This blog entry is part of a project for a college course, Anthropology of Nature.
Some Class Reflections:
When I was younger I wanted to be a forensic anthropologist. I
thought it was amusing when the author, Townsend, of 'Pigs to Policies'
all but rolled her eyes at the notion that people hearing the word
'anthropologist' first think "bones and bodies" or forensic
anthropology. Though I was honestly more interested in the bodies than
any kind of linguistics or archaeology (though I love reading about
archaeology) and therefore steered myself more towards Biology.
I think I still would have been happy in anthropology. I like to
gripe about disliking "humans" but when I first started going to college
I took as much psychology and religion courses as I could. People told
me they were separate fields, even the teachers said they weren't
connected. I always felt that you couldn't describe history or culture
or gender views or anything else without seeing the interplay of
religion (really a summary word for "all of our superstitions and
cultural habits woven into a single cord"). Combine that with how these
people interact with the world around them and bam! Basically,
anthropology. Still, probably not as much formaldehyde as I'd prefer.
Cest la vie. Maybe, as a second bachelors somewhere along the way.
Observations of Environmental Anthropology in the Specimen "Me":
I'm very excited about the upcoming beach cleanup in September. I was
super excited to get to announce it to the class. I don't think the
email I tried to send through Blackboard worked, since it sent it to me,
but I'll try again. I'd love to get more of these kids to go help out,
even if it's basically two-point bribery. Maybe they'll see how fun it
is.
I want to use this subheading to analyze how my views change about
nature and my role in it. I've been everything from a dirt-worshipping
tree-hugger to as lazy as the modern man can be (being guilty of
throwing away food is probably the epitome of wealth and laziness). I'm
currently somewhere in the middle. The courses I've taken for my
environmental science degree have left me a little cynical about some
staples of "environmental friendliness", like recycling. I still want to
save the world though.
Ethnography of the South Floridian:
I want to use this subheading to record information,
cultural-anthropologist-style, about South Floridians. Specifically, I
want to pay closer attention to how they interact with their natural
environment. This might take some "sit time" in various places, and
maybe I can apply it to "how many students trashed recyclable paper"
etc. I want to try to focus each week's information gathering along the
class themes for that week. This week we mentioned Economic systems
altering the human-nature intersection previously in place. We also
mentioned food taboos and "witches", but since this isn't any sort of
religion or gender course I'll try to leave those alone.
Water bottles. Easy target. As I wrote this a student used the pop
machine next to me to buy a bottle of water. Besides the fact that
they're less regulated than the tap water (do so much poorer than tap
water in microbacterial tests and contaminant tests) and so much more
expensive than the literally* free water here at the school, she shoved
her paper money into the machine to purchase water that media (the
shaper of culture for good or ill) told her was cleaner and more
convenient than the drinking fountain. The plastic bottle will be
drained (probably) and then discarded. Hopefully it gets deposited into a
recycle bin, but so little of it gets recycled anyway (le sigh). The
technology (basically a windowed refrigerator) combined with the media
imperative to buy SAFE and CONVENIENT water, has drawn people away from
the safe and convenient water fountains.
*Literally* I use this in the honest dictionary term, not the new
dictionary term "for emphasis". To the student the water in the fountain
is free. Bring a reusable cup or sturdy non-BPA bottle and you could
have all the free water you want, and all of it backed by EPA's water
quality tests (conducted every few minutes due to the rate at which is
flows through the pipelines, dontchaknow)!
Hmm. I think I'll end the journal there. Otherwise it'll become a rant.
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