That DNA article that “proved” women had higher status in ancient Mycenaea? Won the “worst science article of the week” award from Discover magazine.
Someone pinch me, quick!
It looks like my main course of study in history next year will be an undergraduate “honor’s thesis.” I’m going to continue with my research on the Mongols, and write a 50 - 100 page thesis on my conclusions. Means taking 16 credits this summer instead of just the Latin. The extra four are a “reading” seminar to set up my reading list for thesis research and write up a 5 page or so outline for the project.
Next year there’s a three quarter progression of research, writing, and then presentation and defense. When I’m not too busy freaking out about the workload (which is going to include sixteen credits of Latin, anthro courses, and this research next fall), I’m pretty excited about the whole idea. And I’ve got my regular advisor, one of my favorite professors, and the Department Chair all on board and cheering me on.
Uhm…wow. Okay, I guess I’m doing this.
Now I just have to survive the next few days and get past my final for paleoanth and my documentary project.
Some history and science headlines
DNA “proves” that women in Ancient Greece had more political power than we had thought. ‘The problem has been that up until recently our interpretation of life in Ancient Greece has been the work of a previous generations of archaeologists, then a male-oriented profession and who interpreted their findings in a male-oriented way. That is changing now and women in Ancient Greece are being seen in a new light.’
Right up there with the whole ‘Man, the Hunter” theory that supposedly drove modern human evolution–at least, as long as the white, male, western paleo-scientists were in charge.
More hobbits, perhaps? What sets these little humans apart? Huge feet and tiny brains. I’m not sure Tolkien would agree.
Those ancient humans and their pesky migratory u-turns. Out of Taiwan, no, back to Taiwan, no starting in Java, no… Can we have a traffic cop, please?
Ancient Greenland paleo-Eskimos not genetically related to modern Inuits. What I want to know, however, is whether the Inuit’s own legends tie them to these earlier civilizations. We westerners and our insistence on scientific connections don’t like to admit that genealogy can be just as legitimately a social construct as it can be physical linkages. Just ask any steppe culture tribe.
Genetic mutations linked to schizophrenia. No, it’s not “history”, but it’s still fascinating stuff. But still…which is the pathological element here: the schizophrenic, or our modern culture that’s geared to only one or two particular personality types and has no little to no room for variations?
Incense is psychoactive? I knew there was a reason I liked sage and sweetgrass.
Out of the mouths of babes
The boys cued up the King Arthur movie tonight while I was making study cards for my Anthro final. They evidently got tired of the comments about historical inaccuracies and anachronisms from the peanut gallery, since they finally stopped the movie and made me promise to keep my mouth shut until it was over.
“Just accept that it’s a movie and not real and enjoy it, Mom!”
A few minutes later, my youngest smiled at me and said, “History can be fun, but it sure does ruin some good movies!”
It’s all about perspective
In Public History today, one of my classmates was absent. When another student and I inquired as to his whereabouts, we were told that he had gone for an immigration hearing in New York, and he wasn’t sure he was going to be able to stay in the US. Worse? He is from Burma, and his family lives in the delta. He has not been able to get hold of them since the storm, and he was not hopeful of their survival when he talked to the professor.
Just kind of puts everything else into perspective, doesn’t it?
After that it seems petty to be relieved that I received a perfect score on my rough draft of my Mongol paper and got an extension on my rough draft for my public history project. My Asian studies prof only made slight suggestions on the draft, so mostly I just need to make those corrections and tighten the writing a bit and it’s done. That’s a huge relief. She’s also amenable to maybe doing a “reading” seminar with me next winter quarter and focusing on the Mongol history in more detail.
The feedback from the class on my Powerpoint presentation was pretty positive for the most part. I can talk too fast, I know that–and I knew the stuff on segmented lineages was going to be hard to get across to everyone. My favorite comment was the one which described my thesis as: “How the steppe tribes functioned and survived their relationships.”
This means I’m pretty much done with my Mongol classwork for the quarter, and I will have lots and lots of time to devote to my public history project and studying for my anthro final. *whew* (And making an Amazon wishlist of all the Mongol books I now want to buy!)
I bought a copy of Linda Hendrickson’s Tablet Weaving book, “Please Weave a Message.” My first project, hopefully, will be a banner that says, “historia est magister vitae.” Or, “history is the teacher of life. ” But right now during study breaks I’m warping a small project that I hope to make into a pen case for a friend. In knitting, I finished my “lucky” scarf and dug out my “Autumn Breeze Shawl.” I might finish it someday.
I’m also trying to read more just for fun and not just for school. It’s far too easy to just space out online, randomly surfing. So I’m trying to be more selective about when and where I space out. Currently, I’m finishing up “The Natural History of Latin” a bit at a time.
And now it’s time to get back to the Mennonite Civilian Public Service project in WW II–another project that brings more than a little perspective to life.
