Musical Interlude

Still working on the project. I always forget/misremember/block out how long the editing and revision process takes. I will be damned if I lose another weekend to this monster...

So, while my brain occupies itself with sentence structure, tense agreement, the correct placement of figure and plate references, and the completeness of my bibliography, please enjoy The Distillers "Seneca Falls."



Excerpted from the lyrics:

Susan B. Anthony
Forever haunting me
Owned raped sold thrown
A woman was never her own
They cried freedom rise up for me
...
Elizabeth Cady
Forever reminding me
I don't steal the air I breathe
Freedom rise up for me

"I don't steal the air I breathe" should be on a bumper sticker or T-shirt...

An interesting juxtaposition with a blurb from Douglas' The Feminization of American Culture:

Virginia Woolf has written with extraordinary perception of a woman's constant and constantly frustrated need to have "a room of one's own." Perhaps she understood less well why women... often could not even formulate it as a goal. If a person feels, no matter whether consciously or otherwise, devalued, pushed aside, she or he craves first and foremost reassurance of her or his existence.... Given their cultural isolation, a demand for a room of their own could seem like further renunciation of an already slender claim on life, acceptance of solitary confinement. (p. 77)

I need more demanding that I'm not stealing the air I breathe, and less satisfaction with my existence merely being acknowledged. That's been part of the process of my blogging; out of the solitary confinement of my head, and into the world!!!


PS: In searching the WorldCat link for Douglas' book, I was rewarded with "Surv!ving the Fem!n!zat!on of America: How to Keep Women From Ru!n!ng Your L!fe." Sorry, asshat, no searchable or linky goodness promoting your book!

Still alive...

Holy crap, it's been 18 days since I last posted. Needless to say, much is going on. The cold is gone, the deadline is now past (it made a lovely whooshing sound on its way by) and the project is now overdue. At least it's overdue on an internal deadline, and not a to-the-client deadline, though that is starting to become an issue. Some very, very cool stuff in this report, though. It has been very challenging to work through and to write, but very rewarding. There are bits and bobs to mull over here; I'll get to it.

In the rest of life... well, 'tis a roller-coaster. One minute I'm feeling very tall and together (h/t Clio); the next, the rug is gone and I'm free-falling. In an unpleasant sort of way. Much change is afoot; I may post more about it in the future. This is one of those "you can't go over, under, or around it, you must go THROUGH it" situations, and it does feel a lot like a brick wall sometimes. To those who've listened to me kvetch, or asked how I've been... truly, you've been more support than I can properly describe.

While I continue to pull myself together (or hold myself together, depending on the moment), here are some links:

Tired of Tea Party shenannigans in the media 24/7? Bully Bloggers presents The Cocktail Party, "a barstool-roots movement for left wing urban homosexuals and the people who love us." Sign me up! When do I get my membership card and copy of the agenda?

The University of Pennsylvania museum has an "Anthropologists in the Making" summer camp. How cool is that? They're hiring counselors.

The Promise is a multi-media presentation of the Civil Rights movement from the New Yorker. I was captivated.

Old is the New New posts a blog entry about Kymaerica, an alternate public history project that makes Places out of no-wheres, and Significant Events out of thin air. If you think historical markers are a little silly and irrelevant (or even if you think they're an important part of Public History and Public Memory), have a look.

And finally, a Food and Drink in Archaeology Conference. In April. In England. Add it to my list of conferences I'd love to attend, but won't be! Hopefully they post papers on the 'net, or publish a proceedings.


PS: I applied for the jobs. To quote the fine folks at the lottery, "if you don't play, you can't win." I'll worry about taking/not taking said jobs if they ask me if I want them :)

Whining

I have a cold. And a deadline. Neither are making me fit company. That is all.

New Science Scout Badges!

Yay, the Order of Science Scouts has new badges! There are two more I can claim and add to my roster. Ok, one and a half, but I'm rounding up:

The I Have Survived Dangerously Inclement Weather in the Name of Science Badge. It comes with working outside, I suppose. No actual tornadoes, at least not in the line of work, but heat waves, hail, lightening storms, flooding, blinding snow and ice, yes, all of the above. All in cases where we really, really should have packed up and gone inside. I've gotten much more careful with my own safety now that I'm in a supervisory position. It's one thing if I do something stupid, it is quite something else if I let someone else/encourage someone else to do something stupid on my watch.

The I Have an Actual Human Skeleton in my Office Badge. I don't now, but I did. The skeletons I have around now are either real ones (from animals) or casts (from people). When I was an undergrad and a grad student, introductory physical anthropology classes were taught using real human skeletons. In some cases, they were purchased from medical supply houses; in other cases, they were archaeologically-recovered remains. In my opinion, however, there is absolutely no good reason to use real human skeletons in introductory courses. It is not respectful. And all of the skeletons used in these settings suffered damage as a result. The bones were from -people-, people! I think there is a need for exposure to real skeletal material in upper level and graduate classes, particularly when you get into the huge variations that actually exist between individuals and when dealing with pathologies and trauma, but hopefully by the time students have reached this point, they have developed a different way of being around human remains. But this also is ethically fraught, and the wishes of descent groups and living relatives must, imo, be taken into consideration, as must how the teaching will work. There is a big difference between having bones around that get dragged out for classes, and having an assemblage with which students can get important experience by helping to record and analyze.