I Get Wifi in the Cave

Attributed to: @Real_GayCaveman
I really hope that this is not what people picture in their head when they hear about the so-called "Gay Caveman"

After hearing about the so-called "gay caveman", I decided to Google it to see what would turn up. Here is a link to one news article that sums up the popular notion of this "caveman":

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1374060/Gay-caveman-5-000-year-old-male-skeleton-outed-way-buried.html

This webpage also has a few comments under the article which are quite interesting to look at. What struck me the most about this entire news story is the shocking uneducated lens that popular culture still looks through. There are so many things wrong with the title of "gay caveman" that it is exhausting to work through all the issues! This post will not cover these inconsistencies between popular culture and scientific fact (as that would take hundreds of pages), but will instead look at how this notion of "gayness" and modern sexual labels are being extended back as far as at least 2500 BC (by the way: there were no cavemen around 2500 BC).  If there are any anthropology students out there reading this, you will immediately see how irritating this comment is. The way I see it, (after learning much more about gender archaeology and gender interpretations of archaeological remains), it is very easy for the mass media and popular culture, and even archaeologists, to pose their own modern views of gender and sexual orientation onto the past. It is also very easy to overlook that this process is even happening. I think that this news story clearly highlights the problems with not acknowledging the possibility of this process occurring, as well as the shocking extent uneducated people will go with a notion they know nothing about. For example, while researching the "gay caveman", I came across the Gay Caveman on Twitter. Yes, Twitter. Apparently "cavemen" are not only still around, but are also very active online! Here is the link for you to check out:

 https://twitter.com/Real_GayCaveman

 Obviously employed as a humour tactic, this Twitter account really delves into popular culture's ideas of what they consider to be cavemen, while simultaneously injecting this notion with popular culture's idea of "gayness".  As I went through some of the Gay Caveman's tweets, I found it intriguing (in a critical way) that cavemen and gays can be stereotyped in such a way together in one entity. For example, one post stated: "A drunken T-Rex outside my cave is making all sorts of racket... if I wasn't wearing this moisturizing mask I'd go say a something", and "The wheel is probably the most important mechanical invention of all time... And the feather boa" (@Real_GayCaveman). Personally, I think it would be redundant to go over the flaws in these sentences. With that said, however, this Twitter account is no different than how the media interprets and portrays the "gay caveman" found in the Czech. This Twitter version is just much more blunt with its stereotypical (and problematic) account.

Google Map of Chinese Cemetery at Harling Point in Victoria

View Chinese Cemetery at Harling Point in a larger map

The Hot and New Trends in Burial Alternatives

If I were to ask you how you would like your body to be disposed of when you pass, you would probably say that you would like to be cremated, or perhaps buried in a cemetery.  Are there any other methods?  Now, what if I told you that you could have your cremated ashes shot into space and even land on the moon?  Crazy, right?  Not according to this article on http://www.livescience.com, that talks about eight different new ways people can be buried (or not).

Link to the mentioned article is here:
http://www.livescience.com/15980-death-8-burial-alternatives.html (there are also great links to other articles on strange burial practices).

Stephanie Pappas from Live Science highlights in her article "After Death: Eight Burial Alternatives That are Going Mainstream" the eight trends of burial practices today.  The first one (the most popular) is the new environmental take on cremation, called resomation.  It essentially involves liquifying the body via "heated water and potassium hydroxide" (Pappas, 2011).  Bone is then left behind and crushed down and given to the loved ones just like cremated ashes.  Okay... so it is definitely interesting and environmentally friendly, but liquify?

 Maybe the next one is more your speed: natural burial.  This is much closer to the traditional notion of burial, but in a much more environmentally conscious way.  Instead of chemicals being used to preserve the body, it is wrapped in a shroud and put into the earth.  Just that simple.  In this instance, one gains the feeling of giving back to the earth.  In his blog "Grave Matters" Mark Harris gives a detailed account of this practice and why it is on the rise in popularity.  Here is the link: http://grave-matters.blogspot.ca/2010/09/green-burials-take-deep-root-in.html.

 Eternal reefs are another idea, if you want to have your bones become a part of a reef and its corresponding sea life.

Cryonics is the next practice, for those of you who have watched too many sci-fi movies!  Essentially, one is frozen in the hopes of being awoken in the future with the aid of new medical science.  It may be worthwhile, but it will cost you a pretty penny:  $200 000 for your whole body to be frozen and stored, and for those of you who are cutting back a little bit financially, you can have your head frozen and stored for a mere $80 000.

