The Mysteries of Town Creek

So in my research of the Town Creek group - hopefully the early Mississippian group will be my thesis people - I come across this picture of one of the Siouan burials on the site. The Siouans were a different culture group (made up of different tribes) that moved into Town Creek after the Mississippian inhabitants had left. You can tell this from a number of things - one of them is through burial practices. The Mississippian group buried their dead in a slightly flexed (usually the lower limbs were folded or bent) or completely extended position along cardinal directions (some angle of N-S) with their heads angled East or West.

The Siouans buried their dead in the fetal position, completely flexed. While a lot of Southeastern US groups buried their dead in this position, the interesting thing about this picture is the clay cover that retained the impression of the skeleton. The really interesting thing is that another blogger (http://gulahiyi.blogspot.com/2008/11/clay-sepulchres-along-cullasaja.html) posted some historical documents of Western Carolina settlers finding burials with clay lids. I had originally thought that those reports were anomalies, now it looks like, for the Siouan groups, it was a common practice.

(Picture is from the master's thesis of Martha Graham)

The arm bone is connected to the hand bone is connected to the I need some sleep bone

Osteology test and rough draft of my environmental archaeology paper on the decline of Cahokia due tomorrow...going to be a long night. But at least there is Grey's Anatomy and the hot army dr, so that should be a good time to take a break.

It's cold, officially, and I am layering up because Florida definitely thinned my blood out. All the trees are showing some amazing colors. Walked by the big white oak when taking out the recycling and couldn't help but kick the thick cover of leaves on the ground like I was 5. We had a tree just like it across the road at the last place we lived in WV when I was a kid, and for a minute I was right back there standing across the street, getting ready for the bus...feeling how cold it was. Funny how little things like that can trigger sensory memories.

Working on getting the money together for my Thai field school...whoohoo digging up bones. If you would like to donate to the cause, I accept cash, checks, and all major credit cards : )

Yay for November, I can listen to Christmas songs now without feeling like I am starting too early and I think I may put up my tree soon. If ABC Family can start their countdown to the 25 days of Christmas countdown next Sunday, then I can start singing carols.

Back to work....

Everyone needs to take a deep breath

If you have read a few of my earlier posts, you probably know I am a fan of Obama and I am excited about the turnout of the election yesterday. BUT...I am worried about all of the incredibly negative messages I see on my friends' and family's facebook pages - people who are worried about the beginning of socialism and the end of America.

This is a difficult time for our country...we are losing jobs and homes and carefully invested retirements and college savings. There are people in this world that really do want to hurt us. And for a lot of people, Obama was an unknown and unwanted choice - not because he was Black- but because some of his polices and his rhetoric (and lets face it - a really good smear campaign trying to label him socialist/Marxist) made people nervous. I don't agree with these fears, but that doesn't mean they aren't legitimate. NOW - that does not mean they are entirely accurate - but it does mean that people are nervous and scared about the direction the country could go in and they don't trust Obama.

I'm sorry there is a lack of trust for him and I am sorry that there is so much animosity between conservatives and liberals - as a conservative liberal, I think Obama will turn out to be more centrist than people think, which is good for such a diverse country as ours. And he is no dove that will call the troops back from everywhere - I can only pray that he listens to the men on the ground in Iraq because we can't afford to lose the ground we have gained - we have a moral obligation and duty to leave that country better than when we first arrived. But you will see - liberals and conservatives - a stepped up program in Afghanistan...and some of you liberals will be pissed. But there, we also have an obligation to help...and we have a few people we need to find.

But the bigger thing right now - more than an historic election, more than worries about becoming Communist - is that we have major issues going on in this country that need attention and we need to come together and fix them. That means that even if we disagree about economics or social issues - we need to put those aside and remember that we all live here, together.

People will probably say - well, thats easy for you, your guy won. Honestly...honestly...if McCain had won, I would be saying the same thing. Granted, I would be all down in the mouth and sad right now, but I would suck it up...because my country is more than the issue of McCain or Obama, abortion, or the war in Iraq. However you voted on Tuesday - you voted for America...and we will be fine. That means liberals need to not be douches and gloat and call McCain supporters racist. And conservatives need to realize that some of the stuff said on the campaign trail about a turn towards socialism (and is this the 50's again all of a sudden? don't we remember the awfulness of McCarthyism?) are inaccurate and was done to scare you.

Everyone just needs to take a deep breath. We are going to be fine, but we all need to work together. I am no fan of Bush, but he's my president. And in January, Obama will be all of our president. This is democracy, this is what we stand for as a country.

