No, instead of french fires I'll have a side of Pizza

I thought I would channel the environmental anthropologist in me for a brief post on the Pizza is a Vegetable Controversy. This issue is, of course, getting a lot of exposure on both the right and the left, and both sides are misrepresenting fundamental aspects of what is going on. Congress did not declare pizza as a vegetable. Rather, the issue surrounds how much schools can "check off" their vegetable counter for serving tomato puree or tomato paste, which happen to be elements of pizza (but also of other meals that cafeterias serve). Essentially, the Obama administration wants tomato paste to count less than it does now. Congress rejected this proposal, and tomato paste's nutritional status will remain unchanged. But this is a bad thing nonetheless. Even if, as a recent Washington Post article claims, tomato paste has a similar vitamin content as other vegetables (which is probably crap), what else is in tomato paste? I imagine most school district's don't dine on organic products. How many preservatives?  Even better, how much corn syrup??? So, before outraged folks begin boycotting Papa Johns Pizza, we should perhaps look at more insidious interests at play. Ever hear of ConAgra? This exposes another misrepresentation: that Congressional rejection of this proposal protects consumers' right to choose. If anything, encouraging schools to cut corners on their nutritional responsibility to students reduces parents' abilities to make informed decisions, ostensibly a cornerstone of the seemingly free market......

U.S. Cuts UNESCO Funds

The United States is a major contributor to UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. They have cut their funding, in response to admitting and recognizing Palestine as a UNESCO member. The United States is a major contributor/


http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/unesco-votes-to-admit-palestine-over-us-objections/2011/10/31/gIQAMleYZM_story.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15518173

In case you don't know what UNESCO is:

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/

Archaeology and Sustainability?

In a recent issue of Anthropology News, Stephen Nash (2011) expresses doubt that archaeology can be used to solve contemporary environmental issues. Nash argues that never before has the world witnessed the effects of global industrial capitalism, and archaeology simply lacks qualitatively and quantitatively valid analogues to understand these processes comparatively: “Compared to human societies of the past, human society today is simply unrecognizable and, I would argue, not comparable” (Nash 2011:34). Nash’s perspective echoes many other contemporary criticisms (McAnany and Yoffee 2010) of past environmental degradation, particularly of those that appropriate the past to create a morality play of contemporary excess (e.g., Diamond 2005). Nash’s challenge questions not just archaeology’s limited role in the contemporary world but also archaeology’s integration within anthropology— a discipline that has an undeniable role to play in understanding, critiquing, and resolving contemporary problems. 

Admittedly, past political economies were structured differently than global industrial capitalism (Wolf 1982), which has led to resource depletion, poverty, and economic alienation on a scale never witnessed before in the history of humanity. But many of these criticisms are responses to simplified reconstructions of the past that center on single (or paired) variables, particularly demographic or climatological ones. In this respect, Nash is correct on empirical grounds. No contemporary sociocultural anthropologist would reduce complex human lives and historical configurations of people, places, and power to single variables even amid conditions of global warming and population growth. Why should archaeologists?

Diamond, J.

2005    Collapse: How Societies Choose or Fail to Succeed. Penguin.

McAnany, P. and N. Yoffee

2010    Questioning Collapse. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Nash, S.

2011    Archaeology and Sustainability: Improbably Bedfellows. Anthropology News 52:34.

Wolf, E.

1982    Europe and the People Without History. University of California Press, Berkeley.

Robert H. Barlow and H.P. Lovecraft

One of my favorite (non-Mexican) historians of central Mexico is Robert Barlow. Most archaeologists working with Aztec materials are most familiar with his The Extent of the Empire of the Culhua Mexico. His collected works are a valuable addition to the library of any scholar or student. Anytime I am in Mexico City, I usually end up buying at least one volume from the INAH bookstore.

However, I did not know until very recently that Barlow was a friend and collaborator of H.P. Lovecraft, one of my favorite horror authors (at least when I was younger). This knowledge has revitalized my interest in the works of both individuals. Particularly, I am interested in the effect that this relationship (as well as his interest and work in this genre of writing and his poetry) had upon his historical studies of Mexican history (as well as the effect Barlow's interest had upon Lovecraft!).

or am i just looking for new avenues to procrastinate other obligations............well, at least it's seasonal....

Barlow, R.H.
1949 The Extent of the Empire of the Culhua Mexico. University of California Press, Berkeley.

Joshi, S.T., and David Schutlz (editors)
2007 O Fortunate Floridian: H. P. Lovecraft's Letters to R. H. Barlow. University of Tampa Press, Tampa.

Rick Scott Vs. Anthropology

"Is it a vital interest of the state to have more anthropologists? I don’t think so."

 So says Florida Governor Rick Scott.

This is not the first time that anthropology has come under attack. Florida in particular has been hurting. Given that I received a masters in anthropology from FSU, I think that this is of utmost importance. The program at FSU, as many may know, has been suffering from policies emanating from the view that anthropology has no role to play. Is it true that anthropology cannot create jobs? Maybe academic ones these days, but such a myopic vision of anthropology certainly does not characterize the field of practicing anthropologists. For me, it is unfortunate that a politician would seek to de-legitimize and eliminate a discipline that offers a balanced view of the human condition and, frankly, often provides empirical, historical data that can be used to promote greater equality.