As mentioned above, space burial is the next method on the list, followed by mummification.  Coming from someone who grew up pouring over books about the ancient Egyptians, this sounds extremely fascinating!  This practice is somewhat like cryonics, however, since many have planned to utilize this option with the faith that their DNA will be cloned in the future.
 Plastination is next, and no, this does not include turning into Barbie or Ken.  This method was first introduced by Gunther von Hagens, who has created a form of art out of bodies that have been almost perfectly preserved.  You may know his work from Body Worlds.  Here is a link to how they actually do plastination: http://www.bodyworlds.com/en/plastination/method_plastination.html.

Lastly, there is promession, which involves freeze drying the body, after which it is shaken and broken up.  The fragments left behind can then be buried, but it is suggested that they be buried in a shallow grave so that they are quickly become a part of the dirt and earth. 

All of these methods are very interesting, but I think that it is important to note the individual and environmental undertones incorporated in all of them.  It seems as if people are becoming more concerned about their body's affect on the Earth, rather than leaving a memory with their family members or loved ones.  I think that this is especially important when considering our "North American" society, which is definitely reflected in our burial practices, or lack thereof.  To end, I would like to include this video about cryonics.  A a caution, though, it is extremely graphic and shows the surgical procedure.  It raises a lot of valid questions though, including: is this natural?  Is this ethical?  Is this considered a belief in the afterlife?  I would love to hear what you think and how this relates back to the culture we live in today.

Here is the video (Again, Caution, this is very graphic and can be disturbing):  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuLjw8Arm88
 

My Identity In My Grave Goods

 Although this may seem like a very depressing topic, I think it might be an interesting brain exercise!  What would you put in your grave if you wanted to express your identity to future archaeologists?  If you're anything like me, you have absolutely no clue!  I started off by thinking about things I liked, my hobbies and my passions, which is great way to express identity; however, that is not what I would do.  Maybe it is because I am an anthropology major and have an idea as to how an anthropologist might interpret my grave goods, or maybe it is just because I am strange, but I would choose goods which would (hopefully) express my ideological frameworks.


First off, I would prefer to be cremated, which I think says a lot in and of itself.  A cremation says a lot about the environmental concerns of a society or culture (especially today), as well as retaining a notion of reincarnation.  Now, I am not outright claiming that I completely believe in this, but I really do like the idea of coming back and learning to be a morally better person, which especially corresponds with Buddhist beliefs.  Perhaps the inclusion of a Buddha statuette would further enforce this.

    Image taken from: http://www.be-mag.com/msgboard/showthread.php/41926-New-rule.

Throughout my schooling, I have developed a strong yearning for scientific theories and hypotheses, especially within the realm of physical anthropology. I think that archaeology needs to follow in the foot steps of forensic anthropology, and that this may provide more concrete answers to the questions that sites bring up. How would I represent this in a grave?  Well, for starters, I cannot help but think about Dr. Temperance Brennan from the t.v. show "Bones", and what she would say about science and anthropology.  A DVD of season one of "Bones" will suffice! 

 

Picture taken from: http://bones.otavo.tv/download-bones-episodes 

Lastly, I would include a painting that my sister-in-law and I purchased together.  It is an oil painting done by a local artist of two ships in battle, and it speaks multitudes to me as an image of peace.  I say "peace" because this is how I define beauty, and this painting is truly beautiful.  I think it is very important to never lose the ability to see beauty, because too often we all get a little lost in the hardships of life.

 

This is my own picture of the oil painting mentioned above.

Now, if someone else was to choose my grave goods, it would be my family and my fiance.  I think that they would probably choose items that would represent my relationships with them, as well as those that would express my identity.  Perhaps my engagement ring would be chosen?  Albums that I love oh so dearly (such as an original 1975 "Wish You Were Here" album still in its untouched shrink wrap), and maybe some sheet music for the flute?  Pictures and short poems?  It is hard to tell, but I know that my family would choose items that would probably better represent me than those that I would choose for myself.  I think this is because I would want to express something other than my identity, whereas my family would want to acknowledge the specific individual (me) who has passed so that they could always come back to those items. 

After completing this exercise, I have grown more concerned about the way that archaeologists interpret grave goods.  There are so many ways out there to interpret one item in a particular context, which makes me nervous that we may be interpreting sites, their graves, and grave goods incorrectly.  I am starting to see a theme in my blog: Scientific Methodologies towards Anthropology!  I cannot escape it!