Obama rally yesterday was awesome. He made some really good points about the economy and came off really strong about defense and taking care of our troops. His ideas about encouraging people to enlist or otherwise volunteer for some sort of national service are important. I especially liked his emphasis on making college affordable, as a broke college student I am all ears. He ties this in with national service - he wants higher education to be attainable for everyone, but those that join the military or the peacecorp should have their college paid for and college work study should be used as a way to volunteer in the community. This is all well and good and I support it, but I need a little help paying for grad school.

It was really cool to be part of one of the largest crowds in NC that he has had so far - 20 to 30,000 people showed up. It feels like all the stories you hear about the '60s - its like a movement...like something different and exciting and good is just around the corner. I have never been so emotionally invested in a campaign and if he loses...ugh, I'm going to be dissappointed and heartbroken. But no matter who wins, everybody has got to suck it up and come together because its going to be a tough job getting this country back on track.

Anyway, Christmas is just around the corner and I have already started watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas - makes me feel warm and fuzzy and I can't wait for the season to start (which happens right after Halloween is over).

Civic Duty

I voted today, am very excited because it's my first national election and, aside from this year's primaries, my first election in general. Doing it early was pretty easy and there was only a small line - which was actually kind of exciting because there you are getting ready to exercise your right to vote and your surrounded by 20 or so of your countrymen getting ready to do the same thing.

So, I'm feeling very connected and part of the process right now. Yay, for being an American : )

Remember to go vote!

Wednesday can't get here fast enough

I have purposefully kept politics out of my posts becuase its a polarizing subject and I think that we need to have more unity now a days....also, I don't want to lose the little viewership that I have based on different points of view..yeah, I'm being a tool, whatever.

BUT! This I have to share and will hopefully be posting video of later...I am going to see Barack Obama on Wednesday!! I know some people don't like him and even I disagree with some of his ideas (not a huge fan of his Iraq pull out plan, though his idea to encourage more community involvement is good)...but I have never felt so energized and hopeful (though that's really cliche now) than I have during this campaign. It feels like we are on the edge of huge change in this country - and I feel like he can take us in an amazing and positive direction.

Plus, his mom was an anthropologist (cultural) who did her fieldwork in the Philippines on blacksmiths..crazy specific. So he's an anthropology baby...which doesn't have anything to do with running the country, but I think is a neat connection.


Can't wait till Wednesday!!

Beautiful campus...some dumb kids...

Apparently, Western Carolina needs to start assigning more homework and explain to these kids how pranks are supposed to be funny, not disturbing.

Really? Really, Car? Really?

So here's a ridiculous story:

Background: One of the guys in my cohort is out of town and the other guy in my group and I are helping to take care of his cats and dog while he and his fiance are away. Went there last night, no big deal...played with the dog, cuddled the kitten. Perfect.

This morning: Ended up staying up All Freakin' Night working on a paper for today that I FINALLY finished at 7:30 am. Ugh. Lay down for a bit and then headed back over to let the puppy out and check on things. Everything is fine except my car window on the driver side seems to not be up all the way. No big deal right? It's electric and I'm resourceful so I play with it as I pull up to the apartment. Doesn't seem to be going up...huh, I think to myself....well, of course I can figure this out, I like to fix things. So I make the horrible horrible decision to roll the window down.

My car door eats the window and makes some really bad 'breaking of something probably really important' sounds. So now my window won't roll up and I can't just park the car with a rolled down window for the rest of the day while I am in class - I live in a nice part of town, but its still a city and while I don't have crazy expensive things the last thing I need is someone to have easy access to steal the radio or even the car itself.

SO...I figure not a big deal, probably just came off the track - not that expensive. I know this because apparently I am also a mechanic. This positive outlook lasts about as long as it takes for the really young and adorable mechanic to take my door apart - which is actually pretty cool looking, by the way. I had already told him my diagnosis and he kind of laughs and make some joke about how I thought it was a simple fix. Yeah, freakin' HILAR-ious.

Turns out...all of that awful crunching and breaking heard earlier? Yup that was the regulator deciding to shatter into a half dozen pieces. This is not hyperbole, I counted those sad little pieces that fell to the ground as the door came apart - a handful of broken white pieces of plastic that means I can't roll down my window and have to get a replacement part - a $200 piece of plastic. Perfect.

