Just for fun...

[Jed Dilligan]

Poll question: Just for fun...

What is your interest in Anthropology? Pick the one that best applies to you:

[malta blue]

1. I have a BA, took some grad level classes,

worked contract archaeology for a while. I have been on projects in Israel, Bolivia, Chile, Peru, Belize, Dominican Republic and NY State. I am most interested in Spanish contact period, especially in the Dominican Republic.

[EFerrari]

15. I just caught an excellent PBS program on the Battle of Lima.

It tried to debunk the primary Spanish sources' claim that a few brave Spaniards quelled an army of thousands of Incans. And, it did a credible job.

I'm interested in that liminal period. :)

[malta blue]

20. I have that show in my DVR but I haven't had time to watch

it yet...Thanks for the review!:hi:

[elfin]

2. While I did take it in college - I didn't become

really interested until I became involved with a natural/human history museum. Their first directors were anthropologists and their exhibits and research in the early years were heavily slanted in that direction. Now the emphasis is more on natural history - biology, ecology etc., but ALWAYS the newer more "scientific" endeavors are enriched by tying into the anthro aspect.

Among other things, I give tours. And my "scientific" Rain Forest tour is never complete without showing how the peoples of those areas existed and managed the biome around them. If there is time, I hustle the group to the archaeologically based Pre-Colombian exhibits to see the quetzal feathers in headdresses and motifs and the pottery representations of the life we had seen in the other exhibit.

Anthro gives more of the "whole picture" and while interrelationships of plants and animals are key to biology -- we must remember that one mammal relates to all and profoundly interacts with it in ways both practical and spiritual.

[Jed Dilligan]

3. Just a kick

to keep it out of the archives.

[Cabcere]

4. I'm currently working towards my B.A. in anthropology,

although I have no idea what I'm going to do with it. :shrug: Not really sure which option would cover that, but there you go. ;)

[Jed Dilligan]

5. Good to have you here CC!

[melody]

6. Don't feel badly, I have an M.A. and didn't do anything with it but write

Clinical depression kept me out of academica. lol

See, it could be worse!

[Jed Dilligan]

7. What are you up to now?

I just quit academia, temporarily at least. I'm consulting and making more money faster. It actually gives me more time for writing and research.

[melody]

8. I have a small web traffic business, along with my writing

The first is far removed from my area of expertise, but it makes me a lot happier despite the loss of
income. Happiness is more important, of course.

[semillama]

9. I'm a professional archaeologist working in a private consulting firm

I work in the field of "Cultural Resource Management" which means I basically do work in contract to either engineering firms or government entities that have projects requiring environmental clearances of some sort, which usually means cultural resource clearance as well. Basically, we're hired to fulfill compliance requirements associated with receipts of federal monies or permits.

I have a BA in anthropology and a MS in archaeology.

[Jed Dilligan]

10. Welcome--great to have you here.

Sounds like an interesting line of work.

If I can get my ducks in a row I'll soon be research for the state with a strong ethnographic component. (My employment status has changed since I answered my own poll!)

[bluedigger]

11. Hi anthro geeks!

I also work in Cultural Resource Management as a field technician, which is a fancy way to say I work a shovel mostly. :D

Don't quit your day jobs folks!

<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket"></a>

They climb freakin' trees!







:hi:

[EFerrari]

12. I wanted to go to Gombe but they had no daycare so I did English.

(That's true!)

Oh -- and the TAs in the Berkeley Anthro Dept were unbelievably unhelpful. So, I took courses but never put my career into their recalcitrant hands.

[Jed Dilligan]

13. Ugh... Berkeley.

Don't get me started on my problems with that place. I worked there for two years--never again.

[EFerrari]

14. So, it wasn't just me?

The English Department was great. The Anthro Department was full of unlovely ego. I was so disappointed. Thought about linguistics for a moment but went with the sure thing instead. I was there for 2 years/undergrad and 6/grad.

Got to work with Nancy Chodorow, a sociologist that they hired into the Anthro Dept for some weird reason.

[Jed Dilligan]

16. I was a researcher (not in anthro)

Between the faculty and staff, I wouldn't go back there. The faculty have this charming way of promising something (small but important, like a signature on a form) and then not doing it. More specifically, the tactic is to agree to something and then claim to have one's hands tied by rules and regulations or some mean ol' dean. I call this the worst of academic behavior. There is also a campuswide culture of not answering e-mails.

Staff-wise, the number of lost checks, missed paychecks, accidentally cancelled insurance incidents, etc. totaled more than at every other place I've worked in my entire life.

[EFerrari]

17. My experience at Berkeley was really different once I settled

in the English Department. I was about 30, a single mom, a re-entry student, and got more support than you can imagine. I was there, for example, during the Loma Prieta quake and was so terrified (house slid on its foundation) that I brought my youngest with me to my classes for a few days. The department stepped up and helped me mind my Nicky, bought treats for him and helped us both calm down. The English Dept was a great big family and I feel lucky to have spent so much time there.

What dept were you in? Can you say?

[Jed Dilligan]

18. Probably not without blowing my anonymity,

which is pretty important right now because I'm still not settled in a career. I can say it's famous, even among Berkeley departments, for rank politics and driving people away. I have friends in Comp Lit and Anthro there and they are much happier than I was.

[EFerrari]

19. Comp lit?

I understand. :)

[Cleita]

21. Sounds like this is a problem throughout the UC system.

I worked at UCLA and observed first hand the politicking especially where grad students and professors without tenure were concerned and kept in so-called line by those who could squash them under a big thumb.

[Jed Dilligan]

22. One thing that amazes me about my grownup self

is how important it is to me to work in a businesslike, professional environment. This is surprising because I am a weirdo and the last person you'd expect to worry about formalities. But it's exactly because I don't conform that I require a high level of functionality in a work environment--mainly, performance mattering more than personality.

Drove me out of academia and right into the state gov, and I've never looked back.

[NMMNG]

23. Total amateur

I've developed an interest in Neanderthal man, life in the Ice Age and various ancient civilizations. Now I'm on a reading and discovery binge.