arkansas, HSU, Malvern, novaculite, trade, Trubitt