So they drill a bolt through my door to keep the window up - which works - and now, $75 later - I am trying to find a cheap regulator to fix my window (which I am told is not likely, but I am research girl - I will find it even if I have to check ebay).

*Sigh* Yeah, so good times this morning. Thank God! I got my paper (due this afternoon) done this morning before I left. Now just two more papers to go before I am taking a day off - I get to watch a Beatles tribute band with a friend of mine this weekend which should be a good time.

Any ideas of where to search for parts other than the junkyard and e-bay would be awesome.

Good Times at the Fair

State Fair was awesome last night! What could be more great than going to a place where just about everything you buy is some sort of fried thing on a stick. The new additions this year? Fried mac and cheese - which I couldn't find - and fried pecan pie - which I saw. My friend tried the deep fried twinkie - she said it was actually pretty good. I was boring and unadventurous and stuck with the normal funnel cake. Funnel cakes at a fair remind me of growing up in WV and going to all the fair and festivals my little town held with my grandmother and getting a funnel cake with her. Sternwheeler Festival and the Parkersburg Homecoming - for being a small area - had some pretty good music come in. Dixie Chicks before they got famous, Diamond Rio, Molly Hatchet Band (who knew they were still touring).

Tomorrow (Monday) would be a good time to go back to the fair - if I had time, what with four papers due this week - because Bobby Flay of Food Network fame will be there...what he's going to do I have no idea, hopefully it will involve making a delicious Southwestern style corn dog with a mango salsa ..yum! (my friend Jo came up with a great recipe he should follow)

Got to see some of the baked and canned goods that won prizes, makes me want to enter a contest sometime with my pepperoni rolls. I'm sure there were larger animals, but we did get to see the champion bunnies - some of those things are huge. I don't know what you are going to do with a 20lb rabbit...maybe eat it?

Anyway, good times at the fair and now its back to environmental archaeology articles.

Coming up for air

Wow, so I just realized that I haven't updated the blog since August. Sorry for the lack of attention, I have been working on keeping my head above water with papers and midterms. On the bright side, my relationship with grad school is a lot less abusive now and according to my mid-term grades, I am not altogether horrible at this - it seems I am actually kind of good. Which has been a nice surprise. Literally, just got out of my second osteology exam. This time it was the bones of the skull plus any of the leg bones from the last section he wanted to throw in. Feel like I did a lot better this time, but I don't like to build myself up and feel cocky just in case things don't turn out so well.

Fall break was last week. Used the time to get a little bit of work done, but mostly just hung out and breathed. It was nice to relax and catch up on sleep...spend some time away from school...after all of the stress and all-nighters from September. Half of my first semester is officially over and for the most part (aside from the usual readings and papers) my attention is turning toward the big semester papers that will come due for two classes in about a month and a half. The nice thing about it is that my profs. have split it up a bit and have deadlines throughout the term to make sure we are progressing correctly. It's a little bit of hand holding that I wasn't expecting and kind of appreciate since I am a notorious procrastinator and will focus too much on all the short-term work (of which there is plenty) and lose site of the long term stuff.

On the thesis front, things are coming along. Hopefully I will be doing something with the Town Creek collection. I have been looking for other settlement sites of the same culture, South Appalachian Mississippian, but so far have not found much in the literature. Apparently the Tennessee Valley Authority talks about them in one of their Environmental Impact Survey, but I haven't found where they were doing their survey work. But there are plenty of mounds in the western part of North Carolina, at least one of them is bound to be from the culture I am studying. Sometime this summer I will need to head out that way and check some of them out if I can, at the least it's a good reason to go get some good barbecue. This part of the state has too much of the Eastern Carolina influence which is way too thin and mustard/vinegary for my taste. And I am still looking for a good Chinese food establishment - found one that is ok (mostly it's just really convenient and cheap), which makes up for the sub-par orange chicken.

It's definitely Fall now. The fact that I lived in Florida for the past two years is now really apparent, because I am ready to break out the heavy coat and everyone else is still walking around in t-shirts. I'm going to have to buy a space heater soon.

Got two books in the past few weeks, one I've read before - the excellent Clea Koff's The Bone Woman...if you want to read about what its like to work as a forensic anthropologist in the '90s Rwanda and Bosnia, this is the book you should be reading. I already knew what I wanted to be before reading this book and after, it has only validated my choice.