How do you say “mouse spinning her wheels” in Latin?
I used most of my 25 allotted minutes for my Power Point talking, so there wasn’t much time for questions at the end, but no one seemed to mind. Turned in my rough draft, and I should have it back Friday. Means a trip into town to pick it up, but my prof is super busy and I’m the one who turned it in late. So I can make the trip in to town. I’ll check before I leave on Thursday just to be sure, but it’s not her fault I didn’t get my information together in time.
Added a few books to my “gotta read” list last night, since one of the guys did his paper on steppe horse culture.
The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World.
In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language, Archaeology and Myth.
The Warriors of the Steppe: A Military History of Central Asia, 500 B.C. to A.D. 1700.
I wonder if I could do a “special project” on one of these for one of my remaining history classes?
This morning I’m blowing off anthro in order to work on my Mennonite project. Which is why I haven’t even started yet. Yup.
Ordered some cotton produce bags this morning, along with a bread box and another clay loaf pan. I still need to find a better option for sandwiches; the wrap things work, but the kids don’t keep them clean and we’ve lost two to mildew when they got left in lunch bags over long breaks. So probably just going to go to Rubbermaid containers or something. I also need to get the kids making their own treats instead of buying all the oh-so-convenient individual packs of things.
After all the hot, hot weather, today is my favorite kind of rainy day. Cool but not cold, lots of birdsong and the smell of fresh wet earth coming in through my open window. Everything that’s in bloom outside just looks that much brighter in the diffused light. When it rains, it’s the soft, steady, soaking rain that just sinks into my soul. It’s a nice switch from the heat.
Found audio files of the Latin vocabulary for Wheelock’s, as well as a pronunciation guide online.. So last night on the way home I sat on the train and knitted while listening to the alphabet in Latin. I’m hoping my version of Wheelock’s will work this summer; it’s not the latest greatest, but it’s the same edition. Debating whether or not to buy the flashcards or make my own; timewise I’m probably better off buying them. But I know I learn better if I make my own. Decisions, decisions. Also need to get a better Latin dictionary (I have the tiny Bantam one) and see about ordering the two other books for the class, one of which seems to be a bawdy play about a prostitute. I think I like this class already. The teacher also evidently recommends “English Grammar for Students of Latin ” as a reference; probably a good idea to get that, too. Besides, I used to have a barchart for grammar, and a method for setting up a Latin notebook for ease in studying, but I can’t find either now. The barchart is easily replaced, and I’ll see what the prof has to say on the first day of class about the rest of it.
No, I’m not excited about learning Latin, not at all. *geekface*
Okay, time to go get busy. Pull my head out of twelfth and thirteenth century Mongolia and head for WWII in the U.S.
Monty Python: Cutting edge scientists
“Rethinking Monty Python’s ‘parrot sketch.’”
Seems the old bird might have been real, after all.
Nice to start the morning with a good laugh, especially with the tasks staring me in the face today. I keep telling myself it only needs to be a draft, but it’s hard not to polish as I go. And the more work I get done on this now, the less I have to do in the next two weeks and I can focus on my other project.
At least it’s starting to cool down a bit!
I’m melting, take two.
The temperature should never be allowed to go over 75 degrees Fahrenheit.
Urgh. The house is having a bit more trouble staying cool enough to be tolerable after two days of 90 degrees F temps. Still, it’s far cooler with the insulation than it would be without.
Last night I couldn’t get settled until 1:30 a.m., then I woke up at 5:30, wide awake. Yeah, it’s bright out and I’m cycling up. My hands and wrists and elbows all ache, a combination of the heat, the pop I’ve been indulging in at school, and hours spent typing as I write my term paper.
The rough draft is about half done. The last half of the powerpoint will have to be revised majorly. I haven’t even looked at the Mennonite project or cracked my anthro book. My Ravelry page is updated. My “column of leaves” scarf is getting longer.
Ugh… I think I need to go walk around a bit and get away from the computer for a few minutes.
I’m melting…
The attic insulation is paying off. Instead of unbearably hot, the house was reasonably comfortable yesterday, and, with the evening breezes, cooled off nicely. We’ll see how it goes today when the temps jump another ten degrees. As usual when it gets sunny and we have a high pressure system overhead, I have a nagging sinus headache. Meh. And the heat always makes my joints hurt–then again, I could cut back on the pop I drink. It’s a bad habit I’ve gotten into at school, but I really don’t need the sugar. And the aches yesterday just prove that.
I have two rough drafts of projects due next week. I’ma gonna be a busy girl this weekend. The Spousal Unit is away at his brother’s; he had a chemo treatment today. Haven’t heard anything about how it went. Spousal Unit plans on staying until Sunday, so the boys and I are sans car for the time being.
