QOTD: Thinking about political complexity

I've been doing some research into the Middle Atlantic Contact period lately as part of a project I've been working on. It's a very complex time period. Below is a quote I read during my research; you know when you think you know about something, and someone comes at it a different way, and your blinders fall off, and the possibilities just explode? Yeah, like that!

To date, the almost unconscious assumption of hierarchy-as-order remains unexamined among social scientists, especially in the area of complex society. Class relations are cognized as social hierarchies: "marrying up" or "beneath oneself," "climbing the social ladder." Ironically, societies not as pervasively ranged (not as complex) then appear "closer to nature," fostering elitism and rationalizing political and cultural hegemony.... This conflation of hierarchy with order makes it difficult to imagine, much less recognize and study, patterns of relations that are complex but not hierarchical." -- Crumley, Carole L. (1995) Heterarchy and the Analysis of Complex Societies. Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association 6(1); 1-5

Oh... and those tales they told you in high school (and hopefully NOT in university) about the Indians ALL leaving the Middle Atlantic states? Is bunk. A lot of the people who didn't die did leave, either by force or as voluntarily as it can be when you're being pushed out by another group, but there were those who stayed behind.

Going to Write

I've been less than productive on The Book lately. A combination of inertia and real-life, both significant losses (sudden and ongoing) and significant gains (omg, is that an actual social life? How novel!).

And so, I am going to bust out of Grading Jail for a few hours and go do some Book Stuff. Including an update to my editor. I've been procrastinating, wanting to write more so I can report having done more... but I actually think it will be a very useful exercise. I might even surprise myself!

I also need to prep a lecture for Wednesday, but eh, it will have to wait.

Grading Jail, WTF, and Yikes a Bleg

I am in grading jail. One more class and the final exam, but I have a stack of essays and other assignments to grade and get back to my students. At least it is only one class.

Some of their work is very, very good. But, because they didn't actually complete the assignment as given, they're not getting full marks. I read them the riot act at the beginning of the semester about doing the assignments they're given; I re-read them the riot act mid-semester. A lot of them got burned on their in-class presentations for not following instructions. And still? Their written work = incomplete. WTF. I am at a loss.

Finally, Yikes. I'm teaching this summer, but the class will be online. And I have 4 weeks to cover 13 weeks of material. And most of my in-class course is designed for in-class -- films, in-class presentations, handing around casts of human bones, etc. Despite being told that teaching online is just like teaching in-class, but online (another WTF), I have to rejigger my class and somehow do it so that I can get a sense that my students are engaged and understanding the material. I will gladly take any and all suggestions!

Fieldwork: An old farm

I was out doing some fieldwork yesterday; dang but it's nice to be outside! Here are a few photos I took. Enjoy!

Exterior. April 21, 2010

Tools of the trade. April 21, 2010

Milking Shed. April 21, 2010

Barn interior (the milking shed is connected, behind me). April 21, 2010

Water, please! April 21, 2010

Old Orchard. If you look through the trees, that's a bulldozer in the background. Fortunately, it isn't there to take out either these trees or the barn and other outbuildings (for a change!). April 21, 2010

Tweets From The Beyond and An Obvious Thing Pointed Out

ECS's grave marker in Brooklawn Cemetery, The Bronx, NY. Taken by Anthony22, posted at Wikipedia.

Imagine my surprise when a tweet by Elizabeth Cady Stanton floated through my Twitter this evening. I wonder what future historians, mining the public Twitter-feed, will make of the tweets of a dead suffragist!

And may I just say "Harumph" at the lack of accomplishments listed after ECS's name on the grave marker. Her husband died 15 years before she did; I wonder who made the decision not to list her accomplishments? I also recently found out that ECS was Gerrit Smith's cousin. There were a lot of family ties (and religious ones) among the NY Reform set.

*****

Recently posted by John Sallient, moderator of the H-OIEAHC* email list, "... total agreement is not necessary for action. A statement or action by a group can reflect the diversity within it."

There was recently an archaeological initiative that died because of a small number of extremely outspoken opponents, despite a significantly larger number of supporters who didn't feel the need to scream and yell and call people names. Perhaps consensus was too rosy a goal, and actually an unnecessary one.


* OIEAHC = Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture. Pre-1800, in general. Check out their Online Resources to join the e-mail list (a most excellent, moderated discussion forum with an extremely high ratio of content vs. noise), access past issues of William and Mary Quarterly and other goodies.