This blog entry is part of a project for a college course, Anthropology of Nature.
Some Class Reflections:
It was weird to have read the Milton chapters and felt like I
completely grokked what was going on and what author was talking about
and had absorbed the definitions and concepts, and then to have
questions asked in class and realize I couldn't connect them to what I
had read. It seems like it should be a simple question: "What is
'traditional'?" I offered an answer that it must somehow be connected
with the author's concept of Ecosystem People vs Biosphere people
(simple, local systems versus complex, global systems). It felt clumsy,
for an answer, and was shot down. I shouldn't feel too bad, most of the
rest of the class fumbled with it too. I think we came to the conclusion
that 'Traditional' is a word that doesn't really mean anything. We tend
to use it when referring to ethnic identity and habits, and apply some
sort feel of indigeneity to it, but it's constructed. At least, that's
the conclusion I came to.
Oh! I did find the Chapter 7 Townsend very interesting. (It's about
the plight of a small Papua New Guinea tribe and issues resulting from
large-scale mining near them.) Seriously last week I had an email from
some indigenous-people's rights group talking about some IP tribes
refusing to let a mining company use their area. I searched high and low
in my email boxes, my browser histories, and just couldn't find it!
UGH, it would have made SUCH a cool attachment to our presentation.
"Look students! These fights are STILL going on!"
Observations of Environmental Anthropology in the Specimen "Me":
This week the Mission Green Student Association met for the first
time of the semester. It was pretty cool! A couple new faces. So many
people graduated though. Definitely need some new people. We talked
about upcoming Green meetings and planned out personal goals (for
ourselves within the club) and group goals (what we can help the group
achieve). My latter goal is to try to bring in new
environmentally-concious (or even curious) people, so I'm going to take
the first step and announce the club in class. We're trying to get more
interest in the FAU garden too, but from the way the Tortuga Trail seems
to be ignored I'm not sure so many people will want to put actual work
into a garden plot.
I find myself a little detached from things today, but probably
because I've been nose-in-book all day. It rained, so I didn't get to
spend as much time outside. I've just been so busy this week. I'm glad I
made time for the meeting though. I wish I made time for some of my
purposeful-reading; "The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw" is next on
the list! Ah well.
Ethnography of the South Floridian:
Thursday's class occured the day after the MGSA meeting and I
announced the MGSA table and club to the class as they were all packing
up. I'm not sure most heard, and I'm sure most that heard didn't care
(and are just there for their grade) but I did have two people
interested. Funny, they are both people in my group. I did have one girl
ask me about the beach cleanups, which was cool. I know that their
attendance to a class with 'nature' in the name doesn't make them
naturalists... well, ok, as anthropologists, they are, really, but, not
non-human naturalist, heh. I didn't really have much chance to observe
people this week. The second week of school overlapped with the
beginning of my teaching practicum. The encounters in class and at club
made me happier about the state of human-nature interaction though.
This entry feels thin. I'll have to try to make shorter entries more
often, because I felt all revved up to write a few days ago, but I seem
to have lost the content.
Instead I present some (smirk) naturalist observation about animal calls. Kinda.
*In case the embedding doesn't work, you can find it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jofNR_WkoCE
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