The other book is the Forever War by Dexter Filkins. He's an embed journalist who was in Iraq and Afghanistan..though it seems to be more of an Afghanistan emphasis. It reads like stream of conscience and he jumps from one story to the next, current war to one ten years ago, from one country to another...which is slightly disjointed, but the more you read it the easier it is to understand. The thing I like about it so far is that Filkins spent a good bit of time in Afghanistan back in the '90s...and so can contexctualize the current stories he has of the people there with history on the Taliban's rise, what Kandahar was like when the warlords were fighting for power, and the influence of foreign money and fighters in the support and shoring up of Taliban power.

Afghanistan is a place many people in the US don't know much about outside of our current involvment. It's been through a hell of a time for the past couple of decades and lost a lot - the oppressive laws women were subjected to and the loss of important archaeological and cultural history when the Taliban destroyed the statues of Buddha are just a few examples. I'm glad there has been a shift in increased awareness and focus on our military and civil efforts there - the Pentagon has even started employing cultural anthropologists to help provide some insight in what can be done to help the population. You hear so much about America's war fatigue and it has been going on for a long time, but we can make a difference and have been making a difference - we just need to stick it out. But that's the end of my soapbox, I'm going to go start on the copious amounts of homework that I have and look forward to my break tomorrow when I get to have a funnel cake at the fair. Whoohoo fair : )

Obturator, obturator. Foramen, can you hear me?

So, update on grad school - it pretty much rocks. It's hard - ooh boy, it's really hard and there are a lot of papers and reading, but I got to play with bones the other day in my osteology class and that really makes it all worth it. Now I am WAY out of practice, I haven't looked at a real bone - let alone mapped out the geographic points on it - in two years so there is quite a bit of review going on for me right now. But this is all still very awesome.

We have been learning the lower long bones - femur, tibia, fibula - as well as the pelvis and patella. We have also been going over techniques of siding - figuring out the left and right - as well as sexing them - and that's not what you think.

The other bone kid in my grad program showed me a pretty cool - and maybe slightly insensitive - way of siding the pelvic bones (called innominates or os coxa).

Think back to pictures you have seen of the pelvis, there is a notch about halfway down on each side. This is called the Greater Sciatic Notch...place your thumb there like you are picking the bone up (with your palm covering the socket where your femur connects). Now hold it like a phone. The crest of the bone should sweep upwards by your ear and the pubic ramis should angle down toward your mouth. It's not as gross as it sounds. Now, whichever side of your face the "phone" fits more naturally is the side of the body the bone belongs to.

The accompanying diagram of an innominate will give the less anatomy inclined an idea where the geographic points I have mentioned are located. Notice that if you picture the technique, the pictured bone is from the right side of the body.

The weather is starting to cool - it's that interesting mini-season that North Carolina has where the hot summer weather has finally broken, but its not quite chilly enough to be called fall. It feels a lot like springs in Wilmington.

And it's about that time of year, where senior undergrads and those just wanting to go to grad school are starting the application process and taking the unhappy GREs. Good Luck!...and what are you still doing on the internet? Go study! : )

Into my second week of school now and wow - so much reading...and just a lot work. I am at times incredibly excited and amazingly overwhelmed. And I can't quite shake the feeling that I am in way over my head on this one. Kind of a weird feeling since I am really good at the school thing - it's my bag - and yet, here I am worrying about if I am good enough to make it through this pretty intense program. It's a lot of classes in a pretty short amount of time and I am not really sure what my thesis topic will be and it seems like we already need to have a really good idea of what we want to study.

*Sigh* Anyone else feel this way? It will probably pass, I will turn in my first paper and it will be awesome and I will feel like I'm on the level with everyone else. But after being out of school for two years...I feel out of practice.

On the upside, had some good extended family time - we were celebrating the grandparents' belated 60th wedding anniversary. Pretty amazing, although I can't quite imagine spending that much time with one person. Not that I am a fan of jumping around - I have always been more of a penguin. And obviously marriage is a serious commitment, but after 60 years - you have been married for way longer than you were ever single. Pretty inspiring, since divorce is so prevalent and it happened to my family - made me pretty cynical about the whole love thing. But there is still hope, if both sets of my grandparents can stay married for 60 years - well, we will see about me.

Anyway, back to reading - got to get a little homework done before heading out to see Tropic Thunder tonight - looks like a pretty funny movie and hopefully it will live up to the hype.

Getting ready to start classes soon, whoohoo! Definitely a good thing since it feels like all I have done is sit around and continue to spend money with a little bit of unpacking sprinkled in here and there. Some of you will be proud to know I am finally throwing away boxes that I have kept for the past two years - they were broken down and put into the recycling the other day. There are a lot less to finish, but seems like I will never get everything unpacked. Oh well.

