I’m love Anthropology/Archaeology and have been considering starting my own blog. The only thing is that my background (B.A.) is in Sociology. What do you think of non-experts blogging about the subject? (Eventually I want to do graduate work in Anthro)
I think that blogging is a great way to organize your thoughts and research around archaeological topics. I particularly like blogs that incorporate your own research rather than another archaeology news blog though. That said, I’ve only been actively offended by an archaeological blog once and that’s because she was using it to beg for money!
Anyway be sure to give a me a link when you start it up!
So, what is the payoff on gadgets like this? What do you get out of it? Is this something experimental, trying out new media? Is this part of serious research you are doing? Or is this just fun stuff, what the hell?
The payoff? I like trying things out, as should be obvious from my blog. There are plenty of people who do “serious research” on social media and while I do not consider myself one of them, I like to broaden the archaeological conversation.
Did any of the Indiana Jones movies play a role in motivating you to become an archaeologist?
Nope, not at all. I wanted to be a park ranger when I was growing up so that I could be outside all of the time. It was only when I took a required field school from the University of Texas as part of my anthropology degree that the notion even occurred to me.
Where was the photo of tiles at the top of your blog taken?
It was taken at the Albany Bulb, a trash dump that has been taken over by artists and squatters. It’s one of my favorite places to go for a walk on a nice day. I posted about it for the UC Berkeley Graduate Division blog, here:
http://www.theberkeleygraduate.com/2010/02/the-albany-bulb/
Thanks for asking!
What’s the most delicious meal you’ve ever had?
During excavations in other countries we usually fantasize about different kinds of foods that aren’t available. In Jordan I had a pretty steady diet of hummus, khubz, and falafel, which was delicious, but I missed tacos and thai food. When I got back this last year, I had some amazing takeout from a place near where I used to live and it was incredible.
Colleen Morgan 