Final post and I am still short by a few

My last post for this course, and I am still five short of the minimum requirement. On that note, I will talk about the article for today and my over all feelings on the subject of ethics in anthropology and archaeology. I like most am very divided on the issue of treatment of the dead. I can see both sides of the argument and understand why archaeologists argue that these remains will help us learn things and help give better insight and understanding on subjects. That said though I do agree that the remains are still a person. I always look at the argument like this, would any archaeologist really be happy if people were digging up his families remains. I see it as "we" the western world would  do not like people digging up our dead, yet we have no problem doing it to others. That is the part that bothers me so much, with this whole ethical debate that anthropology has. I never really see this issue disappearing, I have a feeling that a bit more understanding will happen but no clear, this is what we will always do will ever happen. I am glad, this issue should never be black and white, it is one of those things that needs to be grey, cause no one side is right or wrong. Shifting my focus to the paper I read in class, I guess I should give a bit more context as to why I chose the children article. My one big reason, is I prefer cultural anthropology to archaeology. I find both interesting, but cultural understanding to me just clicks easier and I find the appeal of it that much more. To end this blog, I will say my thoughts on the course. I really enjoyed the over all experience, I might not have done all the readings, the ones I did do though were interesting and gave some nice insight and understanding of what is going on currently in archaeology. I have to say I really enjoyed the first reading response article and how it give this interesting cultural insight on how grave design and burial practices shift through time. The monument analysis, was an interesting experience, never had I though I would spend a day walking through a grave yard for fun/school. I did enjoy it a lot, and have actually gone back a few times to Ross Bay just to walk around/explore and learn more about the graves and the look at the monuments that people chose for their burials. In closing and this is the final piece thank you Dr. McGuire, you were an awesome prof and made the course a lot of fun to learn.

City of the Hawk

I decided to look at the website archaeology.org, for the bases of this rubric break down. I searched Hierakonpolis and found that the archaeology.org website has an interesting area all about the different digs that have gone on there and allows people to explore them while also giving the viewer the notes from the dig site. I found that the evidence and analysis the website uses is amazing. It is a given that it would have top notch analysis and data based on the fact this is all the work from the Archaeologists themselves that have been polished in Archaeology magazine so far. The visual presentation that the website uses is nice nothing over the top, found it to be a simple design and to the point. I find the lay out of the website a bit confusing at moments. The pages all go together but the flow from page to page can get a little confusing and it can be hard to tell exactly where you want to go next.
http://www.archaeology.org/interactive/hierakonpolis/

Gay Caveman

I found an article from The Telegraph that talks about the "gay" caveman found in the Czech Republic. I love how it is all based on the fact that he was found in a grave with grave goods normally associated with females and was laid to rest in the female position. Due to being found with these type of grave goods our first assumption must be of a gay person. This is where clearly North American cultural thinking is playing into our ideas and interpretations of what we find. Taking the information from this article it clearly shows the lack of, looking at other cultures to come up with a better answer then to assume he is a "gay caveman."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8433527/First-homosexual-caveman-found.html

Monument Analysis

Section summary

:General

:Presbyterian

:Anglican

:Reformed Episcopal

:Wesleyan

:Roman Catholic

        The way the group I am part of chose to go about picking the mausoleums, for our project was due to one simple fact. We as a group did not want to have to look at tomb stones and check if they were kids graves and all that kind of work. We opted to go with mausoleum cause they were the easier to do and were much more visually appealing. The scope of our project from what I can recall was based on the fact we were not entirely sure how many graves we should include. We as a group decided that we should just do them all to be on the safe side.  I find it hard for me to really state the problems or limitations on the project as I did miss a good chunk of the work due to being sick. I have to thank my awesome group for helping out and doing my share of the work on the research stuff.
       
      The first question our group came up with was: Does position of the mausoleum within the Ross Bay cemetery landscape provide any information regarding the individual? The simple answer to this is yes, based on just looking at the map taken from the Old Cemeteries Society of Victoria's website. The section's of Ross Bay break down based on religion and a general area. The mausoleums in these areas are used as a way for families to show off their wealth while still maintaining a connection to their religious group. This becomes evident with the Rosso family mausoleum, which represents the families religious status among the Roman Catholic religion. This is evident by the crucifix on top of the mausoleum. It was also interesting to note that this was the newest mausoleum that our group found being built in the mid to late 90's. The other part I find really interesting with the division of the Ross Bay Cemetery was the "W" section in the general area. This area "Contains the Cross of Sacrifice, the Naval Memorial and many graves of soldiers who died in Victoria" (OCS). The reason that this is becomes interesting is that, this houses the dead based on military service rather then religious status. This makes sense as time change and the need for graves become more evident. All of this relates to the study that Garazhian and Papoli Yazdi did with their article "Mortuary practices in Bam after the earthquake: An ethnoarchaeological study."


         The next question our group came up with was: Was mausoleum use limited to, or favored by, a certain social class or social group in the Ross Bay Cemetery? The answer to this is, yes also. This can best be looked at by using the Rithet mausoleum. Thanks to Laura Chambers in our group who went and found out all the background information on all these people. Throughout all her research she was able to find out that the Rithet family was the most prominent family that Victoria had at the time. Laura found out all this info through the use of the website Victoria’s Victoria. The Rithet family prominence can be easily seen by looking at there mausoleum which is easily one biggest mausoleums that is in Ross Bay Cemetery.


http://maps.google.ca/maps/ms?vps=2&hl=en&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=210630812341427334305.0004b7c446c9d63b9b5d9


Work Cited
Garazhian O and  Papoli Yazdi, L. 2008. Mortuary practices in Bam after the earthquake : An ethnoarchaeological Study. Journal of Social Archaeology. P. 94-112


Leona Taylor and Dorothy Mindenhall, “Index of Historical Victoria Newspapers,” Victoria’s Victoria, http://www.victoriasvictoria.ca/, 2007


Old Cemetery Society of Victoria. Ross Bay Cemetery. Available at http://www.oldcem.bc.ca/cem_rb.htm. Last Accessed February 19 2012.

About me

My name's Robert, I'm an Anth major with a focus on cultural anthropology. I'm in my 4th year and if everything goes right, I will be done by next Christmas. Once this degree is done, I'm planning to go into the social working program here at UVic.