The town has been good so far, with the cool Carolina nights starting to set in. Hopefully, the days will get cooler, too - I've had enough of hot and humid from being in Florida where you could walk out the apt door at 7:30 in the morning and start sweating.

Driving on the interstate the other day, I saw a small herd of deer on the side of the highway, strung out along the hill. Nice to see deer again, didn't see any in Florida (which are about the size of a big dog from what I was told). These were your average NC deer - about 4 or 5 ft at the shoulder.

Spent time with the folks this weekend and got some puppy time in. I have never seen a German Shepherd as obsessed with a tennis ball as the parents' puppy is, always thought it was more of a lab thing.

Attaching another movie with this post. When I was in England my friend, who graciously shared her flat and showed me around, recorded a message for our friend who wasn't able to make it over. Enjoy! both of you - hope you like the music choice :) *Took down movie as it fulfilled its purpose : )*

I will be adding another movie of England highlights - hopefully minimizing the shakiness and increasing the interesting-ness. :)

Finally! Moved to North Carolina and getting the new apt set up for the start of grad school. Can't wait to meet the grad kids I will be studying with for the next few years.

I am missing Florida though. It feels weird not going to work everyday and I feel really slack just sitting around unpacking and spending money. It's like I am still on vacation and tomorrow I will wake up remembering that in a few days I will need to pack my suitcase and drive back to Gainesville.

Spent some time at the mom's house with the puppies and took some video. I am posting that as well, you all get to see my very first movie! Very exciting, but also keep in mind it is my first - so it is rough, plus it's not that exciting - but I figured some of you will enjoy the puppy time : )

Hope to have more interesting news for you all soon.

Four weeks until the big move. Looking forward to getting settled and getting school started. Just got to remind myself five months from now - this is what I wanted and worked two years for - go to remind myself to love the pain, stress, and hard work.

Silly Me...

So what's worse than waiting around to find out if you are accepted into grad school (and not getting accepted so having to go through the whole process of application three years in a row, by the way)?

What's worse is waiting to start school after you get accepted. 3 1/2 months and counting till the move to school, another 1/2 month till classes start. And I am excited.

I am not sure who will read this blog, random late-night internet surfers maybe...this can apply to a lot of stuff I guess, but my biggest challenge was getting into grad school...so those of you who are just starting the process or thinking about going to grad school - whether anthropology or something else - don't quit if you don't get in the first time.

Academics have always been my thing - I've had to work at it, but it's been what I'm good at - I even lettered in high school ;) So when I found out I didn't get into grad school my senior year of college I was shocked. What do you mean I am not good enough to be accepted?

So I got my stuff together and did some more research on schools and moved myself across the country and tried again. Granted I kind of hamstrung myself by only applying to one school the second time around. Yeah, no go the second time either. This time I was crushed. It sucked, a lot. I had a whole 'nother year to sit around and watch other people start school and graduate and I was slogging through a regular work day. I had a good job, this helped a lot...but it wasn't in my field or what I want as a career.

I also had the mental clock keeping track of where I should be in school...especially in comparison to my friends who did get into grad school. Nothing like some mental bullying to make you feel good about yourself.

So, I have gone through three separate application cycles and have applied to four schools (three were applied to twice). But I finally got in (I haven't stopped doing little happy dances and for the first few weeks I re-read the acceptance letter ever few days to remind myself it was real).

And the program I was accepted to will not only combine my undergraduate concentration in archaeology with my current interest in human skeletal anatomy, but will also move me back closer to some family and friends I have been missing. The thing is, this program is new - it wasn't around when I first started applying to schools. In fact, this coming school year will only be its second year in existence. Kind of crazy the way things work out.

So when you apply and your letters start coming back...congratulations on your acceptance!...but if it's the other kind of letter....stop and sit down and ask yourself 'how bad do you want it?' It took me forever to finally get accepted (and to make a decent score on the damn GRE), but I got in. And despite not really wanting to take a year off, let alone two....it's been a good two years of real world experience...even if one of the things I've learned is that I really want to be back in school. And I realized that I what I am wanting to do is really what I want to do. Not getting accepted was just an obstacle - not a decision. So don't stop.

Another shot at originality

So, another blog about some random person's life experiences. This particular one is to chronicle my time in grad school and beyond...and to add another virtual voice to the anthropology dialog. Interesting things will be posted, hopefully I will even write a few of them ; )