The professor gave us a grammar lesson in Public History today. *dusts off copy of the Deluxe Transitive Vampire* Dude is a grammar goddess on the sly.
As I was whinging to my friend on the way home tonight, I’m having a bit of a crisis about school. As I told my one professor, he’s got me totally confused about my plans for the future.
The problem is that I’m not interested in local history. I’m not interested in American history. And the undergrad classes for public history focus exclusively on both. Meh. Not to mention that I’m more and more intrigued by historiography, not of any particular era, but in general. Well, okay, older is better. But still, how the world shapes and influences history, how we translate it for our time; how the people in the past might have viewed their times and how that influenced the chronicles they wrote… Yeah.
Hopefully this fall I’ll be taking an anthro class on Myth and Symbols, both current and historical. And my professor recommended either of Mary Douglas’s books on the subject for my summer reading, both of which, he said, are widely used by medievalists and classics in the field. (He defines “classic” as a work that was seminal to the field but has been around long enough that it’s been poked at and written about and now maybe even disagreed with more often than not.) I’ve got my copy of The Heritage Crusade. So that’s my summer reading list.
Upshot of all this is that I need to find someone, somewhere to talk to about where I can go with what I want to do. Unfortunately, my current department advisor keeps putting me in a box and it never fits but I can’t convince her of that. The other prof I’d like to discuss things with won’t be here next year; he’ll be on sabbatical. I did tell him in our brief conversation today that I want to marry the public history and the historiography, if I can. If not…I don’t know. I just don’t.
The good news is that the Public History practicum that I was dithering about taking next fall has been cancelled. Makes that decision easy enough!
Watched a DVD documentary on the Mongols last night; I’d like to know what’s so special about Vienna. Both the Mongols and the Ottomans got there and, in the case of the Mongols, turned around and went home. The Ottomans just couldn’t defeat the Hungarians. But still, that’s two major invasions of Eastern armies that came to a standstill at Vienna.
If the Mongols hadn’t gotten wind of Ogodei’s death and gone home to elect a new khan? Europe would have been entirely wasted. Now THAT would be a fun alternate history to write. Hmmm…wonder if anyone’s done that yet?
I want to set up some weaving projects, but have no time and no brain cells to spare. Aaaargh!
Mongols, Difference machines, and life in general
There are links to other articles about the machine inside the blog post.
Check out the trailer for the movie “Mongol.” You know I’m gonna have to go see this one. It looks like they took a lot of the plot points out of the Secret History of the Mongols, which is my favorite out of all of our sources this quarter, primary or secondary. I’m certain they’ll take huge liberties with the details (it already looks like they’re avoiding the fact that Chinggis had at least eight wives and far more concubines–otherwise how would 16 million people within the bounds of the old Mongol Empire today have his DNA?) But it also looks like a great movie to see on the big screen.
In other news, I’m totally and completely overwhelmed with homework–worse than last quarter. Took my first exam in twenty years last week, a midterm in paleoanth. Still waiting to find out how I did on it; I believe I passed, but most of the class is convinced they bombed it. The professor seemed pleased with the results, however. Me, I’ve never gotten my head around the idea that failing most of your class is successful teaching.
I also have a rough draft of my term paper on Mongols due tomorrow morning, and some work on my project about Mennonite conscientious objectors in WWII for my public history seminar. What I want to think about, as usual this time of year, is next fall. I’m taking second-year Latin, another research seminar (this one on women and religion in the medieval world), and an intro to Public History seminar that will mostly be working at the Oregon Historical Society.
In knitting news, I’m still working on the Column of Leaves scarf. It’s about half as long as I want it to be right now, maybe 2/3s of the way. But knitting time keeps getting taken up by general, recuperative vegetation activities like spacing out with a movie and/or school reading on the train.
We got our “stimulus check” from the gub’mint; looks like most of it will go for a new dishwasher and a new front screen since ours is hanging by one hinge. I’d love to save it and thumb my nose at yet another addition to our national debt, but it’s something we can’t ignore on our budget.
The youngest kid got to spend the night at the zoo last weekend; his school’s TAG program had a few leftover tickets and each sixth grade teacher chose one student from her class to fill the spaces. He had a good time, though he was pretty grossed out by the monkey brains and the hippopotamus eyes in the zoo commissary. We celebrated his twelfth birthday a week late, since one of his friends had his own birthday overnighter the day before the actual date. Took the boys to see Iron Man, to the general satisfaction of all involved.
I am officially signed up for Summer Intensive Latin. Just shoot me now. Also waiting for my copy of The Heritage Crusade and the Spoils of History to arrive. Not that I have a lot of “extra” time to read right now. I’m hoping this summer to get caught up on a few books; I’ll be commuting downtown four days a week for most of the summer. Lots of reading time, as long as the Latin doesn’t totally eat my brain.