Unfortunately, many people, including Scott, do not really know what anthropologists do.  We are viewed as the brokers of the exotic, as the eccentric protagonists in bad movies and Discovery channel specials, as the chroniclers of now extinct ways of life. Like many anthropologists, I find this dominant view of our discipline to be troubling and, at times, suffocating. The AAAs response to Scott was not that effective. Luckily, we can thank the students at the University of South Florida for a more effective defense of the discipline:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rachel-newcomb/to-governor-rick-scott-wh_b_1008964.html

Stay tuned...

For all those thousands who regularly visit this rusty marshalltown, I have not disappeared. Getting settled as a new professor has taken all my time (and classes still have not started!). So, stay tuned for an upcoming post!

I See Data!!!

I think every social scientist, including hyper-humanists, should have a basic working knowledge of computer programs that enable the analysis of quantitative data, both purely numerical and visual. Many reject quantitative approaches, arguing that they misconstrue relationships, reduce them to abstractions, and/or predetermine our analyses of them. In archaeology, this critique targeted the application of approaches from economic geography and, frankly, any approach that smelled positivist (see Tilley 1994). I recall a quote from Heidegger:

“The space provided for in this mathematical manner may be called ‘space,’ the ‘one’ space as such. But in this sense ‘the’ space, ‘space,’ contains no spaces and no places” (Heidegger 1993:333).

As someone who uses GIS fairly regularly, I often see or hear the notion that GIS users have insufficiently dealt with this critique. Perhaps, though this is surely an over-simplification. And I bet that researchers making innovations with view shed analyses and line of site analyses might disagree--as would those researchers attempting to incorporate temporal change into spatial analysis.

The critique of the power of the map is another challenge. When we make maps, we make decisions about size, area, length, orientation, etc. These decisions are ideally connected to the questions we ask. So a projection that preserves area might be better than one that preserves length. UTMs might be good for site maps given the nature of excavation methods, but they might be ineffective at smaller scales (by which I mean more macro-level representations).  Simultaneously, however, these decisions reflect our socialized perspectives of the way the world works. For many westerners, the south is down and the north is up, but there is really no good reason behind this representation. I wonder if anyone recalls the episode of The West Wing with the Cartographers for Social Equality. They attempted to lobby for a new map of the world, using a projection that preserves area over length, and to reposition the global south on the top. The scene is depicted humorously. CJ says, "You're freaking me out." But the arguments they make are valid. Here's a youtube link to the clip I found:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8zBC2dvERM

So, what is the point of this post? Well, good question. It is only by studying the material world--through the acquisition, analysis, and interpretation of empirical data--that we can see, document, and understand the social constitution of space as well as offer substantive critiques of spatial configurations that reinforce inequality and power. This process also is, well, intrinsically fascinating and, at times, fun.

There are data everywhere. Population data, climate data, satellite data, economic data, etc., etc. There are also many, many programs out there to process and analyze such data; some are free. Over the past several years I have compiled numerous links to data sources. I am going to create an "I See Data" gadget on the site to enable the active sharing of data. Much of these data are free. Including areal photos and satellite imagery. All it takes is a will to jump in and not be afraid to figure things out. These data are useful for research and also for pedagogy.

Anyway, I will add some to this blog today and keep adding them as the days progress.


Heidegger, M.
1993 Building Dwelling Thinking. In Basic Writings, edited by D. Farrell Krell, pp. 323-339.
Routledge, London.

Tilley, C.
1994 A Phenomenology of Landscape: Places, Paths and Monuments. Berg, Oxford.

Will the History Channel Ever Recover???

Apparently internationally well-known Egyptologist, Zahi Hawass, has been fired. Regardless of what you think about his research and his popularization of archaeology, this is a fascinating example of politics in the practice of archaeology. This is actually fairly common and happens in Mexico every now and then. The replacement of the consejo head at the INAH in Mexico was a big issue for those of you who paid attention. We tend to overlook the relationship between archaeologists and political parties in the United States, but it also is common. I worked for a year as a Historic Preservation Planner in the state of Florida's Bureau of Archaeological Research. The head of the Division of Historical Resources was a Republican former roommate of Kathryn Harris, then FL Secretary of State (Remember the 2000 election??). There were some interesting shuffles going on that were connected to politics, nepotism, etc., etc.

Here is the AP story.


http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_EGYPT_ANTIQUITIES_MINISTER?SITE=TNJAC&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2011/07/eqypts-antiquities-boss-is-sacke.html?etoc&elq=9b463e8bbd734dbcb388dcc6ea2a8b3b

My First Post

Well, this is going to be a short post. I hope I will have time to post again tomorrow or this weekend.  Anyway, this is my first foray into the world of blogs. I read them often enough that I thought I might as well. In a month I will officially be an assistant professor of anthropology at Georgia State. I was thinking a blog would be a great way to track my progression as a professor as well as my ongoing research. To be honest, I have been inspired by several archaeology and anthropology blogs, especially Savage Minds, Middle Savagery, and Publishing Archaeology, as well as many political and environmental blogs I regularly read. I do not know what I think of these blogs that attract my lurking. Perhaps I will write a posting on these thoughts later. I will also explain the title of this blog.

In the meantime, I have to finish some article revisions and make sure my letter to the editor does not treat one reviewer too rudely. Right now this one review is sort of similar to the following hypothetical exchange:

“What are you wearing on your head?” the reviewer asks. 

“A hat, obviously” I reply.

My interlocutor pauses, smiles, then replies, “No, you aren’t.”

 

I wonder if anyone will read this rusty marshalltown...