Ethnography, Ethnoarchaeology, and Analogy

Boy is that a mouthful!  These three concepts (ethnography, ethnoarchaeology, and analogy) seem to be at the forefront of the methods applied to the research of burial rituals, which is understandable considering the lack of living evidence archaeologists have to work with in this field!  Ethnography is the creation of a rich description of a community or culture which has been produced throughout a prolonged stay with such a community.  Ethnoarchaeology uses ethnographies and physical remains for the comparison between different cultures in order to create hypotheses about cultures we cannot research ethnographically today.  In my Archaeology of Death class this week, we were asked to critically comment on analogies made by Ramilisonina and Mike Pearson who produced research relating the burial practices seen at Stonehenge, Woodhenge and Bluestonehenge in England with Ramilisonina's native Madagascar megaliths.  The interview link is posted below.

www.archaeology.org/1001/etc/conversation.html     

Drawing analogies in archaeological research is a tricky thing to do, especially since archaeologists may be cursed with a lack of hard evidence.  Rimilisonina and Pearson's research may make some squirm in that they are trying to tie the knot between two vastly distinct places and time frames.  However, I feel that their notion makes an important point: we are all human, therefore, there is a chance in reproducing the same ideological practices.  Yet again, with that said... I think that Rimilisonina and Pearson are making quite a large jump without providing any substantial evidence linking the two sites further.  A link to the critique of Rimilisonina and Pearson's methodology outlined in "B"'s blog is provided below.   

http://brian-mountainman.blogspot.ca/2010/11/sacred-stones-and-madagascar.html

I have to be honest here, I am torn.  I think that it is definitely archaeology's duty to provide hypotheses to explain the odd phenomena on this planet we call Earth, but (and this is a big "but" for me) I think that if archaeology wants to be considered a "real" science, its scientists must be gathering physical evidence and data to falsify hypotheses, thus putting these hypothetical hypotheses to work.  Otherwise it seems to be a waste of time, hard training, and intellect.  Analogies are great, BUT they need to be tested.

Lastly, I would like to conclude with bringing in the idea of ethnography since one cannot have ethnoarchaeology without ethnography!  I am currently reading an ethnography by Andrew Walsh called "Made in Madagascar: Sapphires, Ecotourism, and the Global Bazaar" which is a detailed account of how sapphire miners make a living in Ankarana, Madagascar.  It is interesting to note that digging into stone is an essential step in mining sapphires, something that by Rimilisonina and Pearson's research would deem wrong, since "stone in Madagascar is really for sacred purposes" (www.archaeology.org/1001/etc/conversation.html). Perhaps more recent ethnographic research needs to be done?  Also, I find it hard to use an analogy as an archaeological method since it heavily relies on ethnoarchaeology, and ethnoarchaeology relies on the use of ethnography.  It is virtually impossible to have a written ethnography on the people who built Stonehenge, Woodhenge and Bluestonehenge.  Therefore, I think that the analogy that Rimilisonina and Pearson's notion may skew our knowledge of each, individual culture, leading academics and the public down a misinterpreted path.

This is a photo of a cave entrance in Ankarana, Madagascar.  Malagsy people would go into these caves to converse with their ancestors by drawing out very precise rituals (Walsh, 2012).
Attributed to: Rhett A. Butler, taken from http://travel.mongabay.com/madagascar/images/madagascar_3957.html

Photography at Pioneer Square

I just wanted to share some photos I took at Pioneer Square here in Victoria.  I took these in late January of last year.

Who I Am

Hello!  I am Caitlin, a third year undergraduate student in anthropology at UVic.  What really got me into anthropology was its ability to somehow make me feel connected to the rest of the world without having to travel (although I would love to actually see the world).  In anthropology one gets the opportunity to learn about different cultures, as well as one's own culture, and is equipped with the tools to interact with people from different parts of the world who have alter viewpoints than one's own.  I find this fascinating!  One of the reasons I fell in love with the prospect of taking the Archaeology of Death course offered at UVic was that it deals with one thing that all cultures must account for in some way, and that is the how they should treat the imminent process of death.  It will be very interesting to see how these different groups deal with such a common natural item.

I used the title "Pieces Left Behind" because that is exactly what archaeologists have to work with when they find a burial of some kind.  They must sort out the "pieces" that the living have decided (either consciously or not) to leave with their dead, and figure out if these items have any worth or meaning for the dead individual and/or the culture that buried him/her.  I am truly excited to start this journey of examining the dead and how this might relay back to the lives of the living who did the burial.   

 Picture taken from: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/day-of-the-dead-skull-tattoos.html